FY 1998 Budget Summary

• A. ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION (... cont.)
  • Magnet Schools Assistance
  • Indian Education
  • Impact Aid
  • Education for Homeless Children and Youth
  • High School Equivalency Program and College Assistance Migrant Program
  • Inexpensive Book Distribution
  • Arts in Education
  • Women's Educational Equity
  • Training and Advisory Services (Title IV of the Civil Rights Act)
  • Education for Native Hawaiians
  • Alaska Native Education Equity
  • Ellender Fellowships

A. ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION (... cont.)

Magnet Schools Assistance

The 1998 request includes $95 million for the Magnet Schools Assistance program, which makes grants to local educational agencies to operate magnet schools that are part of a court-ordered or federally approved desegregation plan to eliminate, reduce, or prevent minority group isolation in elementary and secondary schools. Magnet schools are highly popular with students, parents, and school districts; about 1.2 million students participated in magnet programs in 1991-92, more than three times the number enrolled in magnets a decade earlier. Despite this growth, there remains a significant unmet need for magnet programs, as indicated by waiting lists at roughly half of existing magnet schools.

The request would enable the Department to make new three-year awards to approximately 60 local educational agencies, as well as the third and final year of Innovative Program grants, which involve desegregation strategies other than magnet schools and which are organized around a special theme or concept.

Indian Education

The Department's Indian Education programs supplement the efforts of State and local educational agencies, and Indian tribes, to improve educational opportunities for Indian children. The program links these efforts to broader educational reforms underway in States and localities to ensure that Indian students benefit from those reforms and achieve to the same challenging academic standards as other students.

Census and other data document that American Indians continue to be disproportionately affected by poverty and low educational achievement, although this population has made significant gains in recent years. For example, the high school graduation rate for Indians aged 25 and over rose 10 percent during the 1980s, but is still well below the rate for the overall population. The Department's Indian Education programs support locally designed activities that address the particular education needs of Indians within the context of overall educational reforms.

The total 1998 request for Indian Education programs, including Federal administrative costs, is $62.6 million, a $1.6 million increase over 1997. The request would support local programs serving up to 422,500 eligible children.

Under the Grants to Local Educational Agencies program, LEAs are required to develop comprehensive plans for the education of Indian children. These plans must include academic and student performance goals based on challenging State or local standards. LEAs periodically report to their communities on the progress they make in achieving the goals. Districts use their formula grants for such activities as early childhood education, educational enrichment programs that build on the Indian culture, and school-to-work transition. The 1998 request for formula grants is $1.7 million higher than in 1997.

Impact Aid

The Impact Aid program provides basic support to school districts affected by Federal activities. The 1998 budget request would place priority on children for whom the Federal government has primary responsibility, namely children living on Indian lands and children who live on Federal property and who have a parent on active duty in the uniformed services.

For Basic Support Payments, the request of $584 million, although $31.5 million less than the 1997 amount, would provide adequate payments on behalf of children living on Indian lands and children who have parents in the armed forces and who live on Federal property. No payments would be made for the other categories of eligible children, including the so-called "b" children (those who live on or have a parent working on Federal property, but not both).

Payments for Children with Disabilities provide additional support for certain federally connected children who are eligible for services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The budget would continue these payments at $40 million, the same as the 1997 level.

The request also would provide Payments to Heavily Impacted Districts to help these districts raise their per-pupil expenditures to levels comparable to other districts in their States. The request of $20 million should be sufficient to meet the needs of this small group of 10 to 20 districts.

The Department of Education owns and must maintain over 100 school facilities that were originally built to enable local educational agencies and the Department of Defense toeducate federally connected children. The $10 million requested for Facilities Maintenance will fund essential repair and maintenance of these facilities and allow the Department to continue to upgrade and transfer school facilities to LEAs.

The Department is requesting $4 million for Construction to help pay construction and renovation expenses for eligible LEAs, primarily LEAs serving large numbers of children living on Indian lands.

No funds are requested for Payments for Federal Property, which are made to school districts without regard to the presence of federally connected children. The Administration continues to oppose funding for this program, which was originally recommended for termination by the National Performance Review.

Education for Homeless Children and Youth

This program provides formula grants to all 50 States to operate an Office of Coordinator of Education for Homeless Children and Youth, which carries out activities to ensure that all homeless children have access to a free, appropriate public education. States also make subgrants to local educational agencies for tutoring, transportation, and other services intended to enable homeless children to enroll in, attend, and succeed in school.

While almost all States have revised their laws, regulations, and policies to improve educational access for homeless students, homeless children and youth continue to be a population at significant risk of educational failure. The $27 million request for this program would allow States to focus both on improving services to homeless children and on increasing the number of students served.

High School Equivalency Program and College Assistance Migrant Program

The High School Equivalency Program (HEP) funds projects to help low-income migrant and seasonal farm workers gain high school diplomas or equivalency certificates. The College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) provides stipends and special services such as tutoring and counseling to migrant students who are in their first year of college. The request would provide first-year funding for a new round of five-year projects. Together these programs support 26 projects serving 4,000 migrant youth.

Inexpensive Book Distribution

This program is administered through a contract with Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. (RIF), a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution. RIF allocates funds to local community associations that select and distribute inexpensive books to children free-of-charge. Since 1991, legislation has required RIF, in selecting new local projects, to give priority to those that will serve children who are low-income, disabled, homeless, or have other special needs. The request provides increased support for RIF, in recognition of its role in encouraging reading among young children and their families—a Department and Administration priority. RIF and its local affiliates would provide 8.3 million books to 2.6 million students in 1998.

Arts in Education

This program supports student competency in the arts, a component of the National Education Goals, by encouraging the integration of arts education into elementary and secondary school curricula. The Department awards funds to the Very Special Arts organization, which develops programs that integrate the arts into the general education of children with disabilities and the lives of adults with disabilities, and to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts education program, which supports a variety of State arts education activities.

In addition, the program statute authorizes Federal support for research, development of standards and assessments, professional development, and collaborative activities with other agencies. The 1998 request of $9.5 million includes $500,000 for these purposes, while continuing the 1997 funding levels for the Kennedy Center and Very Special Arts.

Women's Educational Equity

The Women's Educational Equity program promotes educational equity for girls and women through grants to public agencies, private nonprofit organizations, and individuals. About two-thirds of funds support local implementation of gender-equity policies and practices through such activities as teacher training to ensure gender equity in the classroom and guidance and counseling to increase opportunities for women in fields in which they are traditionally underrepresented. The remaining funds support dissemination through a national publishing center and research and development.

Training and Advisory Services (Title IV of the Civil Rights Act)

The request would re-establish Federal support for State educational agency (SEA) efforts to promote desegregation, while maintaining funding for regional desegregation assistance centers that provide technical assistance and training to districts that are desegregating on the basis of race, sex, or national origin. These activities help ensure equitable access to educational opportunities for all students. In the absence of Federal funding in 1996 and 1997, 20 SEAs closed their Title IV offices, and many others were forced to significantly reduce their operations and staffing.

Education for Native Hawaiians

These programs provide educational services for Hawaiian Natives, many of whom continue to perform below national norms on achievement tests of basic skills in reading, science, math, and social science. Hawaiian Natives also experience higher than average rates of absenteeism and grade retention. Education for Native Hawaiians programs, which address such issues as early childhood education and educator professional development, fund projects that have improved the educational performance of Hawaiian Native students. The 1998 request of $15 million would continue support for each of these programs at the 1997 level.

Alaska Native Education Equity

These new programs will provide educational services to meet the special needs of Native Alaskan children. Recent studies have shown that 60 percent of Alaska Natives entering high school in urban areas do not graduate. Test scores of Alaska Native students are, on average, 40 percent lower than those of other students. The 1998 request includes level funding for continuation grants to projects that address the barriers preventing Alaska Native children from achieving to higher academic standards.

Ellender Fellowships

The Ellender Fellowships program, administered by the Close Up Foundation of Washington, D.C., provides financial aid to enable low-income students and their teachers to participate in week-long seminars on government in Washington. A separate program is designed to increase understanding of the Federal Government among older Americans, recent immigrants, and children of migrant parents.

A 1992 study of the Ellender Fellowship program found that, despite a pattern of increasing Federal funding for the program and significant increases in private-sector support for the Close Up Foundation, the number of fellowships had steadily declined. In 1996, at the request of Congress, the Department and Close Up developed a plan for the Foundation to continue its activities without Federal support after fiscal year 1997. Under this plan, the Foundation will expand its private development activities, including, for the first time, reaching out to Close Up alumni. The Department believes that because of the popularity of the Close Up program these new efforts will be successful; therefore, no funding is requested for Ellender Fellowships in 1998.

Direct any questions to Martha Jacobs, Budget Service