FY 2000 education budget stresses new initiatives

Education advocates, including NSBA, will urge Congress to increase the federal investment in existing, successful education programs, especially Title I and special education.

The two themes of the Clinton education budget are improving schools in high-poverty areas and bringing all states up to meet higher standards and accountability measures.

The budget plan also highlights a school construction tax incentive that would support $25 billion in interest-free bonds to build or modernize up to 6,000 schools. Previous Congresses twice have rejected the proposal, but Republican leaders on Capitol Hill now are predicting a favorable reception.

And the budget request features new funding for Hispanic initiatives, strengthening middle schools, and ensuring high-quality K-12 teachers.

Mr. Clinton's total request for the Education Department is $34.7 billion, including $14.5 billion for elementary and secondary education programs. The department's total is a $1.2 billion increase, 3.7 percent over the current year.

The Clinton Administration consistently has been considered a friend of education and lists education as its domestic policy priority. But NSBA believes the President's budget for FY 2000 falls short of what is needed.

It limits new Title I funding to failing schools and freezes funding at below inflation levels for some key programs, such as special education state grants, vocational education, and Eisenhower professional development. It would terminate the Title VI innovative strategies program, and cut impact aid.

Key Republican senators, on the other hand, appear to have replaced an earlier GOP objective to eliminate the Education Department with plans to outdo Clinton's education spending in a big way, Ed Kealy, executive director of the Committee for Education Funding, told participants at NSBA's Federal Relations Network Conference Feb. 1.

Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) and Democratic colleague John F. Kerry (Mass.) are writing a $25 billion bill to guarantee full funding for Title I services to low-income students, Kealy says. (The President is seeking $8 billion, a $373 million increase.) Meanwhile, Senate Budget Committee Chair Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) has spoken of seeking $50 billion more for K-12 programs over five years, and Appropriations Committee Chair Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has put the figure at $150 billion more.

The Administration's budget proposal would target a large portion of the projected budget surplus to ensure the solvency of Social Security and Medicare and to reduce the federal debt. But it also proposes that 11 percent of the surplus be used to meet "other pressing national needs that will arise in the future," including education and maintaining military readiness.

Mr. Clinton is seeking $200 million to hire 8,000 new teachers for grades 1-3, the second year of his seven-year plan to reduce class size in the early grades by recruiting 100,000 new teachers. Last year, it took a hard White House push to win congressional approval to fund the first 30,000 new teachers, accompanied with a Republican promise to take a close look this year at the program's impact.

Also likely to face a heated debate in Congress is Mr. Clinton's proposal to repeat this year's $461 million for Goals 2000 state grants for school reforms to raise standards. Education Secretary Richard W. Riley, in announcing the Administration's education budget package, noted the General Accounting Office reports that state officials consider "Goals 2000 to be a 'catalyst . . . in promoting their education reform efforts.'"

The budget includes two major initiatives to strengthen school accountability for improved learning under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Riley says. ESEA, the umbrella law that covers most of the federally funded K-12 education programs, is up for reauthorization this Congress.

One proposal is $600 million, a $400 million increase, for 21st Century Community Learning Centers that provide after-school academic and recreational programs to children who otherwise would be home alone. The other is $200 million in new funding to enable states to identify and improve failing schools.

The Education Department also is proposing to allocate $756 million in Title I funds with a "targeted grants" formula that increases per-child funding to districts with higher numbers of children from low-income families.

In pushing for accountability, the Administration is taking on a new role, the secretary says, proposing to tie ESEA funding to requirements that school districts "end social promotions" and turn around failing schools. Now that all the states are working to improve schools, "we felt it was time for us to step back" and make sure "the people's money is not going out into systems that are not performing."

Riley says the Administration hopes that, by pushing for accountability, it also will be more successful with Congress in targeting funds than in the past. The low-performing schools are "frequently in the very poorest areas. These are areas that need these resources in the most serious way."

Traditionally, members of Congress have sought to ensure that their own areas are not excluded from sharing in the nearly $8 billion Title I funding pot.

Special education funding for students with disabilities, after growing almost $2 million to $5.4 billion over three years, would receive only a $116 million increase in 2000. The budget includes a new $50 million intervention program under IDEA to help schools meet the needs of children ages 5 to 9 who have reading or behavioral problems.

One new emphasis in the Clinton budget plan is adult education. It includes $190 million in added funding for job retraining and adult literacy programs, especially those serving immigrants.

Among other education proposals in the budget:

• The Administration is seeking $170 million for bilingual education services, an increase of $10 million. Also, a $25 million increase is proposed for professional development to address the critical shortage of bilingual teachers.
• To encourage safe and drug-free schools, $15 million is proposed to fund 1,300 drug coordinators to serve 6,500 middle schools and $439 million for state grants to aid districts with the greatest needs to reduce drug use and violence. Another $12 million is requested for "Project SERV," which provides emergency assistance to schools affected by violence.
• A $40 million increase to $115 million is proposed for Teacher Quality Enhancement state grants
• Funding increases also are proposed to put a technology teacher leader in every middle school, train 1,000 new Indian teachers for Native American schools, and help retiring military and other mid-career professionals become teachers.
• The Administration is seeking a $25 million increase in the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund to ensure teachers are trained to integrate technology into the curriculum.
• A $30 million increase is sought for the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Program, designed to help schools carry out research-based improvements. This would add 560 more schools, as well as continue funding for the 2,700 current participants.
• Mr. Clinton is seeking to double the funding to $240 million for the new GEAR UP program, to provide mentoring, tutoring, and career counseling for nearly 400,000 students in 1,000 high-poverty middle schools.

SIDEBAR

The view from the Hill

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) says he supports flexibility for local communities but also spoke about the need for accountability to ensure the aid goes to the areas most in need.

In speaking about the "important victorie s in defeating vouchers last year," Kennedy said, "I can't understand why my colleagues say the best way to save public schools is to abandon the public schools. . . . With your assistance, we will bury [vouchers] again this year."

The reauthorization of ESEA will be the instrument for many to try out new ideas and new political strategies. "We need to keep the eye on the ball," he warns. "We need to strengthen ESEA. We cannot let that legislation get sidetracked."

Rep Constance Morella (R-Md.) told participants at the FRN conference, "This is the year everyone is talking about education." But she also warned that there will be much debate in Congress on vouchers. Proposals like vouchers are "eating away at the public school system," she says.

On the bright side, she noted Rep. William F. Goodling (R-Pa.), chair of the Education and the Workforce Committee, "hopes to come close to fully funding IDEA" (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act).

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) says, "There are some great public schools in America," and when he visited these schools, he found that "absolutely and without exception, there was a terrific principal." That's why the school reform legislation he is proposing with Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) includes $20 million for an Excellent Principals Challenge Grant program to help school districts attract and provide professional development for elementary and secondary school principals.

Kerry says the Kerry-Smith legislation stresses reform, local control, and accountability. The centerpiece of the bill is a $250 million comprehensive school reform plan that calls for school districts to select among various reform models. Smith cited Success for All and the Little Red Schoolhouse as examples.

Smith told the audience at the FRN conference that the bill will reward and recruit the best and the brightest to be teachers and principals, empower parents, and "remove a lot of mandates that drain you of resources." It also provides funding for early childhood programs, supports "second-chance" alternative schools for students with discipline problems, and encourages public school choice.

Kerry says the role of the federal government is to provide the resources and the capacity for school boards "to choose the best practices in the country that work for your schools" to produce academic results. "Why not permit every school to take the best practices available and put them to work in the public schools? If we did that, we'd end the debate about vouchers."