President Clinton extorted billions of dollars in added education funding from Congress earlier this month by essentially daring the Republicans to refuse him and force a government shutdown.

Congress did that in 1995, and the resulting public outcry taught them a painful lesson. Even though their opponent was weakened by scandal this time, they dared not give him an opportunity to brand them as enemies of education.

In the aftermath, Clinton claimed victory on a host of issues, including his America Reads Challenge (RLP, Oct. 15, pp. 155-6). Here are highlights of the literacy-related appropriations:

America Reads � In exchange for funding this child and family literacy program, Congress demanded that the administration agree not to implement or even pilot-test any national tests of fourth-grade reading or eighth-grade math during fiscal 1999. (Congress insisted on a similar ban for FY'98 during last year's budget battle.) In a face-saving arrangement, Congress allowed the administration to continue developing the tests.

Educational Technology � The House-Senate conference report on the budget bill "en-courages" the Education Department to steer $200,000 from this account to the Alhambra School District in California for a pilot project to help parents understand and use educational technology. The Star Schools program funds the PBS LiteracyLink project (RLP, April 16, p. 64).

Even Start � The administration's original request for this family literacy program assumed that it would also receive a $16-million infusion of America Reads funding. In the end, Even Start got an $11-million year-to-year increase plus a $10-million set-aside within the America Reads account that will fund competitive grants for statewide family literacy initiatives. The initiatives will coordinate all preschool, K-12, adult ed, family literacy and welfare-reform services.

Bilingual Education � Congress took no final action on a House bill that would have put a three-year limit on all federally funded programs (RLP, Sept. 17, p. 140), but the issue may come up again next year when Congress takes up reauthorization of the entire Elementary and Secondary Education Act. That act authorizes bilingual ed, Even Start and a host of other K-12 programs.

National Adult Ed Evaluation and Technical Assistance � Most of the $9-million increase in this account will go into a new initiative to develop model ESL initiatives. The administration wants to make competitive demonstration grants for local ESL programs with proven track records. The rest of the money will fund ongoing initiatives such as evaluations of adult ed outcomes and technical assistance to states as they adopt "results-based performance information systems."

National Institute for Literacy � In addition to $6 million for its ongoing programs, the NIFL will get $5 million from the America Reads program to disseminate information on best practices in child and family literacy instruction. The total amount is still $4 million short of the $15-million annual appropriation authorized by the National Literacy Act of 1991.

Literacy Programs for Prisoners � This line item, first proposed by Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), has always been separate from the adult education state grants, portions of which are reserved for correctional education. Previously, this account funded competitive grants for "mandatory" prison literacy programs, although there were various loopholes allowing prisoners to opt out. For FY'99, Congress has transferred funds for this account into another one that funds GED and associate-degree programs for incarcerated juveniles.

Lapsed Literacy Programs � The prison literacy line item may have survived for another year, but neither Congress nor the administration have shown any interest in reviving five line items that have not been funded for several years: State Literacy Resource Centers, Workplace Literacy Partnerships, Literacy Training for Homeless Adults, Library Literacy Programs and the VISTA Literacy Corps.

Educational Research & Improvement � The research line item includes funding for the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy at Harvard and the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) program. The statistics line item includes funding for preliminary work on an update of the National Adult Literacy Survey, planned for 2002.

21st Century Community Learning Centers � The $200-million allocation will fund new after-school centers in about 1,600 schools, targeted to poor areas. Centers may offer family literacy and other services for parents.

Click here for a pdf file of the Literacy-Related Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1998.