Adult Education Act State grant programs. 5 percent for State administration___ Total $112, 801, 000 5, 640, 000 118,441, 000 With this level of funding we feel that we can begin to make some of the major breakthroughs in adult education for which our experiences of the past 10 years of Federal funding have so well prepared us. In this brief statement we wish to address ourselves to another important matter, funding for community education. Adult educators and community educators are natural partners for progress at the local level. As adult educators we initiated and supported the inclusion of a community education definition in the adult education portion of Public Law 93-380. Furthermore, we strongly endorsed the inclusion of a separate section on community education in the new legislation. This represents a significant breakthrough on the part of the Federal Government in the dynamic and growing area of community education and is designed to provide for the establishment and expansion of community education programs at the local level and for training opportunities in higher educationif the new program is funded. We do not feel that we are in a position to recommend to you the specific dollar amount that you should recommend for community education. However, our plea is for the program to be funded at a level sufficient to enable it to get underway in all aspects during fiscal year 1975. For community education to be zero funded this year would be an educational tragedy of immense proportions. We urge you to consider this matter carefully and to see to it that community education is able to get off the ground. Your task is immense. Our plea is that the educational needs of adults will be given even greater support in the year ahead than they have had in the past and that community education will be able to take its rightful place as a program important enough to receive direct Federal financial support for the first time. We will appreciate your consideration of these requests. LIBRARY RESOURCES LETTER AND ATTACHMENTS FROM EILEEN D. COOKE, ASSOCIATE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION SEPTEMBER 13, 1974. SUBCOMMITTEE ON LABOR, HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE, DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN AND SUBCOMMITTEE MEMBERS: This letter is intended to supplement the fiscal year 1975 appropriations testimony of the American Library Association presented to your subcommittee on May 14, 1974, and specifically we wish to comment upon the adminstration's recommendations to you yesterday regarding fiscal years 1975 and 1976 funding for school library resources. As you are aware, the 1974 Education Amendments (Public Law 93-380) authorize extension of ESEA II through fiscal year 1978, with a new authorization for "Libraries and learning resources" (a consolidation of ESEA II, NDEA III, and the guidance, counseling and testing portions of ESEA III) to replace the three categorical programs beginning in fiscal year 1976 for any year in which two conditions are met, namely: (1) forward funding of appropriations for the consolidation, and (2) an appropriation for "Libraries and learning resources" that does not fall below a certain level. For fiscal year 1975, the American Library Association recommends an appropriation of $120 million for ESEA II. Increasing costs of materials and new demands on school libraries for a wide range of library resources require funding which keeps pace with economic realities. The States report that on the average about a third of their elementary schools still do not have school libraries at all. The situation at the secondary level is much improved in recent years, thanks to ESEA title II, and the States report that almost all of their secondary schoolchildren attend schools with library facilities. It is important now that all our elementary schoolchildren be accorded the same educational advantage, for the school library is playing an increasingly critical role in the educational process. Its services are essential to the national effort to provide equal educational opportunities to the Nation's schoolchildren. A more detailed description of the services school libraries are providing and the needs that remain to be met is included in the statement I presented before your subcommittee on May 14, 1974, (beginning on page 664 of the hearing record on H.R. 15580). A map showing the percentage of elementary schools in each State without school library facilities is attached to this statement. For fiscal year 1976, the American Library Association recommends an appropriation of at least $246 million for the new consolidated program called libraries and learning resources (the new ESEA title IV, pt. B). We noted with some dismay that the Administration requested only $137,330,000 for the new program, an amount based upon its fiscal year 1975 request for the categorical programs: $90, 250,000 for ESEA II, $28,500,000 for NDEA III, and $18,580,000 for testing. guidance and counseling. We submit the administration's recommendation is inadequate for the following reasons: The administration's request for a continuation of funding through fiscal year 1976 at the fiscal year 1974 level means an automatic cutback because of inflation. At current prices $90,250,000 would not buy even one-half a book for each child enrolled in school this fall. The administration's request for only $28,500,000 for NDEA III does not take into account that matching requirements are lost as NDEA III becomes consolidated in Libraries and Learning Resources. Nor does it account for the fact that funding for this program has been severely cut back in recent years. The fiscal year 1973 appropriation for NEA III was $50 million, with dollar-for-dollar matching required from the State and local levels. The administration's request for only about $18 million for guidance and counseling is an example of an attempted retrenchment of the Federal commitment to education under consolidation, clearly contrary to the intent of Congress in H.R. 69, as, for example, stated in the House report on H.R. 69 (H. Rept. 93-805) that "consolidation of programs must not be used to retrench the Federal commitment on aid to education." During debate on H.R. 69, Education and Labor Committee Chairman Carl D. Perkins carefully noted that $26,599,689 "is the projected expenditure by the States in fiscal year 1974 for guidance, counseling, and testing * (see attached Congressional Record, July 31, 1974, page H 7396). In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, we request that this letter be made part of the hearing record. We wish to thank you and your subcommittee for the fine support you have given the school library program over the years, and particularly in recent times when the administration has fluctuated wildly in its attitude toward ESEA Title II, including a recommendation that it be completely terminated in fiscal year 1973. The American schoolchildren, and their parents and teachers have much to be thankful for, and the fact that the majority of schools now have school library facilities is a great step forward in our national goal of improving the American education system. We are confident that you and the subcommittee will continue to support the development and improvement of school library service to all the schoolchildren throughout the country. Sincerely yours, EILEEN D. COOK, Associate Executive Director, American Library Association. SCHOOL LIBRARIES, 1972-73 Today almost all of the nation's secondary schools have libraries, but many elementary schools still do not. Much progress has been made since 1965 when the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was first enacted, but the job of providing all American school children access to adequate library resources is still not done, as the following figures show: II 7396 Excerpt from statement on HR 69 by Carl Perkins preceding House approval of conference report 7/31/74 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE two priorities have been met, then other schools in the school district may be funded for compensatory education programs for educationally deprived children of low-income families. It is expected that the U.S. Office of Education and the State educational agencies will monitor the expenditures of these funds for compensatory education. The title I personnel in both the US Office of Education and the State educational agencies must be involved in this monitoring since they have the expertise developed over many years in dealing with compensatory education programs. A method for assuring compliance with these requirements could be that a local school district receiving funds for these public housing children must submit a letter of compliance with the U.S. Office of Education and its State educational agency before it receives its impact aid funds. Then, USOE and the State educational agency would monitor its compliance. If the State educational agency has any administrative funds under title I which are not being expended, those funds could be used to assure compliance with these requirements. The impact aid program is also amended to provide additional assistance for handicapped children of military personnel. It is expected that the same type of administrative procedure will be provided for those children as for the public housing children since their funds must also be used in an identifiable manner for categorical special programs for such children. to the total appropriations for the separate programs before they were consolldated, to the level of appropriations for the consolidations in the previous fiscal year if they were funded in that fiscal year. These "triggers" on consolidation are meant to assure the best administrative transition to consolidation possible and to assure that consolidation is not used as a device for cutting back on Federal aid to education. When these triggers refer to the consolidations as being "elfective" or "in effect," it is meant that the consolidations are actually being funded in that year. Since the consolidations must be phased in over 2 years with a requirement that 50 percent of the funds used for each program before consolidation must continue to be used for that program in the first year of the phase-in, it will be necessary to identify the sums used for each program in the year before the consolidation is first funded or in fiscal year 1974, whichever year has a higher amount. That determination may be somewhat difficult regarding the guidance and counseling program which is consolidated into the "library and learning resources" category. According to the US. Office of Education, $26.599.689 is the projected expenditure by the States in the fiscal year 1974 for guidance, counseling, and testing under title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The expenditures under the Commissioner's discretionary funds, section 306 of title III. ESEA, have not been precisely identified as yet. But, it could be reasonably pre The conference report also adopts andmed that the same proportion of amendment to Public Law 81-874 to allow States to consider impact aid as local resources in their distributions of State aid under State equalization programs. Some confusion seems to have arisen over one of the conditions under which States can consider that aid. The report states that impact aid can be considered Provided that a State may consider as local resources funds received under this tile only in proportion to the share that local revenues covered under a State equal!zation program are of total local revenues. The term "local revenues" in this context clearly means local revenues for education and not all local revenues for all local services. CONSOLIDATION The conference report adopts the consolidations of State formula programs which were contained in HR. 69 as it passed the House. Those consolidations put into two categories seven separate Federal categorical aid programs. Those consolidations, however, must be phased in over 2 years and cannot become effective in their first year before fiscal 1976. They also cannot become effective unless the appropriations for the consolidations are provided in an appropriation bill providing appropriations for the fiscal year preceding the fiscal year in which the consolidations are to be effective. Neither can the consolidations be edective unless the total appropriations for the consolidations are at least equal funds were spent by the USOE for guidance. counseling, and testing es were expended by the States from their total title III. ESEA, allocations. Whatever the combination of those two sums, that amount would be the sum used for deternuning the phasein for the consolidation of guidance, counseling, and testing. This same amount would also have to be used in combination with appropriations for title II, ESEA, and title III, NDEA to determine the level of appropriations needed to trigger the "Libraries and Learning Resources" consolidation. The conference report also adopts a Special Projects Act to serve as an "incubator" for new categorical aid programs. Some of those new programs are the Community Schools Act, the Women's Educational Equity Act, and the Career Education Act. The conference report also requires an administrative consolidation of the paperwork involved in States applying for Federal aid to education. This administrative consolidation is meant to cut back on this paperwork and to be a step in the direction of the simplification of Federal administrative requirements. EDUCATION ADMINISTRATION The conference report upgrades the National Center for Education Statistics by putting it in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Education and by requiring that an Advisory Council on Education Statistics be appointed to review the general policies of the Center July 31, 1974 and to establish standards to insure that statistics and analyses disseminated by the Center are of the highest quality. It is our hope that this reorganization will lead to a far better collection of education statistics than is presently being conducted. USOE, which presently performs this function, is now requiring the States and local school districts to fill out hundreds of different forms for education statistics, many of which are overlapping in their requests for information and many of which are of dubious importance. Then, once these statistics are collected, it is frequently 2, 4, or 7 years until the results are tabulated and disseminated. By that time the usefulness of such data is practically nil. This reorganization will allow a fresh beginning for the collection of education statistics and will provide the opportunity for the policymakers at HEW to commit themselves to correcting the present sorry situation. Recognizing the importance of library and learning resources to the educational process, I would strongly urge this new National Center to conduct an annual survey of academic libraries, school braries and media centers, and public libraries. The Center should also conduct at least one survey of special libranes. The conference report also requires numerous other improvements in the administration of Federal education programs. The most noteworthy is the requirement that all regulations for Federal education programs must be submitted to the Congress for review and that Congress must be given the opportunity to disapprove those regulations. Also of importance is a provision setting a 5-year statute of limitations on the collection of allegedly misspent funds under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and a provision requiring the States to submit detailed fiscal data on their use of Federal funds An amendment is also included requiring schools to give parents and students in post-secondary institutions a right to inspect their school files and restricting the release of this data to third parties. EDUCATION OF THE HANDICAPPED In addition to extending all the Federal education programs for the handicapped. the conference report contains a very substantially increased authorization for aid to the States for the education of the handicapped for fiscal year 1975. It is the purpose of that authorizstion to provide massive aid to the States so that they can begin the monumental task of educating all their handicapped children. Many of the States are now coming under court orders to educate all these children. OTHER PROGRAMS The Adult Education Act is amended to eliminate the Commissioners set-aside of funds and to turn all the funds over to the States for operating programs. The act is also amended to permit the States to use up to 20 percent of their allocations for programs of high school equivalency. The emergency school aid is amended to repeal the authority for the funding of education parks and to repeal the set |