Legislative Update

Lugar Introduces Education Legislation

In September, Senator Lugar introduced two bills that would provide incentives to schools seeking to implement early reading programs backed by research, as part of the Reading First program.

“Helping schools meet the national standards is the best way to ensure that allstudents have high expectations of where an education can take them and the tools to realize their own goals. This bill directs schools to programs that we already know are working,” Senator Lugar said.  

“I strongly believe that learning to read at grade level by the third grade is a strong indicator of a student’s future success. By teaching children to read in the early grades, our schools can avoid holding them back, promoting them with insufficient ability or transferring them out of the normal curriculum to special education courses.”

Established by the No Child Left Behind Act, Reading First provides assistance to states and districts to establish scientifically based reading programs for students enrolled in kindergarten through third grade. Funds support increased professional development to ensure that all teachers have the skills they need to teach these programs effectively. Reading First also supports the use of screening and diagnostic tools and classroom-based instructional reading assessments to measure how well students are reading and to monitor their reading progress.

The Proven Programs for the Future of Education Act, introduced by Senator Lugar, would grant schools that use a “research-proven” program in their Reading First grant proposal a competitive preference of 10 percent of the total points. 

Senator Lugar’s bill defines a “research-proven” program as being evaluated in at least two studies which met the following criteria: use of a traditional or alternative control group, studied for a minimum of two weeks, the program and control group were equivalent in pretest reading levels, all post tests are standardized and not created by program authors, sample size of each study was not less than five classes or 125 students, and the difference between program and control group students across other studies is not less than 30 percent.

Senator Lugar’s bill offers research-proven programs as a choice, not as a mandate. The bill also allows the Secretary of Education, where appropriate, to apply this preference to all competitive grants, not just those for Reading First. Schools would not be required to use any particular program, but would have an incentive to consider programs proven in rigorous research. 

The Education Research and Development to Improve Achievement Act, also introduced by Senator Lugar, would authorize up to $100 million for the development and evaluation of programs for schools that miss progress goals under the No Child Left Behind Act.

The Senate Appropriations Committee has recommended $20 million in funding for research and development in fiscal year 2008.

Educate Indiana, the education page on Senator Lugar’s Senate website, highlights education issues and provides an open forum for constructive discussion on improving education.

Lugar Speech to Expand U.S. Leadership on HIV/AIDS

On September 21, 2007, Senator Lugar gave a speech on the floor of the United States Senate in support of S. 1966 to reauthorize the U.S. Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003 – known as the Leadership Act. 

Senator Lugar’s bill would double the initial U.S. commitment by authorizing $30 billion for fiscal years 2009 through 2013 for the highly successful U.S. initiative on global HIV/AIDS. 

“At the time the Leadership Act was announced, only 50,000 people in all of sub-Saharan Africa were receiving anti-retroviral treatment. Through March of this year, the Act has supported treatment for more than 1.1 million men, women and children in 15 PEPFAR focus countries. During the first three and a half years of the Act, U.S. bilateral programs have supported services for more than 6 million pregnancies. In more than 533,000 of those pregnancies, the women were found to be HIV-positive and received anti-retroviral drugs, preventing an estimated 101,000 infant infections through March 2007,” said Senator Lugar.

As Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2003, Senator Lugar led bipartisan efforts to enact the legislation, also referred to as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), that authorized a five year funding level of $15 billion to address the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. 

Reauthorizing the legislation in 2007 is essential to assure partner organizations that implement these programs that future funding will be available to increase the number of people receiving treatment. Once HIV-positive persons are provided treatment or orphans enrolled in care programs, their treatment and care become ongoing commitments for program partners. Without the financial assurance of a long-term reauthorization bill, these organizations may not be able to treat additional people to achieve the goals of the legislation.

Senator Lugar recently received a letter from the Ministers of Health from the 12 African focus countries receiving PEPFAR assistance in support of early reauthorization. 

Read Senator Lugar’s entire speech

President Bush Signs Polish Youth Exchange Bill

On September 20, 2007, President Bush signed into law S. 377 to establish a United States–Poland Parliamentary Youth Exchange Program. Authored by Senator Lugar, the bill authorizes the Secretary of State in cooperation with the government of Poland to establish an exchange program for American and Polish secondary students under 19 years old who have been accepted for up to one academic year of study abroad in a credit-approved program.

“An exchange between the youth of the United States and Poland demonstrates the benefits of friendly cooperation between our nations based on common political and cultural values and heighten the imagination of our students, of whom they may become and where they may work in the future,” said Senator Lugar. 

“As a Rhodes Scholar, I had the opportunity to discover international education at Pembroke College – my first trip outside of the United States. The parameters of my imagination expanded enormously during this time, as I gained a sense of how large the world was, how many talented people there were and how many opportunities one could embrace. Student exchange programs do more than benefit individual scholars and advance human knowledge. Such programs expand ties between nations, improve international commerce, encourage cooperative solutions to global problems, prevent war, and give participants a chance to develop a sense of global service and responsibility,” said Senator Lugar. 

In a recent visit with teachers and faculty of Decatur Township Schools, Senator Lugar asked teachers to encourage students to participate in exchange programs abroad. “Our students need to think about other languages and foreign cultures and people. I applaud each of your own special efforts to heighten the imagination of our students, of who they may become and where they may work in the future.”

Eligible participants for the Polish exchange program shall: (1) live in and attend a public secondary school in the host country for one academic year; (2) undertake academic studies in the host country, with particular emphasis on the history, constitution, and political development of the host country; and (3) be eligible for an internship in the host country.

Senator Lugar and Congressman Pete Visclosky (D-IN) first introduced the youth exchange bill in the 109th Congress. 

Senator Lugar also authored the legislation that established the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange, which provides 250 full scholarships annually for American high school students to live with a host family and attend school in Germany for a year. 

In July, Polish President Lech Kaczyński presented Senator Lugar the Commanders’ Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland in a ceremony at the Blair House in Washington, D.C. The Order of Merit is one of the most prestigious Polish awards presented to foreign citizens and Polish residents living abroad.