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

A biweekly look at progress on the Secretary's priorities

Table of Contents Two Years of College All Classrooms Connected to the Internet... Helping All Children Reach High Standards Every School Strong, Safe, Drug-Free... Satellite Broadcast on School Safety Charter Schools Awards Magnet Schools Awards America Goes Back to School Humanities Summer Seminars & Institutes Credits

TWO YEARS OF COLLEGE & LIFELONG LEARNING FOR ALL STUDENTS Last week's passage of the Higher Education Amendments of 1998 (HEA) marks the culmination of the Administration's 3-year effort to help families & students pay for college & increase access to higher education. The new law... Saves $11 billion for students by slashing the student loan interest rate from 8.25% to 7.46%. The new law extends for 5 years this low interest rate on new loans, available on a temporary basis since July 1. It also extends the low rate for 4 months to borrowers to refinance outstanding loans through consolidation in the Direct Loans program. Launches a new national effort to help disadvantaged students prepare for college. Based in part on the Administration's High Hopes for College proposal, the GEAR UP program will provide competitive grants to states & local partnerships of colleges & middle schools in high-poverty areas. This effort is designed to ensure that students receive financial aid information, rigorous courses, tutoring, mentoring, & scholarships for college. Improves teacher quality, preparation, & recruitment. It improves teacher preparation through grants to partnerships between teacher education institutions & school districts, recruits additional teachers for high- need areas through grants to partner high-quality teacher education programs & local schools, supports state-level efforts to improve teacher quality through State Teacher Quality Enhancement grants, & strengthens accountability in teacher education by requiring that states & teacher education institutions report on teacher preparation, including their students' performance on teacher licensing exams. Promotes high quality distance education efforts by expanding student aid eligibility for distance learners, & helps develop new distance education partnership models through the Learning Anytime Anywhere Partnership (LAAP) program. Revolutionizes student aid delivery by creating the federal government's 1st-ever Performance-Based Organization (PBO). The PBO, located within the Department of Education, will be led by an executive with expertise in information technology & management, who reports directly to the Secretary & has new administrative flexibility in exchange for increased accountability for results. The Secretary will continue to be responsible for setting student aid policy. The Secretary expressed disappointment that the bill includes an unnecessary new lender subsidy & that the low student loan consolidation interest rate is not extended for a longer period of time or extended to borrowers who consolidate their student loans through private lenders in the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program. He noted that the Administration will work with Congress to revisit these concerns in the future. For more information, please see: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/PPI/Reauthor/

ALL CLASSROOMS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET; ALL STUDENTS TECHNOLOGICALLY LITERATE The Schools & Libraries Corporation (SLC) announced last week that the application cycle for the 1999-2000 E-rate funding period will begin on December 1, 1998. During this application cycle, there will be an 80-day window (closing February 19, 1999, at 11:59 p.m. ET) during which all completed applications received by the SLC will be considered as if they had arrived simultaneously. Forms received after the 80th day will be treated on a 1st-come, 1st-served basis, in accordance with the FCC's rules. The 1999-2000 funding period will begin July 1, 1999, and run through June 30, 2000. Application materials will be mailed to public school districts, library systems, & non-public schools prior to December 1, 1998. Materials will also be available via the SLC Web Site (http://www.sl.universalservice.org/) & via the toll-free help line, 1-888-203-8100. Guidance documents will also be available via toll-free fax-on-demand, 1-800-959-0733. TO LEARN THE LATEST NEWS on the E-rate, tune into the Department's Satellite Town Meeting on Tuesday, October 20 at 8 p.m. (ET). For more information, call 1-800-USA-LEARN or see: http://www.ed.gov/inits/stm/stm-9810.html

HELPING ALL CHILDREN REACH HIGH STANDARDS Last month Secretary Riley announced the award of $6 million in grants for a national education & outreach effort to ensure that children with disabilities are receiving a quality education. Four grants are being awarded to 3 organizations, all of them leaders in the education & disability field. The grants are designed to provide information & training on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997 (IDEA'97). These grantees will form partnerships with more than 30 other associations to help in the nationwide effort. They will develop educational materials & a communications network for sharing information & supporting technical assistance. Toll-free numbers, websites, public service announcements, & "best practices" reports are just a few of the ways information about IDEA'97 will be offered. For information about grantees & IDEA'97, please see: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/Policy/IDEA/train.html

EVERY SCHOOL STRONG, SAFE, DRUG-FREE & DISCIPLINED States & localities were given authority by Congress, under the 1997 Taxpayer Relief Act, to issue "Qualified Zone Academy Bonds" (QZABs) -- bonds that support school renovations, repairs, & other activities. Through this authority, holders of QZABs receive a federal tax credit in lieu of interest. States & localities are thus able to issue the bonds without interest, saving, on average, one-half the cost of the project. QZABs can be used to finance school renovations, as well as equipment purchases & teacher & curriculum development. They can be used to benefit only schools located in Empowerment Zones or Enterprise Communities, or in which at least 35% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches, & that meet certain other statutory requirements. In addition, QZAB projects must obtain a private-sector contribution (of equipment, services, or other support) equivalent to at least 10% of the value of the bond. California recently became the 1st state to approve the issuance of QZABs. In the 1st project to "go to market," the Clovis Unified School District & the Fresno Unified School District will use QZAB proceeds to renovate a warehouse in order to create a Center for Research & Technology. Within the Center, 11 technological academies will train students in agriculture, biomedicine, telecommunications, & other fields. The districts met the private-sector contribution requirement by obtaining support from such companies as Microsoft & Grundfos Pump, & a local utility is donating equipment; in fact, the total level of private contributions amounts to $2 million, well in excess of the $1.2 million required. The total cost of the project is $12 million, but, as envisioned in the statute, the federal subsidy will bring the two districts' costs to below $6 million. The 1997 Act caps total QZAB bonding at $400 million in 1998 & the same level in 1999. The Administration has proposed expanding the QZABs authority to allow up to $1.4 billion in bonding in 1999 & an additional $1.4 billion in 2000, as well as creation of a similar bond program to support school construction. For additional information on the administration's school design & modernization proposals, please see: http://www.ed.gov/inits/construction/ (Ed Note: Site no longer on-line) For additional information on the Qualified Zone Academy Bonds (Section 226 of the Taxpayer's Relief Act of 1997, Section 1397E of the Internal Revenue Code), please see: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OVAE/qzabfin.html

SATELLITE BROADCAST ON SCHOOL SAFETY On October 15, the President will host the White House Conference on School Safety. The Vice President, Mrs. Clinton, & Mrs. Gore will participate in the day-long event, which will include a policy address by the President & panel discussions exploring best practices & model school safety strategies. A live broadcast of the President's remarks & the expert panel discussions is being sponsored by the Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), in partnership with the Safe & Drug-Free Schools Program of the Department of Education. Mrs. Clinton will moderate the broadcast discussions, which will include video presentations of model approaches & programs. For more information, including registration (which is free), times, & satellite coordinates, please call or email Becky Ritchey: 606-622-6671 or beckytrc@iclub.org. Taping & reairing of the broadcast is invited.

CHARTER SCHOOLS AWARDS Forty-five grants (totaling $68 million) were announced this week to help meet the growing demand for public charter schools. Sixteen states will receive 1st-year grants; another 11 states -- as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, one school in New Mexico, & 2 schools in Hawaii -- will receive 2nd- or 3rd-year funding. Charter schools are public schools under contract from a public agency to groups of parents, teachers, school administrators or others who want to create alternatives & choice within the public school system. Museums, local businesses & community groups are among the partners involved. The schools are free, open to all, & designed to be publicly accountable, as well as creative, flexible & responsive to student & parent needs. President Clinton has asked Congress for more than $100 million for the Public Charter Schools Program in fiscal year 1999, a sum that would support up to 1,400 charter schools. More than 900 charter schools in 29 states now receive federal support under this program. Funds from other federal programs, such as Goals 2000 & Title I, may also be used to support charter schools & to share lessons learned with other public schools. For more information, including a list of states that will receive awards, please see: http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/10-1998/chart.html

MAGNET SCHOOLS AWARDS Last month Secretary Riley announced that $96.5 million in federal support for magnet school programs has been awarded to 57 school districts in 24 states under the federal Magnet Schools Assistance program. The grants help school districts establish or expand magnet programs that are part of a school district's approved desegregation plan. They aim to reduce, eliminate or prevent minority group isolation in schools while strengthening students' knowledge of academic subjects through the use of special curricular programs designed to attract students of different backgrounds based on their interest in the subject matter of the program. One-hundred-twenty-eight school districts competed for the 3-year grants. For more information, including a list of grantees, please see: http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/09-1998/magschl.html

AMERICA GOES BACK TO SCHOOL Last month, CNN & Turner Learning announced, as part of the America Goes Back to School Initiative, the chance for young journalists to publish their written & video work internationally on CNN Newsroom, on the Turner Learning website (http://learning.turner.com/), & elsewhere. Participation in this new initiative, CNN Student Bureau (CNN SB), is open to high schools & universities worldwide. News reports submitted to CNN SB from students may be regional, national or global in scope. Students will receive assignments from a Turner Learning assignment editor through the website, & their stories will be reviewed by a Turner Learning producer who edits, fact checks, & works within the CNN system to determine a story's use & purpose. Selected website stories will be posted on the Turner Learning website for students' & educators' use. Selected video stories also will be pitched to CNN producers for their review & possible use. For more information or to enroll in the program, please call Turner Learning at 1-800-344-6219 or visit: http://learning.turner.com/SB/ For more information on America Goes Back to School, please see: http://www.ed.gov/Family/agbts/

HUMANITIES SUMMER SEMINARS & INSTITUTES Each summer the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) supports study opportunities for educators to strengthen humanities teaching & scholarship in the nation's schools & colleges. Now is the time to begin planning a proposal to direct a seminar or institute in the summer of 2000. The application deadline is March 1, 1999. Contact a program officer now to discuss a topic for a seminar or an institute. Seminars & institutes are offered either for school teachers or for faculty who teach undergraduates. They may be proposed by universities, colleges, school systems, learned societies, centers for advanced study, libraries (or other repositories), & cultural or professional organizations. Program officers (listed below) are available to advise applicants on choice of topic, format, & audience. Samples of successful proposals & application guidelines are available upon request. Because it is important to talk with a program officer while developing an application, please contact one of the following individuals: Thomas Adams, (202)606-8396; Douglas Arnold, (202)606-8225; Wilsonia Cherry,(202)606-8495; and F. Bruce Robinson, (202)606-8213. For additional information, send email to NEH (at sem-inst@neh.gov)

Have a comment or suggestion on ED Initiatives? Please send it to Kirk Winters in the Office of the Under Secretary at kirk.winters@ed.gov.

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