A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                    Contact:  Kathryn Kahler    March 16, 1995                                     (202) 401-3026

Statement by U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley Regarding House Vote on Rescissions

The decision by the U.S. House of Representatives to cut almost $1.7 billion in education spending is not an investment in America's future. The message from the new Congress to the children of America is clear: "You're on your own."

There was little reference to education in the Republican "Contract with America" and now some in the House of Representatives are starting to tell us that education is no longer a national priority. This is not what the American people were promised or what they expected.

Juvenile crime is soaring, people are worried sick about their children's safety and parents tell us again and again -- get guns out of school, end the violence, and keep drugs away from their children. Yet, the House has decided to eliminate 98 percent of the funding -- $472 million -- for our Safe and Drug-Free School program, money that has already been appropriated for the coming school year.

The rescission package cuts $100 million to improve teaching. It makes severe cutbacks affecting adult literacy and the gifted and talented. The Goals 2000: Educate America Act, which is so important to raising academic standards and moving American education into the 21st Century, takes a very hard hit. Thousands of schools will not get the funding as a result.

The decision of the House to rescind over 75 percent of our new technology funding is the equivalent of eating your seed corn. This is a short-sighted decision that is out of step with what the American people are thinking when it comes to education. In the most recent national poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, 79 percent of all Americans opposed cuts in education spending.

I am also concerned that this action is the first step that may tear apart the broad bipartisan consensus that has sustained and moved American education forward in the last decade. This nation needs to put its house in order and keep the budget deficit in check without creating a human deficit. If we do not invest in education and prepare the young people of this country for the changing job market, we will have a weaker economy in the future.

I will urge the U.S. Senate to reconsider and oppose the House action. We aren't going to move American education into the 21st century if good solid programs that keep children healthy, safe and educated, are being cut, merged, shunted aside or eliminated.

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