... is focused largely on education, and dumps a lot of new money into the education department (won't MagiK love that one) while cutting other programs.
All for what? Note that one of the programs is a "Read First" program targeted to having all kids read by 3rd Grade. Yep, THIRD grade. [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img] Are we regressing? When I was four (26 years ago) my parents yanked me from one kindergarten class into another because they were learning to read faster. Are kids getting dumber now? [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img] Anyway, sorry to hack on it, but our literacy rate sucks.
For those of you who can read, enjoy the article.
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Today's NY Times
February 3, 2004
Domestic Spending: Gains for Education but Not Much Else
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO and LYNETTE CLEMETSON
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 — President Bush's budget for 2005 proposes its biggest increase for domestic spending not related to national security at the Education Department, which is charged with carrying out one of Mr. Bush's showcase issues, the No Child Left Behind law.
The budget leaves spending flat or decreased for other programs like child care, other education activities, housing, promoting clean air, clean water and land preservation.
Many longstanding programs like low-income housing assistance maintain current levels or are cut. The plan increases other signature items like so-called religious and community-based social services. The new requests, combined with a stated intent to make permanent many recent tax cuts, drew wide criticism from liberal groups and other advocacy organizations.
"It amounts to class warfare in reverse," Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said. "It proposes to continue every tax cut for the most affluent people, even adding very large new tax cuts, while starting to cut significantly into basic programs like child care and housing assistance."
On the other side, some conservative groups said the budget did not go far enough. Alison Fraser, director of economic policy for the Heritage Foundation, said her group believed that spending on "entitlement programs" like Medicare continued to exceed acceptable levels. "These are first steps," Ms. Fraser said."
For the fourth year in a row, Mr. Bush proposed adding $1 billion to the money for the poorest schools, which are at the center of the new education law's goal to close achievement gaps between black and Hispanic and white students. The increase brings to $13.3 billion the sum for the neediest schools, 52 percent more than in 2001.
Education Secretary Rod Paige said the 36 percent increase in his department's budget since 2001, the largest of any agency, reflected Mr. Bush's emphasis on his program.
"The No Child Left Behind law," Dr. Paige said, "is more than sufficiently funded."
Education advocates said the budget achieved those gains largely by shortchanging other programs. The president of the American Federation of Teachers, Sandra Feldman, said that the increases in education spending had steadily shrunk, from 18 percent in 2002 to 3 percent.
The new budget recommends cuts to 38 programs, including those focused on dropout prevention, gifted and talented children, guidance counselors in elementary schools and increased parental involvement in poor communities. In addition to the extra Title I money for poor schools, the budget would provide $1.1 billion for Reading First, a program that seeks to have all children reading by the third grade, and $132 million for a similar preschoolers' program.
The $57.3 billion budget would also increase by $1 billion the money for disabled students and add $823 million for Pell grants to low-income college students. The plan disappointed representatives for college students by leaving the maximum Pell grant unchanged at $4,050
Among the domestic items drawing criticism from liberals are Child Care and Development Block Grants, which give money to states to help low- and moderate-income working families with child care. Mandatory spending for the program for 2005 will remain at $2.7 billion. Although the budget calls for a slight increase in discretionary spending, to $2.1 billion from $2.09 billion, that amount dips consistently in the next four years, to $2.06 billion. A result, the administration acknowledges, is a gradual decline in child care and development services, lowering the number of children in such programs to 2.2 million in 2009 from 2.5 million.
The government plans major changes in Section 8 Housing Vouchers, rent subsidies for low-income families. According to the Housing and Urban Development Office, financing will dip slightly, to $14.3 billion from $14.5 billion. The main revision is changing how vouchers are issued, from a system based on housing units to one based on rents. Under the old system, the government guaranteed a set number of rental units and mandated that a poor family could not be forced to spend more than 30 percent of its income on rent.
Projects related to Faith-Based and Community Initiatives receive major attention. In addition to a $200 million request for drug treatments operated by religious and community groups, the budget includes $100 million for the Compassion Capital Fund, which helps religious and neighborhood groups receive federal money.
"The president continues to show his belief in America's armies of compassion," Jim Towey, director of the White House Office on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, said. "He is continuing what he said he would do when he was inaugurated."