02/03/04 -- The President is expected to sign into law an omnibus funding bill that shortchanges the nation's public schools by $17 billion. The bill also includes $14 million for the nation's first federally funded school voucher program.
NSBA Executive Director Anne L. Bryant expressed "deep disappointment" in the Senate's action. "The meager increases proposed for critical programs like Title I and IDEA are over $17 billion short of the federal commitment to our public schools," Bryant says.
"Instead of providing the necessary resources and support, Congress opted for criticisms of schools and portrayed them as awash in federal money," she says. The Senate's approval of the bill "is a clear signal that many in Congress are out of touch with the realities in our classrooms."
School board members from across the country attending NSBA's Federal Relations Network Conference in Washington, D.C., Feb. 1-3, will be visiting members of Congress to urge them to support a greater investment in public education. [See page 8 for a report on NSBA's key advocacy issues.]
The omnibus bill would increase K-12 spending by fiscal year 2004 by approximately 5 percent, or $1.8 billion. The Senate passed the bill Jan. 22, and the House passed it in December.
The measure would increase Title I funding by 5.6 percent, or $654 million, for a total of $12.3 billion.
Noting that Congress authorized $18.5 billion for Title I when it passed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) two years ago, NSBA Director of Federal Programs Dan Fuller, says, "With an appropriation that is $6.2 billion short for the biggest program to help disadvantaged children, schools will struggle to meet the goals of NCLB."
The Senate bill would increase funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) by $1.2 billion for a total of $10 billion.
Congress had promised to provide 40 percent of the cost of educating children with disabilities, and this latest appropriations bill moves the federal commitment to 20 percent -- only half of what was promised.
"Congress should provide roughly $20 billion to states and school districts for IDEA this year but will only provide $10 billion," Fuller says. "Is this adequate yearly progress? Congress made no mention of where school boards should find the other $10 billion to meet the broken federal promise."
There were several votes in the House and Senate earlier this year to provide a $2.2 billion increase for IDEA, including the budget resolution, the IDEA reauthorization bill passed by the House, and the education appropriations bill passed by the Senate.
The omnibus bill also includes significant cuts in several education programs, including state grants for innovative programs, community technology centers, Star Schools, and dropout prevention. It eliminates the $62 million Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to use Technology program.
In addition to the increases for IDEA and Title I, the bill increases funding for Head Start, Math and Science Partnerships, Impact Aid, and Reading First.
The new $14 million voucher program would allow at least 1,700 low-income children in the District of Columbia to transfer to private schools at taxpayer expense. In contrast, there are 79,000 students in D.C. public schools and another 14,000 in publicly funded charter schools.
There have been state-funded voucher programs in Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Florida, but the D.C. program would be the first to receive federal funding. (A state judge found Colorado's voucher program unconstitutional in December, and an appeal is pending.)
The D.C. vouchers would be worth up to $7,500. The legislation would give preference to students enrolled in D.C. public schools that failed to make adequate yearly progress under NCLB. Currently, there are 15 schools in that category, but that number is expected to increase next fall.
Under the bill, $1 million would be set aside for administering the program. The U.S. Education Department will select a private contractor to develop guidelines for the program and administer it.
Private schools that agree to participate will be required to set aside a certain number of spaces for voucher children.
These schools will not have to meet the same requirements for testing, reporting test scores, teacher qualifications, and other accountability measures as public schools.
"Congress found millions of dollars to create a new federal program -- private school vouchers -- without requiring even the most basic of accountability standards deemed so important for our public schools," Bryant says.
"This double standard is an insult to the 47 million students and school board members working hard in America's public schools to meet the challenges and goals of NCLB," Bryant says. Instead of being a partner, "Congress is an impediment to true education progress."
Voucher proponents in Congress had tried several political maneuvers to pass the bill and repeatedly failed over the past several months.
"When the voucher plan failed to pass the Senate, politicians instead went behind closed doors and tucked vouchers into a massive, pork-filled spending bill in order to slip it into law," Bryant notes.
"The creation of the nation's first federally funded private school voucher program -- an idea repeatedly rejected by voters -- should never have occurred in such a manner," she says. "Vouchers have been shown time and again to drain dollars from public schools and fail to improve student achievement."