{"id":262705,"date":"2010-02-01T23:01:36","date_gmt":"2010-02-02T04:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.szone.us\/f95\/budget-2011-education-spending-skyrockets-38877\/"},"modified":"2010-02-01T23:01:36","modified_gmt":"2010-02-02T04:01:36","slug":"budget-2011-education-spending-skyrockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/262705","title":{"rendered":"Budget 2011: Education Spending Skyrockets"},"content":{"rendered":"
On 02.01.10 03:30 PM posted by Lindsey Burke<\/p>\n

\n<ahref="http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/obama-duncan100201.jpg">\"\"<\/p>The President\u0092s FY2011 budget request calls for significant increases in education spending and, as promised, the Department of Education is exempt from Obama\u0092s so-called spending freeze.<\/p>\n

At a briefing today at the Department of Education, words such as \u0093historic\u0094 and \u0093bold\u0094 were used to describe the President\u0092s budget. Secretary Duncan stated that the FY2011 budget represents \u0093one of the largest increases\u0094 in education spending, which the president \u0093sees as the key to our economic future\u0094.<\/p>\n

But is more spending on education the key to economic prosperity? For that matter, is it even the key to raising academic achievement?<\/p>\n

<spanid="more-25312"><\/span>Since 1985, inflation-adjusted federal spending on K-12 education has increased 138 percent. Yet, indicators of educational improvement such as increases in academic achievement and graduation rates <ahref="http:\/\/www.heritage.org\/Research\/Education\/bg2179.cfm">have remained flat.<\/p>\n

Despite the evidence that more spending is not the answer to increasing academic achievement, Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development Carmel Martin noted during the briefing that discretionary funding for the Department of Education will increase 10 percent under the president\u0092s proposed budget, raising total discretionary spending to $50.7 billion.<\/p>\n

Included in this \u0093historic\u0094 spending increase is $3 billion for ESEA programs, $173 billion in college loans and grants, and $9.3 billion for a <ahref="http:\/\/www.heritage.org\/Research\/Education\/wm2643.cfm">new preschool program created in the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), which has passed the House and is awaiting action in the Senate.<\/p>\n

The budget increase also includes a $1 billion reserve fund for the Department of Education, contingent upon successful reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). But those of us who\u0092ve taught in the classroom know that you don\u0092t give students extra credit for simply doing their assignments. That\u0092s why the administration\u0092s proposed $1 billion incentive for Congress to complete a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is puzzling. After all, it\u0092s Congress\u0092s job to complete legislative assignments such as ESEA, which has been due for reauthorization since 2008. It\u0092s also a little strange for the White House to be proposing an extra $1 billion as an incentive, since the Congress holds the power of the purse and could choose to increase funding for ESEA itself.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the president feels that this is the increase that will finally solve the problems facing American education. When it\u0092s all said and done, the president\u0092s Fy2011 budget for the Department of Education tops $77 billion. This includes $50 billion in discretionary spending, $1 billion for successful ESEA reauthorization, and $35 billion for Pell grants, which became mandatory in 2010. The budget increase comes on top of last year\u0092s $100 billion infusion of \u0093stimulus\u0094 cash into the Department of Education\u0092s coffer. Unfortunately, the sacred cow of education spending has been spared of the spending freeze.<\/p>\n

Rather than calling for \u0093historic\u0094 increases in federal spending or gimmicks like this $1 billion ESEA reauthorization incentive, Congress and the administration should focus on streamlining and reforming federal education programs in 2010 to better serve students and taxpayers.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/2010\/02\/01\/…ng-skyrockets\/<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 02.01.10 03:30 PM posted by Lindsey Burke <ahref="http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/obama-duncan100201.jpg"><\/p>The President\u0092s FY2011 budget request calls for significant increases in education spending and, as promised, the Department of Education is exempt from Obama\u0092s so-called spending freeze. At a briefing today at the Department of Education, words such as \u0093historic\u0094 and \u0093bold\u0094 were used to describe the President\u0092s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-262705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}