Education Funding

Republicans Settle on Generous Budget Bill

By David J. Hoff — October 02, 1996 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Republicans last week outbid President Clinton for this year’s education budget.

A team of congressional appropriators offered to raise Department of Education spending $3.5 billion--$673 million more than Mr. Clinton requested--for the fiscal year that begins this week, according to officials familiar with the proposal. Republican leaders and White House aides late last week haggled over unresolved issues in a mammoth spending plan designed to settle the federal budget for the full year. Most education issues had been settled as of last Thursday evening.

Congressional and Clinton administration officials were confident they could reach a final compromise in time to keep the government open for the Oct. 1 beginning of the 1997 fiscal year.

“It’s quite extraordinary that the [Republican] majority has finally realized that it’s important to provide substantial funding for education,” said Undersecretary of Education Marshall S. Smith. “It’s accurate to say that the public pressure has been the biggest factor” in persuading Republicans to go beyond Mr. Clinton’s request.

But a Republican involved in writing the plan said the majority had a more practical reason for giving in to Mr. Clinton.

“We can legislate, but the president has to sign it,” said Rep. John Edward Porter, R-Ill., the chairman of the House subcommittee that writes the education-spending plan. “It’s an election year, and people would rather fight their differences at home.”

Everybody Wins

Two weeks before the end of the fiscal year, the House and Senate sent signals that they wanted to at least match Mr. Clinton’s school-spending request. But they offered a different list of programs they wanted to boost.

When faced with the question of whether to favor GOP priorities or the president’s, Congress last week appeared to choose both, proposing to spend a total of $28.7 billion in fiscal 1997.

House Republicans sought an increase in special education spending, so they would add $784 million to raise the program’s spending to $4 billion, sources said. That would be $483 million more than Mr. Clinton sought.

To satisfy the president, Republicans matched the $491 million he requested for the Goals 2000: Educate America Act and would pump an extra $464 million into the Title I remedial-education program, raising its total to $7.7 billion.

White House and congressional leaders spent last Friday morning in talks and hoped to complete a compromise the House would pass that evening, said Elizabeth Morra, a spokeswoman for the House Appropriations Committee.

The Senate was then expected to pass the final compromise over the weekend and send it to President Clinton in time to for him to sign the bill before the new fiscal year.

Va. Waiver Unresolved

The only major education issue unresolved late last week involved a waiver Virginia officials sought to allow their participation in Goals 2000. The state wants to spend its Goals 2000 money on computers and software. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley denied that request because he says the law requires the state write a thorough school-reform plan that explains how purchasing technology would accomplish those goals.

The Education Department would prefer that Virginia allow school districts to compete for Goals 2000 money to implement their own reform plans.

In a separate section of the bill, Sen. James M. Jeffords, R-Vt., sought $40 million to pay for repairing schools here. The $40 million would be added to $40.7 million in federal money already sent to the District of the Columbia.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the October 02, 1996 edition of Education Week as Republicans Settle on Generous Budget Bill

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Funding Biden's Budget Proposes Smaller Bump to Education Spending
The president requested increases to Title I and IDEA, and funding to expand preschool access in his 2025 budget proposal.
7 min read
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on lowering prices for American families during an event at the YMCA Allard Center on March 11, 2024, in Goffstown, N.H.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on lowering prices for American families during an event at the YMCA Allard Center on March 11, 2024, in Goffstown, N.H. Biden's administration released its 2025 budget proposal, which includes a modest spending increase for the Education Department.
Evan Vucci/AP
Education Funding States Are Pulling Back on K-12 Spending. How Hard Will Schools Get Hit?
Some states are trimming education investments as financial forecasts suggest boom times may be over.
6 min read
Collage illustration of California state house and U.S. currency background.
F. Sheehan for Education Week / Getty
Education Funding Using AI to Guide School Funding: 4 Takeaways
One state is using AI to help guide school funding decisions. Will others follow?
5 min read
 Illustration of a robot hand drawing a graph line leading to budget and finalcial spending.
iStock/Getty
Education Funding A State Uses AI to Determine School Funding. Is This the Future or a Cautionary Tale?
Nevada reworked its funding formula hoping to target extra aid to students most in need. What happened could hold lessons for other states.
13 min read
Illustration of robotic hand putting coins into jar.
iStock / Getty Images Plus