GOALS 2000: EDUCATE AMERICA ACT.

SEC. 384. GOALS 2000: EDUCATE AMERICA ACT. (a) Section 315 of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act (20 U.S.C. 5895) is amended— (1) by amending subsection (c) to read as follows: “(c) Bureau of Indian Affairs Cost Analysis and Studies.— “(1) In general.— The Secretary of the Interior shall reserve from the funds received pursuant to section 304(a)(1)(B) in the first and second fiscal year for which the Secretary of the Interior receives such funds an amount not to exceed $500,000 for each such year to provide, through a contract executed, after open solicitation, with an organization or institution having extensive experience in school finance, for an analysis of— “(A) the costs associated with meeting the academic, home-living, and residential standards of the Bureau for108 STAT. 4019 each Bureau funded school and annual projections of such costs; and “(B) the feasibility and desirability of changing the method of financing for Bureau funded schools from the weighted student unit formula method in effect on the date of enactment of this Act to a school-based budget system or other alternative system of financial support. “(2) Cost analysis purpose.— The purpose of the cost analysis provided for in paragraph (1)(A) shall be to provide the Bureau and the panel described in subsection (b)(4) with baseline data regarding the current state of operations funded by the Bureau and to provide a framework for the implementation of opportunity-to-learn standards or strategies. Such analysis shall evaluate the costs of providing a program in each school operated or supported by the Bureau for the next succeeding academic year and shall be based on— “(A) the standards either published in the Federal Register and effective for schools funded by the Bureau on the date of enactment of the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994, or the State or regional standards in effect on such date for a Bureau funded school; “(B) the best projections of student counts and demographics as provided by the Bureau and as independently reviewed by the organization or institution selected by the Secretary to perform the analysis described in this section; and “(C) the pay and benefit schedules and other personnel requirements for each school operated by the Bureau, as such pay and benefit schedules and requirements existed on the date of enactment of the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994. “(3) Feasibility study purpose.— (A) The purpose of the feasibility analysis provided for in paragraph (1)(B) shall be to determine whether it is feasible and desirable for the Bureau to replace or modify the weighted student unit formula system in effect on the date of enactment of this Act. “(B) For the purposes of the feasibility analysis described in paragraph (1)(B), the term ‘school-based budget system’ means a system based upon an initial determination, at each school site, of the number of students who shall be served at the site, the needs of those students, the standards which will best meet those needs (including any standards or conditions reflecting local community input and such community’s program), the personnel profile necessary to establish such program and the cost (determined on an actual basis) of funding such a program. Such a system shall include procedures to aggregate the determinations for each school site to determine the amount needed to fund all Bureau funded schools, to prepare a budget submission based upon such aggregate, and to provide for a mechanism for distributing such sums as may be appropriated based upon the determination at each school site. “(4) Results report.— The contractor selected shall be required to report the results of analyses provided for in this section, in aggregate and school-specific form to the chairpersons and ranking minority members of the Committee on Education and Labor and the Committee on Appropriations108 STAT. 4020 of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Indian Affairs and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate, and to the Secretary of the Interior, not later than six months after the date of enactment of the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994. The contractor shall also be required to provide an estimate of the costs of meeting the academic and residential standards of the Bureau for each Bureau funded school for each of the three succeeding forward-funded fiscal years following the date of submission of such report. The contractor shall provide an estimate of such costs to such persons and members not later than January 1 of each succeeding fiscal year.”; and (2) by adding at the end the following new subsections: “(e) Grants.— The Secretary of the Interior may use not more than one percent of the funds received pursuant to section 304(a)(D(B) in the first and second fiscal year for which the Secretary of the Interior receives such funds for the purpose of providing grants, if requested by Bureau funded school boards, to enable such school boards to carry out activities of reform planning as such activities are described for States in section 308(b)(2)(J), including the feasibility of becoming a contract school pursuant to the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 450 et seq.), or a grant school pursuant to section 5204 of the Tribally Controlled Schools Act of 1988. “(f) Study.— In cooperation with the panel established in subsection (b)(4), the Secretary of the Interior shall conduct a study to evaluate the feasibility of contracting with a private management firm for the operation of one or more Bureau operated schools to facilitate the achievement of the National Education Goals and the efficient use of funds in the education of Indian children, and to report to the persons identified in subsection (c)(4) and to the panel described in subsection (b)(4) not later than 12 months after the date of enactment of the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994”.