3-16-05, 9:07 am
Bush Budget Slashes Education, Other Domestic Programs
From AFT
President Bush's proposed budget that includes broad cuts in domestic spending programs while calling for new tax cuts 'flies in the face of his re-election campaign that stressed family values and compassion,' says AFT president Edward J. McElroy. The FY 2006 budget, released Feb. 7, includes limitations on food stamp eligibility; an end to a program that provides housing, education and employment services to the poor; energy assistance to help people pay their heating bills; and measures that reduce Medicaid payments to states.
The budget 'turns its back on children, the elderly and the most vulnerable while shifting the burden of assisting them to cash-strapped states,' said McElroy in a statement . 'His budget also irresponsibly masks the tremendous hidden costs of the administration's misguided scheme to privatize Social Security.'
The budget calls for an actual cut in education—the first in a decade. One in three programs slated for elimination is in education, noted McElroy, representing 'a huge reversal in the federal government's commitment to education at a time when new, rigorous requirements for students and teachers need to be met.'
The No Child Left Behind Act remains underfunded by $12 billion, and among the education programs that would be cut entirely are Even Start, Comprehensive School Reform, Safe and Drug-Free Schools grants for states and Education Technology grants. Programs such as Teacher Quality State grants and Reading First grants are level-funded.
The education budget also calls for a new $50 million school voucher program and an initiative 'to extend No Child Left Behind reforms to high schools' through a variety of measures, including implementing a 'high school accountability framework and a wide range of interventions' and a plan to implement testing in grades 9 through 11 in language arts in math.
In higher education, although the budget calls for a modest increase in Pell grants, this will be financed by the elimination of the Perkins loan program that helps low- and middle-income students. The administration would also end the Perkins loan-forgiveness program for those in the armed forces or the Peace Corps.
The administration's FY 2006 budget overall cuts or drastically reduces some 150 programs. This ranges from assistance for nursing students to veterans' healthcare to the budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Also targeted for cuts are subsidies for farmers, the Amtrak rail passenger service and the budget of the Small Business Administration.
The president opts to exclude from his budget many of the out-year costs associated with the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and tsunami relief aid, and omits the fiscal impact of making his first-term tax cuts permanent or converting a portion of Social Security to private accounts.
More Pressure on States
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) notes that key low-income programs would be hit 'even though these programs have contributed little to the return of the deficit, and since 2000, poverty has risen and the number of Americans without health insurance has climbed.' Also, the administration achieves much of its austerity by 'passing down costs to other levels of government' making deficit gaps for state budgets even greater.
The Department of Labor is slated for a 4 percent cut from fiscal year 2005 funding levels. Job training programs will be consolidated and cut while programs to monitor union activities will expand. The president cuts total employment services grants to states by $86 million and eliminates the migrant and farm worker job-training program. The focus shifts to expanding programs that verify eligibility and payment substantiation and enlisting private collection agencies to recover overpayments and delinquent employer taxes.
