Bush Promises No Child Left Behind then Cuts $90Million from Education Budget
The budget submitted for this year (2004) cuts $90M from education funding. [Congressional Budget Office]
The budget submitted back in 2001, right after the "education president" took office looked like this: The Administration has said that education is the President’s highest priority. The budget states that the President grants the education department "the largest percentage spending increase of any Department (11.5 percent increase in 2002)." A closer look shows that the more accurate figure for the Education Department is a 5.9 percent increase, while the figure for all federal education funding is 5.3 percent. After accounting for inflation, the increase proposed for education funding is 3.7 percent. After accounting for the increase in school-age population, the increase is 2.9 percent. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]
Concerning President Bush's FY '05 budget request for the Department of Education
- The budget request would amount to the smallest increase in education funding in 9 years;
- The budget request would eliminate 38 education programs, reducing the Federal investment in education by $1.4 billion;
- The budget request continues to renege on the commitment to fully fund the No Child Left Behind Act - falling $9.4 billion short for this coming fiscal year and $27 billion short overall since the law's first year;
- The budget request fails to make college more affordable;
- The budget request marks the third year in a row that the maximum Pell grant would remain at $4,050, despite the President's campaign pledge in 2000 to increase the award to $5,100;
- The budget request forces a tax on college loans that would charge students an additional $4 billion over the next 10 years by requiring lenders to collect a one percent insurance fee when students take out their college loans;
- The budget request would cut $316 million in vocational education funding, yet again. Since taking office, President Bush has proposed over $1.8 billion in cuts to vocational education and job training programs for community colleges;
- The Department of Education is improperly counting as unexpended funds billions of dollars in resources that the states have already designated for school renovation, teacher salaries and the purchase of testing system and curriculum for k-12 education; and
- The budget request continues to underfund the federal commitment to special education.