A Congressional committee Thursday shot down proposed legislation aimed at generating $6 million a year for education.
According to Delegate to Congress Donna Christian Christensen said that an amendment to reauthorize the Territorial General Education Assistance program was "defeated along party lines" in the House Education and Workforce Committee. The amendment was offered on behalf of the Virgin Islands and Guam and would have reauthorized the program for five years to provide up to $6 million per year for school construction, repair, curriculum development, teacher training and remedial education.
"I am disappointed with the action taken by the House Education Committee in rejecting the amendment, but the committee’s action was not unexpected," Christensen said. "Since the committee began voting on H.R. 4141, a broad-based education programs bill, no amendments offered by Democrats were being accepted."
Christensen also said she received no responses from the committee’s chairman to her written request that the Territorial General Assistance program be reauthorized in official committee.
The Territorial General Assistance program was originally authorized in 1978 and last reauthorized for five years in 1994, according to Christensen. Under rules of Congress, programs must first be authorized before funding can be provided for them. She said that because of problems associated with the use of the funds from the program in the past, no money has been provided since 1994.
"The next step is to try to get the amendment offered when the bill is brought up for a vote by the full House of Representatives," she said.