Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of this motion to instruct conferees to accept the higher funding levels for education that are included in the House bill. Chairman Regula and Ranking Member Obey have shown tremendous leadership on our Subcommittee, and they have negotiated a strong bill that reflects the value our country places on education.
We started this budget cycle in a much different place. In order to make room for his huge tax cut, President Bush’s budget proposed the smallest increase for education in five years.
The $2.4 billion increase in the Bush budget included substantial increases for reading programs and a modest increase for Pell grants, but left only $400 million for all other Education programs. This proposal left all other elementary, secondary, and higher education programs, special education, and vocational education programs with less than the level needed just to keep up with inflation.
Members of both sides of the aisle recognized that this was unacceptable, and the bill we negotiated included an increase of $4.7 billion over the request and $7 billion over last year. These increases include an additional $1.7 billion for disadvantaged school, the largest dollar increase for Title 1 since its inception of the program, a $154 million increase for after school child care, and a $240 million increase for bilingual education.
We can never forget that our strength as a nation is measured both in our military might and in the well being of our people. There is no more important priority than educating our children and passing our knowledge and values to the next generation. I urge my colleagues to these funding increases and vote yes on the motion to instruct.