House approves omnibus funding bill with vouchers for D.C.

12/16/03 -- The House of Representatives has approved an omnibus appropriations bill Dec. 8 that would increase K-12 education funding by $1.8 billion (roughly 5 percent) for fiscal year 2004. The Senate is not expected to vote on the measure until after Jan. 20.

The omnibus bill includes funding increases of $1.19 billion for the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) and $654 million for Title I.

It also includes $14 million for a voucher program for the District of Columbia. This measure was tacked onto the omnibus bill by voucher proponents after they removed the measure from the D.C. appropriations bill because they didn't have enough votes to get it passed.

"The voucher provision doesn't even require the most basic accountability standards required of public schools under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)," says Dan Fuller, NSBA's director of federal programs. "Voucher schools will not have to hire highly qualified teachers or be held to the same testing standards as public schools."

While the $1.9 billion increase in the omnibus appropriations bill would boost IDEA funding by 13.5 percent, it is far below the increase previously agreed upon by Congress, Fuller says. The appropriations bill passed by the Senate and the bill passed by the House to reauthorize IDEA both called for an increase of $2.2 billion.

"To put it into the context of the federal commitment, this increase moves from a federal funding shortfall of $10.6 billion for fiscal year 2004 to a shortfall of $10.1 billion," Fuller says. This puts the federal contribution of special education costs at 19 percent, far below the 40 percent promised by Congress.

The omnibus spending bill would increase NCLB funding by $625 million, or about 2.6 percent. This includes a $654 million increase for Title I (5.6 percent) and a $50 million increase for the Reading First and Early Reading First programs (4.7 percent).

The NCLB authorizing legislation called for $18.5 billion for Title I, while the omnibus bill would provide just $12.3 billion for 2004. "This means local school districts will have to provide roughly $6.2 billion to offset the broken federal promise in NCLB," Fuller says.

To accommodate these increases, funding for many other education programs would be cut. Innovative Education Programs would be cut by $84 million, Teacher Quality state grants would be cut by $2 million, education technology state grants by $4 million, and Safe and Drug-Free Schools by $26 million.