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 Bush
Recommending Cuts in Education Spending After '05
by Stephen Koff, The Plain Dealer, February 20, 2004
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President Bush,
while promoting proposals to boost federal education spending
next year, plans to pare back spending on schools in subsequent
years, budget figures show. Bush almost certainly will meet with
protests from schools and education groups, already complaining
that federal dollars are inadequate for the improvements
mandated by the president's No Child Left Behind Act.
"Our argument is that education is already under-funded in these
budgets, and in fact 37 programs will be zeroed out in '05,"
said John See, spokesman for the American Federation of
Teachers. "It will just get worse."
The White House is proposing an education budget increase from
$63.26 billion to $66.4 billion next year, although some school
programs would get bigger increases than others. The numbers
include mandatory as well as discretionary spending authority.
But the total would immediately drop in 2006 and would fall to
$63.6 billion by 2007.
That's less than 1 percent above current spending, so with
inflation it would represent a decrease. It's also 4 percent
less than Bush's much-touted increase for 2005.
Bush's recommendations, requiring congressional approval before
any become certain, are in a little-examined set of projections
that accompanied the release of the White House budget on Feb.
2. "Education," said the main budget book, "is the fundamental
building block of American prosperity and wealth."
The White House says that the figures beyond 2005 are not etched
in stone and that future spending priorities will be de cided
when the time comes. Office of Management and Budget officials
also noted that school spending has already jumped dramatically
under Bush, though not as rapidly as critics would like.
"The president has a very demonstrated commitment to education
and adequately funding education, and that's going to continue
as long as he's president," said OMB spokesman Chad Kolton.
The Economic Policy Institute, a labor-oriented research
organization, analyzed the numbers this week and concluded that
they reflect a budget clearly tailored for an election year. The
numbers enable the White House to boast of its commitment to
education and several other programs in the short term, while
simultaneously saying it will cut the estimated $521 billion
deficit in half in five years.
Only on further examination is it clear that education cuts are
around the corner, the institute says. The budget projections,
through 2009, also show long- term cuts to energy, housing and
environmental protection.
Washington insiders say the numbers reflect smoke-and-mirrors
trickery: They add up to the right sum in order to project a
deficit cut. Yet if the specific numbers turn out to be
meaningless, as the White House suggests, then the
deficit-reduction projections are suspect.
"Either the president's policy is the policy and those numbers
represent the policy judgment, or what the president said about
reducing the deficit in half over five years doesn't really mean
anything," said Joel Packer, a lobbyist for the National
Education Association. "You can't have it both ways."
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