The President's School Construction Initiative (fwd)

[Mike Eisenberg <mike@ERICIR.SYR.EDU>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 18:22:57 -0400
From: Peter Kickbush <pkickbus@inet.ed.gov>
To: Multiple recipients of list <edinfo@inet.ed.gov>
Subject: The President's School Construction Initiative

     TODAY, THE PRESIDENT ANNOUNCED A NEW EFFORT to help
     communities & states rebuild the nation's schools.  This
     "School Construction Initiative" would help communities &
     states upgrade the physical infrastructure in schools and
     build new schools, so that students & teachers may have a
     safe, modern environment for teaching & learning.

     Below is the full text of President Clinton's remarks made
     today, as well as a summary of the initiative.

     A fuller description of the initiative will soon be available
     in our Online Library at the following address:

          http://www.ed.gov/news.html#budget

          gopher.ed.gov -> Updates on Legislation, Budget,...


  =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
  Remarks by the President
  on the School Reconstruction Initiative
  =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Thank you very much.  I want to welcome Senator Moseley-Braun here,
along with Senator Claiborne Pell, Senator Bob Graham, Congressman
Ben Cardin, and Congressman Elijah Cummings.  I thank them all for
their concern for this issue and their leadership.

I think some of you know that I had originally planned to make this
announcement in Senator Graham's home state in Florida, but
Hurricane Bertha had other ideas.  So before I get into the
announcement, let me say that we are all watching the course of
that storm.  We pray that it doesn't cause extensive damage.  The
people of the Southeast know that we will be there to help them if
it does.  FEMA is now on the ground, and they are prepared.  Our
thoughts are with the people of the Southeast.  And, again, we're
hoping for the best.

I'm here to announce a national commitment to rebuild our schools
so that they can serve our children in the 21st century.  Our
nation's mission must be to offer opportunity to all, to demand
responsibility from all, and to come together as a community so
that we can build better lives together.  Our most basic expression
of these values is perhaps the education we offer to our children.

We've worked hard to make our young people the best educated in the
world as we enter the 21st century, putting in place a
comprehensive strategy to renew our schools, to lift our standards
at every level.  We've expanded the Head Start preschool program.
We've helped schools to help to set and to meet higher standards.
We've also worked hard to develop higher standards and better
training for our teachers.  And we've created an important network
of school-to-work programs for young people to be properly trained
if they don't go on to four-year institutions of higher education.

We're now on our way to connecting every classroom and library in
the United States to the Internet by the year 2000.  We're making
our schools safer with the zero tolerance for guns in our schools,
and by encouraging and supporting communities to take their own
initiatives, including school uniforms, imposing curfews, and
stronger enforcement of the truancy laws.  We're opening the doors
of college wider than ever, through lower-cost student loans,
including better repayment terms; expanded Pell Grant
scholarships -- Senator Pell, thank you for that; AmeriCorps; and
our proposals to give families tax cuts to pay for higher
education.

But all this progress is at risk if our children are asked to learn
in a landscape that is littered with peeling paint and broken glass
if our teachers are asked to build up children in buildings that
are falling down.

I remember the schools that I attended.  They were pretty typical.
Most of them were fairly old when I was there.  They weren't fancy,
but they were clean, they were well-maintained, they were treated
with respect.  They sent every student a clear message:

You are important to us.  We take your education seriously.  That
was how my parent's generation kept faith with us, and that is how
we must keep faith with our children.  (Applause.)

Now, Senator Moseley-Braun mentioned this report from the General
Accounting Office.  I want to hold it up again because I want to
urge every member of Congress, every governor, every state
legislator, every local school official, every school board member
who cares about the condition of education and the future of
education in our country to get a copy of this report and to read
it.

The report came out three weeks ago.  It was requested by a number
of senators, and it confirms that we are not honoring this
generational compact.

I want to thank here, before I go forward, the members of the
Senate and the House who have been interested in this.  Those who
are here whom I've introduced and, especially, Congresswoman Nita
Lowey who is sponsoring efforts in the house along with Congressman
Cardin and Congressman Cummings and others, but most especially
Carol Moseley-Braun.  She was the first person who brought this
matter to my attention as an area where the national government
ought to do something.  And she has been literally dogged in her
persistence in this issue, staying with it day in and day out, week
in and week out, month in and month out.  The schoolchildren of our
nation owe her a debt of gratitude.  (Applause.)

The report shows that our nations schools are increasingly rundown,
overcrowded and technologically ill-equipped.  Too many school
buildings and classrooms are literally a shambles.  According to
the report, one-third of our schools need major repair or outright
replacement; 60 percent need work on major building features -- a
sagging roof, a cracked foundation; 46 percent lack even the basic
electrical wiring to support computers, modems, and modern
communications technology.  These problems are found all across
America, in cities and suburbs and one-stoplight towns.

This is a matter of real urgency.  In just two months our schools
will open their door to the largest number of students in the
history of our republic -- 51.7 million.  And enrollment is
expected to continue to rise over the next few years.  We have to
rebuild these schools for another reason as well.  Increasingly our
schools are critical to bringing our communities together.  We want
them to serve the public not just during the school hours but after
hours:  to function as vital community centers; places for
recreation and learning, positive places where children can be when
they can't be at home and school is no longer going on; gathering
places for young people and adults alike.  Bringing our schools
into the 21st century is a national challenge that demands a
national commitment.

Today I am proposing that the federal government for the first time
join with states and communities to modernize and renovate our
public schools.  We will provide $5 billion over the next four
years for school construction and renovation.  Together with
investments by states and localities, this would result in $20
billion in new resources for school modernization.  That's a 25
percent increase over the next four years.

Our school construction initiative would be flexible.  It would
give communities and states the power to decide how to use the new
resources.  It would help those who help themselves -- requiring
local communities to take responsibility for this effort.  And it
would focus on sparking new projects, not merely subsidizing
existing ones.

The schools of the future should be safe and spacious -- good
places to learn.  The schools of the future should be equipped with
computers, new media and state of the art science labs.  And the
schools of the future should not only teach our children during the
day, but bring together families and neighbors in the evening as
community schools.  Our initiative can help to make these goals a
reality.

You know, we expect an awful lot of our schools.  We expect a lot
of our students in this age of possibility.  And all Americans have
a lot riding on their living up to these expectations. But we
cannot expect our children and our teachers to build strong lives
on a crumbling foundation.

This generation has a duty to give the next generation a future of
genuine opportunity.  Our children deserve the best.  I am
determined that they will get it.  And this proposal will go a long
way toward helping those folks who are out there on the front lines
of education to succeed and to build the brightest, the best
prepared, the most secure and the most successful generation of
young people in the history of our nation.

Thank you very much.

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

  =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
  Summary of President Clinton's
  School Construction Initiative
  =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

PRESIDENT CLINTON PROPOSES A NEW INITIATIVE TO HELP LOCAL
COMMUNITIES AND STATES REBUILD THE NATION'S SCHOOLS.  As America
moves into the 21st century, our schools should too.  If our
schools are in no shape for the future, our students won't be
either.  The facts are clear:

*    One-Third Of All Schools -- Serving 14 Million Students --
     Need Extensive Repair Or Replacement.  According to a recent
     General Accounting Office report, about 60 percent of schools
     have at least one major building feature in disrepair, such as
     leaky roofs and crumbling walls.  Over 50 percent have at
     least one environmental problem, such as poor indoor air
     quality.  [Source:  General Accounting Office Report:  "School
     Facilities:  America's Schools Report Differing Conditions,"
     June 14, 1996]

*    Schools Do Not Have The Physical Infrastructure To Allow Our
     Students To Meet the Challenges of the 21st Century.  Many
     schools do not have the physical infrastructure to make the
     best use out of computers, printers, and other equipment.
     Almost half (46 percent) of the schools report inadequate
     electrical wiring for computers and communications technology,
     and over half (52 percent) of schools report six or more
     insufficient technology elements (such as fiber optics
     cabling, phone lines for modems, and wiring for computers).
     [Source:  General Accounting Office, "School Facilities:
     America's Schools Not Designed or Equipped for 21st Century,"
     April 4, 1995]

*    Expected Enrollment Growth Imposes Additional Burdens.  Many
     school districts also face the need to build new schools to
     accommodate enrollment growth.  Public school enrollment in
     grades K-12 is expected to rise 20% between 1990 and 2004.
     [Source:  U.S. Department of Commerce, Statistical Abstract of
     the United States, 1995, p. 151]


Key Elements of President Clinton's
New School Construction Initiative
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*    Up to 50% Interest Subsidy for New School Construction and
     Renovation. The initiative will reduce interest costs on new
     school construction and renovation projects by up to 50%, with
     a sliding subsidy scale depending on need.

*    $20 Billion in School Construction Spurred by $5 Billion in
     Federal Jump-Start Funding Over 4 Years.  The interest
     reduction is equivalent to subsidizing $1 out of every $4 in
     construction and renovation spending.  $5 billion in federal
     funding over 4 years -- with most of the money administered by
     the States -- would support $20 billion in construction and
     renovation.  One of the key criteria in distributing funds to
     projects will be the extent to which the spending is
     incremental -- above what would have occurred without this
     initiative.

*    Goal of 25% Increase in School Construction Over 4 Years.
     National spending on school construction and renovation is
     currently about $10 billion a year or $40 billion over 4
     years.  By focusing on incremental or net additional
     construction projects, this initiative aims to ensure that at
     least half of the $20 billion supported by federal subsidies
     would not have otherwise occurred.  This would increase school
     construction by at least $10 billion to a total of $50 billion
     over 4 years -- increasing school construction by 25%.

*    One-Time Construction Initiative Fully Paid For By One-Time
     Spectrum Auction: A one-time auction of portions of the
     spectrum between channels 60-69 will fully fund this jump-
     start proposal.

*    State and Local Governments Maintain Responsibility and
     Control.  States would administer the bulk of the subsidies,
     while the largest school districts would apply directly to the
     U.S. Department of Education.  State participation would be
     voluntary.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peter Kickbush
U.S. Department of Education
pkickbus@inet.ed.gov
peter_kickbush@ed.gov
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~