Tom Price: “this amendment is offered in an effort to try to reprioritize monies between two separate funds related to gaining…”

“this amendment is offered in an effort to try to reprioritize monies between two separate funds related to gaining high-quality teachers in our Nation, the Teacher Incentive Fund and the Teacher Quality State Grants. The Teacher Incentive Fund, my amendment would increase the funding for that by $21 million. When the 2007 fiscal year budget was adopted or the appropriations bill adopted, receipt was $2 million. The request from the President for this year was $199 million, and the bill before us includes a provision for $99 million, $100 million less than the President's request. As opposed to the Teacher Quality State Grants, which received last year $2.8 billion, the President's request was for $2.7 billion and the bill before us includes a provision for $3.1 billion, $400 million more than the request by the Department. Teacher quality, Madam Chairman, is certainly the most important school-related factor influencing student achievement. The No Child Left Behind Act reflects this and one of the central tenets is putting a highly qualified teacher in every classroom. Congress now has a greater opportunity to take teacher quality initiatives a step further by increasing funding for the Teacher Incentive Fund, a program that rewards highly effective teachers and rewards results.”