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

Statement by U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley on the President Clinton's 1999 Education Budget Request

Monday, February 2, 1998

Good afternoon everyone. I am pleased today to be able to announce the details of President Clinton's 1999 budget request to improve the very foundation of America's schools and help families pay for college. Last week, in his State of the Union Address, the President reaffirmed his commitment to better education as our nation's highest priority. This budget request reflects that commitment.

I am particularly delighted to note that this budget represents a greater increase in the federal investment in improving elementary and secondary education than any budget in the last 30 years. We have, undeniably, a higher education system that is the envy of the world. Our increasing commitment to elementary and secondary education which reaches record levels this year, will help us raise the standards in the critical K-12 years so that we can match the world-class quality of our colleges and universities.

If Congress approves this budget it would help reduce class size, modernize schools, improve teacher quality, target new assistance to poor urban and rural schools, help bring technology into the classroom, and give all Americans the financial support and information they need to go college.

To begin with, the 1999 budget will help States and communities cope with classroom overcrowding and unsafe school buildings. We know that students learn more when they are in smaller, more orderly learning environments where teachers and students alike are not distracted from the job at hand. Our budget includes the first year down payment of $1.1 billion for a Class Size Reduction Initiative that will help get students increased personal attention from teachers in the earliest years.

This investment includes funds that would help recruit and train 100,000 new teachers over the next 7 years. With these new teachers, school districts nationwide would be able to reduce first-, second-, and third-grade class sizes to an average of 18. Reducing class size will help build a strong foundation in the basics -- especially reading. As Governor Bob Miller of Nevada says, "Give our teachers a class size they can manage -- not projects for 35 nameless faces."

To meet the challenges of record student enrollments and crumbling school buildings, the President is proposing tax-credits that would pay all interest costs on more than $20 billion in school construction bonds that would be issued in 1999 and 2000. This will work hand in hand with the President's class size reduction effort.

The President's proposed federal investment of $10 billion over a 10 year period more than doubles the construction dollars proposed last year. I should note that these initiatives are designed to strengthen the educational opportunities of all students.

The focus on early grades, with special emphasis on reading, will be of particular help to children who have difficulty learning. Not only will they be able to get help early on to keep up with their classmates, but their teachers will be able to deal with them -- and every other child in their classes -- on a more individual basis. In addition, initiatives like the school construction and modernization proposal will help schools provide better access to buildings and all learning resources.

Of course, one of the best ways to increase what students learn in school is to make sure that the rest of their time is spent safely and productively. That is why this budget includes a $200 million major expansion of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which would support keeping approximately 4,000 schools open as after-school extended learning safe havens. And $50 million for Safe and Drug-Free Schools Coordinators would help almost half of all middle schools develop and implement effective strategies for keeping our kids away from drugs.

This budget continues the emphasis on helping children master the basics. We know that early competence in reading and math is critical for all children, but especially for disadvantaged and limited English proficient students, who often fall behind early and find it difficult to catch up in the later grades.

This budget request includes $260 million for America Reads, which supports local programs that provide tutoring and help improve reading instruction in our schools so that every child can read well by the end of the 3rd grade.

We also are asking for $32 million in new funding to support an Action Strategy -- developed jointly by the Department and the National Science Foundation -- aimed at improving math instruction and achievement, especially by the 8th grade and in high school.

And to help increase the number of teachers qualified to teach the basics to Hispanic and other limited English proficient students, the 1999 request would double funding for Bilingual Education Professional Development -- from $25 million to $50 million.

A third priority in the Department's 1999 budget is to support fundamental change in America's urban schools, where promising efforts to turn around low-performing schools are starting to take hold. While the investment I have already mentioned will help support these efforts, the primary vehicle for raising educational performance in high-poverty urban areas remains the Title I grants to local schools. For 1999, we are asking for an increase of $392 million for Title I, and we are proposing to distribute the entire increase to high-poverty urban and rural schools.

In addition to Title I, the request includes $200 million for the President's exciting proposal for Education Opportunity Zones, which would make approximately 50 grants to poor urban and rural districts to improve accountability, raise teacher quality, and expand public school choice. This plan will help strengthen public schools and help students master the basics where the need is the greatest -- in high poverty communities.

America's students will also benefit from a $30 million increase in the Comprehensive School Reform program. The $175 million request for this program -- often called Porter-Obey -- would help some 3,500 schools accelerate educational improvements and turn around failing schools.

This budget also increases by 25 percent -- to $100 million -- the federal investment in Charter Schools, to enhance public school choice through the start-up of up to 1,400 new or redesigned schools.

Our proposal to reauthorize the Higher Education Act would create a $67 million Teacher Recruitment and Preparation program. This initiative would recruit and train new teachers for urban and rural areas that have the most difficulty in attracting and retaining a high-quality teaching force.

As the President has said, this Information Age we are in is first and foremost an Education Age. That is why the Department's 1999 budget increases support for educational technology -- not only to prepare students to use computers and other tools of the Information Age, but also to help improve teaching and learning in all subjects.

The budget provides $475 million for the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund, an increase of $50 million (or 12 percent), to help more schools buy hardware, train teachers to use technology, and develop and buy software. The $106 million request for Technology Innovation Challenge Grants would support 24 new awards to develop or adapt cutting-edge technology for America's classrooms.

And a new $75 million Teacher Training in Technology initiative, announced this past weekend by Vice President Gore, would help make sure that all new teachers can use technology effectively in the classroom.

I also want to remind you that schools will be able to greatly expand their use of technology through the education rate or E-Rate, created under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The E-Rate program gives schools and libraries discounts of up to 90 percent on Internet services and internal wiring. Even the poorest or most rural schools can now have access to the world's best libraries, museums and other learning resources because of the discounted E-rate.

I am pleased to note that as of this past Friday the FCC's web is now up and running and for the next 75 days is taking applications for school districts who want to take advantage of the E-rate.

Finally, our 1999 request builds on last year's historic achievement in helping students and families pay for college, which included a $300 increase in the maximum Pell Grant award and the creation of the HOPE Scholarship and Lifetime Learning tax credits. In 1999, these tax credits will provide an estimated $6.7 billion to help more than 12 million students and families pay postsecondary education costs.

For 1999, the Administration is proposing to further reduce student borrowing costs by cutting student loan origination fees from 4 percent to 3 percent for all borrowers.

The President's budget includes $7.6 billion for the Pell Grant program, an increase of $249 million that would raise the maximum Pell award from $3,000 to $3,100. A $70 million increase for Work-Study would allow that program to reach the President's goal of giving one million recipients the opportunity to work their way through college, while also supporting additional Work-Study tutors for America Reads.

We are asking for $583 million for the TRIO programs, a $53 million increase aimed at expanding the number of Upward Bound projects -- especially in under-served areas with heavy concentrations of Hispanic students. TRIO's efforts to encourage low-income students to prepare for and enter postsecondary education would be reinforced by another exciting new initiative we are announcing later in the week.

I think it is clear that this is an extraordinarily ambitious and important agenda from a President who is focused on education like few presidents before him. President Clinton and Vice President Gore understand that education is the food for building a successful democracy.

We are in a time of extraordinary possibilities in education. This budget, I believe, will help us and our children fulfill them if we all work together and leave politics at the school house door.

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