United States S 4928: Educating for Democracy Act of 2020

Bill Text

II
116TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION S. 4928
To authorize the Secretary of Education to make grants to support
educational programs in civics and history, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
NOVEMBER 30, 2020
Mr. COONS (for himself and Mr. CORNYN) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To authorize the Secretary of Education to make grants
to support educational programs in civics and history,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Educating for Democ-4
racy Act of 2020’’. 5
SEC. 2. PURPOSES. 6
The purposes of this Act are— 7
(1) to support local educational agencies, ele-8
mentary schools, and secondary schools in selecting 9
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and making available to all students innovative, en-1
gaging curricula and programs in civics and history 2
that prepare them to understand American Govern-3
ment and engage in American democratic practices 4
as citizens and residents of the United States; 5
(2) to provide resources to institutions of higher 6
education for the purposes of offering effective pro-7
fessional development opportunities to enable and 8
encourage teachers to deliver instruction that en-9
gages students in learning civics and history; 10
(3) to provide resources to nonprofit organiza-11
tions that have developed, or are developing, pro-12
grams in civic education that incorporate practices 13
that are proven to be effective in engaging students, 14
and to assist in making such curricula and programs 15
more widely available to schools and students, par-16
ticularly in rural and inner-city urban areas that 17
have traditionally been underserved by civic learning 18
programs; 19
(4) to provide resources to continue and expand 20
research into practices, methods, and approaches 21
that are effective in instructing elementary and sec-22
ondary school students in civics and history; and 23
(5) to encourage participation in the National 24
Assessment of Educational Progress assessments in 25
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civics and history in grades 4, 8, and 12, using a 1
methodology sufficient to provide accurate State- 2
level data on student proficiency in civics and history 3
disaggregated so as to have statistical significance 4
for every State. 5
SEC. 3. GENERAL PROVISIONS. 6
(a) IN GENERAL.—From amounts made available 7
under section 10 the Secretary of Education is authorized 8
to carry out the civics education grant programs described 9
in sections 4 through 7. 10
(b) APPLICATION.—To be considered for a grant 11
under this Act, an eligible entity shall submit to the Sec-12
retary of Education an application at such time, in such 13
manner, and containing such information as the Secretary 14
may require. 15
(c) GRANT DURATION.—Each grant under this Act 16
shall be awarded for a period of not less than 3 years. 17
(d) PRIORITY.—Except as otherwise provided in this 18
Act, the Secretary shall prioritize the award of grants to 19
eligible entities that demonstrate the greatest potential 20
to— 21
(1) improve knowledge and engagement among 22
students traditionally underserved by comprehensive 23
civic education and American history programs, in-24
cluding rural and inner-city urban students, English 25
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learners, students who have not completed high 1
school, and other such students; 2
(2) close gaps in civic knowledge and achieve-3
ment among students of different income levels, ra-4
cial and ethnic groups, and native languages; 5
(3) improve performance on the National As-6
sessment of Educational Progress assessments in 7
civics and history among students in grades 4, 8, 8
and 12; 9
(4) integrate evidence-based practices for pro-10
moting student proficiency and engagement in civics; 11
and 12
(5) provide cost-effective, scalable delivery of 13
programs and services. 14
SEC. 4. GRANTS TO STATES. 15
(a) PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.—The Secretary of Edu-16
cation is authorized to make grants to States, on a com-17
petitive basis, to support educational programs in civics 18
and history in accordance with this section. 19
(b) GRANT AMOUNT.—The amount of each grant to 20
a State under this section shall be proportional to the 21
amount received by all local educational agencies in the 22
State under part A of title I of the Elementary and Sec-23
ondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6311 et seq.) 24
for t