DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR 1989 TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 1988. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FISCAL YEAR 1989 BUDGET REQUEST WITNESSES HON. WILLIAM J. BENNETT, SECRETARY LINUS WRIGHT, UNDER SECRETARY BRUCE M. CARNES, DEPUTY UNDER SECRETARY FOR PLANNING, BUDGET, AND EVALUATION CHAIRMAN'S INTRODUCTORY REMARKS Mr. NATCHER. At this time, we take up the budget request for the Department of Education for the fiscal year 1989. We have before the committee the Secretary of Education, Mr. Bennett. Mr. Bennett, it is a distinct privilege and honor to have you appear back before our committee. As we said to you the first year that you appeared, we wanted you to be a good Secretary of Education and we said that as long as you are for education, you are at the right place. Mr. Secretary, the budget request as you well remember that was submitted to our subcommittee last year for education was just a little over $14,000,000,000. FISCAL YEAR 1989 BUDGET REQUEST The budget that has been submitted to our subcommittee and to the Congress for fiscal year 1989 for education for the fiscal year 1989 is $21,097,731,000. That is a considerable increase over the amount submitted last year. As you will recall, we ended up in the Continuing Resolution last year. We passed our bill in the House on August 5 with a total of $20,178,000,000. Now, the $21,097,731,000 that you and your Department have submitted for the fiscal year 1989 does not include Indian education. If that were added, of course, that amount would go up. MANAGING THE BILL ON THE HOUSE FLOOR Mr. Secretary, I call those figures to your attention, figures that you are well acquainted with, and I want you to know that when Mr. Conte and Mr. Pursell and Mr. Obey and all the rest of the members of this subcommittee take this bill to the Floor, we need all the help we can get. The House helps us. You know, one year, Mr. Secretary, we passed this bill in the House in an hour and 53 minutes, and we are right proud of that. I say to you, frankly, everyone helps us. This is a bill that should go through the House in one hour. All appropriations for health and education are appropriations that mean a whole lot to the people in this country, and you know better than I do when you take care of the health of your people and educate your children, you then remain the strongest country in the world. So, we are right proud of it on this subcommittee. You know, Mr. Conte and I, when we take this bill to the Floor with the other members of the subcommittee, they walk up the aisle and they come by and they say, Mr. Conte, is everything in this bill that is supposed to be in here? You told them, yes; I would do the same thing. Mr. Conte, as you well know, they all help us and we appreciate it. Mr. Secretary, it is a distinct honor and privilege to have you back with us, and we will be glad to hear from you. Tell us who you have with you at the table. INTRODUCTION OF WITNESSES Secretary BENNETT. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, gentlemen. It is a pleasure to be back with you this morning, Mr. Natcher. Let me introduce my colleagues: Linus Wright, to my right, is the new Under Secretary of the Department of Education and former Superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District. We are happy to have Linus with us. Bruce Carnes, whom you know, is Deputy Under Secretary in the Office of Planning, Budget, and Evaluation. You have a statement of mine, Mr. Natcher, that I submitted for the record. Let me just give you some of the highlights in a couple of minutes, in the interest of time. FISCAL YEAR 1989 BUDGET REQUEST As usual, we are pleased to appear before you to discuss the 1989 budget for the Department. We are requesting, as you pointed out, $21,200,000,000, an increase of $851,000,000 over the 1988 appropriation. UNDERSCORING PRINCIPLE OF ACCOUNTABILITY As you pointed out, our budget for 1989 does spend more and we do request more, a good deal more than we requested last year. But I think more important, it spends better. Last year, we proposed to the Congress that the principle of accountability be applied to Chapter 1, the largest Federal elementary and secondary education programs; and to the programs of the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act. The Congress is moving to adopt these important concepts. This year, we want to continue and expand efforts to foster accountabil ity in Federal education programs. Let me briefly highlight some of our priorities and initiatives. CHAPTER 1 REQUEST For Chapter 1, we are requesting $4,600,000,000, an increase of $238,000,000. This request, keeping with our authorization proposals, will try to put accountability for results into our Chapter 1 pro gram. MAGNET SCHOOLS REQUEST Magnet schools are a highlight of this budget. As they are one of the real success stories of the education reform movement for 1989, we are requesting $115,000,000, a $43,000,000 increase. "FIRST" REQUEST As you know, the Nation needs more good teachers who know their subjects. We are therefore requesting $10,000,000 to support the new Fund for the Improvement and Reform of Schools and Teaching. We want to look at alternative certification programs and other things which will bring new talent into the teaching profession. BILINGUAL EDUCATION REQUEST For Bilingual Education, we request $157,000,000, an increase of $10,000,000; again, with our recommendation to give local schools increased flexibility in choosing the best instructional approaches to help students become proficient in English. DRUG EDUCATION REQUEST Illegal drug use remains a serious problem in schools and among our youth. We are seeking $250,000,000, the maximum amount authorized to fund the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act. Once again, here we expect the Congress to adopt our proposal for greater accountability in the use of these funds. VOCATIONAL AND ADULT EDUCATION REQUEST For vocational education, we are asking for $888,000,000. For adult education, $150,000,000, an increase of $16,000,000. SPECIAL EDUCATION AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES REQUEST Handicapped children and disabled adults remain a high priority. Our request of $3,600,000,000, an increase of $77,000,000, will help us to assist over 4,000,000 children and 1,000,000 adults. STUDENT FINANCIAL AID REQUEST In our 1989 student aid budget, we are asking for $8,800,000,000 to provide increased aid to almost 6,000,000 college students, postsecondary institution students. We project that total student aid available as generated by total Federal aid will increase by nearly $800,000,000 to $16,500,000,000. Most of the increase will be in Pell Grants, where we seek to increase the maximum grant to $2,300. Other changes are proposed in the Pell Grant program as wel We seek an increase in our Income Contingent Loan Program begun last year on a demonstration basis. We are requesting an in crease in our grants to historically black colleges and universities In the campus-based aid programs, accountability will be a them as well. COLLEGE SAVINGS BONDS PROPOSAL Current student aid policies, we think, often do fail to reward savings and, indeed discourage savings. To counter this, we are pro posing college savings bonds, a cost-effective means of providing for our children's future. LOAN DEFAULT PROPOSALS As you know, our student aid system continues to grow, and the heavy fiscal burden of defaulted loans costs taxpayers $1,600,000,000 a year. We are once again asking the Congress to close the ability to benefit loophole, and we recommend a whole host of other changes to get a hold of this problem. OTHER PROGRAM REQUESTS We request a $2,000,000 increase for a total of $13,600,000 for the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education; for Research and Statistics, $81,000,000, an increase of $13,000,000; and we are requesting that library programs be funded at $76,000,000. We are asking the Congress to give us the authority in our discretionary programs to award challenge grants to educational institutions. One of the best things we can do is raise two or three private dollars for every Federal dollar. PENDING REAUTHORIZING LEGISLATION—H.R. 5 Let me mention one technical matter. This budget proposal contains elementary, secondary and adult education funding based on legislation now pending in the Congress, H.R. 5. After enactment of this legislation, which they are still working out, we will be transmitting a revised budget allocation reflecting the changes made in the final version of H.R. 5. Depending on the final form of the legislation, the distribution of funds you see here may change some, I think to a small degree. In any case, our policies would remain the same. POSTSECONDARY BUDGET ISSUES Let me take a minute, if I might now, to update a couple of issues, because in these hearings, we have not only discussed our budget request, but have used that basis as a fulcrum for talking about some of the broader issues in education. PROPORTION OF GRANTS TO LOANS I just described a number of the areas in higher education, student aid and the like, and we have put up this chart to indicate the availability of Federal student aid. There has been a lot of discus |