WASHINGTON WATCH

Continuing a trend toward increased federal funding for higher education that began with generosity for science programs last year, President Clinton last week unveiled a budget proposal that would increase funding for financial aid, the humanities and the arts.

And, even as Clinton and Congress plan to focus their attention on elementary and secondary school education in the wake of Clinton's State of the Union address, Harvard's lobbyists say they are happy with the proposal.

"It's a good platform to start with," says Nan F. Nixon, Harvard's director of federal relations.

But this proposal is no guarantee that these spending increases will become law--spending limits set last year could stymie some of the plan's generosity.

Financial aid is the main beneficiary of the proposal, which proposes to raise funding for government educational programs by 3.5 percent, to a total of $35 billion.

"Paying for college is...a challenge, especially for low-and middle-income families, and our 2000 budget would continue to expand assistance," Secretary of Education Richard Riley said of the proposal in a Washington press conference last week.

Total financial aid programs would increase 3.9 percent to nearly $52 billion. This includes a $125 increase in the maximum Pell Grant award available to students and a 7.4 percent increase in funding for work-study programs, according to Department of Education statistics.

Clinton's plan would also increase funding for the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG), which are given on top of Pell Grants for some needy students and provide aid for other students ineligible for grants.

In total, when matched by funds provided by the individual schools, the Clinton budget could create nearly $800 million more in aid.

"It's a starting point," Nixon says. "We'd like to see it go up."

In addition, the budget proposes to extend a little-known aid measure which allows students to deduct the interest on their student loans from their taxable income. They are now allowed to do so only for the first 60 months of repayment, and the budget would extend that privilege over the entire life of the loan.

"That's very good news," Nixon said.

Other programs aimed at easing the financial burden of academically talented students--like Byrd and Javits grants--would receive little more money in Clinton's proposal.

Clinton's plan would also increase funding for two controversial national grant programs, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The President has budgeted $150 million for each.

Given the recent public controversy over the NEH and NEA-and even proposals to abolish the two grant agencies--Nixon calls the appropriation proposals "significant."

One area that the budget does not address is security on campus.

Although last year's debate on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act called for increased enforcement and monitoring of campus crime and police by the government, the President has proposed no additional funds.

"Some schools have been not aggressive enough in monitoring [security issues]," says Jane Glickman, a Department of Education (DOE) spokesperson. "But the schools have to collect the data, so there's no money for that."

Although testimony at a 1997 Congressional debate on campus crime revealed an under-funded DOE stretched to its seams with monitoring tasks, Glickman says the department does its job adequately.

"We feel very confident that we've responded to every complaint about possible violations of the campus security act," she says.

Nixon says it's too early to tell whether Clinton's education proposals will be significantly altered in Congress.

"It's a little hard to tell. The process is just starting up. There seems to be determination on the hill to keep [the] appropriations [process] on time."

One problem: Clinton's discretionary spending for education exceeds by $30 billion the caps placed on spending in last year's Balanced Budget Act.

So Nixon says Congress will have to hash out some sort of compromise.

"The caps on discretionary spending and military spending will be lifted," she predicts.