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Education
Education is the greatest gift we can give our children. A good educational foundation allows children to reach their full potential and lead responsible adult lives. I remain committed to continuing my efforts aimed at ensuring good schools at the local level and higher education opportunities for those who decide to pursue them.
I am a strong advocate of legislation providing assistance to help schools modernize their facilities, freeing for other education needs funds that would have gone to pay bond interest, and have also voted to send education money directly to the classroom to provide stronger, better schools through local control. I believe, as well, that we must help our children and their parents realize their dreams of higher education. While parents and students have a responsibility to plan for their college years, the federal government can help in their quest. That is why I support initiatives increasing Pell grants and permitting a broader tax exemption for interest paid on student loans.
With my support, in 2001 Congress approved and President Bush signed into law historic education reform legislation, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. For additional information on the measure and its implementation, visit the Department of Education's Web site. Congress will be working on reauthorization of NCLB in the 110th Congress and I will continue my efforts to ensure that our schools, students, teachers and communities are treated fairly equitably in the process.
I continue to be a strong supporter of the Individuals with Disabilities Act and have advocated for the full 40 percent funding from the federal government to assist our local schools and their communities provide an appropriate education for children with disabilities. I also support vocational education programs and have cosponsored legislation that will provide for the continued reauthorization of the Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act.
I remain committed to continuing my work to grow federal funding levels as a supplement to that provided by New York State.
Major education funding categories approved by Congress for fiscal year 2007 are as follows:
• Pell Grants: $13.6 billion, an increase of $615.4 million to increase the maximum Pell grant by $260 to $4,310. This increase will help over 5.3 million students pay rising college expenses.
• Special Education: $10.7 billion for IDEA Part B state grants, an increase of $200 million to help school districts serve 6.9 million children with disabilities.
• Title I K-12 Grants: $12.8 billion, an increase of $125 million to provide approximately 38,000 additional low-income children performing below grade level with intensive reading and math instruction
• Title I School Improvement Fund: $125 million for this new program to target assistance to the 6,700 schools that failed to meet No Child Left Behind requirements in the 2005-2006 school year, enabling them to implement improvement activities, such as teacher training, tutoring programs, and curriculum upgrades.
• Head Start: $6.9 billion, an increase of $103.7 million to help prevent a drop in Head Start enrollments.
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