An Education Budget that is Guaranteed to Fail
By: Mark Poloncarz
Date: February 8, 2006
In his State of the Union address last week, President Bush emphasized our nation's need to better educate our young in order that they may adequately compete in the global marketplace. I don't know a person in this country who would disagree with this premise, and many were looking forward to seeing how the "Education President" planned on implemeting his education initiatives.
Well this week the president released his proposed federal budget for the 2007 fiscal year, and guess what, funding for education not only takes a back seat to other programs, but it is barely hanging on to the bumper. While the president might talk about creating a better educational system for our children, his proposed budget speaks otherwise.
For example, while the $64 billion dollar education budget does create new programs to stress math skills, it deletes over 40 programs, including those focused on vocational skills and the promotion of safe and drug-free schools. Considering the recent upswing in violence in Buffalo public schools now is not the time to be cutting a program solely intended to create a safe and drug-free environment in which to learn.
Another program that meets the president's budget axe is the TRIO Program. While its name might not be familiar, its purpose is certainly needed. As described by the federal TRIO Program Website:
The Federal TRIO Programs are educational opportunity outreach programs designed to motivate and support students from disadvantaged backgrounds. TRIO includes six outreach and support programs targeted to serve and assist low-income, first-generation college students, and students with disabilities to progress through the academic pipeline from middle school to postbaccalaureate programs.
In other words, the president proposes cutting a program that provides academic, career and financial counseling assistance to disadvantaged secondary school students (two-thirds of whom are minority) which will help them finish high school and attend college. Unfortunately the TRIO program is just one of many that will die unless Congress intervenes.
While many well known programs survive the president's cuts, in all reality the assistance they provide will be less than in past years as very few programs saw an increase in funding, and therefore did not keep pace with the inflation rate. For example, the proposed 2007 budget fails to increase federal Pell grants, a program that gives many low income students the only chance they have to get a higher education. In all actuality, the president's budget proposes 100 million dollars less in discretionary education spending in 2007 as compared to 2005 and 2 billion dollars less than was budgeted for 2006.
While the president proposes cutting important programs, he does bring back a proposal that was previously rejected by Congress: school vouchers. His budget includes $100 million for "America's Opportunity Scholarships" - a new name for his voucher program which, in theory, would enable those attending poor-performing public schools to attend private schools. Instead of proposing $100 million for a program that won't see the light of day, especially in a Congressional election year, he should have used that money for programs that help disadvantaged students, like TRIO.
Unfortunately the rest of the president's 2007 budget treats many other social programs like those in his education budget - cuts are made in programs that provide basic necessities to those who need it most. While some of those cuts were expected, after his State of the Union address I had hoped that the president would finally put "his money where his mouth was" in regard to education spending. In the end he put his money where his heart lies - on school vouchers - and now we have to wait and see if Congress will rescue from the chopping block programs that benefit not only WNY, but our nation.
Mark Poloncarz, a founding member of the WNY Coalition for Progress, is comptroller of Erie County, New York.
© Mark C. Poloncarz, 2006.
The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not represent those of the WNY Coalition for Progress.
|
