================================================================= ALAWON Volume 7, Number 34 ISSN 1069-7799 April 1, 1998 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (136 lines) NEA/NEH APPROPRIATIONS HEARING ON MARCH 26 ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION APPROPRIATIONS HEARING ON MARCH 26 _________________________________________________________________ NEA/NEH APPROPRIATIONS HEARING ON MARCH 26 On March 26 the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, chaired by Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA), held a hearing on FY99 appropriations for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Acting Chairman Kathryn Higgins and NEA Senior Deputy Chairman Scott Shanklin-Peterson appeared on behalf of NEA, pending Senate approval of William J. Ivey, the Presidential nominee for NEA chairman. Shanklin-Peterson asked for $20 million in new funding to support NEA's ArtsREACH program. ArtsREACH was established in FY98 and targeted 20 states. Eleven additional states represented by members of the subcommittee will be added in FY99. The program is designed to increase direct grant assistance to arts organizations in underserved areas. For more information, see http://arts.endow.gov/Guide/Artsreach/First.html The number of National Council members had been reduced by eight and six members of the House and six members of the Senate had been appointed, Shanklin-Peterson reported. Membership of the Council had been a point of contention in the FY98 congressional appropriations deliberations. Testifying on behalf of the National Endowment for the Humanities was Bill Ferris, newly confirmed by the Senate as NEH chairman, who said it was a "time of great opportunity for the humanities and there was much to offer at the Endowment for the Humanities." Ferris wants to establish 10 regional humanities centers through public/private partnerships to teach research and provide public programs. When questioned about summer institutes, Ferris responded that in 1999, 70 summer institutes would be planned, reaching 1,305 teachers. "NEH continues to focus on education and technology," according to Ferris. As an example he said that MCI and the Council of Great City Schools joined NEH to develop EDSitement (http://edsitement.neh.gov), a Web site devoted to literature, history, and other humanities. Stressing the importance of bringing the "humanities back home" through family histories and regional stories, Ferris cited examples of NEH videos on the history of baseball, the American West and the Civil War, which have been shown "over and over again in classrooms across the country, thanks to the generosity of Congress." _______________________________________________________________ ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION APPROPRIATIONS HEARING ON MARCH 26 On March 26 the House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. John Porter (R-IL), held a hearing to discuss the FY99 budget proposal for elementary and secondary programs. Gerald Tirozzi, assistant secretary for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) at the Department of Education, expressed support for the President's FY99 budget proposal for elementary and secondary education. "It's the largest commitment to elementary and secondary education in the history of the country," Tirozzi said. The total request is for $12 billion in discretionary budget authority, an increase of $773 million over the FY98 level. Tirozzi said the President has requested $7.7 billion for Title I, the primary federal program which channels funds to local school districts to raise reading and math levels of school children at risk for failure -- a $394 million increase over FY98. Tirozzi described the President's America Reads Challenge initiative as complementing other OESE programs that focus on student achievement by providing opportunities for children to practice and further develop their reading skills in after-school, weekend, and summer reading programs. The FY99 budget requests $50 million in new funds for the initiative, in addition to the advance appropriation of $210 million already provided for 1999. The $210 million appropriation is contingent upon passage of authorizing legislation by July 1. The President's proposed budget also sets aside $1.1 billion in mandatory funding -- obtained from the proposed tobacco industry revenue settlement -- to reduce class-sizes nationally, and includes approximately $22 billion in bond authority to build and renovate public schools. These latter funds would make it easier for local school districts to pass school construction bonds. During questioning, Chairman Porter said that more capitol funding does not necessarily equal academic achievement, citing that educational funding has increased over the last few years while reading and math levels have declined. Porter emphasized that the Department of Education needed to exercise more diligent oversight over allocated funds, and that local school districts needed to be held accountable for improved learning. Tirozzi responded that he supports greater accountability and oversight of funds. He noted that in addition to educating the student population, schools have taken on additional functions such as providing day care, and increasingly, playing a more central role as a community resource. _________________________________________________________________ ALAWON is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. To subscribe, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc @ala.org. To unsubscribe, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/ washoff/alawon. Visit our Web site at http://www.alawash.org. ALA Washington Office 202.628.8410 (V) 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, #403 202.628.8419 (F) Washington, DC 20004-1701 800.941.8478 (V) Lynne E. Bradley, Editor Deirdre Herman, Managing Editor Contributors: Mary Costabile Peter Kaplan All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================