Senate Appropriations Bill Restores Some Funding Lost to Sequestration
“The Senate Appropriations Committee recognizes that it’s irresponsible to balance the budget on the backs of our children,” said Charles Barone, policy director of Democrats for Education Reform. “We’re grateful that Senate Democrats have begun to undo some of the damage caused by sequestration and have made critical new investments in key education reform areas with the highest chance of success.”
DFER is especially pleased that the bill would make a considerable investment in early childhood education, which has been proven repeatedly to have a substantial impact on raising student achievement levels. The bill includes $9.6 billion for Head Start programs, an increase of more than $2 billion from sequestration levels. This increase will restore Head Start enrollments for thousands of children ranging in age from infant to five years old that were cut out of the program due to sequestration, and will head-off the pending disenrollments of thousands more.
Further, the bill provides $750 million in new funding for Preschool Development Grants to support states’ efforts to expand on and create new high-quality preschool systems for 4-year-olds from low- and moderate-income families. This is a significant down payment on President Obama’s proposal to ensure that every family has access to high-quality early childhood education.
Additionally, DFER is pleased that the bill would make strong investments in education programs crucial to raising student achievement, particularly in the areas of special education, STEM education, and higher education. Especially notable are new funding streams for STEM Innovation Networks ($55 million) and Dual Enrollment initiatives ($22 million). The bill also raises the maximum Pell Grant by $140 to a new cap of $5,785. In addition to the program increases, we applaud the bill’s restoration of funding for the Teacher Incentive Fund, School Leadership program, Promise Neighborhoods, and Math and Science Partnerships to pre-sequestration levels.
While generally supportive of the bill, DFER is greatly disappointed that the committee did not adopt an amendment by Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) to increase funding for the Charter School Program. The proposed amendment would have raised funding for the replication and expansion of high-quality public charter schools by a mere $35 million.
Without this small amount of additional funding for public charters proposed in the amendment, it is unlikely that the Department of Education will issue any new grants to charters during the next fiscal year, as most of the existing funds are already allocated for continuing current grants. It is frustrating that the Senate Appropriations Committee turned its back to the nearly one million students waiting for the chance to attend a high-quality public charter school.
On balance, however, Democrats for Education Reform congratulates Chairman Mikulski and her colleagues on their hard work in tough budget times. We urge all Senators to vote in favor of this bill when it comes to the Senate floor. We likewise urge the House of Representatives to meet or exceed the funding levels proposed in the Senate legislation, and to include the Landrieu-Kirk amendment, when they consider their own appropriations bill for FY 2014.