Summary of the 1999 Budget

Five years ago President Clinton set the Nation on a course to achieve a balanced budget. At the same time, he has engaged all Americans in a national effort to raise standards and improve the quality of American education to ensure America's long-term competitiveness and prosperity. In his first budget request, the President promised a 25 percent increase in Department of Education discretionary spending by fiscal year 1998.

Last summer the President signed the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which was designed to eliminate the Federal budget deficit by 2002. Three months later he delivered on his promise to invest in education by signing a 1998 appropriations bill that included $29.4 billion in discretionary budget authority for the Department of Education, a 25 percent increase over the 1993 level of $23.5 billion.

The President's 1999 budget request continues to combine fiscal responsibility with the investments needed to help America prepare for the challenges of the next century. This budget seeks to reduce class size, modernize schools, improve teacher quality, and support growing efforts in our Nation's urban schools to raise standards to make sure that every child has mastered the basics. In addition, this budget reflects continuing efforts to get technology into the classroom and give all Americans the financial support they need to go on to college or other post-secondary educational opportunities.

For the Department of Education, the President is requesting $31.2 billion in discretionary budget authority for fiscal year 1999, an increase of $1.7 billion or 5.9 percent over the 1998 level.

The Department's 1999 discretionary request is complemented by a significant investment of new mandatory program funding and tax benefits for education. These combined resources will make an immediate impact on the quality of education in the following key areas:

Reducing Class Size and Modernizing the Nation's Schools

America's classrooms are brimming with students even as they are in desperate need of repair and modernization. A record 52.2 million children are enrolled in our elementary and secondary schools during the 1997-98 academic year, but more important is the fact that we will break that record each year for the next ten years. Building more schools and reducing class size can raise standards, improve discipline, and give every student the individual attention they need to excel. The following initiatives will help address these problems and create safe, modern schools that promote learning:

• $1.1 billion for a Class Size Reduction Initiative, a new mandatory program that would recruit and train 100,000 new teachers over the next 7 years in order to help reduce class sizes to an average of 18 in grades 1-3, when children need the most attention in learning to read proficiently and mastering the basics.
• Over $20 billion in interest-free bonds for School Construction, to help school districts pay for the construction of new academic facilities to serve booming elementary and secondary enrollments or for the renovation of the estimated one-third of all schools that need extensive repairs.
• $200 million for 21^st Century Community Learning Centers, an increase of $160 million, to support approximately 4,000 before- and after-school programs that will keep schools open as safe havens while providing extended learning activities to improve student achievement and prevent juvenile violence and substance abuse.
• $50 million for Safe and Drug-Free Schools Coordinators, who would work with middle schools to assess drug and violence problems, identify effective, research-based strategies for addressing those problems, assist teachers and other staff with program implementation, and build links between school- and community-based prevention programs.
• $50 million for an Interagency Research Initiative to support research and development on instructional strategies, including the use of technology, to advance learning in mathematics and reading at the elementary and middle school levels.

In addition to these budget initiatives, the Administration will build on its continuing efforts to give States and local school districts increased flexibility by reducing Federal regulations. Since 1995, the Department has eliminated one-third of all regulations and two-thirds of the regulations governing elementary and secondary education programs. The ED-FLEX demonstration currently empowers 12 States to waive Federal rules and encourages them to waive their own regulations as well. The Administration remains committed to giving school principals and teachers maximum flexibility to raise standards, and will make a vigorous effort in the coming year to expand the ED-FLEX authority to additional States, encourage greater use of the Title I schoolwide program authority, and eliminate any other regulations that hinder efforts to raise standards or turn around low-performing schools.

Mastering the Basics to Prepare for the Future

Learning to read well and independently by the end of the 3^rd grade is essential for all further learning, and demonstrating an understanding of challenging mathematics-- including elements of algebra and geometry--by the end of 8^th grade is crucial for college preparation and productive employment. All students must gain mastery of these basic subjects, but they are particularly important for educationally disadvantaged and limited English proficient students, who often fall behind early and find it difficult to catch up in the later grades.

For 1999, the Department of Education budget provides significant resources to help ensure that all students master the basics of reading and mathematics:

• $260 million for the America Reads Challenge, including $50 million in new funds and a $210 million "advance" appropriated in 1998 that becomes available in 1999, to (1) support locally based recruitment and training of coordinators and tutors for after-school, weekend, and summer programs that are linked to in-school instruction, (2) help ensure that teachers are well-trained to teach reading, and (3) help families develop their children's literacy skills.
• $32 million in new funding to support the Education/NSF Action Strategy to improve mathematics instruction and achievement, including $22 million to develop technology-based materials and training models that emphasize teaching for conceptual understanding of mathematics while at the same time ensuring mastery of the basics, $10 million to significantly expand technical assistance in mathematics and science education, and $1.7 million to expand the dissemination of professional development and mathematics materials.
• $50 million for Bilingual Education Professional Development, an increase of $25 million, to help meet the critical need for fully certified bilingual education and English-as-a-second-language teachers.
• $115 million for the Even Start program, which supports local projects that blend early childhood education, parenting instruction, and adult education into a unified family literacy program.
• $35 million for new Title I "Transition to School" grants, to test promising approaches for ensuring that the educational gains children make in Head Start and other preschool programs are sustained once those children enter the elementary grades.

Closing the Gap: Support for Urban Education

The schools and teachers facing the most difficult challenges in helping their students reach world-class academic standards are found in America's cities. Nevertheless, promising efforts to turn around low-performing schools are starting to take hold as urban school superintendents adopt a "no excuses" approach of raising standards, improving discipline, and ending social promotion. The Department of Education's 1999 budget seeks to support these efforts in the following ways:

• $7.8 billion for Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies, an increase of $392 million--all of which would be targeted to schools with high concentrations of poor children--to help more than 10.5 million low-achieving disadvantaged students master challenging curricula and reach high academic standards.
• $200 million for Education Opportunity Zones, a new program that will make approximately 50 grants to poor urban and rural districts to improve accountability, turn around failing schools, improve the quality of teaching, and expand public school choice.
• $175 million for Demonstrations of Comprehensive School Reform, an increase of $30 million to support awards helping some 3,500 urban and rural schools serving primarily low-income populations to carry out comprehensive, research-based educational reforms.
• $67 million for a new Teacher Recruitment and Preparation program, which would recruit new teachers for the high-poverty urban and rural areas that have the most difficulty in attracting and retaining a high-quality teaching force.
• A new College-School Partnerships initiative to encourage academic achievement and college enrollment among low-income students.

Educational Technology

All students must learn to use computers and other tools of the information age if they are to succeed in the workplace of the 21^st century. Just as important, technology promises new ways of reaching and teaching all students to challenging academic standards. The 1999 request will help make this promise a reality by providing:

• $475 million for the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund, an increase of $50 million or 12 percent, to support larger grants to States that are used to buy hardware, connect schools to the Internet, train teachers to use technology, and develop and buy software.
• $106 million for Technology Innovation Challenge Grants, which will support 24 new awards to local partnerships among educators, business, and industry aimed at developing or adapting technology to improve the quality of teaching.
• $75 million for a Teacher Training in Technology initiative, which will make grants to States, teacher colleges, and other organizations to help ensure that all new teachers can use technology effectively in the classroom.
• $10 million for Community-Based Technology Centers, a new program to establish computer centers in low-income communities to provide families with access that they may not otherwise have to these resources.

In addition to these budget items, schools will be able to greatly expand their use of technology through the E-Rate, or universal service program, created under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Under the E-Rate program, schools and libraries may receive discounts of up to 90 percent on Internet services and networking hardware and software. In 1998, these discounts are expected to total approximately $1.7 billion.

Helping Students Prepare and Pay for College

More and more jobs--particularly those involving technology--require at least some postsecondary education, making the opportunity to go to college more important than ever for American families and their children. President Clinton has worked hard to help students and families pay the costs of postsecondary education.

For example, the maximum Pell Grant award has climbed from $2,300 when President Clinton first took office to the current level of $3,000, an increase of 30 percent. The President's HOPE Scholarship and Lifetime Learning tax credits will provide an estimated $6.7 billion to more than 12 million students and families in 1999. And Federal student loan programs now charge lower interest rates and fees while offering more flexible repayment plans.

The 1999 request continues to help students and families pay for college, while emphasizing programs aimed at encouraging young people and their families--particularly those from minority and low-income backgrounds--to begin thinking about and preparing for college early in middle school:

• $7.6 billion for the Pell Grant program, an increase of $249.1 million, to raise the maximum Pell award from $3,000 to $3,100 and provide Pell Grants to over 3.9 million low-income students.
• $900 million for Work-Study, up $70 million, to reach the President's goal of giving 1 million recipients the opportunity to work their way through college. The request also would encourage additional institutions and students to participate in America Reads.
• Cutting student loan origination fees from 4 percent to 3 percent for all borrowers in 1999, as the first step toward eliminating fees on subsidized loans by 2003. Student interest rates will also drop beginning July 1, 1998, as a result of legislation enacted in 1993.
• $583 million for the TRIO programs, an increase of $53 million, to expand the number of Upward Bound projects--especially in underserved areas--in support of the President's Hispanic Education Initiative, and raise the number of students served by TRIO to over 743,000.
• $15 million for the new Early Awareness Information program to inform middle and high school students and their families about the value of postsecondary education, the steps that need to be taken to attend college, and the availability of student aid. In addition, this program will encourage many adult learners to take advantage of the new tax credits for postsecondary education and go back to school to learn new skills.
• $30 million for new Learning Anytime Anywhere Partnerships to expand distance learning and other nontraditional education opportunities for all adult learners by funding partnerships that would develop new methods of assessing and delivering nontraditional education. An additional $10 million from the Department of Labor would provide information on skills needed for various jobs and how to obtain those skills.

Totals in the Budget

The President's budget for the Department of Education provides a total of $31.2 billion in discretionary budget authority, an increase of $1.7 billion, or 5.9 percent, over the 1998 level of $29.4 billion. Funding for mandatory programs would increase from an estimated $5.3 billion in 1998 to an estimated $6.6 billion in 1999, primarily due to the $1.1 billion Class Size Reduction Initiative. Total Department budget authority would rise from $34.7 billion in 1998 to $37.8 billion in 1999. In addition, at the Treasury Department, the HOPE Scholarship and Lifetime Learning tax credits would save students and families $6.7 billion in postsecondary education expenses in 1999. The more than $20 billion in interest-free school construction bonds will generate approximately $10 billion in tax expenditures over ten years.

Totals for the Department are:

Within these totals, the 1999 budget request is aligned with the three programmatic goals of the Department's Strategic Plan: (1) helping all students reach challenging academic standards, (2) building a solid foundation for learning for all children, and (3) ensuring access to postsecondary education and lifelong learning. This alignment reflects Department compliance with the Government Performance and Results Act, which, in addition to the development of a long-term strategic plan, requires the submission of annual performance plans beginning with fiscal year 1999. The Department's first annual performance plan, which will be submitted to Congress shortly after the release of the President's 1999 budget request, will include program goals and performance indicators that will help to measure the Department's progress in implementing its Strategic Plan. More detailed program performance information also is included in the budget justifications prepared for the Congressional appropriations committees.

HIGH STANDARDS FOR ALL STUDENTS

The need to raise academic standards for all students has been the driving force behind every elementary and secondary education initiative proposed by the Clinton Administration. Congress has largely agreed with this emphasis, and challenging academic standards are the unifying theme of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, the School-to-Work Opportunities Act, the Improving America's Schools Act, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997. High standards are at the core of the changes States and communities are making to prepare their children for the challenges of the 21st century. For these reasons, helping all students reach challenging standards is Goal 1 of the Department's Strategic Plan, and the 1999 request puts the following resources behind this goal:

• $476 million for Goals 2000 State Grants, a $10 million increase, to enhance State and local efforts to implement standards-based educational reforms and improve the education of all children.
• $250 million for School-to-Work Opportunities--$125 million each from the Departments of Education and Labor--to continue support for State and local efforts to bring together educators, businesses, and other members of the community to design new educational programs that connect what goes on in the classroom to future careers and real-work situations, while also preparing secondary school students for a broad range of postsecondary education and advanced training opportunities.
• $556 million for Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities, to continue helping make our Nation's schools safe and drug-free by supporting comprehensive, integrated approaches to drug and violence prevention. For 1999, the Department proposes to earmark $125 million for competitive grants to school districts with severe drug and safety problems that have developed promising, research-based proposals for addressing those problems.
• $50 million for a Safe and Drug-Free Schools "School Coordinators" initiative, to train and place in middle schools professional staff who are knowledgeable about effective drug and school violence prevention strategies and can assist teachers and administrators in selecting and implementing programs most appropriate for the individual school setting.
• $475 million for the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund, a $50 million increase, to help States and districts pay for computers, connections, training, and software needed to fully integrate technology into schools.
• $75 million for a new Teacher Training in Technology program to help ensure that all new teachers are prepared to use technology effectively in the classroom. This initiative would provide competitive grants to consortia of State and local educational agencies, institutions of higher education, and other public and private entities for projects providing intensive training and support to new teachers.
• $335 million for Eisenhower Professional Development State Grants, the same as the 1998 level, to continue State and local efforts to ensure that there is a talented and dedicated teacher in every American classroom.
• $67 million for a new Teacher Recruitment and Preparation program under the reauthorized Higher Education Act that would help recruit new teachers for high-poverty urban and rural areas that have the most difficulty in attracting and retaining a qualified teaching force.
• $200 million for a new Education Opportunity Zones program to strengthen reform efforts by urban and rural school districts that enroll large concentrations of students from poor families and that demonstrate both a commitment to and a track record in improving educational achievement. The proposal emphasizes reforms to improve accountability for educational performance, turn around failing schools, raise the quality of teaching by recognizing outstanding teachers and dealing with ineffective ones, and expand public school choice.
• $175 million for the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstrations initiative, a $30 million increase, to support a second round of grants and help about 3,500 schools serving low-income populations to implement comprehensive, research-based educational reforms. The request would provide $150 million under Title I and $25 million under the Fund for the Improvement of Education.
• $100 million for Charter Schools, an increase of $20 million or 25 percent, to support the start-up of up to 1,400 new or redesigned schools that offer enhanced public school choice and have the flexibility to offer innovative educational programs, in exchange for greater accountability for student achievement.

A SOLID FOUNDATION FOR LEARNING

To reach the challenging academic standards called for in Goal 1 of the Department's Strategic Plan, children must be given appropriate developmental opportunities at an early age and start school prepared to learn. They also must master the basics of reading and mathematics in the early grades; these subjects are the gateway to academic success in high school and beyond. Finally, all children need this foundation to succeed in school; America will not prosper if disadvantaged students, limited-English-proficient students, or students with disabilities are left behind. That's why the Department's 1999 budget includes significant increases for activities related to Goal 2 of the Strategic Plan--ensuring that all students receive the support necessary to build a solid foundation for a lifetime of learning:

• $7.8 billion for Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies, an increase of almost $392 million, to strengthen efforts to improve education for low-achieving students, particularly those in schools with concentrations of children from low-income families. The Department's request would serve more than 10.5 million educationally disadvantaged children. The Administration also proposes to direct a greater share of Title I funding to school districts with high concentrations of poor children, by distributing the entire increase through the Concentration Grants and Targeted Grants formulas.
• Authorization of over $20 billion in interest-free school construction bonds. This program would be modeled after the "Qualified Academy Zone Bonds" program enacted by Congress in the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, which provides tax credits that eliminate the interest on certain bonds used for school repairs.
• $3.8 billion for Special Education Grants to States, the same as the 1998 level, to help States and school districts pay the extra costs involved in educating children with disabilities. The request reflects a Federal contribution of about 9 percent of the excess costs of educating children with disabilities.
• $1.1 billion in mandatory funding for a Class Size Reduction Initiative aimed at bringing class sizes in grades 1-3 down to an average of 18 students over the next seven years and at improving the quality of instruction. Funding would total $7.3 billion during the first five years of the initiative, with school districts contributing matching funds based on district poverty level, and would be used to recruit, train, and pay the salaries of the additional teachers needed to reduce class sizes.
• $260 million for the America Reads Challenge, including $50 million in new funds and a $210 million "advance" appropriated in 1998 that becomes available in 1999, to fund local literacy efforts aimed at ensuring that every child can read well and independently by the end of the 3rd grade.
• $355 million for Migrant Education, an increase of $49.2 million or 16 percent, to expand educational services to primarily Hispanic, highly mobile migratory workers and their children at sites convenient to work or to migrant housing.
• $232 million for Bilingual Education, up $33 million or 17 percent as part of the Administration's strategy to increase support for education programs that will help Hispanic Americans and other limited English proficient children and adults complete school and make their way into the economic mainstream. In particular, funding for Bilingual Professional Development would be doubled to $50 million to help meet the critical need for fully certified bilingual education and English-as-a-second-language teachers.
• $370 million for IDEA Grants for Infants and Families, an increase of $20 million, to expand the numbers of children served, improve the scope and quality of services, and meet the rising costs of administering statewide systems of early intervention services.
• $115 million for the Even Start program for local projects that provide early childhood education, adult literacy, and parenting instruction to low-income families with children from birth through age 7.
• $35 million for new Title I "Transition to School" grants, to test promising approaches for ensuring that the educational gains children make in Head Start and other preschool programs are sustained once those children enter the elementary grades.
• $66 million for Indian Education, up $6.3 million or 11 percent, to help school districts meet the special needs of Indian students, demonstrate new approaches to meeting those needs, support the preparation of Native American educators, and improve the research base on the educational status and needs of the Indian people.

POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION AND LIFELONG LEARNING

President Clinton has had a single, consistent message on postsecondary education: everyone who works hard can go to college. The best example of this is the HOPE Scholarship tax credits, which, in the President's words, "make two years of college as universal tomorrow as a high school education is today." In addition, the doors of learning and higher education must be kept open for a lifetime, whether for dropouts returning to get a GED, recent immigrants learning English, workers forced to re-skill by changing technology, or individuals with disabilities seeking self-sufficiency through employment. The Department's 1999 request supports postsecondary education and lifelong learning--Goal 3 of the Strategic Plan--through the following:

• $51 billion in total student financial aid available, up $2 billion over 1998, to provide grant, loan, and work-study opportunities to over 8.8 million students.
• $6.7 billion in HOPE Scholarship and Lifetime Learning tax credits for more than 12 million postsecondary students and their families in 1999. An estimated 5.5 million students would receive $4.2 billion in HOPE Scholarship credits, while an additional 7.1 million students would benefit from $2.5 billion in Lifetime Learning credits.
• A $3,100 maximum Pell Grant award, up $100 from the 1998 level, to improve access to postsecondary education for over 3.9 million low-income students.
• $900 million for Work-Study, an increase of $70 million, to give 1 million undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to work their way through college. The request is also aimed at increasing the number of Work-Study students working as reading tutors as part of the President's "America Reads" initiative.
• Reducing student loan origination fees, beginning with a reduction from 4 percent to 3 percent for all borrowers in 1999 and phasing out all fees for needy students by 2003. Student interest rates will also drop beginning July 1, 1998, as a result of legislation enacted in 1993.
• $583 million for the TRIO programs, up $53 million or 10 percent, to increase the number of Upward Bound projects--especially in underserved areas--in support of the President's Hispanic Initiative, while also funding new Innovative and Experimental projects to encourage grantees to pursue new approaches to better serve TRIO participants.
• $260 million for Title III Aid for Institutional Development, a $44 million or 20 percent increase, to provide greater support to institutions of higher education that serve high percentages of students from low-income backgrounds. Funding for Hispanic-Serving Institutions would more than double to $28 million, while Historically Black Colleges and Universities would receive a $16 million increase.
• $15 million for a new Early Awareness Information program to bring the message to middle and high school students and their families about the importance of higher education, the steps needed to obtain that education, and the availability of Federal student financial assistance.
• $30 million for new Learning Anytime Anywhere Partnerships that would support pilot projects using distance learning technology and other innovations to enhance the delivery of postsecondary education and lifelong learning to adult learners.
• $1.2 billion for Vocational Education, including $1 billion for Vocational Education Basic Grants which support the improvement of secondary and postsecondary vocational education programs while helping to ensure that individuals with special needs have full access to those programs, and $106 million for Tech-Prep Education, which funds programs linking secondary and postsecondary, and vocational and academic instruction to prepare individuals for high-tech careers.
• $394 million for Adult Education, including a $15.7 million or 4.5 percent increase, for a reauthorized State grant program supporting State efforts to help adults become literate and complete high school, so that they can succeed as workers, parents, and citizens.
• $2.3 billion for Vocational Rehabilitation State Grants, an increase of $57.5 million, to help over 1 million individuals with disabilities receive the services they need to become employed.

[Table of Contents] [Elementary and Secondary Education]

Direct any questions to Martha Jacobs, Budget Service