TODAY, THE PRESIDENT announced his fiscal year 2001 budget,
which includes a 12.6% increase in spending for education.
A detailed summary of his request for education (& related
information) can be found at:
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/Budget01/BudgetSumm/
(http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/Budget01/)
Below is a statement Secretary Riley made at a press
conference this afternoon.
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Statement by U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley
Regarding President Clinton's FY2001 Education Budget Request
(February 7, 2000)
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Good afternoon. Earlier this morning the President Clinton
released the federal budget. I am pleased to announce the
details of his fiscal year 2001 budget request for education.
This is a good-news budget for parents and teachers, a budget
that is investing in the future of this nation for all of our
people.
This budget represents the largest jump in discretionary spending
in the history of the Department. We are requesting $40.1
billion, an increase of $4.5 billion or 12.6 percent over FY2000
spending. This is the right time to be making these large
investments.
Seven years ago, when we first made the push for high standards,
we told the Congress that this was a two-step process. First,
raise standards and put accountability measures in place, and
then invest wisely to make sure that all children have the
opportunity to achieve more. Higher standards are now in place
in all 50 states. We are working hard to improve accountability.
So now is the time to be making critical investments to raise
achievement levels. We need to demand more, invest more and, yes,
reward success as well. We are at a critical juncture in getting
standards into the classroom. There is a right way and a wrong
way to approach standards. We need to make sure that children and
teachers are getting the support they need to reach for high
standards and that is why the investments in this budget are so
important.
Some argue that the federal budget surplus should be used for
broad-based tax cuts. I don't see or hear any groundswell of
opinion for those types of cuts when I visit with parents. What
I hear is very different -- pay down the national debt and build
for the future by investing in the education of our children.
This is what this budget is about-investing in programs that will
make a difference in the years ahead and using the tax code
wisely to modernize our schools and help families pay for
college. This budget continues our strong emphasis on improving
Title I, reducing class size, improving teacher quality,
modernizing our schools, increasing after-school opportunities,
and expanding access to and paying for college. This budget
includes 20 new proposals and terminates 19 other programs.
We are requesting $8.4 billion for Title I grants, and that
includes $250 million for accountability grants, an increase of
$116 million over the 2000 level. Reducing class size makes a
powerful difference. Parents are very tuned into the success of
this effort. We are proposing to add $450 million to the Class
Size Reduction program, for a total of $1.75 billion. To help make
sure that every child is reading well by third grade if not earlier,
we propose a $26 million increase for the Reading Excellence Act.
We also know that extending the learning day is very helpful and
that there is an enormous demand for quality after-school
opportunities. This is why we are proposing a $547 million
increase for 21st Century Community Learning Centers, doubling
the funding to a total of $1 billion. With this new support we
will be able to reach nearly 2.5 million children.
Teacher quality is always high on our agenda. This budget
includes $1 billion to support better teaching with a strong
emphasis on recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers.
There is no one way to get the job done and that is why we are
coming at this issue from many angles.
Our largest investment is $690 million to help states raise
standards and this is the very heart of our ESEA proposal. We
are requesting $75 million for a new Hometown Teachers proposal
to help school districts grow their own teachers. We have set
aside $50 million to help high-poverty districts establish peer
review programs.
We propose to reward high-poverty school districts that make the
effort to get more fully certified teachers into the classroom.
That's a critical step to raising achievement. We are asking for
$50 million.
We propose to set aside $25 million to encourage career-changing
professionals to become teachers and $30 million to improve early
childhood education. All the research tells us that if we do a
better job at the pre-K level, many more children will come to
school ready to learn. You are also going to hear me talk a lot
this year about preparing the next generation of principals.
We've got to do a better job around this issue and we are asking
for $40 million.
As I travel around the country I continue to see over-crowded
schools. Some teachers are teaching in closets. That's not
right. We have more children in our schools than ever before and
more on the way. Congress needs to get on the ball and pass very
needed school modernization legislation. Our proposal now comes
in two distinct parts. First, we seek to provide $25 billion in
tax credit bonds over two years to modernize up to 6,000 schools.
Second, we request $1.3 billion for urgently needed renovation on
the discretionary side of the budget. This discretionary funding
is new and will support renovation work in 5,000 schools.
Getting technology into our schools is also a very important part
of our school modernization efforts. We have doubled the funding
to help teachers gain the skills they need-setting aside $150
million for the Preparing Tomorrow's Teacher effort. We are also
requesting a strong increase for our Community Technology Centers
-- an increase of $67.5 million. There are a lot of ways to
overcome the digital divide and this is one of them.
I believe that this Department is an effective clearinghouse for
good ideas. We seek to find what's working out there -- best
practices as they say -- and give school districts the
opportunity to build on solid research and success. This is why
we are proposing $190 million for our Comprehensive School Reform
effort, which will help an additional 1,900 schools.
We strongly support public school choice. We are requesting $175
million for Charter Schools and $20 million for something we call
OPTIONS. This flexible new authority would support 40 grants to
states and school districts to implement and test new approaches
to public school choice, including inter-district programs and
public schools at work sites and on college campuses. Funding
for educational research would increase by $30 million.
School safety and discipline are issues we all care and worry
about. We don't need another Columbine. High school students
need to have a sense of connection, and research tells us that
small schools make a difference. We propose to scale up our
Small, Safe and Successful High Schools initiative by providing
$120 million to help 700 high schools create schools-within-
schools.
We are also asking for $650 million for the Safe and Drug-Free
Schools programs. This $50 million increase would be devoted
primarily to expansion of the Safe Schools/Healthy Students
initiative.
Funding for Special Education would rise to $6.4 billion with
Grants to States increasing by $290 million. We recognize the
very strong role that parents play in helping children who have
disabilities. This is why we are proposing a $7.5 million
increase for Parent Information Centers.
Our 2001 request includes more than $800 million in increases
intended to help Hispanic Americans, the fastest growing group in
our student population.
In particular, we seek a $54 million increase for bilingual,
foreign language and immigrant education. We need to make sure
every child has a good grasp of the English language within three
years.
Indian Education programs would receive $116 million, an increase
of 50 percent. Let me cite several other increases worth noting
before turning to higher education. You will see a major $200
million expansion for Tech Prep, which basically is a shift of
funds from Vocational Education state grants. We simply have to
do a better job of preparing more of our young people for this
high-tech world. Our initiative will support Tech-Prep
programs that make preparing for college a core part of the
curriculum and give students increased opportunities to learn
about high tech careers.
Another smart way to raise expectations is make sure all high
schools offer some Advanced Placement courses. We are asking
for $20 million. My goal is to make sure that every high school
in the nation, including those in high-poverty areas, is offering
AP courses within the next two years. This week, we will be
hosting an important conference on this very subject with teams
coming in from over 40 states. I am also pleased that we doubled
the funding for the arts to $23 million.
Let me now turn to higher education. We have a record number of
Americans in our nation's colleges and universities -- 14.9
million students -- and more on the way. This budget would
expand student financial aid to $54.2 billion to help more than
8.6 million Americans go to college.
We are proposing a maximum Pell Grant award of $3,500, a $200
increase over the 2000 level and up more than 50 percent since
1994. A $60 million increase for Supplemental Educational
Opportunity Grants would provide a total of $875 million to an
estimated 1.2 million undergraduate students, or 64,000 more than
in 2000. And a $77 million increase for Work-Study would
continue the president's commitment to give one million students
the opportunity to work their way through college.
I remain very excited about the president's new $30 billion
College Opportunities Tax Cut. This proposal builds on the
current Lifetime Learning Tax Credit, which is helping five
million families.
Under this proposal families would have the option of taking a
tax deduction or claiming a 28 percent tax credit on up to $5,000
in annual postsecondary education tuition and fees. The limit
would rise to $10,000 in 2003.
We also want to expand our efforts to create new pathways to
college. We are asking for $725 million for the very successful
TRIO program. GEAR-UP's budget would increase by $125 million to
reach a total of $325 million. The TRIO request includes $35
million for something we call College Completion Challenge Grants
-- a new effort to help reduce the college dropout rate.
I want to highlight a new $40 million dual-degree program for
Minority Serving Institutions and our increased support for our
Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving
Institutions, and colleges that serve Native Americans. We are
also asking for a long overdue increase in the Fulbright
Scholarship program.
This budget is a fitting start for a new century -- the Education
Era-and reaffirms President Clinton's long-standing commitment to
improving education. I ask the Congress to pass this budget.
Please recognize that the American people have made it very clear
that they want action when it comes to improving education.
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Kirk Winters
U.S. Department of Education
kirk_winters@ed.gov