[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 28, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S703-S704]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    THE PRESIDENT'S EDUCATION BUDGET

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, on another item, I want to draw the 
attention of the Senate to President Clinton's announcement today for 
making education a top priority in his balanced budget plan. The 
President has announced the proposal and recognizes the importance of 
investing in education as the cornerstone of a stronger future for the 
Nation.
  In the coming years, a college education will be more important than 
ever. We know that by the year 2005, 60 percent of all of the new jobs 
will require not only a high school education, but also skills in the 
utilization of computers. So the President's program is focused on a 
number of priority areas. I will introduce at the end of my statement a 
brief summary of those items, but I would like to just mention some of 
those which I think are most important.
  First of all, to try and assure working families in this country that 
not only high school will be available, but really the 13th and 14th 
grades, the first 2 years of college, would be available as well. That 
is being done in a number of ways:
  First, with a $10,000 deduction for the payments of tuition that will 
be available to working families and middle-income families, what they 
call the Hope Tax Credit, which will be a $1,500 credit for the sons 
and daughters who are going to college.
  This would amount to the payment in full of tuition for 67 percent of 
all the community colleges in the country; and then an expansion of the 
Pell grants by some $300 to a maximum of $3,000 for those individuals 
who are eligible for Pell grants. That is a very important and 
significant commitment. That will mean about 130,000 more students 
across this country will be able to take advantage of the Pell grants.
  Then there are the changes in the Pell grant provisions that will be 
primarily targeted upon older students, those who have been out in the 
work force and are coming back, those who are 24 or 25 years old or 
older. I do not know whether the distinguished Chair has had the kind 
of opportunity I have had to visit some of the community colleges in 
his own State as I have in Massachusetts. We find changes which are 
taking place where the makeup of the student body is considerably 
older.
  Changes in the Pell language are going to make available 218,000 
additional slots for those individuals who are returning to college to 
upgrade their skills, which is very important.
  We also have a strong commitment in the areas of literacy. We will 
see an expansion of the Work-Study Program, which provides important 
opportunities for students to help work their way through college. It 
is an absolutely vital link to permit students to match together what 
they are able to earn in the summertime by working, with what they earn 
working under the

[[Page S704]]

Work-Study Programs. There is a strong commitment to fulfill the 
President's commitment to try to make sure that every third grader is 
able to read by the year 2000. It is an important program that really 
builds upon the successful programs of the past. We will have more of a 
chance to review those in the Labor and Human Resources Committee later 
in the session.
  We also see the willingness to try to help and assist those 
communities where a third of all of the high school students are going 
to school in dilapidated buildings. The Educational Facilities 
Improvement Act is a program that was developed by Senator Carol 
Moseley-Braun and has been a very creative program which will be 
addressed in the President's program.
  Finally, the President makes a strong commitment in the area of 
technology, about $2 billion over the next 5 years, to try to make sure 
that we are going to have technology--hardware and software--and, most 
importantly, trained teachers that will be able to use technology to 
help students learn more.
  A number of States, including my own State of Massachusetts, are now 
involved in what we call the Net Day Program--there are 12 other States 
involved in it--where we have been able to bring the Software Council, 
the leaders of business in software, the Telecommunications Council, 
which represents the best in terms of telecommunications, the unions, 
working all together in order to provide wiring and also computers to 
the classrooms and schools of Massachusetts.
  We were 48th out of 50 at the start of this whole effort; and we are 
now, I believe, leading all the States in the number of classrooms that 
we have already wired for the Internet with the help of this voluntary 
program which is very successful. More than 600 schools have now been 
adequately wired. We intend, within the next 15 months, to have the 
approximately 2,700 schools in Massachusetts achieve that.
  We have benchmarks to be able to assess where we are. The next 
benchmark will be in April of this year. But nonetheless, this kind of 
commitment by the administration to technology and teacher training is 
enormously important.
  It is our understanding that the new education programs and the 
strong commitment to education is paid for in the President's balanced 
budget. We will see the details of the President's budget in the next 
10 days. But today we commend his strong commitment to education.
  We are looking forward to working in our committee, the Labor and 
Human Resources Committee, under the chairmanship of Senator Jeffords, 
who has had a long and distinguished career of bipartisan leadership in 
education, to maintain the Nation's commitment to strengthen academic 
achievement and accomplishment. We should continue to support local 
school reform efforts and to help provide seed money to communities to 
help bring technology into their schools--and to help ensure that 
technology is available to schools in all parts of the country. In 
addition, we will continue to make college more accessible and 
affordable for all students.
  We have every expectation that colleges and universities will join us 
in this partnership to increase accessibility and affordability and 
that they will not respond by raising tuition. We will work with them 
over the course of this Congress to ensure that this happens.
  To reiterate, I commend President Clinton for making education a top 
priority in his balanced budget plan. The President's proposal 
recognizes the importance of investing in education as the cornerstone 
of a stronger future for the Nation.
  In the coming years, a college education will be more important than 
ever. By 2005, 60 percent of all jobs created will require education 
beyond high school. A college graduate earns almost twice what a high 
school graduate earns, and almost three times what a high school 
dropout earns.
  But too often, college is priced out of reach for many families. From 
1980 to 1990, the cost of college rose by 126 percent, while family 
income increased by only 73 percent.
  To meet the rising cost of college, students and their families are 
going deeper and deeper into debt. In the 1990's, students have 
borrowed more in student loans than in the three preceding decades 
combined. In 1996 alone, students borrowed $30 billion--a 65-percent 
increase since 1993. Since 1988, borrowing in the Federal student loan 
program has more than doubled.
  The President's proposal recognizes that making college more 
accessible and affordable is a top priority for the Nation. His 
proposal increases funding for higher education, provides tax cuts for 
education, and cuts student loan fees.
  Under the proposal, funding for higher education will increase by 20 
percent by 2002, including a $1.6 billion increase in Pell grants. The 
Pell grant maximum will increase by $300 in the first year to $3,000, 
to give 130,000 low-income students greater access to college. With 
reforms in eligibility rules, the proposal will also help over 200,000 
adults obtain the extra education and training they need to compete in 
the modern workplace.
  The proposal targets tax cuts for education to help students and 
working families. Students with incomes below $70,000 would benefit 
from the $1,500 Hope Tax Credit, which makes 2 years of community 
college affordable.
  All families with incomes below $100,000 may take advantage of a 
$10,000 tuition tax deduction. The President's budget also provides for 
penalty free withdrawals from IRA's to pay for education expenses. 
Student loan fees will be cut in half, saving students $2.6 billion 
over the budget period. The College Work-Study Program will be expanded 
to help up to 1 million students gain work experience while they earn 
money for college.
  In the area of elementary and secondary education, the President's 
proposal provides significant support for school reform.
  The Information Age has arrived, yet millions of children attend 
school in conditions inadequate to modern needs. By the year 2000, 60 
percent of new jobs will require skills possessed by only 22 percent of 
the young people entering the labor market. Already, more than half of 
high-wage jobs require the use of network computers. Jobs that require 
computers pay 15 percent more, on average, than those that do not.
  Schools across the country are struggling to repair decrepit 
facilities, let alone develop modern classrooms. Fourteen million 
children in a third of the Nation's schools are learning in substandard 
classrooms. Yet enrollments are at an all-time high of 52 million 
students and are continuing to rise.
  We must also do more to help children learn to read--40 percent of 
all children now read below their grade level. Higher standards are 
clearly needed to encourage reading and other basic academic skills.
  The President's proposal responds to these needs by investing almost 
$2 billion in improved education technology over the budget period--a 
$252 million increase in fiscal year 1998 alone.
  The President's plan will also invest $2.45 billion over the budget 
period in the America Reads Challenge, to help children read well by 
the third grade. It invests $5 billion to improve school facilities. 
Funding for Goals 2000 will increase to help children meet higher 
academic standards. Funding for charter schools will increase. The 
title I program and the Eisenhower Teacher Training Program will 
receive increases to give students the extra help they need to improve 
their skills.
  President Clinton's plan is effective and comprehensive. It sets the 
right priority for education, and the right priority for the Nation's 
future. President Clinton has proved once again, that he truly is the 
education President, and I look forward to working with all Members of 
Congress to achieve these essential goals.

                          ____________________