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Office of Vocational and Adult Education
Editor: Sarah Newcomb
Production: Rose Tilghman

February 14, 2002				
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President's '03
Budget Shifts Early 
Childhood Focus

President Bush's FY 2003 budget request sent to Capitol Hill last week
focuses on investments that the Administration expects to improve children's
reading achievement most effectively. These include Title I and the
President's literacy initiative, Reading First. The goal is to support
reading practices proven effective, so that all children can read at grade
level by the end of third grade. The budget requests $11.35B, up one billion
from FY 2002 levels, for Title I to help raise student achievement in the
nation's most impoverished communities. The Reading First program, initiated
through the No Child Left Behind Act, funds states to support the most
proven reading practices. The budget provides $1B for this program, a $100M
million increase over FY 2002. It also includes $75M for Early Reading
First, the same level as FY 2002, to develop model programs to help children
in high-poverty communities prepare for school. Even Start is funded at
$200M, a reduction of $50M from current levels.