K. Education
The General Welfare: A Legislative Agenda for a Better American Future
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
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Education
The Save Our Schools Economic Recovery Act.
The American system of school financing is a national disgrace and a clear violation of the principles of equal citizenship. Students in different areas receive different degrees of funding depending largely on whether their neighbors are wealthy or their local government subdivision has a solid tax base. As a consequence, some districts are able to finance education easily while others are not, and local government, land use and other aspects of American life are seriously distorted as individual parents seek to use a dysfunctional system to advantage their children or avoid paying for the education of the next generation. Instead of pressing for better schools for all, those parents who are able seek solutions for their own children, while children whose parents are less aware of the issues or have fewer options simply suffer the consequences. All Americans suffer as a result, as our country becomes increasingly unequal and because our ability to maintain a competitive, successful, growing economy depends on the quality of our primary and secondary education.
This Act maintains the American tradition of decentralized local control over schools, but ameliorates the worst aspects of local financing.
The Congress hereby allocates funds to each local school board, to be determined as follows.
One half of the total proceeds of the Estate Tax shall be distributed to school districts in proportion to the number of children served by each such district.
Each school district shall receive an additional grant in the amount of $50,000 x the number of children served x a percentage equal to the percentage of fair market value assessed and collected in real estate taxes for the benefit of the school district, but not more than $2000 per child or less than $500 per child.
Funds allocated pursuant to this Act shall be a grant to be used in the discretion of the local school board unless the state legislature shall direct otherwise.
The Robert Darnton National Electronic Library Act
Whereas, the United States has been committed to the spread of useful knowledge since its founding, and
Whereas, the Library of Congress is the national library, and
Whereas, the purpose of copyright is to further the spread of useful knowledge, and
Whereas, the original monopoly grant of copyright was for a period of 12 years,
now therefore:
The Library of Congress shall create and maintain a National Digital Library providing internet-based access to all works in electronic format under its control or available to it.
The Library of Congress is hereby directed to create a program to create or obtain electronic copies of all works in its collection that are not currently under copyright.
Every copyright granted in the United States shall expire 12 years from the date of grant thereof or the date of this statute, whichever is later, unless the holder of the copyright or another person shall submit an electronic copy of the work to the Library of Congress, in a format acceptable to the Library of Congress.
The format of all such submissions shall be suitable for internet-based access.
Access to the National Digital Library shall be free and open to all individuals with access to the internet. The Library of Congress may provide by regulation for fees for commercial access, including access by commercial indexers or sellers of advertising.
No copyrighted work in the National Digital Library may be used for commercial purposes (other than fair use) without the permission of the copyright holder or if no copyright holder can be found, the Library of Congress.
The Library of Congress may place additional restrictions on the use of copyrighted works in the National Digital Library, provided that no such restrictions shall be more restrictive than those that are ordinary and common on use of hard-copy copyrighted books in the Library of Congress or other lending libraries.
No restrictions on printing works in the National Digital Library unchanged and in their entirety shall extend beyond fifty years from the date of initial publication.
The Library of Congress may create a National Patrimony Prize System to reward any author or copyright holder for the author's contribution to the national patrimony and the enjoyment, wealth, knowledge or enlightenment of the world. The National Patrimony Prize System may include amounts specifically intended to reward copyright holders of works that continue to have or are expected to continue to have a material economic value after fifty years of restricted publication.
An annual fee of 1% of the monopoly profits resulting from copyright is hereby imposed on every work copyrighted in the United States. The fee shall be collected by the IRS from copyright holders and the proceeds of such fee shall be dedicated to the Library of Congress. Failure to pay such fee shall result in the automatic end of copyright privileges.
A tax is hereby enacted of 1% of the gross proceeds of advertising placed on internet searches or provision of material based on any work held by the National Digital Library. The tax shall be collected by the IRS from any advertiser, indexer or other enterprise making direct or indirect use of the National Digital Library or works contained therein for commercial purposes, and the proceeds of such tax shall be dedicated to the Library of Congress to fund the National Digital Library and the National Patrimony Prize System.
The Library of Congress and the IRS may set such rules and regulations as are necessary to fulfill the goals and purposes or enforce this statute.
The National Textbook Development Act.
Our decentralized school district system makes development of new textbooks difficult. In recent years, a few large districts and states with centralized book purchasing have dominated the marketplace, leading to insufficient production of quality textbooks. The United States government ought to aspire to produce the finest textbooks possible, much as we did in the sciences in the years after Sputnik. This Act creates a national competition to create excellent textbooks, from which local districts may -- but need not -- choose.
The Department of Education is hereby directed to create a competitive, peer reviewed, system for writing and publishing textbooks in all subjects regularly taught in elementary and secondary schools.
The Department of Education shall publish coverage standards for National Textbooks in consultation with recognized national experts.
The Department of Education shall request proposals for authoring National Textbooks and shall hire or commission authors as necessary.
Authors not hired or commissioned by the Department of Education may also submit manuscripts.
National Textbooks shall be selected from among the texts commissioned or submitted, by a peer review panel of national experts in the relevant subject and in the relevant level of education chosen by the Department of Education in consultation with the National Academy of Science, the National Endowment for the Arts and the NIH or other experts as appropriate.
The Department of Education shall endeavor to provide multiple National Textbook options in each field to support a range of coverage, interests and abilities.
Every author of a textbook chosen to be a National Textbook shall receive a stipend of $25,000 plus 1% of the retail price of the textbook, paid by the US Treasury and shall assign copyright to the public.
This Act shall not be interpreted to require any school district to purchase any National Textbook.
Any publisher may produce, distribute and sell National Textbooks. If no publisher does so, or if the Department of Education determines that it can do so at a lower price than private publishers, the Department of Education shall also publish them.
One half the cost of every National Textbook shall be paid by the school or school district purchasing the Textbook and one half shall be paid by the US Treasury.
The Education Infrastructure Revolving Fund Act.
The Education Department is hereby directed to create a $ 1 trillion line of credit at Treasury. Treasury shall fund this line of credit by issuing debt on the most favorable terms available to it.
Funds from this line of credit may be loaned to any school district, state college or university or accredited, not-for-profit, primary, secondary or tertiary educational institution for building, training, or other infrastructure needs.
All loans shall be pursuant to a application in a form approved by the Education Department and the Treasury Department.
Applications shall demonstrate the borrowers ability to repay the loan from its ordinary sources of revenue.
Applications shall provide evidence that the project will improve the economic growth of the American economy or the intellectual rigor of American education.
If more applications are submitted than can be funded, funding shall be in order of likelihood of promoting economic growth or increase in intellectual rigor.
Loans shall be at similar interest rates to Treasury debt of similar terms.
The Educational Access Act.
Every college, university or institute of higher learning with selective admissions shall set aside a percentage of its places to be allocated by lottery among qualified applicants.
The percentage of lottery admissions shall be not less than the percentage of the class composed of children of alumni or "legacy" admissions.
This provision shall not require any institution to reduce its admissions standards or to offer a opportunity to enter the lottery to any prospective student who, in the institution's sole judgment, is unlikely to succeed at or profit from the course of study offered.
The lower of the admissions standards for children of alumni or "legacies" or the minimum academic standards for awarding athletic scholarships shall be presumptive evidence of the institution's qualification standards.
The GI Bill Restoration Act.
Whereas, the most fundamental basis of national security is a well-educated citizenry,
now therefore:
Any member of the armed services who has served a term of 3 years or served in an armed conflict or been injured in the service shall be entitled to a grant of full tuition at any eligible college or university to which he or she is admitted.
Eligible institutions shall include
all state colleges and universities,
all private, accredited, not-for-profit colleges and universities, provided that if such college or university has more than 20% of its students in this program, the grant shall be limited to the institution's average collected tuition (reduced by financial aid and scholarships from all sources) or the tuition at the closest equivalent state institution, whichever is lower, and
accredited for-profit and trade schools, providing that such institution demonstrates proof of educational quality equivalent to a state institution, a graduation rate over 75% and a placement rate in the relevant trade exceeding 75% of graduates, and further provided that the grant shall be be limited to the institution's average collected tuition (reduced by financial aid from all sources) or the tuition at the closest equivalent state institution, whichever is lower, reduced by the percentage of the institution's budget that does not go to direct instructional costs or research leading to published work.