A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Remarks as prepared for delivery by
U. S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley
President's 2000 Education Budget
Washington, D. C.

Good afternoon. I am pleased to announce the details of President Clinton?s fiscal year 2000 budget request for education. In his State of the Union Address, the President made clear that education continues to be his key domestic policy priority.

The President's efforts to support high academic standards for all children has encouraged states and local districts to set higher standards, with the help of national resources.

There has been much progress toward meeting these new standards, and putting them to work where it counts—in the classroom. However, progress has been slower in some other places, especially in high-poverty schools. That's our challenge in this budget and in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act this year.

The President's balanced budget focuses on real improvements in student achievement by accelerating change and increasing accountability based on high standards. This budget contains exciting new initiatives; but the real focus is on accountability and identifying what really works to improve education.

If Congress approves this budget, it would help end social promotion, reduce class size, modernize schools, raise the quality of teaching, expand after-school activities, improve literacy, help immigrants learn English, and provide new pathways to college for disadvantaged students.

Before I describe our discretionary request, I want to highlight the School Construction and Modernization tax incentive, which the President is proposing for the third year. Students and teachers cannot reach for excellence in outdated, falling down, overcrowded classrooms. The President's proposal would support $25 billion in bonds to help build, repair, or modernize up to 6,000 schools.

This effort goes hand-in-hand with the Class-Size Reduction program launched last fall. The goal is to recruit and train 100,000 good new teachers over 7 years to reduce class sizes in grades 1-3 to a nationwide average of 18 students. The 2000 budget includes $1.4 billion to hire 38,000 new teachers by the end of the second year of the program.

The budget also provides a $461 million request for Goals 2000 state grants to help some 5,000 school districts continue their efforts to raise standards. It is gratifying to note that a recent report from the General Accounting Office found that state officials considered Goals 2000 to be a "catalyst" and "a significant factor in promoting their education reform efforts." Goals 2000 has helped all 50 states to develop more rigorous standards.

Another catalyst for change is technology, and our request includes $450 million for the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund, an increase of $25 million to help pay for hardware, train teachers to use technology, and develop and buy educational software.

As you heard in the State of the Union Address, strengthening accountability will be a key focus of our efforts to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act over the coming year. The budget backs this effort with major increases in two areas.

First, we are asking for $600 million—triple last year's request—to help approximately 2,000 additional school districts to create or expand after-school and summer programs. These can help students catch up academically and to have safe, enriching environments in the critical after-school hours. This request would serve 1.1 million of the estimated 15 million children who go home alone after school each day.

Second, the request for Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies contains $200 million to help turn around failing schools. This does not expand federal control over local schools. The funds would simply be used to accelerate implementation of the Title I accountability provisions established by Congress during the last ESEA reauthorization.

One of the best ways to turn around failing schools is through research-based reforms that tell us what really works. That is why our request includes $175 million for the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstrations program, an increase of $30 million to help an additional 560 schools carry out research-based school improvement.

The charter school movement continues to be one of the most exciting ways to reinvent public schools. The budget provides $130 million for Charter Schools to support up to 1,700 new or redesigned schools that offer innovative approaches for education.

Our balanced budget request also continues support for mastering the basics, including $8 billion for Title I Grants and $286 million for the second year of the new Reading Excellence program, which helps all children to read well and independently by the end of third grade.

A new $50 million Special Education Primary Education Intervention program would help school districts meet the needs of children aged 5 through 9 who have reading or behavioral problems. The budget also doubles funds for improving writing skills to $14 million, and provide $6.7 million for America Counts, a new initiative to ensure that middle-school students master algebra and geometry.

Another major emphasis in the 2000 budget is better teaching. The $1.4 billion Class Size Reduction program is an important part of this effort, because it allows school districts to use up to 15 percent of their allocations for professional development.

The budget also includes $335 million for Eisenhower Professional Development State Grants. The newly authorized Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant program would receive a $40 million increase, for a total of $115 million, to help states strengthen the capacity of educators to design effective teacher education programs, and reduce shortages of qualified teachers in high-poverty schools.

A $25 million increase for Bilingual Education Professional Development would help address the critical national shortage of well-prepared bilingual and English-as-a-second-language (ESL) teachers. And a new $10 million American Indian Teacher Corps program would recruit and train 1,000 new Indian teachers over the next five years to work in Native-American communities.

School safety is a concern for all Americans. The President?s $439 million request for Safe and Drug-Free Schools State grants would target larger grants to school districts with the worst problems by requiring states to distribute 30 percent of their allocations as competitive grants.

We would also increase funding for the Coordinator Initiative, which would put a skilled program coordinator in nearly half of all middle schools to combat drugs and improve safety.

In his State of the Union Address, the President made the dramatic statement that "we have finally opened the doors of college to all Americans." Over the past six years, larger Pell grants, expanded work-study, lower borrowing costs on student loans, and generous Hope and Lifetime Learning tax credits have made college possible for all who qualify.

Paying for college is still a challenge, however, especially for low- and middle-income families, and our 2000 budget would continue to expand assistance. The maximum Pell Grant would rise to $3,250, an increase of $125 over the 1999 level. And a $64-million increase for Work-Study would fulfill the President's promise to give 1 million recipients the opportunity to work their way through college.

The 2000 budget contains several proposals to increase college-attendance and college-completion rates for disadvantaged and minority students. We would double funding to $240 million for the new GEAR UP program, which helps disadvantaged students plan for college as early as their middle-school years. The request would provide mentoring, tutoring, and career counseling for about 381,000 students in nearly 1,000 high-poverty middle schools, and also help to strengthen the curriculum and instruction in middle and high schools. The budget also includes a $30 million increase for TRIO, for a total of $630 million to support outreach and support services extending from middle school through graduate education.

Finally, the President's budget includes significant increases for programs to help adult Americans master literacy and other basic skills. Adult Education State Grants, for example, would increase by $103 million or 28 percent to expand state efforts to fight adult illiteracy and $70 million for partnerships to help immigrant and other limited English proficient adults, to learn English and make a successful entry into the workforce and the mainstream of society. Disadvantaged adults also would benefit from a proposed $55 million expansion of the Community-Based Technology Centers program, which helps community residents gain technology skills, take courses on-line, and access on-line job databases by bringing technology to public housing, community centers, libraries, and other community facilities.

I believe the President's budget offers a significant opportunity to bring real change to our schools and enhance lifelong learning for all Americans. I look forward to working with Congress and the American people to take full advantage of this opportunity.

Thank you. I will now be happy to answer any questions you may have.

[ Return to Speeches and Testimony ] [ Fiscal Year 2000 Budget: Summary, Background Information, and Budget Tables ]

Last Updated -- February 2, 1999, (mhm)