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

THE CLINTON LEGISLATIVE PACKAGE FOR EDUCATION:

Bills enacted by the 103rd Congress

THE GOALS 2000: EDUCATE AMERICA ACT is based on the premise that all students must be held to higher academic standards. The Goals 2000 Act assists communities and states with funds to develop and implement their own school improvements based on local, "bottom-up" initiatives. Improvement plans will include ways to strengthen academic achievement, improve discipline, increase parent involvement, better utilize technology, and ensure that teachers have access to better professional development. The Act also provides schools, school districts, and states a way to cut through red tape by allowing for extensive waivers. The new law formally commits the nation to pursuing eight national education goals and establishes a National Education Goals Panel to report progress. Forty states and territories have already applied for first-year planning funds.

Also included in Goals 2000:

THE SAFE SCHOOLS ACT recognizes that learning is almost impossible if classrooms and playgrounds are under siege. The act provides funds to schools plagued with serious crime to develop violence prevention initiatives. Schools receiving funds will be expected to teach students ways to resolve conflicts peacefully, and they also may use some funds for increasing security personnel and acquiring metal detectors. The act also authorizes the Secretary of Education to conduct various national activities, including research and evaluation, data collection, and training and technical assistance in support of safe and drug-free schools.

THE EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, DISSEMINATION AND IMPROVEMENT ACT strengthens the federal effort to support research and to collect and disseminate information about successful teaching and learning practices. The new law establishes priorities for research: basic and applied research on student achievement; education of at-risk students; policy making and management; early childhood development and education; and postsecondary education, libraries, and lifelong learning. A new Office of Reform Assistance and Dissemination will provide teachers, parents, administrators and policymakers with information on promising and exemplary programs.

THE SCHOOL-TO-WORK OPPORTUNITIES ACT is built on the knowledge that tomorrow's high-wage jobs will require high academic and workplace skills developed in secondary and postsecondary school. Under the act, states and communities form partnerships with schools, postsecondary institutions and employers to design systems in which students learn both in the classroom and at the worksite. School-to-work is jointly administered by the Departments of Education and Labor. Initial state and community grants have already been awarded.

THE IMPROVING AMERICA'S SCHOOLS ACT, which reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, targets funds to areas of greatest poverty and provides schools with greater flexibility to use federal aid to ensure that students with special needs, especially economically disadvantaged, migrant, and limited English proficient students, are taught to high standards. The nearly $11 billion bill also expands professional development opportunities for teachers; promotes safe and drug- free schools and supports desegregation efforts through magnet schools. New provisions provide resources for improved use of technology for teaching and learning and federal seed money for local charter schools initiatives.

THE NATIONAL SERVICE TRUST ACT creates opportunities to earn or pay back college tuition through some kind of public service. Under Americorps grants to various agencies and organizations, thousands of volunteers are already at work in neighborhoods and schools across the country.

THE STUDENT LOAN REFORM ACT broadens access to higher education by making it easier for borrowers to obtain and repay loans for higher education. A new direct loan program permits students to receive a loan from a campus student aid office, eliminating various "middlemen" from the transaction. In addition to the ease in borrowing, the new loan system will permit student borrowers to tailor their monthly payments to their income level. Taxpayers are expected to save billions of dollars in coming years through lower loan default rates. The loans are now available at more than 100 schools. More than 1,000 schools will offer direct loans next year.