Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

Thank you for this opportunity to testify on behalf of President Bush's 2003 budget for the Department of Education. I want to begin by once again thanking the Members of this Committee, along with your colleagues in the full Senate, for your hard work and many contributions to securing passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which the President signed into law in early January.

This new law, which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, promises to greatly improve Federal support for the changes we need to raise student achievement and ensure that no child is left behind by our education system. In particular, the stronger accountability found throughout the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) will help ensure that the investments this Committee makes in education bring real improvement to our schools.

I take it as a vote of confidence—in the new law and in the Department of Education's ability to carry out that law—that the Congress followed up its approval of the No Child Left Behind Act by providing a $6.7 billion increase for education for fiscal year 2002. This was the largest of a series of increases that have more than doubled the Department's discretionary budget since fiscal year 1996. We are working hard to help States, school districts, and schools to use these new resources effectively, through rapid implementation of the reforms in the new law, to help all students meet high standards.

For fiscal year 2003, I think all of you know that the President's budget was driven by the overriding concern of defending our Nation and people from the threat of terrorism following the terrible events of September 11. Most of the new resources in the President's proposal for 2003 are dedicated to the Defense Department, which continues to wage the war against terrorism outside our borders, and to Homeland Security for efforts to help our States and community prevent and prepare for new attacks on our freedom.

Nevertheless, I believe we are proposing a strong budget for education in 2003. It builds on the major increases provided in recent years, and gives States and school districts the resources they need to implement the changes called for in the No Child Left Behind Act.

The request would provide $50.3 billion in discretionary appropriations for the Department of Education in fiscal year 2003, an increase of $1.4 billion, or 2.8 percent, over the 2002 enacted level. With this increase, the Federal investment in education will have climbed nearly $15 billion, or 41 percent, over the past three years.

I want to emphasize two points about our investment in education. First, as most of you know, Federal education dollars are closely targeted to poor and minority students, those students who are most likely to be left behind by our education system. Our 2003 budget would do an even better job of targeting, by redirecting resources from narrow, categorical programs to more flexible formula grant programs that better focus on students and schools with the greatest need for assistance.

Second, we want to make sure this new investment in education produces results, in terms of improved student achievement. Unfortunately, this has not been the case in recent years, which have witnessed growing Federal budgets for education but flat or even declining student achievement. For this reason, our budget targets the same principles that drove the No Child Left Behind Act, which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

These principles include increased accountability for States, school districts, and schools; greater choice for parents and students, particularly those from low-income backgrounds who attend low-performing schools; more flexibility for States and school districts in the use of Federal education dollars; and a stronger emphasis on teaching methods grounded in scientifically based research, especially in teaching our children to read.

Implementing No Child Left Behind

For example, our request includes $11.4 billion for Title I Grants to Local Educational 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. The $1 billion increase would be allocated through the Targeted Grants formula, which directs a greater share of funds to the highest-poverty schools than the other Grants to LEAs formulas.

We also are asking for a $100 million increase for Reading First State Grants, for a total of $1 billion to support comprehensive reading instruction, grounded in scientifically based research, for children in grades K-3. The budget would continue to provide $75 million for Early Reading First, the new competitive grant program that helps to develop the school readiness of preschool-aged children in high-poverty communities.

To help increase the availability of evidence-based research and knowledge of proven educational practices, the request includes $175 million for Research and Dissemination, an increase of $53.2 million, or almost 44 percent. And to support State efforts in measuring the progress of all students toward proficiency in reading and mathematics, we would provide $387 million for State Assessments and Enhanced Assessment Instruments. These funds would pay the Federal share of developing and implementing—by the 2005-2006 school year—the expanded annual assessments in grades 3 through 8 that are integral to the strong State accountability systems required by the NCLB Act.

Expanding Options for Parents

A key principle of the No Child Left Behind Act is that when parents have the information and options they need to make the right choices for their children's education, our schools and our children will succeed. The NCLB Act requires States and school districts to report annually on how their schools and students are performing, and the new assessments will provide diagnostic information that will help parents and teachers to identify the strengths and weaknesses of individual students. Parents of students in failing schools will have the option of transferring them to a better public school or obtaining supplemental educational services from the provider of their choice. Our 2003 budget would help to ensure that parents have meaningful options for providing their children a high-quality education.

For example, the President is proposing a new refundable tax credit for parents transferring a child from a failing public school. If a student's regular public school fails to make adequate yearly progress, parents would be able to transfer the student to another public or private school and receive a credit of 50 percent of the first $5,000 in tuition, fees, and transportation costs.

The request also includes $50 million for a new Choice Demonstration Fund, which would support research projects that develop, implement, and evaluate innovative approaches to providing parents with expanded school choice options, including both private- and public-school choice. We also would continue to support Voluntary Public School Choice through $25 million in grants to establish or expand public school choice programs across States or districts. Grants would support planning, transportation, tuition transfer payments, and efforts to increase the capacity of schools to accept students exercising a choice option.

Another key part of the Administration's efforts to increase choice for students and parents is continuing support for Charter Schools, which would receive $200 million in 2003. In addition, we are proposing a new, $100 million Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities program. A major obstacle to the creation of charter schools is their limited ability to obtain suitable academic facilities. Our proposal would support competitive grants to public and nonprofit entities to help charter schools finance their facilities through such means as providing loan guarantees, insuring debt, and other activities to encourage private lending.

Increasing Flexibility for States and School Districts

The NCLB Act provides unprecedented flexibility for States and school districts to combine resources from selected State formula grant programs to pursue their own strategies for raising student achievement and ensuring that no child is left behind. For example, States and LEAs may transfer up to 50 percent of the funding they receive under four major formula grant programs to any one of the programs, or to Title I. The covered programs are Improving Teacher Quality State Grants, Educational Technology, Innovative Programs, and Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities.

The President's budget includes substantial funding for these flexible programs, including $2.85 billion for Improving Teacher Quality State Grants, $700.5 million for Educational Technology State Grants, $385 million for State Grants for Innovative Programs, and $472 million for Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities State Grants.

In addition, the request provides $665 million for English Language Acquisition State Grants, which replace a complex series of categorical grants with a flexible program that will enable States to design and implement statewide strategies, grounded in scientifically based research, for meeting the educational needs of limited English proficient and immigrant students. The request also provides $1 billion for 21st Century Community Learning Centers to provide before- and after-school academic enrichment opportunities, particularly for children who attend high-poverty or low-performing schools.

Special Education and Vocational Rehabilitation

Special education is another area that we will be focusing on over the next year. President Bush's commitment to leave no child behind specifically includes children with disabilities. This is why he believes it is important for the Federal Government to continue providing additional support, through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), for State and local efforts to help children with disabilities meet the same challenging State standards as other children. For 2003, the President is proposing a $1 billion, or 13.3 percent, increase for Special Education Grants to States. In addition, the President has established a Commission on Excellence in Special Education which, as part of the reauthorization process, will assist the Administration in a comprehensive, evidence-based review of the IDEA.

The 2003 request also supports the President's New Freedom Initiative, which is aimed in part at promoting the integration of individuals with disabilities into the workforce. Although many people with disabilities are obtaining and retaining jobs, the unemployment rate for people with disabilities remains unacceptably high. To help individuals with disabilities prepare for, obtain, or retain employment, the budget provides $2.6 billion for the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) State Grants program, an increase of $134.9 million, or 5.4 percent. The request for VR State Grants reflects the mandatory inflation increase, an additional $20 million to improve employment outcomes, and a consolidation of funding from smaller, overlapping categorical programs under a multi-year Administration effort to reform the Federal Government's training and employment programs.

Postsecondary Education

The President emphasized reform of elementary and secondary education during his first year in office, but he fully recognizes the critical role of postsecondary education in securing the American Dream of success and prosperity. This is why, for example, our budget includes $10.9 billion for the Pell Grant program, an increase of $549 million, or 5.3 percent, to help ensure access to postsecondary education for low-income students and families and to maintain the maximum Pell award level at $4,000. This increase does not include the $1.3 billion supplemental for Pell Grants that the President is proposing for fiscal year 2002 in order to address the shortfall created by the 2002 appropriations act.

Overall student financial aid available would expand to $54.9 billion under the President's budget for 2003, an increase of $2.8 billion, or 5 percent, over 2002, with the number of recipients of grant, loan, and work?study assistance growing by 339,000 to 8.4 million students and parents.

In addition to traditional student aid, our request 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."

The budget also increases support for institutions that enroll a large proportion of minority and disadvantaged students, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Historically Black Graduate Institutions, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and other colleges serving underrepresented populations. The request includes a total increase of $15.8 million for these institutions to help close achievement and attainment gaps between minority students and other students. The budget also includes $802.5 million for the Federal TRIO Programs, and $285 million for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), to provide educational outreach and support services to help more than 2 million disadvantaged students to enter and complete college.

Department Management

Finally, I want to mention part of our budget that is very important to me personally, and that is our effort to improve Department Management. As most of you know, I am determined to carry out the President's Management Agenda and make the Department a model Federal agency. To help reach this goal, our 2003 request supports my Blueprint for Management Excellence, a long-term action plan for improving Department management. This plan includes efforts to ensure financial integrity, strengthen management of the student financial aid programs, improve the Department's use of its human capital, use technology to better meet customer needs, and create an accountability-for-results culture within the Department.

Conclusion

The President's 2003 budget for education supports the vision reflected in the No Child Left Behind Act for closing the achievement gap and improving the quality of education for all Americans. I urge you to give these proposals careful consideration, and I stand ready to answer any questions you may have.

This page last modified—April 17, 2002 (mjj).