also propose an adult education program for Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees. The major issue before us today is whether the committee should adopt temporary legislation which would reimburse school districts for the full basic cost of educating refugee children, or whether we should simply follow the administration's approach of limiting aid to relatively small 1-year grants for these children and thereby require school districts and the States to pay for most of the basic cost of their education. I, myself, believe that we should enact a temporary program to reimburse school districts for the basic costs of educating these children. These refugees are in the country as a direct result of a national policy of welcoming these people to our shores. And, to my way of thinking, it is only fair then that the Federal Government ought to pay-for a limited period of time-for part of the cost of educating these children. I know that our witnesses today will offer varying views on this subject and I look forward to hearing those views. Then, the committee will be given the opportunity to work its will. [A copy of H.R. 7897 follows:] [H.R. 7897, 94th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To authorize funds for assistance to local educational agencies for the education of Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. (a) There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary, not to exceed $102,920,000 for the year ending September 30, 1976, $51,460,000 for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1977, and $24,800,000 for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1978, for payments to local educational agencies under subsection (b), and there shall be authorized to be appropriated such additional sums as will assure at least the same level of funding under this Act in such year for Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. The grant which a local educational agency in Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands is eligible to receive shall be determined pursuant to such criteria as the Commissioner of Education (hereinafter in this Act referred to as the "Commissioner") determines will best carry out the purposes of this Act. (b) (1) In any case in which the Commissioner determines that satisfactory data for that purpose are available, the grant which a local educational agency in a State shall be eligible to receive under this paragraph for the fiscal years ending September 30, 1976 shall (except as provided in subsection (c)) be determined by multiplying the number of children counted under section 3 by 100 per centum of the average per pupil expenditure in the State, as defined by section 403 (16) of Public Law 81-874, except that, in addition to such costs, there shall be included remedial and bilingual educational services, and for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1977, shall (except as provided in subsection (c)) be determined by multiplying the number of children counted under section 3 by 50 per centum of the average per pupil expenditure in the State. In any case in which such data are not available, subject to subsection (c), the grant for any local educational agency in a State shall be determined on the basis of the aggregate amount of such grants for all such agencies in the county or counties in which the school district of the particular agent is located, which aggregate amount shall be equal to the aggregate amount determined under the two preceding sentences for such county or counties, and shall be allocated among those agencies upon such equitable basis as may be de termined by the State educational agency in accordance with basic criteria prescribed by the Commissioner. (2) In any case in which the Commissioner determines that satisfactory data for that purpose are available, the grant which a local educational agency in a State shall be eligible to receive under this subsection for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1978, shall (except as provided in subsection (c)) be the amount attributable by such local educational agency as the incremental cost of providing the children counted under subsection (d) with such vocational, remedial, and bilingual educational services as may be necessary. In any case in which such data are not available, subject to subsection (c), the grant for any local educational agency in a State shall be determined on the basis of the aggregate amount of such grants for all such agencies in the county or counties in which the school district of the particular agent is located, which aggregate amount shall be equal to the aggregate amount determined under the preceding senence for such county or counties, and shall be allocated among those agencies upon such equitable basis as may be determined by the State educational agency in accordance with basic criteria prescribed by the Commissioner. (c) Upon determination by the State educational agency that a local educational agency in the State is unable or unwilling to provide for the special educational needs of children described in subsection (d), the State educational agency shall, if it assumes responsibility for the special educational needs of such local educational agency which is attributable to such children, be eligible to receive the grant which such agency would otherwise be eligible to receive, but if the State educational agency does not assume such responsibility, any other State or local public agency, as determined by regulations established by the Commissioner, which does assume such responsibility shall be eligible to receive such grant. In the case of local educational agencies which serve in whole or in part the same geographical area, and in the case of a local educational agency which provides free public education for a substantial number of children who reside in the school district of another local educational agency, the State educational agency may allocate the amount of the grants for those agencies among them in such manner as it determines will best carry out the purposes of this title. (d) The number of children to be counted for the purposes of this section is the number of children aged five to ninteen, inclusive, in the school district of a local educational agency who are refugees within the meaning of that term as defined in section 3 of the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1975. SEC. 2. (a) There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary not to exceed $72,440,000 for the year ending September 30, 1976, $36,220,000 for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1977, and $18,110,000 for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1978, for payments to local educational agencies of the cost of providing basic adult education and occupational training and retraining to those persons residing within the school districts of such local educational agencies who are refugees within the meaning of that term as defined in section 3 of the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1975. (b) Payments to local educational agencies pursuant to subsection (a) shall not exceed the amounts specified in the following schedule: (1) for the year ending September 30, 1976 (A) $980 per refugee for basic adult education; (B) $1,600 per refugee for occupational training and retraining; (2) for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1977—— (A) $490 per refugee for basic adult education; (B) $800 per refugee for occupational training and retraining; and (3) for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1978 (A) $245 per refugee for basic adult education; and (B) $400 per refugee for occupational training and retraining. (c) No funds appropriated pursuant to this section shall be made available to any local educational agency except pursuant to such regulations, and upon the submission of such applications and records of expenses, as the Secretary may prescribe. SEC. 3. The Commissioner shall enter into such cooperative agreements with the Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act. SEC. 4. At its option, a State education agency may submit to the Commission a proposal to administer this program within that State. Such proposal shall include appropriate assurances as to administration, technical assistance to local education agencies, and other assurances as the Commissioner may direct. Upon approval by the Commissioner of each such proposal, and from time to time thereafter, the Commissioner may pay to that agency the funds to which the local education agencies within that State are entitled, for transmission to local education agencies. The State agency may reserve up to 1 per centum of the funds available to that State to pay the costs incurred in performing the functions herein set forth. Chairman PERKINS. Has Congressman Mineta come in yet? STATEMENT OF HON. TERREL H. BELL, COMMISSIONER OF EDUCA- Dr. BELL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am happy to have this opportunity to discuss with you H.R. 7897, a bill to provide Federal financial assistance to States in order to assist local educational agencies to provide public education to Vietnamese and Cambodian refugee children and adults. I also welcome the opportunity to report to you on the educational assistance programs and support activities which the Department is providing for the Indochinese refugees. The Department testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Education on September 9 in opposition to S. 2145 and we do not support H.R. 7897 for similar reasons. We oppose this legislation not because we do not believe that a legitimate need for educational financial assistance for Indochinese refugees exists, but rather because we believe that the Federal Government has taken steps to provide appropriate assistance to State and local educational agencies. Under the authority of the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1975, the Department is currently offering the following educational assistance to Indochinese refugees: Education programs have been provided in the four reception centers consisting primarily of instruction in basic English as a second language and acculturation programs designed to teach the refugees about their new country. Youngsters were provided with information. about American schools so that they could more readily adjust to them as they relocated in school districts. Programs for adults have concentrated on English as a second language but also include acculturation programs, occupational and vocational orientation, and development of important survival skills such as applying for a job, reading the want ads, using the telephone, and obtaining a driver's license, and those kinds of skills. The education programs in the camps have been operated by the California State Department of Education, the Florida State Department of Education, the Pennsylvania Department of Public Instruction, and Westark Community College, in the State of Arkansas. These efforts are nearing completion, as the reception centers at Elgin and Pendleton have closed, Indiantown Gap will close November 30, and Chaffee is scheduled for closing before December 31. Thirty-four thousand refugee children have been resettled to date, with about 5,000 school-age children remaining in the reception centers. Although within a short period of time the refugees will be participating fully in the community's economic life, we recognize that the sudden arrival of refugees with a variety of special educational needs has temporarily created a more than normal burden on many school districts. Therefore, we are curently offering $300 to local school districts for every refugee child in order to provide supplemental services, such as English language instruction and/or other bilingual programs, culturally sensitive aides or tutors, special instructional materials and inservice training for teachers. Even though most refugee children are widely dispersed, we realize that some school districts have enrolled a sizable number of refugee children. Because of the greater impact on these school districts, the Department is providing $600 for each refugee child the district enrolls above 100 or 1 percent of the total student population (whichever is less). If they exceed that point, then they receive $600. Local school districts are in urgent need of these funds to provide supplemental services to refugee children already enrolled in schools. Therefore, the Office of Education issued regulations on October 10, and simple applications and instructions were mailed directly to local school districts throughout the country during the week of October 27. Applications for funds have already begun to arrive, and to date we have received 78 applications. They will be processed on a "first-infirst-out" basis. We expect to begin making grants to local educational agencies as soon as the 45-day period for congressional review of the regulations ends, on November 19. The Department's school-aged refugee education program, as outlined above, will make funds available for the school year 1975-76. For the 40.000 refugee students, we estimate that all of these efforts together will cost $15 million ($14.3 million to LEA's and $700,000 to SEA's). The Department also recognizes the need for adult education services for the Indochinese refugees in order to promote their integration into American society. Five million dollars has been budgeted to supplement existing State adult education grants authorized by the Adult Education Act (Public Law 91-320, as amended). State educational agencies may amend their fiscal year 1976 annual adult basic education program plan in order to provide instruction in speaking, understanding, reading, and writing English for adult refugees. Funds will be distributed to the States on a formula based on the number of adult-aged refugees 18 years of age and older who have settled in each State. We anticipate that between one-half and twothirds of eligible refugees will participate in these programs. Funds under this program will be traced to insure that they are used solely for the eligible populations. Any money not used for this purpose will be returned to the Office of Education for redistribution to other States. Funds for both the school-aged and adult Indochinese refugee education programs are made available from the $100 million allotted to the Department from the appropriation for the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1975. Supporting services are also being provided by the Department. Funding has been provided to the Center for Applied Linguistics to establish a national clearinghouse for information on special teaching resources and Vietnamese and Cambodian language and orientation materials. These services provide English teaching materials, a trans 61-427-75- 2 lation and textbook selection service and resource lists of specialists in the teaching of English as a second language. Materials have been sent to all LEA's in the Nation by the Center. A special toll-free number (800) 336-3040 is available for inquiries about resources and materials. available. They are presently responding to approximately 500 telephone calls and 750 mail requests per week from American educators throughout the Nation. Funding is also being provided for five bilingual centers to provide technical assistance to local school districts. These centers will be providing an inservice elementary and secondary training program for educators dealing with Indochinese refugee students. For this training they will use materials developed by the refugee reception centers and materials collected by the Center for Applied Linguistics. Upon completion of initial training sessions, the centers will develop additional curriculum materials based on needs ascertained during the training sessions and will provide additional technical assistance as needed. The bilingual centers will be working closely with States and regional offices in this endeavor. Numerous efforts have been made to assist Indochinese refugees in their pursuit of postsecondary educational opportunities. Indochinese refugee students are eligible for the five Federal financial aid programs available to American postsecondary students. Special communications were sent to representatives of the entire postsecondary education community in August and September to assist administrators in interpreting the required information for application forms for these programs where Indochinese refugees are applicants. Letters were also sent by the Assistant Secretary for Education to all chief State school officers, and State boards of education and boards of postsecondary education encouraging them to waive their usual residency requirements for refugees in order to permit them to take advantage of lower State-resident tuition rates. Credential and document evaluation efforts are being spearheaded through the efforts of a national task force organized with the cooperation and leadership of the National Liaison Committee on Foreign Student Admissions involving five national professional organizations. Two documents: Guidelines on the Admission of Vietnamese and Cambodian Refugees, prepared by a group in California, and Guidelines on Admission and Placement of Refugees into U.S. Institutions of Higher Education, prepared at the request of the National Association of Foreign Student Advisors, will be distributed to all colleges and universities in the Nation. In addition, a translation and evaluation team is being established to evaluate credentials. The Office of Education Refugee Assistance Task Force is coordinating the work of the national task force. Funding of the project is now underway to make document evaluation service available to refugees for a period of 1 year. Plans have also been made by HEW to administer English language proficiency test (TOEFL exams) to Indochinese students. This project is designed to assist 4,000 refugee students between the ages of 18-24. A "Higher Education Hot-Line" located at Georgetown University is being funded by HEW to assist in the areas of placement and coun |