President Bush's 2004 budget again will demonstrate his administration's commitment to expanding education options for parents by including an estimated $756 million to help insure America's parents have more choices for their children.

"School choice is an essential part of authentic school reform," Secretary Paige said. "When I was a superintendent, I saw firsthand the power of choice--empowered parents making decisions about their children's education. And I believe choices must be part of the education landscape if we're committed to leaving no child behind. President Bush's budget for next year will help empower even more parents and help us achieve our bold goals."

The choice programs in the 2004 budget will include:

• $75 million for a new Choice Incentive Fund to provide competitive awards to states, school districts and community-based nonprofit organizations with a proven record of securing educational opportunities for children. A major objective would be to help school districts address their capacity problems by providing low-income parents with expanded opportunities for transferring their children to high-performing public, private or charter schools. A portion of the funds would be reserved for school-choice programs in the District of Columbia.

• $226 million in refundable tax credits for parents transferring a child from a public school identified for improvement. Parents would receive a credit of 50 percent of the first $5,000 in tuition, fees and transportation costs incurred when a student's regular school is identified for improvement and he or she transfers to another public or private school. Eligible students would be those who attend under-performing schools, as defined under the No Child Left Behind Act, during the prior academic year. (This program is administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.)

• $25 million for Voluntary Public School Choice grants to support planning, transportation, tuition transfer payments and efforts to increase the capacity of schools to accept students exercising a choice option. As a result, families will have more education options by encouraging states and school districts to establish or expand public school choice programs across states or districts.

• $220 million for charter school grants -- a $20 million increase over last year's request -- to support approximately 1,800 new and existing charter schools, an important element of the administration's proposal to increase choice for students and parents. The increase would initiate a new per-pupil facilities aid program, which will provide funds to states to assist charter schools in obtaining facilities. The No Child Left Behind Act specifically includes public charter schools as an option when districts are required to permit students to transfer from a school identified for improvement to a better public school.

• $100 million to continue the Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities program to assist charter schools in acquiring, leasing, and renovating school facilities. A major obstacle to the creation of charter schools is their limited ability to obtain suitable academic facilities. This program supports competitive grants to public and nonprofit entities to help charter schools finance their facilities through such means as providing loan guarantees, insuring debt, and other activities to encourage private lending.

• $110 million to continue the Magnet Schools Assistance Program to provide grants to eligible local education agencies to establish and operate magnet schools that are operated under a court-ordered or federally approved voluntary desegregation plan.

Other 2004 Budget Highlights

Earlier this month, the administration announced a proposed increase in funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) to ensure educational freedom, opportunity and access for every American. The president's fiscal year 2004 budget will increase funding by five percent for the following programs: $224 million for HBCUs, $53 million for Historically Black Graduate Institutions and $94 million for HSIs, totaling $371 million. The budget also will include a 5 percent increase for the nation's 34 tribal colleges and universities, bringing the total requested amount for these schools to $19 million.

To encourage more math, science and special education teachers to work in high-poverty schools, the 2004 budget also will expand a loan forgiveness program. The proposal will provide up to $17,500 in loan forgiveness for teachers in these three fields who work for five consecutive years in schools that serve high-poverty student populations. This is more than three times the $5,000 in loan forgiveness now allowed for other qualified elementary and secondary teachers serving low-income communities.

In his Jan. 4 radio address, Bush announced that he will propose an additional $1 billion, a total of $12.3 billion, for the Title I program in the 2004 budget -- the highest funding level ever for the program that serves our neediest students. In the address, he also announced that he will request more than $1.1 billion for federal reading programs in next year's budget, an increase of $75 million over last year's budget request. This investment will go only to support programs with proven results in teaching children to read. 

For more information about these and other Education programs, visit www.nochildleftbehind.gov.