Instant Analysis of the President's No Child Left Behind Education Budget

(WASHINGTON, DC) – The New America Foundation’s Education Policy Program is releasing today instant analysis of President Bush’s Fiscal Year 2008 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) budget request. Later in February, the New America Foundation will announce the formation of a Federal Education Budget Project that will serve as the first and only independent, non-partisan, and authoritative source of easily accessible information on federal education funding for the media, policymakers and staff, state and local officials, non-profit organizations, the public, and others. At that same time, New America will release a thorough analysis of the President’s Fiscal Year 2008 education budget.

New America’s preliminary analysis of the budget indicates the following:

* The President’s budget would provide $24.6 billion in funding for No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) programs, the highest level of funding in NCLB’s history, but still $14.8 billion less than specifically authorized. Instead of a single NCLB authorization of appropriations, the law authorizes and subsequent legislation provides support for 78 associated funding streams. Cumulatively, funding for these programs has been authorized at $39.4 billion and “such sums” beyond that level as the Administration and Congress deem necessary in subsequent legislation. The Fiscal Year 2008 estimate of the President’s Budget support for NCLB reflects the sum of funding proposed for the relevant NCLB programs, plus additional new programs the President would amend NCLB to authorize.

* Normally, a specific authorization of appropriations figure reflects only the maximum level at which Congress may fund a program. It is not mandatory for the federal government to meet authorization levels. It is also not mandatory for states, and accordingly their school districts, to participate in discretionary grant programs, such as NCLB. The law, therefore, cannot be deemed an “under funded mandate” or “unfunded mandate.” But because of its ubiquitous nature, it is a debatable question whether NCLB is a normal discretionary grant program.

* Cumulatively, funding for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by NCLB, has increased by $27.5 billion since the law was first passed in January 2002. But cumulatively, NCLB also has received $70.9 billion less in funding than specifically authorized. Typically, commentators misleadingly note that funding for NCLB programs has increased by $6.2 billion since Fiscal Year 2001. In fact, that figure represents solely the difference between the Fiscal Year 2001 and Fiscal Year 2006 aggregate NCLB funding level. It ignores the concept of an inflation adjusted baseline. The value added by Members of Congress and the Administration to overall federal funding for NCLB programs since the law’s passage equals the increase in funding each year over the consistent level of ESEA program funding that presumably would have continued to be made each year had NCLB never passed. This concept of a baseline is used for all mandatory spending and tax programs, as per the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. It is not required for use with discretionary grant programs, but it is an applicable concept for assessing the federal education funding value added as a result of NCLB’s passage.

* Almost two thirds, $17.6 billion, of the cumulative $27.5 billion increase in funding for ESEA, as amended by NCLB, stems from the initial political agreement in calendar year 2001 to increase federal education funding for school reforms contained in the new law. In no year after Fiscal Year 2002 has NCLB funding decreased below that the Fiscal Year 2002 level. In fact, in every subsequent year, NCLB funding increased above the immediate prior year’s level, albeit in increasingly smaller percentage increments. In effect, the initial NCLB funding agreement for Fiscal Year 2002 created a substantially heightened baseline for future year funding.

Commentary

“Today begins the latest round of negotiations over the next No Child Left Behind Act,” said Michael Dannenberg, director of education policy at the New America Foundation and Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s former lead education budget expert.

“President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act budget offers a lesson in leverage. When the President wants to authorize or reauthorize his No Child Left Behind law, he proposes education funding increases. Once Congress passes the next No Child Left Behind Act, the President’s proposals for increased funding can be expected to stop.”

The last time President Bush proposed a notable increase in funding for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which the No Child Left Behind Act amended, was 2001, the year he wanted his school reform law passed. In 2001, President Bush proposed a near $500 million increase in federal funding for school reform. Congress demanded much more in exchange for his No Child Left Behind law and he agreed to an increase seven times larger. This year, he proposed an increase of approximately $1.1 billion.

“How much more will Congress demand to extend the No Child Left Behind school reform law remains to be seen, but you can be sure it will be more.”

Related Programs: Education Policy Program, Federal Education Budget Project
Topics: Education