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FY 2005 Budget Facts: Supporting State and Local Implementation of No Child Left Behind
President Bush released his proposed budget for FY 2005 yesterday. To help states and school districts continue delivering on the promise of No Child Left Behind, the President's proposed budget includes the following:
$13.3 billion for Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies, an increase of $1 billion or 8 percent over the 2004 level, to give States and school districts additional resources to turn around low-performing schools, improve teacher quality, and expand choices for students and parents. States would reserve approximately $520 million of these funds for assistance to school districts with the greatest need for improvement efforts. If enacted, the request would result in an overall increase of $4.6 billion, or 52 percent, in Title I Grants to LEAs funding since the passage of the NCLB Act.
$1.1 billion for Reading First State Grants, an increase of $101 million, or 10 percent, to expand the nationwide effort to support comprehensive reading instruction for children in grades K-3. The request would help school districts and schools provide professional development in reading instruction for teachers and administrators, adopt and use reading diagnostic assessments for students in kindergarten through third grade to determine where they need help, implement reading curricula that are based on recent findings of the 2000 National Reading Panel report, and provide reading interventions for young school children reading below grade level.
$132 million for Early Reading First, an increase of $38 million, or 40 percent, for the pre-school component of the Reading First initiative, which funds competitive grants to develop and support the school readiness of preschool-aged children in high-poverty communities.
$333 million in new funding to initiate or expand activities that help meet the goals of the President's new Jobs for the 21st Century initiative by ensuring that all students are prepared to succeed in postsecondary education and the workforce. Specific proposals include the following:
- $100 million for a secondary school reading initiative, Striving Readers, that would focus on developing and implementing research based interventions to improve the skills of teenage students that are reading below grade level;
- $120 million for a new Secondary Education Mathematics Initiative under the Mathematics and Science Partnership program that will make 100-140 competitive grants to ensure that secondary-school mathematics teachers are highly qualified and help mathematics teachers meet the needs of struggling students;
- $40 million for an Adjunct Teacher Corps Initiative to support approximately 60 to 100 awards to partnerships to create and implement arrangements for utilizing well-qualified individuals from business, technology, industry, and other areas as teachers in secondary schools on an adjunct basis;
- $33 million for Enhanced Pell Grants for State Scholars to provide an additional Pell Grant award of up to $1,000 to low-income students who participate in the State Scholars program by taking a rigorous high school curriculum.
- $12 million under the Administration's reauthorization proposal for "Secondary and Technical Education State Grants" to increase the number of States implementing State Scholars programs that encourage high school students to complete a rigorous four-year course of study.
- $28 million for the Advanced Placement program to ensure that teachers in low-income schools are well-trained to teach AP and International Baccalaureate courses and to increase the rigor of the high school curriculum.
$10 million for a Military Families Initiative to address the challenges faced by students from military families that frequently change duty stations, promote smoother transitions to new schools, enable them to continue their education without disruption, and graduate on time.
$185 million for Research, Development, and Dissemination, an increase of $19 million to further our understanding of how students learn and to develop effective practices for improving student achievement through investments in research on reading comprehension, mathematics and science education, and teacher quality.
$410 million for State Assessment Grants to maintain statutorily required levels of support for State-level development and implementation of annual reading and math assessments in grades 3 through 8 by the 2005-2006 school year. The request would make available $10 million for new competitive grants focused on improving the assessment of limited English proficient students and students with disabilities. $681 million for English Language Acquisition to support flexible, performance-based formula grants to help ensure that limited English proficient (LEP) students learn English and meet the same high academic standards as all other students. The NCLB Act replaced a complex series of categorical grants to school districts and institutions of higher education with a flexible program that enables States to design and implement statewide strategies, grounded in scientifically based research, for meeting the educational needs of LEP and immigrant students.
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NCLB Extra Credit is a regular look at the No Child Left Behind Act, President Bush's landmark education reform initiative passed with bipartisan support in Congress.
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Last Modified: 04/01/2004