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

   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                       Contact:  Kathryn Kahler    February 7, 1994                                      (202) 401-3026 

STUDENTS WIN IN CLINTON BUDGET

EDUCATION DISCRETIONARY FUNDS UP SEVEN PERCENT TO $26.1 BILLION

The $1.7 billion increase reflects the President's commitment to improved education as an essential component of America's investment in human capital as well as honoring the President's promise of a new federal partnership with local communities and states.

"This request, coming as it does in a time of heightened budgetary consciousness, is a clear sign of the President's commitment and resolve to invest in children and youth -- our future," said Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley. " The President's request for an increase in education funding underscores his resolve to ensure that our citizens and our nation are well prepared for, and able to compete and prosper in, the new global economy."

Riley explained that the President's proposed budget reflects three priorities. These include increased support for comprehensive local reform of elementary and secondary education programs focused on high standards and high expectations for all students; a commitment to ensuring access to postsecondary education for all who aspire to it; and increased opportunities for preparing high school youth for challenging, high-skill, high-wage jobs or continued education.

"This budget is good news for the Department and, more importantly, good news for America's children and our efforts to reach the National Education Goals," Riley said. "It provides substantial new resources in many priority areas, while also reflecting our efforts to eliminate unnecessary programs, reduce costs, and enhance the department's management capacity to respond better to schools, colleges, and communities as they seek to improve education."

Under the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, federal funds will support local and state education improvement efforts geared to achieving challenging standards -- what students should know and be able to do -- in essential subjects -- English, math, the arts, history, geography, foreign languages, and science. As a demonstration of its commitment to this type of reform, the administration is seeking $700 million for Goals 2000 in FY95 -- increasing to $1 billion each year beginning in 1996 -- to help states and communities develop and carry out their reform plans.

The administration also is requesting a $1 billion increase, to $10.5 billion, for its proposal to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. This legislation will use high standards to challenge students and improve professional development for teachers; build strong partnerships among parents, teachers, communities, and business; begin to make our schools safer; expand the use of technology; and target Federal resources to the highest-poverty schools that face the greatest challenges in educating their students.

Highlights of this section of the budget include:

• $7 billion for disadvantaged students under Title I (formerly Chapter 1), an increase of $664 million, or 10.5 percent, over the 1994 level;

• $660 million for Safe and Drug-Free Schools programs, an increase of $188 million, or 40 percent, over the 1994 level;

• $800 million for an expanded and comprehensive professional development program that will highlight teaching in core subject areas, an increase of $145 million, or 22 percent, over the combined 1994 appropriation for Chapter 2 block grants and the Eisenhower Mathematics and Science Education program;

• $50 million for a new education technology initiative to accelerate the use of advanced information technologies to help all learners reach high standards.

The budget proposal includes $300 million for this Act, an increase of $200 million over the 1994 level, which is shared equally by the Department of Education and the Department of Labor.

The administration's budget also will provide more resources for education programs for children with disabilities -- an increase of $186 million or 6 percent for a total of $3.3 billion -- to help provide free public education for all children with disabilities and to ensure that infants, toddlers and preschoolers with disabilities start school ready to learn.

Research, statistics, and assessment efforts needed to provide teachers, parents, administrators, and policy makers with accurate, up-to- date information to improve education would increase $35 million or 23 percent over 1994, for a total of $191 million.

Finally, there also will be changes and funding increases in postsecondary education. The President will follow up his groundbreaking Student Loan Reform Act of 1993 -- which eliminates much of the complexity of administering student loans, provides better service to students and schools and is expected to save taxpayers more than $4 billion over the next five years -- with a series of accountability initiatives to reduce fraud and abuse. The budget would generate $28.4 billion in total aid available for grants, loans, and work study opportunities, an increase of $1.2 billion. These programs will assist 6.7 million students in 1995, 80,000 more than in 1994. It also will provide $118 million to eliminate the prior-year Pell Grant funding shortfall.

Other changes include:

• an increase in the Pell Grant maximum award from $2,300 to $2,400 as part of a $6.4 billion request that will provide grants to 4.1 million students;

• an increase in funding for Work-Study to $717 million, $100 million or 16 percent over 1994, to support approximately 116,000 additional awards for a total of 829,000 students;

• a commitment to encourage community service by requiring institutions to use at least 10 percent of their Work-Study allocations to support students working in community service jobs, by providing a $1 million increase for the Innovative Projects for Community Service program, and by offering income-contingent student loan repayment options that allow borrowers to take lower-paying community service jobs without fear of defaulting on their student loans;

• an increase in funding for the State Postsecondary Review Program to $35 million, 65 percent over 1994, to expand the number of institutions reviewed to protect the taxpayers' investment in student aid and to prevent abuse of department programs by unscrupulous schools.