House panel approves education funding bill

8/3/04 - The House Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal 2005 funding bill July 15 that would increase funding for both Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) by just $1 billion each. The measure also would offset those increases by cutting funding for a series of smaller education programs by $1.4 billion.

An amendment by ranking committee member Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.) to provide adequate funding increases for Title I and IDEA failed to pass.

NSBA is now urging the Senate to increase funding by at least $2.5 billion for Title I and $2.2 billion for IDEA. The Senate is not expected to take up an appropriations bill until after the congressional recess in early September.

NSBA had urged members of the House Appropriations Committee to reject the bill. The $1 billion proposed increases for each of these programs do not take into account the amount of funding schools actually need, given rising student enrollment, inflation, and increased requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

In a letter sent to committee members July 13, NSBA Associate Executive Director Michael A. Resnick said, "This legislation provides minor increases in K-12 education funding in context of the requirements and partially funded mandates" of NCLB and IDEA. The federal government's failure to adequately fund these laws is having a "devastating impact" on school district budgets.

The law enacting NCLB authorized $21.5 billion for Title I for FY 2005, while the House Appropriations Committee would provide only $13.3 billion.

The committee would provide a total of $12.2 billion for IDEA, which would be about $11 billion below the federal commitment to fund 40 percent of the per-pupil cost of serving special education children.

As a result of these underfunded mandates, Resnick says: "Local school districts and taxpayers are forced to make up the difference between the federal funding promised and the federal funding proposed. This will require resources from other vital programs and reduced services to ensure that school districts comply with the federal mandates."

The only other alternative districts would have is the drastic and politically unpopular option of raising local taxes.

The appropriations bill approved by the House committee would provide a total of $57.7 billion for the U.S. Education Department in 2005. That compares to $55.6 billion appropriated for 2004.

Among the programs proposed for funding cuts in the House bill are comprehensive school reform, dropout prevention, the Fund for the Improvement of Education, smaller learning communities, and community technology centers.