FY 1998 Budget Summary

• A. ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
  • Overview
  • America Reads Challenge
  • School Construction
  • Goals 2000: Educate America
  • Technology Literacy Challenge Fund
  • Title I: Education for the Disadvantaged
  • Eisenhower Professional Development State Grants
  • Innovative Education Program Strategies State Grants
  • Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities
  • Charter Schools
  • Comprehensive Regional Assistance Centers
  • continued ...

A. ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION

Overview

The 1998 budget request for elementary and secondary education provides significant increases for key programs to move American education forward, accompanied by $5.3 billion in mandatory funding for the America Reads Challenge and School Construction initiatives announced by President Clinton in 1996. The total request for discretionary elementary and secondary education programs is $11.1 billion, an increase of $536 million or 5.1 percent over the 1997 level. Highlights of the discretionary request include:

• $605 million for Goals 2000 State Grants, an increase of $129 million, to support State and local efforts in all 50 States to establish challenging academic standards and assessments and to reform teaching and learning in order to reach the National Education Goals.
• $7.5 billion for Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies, an increase of $347 million, to help low-achieving students—particularly those in high-poverty schools—meet the same challenging academic content and performance standards expected of all children. The request would target a larger share of Title I resources on communities and schools with the highest concentrations of children from low-income families.
• $425 million for the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund, an increase of $225 million, to help schools in all 50 States integrate technology into the curriculum so that all students can become technologically literate, and to improve the quality of teaching and learning in core subjects.
• $360 million for Eisenhower Professional Development State Grants, an increase of $50 million, to support sustained, intensive training to upgrade teaching skills in the core academic subjects, especially in mathematics and science.
• $620 million for Safe and Drug-Free Schools programs, an increase of $64 million, to help States and school districts address the pervasive problems of student drug and alcohol use and school violence.
• $100 million for Charter Schools, a $49 million increase, to support the start-up of as many as 1,100 new or redesigned State-authorized schools created by teachers, parents, and other members of the community that offer enhanced public school choice and which, in exchange for greater accountability for student achievement, are exempted from many local, State, and Federal regulations.
• $34 million for Comprehensive Regional Assistance Centers, a $9 million increase, to strengthen and expand the services of a network of 15 centers that provide training and assistance to teachers and school leaders on educational issues primarily involving effective teaching and learning for low-income, limited English proficient,migrant, and Native American students, and on issues in such areas as creating safe and drug-free schools.

The request also includes increases for other elementary and secondary school programs that address the needs of particular at-risk populations, including migrant programs, the Title I program for the education of neglected and delinquent children and youth, Education for Homeless Children and Youth, and Indian Education.

Mandatory Funding Proposed for Presidential Initiatives

The President’s 1998 budget for education also includes $5.3 billion in proposed mandatory spending authority—funded through authorizing legislation instead of the discretionary appropriations process—for two new programs: the America Reads Challenge and School Construction.

America Reads Challenge

The America Reads Challenge includes two components. The America's Reading Corps would bring together educators, families, and community-based organizations in a national effort to help many more children learn to read well and independently by the end of the third grade. The initiative would enlist one million trained tutors, who will provide individualized and small group reading instruction after-school, on weekends, and during the summer for students who need extra help to read well.

The goal is to substantially increase the proportion of children reading at the "Basic Level" on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) by the time they reach the 4th grade. Currently, just 60 percent of students participating in the fourth-grade NAEP reading assessment read at the "Basic Level."

The Department of Education would contribute $1.4 billion for the Reading Corps over a five-year period; most of that money would pay for reading specialists (who would train tutors) and instructional materials. In addition, the Corporation for National and Community Service would contribute $1 billion over 5 years ($200 million in 1998), primarily for tutor recruitment.

As part of the America Reads Challenge, the President has also called upon Work-Study recipients to earn their awards by working as reading tutors for kindergarten and elementary school students. The Department recently amended its regulations to waive the required 25 percent employer funding match for students working as reading tutors.

Under the Parents as First Teachers program, the Department would provide funds to national and regional groups, as well as local communities and organizations, to support effective, proven efforts to help parents who request assistance to help their children become successful readers.

The success of America Reads will be tracked through the NAEP fourth-grade reading assessments. Funds for this testing are requested under Assessment in Educational Research and Improvement.

School Construction

New legislation would provide a one-time appropriation of $5 billion to jump-start State and local efforts to modernize school buildings so that more students have access to the school facilities needed for a first-class education. These funds would pay for up to half the interest on school construction bonds or similar assistance, with a target of stimulating at least $20 billion in new construction or renovation projects. The program would be particularly targeted on major cities, which have the most urgent construction needs. The Federal subsidy could be used for such purposes as emergency repairs to correct health and safety problems, making schools more energy efficient, modernizing educational facilities to support new technologies, ensuring access for disabled individuals, and building the additional schools that communities will need in order to serve the growing enrollments predicted for the next decade.

Goals 2000: Educate America

Goals 2000 helps schools, communities, and States develop and implement their own strategies—based on standards of excellence—for improving elementary and secondary education. These strategies center on the creation and implementation of high standards and challenging assessments in core academic subjects that define what all students should know and be able to do at various grade levels.

Research and experience suggest that challenging content standards, when coupled with valid and reliable assessments and aligned support, can focus the efforts of school systems, students, parents, and the wider community on improving student performance. Standards can drive content-rich instruction that is indispensable for all children, guide staff preparation to enable teachers to teach challenging curricula, and hold school systems accountable for improvement. That is why Goals 2000 helps States establish academic standards and coordinate their student assessment programs, teacher preparation andlicensure requirements, parental and community involvement, and other aspects of their education system to help children achieve State and local standards. In particular, the new assessments create a valuable feedback mechanism that helps schools measure student progress and provides the public with reliable information about how well schools and school districts are doing in teaching all children to high standards.

Goals 2000 has been welcomed as an important source of support for State and local school improvement efforts, and States have found it to be a "user-friendly" program, both because of the regulation-free administration of the initiative and because of the flexibility to build upon pre-existing reform efforts. According to surveys, requests from local school districts for Goals 2000 support in several States exceed available dollars by 200 to 600 percent.

With 1996 funds, Goals 2000 is helping more than 12,000 schools across the Nation mobilize to improve the future of their children by designing common-sense approaches to improve teaching and learning. Fiscal year 1997 funds have not yet been awarded, but through fiscal year 1996 school districts in 49 States were participating and had entered or completed their second year of participation; 27 States have received third-year funding. Virginia recently indicated that it would be the 50th State to participate in Goals 2000.

To sustain this growing nationwide reform effort, the 1998 budget includes $605 million for State grants, a $129 million increase over the 1997 level. The request would support grants to 16,000 schools, or nearly 20 percent of all schools, to implement educational improvements based on standards of excellence. The Department will reserve up to $1.5 million for evaluation studies directly related to measuring the progress of education reform.

In addition, the request includes level funding of $15 million for the separately authorized Goals 2000 Parental Assistance program, to continue funding for centers in 42 States that provide parents with training, information, and support they need to help their children achieve to high standards. This program directly addresses the National Education Goal that "every school will promote partnerships to increase parental involvement and participation in promoting the social, emotional, and academic growth of children."

Technology Literacy Challenge Fund

The Technology Literacy Challenge Fund provides grants to the 50 States under the authority of Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The Challenge Fund helps States implement strategies to enable their schools to fully integrate technology into their school curricula, so that all students can become technologically literate and master the communication, math, science,and other core subjects so that they can succeed in the Information Age. The Challenge Fund program is intended to achieve the following four goals by 2001:

• All teachers in the Nation will have the training and support they need to help all students learn through computers and through the information superhighway;
• All teachers and students will have access to modern computers in their classrooms;
• Every classroom will be connected to the information superhighway; and
• Effective and engaging software and on-line learning resources will be an integral part of every school curriculum.

The program provides formula grants to States based on their share of ESEA Title I allocations; States then award competitive grants to local school districts. States have a great deal of flexibility in determining how to accomplish program goals.

The request is designed to catalyze and leverage State, local, and private-sector efforts to provide our children with greater opportunities to acquire the knowledge and skills they will need to thrive in the next century. The $425 million request is the second installment of a five-year, $2 billion investment that is part of the Administration’s commitment to modernizing schools so that students are prepared to work in the coming century.

Title I: Education for the Disadvantaged

Title I provides supplemental programs to enable educationally disadvantaged children, particularly those attending schools in high-poverty areas, to learn the core subjects to high standards. With Title I, low-achieving children have the benefit of more individualized instruction, fundamental changes in the school to improve teaching and learning, and preschool education. Children of migrant agricultural workers, and students in State institutions for neglected and delinquent children and youth, also benefit from Title I services.

The 1998 request includes $7.5 billion, a $347 million increase, for Grants to Local Educational Agencies. The number of children served by this program has increased rapidly in recent years, as more schools have elected to establish "schoolwide" Title I programs. The Department estimates that in 1998—depending on the growth in schoolwide programs—these grants may serve over 10 million students in more than 50,000 schools.

In order to channel funds to the schools and communities where those funds are most needed, the Department is proposing to allocate the funding increase through the "Targeted Grants" formula, which provides relatively greater funding levels to counties with higher numbers or percentages of children living in poverty. The budget will also help schools continue to implement the program reforms enacted by Congress in 1994, including alignment of Title I programs with broader State and local reforms, expansion of Title I schoolwide programs (which allow greater flexibility in high-poverty schools), and greater involvement of parents in their children's education.

The request for other Title I programs includes the following:

• $41 million for Capital Expenses for Private School Children, the same as the 1997 level. This program assists LEAs in providing equitable services to children enrolled in religious schools by funding the costs of providing portable vans and the remodeling of space for such services.
• $108 million for Even Start, a $6 million increase, to permit expansion of over 500 local programs providing early childhood education, adult education, and parenting instruction for more than 35,000 low-income families.
• $319.5 million for Migrant Education, a $14 million increase, to meet the higher costs of providing special services and arrangements for more than 610,000 highly mobile children of migratory workers.
• $40.3 million for the Neglected and Delinquent program, a small increase over current funding, to serve 180,000 youth in 400 State institutions for the neglected and delinquent and provide a more comprehensive educational program to incarcerated students.
• $8 million to re-establish State School Improvement Grants, which Congress did not fund in 1996 and 1997. These grants make practitioner expertise available withineach State to help the lowest-performing schools improve their Title I programs and meet Title I accountability requirements.
• $10 million for Title I Evaluation, a $3 million increase to pay for mandated studies designed to track Title I reforms and examine the impact of restructured programs on students and educational systems. Completion of these studies will provide Congress and the public with feedback on program results in time for reauthorization in 1999-2000 and guide State and local administrators seeking to make program improvements.

Eisenhower Professional Development State Grants

Real reform and improvement in elementary and secondary education require a teaching force that is up-to-date in the content areas and skilled in imparting knowledge to diverse populations of students. Only intensive, ongoing professional development will ensure that educators have the knowledge and skills necessary to teach children to standards of excellence. To help States and school districts provide this kind of professional development, the Department is requesting $360 million for Eisenhower Professional Development State Grants, an increase of $50 million over the 1997 level. The Department is requesting an additional $30 million for Eisenhower Federal Activities, as discussed under Educational Research and Improvement.

In the past year a number of reports have documented the need for better teaching in the Nation’s schools. The first report from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study and the report of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future both concluded that more needs to be done to give teachers the preparation and help they need to do the best possible job in the classroom. The Eisenhower State Grants program provides funding to States and school districts to support professional development in all the core academic subjects, with the first $250 million focused on mathematics and science. The emphasis is on sustained and intensive high-quality development experiences that are tied to the everyday life of a school and that support continuous improvement in teaching and learning. The program gives schools the flexibility to set their own staff training and development priorities.

The request would help increase the number of well-prepared teachers, including those from underrepresented groups, in the core academic subjects. The Department also is requesting appropriations language that would improve program performance by requiring grantees to use their funds for professional development activities that meet principles of effectiveness to be published in the Federal Register by the Secretary. These principles will preserve State and local flexibility while ensuring that program funds are used in a manner most likely to result in positive outcomes.

Innovative Education Program Strategies State Grants

The request includes no funding for the Title VI Innovative Education Program Strategies block grants. The evaluations of the antecedent Chapter 2 program concluded that the overall purpose of the program—supporting school reform—was not achieved because of the broad, vague, and overlapping nature of the activities eligible for funding. These evaluations also determined that the majority of the activities supported by Chapter 2 received only a small percentage of their funding from the program and thus would be likely to continue in its absence. Moreover, any such activities that are part of State and local education reform strategies could be continued with funds from Goals 2000 and other Department programs.

Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities

America’s students cannot be expected to learn in schools where they are threatened by drug abuse and violence. The Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities program is designed to help make our Nation’s schools safe and drug free by supporting comprehensive, integrated approaches to drug and violence prevention. The program provides significant resources to motivate America’s youth to reject illegal drugs as well as the use of alcohol and tobacco, which is Goal Number 1 of the National Drug Control Strategy. Toward this end, the request would provide $620 million for this program, a $64 million increase over the 1997 level.

The request includes $590 million for State Grants, an increase of $59 million over 1997. Proposed appropriations language would improve the accountability of the program by requiring grantees to use these funds for prevention strategies that meet research-basedprinciples of effectiveness to be published by the Secretary. These principles would preserve State and local flexibility while ensuring that program funds are used in a manner most likely to result in positive outcomes. Funds would continue to be used for a variety of activities, including curriculum development, classroom instruction, professional development, early intervention and rehabilitation referral, peer counseling and mediation, conflict resolution, and school security.

National Programs provide discretionary funds for national leadership in the effort to create safe and drug-free learning environments. These funds support development of model programs, evaluation of State and local safe and drug-free schools programs, cooperative activities with other Federal agencies, direct grants to communities with particularly severe drug and violence problems, and campus drug prevention grants to institutions of higher education. The $30 million requested for National Programs, a $5 million increase, would enhance the Department's ability to undertake national leadership activities in drug and school violence prevention.

Charter Schools

The Charter Schools program stimulates comprehensive education reform and public school choice by supporting the planning, development, and initial implementation of public charter schools. Charter schools are public schools that are exempted from most education rules and regulations so as to permit more flexible and innovative methods of achieving educational excellence. In exchange for this greater independence, charter schools are held accountable for improving student performance. Twenty-five States and the District of Columbia now have charter schools laws, and additional States are likely to pass charter schools legislation this year. The number of charter schools is also on the increase, with over 400 charter schools in operation during the 1996-97 academic year.

The President’s request of $100 million for Charter Schools would assist the continued growth of this promising educational reform by stimulating the creation of additional charter schools, while at the same time providing large enough grants to support the development of quality schools. The budget would support new and continuing awards for up to 1,100 charter schools, with a target of 3,000 by 2001.

The statute also permits the Department to use a portion of the funding for national activities, including a program evaluation, development of a charter school web site, and workshops for charter school developers and chartering authorities.

Comprehensive Regional Assistance Centers

Under this program, a network of 15 university-based or non-profit centers offers easily accessible, comprehensive technical assistance that cuts across programs and addresses the needs of entire schools and school districts for help in integrating the various ESEA programs in support of State and local reforms designed to improve teaching and learning for all children. Each center provides support, training, and assistance to States, LEAs, schools, and others on curricula, instruction, assessments, professional development, program evaluation, meeting the needs of at-risk populations, creation of a safe and drug-free school environment, implementing educational technologies, and other areas related to implementation and improvement of ESEA programs and educational reforms.

The 1998 request of $34.4 million, an increase of $8.8 million, will enable the centers to serve more clients, and provide more intensive services, than has been possible under previous funding levels.

Direct any questions to Martha Jacobs, Budget Service