Federal budget update: House sends fiscal year 2018 funding bill to Appropriations Committee
Published: July 19, 2017
The first step in the federal budget approval process occurred on July 13, when the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education held a hearing to markup its FY2018 appropriations bill. The bill was approved and sent to the full committee for a hearing. The bill represents a $2.4 billion cut to the Department of Education’s budget, including rescissions to the Pell Grant program for the current fiscal year. At the K–12 level, the cuts were primarily taken out of ESSA Title II, which receives no funding in the subcommittee draft, and is of great concern as the Senate works on its draft of the bill.
As approved by the subcommittee, the bill includes the following allocations:
– ESSA Title I $15.46B (level funding)
– ESSA Title II $0 ($2.05B decrease)
– State Assessments $369M (level funding)
– Rural Education $176M (level funding)
– ESSA, Title IV $500M ($100M Increase)
– IDEA State $12.2B (level funding)
– CTE State Grants $1.12B (level funding)
– Preschool Development Grants $250M (level funding)
While it is encouraging that Title IV funds saw a $100 million boost, CSBA would like to see the funding increase further, as this block grant will replace around 40 individual programs which could be used to provide access to a well-rounded education (e.g. STEM, arts, civics, IB/AP fees, health and physical education), school counseling, school health and safety, and education technology.
The Senate will be going through a similar process to the House, but it has not yet released its draft funding bill. Congress has until September 30 to approve a federal budget bill. However, they can also pass a continuing resolution to keep the government functioning if the October 1 deadline cannot be met.