Analysis of Budget Battle Implications for Education Funding Released by New America
The New America Foundation released a paper today providing a detailed analysis of the current budget battle and its implications for education funding. The report finds that education funding has not been a driver of recent increases in federal spending and proposed increases are relatively minor compared to the overall budget.
“One can sincerely argue against education funding increases because of concerns about program effectiveness, efficiency, or value; but to suggest that education spending is the main culprit for busting the federal budget is misguided, if not disingenuous,” said Michael Dannenberg, New America’s Director of Education Policy.
The report, Budget Showdown 2007: The Facts Behind Education Funding, by Heather Rieman, a Policy Analyst at the New America Foundation, provides new research on recent trends in federal education spending and how those trends fit within the larger federal budget. The paper details the conflict behind the first budget cycle since 2000 during which different political parties control the Executive Branch and both chambers of Congress and identifies three possible scenarios of the current showdown may play out over the coming weeks.
If a Presidential veto threat does not derail proposed education appropriations legislation, Congress will increase spending on students, teachers, and schools cumulatively this fall by between $7 billion and $8 billion for the following school year. It represents the most significant change to federal education funding in the last decade. Most of the proposed increase is on the discretionary side of the budget and without offset. But $3 billion worth of the total increase is on the mandatory side of the budget and offset by cuts in federal subsidies to student loan providers.
Rieman dispels some of the common misperceptions about federal spending and the education budget. For example, the paper finds that in recent years, discretionary spending has grown faster than mandatory spending, contrary to the common belief that runaway entitlement spending is crowding out other spending priorities. Separate from spending on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, spending on defense and international matters has driven the growth in discretionary spending. Further, the paper shows that education spending has contributed very little to federal spending growth (only 5.5% of the last five year’s increase), nor has its place in the federal budget expanded since 2001.
Related Programs: Education Policy Program, Federal Education Budget Project
Topics: Education, Education Funding
