Politicians Hail Increases in Education Budget

Needy students of color will have a chance to obtain larger Pell Grants for college under new legislation President Clinton signed in December. The top federal Pell Grant will increase to $3,750 next year, up $450 from current funding as a result of the new bipartisan budget agreement between Congress and the White House. The figure represents a major increase for education advocates, who succeeded in getting the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate and Clinton administration to go beyond funding recommendations they outlined earlier in 2000.
To pay for the increase, Congress and the White House added an extra $1 billion to the federal Pell Grant budget.
With Pell Grants and other major funding increases, the new budget package is "a landmark in the nation's commitment to education," says Education Secretary Richard Riley. House Republican leaders such as Rep. William Goodling, R-Pa., chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, also hailed the agreement. The budget "will help to increase student achievement" while empowering schools to improve their services, said Goodling, who is retiring this month.

Here is how other programs fared under the new budget:
n TRIO: These college access programs will get an extra $85 million, or a 15 percent increase, in funding for 2001. As a result,  TRIO will receive $730 million this year. The increase may be large enough to support new activities to encourage retention among first- and second-year college students.
The Clinton administration and advocates had proposed $35 million for these new retention programs, under which grantees would have the flexibility to offer more services and grants above and beyond the current Pell Grant maximum level.

n CHILD CARE: Low-income college students also will get a chance for more federal child-care aid under the new budget. The final agreement earmarks $25 million for the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CAMPUS) program, a new program created under the 1998 Higher Education Act Amendments. This program had received only $5 million in 2000, but both colleges and the education department say the program's funding fell far short of demand. As a result of the increase, the federal government will be able to offer more competitive program grants in 2001.