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Overview of federal budget proposal

Analysis from CSBA’s Governmental Relations Department

President Bush’s budget request for the 2009 fiscal year, released Feb. 4, proposes to increase total discretionary spending to $987.6 billion. That would be an increase of $46.2 billion, or 4.9 percent, over the enacted budget for 2008.

Discretionary spending for all education programs, however, would remain relatively flat. As seen in the table below, the increase for the major K-12 programs is only 1.86 percent.

Bush administration FY09 budget request
(dollars amounts are listed in millions)

2008

2009

Change

Percent

NCLB

Title I Grants to LEAs

$13,899

$14,305

$406

2.92%

School Improvement Grants

491

491

0

0%

Reading First

393

1,000

607

154.45%

Striving Readers

35

100

65

185.71%

Pell Grants for Kids

0

300

300

N/A

21st Century Learning Opportunities

1,081

800

-281

-25.99%

Charter Schools Grants

211

236

25

11.85%

American Competitiveness Initiative

44

175

131

297.73%

Teacher Quality State Grants

2,935

2,835

-100

-3.41%

Teacher Incentive Fund

97

200

103

106.19%

English Lang. Acquisition Grants

700

730

30

4.29%

SUBTOTAL, NCLB

$19,886

$21,172

$1,286

6.47%

Sp. Educ. State Grants

10,783

11,285

502

4.66%

Career/Tech State Grants

1,182

0

-1,182

-100%

Adult Education

572

568

-4

-0.7%

GRAND TOTAL

$32,423

$33,025

$602

1.86%

California's increase in Title I funding would be only 1.8 percent under the allocation formula. Federal funds for special education in California would rise 2.8 percent.

President Bush proposes to terminate funding for 47 K-12 programs, for a total savings of $3.3 billion. The largest program targeted for termination is the Career and Technical Education State Grants Program, at nearly $1.2 billion. The impact of the major proposed terminations on California are as follows:

· Career and Technical Education State Grants: $126.1 million

· Even Start: $7.2 million

· Education Technology State Grants: $30.5 million

· Tech-Prep Education State Grants: $11.3 million

California's share of funding for Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities State Grants would also fall by $22.7 million, from $35.2 million to $12.5 million—a 64.4 percent reduction. Likewise, California's funding for 21st Century Learning Centers would drop from $132 million to $92.5 million, a reduction of $39.5 million or 29.9 percent.

Related link:

Details on the Bush administration budget request are available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/budget/2009/index.html