NASSP Applauds Proposed Increase to Education Funding Yet Is Disappointed in Frozen Funding Levels for Core Programs and Alerts Members to the Threat of Sequestration

This past Monday, President Obama released his Fiscal Year 2013 budget request, which outlines his spending priorities for certain programs and purposes for the next fiscal year, which will provide funding for the 2012-2013 school year. NASSP is happy to see the President’s continued investment in education: a proposed increase to the education budget of $1.7 billion, 2.5% above fiscal year 2012 levels. This proposed increase is especially significant given that the President in contrast proposed reducing the defense budget by 1%, while non-security discretionary programs across all other agencies only received an overall increase of $2 billion. Clearly, the President is fighting for investing in education, and on behalf of NASSP members we applaud this direction.

However, a closer look at the President’s education budget reveals the administration’s spending priorities within education, which give NASSP cause for concern. The President continues his investment in his signature competitive grant programs in calling for an increase to Race to the Top $300 million above its 2012 level largely to provide funds for the new Early Learning Challenge focused on early childhood education. In contrast, the President proposes to freeze funding at the 2012 levels for the core programs of Title I state grants that provide services for low-income students and of IDEA Part B state grants that fund special education services for students ages 3-21.

NASSP wants to emphasize the point that level-funding these programs actually denotes a cut in services from these programs when one factors in the rising enrollment for grades K-12 and the impact of inflation. Further, as cited in a recent New York Times article, a study found that “the gap in standardized test scores between affluent and low-income students had grown by about 40 percent since the 1960s, and is now double the testing gap between blacks and whites.” This evidence only underscores the need to invest more in foundational federal programs like Title I that reach all low-income students, instead of using some of this money to invest in competitive grants like Race to the Top that by nature only reach some. NASSP feels that when it comes to the achievement gap, the stakes are too high to divert Title I funds into grants like Race to the Top whose effectiveness is not yet comprehensively proven. Similarly, flat-funding IDEA grants for special education amounts to a cut in services whereby the federal share to fully fund the additional costs of special education (as measured by average per-pupil expenditure) drops to 16% despite a promised contribution of 40% (which the federal government has never fulfilled).

Consolidated Funding Streams Jeopardize Federal Programs for School Leaders

The Administration also proposes to consolidate 38 programs into nine new flexible funding streams. While the idea of flexible funding may seem favorable at face value, consolidating programs jeopardizes the chance that any of those individual programs will receive dedicated funding next year to carry out the critical services each of them provides. NASSP members should be concerned about the proposed consolidation of the School Leadership grant, funded at $29 million this year to recruit, train, and mentor principals and assistant principals in high-need districts. The administration would consolidate this program into a pathway called the Effective Teachers and Leaders State Grants that pits funding for this and other programs against one another for one pot of funds and increases the prospect that the school leadership grant will not be funded for fiscal year 2013. NASSP recognizes that school leaders already struggle to obtain funding for their own professional development against competing issues like class size reduction, and opposes this and other consolidations that further jeopardize funding for these critical services for school leaders.

NASSP Members Must Learn and Speak Out About Danger of Sequestration

Despite the promise that the President’s increase to education funding provides, NASSP members should be concerned-and vocal-about the looming threat of sequestration that would cut education programs by an untenable 9.1%. (Congress now faces the threat of sequestration because the twelve-member “Supercommittee” this fall failed to present a plan to reduce the federal deficit by an additional $1.2 trillion. As a result, according to the Budget Control Act passed in August 2011, across-the-board, deep cuts to all discretionary programs including education is scheduled to occur in 2013 unless Congress acts to stop it). As stated by Executive Director Joel Packer of NASSP’s coalition partner the Committee for Education Funding (CEF), “Education programs will be chopped by over $4 billion, moving the country backwards in efforts to close academic achievement gaps, improve overall student achievement and educator quality and increase high school graduation, college access and completion rates.” To this end, NASSP urges its members to contact their legislators and impress upon them that sequestration cannot be an option due to the severe cuts to education that it would cause and the backwards direction in which it would set our country. To learn more about the dangers of sequestration and talking points to use with your legislators, NASSP encourages you to attend a free webinar next Tuesday, February 21 2-3 pm EST hosted by CEF Executive Director Joel Packer. Register here.

For its part, NASSP Government Relations staff is joining forces with dozens of other education advocates in the Committee for Education Funding (CEF) and will be meeting with Congressional staff in the House and Senate budget committees over the next several weeks where we will reinforce the President’s message to invest in education and impress upon staff the severe threat to education funding that sequestration imposes. NASSP is timing these visits to occur before the House presents its own budget resolution for fiscal year 2013, so we can educate Congressional staff about the importance of investing in education funding in order to put our country on a long-term stable and thriving financial path.