President Bush鈥檚 fiscal 2008 budget request aims to help advance his agenda for reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act this year. But key congressional Democrats, who also want to maintain the law鈥檚 accountability principles, said the proposed spending plan for education falls far short of what schools need to get on track to meet the measure鈥檚 ambitious achievement goals.
Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., the chairmen, respectively, of the House and Senate education committees, said the inclusion of a long-sought hike for Title I grants to school districts and new money to improve struggling schools in the administration鈥檚 $56 billion spending plan for the U.S. Department of Education won鈥檛 make up for two years of stagnant federal spending on school programs.
Both noted that the president鈥檚 plan, unveiled Feb. 5, would shortchange the department鈥檚 overall discretionary budget by 2.6 percent compared with the $57.5 billion set for the department in a fiscal 2007 spending bill approved by the House on Jan. 31. The Senate is set to vote on a similar measure as early as this week. Among the most significant cuts in Mr. Bush鈥檚 plan is less money for students in special education.
Read of the Education Department鈥檚 budget summary.
鈥淚 am particularly concerned that the president has once again proposed inadequate funding for the law鈥檚 important reforms,鈥� Sen. Kennedy, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, said in a Feb. 5 statement, referring to the No Child Left Behind Act. 鈥淗e used the same old tactics of robbing other education priorities to pay for his modest increases for school reform. Our schools and children deserve more than accounting gimmicks鈥攖hey need new resources to make progress.鈥�
This budget cycle presents a somewhat unusual situation in which lawmakers are still hammering out a spending measure to fund the Education Department and most other federal agencies for fiscal 2007, which began Oct. 1, at the same time the president is introducing his fiscal 2008 budget.
Although the measure approved by the House last month would extend funding for most of the federal government at fiscal 2006 levels, lawmakers bolstered appropriations for some key education programs, including Title I grants to districts and spending for students in special education authorized under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
The administration鈥檚 spending plan illustrates President Bush鈥檚 priorities for reauthorization of the 5-year-old No Child Left Behind Act, slated for this year. It would provide new money to help low-income students in foundering public schools attend private schools and extra Title I dollars for retooling high schools. (鈥淏ush Plan Would Heighten NCLB Focus on High School,鈥� Feb. 7, 2007.)
鈥淲e believe [that] with the need to ratchet up levels of rigor and make sure that more than half of our minority students graduate from high school on time that the share of the Title I pie for our high schools ought to be increased,鈥� Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said in a conference call with reporters Feb. 5.
Special Education Cut
But to make room in the budget for the high school program and other initiatives, the administration is proposing cuts in other programs, including special education. The budget request seeks $10.49 billion for special education programs under the IDEA. That is about $290 million less than the $10.8 billion for special education approved in the House spending measure, or a 2.8 percent cut.
That鈥檚 significant for school districts struggling to keep pace with rising special education enrollment, said Steven P. Crawford, the superintendent of the 1,700-student Byng school district in Ada, Okla.
Mr. Crawford said that since the extra money for Title I would be directed to new student assessments in high schools, it wouldn鈥檛 go far in helping his district meet the achievement targets set under the No Child Left Behind law.
鈥淚t鈥檚 鈥榳e鈥檒l give you more money, but we鈥檒l tell you how to spend it,鈥� 鈥� he said. 鈥淢oney for new expenditure areas is not money that鈥檚 going to help us reach the goals of NCLB.鈥�
President Bush last week proposed a fiscal year 2008 federal budget that would decrease discretionary funding for the Department of Education by 2.6 percent compared with a fiscal 2007 spending plan passed by the House on Jan. 31:
*Click image to see the full chart.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education; 澳门跑狗论坛
Rep. Miller, the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, also decried the proposed cuts to special education, as well as a proposed level-funding of the federal Head Start preschool program.
鈥淭he cuts in this budget for students with disabilities and for young children are reprehensible and undermine the efforts of students and teachers who are working hard in classrooms across the country,鈥� he said in a statement.
The Bush administration proposes $500 million in new money to help schools deemed in need of improvement under the federal school law. The fund, which was authorized under NCLB but has never been financed by Congress, would help schools cover the costs of implementing improvement plans, providing professional development for teachers, or tutoring. The House included $125 million for the fund in its fiscal 2007 spending bill approved last month.
The budget also proposes a new鈥攁nd highly controversial鈥�$250 million 鈥淧romise鈥� scholarship program that would allow poor students in struggling schools to attend private schools using federal money. In addition, the spending request includes $50 million in new aid to establish a competitive grant program to help districts establish their own school choice programs.
Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Miller and Sen. Kennedy, have criticized those proposals as a federal voucher program. Most Democrats and their political allies, most notably the national teachers鈥� unions, oppose such use of public funds to pay private school tuition for K-12 students.
鈥淚t鈥檚 clearly a nonstarter with this Congress,鈥� in which the Democrats control both houses, said Joel Packer, the chief NCLB lobbyist for the 3.2 million-member National Education Association.
Teacher Incentive Fund
Mr. Bush鈥檚 budget would also increase funding for the Teacher Incentive Fund, which gives grants to districts to create pay-for-performance and teacher improvement programs, to $199 million, from $99 million in fiscal 2006. The proposed increase would keep the fund afloat, despite the House鈥檚 fiscal 2007 plan, which would slash its funding to $200,000.
Congressional Democrats say that move wasn鈥檛 an effort to eliminate the fund, which has drawn criticism from both national teachers鈥� unions. The Democrats say they didn鈥檛 increase spending for the Teacher Incentive Fund in the fiscal 2007 bill because the fund still has $43 million in leftover appropriations from fiscal 2006 to dole out for new grants. A Senate budget aide said he expects congressional Democrats to provide funding for the program for fiscal 2008, possibly by as much as the president proposed.
Meanwhile, Secretary Spellings is urging the Senate to restore the $99 million for the program when it votes on the fiscal 2007 spending bill, likely this week. If the fund doesn鈥檛 receive new appropriations in fiscal year 2007, it might be tough for the department to continue to finance current grants in a timely manner, she said.
As announced by Secretary Spellings last month, the Bush administration鈥檚 budget also proposes increasing the maximum Pell Grant for the first time in four years, from $4,050 to $4,600 in fiscal 2008. The measure approved by the House last month would raise the Pell Grant maximum to $4,310 for the 2007-08 school year. Pell Grants help low- and moderate-income students pay for college.
President Bush鈥檚 budget would also bolster Academic Competitiveness Grants, which provide extra money to Pell-eligible students who take a rigorous high school curriculum. The request would raise the grants from $750 to $1,125 for first-year students, and from $1,300 to $1,950 for second-year students. Those increases would be paid for, in part, by cutting federal subsidies to private student lenders.
44 Programs Targeted
Some advocates for increased math and science spending were pleased to see that the Bush administration has repeated its calls for funding its American Competitiveness Initiative, a series of proposals for spending on those subjects. The plan stalled last year but re-emerged in the new budget.
Those proposals include Math Now, an effort to improve math instruction in elementary and middle schools that got $250 million in the fiscal 2008 request, and $122 million to support competitive grants to expand Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses in math, science, and foreign languages, an increase from $32 million in fiscal 2006.
鈥淲e鈥檙e glad the administration is keeping money on the table. They鈥檝e been true to what they had outlined鈥� a year ago, said Glenn S. Ruskin, the director of legislative and government affairs for the American Chemical Society, a Washington-based organization which advocates on behalf of science education. 鈥淒id they lose interest in this? No, not in the least bit. I think that bodes well.鈥�
As in past years, the administration proposes to pay for some of its spending increases by cutting a host of other education programs. This year 44 are slated for the chopping block. Some of those programs are popular in Congress, such as the $273 million Educational Technology state grants, which help districts buy computers and train teachers. The president proposed eliminating the fund last year, but the fiscal 2007 measure that passed the House last month would restore its funding.
Other programs escaped targeting for outright elimination, but were still identified for drastic reductions. Vocational education programs financed under the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, nearly all of it state grants, would be cut in half, from more than $1.3 billion to a little more than $610 million, under the president鈥檚 request.
Last year, Mr. Bush proposed zero funding for the program, but Congress appears poised to restore that money in the fiscal year 2007 bill.
Still, the administration took some perennial targets off the table, including the $303.4 million Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, or GEAR UP, which helps prepare disadvantaged students for college. The administration had proposed eliminating the program last year, but Congress appears likely to restore funding.
