President's Budget Cuts Education at All Levels, Showing His 'Competitiveness' Rhetoric to be Empty

Tuesday, February 07 2006 @ 03:16 AM EST

Contributed by: Admin

PRESIDENT'S BUDGET CUTS EDUCATION AT ALL LEVELS, SHOWING HIS 'COMPETITIVENESS' RHETORIC TO BE EMPTY

WASHINGTON, D.C. - For the second year in a row, President Bush's budget cuts overall funding for education - from early childhood education through college - despite the President's focus on education and economic competitiveness in campaign-style appearances around the country last week. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, said the cuts would undermine America's ability to retain its economic leadership in the world.

"The President's budget cuts funding for educational services from the pre-school years right up through college," said Miller. "This budget is a wasteland littered with the President's broken IOUs to America's schoolchildren and college students. The President had a lot to say last week about competitiveness. Soaring rhetoric sounds nice, but it doesn't educate our children or keep our economy strong - only real actions can do that.

"America can do better than this budget, and we have to if we want to keep our top spot in the global economy," said Miller.

President Bush's budget for fiscal year 2007 cuts federal education spending by 3.8 percent, the largest in at least a decade. Specifically, the budget makes cuts in the following areas:

• No Child Left Behind. The budget continues to break the President's promise to fully fund the No Child Left Behind law; this year, it shortchanges the law by $15.4 billion. Washington Republicans have already shortchanged schools and schoolchildren by roughly $40 billion since NCLB was enacted in 2002. The 2007 budget raises that amount to over $55 billion. At the same time, while public schools are left to struggle financially, the President's budget proposes to subsidize private schools in the form of private school vouchers.
• Higher education. The budget allows college tuition to continue to soar unchecked, despite the fact that average tuition and fees at four-year public colleges have risen 40 percent since 2001. It also fails to raise the maximum Pell Grant scholarship for the fourth time since 2001. The maximum Pell is worth $4,050 - $900 less than it was worth in 1975-76, after adjusting for inflation.
• High school. While the Administration touts its commitment to high school reform, it is simply shifting a billion dollars in current funding from ongoing vocational education, Gear Up, and TRIO programs in order to fund its "new" high school reform proposal. These important programs provide support for disadvantaged students to pursue a higher education.
• Child care and early childhood education. The 2007 budget does not even keep funding for the Head Start program at pace with inflation. As a result, 19,000 children could be cut from the program, or the program could be forced to make cuts to the services - such as qualified teachers, educational activities, and parent education - proven to help children reach kindergarten better prepared to succeed. The budget also reduces access to the child care assistance program, which helps provide access to early learning child care and helps low-wage workers make ends meet. According to Bush's own budget analysis, the Administration will cut child care assistance for 400,000 children by 2011.

These cuts come on the heels of draconian cuts to education for fiscal year 2006 and they come despite the Bush Administration's rhetoric on the role of education in creating a workforce that can compete globally. In New Mexico last week, President Bush said: "And if our kids don't have the talents necessary to compete, those jobs won't go away, they'll just go to another country." And his State of the Union speech, he said: "If we ensure that America's children succeed in life, they will ensure that America succeeds in the world."

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