This is historical material, "frozen in time." The web site is no longer updated and links to external web sites and some internal pages will not work.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release September 7, 1999

|----------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | PRESIDENT CLINTON CALLS ON CONGRESS TO INVEST IN OUR CHILDREN BY |

|           REDUCING CLASS SIZE AND IMPROVING TEACHER QUALITY          | 
|                           September 7, 1999                          |
|                                                                      |

|----------------------------------------------------------------------|

Today, the President will release $33 million in federal grants to improve teacher quality, and will call on Congress to honor its commitment to reduce class sizes in the early grades. The President, meeting with teachers hired through his national class size initiative, also will urge Congress to pass a responsible budget that pays down the debt, strengthens Medicare and Social Security, and invests in national priorities like education. The President will note that Republican tax and budget plans could cause devastating cuts in key education initiatives, including efforts to reduce class size, improve teacher quality and keep schools safe.

IMPROVING TEACHER QUALITY THROUGH INNOVATIVE PARTNERSHIPS. The $33 million in grants that the President will release today were awarded to 25 education partnerships. Each partnership includes a school of arts and sciences, a teacher preparation program from the same higher education institution, and a high-need local school district. The grants will raise student achievement by funding comprehensive approaches to raising teacher quality. They will fund improvements in teacher recruitment, preparation, licensing and certification, and will also provide support to teachers already in the classroom.

RAISING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT BY REDUCING CLASS SIZES IN THE EARLY GRADES TO A NATIONAL AVERAGE OF 18. Last year, Congress made a down payment of $1.2 billion toward the President's goal of hiring 100,000 new teachers to reduce class size in the early grades to a national average of 18. Research has shown that class size reduction in the early grades is one of the most direct and effective ways to boost children's academic achievement. The first 30,000 teachers hired with that down payment start teaching in classrooms across the country this fall. Today, the President will call on Congress to keep its commitment and finish the job. Unfortunately, House Republicans have passed a bill that undermines the class size initiative and fails to guarantee that one cent will be used to hire a single teacher to reduce the size of a single class. In addition, Republicans have passed a tax plan that would undermine investments in class size reduction and other key domestic priorities.

REPUBLICAN TAX AND BUDGET PLANS THREATEN KEY NATIONAL PRIORITIES. President Clinton will urge Congress to enact a responsible budget that pays down the debt, strengthens Medicare and Social Security, and invests in national priorities like education. The President will point out that the Republican tax and budget plan could cause devastating cuts in key initiatives to reduce class size in the early grades, keep schools safe and drug-free, help children learn to read, support after-school programs, and expand access to college. The President will cite Administration estimates of the long-term impact of the Republican plans on key investments to improve our schools and expand access to college. In the tenth year alone of the Republican tax and budget plans, the nation could be forced to deny support to nearly 6 million students in high-poverty communities; withhold from 520,000 children the assistance they need to learn to read; deny 430,000 kids access to Head Start; slash Pell grants, and block hundreds of thousands of students from the opportunity to work their way through college.

*The calculations are based on the Republican budget and tax plans, assuming that Congress also funds defense at the President's requested level. Given this assumption, the budget resolution and the Republican tax plan would require dramatic cuts to domestic discretionary programs -- cutting nearly half from current funding levels by 2009.

# # #