PART IX-EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF ADULTS Adult Education ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION (P.L. 89-750) AN ACT To strengthen and improve programs of assistance for elementary and secondary schools and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "Elementary and Secondary Education Amendments of 1966". SEC. 301. This title may be cited as the "Adult Education Act of 1966". STATEMENT OF PURPOSE SEC. 302. It is the purpose of this title to encourage and expand basic educational programs for adults to enable them to overcome English language limitations, to improve their basic education in preparation for occupational training and more profitable employment, and to become more productive and responsible citizens. DEFINITIONS SEC. 303. As used in this title— (a) The term "adult" means any individual who has attained the age of eighteen. (b) The term "adult education" means services or instruction below the college level (as determined by the Commissioner), for adults who (1) do not have a certificate of graduation from a school providing secondary education and who have not achieved an equivalent level of education, and (2) are not currently enrolled in schools. (c) The term "adult basic education" means education for adults whose inability to speak, read, or write the English language constitutes a substantial impairment of their ability to get or retain cmployment commensurate with their real ability, which is designed to help eliminate such inability and raise the level of education of 74-050 0-67—23 such individuals with a view to making them less likely to become dependent on others, to improving their ability to benefit from occupational training and otherwise increasing their opportunities for more productive and profitable employment, and to making them better able to meet their adult responsibilities. (d) The term "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Education. (e) The term "local educational agency" mean a public board of education or other public authority legally constituted within a State for either administrative control or direction of public elementary or secondary schools in a city, county, township, school district, or other political subdivision of a State, or such combination of school districts or counties as are recognized in a State as an administrative agency for its public elementary or secondary schools; except that if there is a separate board or other legally constituted local authority having administrative control and direction of adult education in public schools therein, such term means such other board or authority. (f) The term "State" includes the District of Columbia, and (except for the purposes of section 305 (a)) the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and the Virgin Islands. (g) The term "State educational agency" means the State board of education or other agency or officer primarily responsible for the State supervision of public elementary and secondary schools, or if there is a separate State agency or officer primarily responsible for supervision of adult education in public schools then such agency or officer may be designated for the purposes of this title by the Governor or by State law. If no agency or officer qualifies under the preceding sentence, such term shall mean an appropriate agency or officer designated for the purposes of this title by the Governor. GRANTS TO STATES FOR ADULT BASIC EDUCATION SEC. 304. (a) From the sums appropriated pursuant to section 314, not less than 10 per centum nor more than 20 per centum shall be reserved for the purposes of section 309. (b) From the remainder of such sums, the Commissioner is authorized to make grants to States, which have State plans approved by him under section 306 for the purposes of this section, to pay the Federal share of the cost of the establishment or expansion of adult basic education programs to be carried out by local educational agencies. ALLOTMENT FOR ADULT EDUCATION SEC. 305. (a) From the sums available for purposes of section 304 (b) for any fiscal year, the Commissioner shall allot not more than 2 per centum thereof among Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and the Virgin Islands according to their respective needs for assistance under such section. From the remainder of such sums he shall allot to each State an amount which bears the same ratio to such remainder as the number of adults who have completed not more than five grades of school (or have not achieved an equivalent level of education) in such State bears to the number of such adults in all States. (b) The portion of any State's allotment under subsection (a) for a fiscal year which the Commissioner determines will not be required, for the period such allotment is available, for carrying out the portion of the State plan relating to adult basic education approved under this title shall be available for reallotment from time to time, on such dates during such period as the Commissioner may fix, to other States in proportion to the original allotments to such States under subsection (a) for such year, but with such proportionate amount for any of such other States being reduced to the extent it exceeds the sum which the Commissioner estimates such State needs and will be able to use for such period for carrying out such portion of its State plan approved under this title, and the total of such reductions shall be similarly reallotted among the States whose proportionate amounts are not so reduced. Any amount reallotted to a State under this subsection during a year shall be deemed part of its allotment under subsection (a) for such year. STATE PLANS SEC. 306. (a) Any State desiring to receive its allotment of Federal funds for any grant under this title shall submit through its State educational agency a State plan. Such State plan shall be in such detail as the Commissioner deems necessary, and shall— (1) set forth a program for the use of grants, in accordance with section 304 (b), which affords assurance of substantial progress, with respect to all segments of the adult population and all areas of the State, toward carrying out the purposes of such section; (2) provide for the administration of such plan by the State educational agency; (3) provide for cooperative arrangements between the State educational agency and the State health authority authorizing the use of such health information and services for adults as may be available from such agencies and as may reasonably be necessary to enable them to benefit from the instruction provided pursuant to this title; (4) provide for grants to public and private nonprofit agencies for special projects, teacher-training and research; (5) provide for cooperation with Community Action programs, Work Experience programs, VISTA, Work Study, and other programs relating to the anti-poverty effort; (6) provide that such agency will make such reports to the Commissioner, in such form and containing such information, as may reasonably be necessary to enable the Commissioner to perform his duties under this title and will keep such records and afford such access thereto as the Commissioner finds necessary to assure the correctness and verification of such reports; (7) provide such fiscal control and fund accounting procedures as may be necessary to assure proper disbursement of and accounting for Federal funds paid the State under this title (including such funds paid by the State to local educational agencies); and (8) provide such further information and assurances as the Commissioner may by regulation require. (b) The Commissioner shall not finally disapprove any State plan submitted under this title, or any modification thereof, without first affording the State educational agency reasonable notice and opportunity for a hearing. PAYMENTS SEC. 307. (a) Except as provided in subsection (b), the Federal share of expenditures to carry out a State plan shall be paid from a State's allotment available for grants to such State. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1967, and the succeeding fiscal year, the Federal share for each State shall be 90 per centum. (b) No payment shall be made to any State from its allotment for any fiscal year unless the Commissioner finds that the amount available for expenditure by such State for adult education from nonFederal sources for such year will be not less than the amount expended for such purposes from such sources during the preceding fiscal year. (c) Payments to a State under this title may be in installments and in advance or by way of reimbursement with necessary adjustments on account of overpayments or underpayments. OPERATION OF STATE PLANS: HEARINGS AND JUDICIAL REVIEW SEC. 308. (a) Whenever the Commissioner after reasonable notice and opportunity for hearing to the State educational agency administering a State plan approved under this title, finds that— (1) the State plan has been so changed that it no longer complies with the provisions of section 306, or (2) in the administration of the plan there is a failure to comply substantially with any such provision. the Commissioner shall notify such State agency that no further payments will be made to the State under this title (or in his discretion, that further payments to the State will be limited to programs under or portions of the State plan not affected by such failure), until he is satisfied that there will no longer be any failure to comply. Until he is so satisfied, no further payments may be made to such State under this title (or payments shall be limited to programs under or portions of the State plan not affected by such failure). (b) A State educational agency dissatisfied with a final action of the Commissioner under section 306 or subsection (a) of this section may appeal to the United States court of appeals for the circuit in which the State is located, by filing a petition with such court within sixty days after such final action. A copy of the petition shall be forthwith transmitted by the clerk of the court to the Commissioner or any officer designated by him for that purpose. The Commissioner thereupon shall file in the court the record of the proceedings on which he based his action, as provided in section 2112 of title 28, United States Code. Upon the filing of such petition, the court shall have jurisdiction to affirm the action of the Commissioner or to set it aside, in whole or in part, temporarily or permanently, but until the filing of the record, the Commissioner may modify or set aside his order. The findings of the Commissioner as to the facts, if supported by substantial evidence, shall be conclusive, but the court, for good cause shown, may remand the case to the Commissioner to take further evidence, and the Commissioner may thereupon make new or modified findings of fact and may modify his previous action, and shall file in the court the record of the further proceedings. Such new or modified findings of fact shall likewise be conclusive if supported by substantial evidence. The judgment of the court affirming or setting aside, in whole or in part, any action of the Commissioner shall be final, subject to the review by the Supreme Court of the United States upon certiorari or certification as provided in section 1254 of title 28, United States Code. The commencement of proceedings under this subsection shall not unless so specifically ordered by the court operate as a stay of the Commissioner's action. SPECIAL EXPERIMENTAL DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS AND TEACHER TRAINING SEC. 309. (a) The sums reserved in section 304 (a) for the purposes of this section shall be used for making special project grants or providing teacher-training grants in accordance with this section. (b) The Commissioner is authorized to make grants to local educational agencies or other public or private nonprofit agencies, including educational television stations, for special projects which will be carried out in furtherance of the purposes of this title, and which— (1) involve the use of innovative methods, systems, materials, or programs which the Commissioner determines may have national significance or be of special value in promoting effective programs under this title, or (2) involve programs of adult education, carried out in cooperation with other Federal, federally assisted, State, or local programs which the Commissioner determines have unusual promise in promoting a comprehensive or coordinated approach to the problems of persons with basic educational deficiencies. The Commissioner shall establish procedures for making grants under this subsection which shall require a non-Federal contribution of at least 10 per centum of the costs of such projects wherever feasible and not inconsistent with the purposes of this subsection. (c) The Commissioner is authorized to provide (directly or by contract), or to make grants to colleges or universities, State or local educational agencies, or other appropriate public or private nonprofit agencies or organizations, to provide training to persons engaged, or preparing to engage, as personnel in adult education programs designed to carry out the purposes of this title, with such stipends and allowances, if any (including traveling and subsistence expenses), for persons undergoing such training and their dependents as the Commissioner may by regulation determine. ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON ADULT BASIC EDUCATION SEC. 310. (a) The President shall, within ninety days of enactment of this title appoint a National Advisory Committee on Adult Basic Education. |