FY 1998 Budget Summary

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B. BILINGUAL AND IMMIGRANT EDUCATION

(BA in millions)


1996

1997
1998
Request

Instructional Services

$117.2 $156.71 $160.0

Support Services

9.7 1 14.0

Professional Development

1.1 1 25.0

Foreign Language Assistance

10.0 5.0 5.0

Immigrant Education

50.0 100.0 150.0

Total

188.0 261.7 354.0

1 The Department has requested a reprogramming of 1997 funds from Instructional Services to Support Services and Professional Development.

The 1998 request includes $354 million for bilingual, foreign language, and immigrant education programs, an increase of $92.3 million or more than 35 percent over 1997. These programs assist local school districts in building their capacity to operate high-quality instructional programs for recently arrived immigrants and other limited English proficient (LEP) students, and to improve foreign language instruction. According to State educational agencies, the number of limited English proficient students rose from 2.2 million in the 1990-91 school year to 3.2 million in the 1994-95 school year, an increase of over 45 percent. As the number of LEP children has grown substantially, the needs of school districts for programs to serve those children—and trained staff to work in those programs—have grown accordingly.

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The Bilingual Education Instructional Services authority includes 4 funding categories reflecting the different needs of applicant school districts: (1) Program Development and Implementation Grants, to assist districts in implementing new programs for LEP students; (2) Program Enhancement Grants, to enhance or expand existing programs; (3) Comprehensive School Grants, to support bilingual programs serving all LEP students in a school; and (4) Systemwide Improvement Grants, which will serve the entire LEP population of the school district. Under all four categories, activities supported by Federal grants must be consistent with State education reform plans and integrated with the overall educational program in a school.

The $160 million request for Instructional Services will support approximately 600 grants serving more than 1 million students.

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The budget also includes $14 million for the Support Services programs, which fund grants to States, research and evaluation activities, the operation of a national clearinghouse on bilingual education, and the Academic Excellence dissemination program. The majority of the funds would help State educational agencies meet their statutory responsibility to review and comment on Instructional Services and Professional Development applications and carry out other activities to improve the quality of bilingual instruction, including collecting data on the number of LEP students statewide.

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The request also includes $25 million, a $5 million increase, for Professional Development, which funds activities intended to help meet the critical need for additional, fully certified bilingual education and English-as-a-second-language teachers, and to strengthen the skills of current teachers providing instruction to LEP children. The request recognizes the importance of professional development for achieving education reform, and the need of many school districts for qualified bilingual teachers.

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For Foreign Language Assistance, the request includes $5 million, the same as the 1997 amount, to continue 62 State and local projects to improve foreign language instruction. The Department gives priority to funding development of elementary-level projects, particularly in the less-commonly taught languages of Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and Korean. The program is intended to spur States and school districts to create high-quality programs in the languages needed to help the Nation compete effectively in international markets.

Page Top Immigrant Education

Finally, in recognition of the additional costs faced by school districts that serve large numbers of recently arrived immigrant students, the Administration is requesting $150 million for Immigrant Education. This program provides grants to States according to a formula based on the number of recent immigrants in their schools; most funds flow to the States that bear the brunt of the educational burdens created by immigration. The Department is proposing continuation of appropriations language that permits States to direct these funds, on a discretionary basis, to the school districts where they are most needed. The request will assist LEAs in meeting the expense of educating some 875,000 recent immigrant students.


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Direct any questions to Martha Jacobs, Budget Service

last update: Feb. 5, 1997