PUBLIC LAW 106-277—OCT. 21, 1998 112 STAT. 2681-374 imbalance in any school or school system, or for the transportation of students or teachers (or for the purchase of equipment for such transportation) in order to carry out a plan of racial desegregation of any school or school system. SEC. 302. None of the funds contained in this Act shall be used to require, directly or indirectly, the transportation of any student to a school other than the school which is nearest the student's home, except for a student requiring special education, to the school offering such special education, in order to comply with title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. For the purpose of this section an indirect requirement of transportation of students includes the transportation of students to carry out a plan involving the reorganization of the grade structure of schools, the pairing of schools, or the clustering of schools, or any combination of grade restructuring, pairing or clustering. The prohibition described in this section does not include the establishment of magnet schools. SEC. 303. No funds appropriated under this Act may be used to prevent the implementation of programs of volimtary prayer and meditation in the public schools. (TRANSFER OF FUNDS) SEC. 304. Not to exceed 1 percent of any discretionary funds (pursuant to the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act, as amended) which are appropriated for the Department of Education in this Act may be toansferred between appropriations, but no such appropriation shall be increased by more than 3 percent by any such transfer: Provided, That the Appropriations Committees of both Houses of Congress are notified at least fifteen days in advance of any transfer. SEC. 305. NATIONAL TESTING, (a) IN GENERAL. — Part C of the General Education Provisions Act (20 U.S.C. 1231 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following: "SEC. 447. PROHTOITION ON FEDERALLY SPONSORED TESTING. 20 USC 1232j.
- (a) GENERAL PROHIBITION.— Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal law and except as provided in subsection (b), no
funds provided to the Department of Education or to an applicable program, may be used to pilot test, field test, implement, administer or distribute in any way any federally sponsored national test in reading, mathematics, or any other subject that is not specifically and explicitly provided for in authorizing legislation enacted into law. "(b) EXCEPTIONS.—Subsection (a) shall not apply to the Third International Mathematics and Science Study or other international comparative assessments developed under the authority of section 404(a)(6) of the National Education Statistics Act of 1994 (20 U.S.C. 9003(a)(6) et seq.) and administered to only a representative sample of pupils in the United States and in foreign nations.". (b) AUTHORITY OF NATIONAL ASSESSMENT GOVERNING BOARD.— Subject to section 447 of the General Education Provisions Act, the exclusive authority over the direction and all policies and guidelines for developing voluntary national tests pursuant to contract RJ97153001 previously entered into between the United States Department of Education and the American Institutes for Research and executed on August 15, 1997, and subsequently modified by the National Assessment Governing Board on February 11, 1998, shall continue to be vested in the National Assessment (joveming
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