Memorandum To Education Reporters And Editorial Writers

FROM:
Institute for America's Future Communications Director Toby Chaudhuri

SUBJECT:
Bush Administration 2005 Budget Fails Education

President Bush's spending plan breaks his election promise to "leave no child behind" in our schools. President Bush promised to provide resources to make No Child Left Behind work, but his budget allocations are a strong statement of his real priorities. Republican legislatures from Virginia to Utah are protesting the unfunded mandates of his signature reform legislation for this reason.

• The Bush budget starves his funding pledge by $9.4 billion next year alone — more than $26 billion total since No Child Left Behind was enacted — even though education funding fares better than most areas of domestic investment.
• Total education and training spending in the Bush budget makes up only 3.6% of the federal budget next year and real expenditures are slated to take cuts over the next five years.

The president's education failure goes beyond his broken promise on his own reforms. His budget statement says, "in an increasingly complex and competitive world, the education of our children has never been more important." Our children's future success requires meeting challenges: the largest number of students in schools ever, the pending need for millions of new teachers, soaring college tuition, and school overcrowding — one out of three schools are forced to use trailers as classrooms.

School budgets are getting hammered across the country. American voters desperately need an education president — a president who summons the nation to meet the challenge of educating the next generation. President Bush is simply absent without leave.

The following charts the gulf between the real challenge the country faces and the president's default. It illustrates how far we are from providing the basics.

Every child should come to school ready to learn

Universal Pre-School

The Challenge
Head Start is only serving half of eligible children and Early Head Start only serves 5% of eligible children.1 [1] Working class families find good preschools more and more difficult to secure and afford.

The Need
$25-$35 billion annually is needed to ensure that all children lacking a pre-kindergarten education receive one, according to the The Committee for Economic Development, formed by major US corporations.2 [2] This is less than half of the annual tax cuts millionaires received in the president's tax plan.3 [3]

What Bush Proposes
President Bush's Head Start budget cuts comprehensive services because it fails to keep up with inflation.

Children's Health Care

The Challenge
More than 9 million children have no health insurance and 20% of two year olds have not been immunized.4 [4] Many states are rolling back eligibility for children in health programs — 25 states last year cut back eligibility, forcing 650,000 children to lose health-care coverage.5 [5]

The Need
$16 billion annually would provide health care to all uninsured children in America, according to the Children's Defense Fund6 [6] — one-fourth of the annual sum the President proposes to spend on developing new weapons in an arms race with ourselves.7 [7]

What Bush Proposes
Bush proposed a $900 million increase in the Children's Health Insurance Program — helping less than 5% of the children in need.8 [8]

Schools should have standards and accountability with the resources to meet them

The Challenge
The achievement gap still remains large for low-income, Black and Latino students. Six million students are on the verge of dropping out of high school,9 [9] and a quarter of high-school students read below the basic level.10 [10] Good teachers are key to improving student achievement, but 20% of teachers retire within three years, and in urban communities, 50% leave the profession in five years — in part due to low pay and a lack of school system support.11 [11]

The Need
An additional $84-$148 billion annually is required to fulfill the goals of No Child Left Behind and assist disadvantaged students, according to a recent academic study.12 [12]   The president asked for $84 billion in supplemental funds to pay for occupation and nation-building activities in Iraq and Afghanistan this year.

What Bush Proposes
President Bush short-changed his No Child Left Behind promise by $9.4 billion for 2005, totaling more than $26 billion since the law was enacted.13 [13] He is imposing mandates without giving the schools the resources they need to meet the challenge.

Every child should attend a decent and safe school

The Challenge
America's schools are 40 years old14 [14] and a building in a third of our schools needs widespread repair or replacement.15 [15] One in three schools use trailers or portable classrooms to house students.16 [16]

The Need
More than $53 billion is required to ensure that all schools have adequate infrastructure for internet access, computers, and technical assistance, according to the National Education Association.17 [17] $268 billion is needed in repairs simply to bring schools up to basic standards.18 [18]

What Bush Proposes
President Bush proposed no additional funds for federal maintenance and construction programs, leaving funding at $54 million — enough to build only six and a quarter medium sized schools.19 [19]

After school programs are vital in a society of working parents

The Challenge
Most school-age children have working parents,20 [20] and up to 15 million children return to an empty house after school.21 [21] After-school programs increase academic achievement, and unsupervised children have higher rates of criminal activity and drug use. After-school programs are being cut back across the country.22 [22]

The Need
After-school advocates, 60 U.S. Representatives and all 14 female Senators have asked the federal government to provide $2 billion annually for after-school programs.23 [23] $2 billion annually over the next ten years costs the same as 2% of the new tax cuts the president proposes in this budget.24 [24]

What Bush Proposes
Bush froze funding on after-school programs, failing to keep up with inflation. This is only half of the funding promised for these programs, depriving 1.3 million children of after school programs.25 [25]

College should be affordable for every student who earns admission

The Challenge
Tuition at public institutions rose by 14% last year.26 [26] 400,000 qualified high school graduates will not pursue a full-time, four year degree because they can not afford to pay.27 [27] More than 100,000 students are in danger of dropping out of school because of increased tuition costs. 28 [28] College costs stop nearly half of all low-income students from attending a public four year school.29 [29] In 1975-76, a Pell grant covered 84% of tuition at a four year public school — today it only covers 39%.30 [30]

The Need
A $2.2 billion supplement would prevent thousands of students from dropping out of college by providing a $500 increase to Pell grant recipients.31 [31]

What Bush Proposes
President Bush broke his campaign promise to increase the maximum grant to $5,100.32 [32] The president froze the maximum Pell grant level for the third straight year instead, resulting in a lower average grant.33 [33]

Lifelong Education is essential in a changing economy

The Challenge
1.3 million manufacturing jobs have been lost since the recovery began — 26,000 in December 2003, the 41st month of losses.34 [34] Companies are now starting to move information technology and other service jobs abroad.

The Need
Constant training and retraining must be available in an economy hit by these global tides, as President Bush says.35 [35] Community colleges, central to this effort, saw average tuitions rise by 14% last year.36 [36]

What Bush Proposes
The White House rhetoric claims that President Bush's budget provides resources for a "Jobs for the 21st Century" training initiative. In reality, vocational and adult education program funding is sliced by almost 25% from $2.1 billion to $1.6 billion. President Bush's community college initiative provides $250 million to the nation's community colleges, far less than they lost from state cuts in the past year.

On Education, the president simply fails

The president plans to tout his education reforms and increased funding for poor schools and special education in his presidential campaign this year. Much of the funding here is a shell game. His budget adds money to those programs while eliminating 38 other education programs — funded at $1.4 billion this year. A third of the cost of President Bush's proposed tax cuts is enough to ensure that all children have health insurance, all eligible children have access to Head Start and pay for 100,000 new teachers.37 [37]

The president's priorities are clear. He will rally the nation to rebuild Iraq at the cost of $87 billion this year and a projected $50 billion next year. He not only defends his top-end tax cuts in the face of staggering deficits, he'll demand $1.2 trillion more in cuts over the next decade, almost all of them going to the wealthiest Americans. He'll throw more money to the Pentagon, which already accounts for over 40% of the world's military expenditures. On the critical challenge of educating the next generation, however, the president defaults. An administration that cuts taxes for millionaires while teachers are being laid off is doing grave disservice to America's future

1 How Federal Budget Priorities and Tax Cuts Are Harming America's Children [38]. Every Child Matters Education Fund, Washington DC. December 2003.

2 Committee for Economic Development — Janet Hansen (Project Director). Preschool for All: Investing in a Productive Just Society [39]. The Committee for Economic Development, New York: 2002.

3 Citizens for Tax Justice. The Bush Tax Cuts: The Most Recent CTJ Data [40]. Citizens for Tax Justice, Washington, DC. 12/17/03

4 Children's Defense Fund. Children's Defense Fund Says State Of The Union Address Ignored The Nation's Children And Low-Income Families [41]. Common Dreams Progressive Newswire. January 2004. & Every Child Matters Education Fund, ibid.

5 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. A Brief Overview Of State Fiscal Conditions and the Effects of Federal Policies On State Budgets [42]. December 30, 2003.

6 Children's Defense Fund Fears President's Space Plan Will Carry An Out-of-This-World Price Tag [43]. Children's Defense Fund.

7 Budget of the US Government, Fiscal Year 2005. US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 2004. P. 15.

8 Estimated cost of providing child health-care from National Priorities Project Trade off Database (average Medicaid cost for children) [44]. See notes and sources.

9 Alliance for Education. Left Behind: Six Million At-Risk Secondary Students [45]. Alliance for Education, Washington DC. June 2003.

10 Scott Joftus. Every Child a Graduate [46]. Alliance for Education, Washington DC. September 2002.

11 "Attracting and Keeping Quality Teachers" [47]. National Education Association. (web-site)

12 William Mathis. No Child Left Behind — Costs and Benefits [48]. Phi Delta Kappan: Indiana: V.84 No.9. May 2003.

13 Side by Side. Our Children's Education [49]. House Democrats. 2004. + Statement by National Education Association (NEA) President Reg Weaver on President's Fiscal Year '05 Budget [50]. National Education Association, Washington, DC. 2/2/04.

14 School Facilities — Construction Expenditures have Grown Significantly in Recent Years [51]. 2000. GAO, Washington DC. 2000.

15 School Facilities — Construction Expenditures have Grown Significantly in Recent Years [51]. 2000. GAO, Washington DC. 2000.

16 Condition of America's Public School Facilities [52]. National Center for Education Statistics, US Government, Washington, DC. 1999.

17 Modernizing Our Schools: What Will It Cost? [53] National Education Association. Washington, DC. 2000.

18 NEA, Modernizing Our Schools, ibid.

19 Impact Aid for construction and maintenance. Keegan. Arizona School Construction Costs: Sample Study [54]. Arizona State Dept. of Education, Phoenix. 1996.

20 Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. "When School is Out" [55] 2001. [www.emkf.org [56]]

21 Every Child Matters Education Fund, ibid.

22 Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. "When School is Out" [55] 2001. [www.emkf.org [56]]

23 President Bush Freezes Afterschool Program in 2005 Budget [57]. After School Alliance, Washington DC. 02/03/04.

24 1 trillion over ten years. The Washington Post. Bogus Budgeting. washingtonpost.com. February 3, 2004; Page A18. & Alan Fram, The Associated Press. Bush's Budget Taking Hits From All Sides [58]. February 3, 2004. & House Budget Committee, Democratic Caucus. The Fiscal Year 2005 Bush Budget: Unfair and Unbalanced. House Budget Committee, Washington, DC. 2/2/04.

25 House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. Fact Sheet: Irresponsible Bush Budget Reflects Distorted GOP Priorities. Office of the House Democratic Leader, Washington DC. 2/204.

26 Trends in College Pricing 2003 [59]. The College Board. New York, 2003.

27 Dr. Brian Fitzgerald, Staff Director, Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance. Empty Promises: The Myth of College Access in America [60]. New England Board of Higher Education. 9/27/03

28 Senator Kennedy. Statement of Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Kennedy-Collins Higher Education Funding Amendment [61]. Office of Senator Kennedy. September 4, 2003.

29 Dr. Brian Fitzgerald, ibid.

30 State PIRGs' Higher Education Project. Pell Grants [62]. State PIRG, Washington DC. (web-site). & Kennedy, ibid.

31 Senator Kennedy. Statement of Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Kennedy-Collins Higher Education Funding Amendment [61]. Office of Senator Kennedy. September 4, 2003.

32 Rep. George Miller. Inadequate Yearly Progress Report [63]. Committee on Education and the Workforce. US House of Representatives. December 2003.

33 House Budget Committee, Democratic Caucus. The Fiscal Year 2005 Bush Budget: Unfair and Unbalanced. House Budget Committee, Washington, DC. 2/2/04.

34 Jobs Picture [64]. Economic Policy Institute, Washington, DC. (web-site). January 9, 2004.

35 President Bush. State of the Union Address [65]. The White House, Washington DC. 1/20/04.

36 The College Board. Ibid.

37 Bush Administration's Budget Plan Takes From Poor Children To Give To The Rich [66]. Children's Defense Fund, Washington, DC. 2/204.

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