Dan Miller: “I support my colleague's proposal to eliminate the mandate on local education agencies to spend 1 percent of their…”

“I support my colleague's proposal to eliminate the mandate on local education agencies to spend 1 percent of their Chapter I funds for parental involvement. I cannot justify forcing local educating agencies to narrow the parameters of their spending for Chapter I funding. The idea was to add flexibility in this bill, not confiscate it from the local school districts. We don't need micromanaging from Washington. While parental involvement is of the utmost importance to a student's success, placing mandates on school districts is bureaucratic. Throwing money at parental involvement may not be the best use of scarce Federal dollars for education. I don't think other options for encouraging parental involvement have been explored. We need to encourage and support parental involvement, not have a bureaucratic mandate. What kind of regulations will be developed to implement this mandate. As we reduce the size of the Federal Government, we are increasing the need for more bureaucrats. Take for instance, rural districts, that receive $100,000 or less for Chapter I funding. To be forced to spend $1,000 of that on parental involvement may sacrifice curriculum materials like updated books or video resources.”