In addition to a proposed $1 billion teacher-quality program, President Clinton last week previewed several other major proposed increases in his fiscal 2001 budget, which will be released Feb. 7:
- Doubling funding for after-school programs, to $1 billion from $453 million. With that increase, “we can give every child in every failing school in America the chance to meet high standards,” Mr. Clinton said.
- Providing $50 million in bonuses to states that make exemplary progress in improving student performance and closing the achievement gap between high- and low-performing groups of students. States would be eligible for bonuses based on substantial overall improvements in student performance and significant narrowing of the achievement gap as indicated by performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
- Increasing funding for the Head Start preschool program by $1 billion, to $6.3 billion. The proposal also includes a $600 million Early Learning Fund to improve child-care quality and early-childhood education for children under 5.
- Increasing the size of the president’s Title I Accountability Fund, approved in last-minute budget negotiations last year, from $134 million to $250 million. The program provides rewards to states for turning around or closing schools that have consistently failed to meet standards.
- Increasing the administration’s $1.3 billion class-size-reduction program to $1.75 billion, to continue toward the goal of hiring 100,000 new teachers over seven years.
- Adding an unspecified amount of funding to help increase the number of charter schools from 1,700 to 3,000 by next year.
—Joetta L. Sack
