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

Remarks of
Richard W. Riley
U.S. Secretary of Education

Title I Press Conference
Washington, D.C.
Thursday, February 1, 1996

The largest investment across America to help boost poor achievement in basic and advanced skills is Title I. More than 50,000 schools across the country, including two- thirds of our elementary schools, use Title I funds to provide more individualized instruction, smaller classes, extra time to learn after school, use of computers, and more parental involvement. Title I provides critical help to schools with low-income students. In 1994, the President and Congress redesigned Title I to move away from a watered-down curriculum and emphasize raising expectations and raising standards of teaching and learning in the entire school. This redesign of Title I also involves more flexibility and creative decision-making at the school level. And we are insisting on strict accountability for better results.

Yet today the majority in Congress is trying to push through a punishing and senseless cut in Title I. With the fiscal year nearly half over, they have failed to pass an appropriations bill for education. Instead they have approved continuing resolutions that would -- if extended on the same terms throughout the fiscal year -- cut Title I by $1.1 billion, deny extra help in the basics to more than a million children, and could throw out of work as many as 40,000 to 50,000 teachers and teacher aides across the country. That course represents a stealth cut -- and a retreat from our responsibility to improve education in America.

In Chicago, these cuts could translate into the layoff of about 600 teachers. In San Diego, 50 schools would be eliminated from Title I and more than 11,000 students denied services. The pain would be felt in smaller communities as well. In the Beaver Local School District in northeastern Ohio, for example, these cuts would wipe out the Title I middle school program, including three teachers and remedial reading and math for 120 children.

It is baffling to me how elected officials who talk about our obligation to the next generation are so willing to take away the assistance that youngsters need in reading and math. Unless Congress changes course, these students will become innocent casualties of its misplaced budget priorities. Furthermore, as 16 Republican members of the House of Representatives wrote to Congressman Livingston in November, "Drastically reducing education funding threatens our nation's future economic growth." As that letter makes clear, investment in education ought to be a bipartisan priority.

It is unfortunate that some of the folks most critical of the level of student achievement want to take away the resources that will help to lift that level. It also defies logic that the majority in Congress is poised to make unprecedented cuts while local school officials must come to terms with expected record enrollments. We expect an increase of about 15 percent in high school students over the next 10 years.

It is not just the ends the majority in Congress is pursuing -- massive cuts in education -- but the means they have chosen -- stopgap funding measures -- that are deeply troubling.

For all the talk we hear about being sensitive to local needs and facilitating local decision- making, the majority in Congress is sowing great uncertainty and anxiety for local school officials, parents, and teachers. In the past, Congress has passed appropriations in time for states and school districts to learn what their allocations would be six months or more before the start of the next school year. This year Congress seems content to keep local school officials in the dark, unable to plan effectively for the coming academic year. Title I ought to be about high standards, not high anxiety.

Before we go any further down this path, before we simply say that more than a million students who need extra help in reading and math are out of luck and thousands of teachers whose services we desperately need are out of work, Congress ought to go back to basics-- adequate funding, on a year-long basis, to help improve teaching and learning in local schools.

Last week, a majority of the Senate and almost half the House voted to restore education funding to the fiscal year 1995 levels. Parents and teachers all over the country tell me we must invest in improving education -- our future depends on it. I hope the Congress will heed these voices in the coming weeks and keep faith with America's children.

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