Setting High Standards and Providing Historic New Investment For Our Schools

More High-Quality Teachers for Smaller Class Sizes

• Won a second installment of the President's plan to hire 100,000 well-prepared teachers to reduce class size in the early grades, when children learn to read and master the basic skills. $1.2 billion was provided in FY99, helping states put almost 30,000 new teachers in the classrooms by the fall.
• After vetoing a Congressional budget that did not guarantee funding for teachers, the Clinton-Gore Administration won $1.3 billion for the Class Size Reduction Initiative in 2000, keeping schools on track to hiring 100,000 new teachers over the next six years.

[source: Education Department, Local Success Stories - Reducing Class Size, 11/99]

Teaching Every Child to Read by the 3rd Grade

• The President challenged Americans to unite to be sure that every child can read well and independently by the third grade. In response to his America Reads challenge, more than 1100 colleges have committed Work Study students to tutor children in reading, and more than 2 million children have been taught, tutored or mentored by national service programs like AmeriCorps, VISTA, and Foster Grandparents.

[source: Department of Education, America Reads Challenge, "About Us"]

Increasing Title I Funding, Turning Around Failing Schools

• 11 million low-income students now benefit from higher expectations and a challenging curriculum geared to higher standards. The FY00 budget provides $134 million to help turn around the worst performing schools and hold them accountable for results.

[source: Secretary of Education Statement, Senate Comm on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, 2/9/99]

Providing Safe After-School Opportunities for 675,000 Each Year

• President Clinton and Vice President Gore doubled funding for after-school programs in just one year. The 21st Century Community Learning Centers program keeps public schools open longer and provides safe and educational after-school opportunities for 675,000 school-age children in rural and urban communities -- 375,000 more than 1999.

[source: National Economic Council, 11/18/99]

Raising Academic Standards with Goals 2000

• Since 1993, 49 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have set higher academic standards for public schools by adopting comprehensive Goals 2000 plans for education reform.

[source: Education Department, Goals 2000 Education and Related Items, 9/8/99]

Expanding Access to 21st Century Technology

• President Clinton and Vice President Gore have set an ambitious national goal of ensuring that every child is technologically literate.
• The number of classrooms connected to the Internet has increased from 3 percent in 1994 to 51 percent in 1998, and we are on track to reach our goal of connecting every classroom by the year 2000.
• The number of schools connected to the Internet has increased from 35 percent in 1994 to 89 percent in 1998.
• The "e-rate", proposed by Vice President Gore and passed as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, is providing $2.25 billion in 20% - 90% discounts to connect schools and libraries to the Internet, with the deepest discounts going to the poorest schools that need it most. The e-rate alone has provided Internet access for children in more than 1 million classrooms.
• Under President Clinton and Vice President Gore, total federal investment in educational technology has increased from $23 million in 1993 to over $3 billion today.
• Grants supported by the Department of Education are training 400,000 new teachers to use technology effectively in the classroom.
• President Clinton and Vice President Gore have created the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund to help connect every school to the Internet by 2000.

[source: FY 2000 Budget, p. 67; National Center for Education Statistics, Issue Brief NCES 99-017, 2/99, Domestic Policy Council 12/15/99]

Supporting Local Education Reform Efforts

• President Clinton signed the Education Flexibility Partnership Act of 1999 (Ed-Flex) into law in April 1999, giving all states greater flexibility in the use of federal education funds in exchange for greater accountability for helping all students reach high academic standards.

[source: White House, Office of the Press Secretary, 4/27/99]

Expanding Choice and Accountability in Public Schools

• Charter schools have boomed under President Clinton and Vice President Gore. The number of public charter schools has increased from one in the nation in 1993 to more than 1,200 charter schools in 1998. With at least 1,700 charter schools expected to operate this year, the nation is more than halfway to the President's goal of establishing 3,000 quality charter schools by 2002.

[source: Education Department Press Release, 8/28/99]

Providing Early Education to Nearly 900,000 Children with Head Start

• President Clinton and Vice President Gore expanded Head Start and increased funding by 90 percent so that more than 240,000 additional children are enrolled in today than in 1993. We are on track to serve 1 million children in 2002.
• The Clinton-Gore administration initiated Early Head Start, providing quality care for young children in the critical early years of life, and set high quality standards for both programs.
• Head Start is now reaching more young children than at any time since its creation in 1965, and will serve an additional 44,000 in 2000.

[source: HHS, Administration of Children and Families; National Economic Council, 11/18/99]