A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

FOR RELEASE
June 14, 2000

Contact:
Roberta Heine (202) 401-3026
Erica Lepping (202) 401-3383

STATEMENT BY U.S SECRETARY OF EDUCATION RICHARD W. RILEY
ON HOUSE EDUCATION BUDGET VOTE

Note to editors: For state-specific information, click the abbreviation below.

AK | AL | AR | AZ | CA | CO | CT | DC | DE | FL | GA | HI | IA | ID | IL | IN | KS | KY | LA | MA | MD | ME | MI | MN | MO | MS | MT | NC | ND | NE | NH | NJ | NM | NV | NY | OH | OK | OR | PA | RI | SC | SD | TN | TX | UT | VA | VT | WA | WI | WV | WY

We have a great opportunity this year to make wise investments in education that can help our nation become more prosperous and more secure. But the appropriations bill passed today by the House majority does not support our nation's schools or our nation's families, and has no connection to the education priorities of Americans.

This bill falls $2.9 billion short of the President's budget request and in some cases is even lower than current funding. What is more, the House has ignored what we know about successful approaches to help students learn and turn around low-performing schools.

Under the Republican bill, hundreds of thousands of working parents across the country will have to continue worrying about what their kids are doing after school since they won't have access to extended learning opportunities in safe, drug-free environments at 21st Century Community Learning Centers. And by zeroing out the President's request for school renovation grants, Congress is virtually guaranteeing that students attending classes in 5,000 of the nation's oldest schools will have to struggle even harder to achieve as the brick and mortar continues to literally crumble around them. We now have the choice of investing in our schools as well as providing tax relief to the communities and individuals that need it most, or choosing, as the Republican-ruled Congress has done, to offer tax reductions to the wealthiest Americans and ignoring compelling education priorities.

This bill would walk away from the bipartisan agreements of the last two years to hire 100,000 new teachers to reduce class size. Under the Republican bill, nearly three million children would be denied the benefits of smaller class size. And communities will be left scrambling to pay 29,000 teachers already in classrooms all across the country. Furthermore, the House bill's teacher-quality funding is $1 billion lower than the President's request, which means less support for moving challenging standards to every classroom, less help for recruiting and retaining teachers in high-poverty districts, and fewer resources to help these districts put certified teachers in every classroom. Teachers want the opportunity to strengthen their skills, but this bill offers too little help to seriously improve teachers' skills in a changing and challenging world.

With this bill, Republican leaders are pushing legislation that has no chance of becoming law and no connection to the education priorities of Americans. This is not the time to run away from our commitment to education but to invest in it and continue the nation's economic prosperity.

###