Bipartisan committee

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A sweeping $26.5 billion education bill that would require schools to test millions of students annually in reading and math was approved by a bipartisan House-Senate committee Tuesday.

The measure now goes to the House and Senate for final approval after months of sometimes contentious negotiations.

The voice vote of the education conference committee was unanimous, but two lawmakers not present for the vote — James Jeffords, I-Vt., and Paul Wellstone, D-Minn. — said earlier that they would vote against the measure, complaining it does not provide enough money for disabled students.

President Bush could put his signature on a final bill as early as next week.

The bill would require annual math and reading tests for all students in grades three through eight, requiring that schools with persistently low test scores give some of their federal aid to students for tutoring or transportation to another public school. The bill would allow churches or other religious groups to provide tutoring and after-school programs.

The federal government would give more aid to schools whose scores don’t improve for two years in a row, but if scores don’t improve afterwards, a school could be restaffed. In schools already on a list of poor performers, parents could receive tutoring or transportation funds as early as this fall.

The bill would also give states and school districts more freedom over how they spend federal dollars, allowing them, for instance, to spend federal teacher-quality funds on training, hiring more teachers or giving higher salaries for existing ones.

Money for other programs could be shifted between programs, with some limitations. All 50 states could use a small portion of their federal funds essentially as they wish, while a pilot program would further free seven states and 150 school districts from most restrictions on spending.

Schools would be required to send annual "report cards" showing a school’s standardized test scores compared to others locally and statewide; they would also be required to test students with limited English skills after three consecutive years of attendance.

The bill includes Bush’s signature reading program, which gives schools nearly $1 billion per year for the next five years in hopes that every student will be able to read by third grade.