[Budget of the United States Government]
[IV. Preparing For the 21st Century]
[1. Investing in Education and Training]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
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1. INVESTING IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING
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At the edge of a new century and an increasingly competitive global economy, we know that our children's
futures will be determined in large part by the quality of the education they receive ... Our Administration has
made education a high priority, focusing on standards, accountability and choice in public schools, and on
making a college education available to every American ... Because of these efforts, more young people have the
chance to make the most of their God-given abilities, and take their place in the high-tech world of the 21st
Century.
President Clinton
August 1999
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President Clinton took office committed to providing the education
and job training that Americans need to succeed in the new global
economy. Investing in people and improving our Nation's educational
system was a central element of his 1993 economic program. In the past
seven years, the President has consistently worked to further the goal
of a first-rate education for every child, starting with programs to
expand learning opportunities for pre-schoolers to those that encourage
students to attend and complete college. The President's education
strategy is simple and straightforward--we must invest more and demand
more in return.
To strengthen elementary and secondary education, the Clinton
Administration proposed, and worked with Congress, to enact new laws in
1994 and succeeding years to help students, especially in high-poverty
schools, meet challenging educational standards put in place by States
and school districts. Accountability--holding schools, teachers, and
students alike to these high standards--is essential to turning low-
performing schools into institutions of quality. To help these
underperforming schools rise to higher standards, the Administration is
committed to providing needed support, through programs such as:
21st Century Community Learning Centers, first funded in 1997
and expanded dramatically since 1998, the ``after-school''
program of grants to public schools and community-based
organizations to establish and expand extended learning time
opportunities;
the Reading Excellence Act, enacted in 1998, to provide
resources to high-poverty schools to help ensure that all
children can read well and independently by the end of third
grade;
the Class Size Reduction program, enacted in 1998, to hire
qualified teachers and to reduce the number of students per
classroom in the early grades, which, studies show, can lead
to improved student achievement; and,
the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund, first funded in 1997,
offering grants to provide computers, software, and Internet
access to schools and technology-related professional
development.
The Administration is committed to making a postsecondary education
both attainable and affordable for every American, from recent high
school graduates and dropouts to adult learners and displaced workers.
The President has proposed and supported programs that prepare students
for postsecondary education and that help make college affordable. For
example, in response to the President's initiative, Congress enacted and
funded in 1999 the GEAR-UP program, which helps low-income students in
middle and high school prepare for college. The Administration has also
worked to increase the Pell Grant max
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imum award by 43 percent from 1993 to 2000, and proposes a $200 increase
in 2001; established new tax credits for college costs; created the
Direct Student Loan program to increase benefits to borrowers (including
the option to repay the loan on an income contingent basis); and,
proposed and saw enacted significantly lower interest rates for
borrowers on student loans.
In the past seven years, the Clinton Administration has significantly
strengthened the Federal Government's commitment to education by
increasing by nearly $12 billion, or 50 percent, Federal discretionary
funding for the Department of Education. The 2001 Budget builds upon
these increases, continuing the President's education agenda with new
and sustained efforts to close the gap in educational opportunity and
offer the tools to help all Americans take part in the Nation's
prosperity (see Table 1-1).
The President's initiatives in K-12 education, most of which are in
the Administration's proposal for the reauthorization of the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), include: increasing accountability
and fixing failing schools; improving teacher quality; acquiring better
technology and preparing teachers to use it effectively; constructing
and repairing schools; and, encouraging innovation and excellence. Other
initiatives specifically target efforts toward improving the educational
outcomes of Latino students and students from disadvantaged backgrounds,
who face disproportionately high dropout rates and low enrollment trends
in postsecondary schools, as part of the Administration's commitment to
help all students acquire the education and skills critical to their
success in the future. These initiatives are coupled with a significant
expansion of Head Start and the creation of an Early Learning Fund to
ensure pre-school aged children from low-income families have quality
early learning experiences to prepare them effectively for school (see
Chapter 2, ``Supporting Working Families'').
In postsecondary education, the President's proposals maintain his
focus on helping low-income students prepare for and pay for college and
include a new tax program to help middle-income families afford higher
education. In workforce development, the President proposes initiatives
to advance opportunity by ensuring that all workers can find and hold
good jobs with good wages, improve their skills, and work in safe and
healthy environments.
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TABLE 1-1. THE BUDGET INCREASES RESOURCES FOR SELECTED EDUCATION AND TRAINING PROGRAMS BY $7.8 BILLION, OR 16 PERCENT OVER 2000, AND BY A TOTAL
INCREASE OVER 1993 OF 122 PERCENT
(Dollar amounts in millions)
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Dollar Percent
1993 2000 2001 Change: Change:
Actual Enacted Proposed 2000 to 1993 to
2001 2001
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TAX EXPENDITURES:
Hope Scholarships Credit.............................................................................. ....... 4,925 5,125 +200 NA
Lifetime Learning Credit/College Opportunity Tax Cut.................................................. ....... 2,375 2,815 +440 NA
Student Loan Interest Deduction....................................................................... ....... 265 333 +68 NA
School Construction................................................................................... ....... ....... 36 +36 NA
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Total, Tax Expenditures............................................................................... ....... 7,565 8,309 +744 NA
MANDATORY OUTLAYS:
Welfare-to-Work Grants................................................................................ ....... 860 920 +60 NA
Early Learning Fund (see Chapter 4)................................................................... ....... ....... 402 +402 NA
DISCRETIONARY PROGRAM LEVELS:
Preschool: Head Start (see Chapter 4)................................................................. 2,776 5,267 6,267 +1,000 +126%
Elementary and Secondary Education:
School renovation loans and grants.................................................................. ....... ....... 1,300 +1,300 NA
Education Technology................................................................................ 23 769 903 +134 +3,826%
Class Size Reduction................................................................................ ....... 1,300 1,750 +450 NA
Title I--Education for the Disadvantaged/Accountability............................................. 6,709 8,701 9,150 +449 +36%
21st Century Community Learning Centers............................................................. ....... 453 1,000 +547 NA
Teacher Recruitment and Training.................................................................... 435 793 1,000 +207 +130%
Bilingual and Immigrant Education................................................................... 237 406 460 +54 +94%
Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities.......................................................... 598 600 650 +50 +9%
Charter Schools..................................................................................... ....... 145 175 +30 NA
Indian Education.................................................................................... 81 77 116 +39 +43%
Special Education................................................................................... 2,966 6,036 6,369 +333 +115%
High School Reform/Small Schools.................................................................... ....... 45 120 +75 NA
Postsecondary Education:
Pell Grants......................................................................................... 6,462 7,640 8,356 +716 +29%
Pell Grant maximum award (non-add, in dollars)...................................................... 2,300 3,300 3,500 +200 +52%
Federal Work-Study.................................................................................. 617 934 1,011 +77 +64%
Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants......................................................... 583 631 691 +60 +19%
GEAR-UP............................................................................................. NA 200 325 +125 NA
TRIO................................................................................................ 388 645 725 +80 +87%
Workforce Development:
Dislocated Worker Assistance........................................................................ 517 1,589 1,771 +181 +243%
Fathers Work/Families Win........................................................................... ....... ....... 255 +255 NA
Responsible Reintegration for Young Offenders....................................................... ....... ....... 75 +75 NA
Youth Opportunity Grants............................................................................ ....... 250 375 +125 NA
Job Corps........................................................................................... 966 1,358 1,393 +35 +44%
Adult Education..................................................................................... 305 470 556 +86 +82%
Vocational Rehabilitation State Grants.............................................................. 1,880 2,339 2,400 +61 +28%
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Total, Discretionary Program Levels................................................................... 25,543 40,648 47,192 +6,544 +85%
TOTAL RESOURCES FOR SELECTED PROGRAMS (tax expenditures, mandatory outlays, and discretionary program 25,543 49,073 56,823 +7,750 +122%
levels).................................................................................................
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STUDENT LOANS (face value of loans issued):
Direct Loans........................................................................................... ....... 10,605 11,211 +606 NA
Guaranteed Loans....................................................................................... 15,993 20,959 22,157 +1,198 +139%
Consolidated Loans..................................................................................... 1,487 8,831 9,148 +317 +615%
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Total, Student Loans................................................................................ 17,480 40,395 42,516 +2,121 +243%
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION:
Discretionary Program Level............................................................................ 23,851 35,605 40,088 +4,483 +68%
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR:
Discretionary Budget Authority........................................................................ 9,920 11,224 12,263 +1,039 +24%
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NA = Not applicable.
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ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
Ensuring Accountability and Fixing Failing Schools
The cornerstone principle of the Administration's education
initiatives since 1993 has been to give States and districts increased
flexibility to coordinate and combine program activities in exchange for
greater accountability for school and student performance. Today, all 50
States and many school districts have begun to put in place
accountability systems that identify schools in which students are not
meeting challenging State academic standards and establish consequences,
holding schools accountable for improving their performance.
These reforms--integrating established academic standards, tests to
reflect these standards, teacher training, and consequences for failing
to meet standards--are beginning to show results, as measured by
improved student test scores and other factors. But while the
achievement of even the most disadvantaged students is improving, the
learning gap between the less and the more fortunate is closing at too
slow a pace. We cannot afford to leave any child behind. Nationwide,
there are currently about 8,000 schools in dire need of improvement, in
which a majority of students struggle to achieve to high academic
standards. The Administration's budget proposes a package of programs
that will help turn around failing schools and ensure that all students
have the opportunities to succeed academically.
Title I Accountability Fund: It is essential that States and
localities identify and turn around schools that are not helping
children reach rigorous academic standards. The budget provides $250
million in the Title I (Education for the Disadvantaged) program to help
States hold districts and schools accountable for raising student
achievement. States will use funds
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to fix their lowest-performing schools through a variety of approaches,
including bringing in new curriculum, management, or teachers. Funds
will also be used to provide public school choice options to students in
failing schools. In total, the budget includes $8.36 billion for Title I
grants to support the Administration's ESEA reauthorization proposal to
help students in low-income schools meet high academic standards.
Small, Safe, and Successful High Schools: Research confirms what many
parents intuitively believe: that smaller schools are safer and more
productive because students feel they are in a community more connected
to caring adults, and teachers feel that they have more opportunity to
get to know and support their students. Smaller schools also have better
attendance records, lower dropout rates, and fewer discipline problems.
The Administration proposes $120 million for a high school reform
initiative, an expansion of the Small Schools program funded in 2000 at
$45 million, to create smaller and safer learning environments in which
all students can achieve to higher academic standards. The program will
offer competitive grants to school districts to create smaller schools
or to break up larger schools by funding innovative strategies such as
autonomous schools-within-schools, career academies, restructured school
days, and other reforms to ensure that every student receives personal
attention and academic support.
Rewards for High Performance and Closing the Achievement Gap: The
budget includes a $50 million initiative to build on the President's
Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization proposal and
reward States that make significant statewide progress in improving
student performance and closing the achievement gap between different
demographic groups of students. States would be eligible for high
performance bonuses based on substantial overall improvements in student
performance tests and significant narrowing of the achievement gap as
indicated by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. States
receiving the bonuses could use the funds for educational purposes
allowed under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act but not to
supplant current efforts.
Class Size Reduction: The budget provides $1.75 billion, $450 million
over 2000, for the third installment of the President's initiative that
began in 1999 to reduce class size in the primary grades. Research
suggests that children, particularly those from disadvantaged
backgrounds, benefit from the additional attention they receive in small
classes. The program's goal is to hire 100,000 qualified teachers by
2005, and reduce class size in the early grades to an average of 18
students. The budget increase will support an expansion that attains
almost half of the 100,000 goal. Every State and nearly all school
districts participate in the program. In schools that received funds
under this program, primary grades have been reduced by an average of
five students per classroom. In addition, to improve the conditions and
students' ability to learn while at school, the budget supports new tax
incentives and spending to construct, repair, and improve classrooms and
schools. (For more information, see the discussion under ``Acquiring
Better Technology and Constructing and Repairing Schools,'' later in
this chapter.)
21st Century Community Learning Centers: The budget includes $1
billion, more than double the 2000 level, for the ``after-school''
program of grants to public schools and community-based organizations to
establish or expand after-school and other extended learning time
opportunities. These centers are part of a comprehensive approach to fix
failing schools by providing low-achieving students the extra help they
need to meet challenging academic standards. From a $1 million
demonstration program in 1997, this program grew to $453 million in
2000, serving over 850,000 students. The budget expands this program
dramatically to provide more high quality extended learning
opportunities for all children and to make after- or summer-school
programs universally available to help turn around all Title I schools
identified as low-performing.
Special Education: The budget includes $6.4 billion for Special
Education, an increase of $333 million, to expand on the President's
commitment to improving educational results for children with
disabilities. Included in this total is an additional $290 million for
grants to States to help ensure that all students with disabilities
receive a free appropriate public education, and a $9 million increase
for grants
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to infants and families to provide essential intervention services to
children with disabilities as early as possible. The budget also
includes $8 million for States to help schools comply with special
education laws and correct deficiencies found through Federal and State
monitoring, and $10 million to help schools implement research-based
practices to serve young children with disabilities who have reading
problems and/or exhibit behaviors that may lead to discipline problems
as they get older.
Enhancing Teacher Quality
Because trained and skilled classroom teachers are essential to a
child's success in school, high-quality professional development is
crucial to improving public schools. In the next decade, 2.2 million new
teachers will be needed to fill the shortage created by teacher
retirement and population growth, with high-poverty schools facing the
greatest shortages. In the budget, the President builds on his
commitment to teacher recruitment and training programs to ensure
schools have the highly qualified teachers needed to improve student
performance.
Title II: Teacher Quality and Recruitment: The budget requests $1
billion for the new Title II program, a component of the
Administration's Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)
reauthorization proposal, that consolidates the Goals 2000 and
Eisenhower Professional Development programs. The State grant program
will assist States and districts in coordinating and developing
sustained, content rich teacher professional development with
challenging standards. The budget also proposes several new initiatives
under Title II to address the most pressing teacher quality needs.
Hometown teachers: In order to increase the number of skilled
teachers serving high-poverty school districts, the budget
proposes $75 million in competitive grants. These grants would
fund comprehensive teacher recruitment strategies that
incorporate both long-term, pipeline-style programs as well as
short-term strategies. Hometown Teachers would encourage
districts to create programs to cultivate students' interest
in teaching beginning as early as middle school.
Early childhood educator professional development: Research
has demonstrated that effective early childhood education
programs can help eliminate reading problems, as well as
improve cognitive and social competence. The budget provides
$30 million to offer competitive grants to partnerships,
including school districts, institutions of higher education,
Head Start programs, and child care programs. Approximately
15,000 early childhood educators would receive training in
literacy development, English language instruction, and
instructional methods for students with disabilities.
School leadership: The budget includes $40 million for
competitive grants to non-profit, public-private partnerships
to develop State and regional School Leadership Centers for
principals, superintendents, and other school leaders. These
training centers will help school leaders develop critical
skills to improve school performance and will help attract
qualified candidates into school leadership positions.
Transition to Teaching: Troops to Teachers: The budget
proposes $25 million to build on the Troops to Teachers
program in high need areas to recruit and train retiring
military personnel and other mid-career professionals to serve
as new teachers in public schools.
Teacher quality incentives: This $50 million initiative would
reward districts for making exceptional progress toward
teacher quality improvement goals set forth in the
Administration's Elementary and Secondary Education Act
reauthorization bill, such as increasing certification rates
and the percentage of teachers working in-field.
Higher standards and higher pay for teachers: The budget
includes a $50 million teacher peer review initiative to
encourage school districts to pay teachers more and increase
the quality of their teaching force. Peer review programs, by
which expert teachers evaluate other
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teachers and help them improve, have proven to help improve
teacher quality by rewarding excellence, helping low-
performing teachers become more effective, and when necessary,
removing low-quality teachers from the classroom.
Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology: While many schools
have access to technology, some teachers are not prepared to use this
technology effectively. The budget includes $150 million, double the
2000 level, to provide pre-service teacher training for 400,000 teachers
in technology so that teachers can help students make the most of tools
that are critical to their education and their future.
Teacher Quality Enhancement: The budget provides $98 million for the
Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants program. Created in 1999, this
program supports: State grants to improve teacher licensing and
certification; partnerships of exemplary teaching colleges and
universities with urban and rural schools; and recruitment grants,
including scholarships, to help attract teachers to high priority areas.
Teachers Serving Special Populations: To meet professional development
needs of teachers serving populations with special needs, the budget
proposes $100 million for Bilingual Education Professional Development,
$116 million for Special Education professional development, $10 million
for the American Indian Teacher Corps, and $5 million to create a new
American Indian Administrator Corps.
Acquiring Better Technology and Constructing and Repairing Schools
Many of the Nation's schools need to be brought into the 21st
Century, both by equipping them with new and modern technology, and by
making essential repairs to fix the inevitable problems in aging and
neglected buildings.
The Administration's commitment to educational technology has greatly
increased the percentage of schools connected to the Internet. Since
1993, the number has almost tripled so that nearly 90 percent of the
Nation's schools are connected; however, some high-poverty schools still
lack Internet access.
At the same time, about one-third of our Nation's schools have
critical renovation needs, including repairs to roofs, climate control
systems, and plumbing. School districts also face the cost of upgrading
schools to accommodate computers and modern technology, and of
constructing new classrooms and schools to meet expected record
enrollments over the next decade.
The budget proposes a set of new initiatives and program increases to
help States and school districts meet the need for better technology and
adequate learning facilities. These will complement existing activities
put in place under this Administration, including the E-rate established
by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to provide discounts to schools
and libraries for high-speed Internet access, internal wiring, and
telecommunications services, and Qualified Zone Academy Bonds, which
encourage investors to make school modernization capital available to
certain communities in need.
School Construction and Modernization Bonds: The President's budget
reaffirms his support for creation of a new tax incentive that would
support $22.4 billion in new bonds for school modernization, and $2.4
billion in additional Qualified Zone Academy Bonds.
Urgent School Renovation: To ensure that the school districts with
great need have access to low-cost financing for essential repairs, the
budget requests $1.3 billion for a new school renovation program that
would provide loans and grants to school districts. Within this total,
$50 million in grants will be directed to schools with high
concentrations of Native American students.
Community Technology Centers: As part of a broad initiative to
address the ``digital divide'' between wealthy communities where access
to technology is common and poorer communities that lack such access,
the budget requests $100 million for Community Technology Centers, an
increase of $68 million over 2000 (see Chapter 7, ``Strengthening the
American Community''). Grants will help low-income communities establish
computer centers available to those who cannot afford home computers.
Begun in 1999, this program supports activities including technology-
based adult education, after-school activities, literacy
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training, and ESL instruction in community centers. The budget level
would provide support to approximately 1,000 centers in low-income
communities.
Technology Literacy Challenge Fund: Enacted in 1997, this program
offers grants to States to fund technology-related professional
development, provide multimedia computers to schools, and provide
software and Internet access to students. The budget requests $450
million, an increase of $25 million over 2000.
Next Generation Technology Innovation: The budget requests $170
million for Next Generation Technology Innovation, which consolidates
the Technology Innovation Challenge Grants and Star Schools programs, to
support technological innovation for education. Included in this program
is funding to develop and field-test state-of-the-art education
technology applications and $10 million for a new initiative to support
development of challenging courses such as AP courses and ESL courses
for use online.
Other Programs Supporting Innovation and Excellence
Throughout his Administration, President Clinton has aimed to ensure
that every child is provided with the highest quality education and
challenged to achieve to his or her full potential. The President
continues that commitment with several important investments for 2001.
Public School Choice: The Administration supports expanding public
school choice through charter schools and other public school options.
These efforts strengthen the public education system by giving it the
support it needs to fulfill its mission of providing equal educational
opportunities for all while providing children a choice of schools to
best meet their needs.
When the President first took office, there was but one charter
school in the Nation, and citizens who wanted to create new charter
schools faced considerable financial barriers. First funded in 1995, the
Public Charter Schools program addresses this problem by providing
startup funding. The budget includes $175 million for this program, an
increase of $30 million, to support the start-up of 1,700 charter
schools in 2001. By 2001, this program will have helped nearly 2,400
charter schools since its inception, supporting the President's goal of
creating 3,000 charter schools by 2002. The budget also includes $20
million for Opportunities to Improve Our Nation's Schools (OPTIONS), a
new ESEA initiative that will spur further innovation by supporting new
approaches, such as locating public schools at work sites and college
campuses and interdistrict choice programs.
Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities: In 1999, as part of the
Government-wide Safe Schools/Healthy Students initiative, 54 communities
received over $100 million in competitive grants from the Departments of
Education, Health and Human Services, and Justice to implement
comprehensive, research-based, drug and violence prevention programs. In
2001, these agencies will combine resources with the Department of Labor
and expand Safe Schools/Healthy Students to nearly $250 million, vastly
increasing funding for community-wide interventions that address
education, mental health, juvenile justice, and public safety, and
expanding services to include out-of-school youth. The budget also
includes $10 million for a new activity, Project SERV (School Emergency
Response to Violence), to help schools and communities address violent
deaths or other crises.
Safe Schools/Healthy Students and Project SERV represent just a
sampling of the Administration's broad efforts to address youth
violence. The budget includes roughly $8.9 billion, an increase of more
than $900 million over the 2000 level, for programs that specifically
target youth violence or generally support the healthy development of
young people. Other notable initiatives include: $1 billion in the
Department of Education for after-school and summer-school programs; $75
million in the Department of Labor to reintegrate young offenders into
society; and, $70 million in the Department of the Treasury to expand
efforts to crack down against those supplying guns to youths. To
coordinate youth violence prevention programs across the Federal
Government, President Clinton established a White House Council on Youth
Violence, which will also seek to make these programs
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more accessible to American families and examine best practices in
addressing the problem.
America Reads/Reading Excellence Act: In response to the President's
America Reads Challenge, the Reading Excellence Act was enacted in 1998
to provide resources to high poverty schools to help ensure that all
children can read well and independently by the end of third grade. The
budget requests $286 million for this program, an increase of $26
million, to support literacy services to an estimated 1.1 million
students.
Arts in Education: The budget doubles funding for this program to $23
million, including $11.5 million in new funds to supplement teaching
resources, integrate arts into the regular curriculum, and provide
intensive professional development to teachers. The Department of
Education and the National Endowment for the Arts will continue and
expand upon the collaboration formed in 2000 to make competitive grants
to local arts education programs and undertake additional activities to
address issues of youth at risk.
Indian Education: The budget includes $116 million for the Indian
Education program, an increase of $39 million over 2000. This total
includes $93 million to the Grants to Local Educational Agencies
program, an increase of $31 million, to address significant growth in
the Indian student population and ensure that Indian students have the
resources to succeed academically. The budget also includes $50 million
for the urgent school renovation program in public schools with high
concentrations of Native American students, as part of the
Administration's $1.3 billion urgent school renovation initiative. The
budget includes $300 million ($167 million over 2000 enacted) for the
Bureau of Indian Affairs to fund the replacement of at least six
elementary and secondary schools and for numerous repair, improvement,
and maintenance projects.
Improving Educational Outcomes for Hispanic-Americans
Raising the educational achievement of Latino students continues as a
high priority. The high school dropout rate for Latinos is very high: in
1996, 29 percent of Latinos aged 16 to 24 were high school dropouts,
compared to seven percent of non-Hispanic whites and 13 percent of non-
Hispanic blacks. About 32 percent, or 3.6 million, of the students
served by Title I are Latino. Latinos are the fastest growing segment of
our Nation's population.
For the third year in a row, the budget targets new funding to
programs that are part of the Administration's Hispanic Education Action
Plan. The budget proposes $823 million in funding increases, including:
$416 million for Title I Grants to Local Educational
Agencies;
$85.5 million for Adult Education, of which $75 million is
for the President's English as a Second Language (ESL)/Civics.
Civics initiative to help recent immigrants learn English,
fully navigate public institutions, and be involved in their
communities;
$125 million for GEAR-UP;
$80 million for TRIO;
$25 million for Title I Migrant Education;
$48 million for Bilingual Education;
$20 million for Hispanic Serving Institutions;
$5 million for the Labor Department's Migrant and Seasonal
Farmworker Youth Opportunities Program;
$10 million for research on the education of language
minority children; and,
$8 million for the High School Equivalency Program and
College Assistance Migrant Program.
POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION
Preparing for College
As our economy depends increasingly on workers with analytical and
reasoning skills, access to a quality education beyond high school
becomes even more important to maintaining and increasing income,
productivity, and the Nation's competitiveness. The opportunity to
attend college is also crucial in encouraging hardworking families and
low-income children to aspire to improve their
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lives through education. This budget provides significant increases to
student financial assistance programs to help low- and middle-income
students pay for college; however, not all of the barriers to college
are financial. Too many young people reach college age without the
skills, knowledge, and preparation they need to apply for, enroll in,
and succeed in college. The Administration is committed to making a
postsecondary education both attainable and affordable for every
American, from recent high school graduates and dropouts to adult
learners and displaced workers.
GEAR-UP: The budget provides $325 million, an increase of $125
million, for the early intervention program first funded in 1999 that is
based on an initiative proposed by the President. This program provides
funds for States and local partnerships to help low-income students
prepare for college, starting in the 7th grade. In 2001, 1.4 million
students would receive services, 644,000 more than in 2000.
TRIO: The budget includes $725 million, an increase of $80 million,
for TRIO programs, which fund postsecondary education outreach and
support services to prepare disadvantaged students to enter and complete
college and doctoral study. Nearly half of the increase would be
dedicated to strengthening the Student Support Services (SSS) program,
while another $35 million would establish a new College Completion
Challenge Grant (CCCG) component within SSS. Under CCCG, competitive
grants to institutions of higher education would support grant aid and
summer orientation programs for low-income students in their first years
of college, with the goal of increasing college completion rates.
SAT/ACT Preparation: The budget provides $10 million in competitive
grants to create partnerships to offer test preparation services to low-
income students preparing for the SAT and ACT college admissions tests.
Grantees would offer rigorous and sustained preparation based on program
curriculum.
Minority-Serving Institutions Dual-Degree Program: The budget
provides $40 million for a new program to promote dual-degree programs
between minority-serving institutions--including Historically Black
Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, Tribal
Colleges and Universities, and Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving
Institutions--and partner institutions such as major research
universities. The program would allow students at minority-serving
institutions to earn two degrees in five years: one from their home
institution, and the other from a partner institution in a subject area
that is not offered by the home institution and in which minorities are
traditionally underrepresented. The program will increase academic
opportunities for students at minority-serving institutions, improve
their postgraduate access, and promote their workforce participation in
fields in which minorities are underrepresented.
Paying for College
The economic returns to a college education have never been higher.
But at a time when the dividends of a college education make college
essential, the cost of education has been rising dramatically. In
addition to helping every child prepare for college, this budget
maintains the Administration's commitment to ensuring financial access
to higher education by requesting significant increases for core student
aid programs and providing tax incentives to make higher education more
affordable.
Tax Incentives: The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 included the
President's Hope Scholarship and Lifetime Learning tax credits, the
largest investment in higher education since the G.I. Bill, to help make
college more affordable for about 13 million Americans. Hope
Scholarships provide tax credits of up to $1,500 for tuition and fees
during the first two years of postsecondary training. Under the Lifetime
Learning tax credits, students beyond the first two years of college, or
those taking classes part-time to improve or upgrade their job skills,
receive up to a 20 percent tax credit for the first $5,000 of tuition
and fees each year through 2002, and for the first $10,000 thereafter.
The budget expands the Lifetime Learning Tax Credit with a 10-year,
$30 billion College Opportunity tax cut that will, when fully phased in,
provide up to $2,800 in tax relief for millions of families struggling
to pay for college. The President's proposal would give families the
option of taking a tax
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deduction or claiming a 28 percent credit for tuition and fees to pay
for college and other higher education. The proposal would cover up to
$5,000 of educational expenses in 2001 and 2002 and $10,000 of
educational expenses from 2003 forward.
In addition, the budget provides tax-free treatment for employer-
provided graduate education and increases deductibility of student loan
interest.
Pell Grants: The President proposes to increase the maximum Pell
Grant by $200 to $3,500. Nearly four million needy undergraduates will
receive Pell Grants in 2001. When President Clinton took office in 1993,
the Pell Grant maximum award was $2,300--the same as it was when
President Bush took office in 1989. Under President Clinton's
leadership, the maximum award increased $1,000, or 43 percent, by 2000.
With the 2001 request, the Pell maximum award will have increased by 52
percent during this Administration.
Work-Study: The budget provides $1.011 billion for Work-Study, an
increase of $77 million over 2000, to maintain the President's promise
to give one million students the opportunity to work their way through
college. Funding for Work-Study increased 51 percent from 1993 to 2000;
this request would bring the increase since 1993 to 64 percent.
Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants: The budget requests a
total of $691 million, $60 million over 2000, for Supplemental
Educational Opportunity Grants to provide more low-income undergraduate
students with need-based grant aid.
Federal Student Loan Programs: An estimated 6.5 million people will
borrow almost $43 billion through the Federal student loan programs in
2001. In the Higher Education Amendments of 1998, the President's
proposal to significantly lower interest rates for borrowers on student
loans was adopted, easing the burden of repayment for borrowers. The
budget also proposes net savings of $3.8 billion over five years from
reforms to the guaranteed loan system.
D.C. College Access: In response to the President's 2000 proposal,
Congress approved a $17 million initiative to equalize postsecondary
education opportunities for residents of the District of Columbia by
providing tuition benefits to D.C. residents attending public colleges
in Maryland, Virginia, and other States under certain circumstances, and
private colleges in the D.C. area. The budget requests $17 million for
D.C. College Access in 2001.
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
Building on accomplishments made since 1993, the Administration seeks
to advance opportunity by ensuring that all workers have the opportunity
to find and hold secure jobs with good wages, improve their skills, and
work in safe and healthful places.
Promoting the New Opportunity Agenda for America's Workforce
Committed to ensuring that America's workforce has the education and
training necessary to compete in the 21st Century, the Administration
has been working to reform the Nation's workforce development system and
increase education, training, and job skills development. Specifically,
this Administration has accomplished the following:
In 1998, the President signed the bipartisan Workforce
Investment Act (WIA)--reforming America's job training system
to empower individuals, streamline services through One Stop
Career Centers, enhance accountability, and increase
flexibility.
Tripled funding for dislocated workers--more than tripling
program enrollment as part of a universal program that will
help every displaced worker who wants and needs training or
reemployment services.
Increased the number of Job Corps centers from 109 to 122,
increasing year-round training opportunities by over 10
percent.
Developed and authorized the Youth Opportunity Grants
program.
Signed the historic Ticket to Work and Work Incentives
Improvement Act of 1999 that removes barriers to work for
people with disabilities.
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Increasing Opportunities for Youth: The budget provides enhanced
support to help low-income, at-risk youth prepare for college and
careers.
Youth Opportunity Grants: Youth Opportunity Grants address the special
problems of out-of-school youth, especially in inner cities and other
areas with high jobless rates. This program is consistent with the
Administration's New Markets Initiative to provide resources to
communities with potential. The budget includes $375 million for Youth
Opportunity Grants to fund the third year of competitive grants to 25 to
30 high-poverty areas and the first year of competitive grants to 12 to
15 additional communities. Included in this funding is $20 million for
Rewarding Achievement in Youth, a program that provides comprehensive
employment training, counseling and education services to over 9,000
academically high-achieving, low-income youth. The program encourages
school completion by providing students who excel academically with
extended summer employment opportunities.
Job Corps: The Job Corps provides intensive vocational skills
training, integrated with academic and social education, and support
services to severely disadvantaged young people in a structured
residential setting. The budget proposes $1.4 billion, a $35 million
increase over the 2000 level.
Youth Activity Formula Grants: The WIA consolidated the funding
streams of DOL's year-round and summer jobs programs--providing
increased flexibility to local Youth Councils and enabling them to
develop pathways for career opportunities. Funded at $1 billion, $22
million above the 2000 level, this program will continue to provide
essential job and learning opportunities to roughly 612,000
disadvantaged youth.
Responsible Reintegration for Young Offenders: The budget includes $75
million for a new DOL initiative to link offenders under age 35 with
essential services that can help make the difference to their choices in
the future, such as education, training, job placement, drug counseling,
and mentoring. Through competitive grants, this program would establish
partnerships between the criminal justice system and workforce
investment systems created under the WIA to reintegrate offenders into
the mainstream economy, complementing a similar program in the
Department of Justice (DOJ) focused on community supervision of ex-
offenders. To maximize the impact of these initiatives, the DOL and DOJ
funds will be targeted to the same communities and populations served,
while improving public safety. At the same time, DOJ also will earmark
$5 million of its funds to focus on aftercare programs for juvenile
offenders to build on existing collaborations between DOL and DOJ.
Preparing Workers for the 21st Century: The budget provides resources
to help workers succeed in a changing economy.
Reemployment Services for All Who Need Them: In 2000, the President
proposed a major initiative to help working and laid-off Americans get
the information and training they need to succeed in a rapidly changing
labor market. The 2001 Budget continues progress toward the goals of:
providing all dislocated workers who need and want them with the
resources to train for or find new jobs; expanding and improving the
employment services available to all job seekers and enhancing them for
individuals receiving unemployment compensation; and ensuring that One-
Stop services are universally available, either in person or
electronically. The budget includes increases totaling $285 million to
build on last year's achievements toward the goal of a ``universal
system.''
Dislocated worker training: The budget proposes $1.8
billion--an increase of $181 million and over three times the
amount available when the President took office--to provide
readjustment services, job search assistance, training, and
related services to help dislocated workers find new jobs
quickly. Among the workers assisted by the program, and the
proposed increase, are those displaced by trade, technology,
defense downsizing, and other causes.
Reemployment services: The budget proposes $50 million to
expand services to ensure that Unemployment Insurance
beneficiaries receive help finding new jobs. Total funding for
grants to the State Employment Service, operating within the
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One-Stop system recently expanded in the WIA, is $856 million.
One-Stop Career Centers: The budget includes $174 million--an
increase of $54 million--for new methods of providing
employment and related information through America's Labor
Market Information System, including America's Job Bank,
America's Talent Bank, and America's Learning Exchange under
the One-Stop system. Efforts to improve access to One-Stop
information and services include mobile service centers for
rural areas, a toll-free number for easier access to
information on services and locations, and enhanced technology
for serving individuals with disabilities. Included in the
proposal is $10 million for the new America's Agricultural
Labor Network, an information system that connects growers
seeking workers with workers seeking employment. Also included
is $20 million to help individuals with disabilities return to
work (discussed later in this chapter).
Incumbent Workers: To boost the skills and wages of the U.S.
workforce, the budget includes $30 million for competitive grants to
States to train and upgrade the skills of incumbent workers. Applicants
would be required to provide non-Federal matching resources, and
employers that received grant assistance would be expected to
demonstrate that training increased participants' earnings.
Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA): The budget proposes to consolidate,
reform, and extend the TAA and NAFTA-Transitional Adjustment Assistance
(NAFTA-TAA) programs for workers who lose their jobs due to trade. The
proposal would expand eligibility for TAA benefits to cover workers who
lose jobs when plants or production shifts abroad; raise the statutory
cap on training expenses; and add a contingency provision to ensure that
the Federal Government has sufficient funds to finance any unexpected
increase in benefit costs for eligible workers. The budget proposes to
increase funding for the TAA programs by $31 million in 2001, for a
total of $459 million over five years.
Unemployment Insurance: These programs are the major source of
temporary income support for laid-off workers. An estimated 7.8 million
people will draw benefits in 2001. The Administration is working with
the States, employers, and workers' representatives to reform these
programs to ensure that they continue to meet the needs of a dynamic
American economy. The Administration is committed to working with
stakeholders and the Congress to develop a comprehensive legislative
proposal of system reforms, developed with the overarching goal of
budget neutrality and based on the following principles: expanding
coverage and eligibility for benefits, streamlining filing and reducing
tax burden where possible, emphasizing reemployment, combating fraud and
abuse, and improving administration.
Removal of Barriers to Employment: To advance the ability of all
people to reap the benefits of a growing economy, the budget builds on
recent successes in providing enhanced work incentives, while proposing
innovative ways to tap our Nation's human resources.
Assistance For Individuals to Move From Welfare to Work: To help
reach the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program's employment
goal for severely disadvantaged welfare recipients, the Administration
sought, and Congress provided to DOL, a total of $3 billion in 1998 and
1999 for the Welfare-to-Work program (WTW). The budget provides for a
two-year extension of the time period WTW grantees have to spend their
funds to continue their efforts and provide long-term recipients and
non-custodial parents of children on welfare the work and employment
services they need to help support their children. (For further
discussion of the Administration's efforts to help low-income families,
including the new Fathers Work/Families Win initiative, see Chapter 2,
``Supporting Working Families.'')
Employment of Individuals with Disabilities: Although unemployment is
at a 29-year low, the unemployment rate among working-age adults with
disabilities remains unacceptably high. The budget builds on the
Administration's commitment to ensuring that individuals with
disabilities have full opportunity to participate in, contribute to, and
reap the benefits of a growing economy. The budget accomplishes this by
establishing a new office
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for disability policy within the Department of Labor; improving
individuals with disabilities' access to employment and training
programs; and, enhancing current programs for individuals with
disabilities.
Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act: In 1999, the
President signed the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act,
landmark legislation that begins reducing the institutional barriers
that have limited the employment opportunities of individuals with
disabilities.
Health insurance protections for working people with
disabilities: People with disabilities who want to return to
work may face the loss of Medicaid or Medicare coverage or
incur prohibitive work-related costs, such as personal
assistance and assistive technology. The Act seeks to remove
these barriers by creating new options and incentives for
States to offer a Medicaid buy-in for disabled workers and
extending Medicare coverage for Disability Insurance
beneficiaries who return to work.
Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency: The Act establishes a
new program to enhance employment-related services to help
Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income disabled
beneficiaries re-enter the workforce, giving individuals more
choice in their selection of vocational rehabilitation service
providers.
Office on Disability Policy, Evaluation, and Technical Assistance: The
budget reconstitutes the President's Committee on Employment of People
with Disabilities as the Office on Disability Policy, Evaluation, and
Technical Assistance (ODPET). Headed by an Assistant Secretary, this new
office will bring a permanent focus to the significant employment
obstacles faced by individuals with disabilities and provide a forum for
addressing those obstacles. The Presidential Task Force on Employment of
Adults with Disabilities will work with the ODPET to ensure interagency
policy coordination.
Assistive Technology: To help individuals with disabilities overcome
obstacles to employment, the budget also provides $41 million for the
Department of Education's Assistive Technology program to help make
assistive technology devices and services available. Within this total
is $15 million to help States establish low-interest loan programs to
help individuals with disabilities purchase assistive technology. In
addition, the budget includes $18 million in the National Institute of
Disability and Rehabilitation Research and the National Science
Foundation for research, demonstrations, and technical assistance on how
to make technology more accessible. Lastly, to increase employment of
people with disabilities in the Federal Government, the budget also
includes $3.5 million for the General Services Administration to make
assistive technology available to Federal employees.
Work Incentive Grants: The budget continues competitive grants enacted
in 2000 (totaling $20 million a year) to be awarded by DOL to
partnerships of organizations in every State, including organizations of
people with disabilities, to help One-Stop Career Centers and Workforce
Investment Boards provide a range of high-quality services to people
with disabilities working or returning to work.
Limit on Medicare Coverage in the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives
Improvement Act: In the compromise on the Act, its Medicare benefit was
limited to an additional four and a half years. Because of this limit,
the provision postpones rather than eliminates the disincentive to work
since Medicare provides the necessary coverage that is often unavailable
or unaffordable on the job. The budget proposes to remove this limit and
extend Medicare coverage indefinitely.
Tax Credit for Workers with Disabilities: The budget proposes a $1,000
tax credit for workers with disabilities or their spouses to defray
additional work-related costs such as personal assistance services.
In addition, the budget continues to invest in other programs which
help disabled individuals prepare for the workforce, including $6.4
billion for Special Education programs, described earlier in this
chapter, which serve individuals with disabilities up to age 21; and
$2.8 billion for Vocational Rehabilitation. The budget also supports
other important disability programs, including the Committee for
Purchase From People Who are Blind
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or Severely Disabled, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf,
Gallaudet University, and programs to encourage the development of
technology that is accessible to people with disabilities.
Improving Labor Standards for All Workers: In addition to expanding
employment opportunities, the budget affirms the Administration's
commitment to improving labor standards for all workers. Here at home,
the Administration's commitment has helped to produce the lowest
occupational fatality and injury and illness levels in the United States
on record. Abroad, the Administration's commitment has made the United
States a world leader in efforts to ensure that globalization helps to
raise up labor conditions around the world.
International Child Labor: In his 1999 Budget, the President proposed
to increase the U.S.'s annual support for the International Labor
Organization's International Program for the Elimination of Child Labor
(IPEC) tenfold, resulting in a five-year investment of $150 million
dollars. However, in order to respond to the need for IPEC's
comprehensive strategies to eliminate abusive and exploitative child
labor, this budget increases the U.S. annual contribution another 50
percent to $45 million per year, enabling IPEC to expand its work to
more countries and industries. In addition, the budget includes a new
initiative designed to help eliminate child labor by expanding access to
basic education. Evidence suggests that poor access to affordable,
effective, basic education is a major contributor to child labor and
that effective strategies to combat child labor include increasing
access, lower costs, and improving the quality of basic education. The
President's budget includes $55 million a year to help developing
countries with high levels of abusive child labor to enroll and retain
these children in basic education as part of a comprehensive strategy to
eliminate child labor. The President also seeks to double, from $5
million to $10 million, U.S. Customs resources to enforce the ban on the
importation of goods made with forced or indentured child labor.
Domestic Child Labor Activities: The budget continues $13 million for
DOL, including $8 million to help eliminate violations of domestic child
labor laws, particularly in the agriculture sector, and $5 million for
demonstration programs to provide alternatives to field work for migrant
youth. In addition, the budget includes $5 million for a new program in
the Department of Agriculture to teach farm safety to children who work
on farms, including migrant youth. The budget also proposes $2 million
for DOL to implement targeted enforcement tools, including ``strike
teams,'' in the agriculture and garment industries to increase
compliance with labor standards, including child labor.
International Labor Standards: The budget sustains $20 million for the
International Labor Organization's (ILO's) multilateral technical
assistance program to help developing countries implement ILO core labor
standards and $20 million, an increase of $10 million, for DOL to help
countries with which the U.S. has important bilateral relationships
develop and administer labor standards and strengthen social safety net
programs. The budget includes $10 million for a joint State Department,
DOL, and Environmental Protection Agency initiative to improve our
ability to assess the institutional capacity of developing countries to
administer labor and environmental laws as part of an effort to improve
the mobilization and targeting of U.S. and international technical
assistance. In addition, the budget provides $10 million for a new
Global HIV/AIDS Workplace Initiative targeted at providing multilateral
assistance through the ILO to support health education and HIV
prevention in the workplace. The budget also provides $7 million for
State Department support of innovative partnerships aimed at eliminating
sweatshops around the world. The budget also includes $1 million for an
independent evaluation unit to ensure that the array of DOL programs
aimed at promoting core labor standards, increasing global AIDS
awareness, and eliminating the worst forms of child labor achieve their
intended results.
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Workplace Safety and Health: The budget includes approximately $670
million to promote safe and healthful conditions for over 100 million
workers through DOL's Occupational Safety and Health Administration and
Mine Safety and Health Administration. Through a combination of targeted
enforcement, compliance assistance, and regulatory approaches, these
agencies protect workers from illness, injury, and death caused by
occupational exposure to hazardous substances and conditions.