Section A - Elementary and Secondary Education

• Overview
• School Construction Initiative
• Class Size Reduction Initiative
• Goals 2000: Educate America
• Technology Literacy Challenge Fund
• Title I: Education for the Disadvantaged
• Demonstrations of Comprehensive School Reform
• High School Equivalency Program andCollege Assistance Migrant Program
• America Reads Challenge
• Education Opportunity Zones
• Eisenhower Professional Development State Grants
• Innovative Education Program Strategies State Grants
• Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities
• Charter Schools
• Comprehensive Regional Assistance Centers
• Magnet Schools Assistance
• Education for Homeless Children and Youth
• 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
• Advanced Placement Test Fees
• Ellender Fellowships
• Indian Education
• Impact Aid

A. ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION

  Overview

The 1999 budget for elementary and secondary education includes both significant increases for current programs and start-up funding for new initiatives. Combined with tax "expenditures" and mandatory funding for the President's school construction and class-size reduction proposals, the request presents a clear statement on the importance the Administration attaches to assisting in the national effort to ensure that all children have the opportunity to learn to challenging standards. The total request for discretionary elementary and secondary education programs is $19.5 billion, an increase of almost $1.1 billion or 5.9 percent over the 1998 level. Highlights of the requests for existing programs include:

• $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.
• $475 million for the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund, a $50 million increase, to help schools integrate technology into the curriculum and, in particular, to ensure that teachers are trained to use educational technology effectively. (Major increases for technology and teacher training are discussed in other sections.)
• $370 million, a 17 percent increase, for three programs that serve the children of migrant agricultural workers (and, in some cases, migrant workers themselves) to improve the education of one of America's most disadvantaged populations. The budget includes increases for the Title I Migrant program, the High School Equivalency program, and the College Assistance Migrant program as part of the Administration's overall policy of focusing budget resources on programs that can help Hispanic Americans and other limited English proficient individuals succeed educationally and enter the economic mainstream.
• $50 million in new funding for the America Reads Challenge, which, combined with funds already provided (on an "advance-funded" basis) through the 1998 appropriation, will make available $260 million for local literacy efforts aimed at ensuring that every child can read well and independently by the end of the 3rd grade.
• $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.
• $175 million for the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstrations initiative, a $30 million increase, to support a second round of grants and allow more schools serving low-income populations to implement comprehensive, research-based educational reforms. Funding for this program, which received an initial appropriation in 1998, is provided under Title I ($150 million) and in the Fund for the Improvement of Education ($25 million). In addition, the 1999 request includes $4 million, the same as the 1998 level, for the Department's Regional Education Laboratories to provide technical assistance in support of these demonstrations.
• $100 million for Charter Schools, an increase of $20 million, 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.
• $66 million for Indian Education, an 11 percent increase, 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.
• $40 million for Comprehensive Regional Assistance Centers, a $13 million or 48 percent increase, to strengthen and expand the network of 15 centers that provide assistance to States and school districts on the implementation of elementary and secondary programs, focusing on such areas as schoolwide Title I programs, creating safe and drug-free school environments, and meeting the needs of students with special needs.

In addition to these increases for programs currently operated by the Department, the 1999 budget includes funding for three new elementary and secondary education initiatives:

• $200 million for Education Opportunity Zones, which will bolster 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 proven track record in, improving educational achievement. Funds would be used to hold schools accountable for educational performance, turn around failing schools, improve teaching by recognizing outstanding teachers and dealing with ineffective ones, strengthen district management, and broaden public school choice.
• $35 million for 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.
• $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 who can assist teachers and administrators in selecting and implementing programs most appropriate for the individual school setting.

Mandatory Funding and Tax Expenditure Proposals

The President's 1999 budget and legislative program also proposes mandatory spending and tax-credit initiatives that will benefit elementary and secondary education. These proposals, which would not require funding through the regular appropriations process, will also meet urgent needs of local schools.

School Construction Initiative

In response to the urgent need for school renovations and additional classrooms in communities across the Nation, the President is proposing a program of Federal subsidies for school construction bonds used to pay for new construction and for repair and renovation of existing facilities. This program would provide tax credits to eliminate the interest costs of such bonds. The Federal Government would subsidize the issuance of $19.4 billion in special 15-year bonds over the next two years--$9.7 billlion in 1999 and $9.7 billion in 2000.

This new initiative would be modeled after the "Qualified Academy Zone Bonds" program enacted by Congress in the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. That program will subsidize bonds issued by school districts for the purpose of school renovations and repairs, as well as equipment purchases and both curriculum and professional development. The bonds will be used for schools that are in Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities, or in which at least 35 percent of students are eligible to participate in the school lunch program. The total amount of bonds issued under the Qualified Academy Zone program is currently capped at $400 million in each of calendar years 1998 and 1999. The Administration is proposing to increase the amount of Qualified Academy Zone bonds available in 1999 from $400 million to $1.4 billion and an additional $1.4 billion in 2000. Both the Qualified Academy Zone program and the new School Construction initiative will be administered by the Treasury Department.

Class Size Reduction Initiative

The President will also propose an initiative to reduce class sizes in grades 1-3, the grades in which children need the most attention in learning to read proficiently and learning the basics in mathematics and other subjects. This initiative responds to research in Tennessee and Indiana showing that reducing class size to 15-18 students in the early grades improves student achievement, particularly among low-income and minority students in inner cities. The program would be funded at $1.1 billion in 1999 and $7.34 billion over an initial five-year period. By the year 2005, it would enable schools to hire over 100,000 additional teachers.

Over a period of seven years, funding from the initiative would help schools bring class sizes down to an average of 18 children per class in grades 1-3. School districts would contribute matching funds, with the amount of the match dependent on the poverty level in the district. They would use the funds to recruit, train, and pay the salaries of the additional teachers needed to reduce class sizes. Districts would receive additional funding, beyond the amount needed to reduce class sizes, to ensure that all teachers are prepared to employ the appropriate instructional strategies needed to produce educational gains in smaller classes. Over time, districts would also have to demonstrate how reduced class sizes are resulting in increased student reading achievement.

Goals 2000: Educate America
(BA in millions)

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.

With the help of Goals 2000, States are establishing academic standards and coordinating their curriculum frameworks, student assessment programs, teacher preparation and licensure requirements, parental and community involvement activities, and other aspects of their education systems to achieve the State standards. In this way, schools can measure progress through the new assessments, and parents and the public can get information about how well schools assist all children in reaching the 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 1997 funds, Goals 2000 is helping an estimated 12,000 schools across the Nation mobilize to design common-sense approaches to improve teaching and learning. To sustain this growing nationwide reform effort, the 1999 budget includes $476 million for State grants, a $10 million increase over the 1998 level.

In addition, the request includes level funding of $25 million for the separately authorized Goals 2000 Parental Assistance program. This program supports centers that provide parents with training, information, and support they need to help their children achieve to high standards. In 1998, the program received a $10 million increase, which will allow the Department to establish centers in the 12 States not currently served. Those centers would continue to operate in 1999.

Technology Literacy Challenge Fund

The Technology Literacy Challenge Fund helps States put into practice strategies to enable all schools to integrate technology into school curricula, so that students can become more technologically literate and master the communication, math, science, and other core subjects needed to 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 multimedia 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 $475 million request is the third installment of the President's plan to provide States and school districts with $2 billion over five years. For 1999, the Administration will encourage States to focus at least 30 percent of their allocations on educator professional development in the use of technology. Since there are a growing number of computers connected to the Internet in classrooms, experts have emphasized the importance of ensuring that teachers are well trained to use technology to improve instruction. The requested $50 million increase will help States and school districts respond more quickly to this need for technology-related professional development.

Title I: Education for the Disadvantaged
(BA in millions)

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 1999 request includes $7.8 billion, a $392 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 1999 these grants will serve over 10.5 million students in more than 50,000 schools. The budget will help these schools continue to implement the major reforms enacted 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.

In order to channel funds to the schools and communities where those funds are most needed, the Department is proposing to allocate the 1999 increase through the "Concentration Grants" and "Targeted Grants" formulas. Concentration Grants flow to counties that have at least 6,500 children living in poverty or in which the poverty rate exceeds 15 percent; Targeted Grants provide more funding per child to counties with higher numbers or percentages of children living in poverty.

Under the ESEA statute, in 1999 the Department will begin allocating Title I funds directly to school districts, rather than counties, if the Census Bureau can develop district-level child poverty data that the Secretaries of Education and Commerce (acting on the advice of the National Academy of Sciences) believe to be suitable for that purpose. The Department expects to receive the National Academy's recommendations before the end of calendar 1998.

In addition to Grants to Local Educational Agencies, Title I includes several other programs:

The Department's request for Capital Expenses for Private School Children is $10 million, a $31 million reduction from the 1998 level. This program has helped school districts meet the extra costs of including private school children in Title I programs, under the terms mandated by the original (1985) Aguilar v. Felton decision, which prohibited provision of services at religious schools. Capital Expenses thus helped districts pay for portable vans, leasing of neutral sites, and other costs of off-site services. In 1997, however, the Supreme Court reversed its original decision, and districts are now allowed to provide on-site instruction at religious schools. The 1999 request, which permits districts to meet the remaining costs of off-site services (such as long-term leases of vans or neutral sites), would be the final year of funding for this activity.

Even Start supports local projects that blend early childhood education, parenting instruction, and adult education into a unified family literacy program. In 1998 Even Start received a one-time $16 million supplement to pay for reading activities in advance of enactment of the President's America Reads initiative. The $115 million requested for 1999 is $9 million below the 1998 total but $7 million above the level provided prior to the 1998 supplement.

The Administration is requesting a $49 million (16 percent) increase for Migrant Education, to meet the unique needs of the children of highly mobile migrant agricultural workers and bring about better coordination of the resources available for serving migrant students. In particular, the increase will help States expand their efforts to identify migrant children, pay the higher costs often associated with serving those children, and employ methods, such as distance learning, to reach migrant farmworker communities. The Title I Neglected and Delinquent program would also receive a small increase to improve services to children and youth in State-operated institutions.

The Department is proposing a $1.9 million increase for Title I Evaluations, which measure the impact of the $8 billion Federal investment in improving the education of disadvantaged children. The additional funds will enable the Department to examine such issues as the implementation of new Title I assessments in major urban districts and the results of State and local efforts to hold schools accountable for the educational outcomes of disadvantaged children.

Finally, the Department is requesting $35 million for a new program of Title I Transition to School Demonstrations. These funds will enable local educational agencies, in collaboration with early childhood education providers and other agencies, to experiment with and document promising models for providing continuity between preschool programs, kindergarten, and the early primary grades. These models would be designed to ensure that the educational benefits of Head Start and other early childhood education programs are sustained after children enter elementary schools.

Demonstrations of Comprehensive School Reform
(BA in millions)

This program, first funded in 1998, will enable schools to develop, or adapt, and implement comprehensive school reform programs that are based on reliable research and effective practices.

In launching this program, the Congress recognized that a limited number of schools across the country are achieving impressive gains in student achievement by using new, comprehensive models for schoolwide change, rather than a piecemeal, fragmented approach to reform. The initiative is intended to give more schools the opportunity to examine successful models of reform and adapt them to their own needs. Projects in individual schools must: (1) employ innovative strategies and proven methods for student learning, teaching, and school management that are based on reliable research and effective practices, and have been replicated successfully in schools with diverse characteristics; (2) have measurable goals for student performance and benchmarks for meeting those goals; and (3) utilize high-quality technical assistance from those with expertise in schoolwide reform and improvement.

Funds appropriated under Title I will be allocated by formula to States on the basis of each State's share of prior-year Title I Basic Grants. The States will then make three-year competitive subgrants to schools participating in Title I programs. States are encouraged to give a priority to low-achieving schools that are in Title I "school improvement" status. Funding provided through the Fund for the Improvement of Education will be used for additional State allocations based on each State's share of school-aged children. States may subgrant their FIE allocations to any school in the State.

The $30 million increase requested under Title I for 1999 will expand the program to an additional 600 schools while continuing awards to the 2,900 expected to be funded in 1998.

High School Equivalency Program and College Assistance Migrant Program
(BA in millions)

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. Both programs have demonstrated high success rates. In 1993-94, approximately 70 percent of HEP participants completed their GED and 96 percent of CAMP students completed their first year of college in good standing; almost 74 percent of CAMP participants eventually graduate from college.

In light of these successes, the Department proposes a $5.3 million, or 54 percent, increase for the HEP and CAMP programs. The request would enable the Department to fund 25 HEP projects, instead of 20, and allow each project to serve more students. The $5 million for CAMP would more than double the number of projects from 6 to 13.

America Reads Challenge
(BA in millions)

The America Reads Challenge is a multi-faceted effort to help States and communities ensure that all children can read well and independently by the end of the third grade. The program will support recruitment and training of coordinators and tutors for after-school, weekend, and summer programs that are linked to in-school instruction, help ensure that teachers are well-trained to teach reading, and help families develop their children's literacy skills.

President Clinton submitted the proposed "America Reads Challenge Act" to Congress in April of 1997. The House responded by passing its version of the proposal, and the Senate is expected to begin work on the initiative in early 1998. The 1998 appropriation included $210 million in "advance funding" for a literacy initiative that will become available on the first day of fiscal year 1999, provided that the initiative is authorized by July 1, 1998. The 1999 request would add $50 million to this advance appropriation to ensure that sufficient funds are available to meet the various purposes of the legislation. In addition, the President's budget for the Corporation for National and Community Service includes $153 million, an increase of $89 million over the 1998 level, to support the recruitment of America Reads tutors through its AmeriCorps and related programs. Finally, about 840 postsecondary institutions have responded to the President's call and pledged to use thousands of federally financed work-study positions for tutoring programs that are part of the overall America Reads effort.

Education Opportunity Zones

School districts whose students have the farthest to go in achieving to challenging standards are generally those in poor urban and rural communities. This new initiative would provide a total of $1.5 billion over a five-year period for competitive grants to urban and rural districts that serve high concentrations of students from low-income families. To receive grants, districts must show a commitment to and a track record in improving educational achievement, and commit to instituting management reforms, turning around failing schools, holding students, teachers, and administrators accountable for performance, and offering broader educational choices to students and parents. Continuation grants will be contingent on further learning gains.

The 1999 budget would begin this program at $200 million, a level sufficient to provide approximately 50 grants. School districts would use grant funds for such activities as: (1) boosting student achievement through extended learning programs; (2) providing technical assistance and professional development to improve low-performing schools; (3) expanding educational choices by creating open enrollment plans, charter and magnet schools, schools-within-schools, or opportunities for high school students to take courses at postsecondary institutions; and (4) improving teaching by encouraging teachers to gain National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification, recognizing outstanding teachers, and developing new approaches for dealing with ineffective teachers.

Eisenhower Professional Development State Grants

Eisenhower Professional Development State Grants is the largest Federal effort dedicated to helping ensure that there is a talented and dedicated teacher in every American classroom. The program is designed to provide the high-quality, intensive professional development needed to give educators the knowledge and skills necessary to teach children to standards of excellence. The program emphasizes improvement of instruction in mathematics and science--the first $250 million of each year's appropriation must be used in that area--but also allows States and districts to use Federal funds to improve teaching in all of the core academic subjects. 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.

Level funding in 1999 would enable States, school districts, and institutions of higher education to continue their current efforts to upgrade the quality of instruction in the American classroom. A one-time earmark of $25 million for professional development in reading, included in the 1998 appropriation, would no longer apply because those activities would be supported with America Reads funds.

Innovative Education Program Strategies State Grants

The request includes no funding for the Title VI block grants because the program is not well designed to support the kinds of State and local efforts most likely to result in real improvements in teaching and learning. 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. Fewer than half of the States, and very few districts, used Chapter 2 funds for such reform activities as developing or revising educational standards, developing improved student assessments, or entering into public-private partnerships. 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. The Department therefore believes that these funds would be better spent on programs that are truly focused on comprehensive educational improvement and reform.

Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities
(BA in millions)

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 $606 million for this program, a $50 million increase over the 1998 level.

The request includes $526 million for State Grants, a reduction of $5 million from the 1998 level in order to provide additional resources for high-priority activities in Safe and Drug-Free Schools National Programs. Within the request for State Grants, the Department proposes to earmark $125 million for competitive grants to school districts based on the severity of their schools' drug or safety problems and the quality of their proposed prevention activities. Under the current program many LEAs receive very small formula grants that are inadequate for supporting comprehensive, effective projects. The $125 million earmark would allow the Department to target significant funding to a limited number of high-need districts, while also providing an incentive for districts to seek out the most effective prevention strategies.

In addition, both the formula portion and the new competitive grants will be governed by "principles of effectiveness" that the Department will promulgate for fiscal year 1998. These principles will require that all Safe and Drug-Free Schools projects include a thorough assessment of school districts' needs, establish measurable goals and objectives, be based on research or evaluation evidence on what works, and be evaluated periodically to assess effectiveness and determine if any changes are needed.

National Programs provide discretionary funds for national leadership 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 support additional leadership activities to improve the quality and effectiveness of drug and violence prevention.

Finally, the budget includes $50 million for a new Safe and Drug-Free Schools Coordinator Initiative, which would fund the recruitment, training, and employment of drug and school safety program coordinators in middle schools. Each coordinator would serve about five schools and would be responsible for assessing drug and violence problems, identifying effective, research-based strategies for addressing those problems, assisting teachers and other staff with program implementation, and building links between school- and community-based prevention activities. The request would support approximately 1,300 coordinators serving an estimated 6,500 middle schools, or almost one-half of all middle schools nationwide.

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-nine States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico now have charter schools laws, and the number of charter schools has increased from 250 to over 700 in the past two years alone.

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 1,400 charter schools, serving some 400,000 students, with a target of 3,000 schools by 2001.

The Department also would reserve approximately $5 million in 1999 for such activities as enhancement of a charter schools site on the World Wide Web, workshops for potential charter schools developers and chartering authorities, and development of model charters and guidebooks.

Comprehensive Regional Assistance Centers

Under this program, a network of 15 university-based or non-profit centers offers comprehensive technical assistance that cuts across programs and addresses the needs of schools and school districts for help in integrating the various ESEA programs in support of State and local education reforms. Each center provides support, training, and assistance--in areas identified by the States and LEAs in their regions as most critical--on such topics as curriculum, instruction, assessments, professional development, program evaluation, meeting the needs of at-risk populations, creation of a safe and drug-free school environment, and implementing educational technologies.

The $40 million request--an increase of almost 50 percent over 1998--will enable the centers to meet a higher proportion of the requests they receive from clients and, in particular, to offer more intensive, on-site services to individual districts and schools.

Magnet Schools Assistance

The Magnet Schools Assistance program 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 (the last year for which such data are available), more than three times the number enrolled in such programs a decade earlier. Federal assistance has contributed significantly to the growth of magnet programs.

The request would support the second year of approximately 60 three-year projects that the Department will award in 1998, while also continuing a comprehensive evaluation of the program. In addition, the Department would fund a second round of Innovative Program grants, which involve desegregation strategies other than magnet schools and in which the educational programs are organized around a special theme or concept.

Education for Homeless Children and Youth

This program provides formula grants to States to carry 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 that help homeless children to enroll in, attend, and succeed in school.

Since this program began in 1988, nearly all States have revised their laws, regulations, and policies to improve educational access for homeless students. States have typically eased residency requirements, and some have made great strides in changing transportation and immunization policies to ensure greater access for the homeless. Nevertheless, homeless children and youth continue to be a population at significant risk of educational failure and, because of their mobility, are often underserved by programs like Head Start, special education, and bilingual education that are designed to prevent that failure. The $30 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.

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. RIF currently reaches more than 2.2 million children through 4,000 local projects. Since 1994, 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 $1 million increase would allow RIF to serve at least 100,000 more children than in 1998 and may help the organization and its local affiliates to generate more private contributions for their efforts.

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 (VSA) 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 appropriation included $9.5 million for the continuing activities of VSA and the Kennedy Center, and one-time funding for the International Very Special Arts Festival, which will take place in Los Angeles in May, 1999. The 1999 request would continue the current funding level, providing level funding for the Kennedy Center and VSA and $1 million for a community partnerships initiative undertaken by the Department.

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. By law, at least 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 resource center and research and development grants. Level funding in 1999 would make available about $568,000 for new awards.

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

This program supports 10 regional desegregation assistance centers that provide services to school districts on issues related to desegregation based on race, gender, and national origin. Typical activities include disseminating information on successful practices and legal requirements related to nondiscrimination, providing training to educators to develop their skills in specific areas, such as identification of bias in instructional materials, and technical assistance on selection of instructional materials. The request will allow the centers to expand their activities and serve more districts.

Education for Native Hawaiians
(BA in millions)

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, are disproportionately identified as disabled, and have a low rate of postsecondary participation. The Education for Native Hawaiians programs address each of these issues, and have demonstrated significant progress in such areas as early childhood education and higher education.

Alaska Native Education Equity
(BA in millions)

These programs 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 1999 request includes level funding for continuation of projects that address the barriers preventing Alaska Native children from achieving to higher academic standards.

Advanced Placement Test Fees

This program awards grants to States to enable them to cover part or all of the cost of advanced placement test fees of low-income students who are enrolled in an advanced placement course and intend to take an advanced placement test. The program thus provides an incentive for districts serving low-income students to offer advanced placement courses and for students to take those courses. Passing the AP tests can then result in students earning college credits and reduce their postsecondary education costs. Level funding would subsidize test fees for some 68,000 low-income students.

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. Under this plan, the Foundation pledged to expand its private development activities, including, for the first time, reaching out to the nearly 500,000 Close Up alumni. The Department believes that these activities make further Federal funding unnecessary.

Indian Education
(BA in millions)

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 programs link 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, NCES, 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, in 1990, 66 percent of Indians 25 years of age and older were high school graduates, a 10 percent gain from the 1980 level but still well below the 75 percent level for the general population. In the 1994 National Assessment of Educational Progress 4^th grade reading assessment, only 48 percent of Indians scored at or above the basic level, compared to 60 percent for all students. 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 1999 request for Indian Education programs is $66 million, a 10.5 percent increase over the 1998 level. Included within the request are the following:

• An increase of $2.3 million, to $62 million, for Grants to Local Educational Agencies, the Department's primary program for improvement of the education of Indian children. This program provides formula grants to public and BIA-supported schools for activities that address the educational needs of Indian students. These activities must be linked to student performance goals based on challenging State or local standards, and the districts must report periodically to their communities on progress they are making toward those goals.
• $3.3 million to reinstate the Special Programs for Indian Children in order to carry out initiatives in two areas: (1) demonstration grants for early childhood and preschool education; and (2) preparation of Indians to take positions in teaching and school administration.
• $735,000 for National Activities, to augment the 2000 NCES Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) in order to collect data on a sufficient number of schools serving concentrations of Indian students. The Department pursued this strategy with the 1993 SASS, which resulted in development of an unprecedented data base on the educational status and needs of Indian children. Replicating this effort with the next SASS will enable the Department to measure changes since 1993, and to produce current comparisons of Indians' educational progress compared to the progress of other ethnic and racial groups.

The request for Indian Education programs is one component of a comprehensive Administration effort in the 1999 budget to address the educational needs of American Indians and Alaska Natives. After a review of Indian needs and programs, the Administration determined that the most critical single need is to improve facilities at BIA-supported schools, which the General Accounting Office has found to be in poor condition and lacking in facilities required for effective educational reform. In response, the President's 1999 budget would increase funding for Bureau of Indian Affairs Construction activities by 50 percent to almost $103 million. Other components of the overall initiative include an increase in the BIA set-aside under the HHS Child Care Block Grant and inclusion of strong provisions for Indian participation in the new Education Opportunity Zones and School-College Partnerships programs.

Impact Aid
(BA in millions)

The Impact Aid program provides support to school districts affected by Federal activities. The 1999 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 $626 million, although $36 million less than the 1998 amount, would provide payments on behalf of children living on Indian lands and children who have parents in the armed forces and who live on Federal property. The average per-child payment for these two categories of children would increase 6 percent under the Administration's budget and funding formula proposals. No payments would be made for the other categories of currently 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, $10 million less than the 1998 amount but the same as the 1997 level. Because the Department would make payments only on behalf of children living on Indian lands and those who both live on Federal property and have a parent on active military duty, the average per-child payment would increase 7 percent for the eligible categories of children.

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 meet the needs of this small group of 10 to 20 districts.

The Department of Education owns and must maintain 56 school facilities that serve large numbers of military dependents. 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 local educational agencies (LEAs).

The Department is not requesting any funds for the Construction authority, which authorizes payments to certain LEAs for school construction and repairs. Although many districts that enroll federally connected children need funding for construction, both Basic Support Payments and Payments for Heavily Impacted Districts may be used for that purpose. In addition, the Administration's school construction tax credit initiative would take effect in 1999.

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 majority of the districts funded under this program have had sufficient time (approximately 50 years) to adjust to the removal of Federal property from the tax base, and they should be able to compensate for the termination of separate funding for this program.

[Summary of the 1999 Budget] [Bilingual and Immigrant Education]

Direct any questions to Martha Jacobs, Budget Service