At a press conference today in Washington, D.C., officials from the U.S. Department of Education announced President George W. Bush's FY 2003 budget request of $56.5 billion--including a record high $50.3 billion for discretionary programs--continuing his commitment to improve student achievement and to leave no child behind.

President Bush's request builds on recent growth in the Department's budget, which has more than doubled since 1996.

U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige called President Bush's budget another strong investment in meeting the needs of the nation's disadvantaged students.

"President Bush's budget demonstrates his continued commitment to meeting the needs of disadvantaged children. The president's proposed investments stretch from early childhood education through college and beyond," Paige said. "They not only will help us ensure every child has access to a quality education, but also will help us keep our economy sound and our homeland strong."

Deputy Secretary of Education William Hansen said President Bush's proposal will better target resources to students and schools with the greatest needs.

"Federal education investments are mostly targeted to programs that support poor and minority students--students who are most likely to be left behind by our education system," Hansen said. "President Bush's 2003 education budget would do an even better job of targeting our investments to help students and schools with the greatest need and to fund programs that produce results."

Increases in President Bush's 2003 budget request correspond to his determination to close the achievement and attainment gaps that persist among racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups across the country.

Hansen highlighted the proposed investments in new and existing programs that support the principles of President Bush's No Child Left Behind framework now embodied in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, including:

• $11.4 billion for Title I grants to local education agencies, an increase of $1 billion or 9.7 percent, to give states and school districts additional resources to turn around low-performing schools, improve teacher quality, and ensure that no child is trapped in a failing school;

• $2.85 billion for Improving Teacher Quality State Grants, to give states and school districts the flexibility to adopt research-based strategies that will work best to meet their need for improving the quality of teaching and raising student achievement in the core academic subjects;

• $1 billion for Reading First, an increase of $100 million or 11.1 percent, for a nationwide effort to support comprehensive reading instruction for children in grades K-3. Plus, another $75 million for Early Reading First, a competitive grant program to develop and support the school readiness of preschool-aged children in high-poverty communities;

• $665 million for English Language Acquisition through a redesigned program that offers states grants to help English language learners make progress in learning English and meeting the same high standards as all other students;

• $644.3 million for the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities programs to implement drug and violence prevention programs including $472 million for state grants and $172 million for national programs to make sure our students will not be trapped in persistently dangerous schools;

• $387 million for state assessments and enhanced assessment instruments, to help states develop and implement--by the 2005-2006 school year--the expanded annual assessments in grade 3 through 8 that are integral to the strong state accountability systems required by the NCLB Act. This request is particularly important because the Title I requirement for states to develop and administer the new assessments is contingent on continued federal financial support for this purpose; and

• $175 million for research, an increase of $53.2 million or almost 44 percent, to expand efforts to develop proven, research-based practices for improving student achievement.

Hansen also highlighted programs in the proposed budget that would expand options for parents, including:

• $200 million for Charter Schools to stimulate continued growth in the number of charter schools nationwide, an important element of the administration's proposal to increase choice for students and parents--particularly those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. The request would support approximately 1,800 new and existing charter schools;

• $100 million for a new Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities program to assist charter schools in acquiring, leasing, and renovating school facilities through competitive grants to public and nonprofit entities for loan guarantees, insuring debt, and other activities that facilitate private lending;

• $50 million for a new Choice Demonstration Fund to support research projects that develop, implement, and evaluate innovative approaches to providing parents with expanded school options, including both private- and public-school choice;

• $25 million for Voluntary Public School Choice grants to encourage states and school districts to establish or expand public school choice programs by providing financial support for planning, tuition transfer payments, and efforts to increase the capacity of participating schools;

In addition, to the discretionary programs at the Department of Education, the president's proposed budget includes a new tuition tax credit program through the Department of Treasury. With tax credits valued at $3.5 billion over five years, this new program will offer families of students currently trapped in failing public schools a refundable tax credit to cover 50 percent of the cost of books, computers, transportation, supplies and tuition at a family's school of choice (including home schools).

The president's FY2003 budget proposal also includes investments that support children and adults with disabilities, such as:

• $8.5 billion for special education grants to states, an increase of $1 billion, or 13 percent; and

• $2.6 billion for the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) state grants program, an increase of $134.9 million or 5.4 percent, to help individuals with disabilities prepare for, obtain and retain employment (this proposed investment includes the mandatory inflation increase and a proposed consolidation of three other programs into VR state grants).

President Bush's proposal also includes investments that will help ensure access to postsecondary education for low-income students and families, including:

• $10.9 billion for the Pell Grant program, and increase of $549 million or 5.3 percent over the 2002 funding level. In addition, in a supplemental request the Office of Management and Budget will ask Congress for $1.3 billion to address a Pell Grant funding shortfall.

• $54.9 billion for student financial aid, an increase of $2.8 billion, or 5 percent, with the number of recipients of grant, loan, and work-study assistance growing by 339,000 to 8.4 million students and parents. The proposal also would encourage highly qualified math, science, and special education teachers to teach in low-income communities by expanding loan forgiveness for such teachers from $5,000 to a maximum of $17,500. Too often, schools in such communities are forced to hire uncertified teachers or assign teachers who are teaching "out-of-field"; and

• $350 million for programs that will strengthen Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Historically Black Graduate Institutions (HBGIs) and Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), an increase of more than $12 million.

More information about President Bush's proposed budget is available on the Department of Education's Web site at www.ed.gov.

###

Top

Back to February 2002