Elementary and Secondary Education Message to the Congress.

To the Congress of the United States:

I am submitting today my proposals to strengthen our major elementary and secondary education programs. These are one part of a concerted effort to reestablish education in the forefront of our domestic priorities. The other parts are major increases in the Federal education budget, establishment of a Cabinet-level Department of Education, and our proposal for a significant expansion of eligibility for college student assistance.

The proposals which I am now submitting for elementary and secondary education seek to enhance the primary role of the states and local communities in educating our Nation's children and reaffirm the need for a strong and supportive Federal commitment to education. They will:

—strengthen our commitment to basic skills education in Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act—the compensatory education program; and add a new provision to concentrate a major share of increased Title I funding on those school systems most in need;

—create a new program to encourage state implementation of their own compensatory education programs;

—provide additional flexibility in the Emergency School Aid Act, designed to assist in desegregation, so that funds can be retargeted from areas where they are no longer needed to areas of greater need;

—create a new research and demonstration effort in the area of basic skills, and enhance our efforts to link schools with employers and other community resources;

—implement a phased, gradual but substantial reform of the Impact Aid Program;

—strengthen the bilingual education program with emphasis on teaching English as a primary and overriding goal but permitting flexibility in use of first language and culturally sensitive approaches to help achieve this goal;

—strengthen participation of private schools in existing grant programs.

We can be justly proud of the accomplishments of our system of education. Education has promoted understanding among a diverse people; it has been the springboard to advancement for generations of our citizens; and it has produced the skills and knowledge required for this country to have the most advanced economy in the world.

Yet our schools face many important challenges. We must do a better job of teaching the basic skills of reading, writing and mathematics. We must remain committed to full and equal educational opportunity for all children. We must help students achieve educational excellence. We must responsibly reduce the financial barriers that limit access to higher education. And we must give education a more prominent and visible role in the Federal government.

We will face these challenges and overcome them. No asset is of greater value to our Nation and no commitment is so characteristic of the American people as our strong commitment to educate all our children.

EDUCATION BUDGET

The Administration's budget proposals for the coming year show the priority we give to education. Our FY 1979 budget contains $12.9 billion in appropriations for the Education Division of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. That represents an increase of 24 percent above the FY 1978 level and a total increase of 46 percent and $4 billion in the last two fiscal years.

I have requested appropriations of $6.9 billion for elementary and secondary education, an increase of fifteen percent over FY 1978. This increase is the largest since the creation of the program and exceeds the FY 1977 budget by $1.7 billion. Along with these increases goes a forty percent increase in student assistance programs for higher education and a new effort to expand the reach of these programs to moderate income families hard-pressed by escalating tuition costs. Funding for these student assistance programs will rise from $3.8 billion in FY 1978 to $5.2 billion in FY 1979.

This budget reflects the judgment, widely shared by the Congress, that improving the education of our children is a wise investment in our future.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

I have instructed the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare to work with Congress on legislation needed to establish a Department of Education which will:

—let us focus on Federal educational policy, at the highest levels of our government;

—permit closer coordination of Federal education programs and other related activities;

—reduce Federal regulations and reporting requirements and cut duplication;

—assist school districts, teachers, and parents to make better use of local resources and ingenuity.

A separate Cabinet-level department will enable the Federal government to be a true partner with State, local, and private education institutions in sustaining and improving the quality of our education system.

COLLEGE STUDENT ASSISTANCE

I recently proposed a major expansion of the programs providing financial assistance to students in higher education. Average college costs have increased by seventy-seven percent in the last ten years. At average costs of $4,500 per year in private higher education and $2,500 in public universities low and middle income families are finding it difficult to send their children to college. No able student should be denied a college education because his or her family cannot afford tuition, room and board.

My proposals will increase the number of students receiving assistance from three million to more than five million at a cost of $1.46 billion. The proposals would:

—expand the Basic Educational Opportunity Grants program to serve students from families with incomes up to $25,000 and increase the maximum grant to $1,800;

—make interest-subsidized Guaranteed Student Loans available to families with incomes up to $45,000;

—provide part-time jobs to college students through an expanded College Work-Study Program.

This coordinated program is the best way to meet the needs of our students and their families. I strongly oppose the enactment of a tuition tax credit.

A college tuition tax credit would cost too much, would provide benefits to those without need, would provide less benefit to genuinely hard-pressed families than the proposals we have advanced, and would fragment educational policy within the executive and legislative branches of the Federal government.

A choice must be made. We cannot afford-and I will not accept—both a tuition tax credit and the increased student aid I have proposed. I strongly urge the Congress to act responsibly on the Administration's proposals.

ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION AMENDMENTS OF 1978

The legislation I am submitting today involves the major elementary and secondary education programs. Since the Administration of Lyndon Johnson the primary role of these Federal programs has been to support improvements in educational quality for all children and improve the educational opportunities and achievements of the disadvantaged, the handicapped, those with limited English language skills, Native Americans and other minorities. I propose to continue and strengthen the use of Federal resources to meet special needs, and Federal leadership in research and innovation.

These programs must focus on the mastery of the basic skills necessary to function in our highly complex society. Every child should obtain the basic skills of reading, writing and mathematics early in his or her educational career. This should be the fundamental goal for our entire education system, and I hope that Federal leadership will help us meet that goal at every level of our school system.

SPECIAL PROGRAMS FOR DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN

I propose to improve Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act which provides supplemental educational services to economically disadvantaged children.

1. Concentration of Resources

Recent evaluations show that Title I is beginning to raise the achievement levels of low-income students. I propose to build upon this success by incorporating in the reauthorization of the Act a separate authority to increase help for school districts with high concentrations of poor children. The amendments I propose will target additional Title I funds to school districts with large numbers of poor children (5,000 or more) or large proportions of poor children (20 percent or more), for use in programs with a strong emphasis on basic skills. I have requested $400 million in the 1979 budget for this proposal, which would aid 3,500 school districts and could increase the number of Title I eligible children served to 6.5 million.

This targeting of additional funds on areas of greatest need will be of special benefit to urban school systems with concentrations of low-income children. It is an important part of our efforts to help meet the needs of our cities. Yet the problems of educational disadvantage are not unique to cities; therefore, while 67% of the funds will flow to center-city school systems, 33% will flow to rural and suburban school systems which have similar needs.

2. State Programs for Disadvantaged Children

Strong State efforts are clearly necessary to fully meet the needs of disadvantaged children. Currently, however, fewer than twenty States have special programs to aid disadvantaged students. To encourage the creation of compensatory education programs at the State level, I recommend that a share of future increases in the Title I program be allocated, on the basis of one Federal dollar for every two State dollars, to States with qualified compensatory education programs of their own. In fiscal year 1980 twenty percent of any increases would be devoted to this matching program. In future years an increasing percentage would be made available.

I hope this Federal incentive program will encourage a response at the State level which will give greater opportunities to millions of children.

EMERGENCY SCHOOL AID ACT

We must move aggressively to end the last vestiges of racial and ethnic mistrust and disharmony in our schools and in our society as a whole. Great progress toward that goal has been made, particularly in the South, but much remains to be done.

The Emergency School Aid Act has helped numerous local school districts respond to the problems of racial isolation and improve education for all their children. I recommend amendments to that legislation which would:

—encourage voluntary local initiatives to overcome the adverse effects of minority group isolation;

—offer flexibility to meet the needs of desegregating districts;

—and encourage multi-year planning and implementation of desegregation.

To give us more flexibility in meeting changing needs, I propose to increase the share of discretionary funds from 22 percent to 42 percent. This will permit allocation of resources to areas of greatest need. At the same time I am recommending a new system of multi-year grants which will sharply reduce paperwork and will help local school systems plan for the future.

BASIC SKILLS

The Federal government can play an important role in funding research and demonstration projects which will show us how to improve the quality and effectiveness of our educational system. Student achievement can be improved through innovation, and a concentration on basic skills. I propose several improvements in this area:

—the creation of a new Basic Skills and Educational Quality title in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act which would encourage state and local demonstration efforts to improve basic skills in reading, writing and mathematics, including increased use of achievement testing and the participation by parents in teaching their children;

—the creation of a new Special Projects title in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to consolidate educational quality developmental programs and provide greater flexibility; and strengthen our efforts, through the Community Schools program, to link the school with employers and other resources in the surrounding community;

—changes in the Adult Education Act to put more emphasis on competency in basic skills and on obtaining high school credentials, and to increase sponsorship of adult education programs by business, labor and other community organizations.

IMPACT AID

Reform of Impact Aid is a challenge which must be faced. The purpose of the program is to compensate school districts for the cost of educating children when local revenues are reduced by tax-exempt federally-owned land and when local school enrollments are increased by children whose parents live and for work on that land. Yet Impact Aid, as currently structured, has strayed far from that purpose.

The legislation I propose makes realistic and responsible reforms:

—elimination of payments for children whose parents work on Federal property outside the country in which the school district is located;

—a two-year cap on payments which are based on public housing at the 1978 level followed by a phase out of the payments;

—an "absorption" provision which will reduce funding for lightly impacted districts by eliminating payments for children of Federal employees below three percent of non-federal enrollment.

To ease the adjustment to these changes I recommend a gradually declining "hold-harmless" provision under which no district will receive less than seventy-five percent of its previous year's payments over the next three years. I also propose that advance funding be made so that districts can be notified early of their allocations.

These proposals will save $76 million in FY 1979 and $336 million in FY 1982. I believe they are a realistic way to start bringing the Impact Aid program into line with the actual Federal burden on local school districts.

BILINGUAL EDUCATION

Three million children today lack equal access to education in our schools because of their limited English-speaking ability. The Bilingual Education Act is designed to help local school systems develop and implement programs to help these children. The proposals I am submitting today will improve the bilingual education program by:

—emphasizing the overriding goal of achieving proficiency in English;

—permitting the flexible use of instructional materials and teaching techniques appropriate and sensitive to the language, background and needs of the child;

—making parents more involved;

—requiring that individual programs be of sufficient scope and duration to have a substantial educational impact;

—allowing English speaking children to take part in bilingual education programs;

—providing more money for teacher training and emphasizing the use of bilingual teachers; and

—increasing research in new teaching techniques.

Because the Bilingual Education Program is a demonstration program, every effort must be made to ensure that funds are used to help local school districts to establish and maintain programs of their own. To ensure that Federal demonstration funds benefit as many children as possible, I am proposing that program grants ordinarily be limited to five years. Districts will be required to show how they will ensure that educational progress is maintained following the phase-out of grant monies.

In addition, I am proposing that the Office of Bilingual Education be made responsible for coordinating bilingual education aspects of other programs administered by the Office of Education.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS

Private schools—particularly parochial schools—are an important part of our diverse educational system. Federal education programs have long required benefits to go to eligible students in both public and private schools. But this requirement has not been effective in practice. I am committed to doing all that the Constitution allows to ensure students in private schools benefit from Federal programs.

I propose the following changes to improve services to private school students:

—States will be required to develop plans for ensuring the equitable participation of private school students in all Federal educational programs.

—The Title I program will be changed to require that economically disadvantaged children in private schools receive comparable funds to those received by public school students, with similar needs.

—Where a school district fails to provide appropriate Federal educational benefits under any program to eligible private school children, authority will be used to by-pass the district and use another agency to provide constitutionally permissible services.

Private school children must receive fair treatment under Federal education programs. However I cannot support a tax credit for private elementary and secondary school tuition. First, there is grave doubt that such a tax credit program can meet Constitutional requirements concerning separation of church and State. Second, the Federal government provides funding primarily to help meet the needs of public school children who are disadvantaged, or handicapped, or bilingual, or who have some other form of special need. We do not provide general support for public schools and it would be unfair to extend such support, through a general tax credit, to private schools.

I will continue to do all I can, within Constitutional limits, to provide for full and equitable participation of private schools and their students in Federal education efforts.

WOMEN'S EDUCATIONAL EQUITY ACT

In order to assist in the elimination of sexual discrimination in education I propose to make the Women's Educational Equity Act an independent authority and expand its role in assisting local school districts.

CONCLUSION

The proposals I have outlined today-to strengthen our basic education laws, substantially increase the education budget and undertake major organizational reform aimed at creating a Cabinet-level Department of Education—set forth a far-reaching agenda for education. These proposals are important not only for what they offer our children today, but for what they offer to all of us in the future: a country that is stronger, more united and better equipped to meet the challenges that lie before us.

JIMMY CARTER

The White House,

February 28, 1978.