WASHINGTON - June 22 - Whether you are in pre-school or college, in grades K-12 or an adult learner, federal spending on education for the next fiscal year is expected to fall significantly short of need, according to the National Priorities Project. While the Bush Administration has identified education as a priority, pointing to the increase in federal education spending since 2001 and to the introduction of new initiatives, programs across the educational spectrum have experienced cuts or been under-funded and unable to meet demand.

Information about federal spending on education for each of the 50 states can be found in the publication Federal Education Funding Falls Short, on the National Priorities Project web page, www.nationalpriorities.org. The non-partisan National Priorities Project creates reliable estimates using data culled from various sources, primarily the federal government. The publication cites:

Head Start, a comprehensive health, nutrition, education, and social services program which promotes school readiness in low-income children, is under-funded. Nationally, over half of Head Start programs have had to make cuts in the past year, and millions of children are eligible but not enrolled.

The current Administration proposal will under-fund the No Child Left Behind Act by $9.4 billion nationally. The No Child Left Behind Act re-authorized federal spending on elementary and secondary education, and was signed into law in 2002 by President Bush. The law requires states to develop and administer annual testing, and to indicate progress toward students meeting proficiency in mathematics and reading.

While proposed funding for No Child Left Behind would increase over last year, the trend of under-funding this Act continues. State-level studies also indicate that much more money is needed to adequately fund the Act than laid out in the law. One study estimates that at least $85 billion more is needed.

The Pell Grant program, established in 1973, provides federal aid to low-income students at college and university level. The program has been plagued in the last few years by under-funding, so a portion of each year’s new funding goes to pay for the previous year’s shortfall. The Bush Administration’s budget for FY2005 would continue this trend with a $3.7 billion shortfall, possibly jeopardizing the Pell Grant system in future years.

The Bush Administration has proposed to freeze the maximum grant award for the third year in a row and set time limits for grant recipients. Meanwhile, tuition and fees at four-year public universities have risen by more than 25 percent over just the past two years.

The Bush Administration proposes to introduce a new program for adult and vocational education with new funding for fiscal year 2005. However, this would simply replace other programs which would be eliminated under the budget. Overall, adult and vocational education would receive a 24 percent cut.

Special education is under-funded by $11.4 billion in the current budget proposal. This under-funding poses challenges for state and local educational agencies as they try to meet federal mandates set for special education students.

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