The Bush Administration’s
budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2007, released this week, demonstrates the
President’s misplaced priorities. Parents want their children to enter school
ready to learn and to excel in the classroom and are worried about the rising
cost of a college education. But the President is proposing the largest cuts
to federal education funding in the 26-year history of the Department of
Education. Modest increases in some programs, including math and science
instruction, are more than offset by the proposed elimination of 42 other proven
education programs. Instead of investing in education, the President is asking
students, parents, and teachers to do more with less.
Forcing working families
to pay more for college. While tuition
and fees have increased 57 percent for a public four-year college and 32
percent for a private four-year college since 2000, Republicans are failing to address
growing concerns about the affordability of a college education. The
Republican-controlled Congress just passed reconciliation legislation that
makes the largest cuts in the history of the student loan program and fails to
use savings to increase financial aid to all students in need. Now the
President has proposed a budget that freezes the maximum Pell Grant award at
$4,050, the same level as Fiscal Year 2003, despite rising tuition costs.
Failure to increase Pell Grants is weakening the value of these grants: in
1975, a Pell Grant covered 80 percent of the cost of a public four-year college
education while today it covers only about 40 percent. The President’s budget
also proposes to eliminate the Perkins loan program, which provides
low-interest, fixed-rate loans for students with financial need, and to recall
the federal portion of revolving funds collected by participating institutions
for a total of $664 million. Furthermore, the President’s budget proposes to
eliminate the Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership (LEAP) program,
which provides a federal match to states for need-based grant and work-study
assistance.
Underfunding No Child
Left Behind. The President trumpets
the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) but refuses to fully fund it. Even
though local school districts must meet increasingly rigorous academic
standards and requirements for highly-qualified teachers, the President’s
proposed funding for NCLB programs is $15.4 billion below the authorized
level. Total NCLB funding in the President’s proposal is $24 billion, an
increase of only $529 million.
Inadequate Title I
grants. The President rightfully calls
for a reduction in the achievement gap. But the President’s budget fails to
fully fund the Title I program, which provides needed resources to local school
districts to help disadvantaged students succeed academically. The proposed
budget would leave behind 3.7 million students who would otherwise be fully
served by Title I if the program were appropriately funded at fiscal year
allowance. Twenty-nine states are projected to lose Title I funding in Fiscal
Year 2007 and another seven states would receive level funding.
A step backward on special
education. The federal government
has routinely failed to cover its share of the extra cost of educating children
with disabilities. The President’s budget further compounds this woeful
under-funding by scaling back that 40 percent commitment for the second year in
a row. The President proposes increasing funding for Part B State Grants under
the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) by only $100
million, for a total of $10.7 billion. This funding level would provide just
17 percent of the extra cost of special education in Fiscal Year 2007, down
from 18 percent in Fiscal Year 2006 and 19 percent in Fiscal Year 2007.
Proposed funding is also $6.3 billion below the amount Congress authorized for
Fiscal Year 2007 when IDEA was reauthorized in 2004.
Shortchanging after-school
programs. 21st Century
Learning Centers provide enrichment and a safe and supervised environment for
students after the school day ends. But the President proposes keeping funding
for this program at $981 million in Fiscal Year 2007, which is $1.5 billion
below the authorized level. The budget proposal would leave behind two million
students who would receive after-school services if the 21st Century
Community Learning Centers program were funded at the level promised in NCLB.
Inadequate funding for Head
Start. The Head Start program
prepares low-income children to enter kindergarten ready to learn by providing
child development, education, health, nutrition and other services. With current
funding levels, the program serves only about one-half of eligible children,
and even fewer eligible Early Head Start children. The President proposes to
maintain funding at $6.79 billion in Fiscal Year 2007. By failing to provide a
cost-of-living adjustment, the budget proposal would likely reduce the number
of children Head Start services.
Other program
terminations. The President
proposes to eliminate 42 education programs, including all vocational and
technical education programs, education technology state grants, GEAR UP, Safe
and Drug-Free Schools and Communities State Grants, and TRIO Talent Search and
Upward Bound programs.
