To distribute Federal funds for elementary and secondary education in the form of vouchers for eligible students and to repeal a certain rule relating to nutrition standards in schools.

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 771 To distribute Federal funds for elementary and secondary education in the form of vouchers for eligible students and to repeal a certain rule relating to nutrition standards in schools. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 24, 2019 Mr. KING of Iowa introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor A BILL To distribute Federal funds for elementary and secondary education in the form of vouchers for eligible students and to repeal a certain rule relating to nutrition stand- ards in schools. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 TITLE I—CHOICES IN 3 EDUCATION ACT 4 SEC. 101. SHORT TITLE. 5 This title may be cited as the ‘‘Choices in Education 6 Act of 2019’’. 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:04 Feb 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H771.IH H771 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 771 IH SEC. 102. REPEAL OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDU- 1 CATION ACT AND LIMITATION ON SECRE- 2 TARIAL AUTHORITY. 3 (a) REPEAL.—The Elementary and Secondary Edu- 4 cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.) is repealed. 5 (b) LIMITATION ON SECRETARIAL AUTHORITY.—The 6 authority of the Secretary under this title is limited to 7 evaluating State applications under section 104 and mak- 8 ing payments to States under section 103. The Secretary 9 shall not impose any further requirements on States with 10 respect to elementary and secondary education beyond the 11 requirements of this title. 12 SEC. 103. BLOCK GRANTS TO STATES. 13 (a) GRANTS TO STATES.—From amounts appro- 14 priated to carry out this title for a fiscal year, the Sec- 15 retary shall award grants (from allotments made under 16 subsection (b)) to qualified States to enable such States 17 to carry out an education voucher program under section 18 105. 19 (b) ALLOTMENT.—From amounts described in sub- 20 section (a) for a fiscal year, the Secretary shall allot to 21 each qualified State for that fiscal year an amount that 22 bears the same ratio to those amounts as the number of 23 eligible children in the qualified State (as determined by 24 the Secretary on the basis of the most recent satisfactory 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:04 Feb 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H771.IH H771 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 771 IH data) bears to the number of all eligible children in all 1 States in such school year. 2 (c) REALLOTMENT.—If a State does not receive 3 funds under subsection (b) for a fiscal year, the Secretary 4 shall allot the remainder of such funds to each qualified 5 State in an amount that bears the same ratio to such re- 6 mainder for such year as the amount received under sub- 7 section (b) by such qualified State bears to the amount 8 received under such subsection for such year by all quali- 9 fied States. 10 (d) DEFICIT REDUCTION.—Any amounts remaining 11 after allotments are made under subsection (c) for a fiscal 12 year shall not be available for any purpose other than def- 13 icit reduction. 14 SEC. 104. APPLICATION. 15 (a) APPLICATION.—To be eligible to receive a grant 16 under this title, a State shall submit an application to the 17 Secretary that includes assurances that the State will— 18 (1) comply with the requirements of section 19 105; and 20 (2) make it lawful for parents of an eligible 21 child to elect— 22 (A) to enroll their child in any public or 23 private elementary or secondary school in the 24 State; or 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:04 Feb 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H771.IH H771 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 771 IH (B) to home-school their child. 1 (b) APPROVAL.—Not later than 30 days after receiv- 2 ing an application from a State that meets the require- 3 ments of subsection (a), the Secretary shall approve such 4 application. 5 SEC. 105. EDUCATION VOUCHER PROGRAM REQUIRE- 6 MENTS. 7 (a) EDUCATION VOUCHER PROGRAM.— 8 (1) IN GENERAL.—The State shall distribute 9 funds received under this title among the local edu- 10 cational agencies in the State based on the number 11 of eligible children enrolled in the public schools op- 12 erated by each local educational agency and the 13 number of eligible children within each local edu- 14 cational agency’s geographical area whose parents 15 elect to send their child to a private school or to 16 home-school their child. 17 (2) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of 18 Congress that States should distribute non-Federal 19 funds for elementary and secondary education in a 20 manner that promotes competition and choices in 21 education. 22 (b) IDENTIFICATION OF ELIGIBLE CHILDREN; ALLO- 23 CATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS.— 24 (1) IDENTIFICATION OF ELIGIBLE CHILDREN.— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:04 Feb 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H771.IH H771 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 771 IH (A) LEA IDENTIFICATION.—On an annual 1 basis, on a date to be determined by the Sec- 2 retary, each local educational agency shall in- 3 form the State educational agency of— 4 (i) the number of eligible children en- 5 rolled in public schools served by the local 6 educational agency; and 7 (ii) the number of eligible children 8 within each local educational agency’s geo- 9 graphical area whose parents elect— 10 (I) to send their child to a pri- 11 vate school; or 12 (II) to home-school their child. 13 (B) STATE IDENTIFICATION.—On an an- 14 nual basis, on a date to be determined by the 15 Secretary, each State educational agency shall 16 inform the Secretary of the total number of 17 children identified by all local educational agen- 18 cies in the State under subparagraph (A). 19 (2) AMOUNT OF PAYMENT.— 20 (A) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subpara- 21 graph (B), the amount of payment for each eli- 22 gible child in a State shall be equal to— 23 (i) the total amount allotted to the 24 State under this title; divided by 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:04 Feb 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H771.IH H771 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 771 IH (ii) the total number of eligible chil- 1 dren in the State identified under para- 2 graph (1). 3 (B) LIMITATIONS.— 4 (i) In the case of a payment made to 5 the parent of an eligible child who elects to 6 attend a private school, the amount of the 7 payment described in subparagraph (A) for 8 each eligible child shall not exceed the cost 9 for tuition, fees, and transportation for the 10 eligible child to attend the private school. 11 (ii) In the case of a payment made to 12 a parent of an eligible child who elects to 13 home-school such child, the amount of the 14 payment described in subparagraph (A) for 15 each eligible child shall not exceed the cost 16 of home-schooling the child. 17 (3) ALLOCATION TO LOCAL EDUCATIONAL 18 AGENCIES.—Based on the identification of eligible 19 children in paragraph (1), the State educational 20 agency shall provide to a local educational agency an 21 amount equal to the product of— 22 (A) the amount available for each eligible 23 child in the State, as determined in paragraph 24 (2); multiplied by 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:04 Feb 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H771.IH H771 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •HR 771 IH (B) the number of eligible children identi- 1 fied by the local educational agency under para- 2 graph (1)(A). 3 (4) DISTRIBUTION TO SCHOOLS.—From 4 amounts allocated under paragraph (3), each local 5 educational agency that receives funds under such 6 paragraph shall distribute a portion of such funds to 7 the public schools served by the local educational 8 agency, which amount shall— 9 (A) be based on the number of eligible chil- 10 dren enrolled in such schools and included in 11 the count submitted under paragraph (1)(A); 12 and 13 (B) be distributed in a manner that would, 14 in the absence of such Federal funds, supple- 15 ment the funds made available from non-Fed- 16 eral resources for the education of eligible chil- 17 dren, and not to supplant such funds. 18 (5) DISTRIBUTION TO PARENTS.— 19 (A) IN GENERAL.—From the amounts allo- 20 cated under paragraph (3), each local edu- 21 cational agency that receives funds under such 22 paragraph shall distribute a portion of such 23 funds, in an amount equal to the amount de- 24 scribed in paragraph (2), to the parents of each 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:04 Feb 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H771.IH H771 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 8 •HR 771 IH eligible child within the local educational agen- 1 cy’s geographical area who elect to send their 2 child to a private school or to home-school their 3 child (as the case may be) and whose child is 4 included in the count of such eligible children 5 under paragraph (1)(A), which amount shall be 6 distributed in a manner so as to ensure that 7 such payments will be used for appropriate edu- 8 cational expenses. 9 (B) RESERVATION.—A local educational 10 agency described in this paragraph may reserve 11 not more than 1 percent of the funds available 12 for distribution under subparagraph (A) to pay 13 administrative costs associated with carrying 14 out the activities described in such subpara- 15 graph. 16 (c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Payments to parents 17 under subsection (b)(5) shall be considered assistance to 18 the eligible child and shall not be considered assistance 19 to the school that enrolls the eligible child. The amount 20 of any payment under this section shall not be treated as 21 income of the child or his or her parents for purposes of 22 Federal tax laws or for determining eligibility for any 23 other Federal program. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:04 Feb 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H771.IH H771 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 9 •HR 771 IH SEC. 106. DEFINITIONS. 1 In this title: 2 (1) ELIGIBLE CHILD.—The term ‘‘eligible 3 child’’ means a child aged 5 to 17, inclusive. 4 (2) PARENT.—The term ‘‘parent’’ includes a 5 legal guardian or other person standing in loco 6 parentis (such as a grandparent or stepparent with 7 whom the child lives, or a person who is legally re- 8 sponsible for the child’s welfare). 9 (3) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 10 the Secretary of Education. 11 (4) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of 12 the 50 States and the District of Columbia. 13 (5) QUALIFIED STATE.—The term ‘‘qualified 14 State’’ means a State that has an application ap- 15 proved by the Secretary under section 104. 16 TITLE II—NO HUNGRY KIDS ACT 17 SEC. 201. SHORT TITLE. 18 This title may be cited as the ‘‘No Hungry Kids Act’’. 19 SEC. 202. REPEAL OF RULE. 20 The rule prescribed by the Food and Nutrition Serv- 21 ice of the Department of Agriculture relating to nutrition 22 standards in the national school lunch and school break- 23 fast programs published on January 26, 2012 (77 Fed. 24 Reg. 4088 et seq.), and revising parts 210 and 220 of 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:04 Feb 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H771.IH H771 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 10 •HR 771 IH title 7, Code of Federal Regulations, shall have no force 1 or effect. 2 SEC. 203. LIMITS ON CERTAIN NUTRITIONAL REQUIRE- 3 MENTS. 4 Section 9(a)(1)(A)(i) of the Richard B. Russell Na- 5 tional School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758(a)(1)(A)(i)) is 6 amended by inserting before the semicolon the following: 7 ‘‘, to establish a calorie maximum for individual school 8 lunches, or to prohibit a child from eating a lunch provided 9 by the child’s parent or legal guardian’’. 10 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:04 Feb 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H771.IH H771 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS