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Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:
I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you to discuss the fiscal year 1997 budget request for Elementary and Secondary Education programs.
Our 1997 budget request includes funds for the Goals 2000: Educate America Act and for many of the programs contained in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which was reauthorized in 1994 to incorporate the Goals 2000 principles of enabling all students to reach high academic standards and providing States, localities, and schools with greater flexibility in exchange for accountability for results.
The Department's total 1997 request for elementary and secondary education programs is approximately $10.2 billion, an $804 million increase over the 1996 tentative conference agreement. Most of the funds are targeted to four priorities: $476 million would help States and localities advance their own efforts to reform teaching and learning under Goals 2000; $7.7 billion for Title I would help disadvantaged children learn the core academics and achieve to high, State-developed standards; $610 million would upgrade the qualifications of teachers in all the core academic subjects; and $540 million would help make schools free of drugs and violence. I will briefly discuss the highlights of this request.
The assistance that is offered through Goals 2000 will help the Nation's Governors fulfill the promise of the recent education summit to develop high State academic standards and ensure that children in all States and localities are challenged and helped to meet them.
Currently, 48 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have received Goals 2000 funds. The funds are being used throughout the country to bring computers into the classroom, train teachers, enhance parental involvement in our schools, develop State and community academic standards of learning, and develop school improvement plans. States and communities are approaching reform in their own ways, and Goals 2000 provides great flexibility. Louis Gerstner, the IBM chairman who co- sponsored the summit, has said that "Goals 2000 is only a small portion of what we need, but it is a very critical portion, because it is the fragile beginning of the establishment of a culture of measurement standards and accountability in this country."
With the $476 million that we are requesting for 1997, States should be able to assist about 12,000 individual schools with local reform efforts. This has the potential for affecting the education of as many as 6.5 million students.
We are requesting $7.7 billion for all Title I programs, a $493 million increase from the 1996 tentative conference agreement, to enable more than 50,000 schools, especially in high-poverty areas, to provide additional instruction and learning opportunities that disadvantaged students often need to catch up with their classmates and make extra academic progress. Most of the request, a total of $7.2 billion, or 93 percent, is for the Grants to Local Educational Agencies program. With these funds, schools in virtually all 15,000 districts in the country will be able to provide, for example, extended-day kindergarten programs, learning laboratories in mathematics, science, and computers, and other arrangements to educate the lowest-achieving children more effectively.
The request would also direct a larger share of Title I resources toward the poorest districts and schools that have the highest concentrations of children from low-income families and need the most help to create productive learning environments. Towards this end, the Administration's request would allocate $1 billion through the new Targeted Grants formula, which would provide higher per-child amounts for counties with higher numbers or percentages of poor children.
The request also includes increases for the Title I Migrant and Neglected and Delinquent programs to ensure that the hard-to- serve migratory children and institutionalized youth benefit from improvements stressing the high standards under Title I and in education generally.
Mr. Chairman, under the tentative conference agreement, almost $1.3 billion of fiscal year 1996 funding in the Education for the Disadvantaged account would not become available for obligation until fiscal year 1997, and thus would be counted as 1997 budget authority. This action could have serious consequences because the $1.3 billion in 1996 delayed obligations would count against next year's discretionary cap, thus reducing the total discretionary funds available for the 1997 appropriations bill. In addition, with dwindling discretionary resources year after year, there is a danger that this budget measure would become a continual, escalating mortgage against future appropriations, instead of a one-time solution to a funding shortfall. In light of these problems, the Department urges your Committee to work with the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget to find a solution that would eliminate the funding constraints caused by the delayed obligation mechanism.
We are requesting $610 million for this program to support sustained and intensive high-quality professional development in the core academic subjects within the context of State and local systemic reform efforts. The 1997 request, a $335 million increase over the 1996 tentative conference agreement, would make a significant contribution to increasing the number of well- prepared teachers. To finance a portion of this increase, the Department is proposing to eliminate funding for Title VI -- Innovative Education Program Strategies, the successor to Chapter 2. A recent evaluation of the Chapter 2 program showed that these funds contributed very little to real education reform. Resources would be much better used under the Eisenhower program to focus on improved teaching.
For many school districts, the only program available to counter the trend of increased violence, the presence of weapons in our schools, and the growing use of drugs by our youth is the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program. This program targets part of the funds to school districts that are considered by their State as having the greatest need, and it permits schools to use their funds for a variety of different programs and strategies to address school violence and drug use. While the program provides flexibility in the use of funds, it also holds State and local agencies accountable for their programming decisions.
Effective drug and violence prevention programs require long-term commitment, integration in all grades, and comprehensiveness. To help schools create such an environment, the Department is requesting $540 million for Safe and Drug-Free Schools programs, an increase of $140 million over the 1996 tentative conference agreement.
The Administration also is requesting $40 million for the Charter Schools program, a $22 million increase over the 1996 tentative conference agreement. This program is designed to stimulate comprehensive education reform and public school choice by supporting the development and initial implementation of public charter schools. Developed by teachers, parents, and other members of local communities, charter schools are exempt from certain Federal, State, and local regulations and focus on achieving ambitious educational goals tied to challenging student performance standards.
The Magnet Schools Assistance program complements the Charter Schools program by fostering education reform and choice among public schools. For 1997, we are requesting $95 million for Magnet Schools Assistance, the same as the expected 1996 level. These funds would support grants to 64 school districts in 25 States.
Our request of $29 million for the Education for Homeless Children and Youth program, a $6 million increase over the 1996 tentative conference agreement, is part of the Administration's strategy for ending the cycle of homelessness and would give States and localities additional resources to meet the needs of this at-risk population.
Finally, we are proposing a total of $617 million for Impact Aid to provide funding for most of the activities authorized by the new law. This proposal includes $550 million for Basic Support Payments, which would be targeted to support the education of two categories of federally connected children -- those living on Indian lands and the children of members of the uniformed services who live on Federal property -- and would continue approximately the same level of support for these two categories of children as in fiscal year 1996.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my prepared remarks. My colleagues and I would be happy to respond to any questions you may have.
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