The U.S. House and Senate approved a FY2009 budget in early June that increases funding for education, health care, veteran benefits, and energy programs, while providing some tax relief. The $3 trillion Congressional budget, the first approved in eight years, does not need the signature of the President, and guides the actions of the appropriation committees.

Chairmen of the two budget committees, Senator Kent Conrad (ND) and Rep. John Spratt (SC), said the budget aims to balance the budget by 2012, ending years of deficits racked up during the Bush Administration and it increases the budget submitted by President Bush by $21 billion. Because Bush has threatened to veto appropriation bills that exceed his spending requests, Democrats are considering delaying passage of most of the bills until a new president takes office in January.

“This budget takes immediate action to strengthen the economy and make America safer,” said Senator Conrad. ”It responds to the current economic downturn by providing additional stimulus for the economy and cuts for middle class families. And it creates the building blocks for fuller economic growth by making needed investments in energy, education, infrastructure, and health care.”

President Bush submitted a FY09 budget that would freeze overall Education Department discretionary funding at $59.2 billion, would increase some education programs, but would offset those increases by eliminating 48 programs totaling $3.3 billion. He proposed almost all the decreases last year and they were rejected by Congress.

Increases were offered by Bush for Reading First, Title I, special education, and math instruction, a warmed-over $300 million voucher initiative, and a small boost in the maximum Pell Grant award. But the Administration would cut career and technical education state grants, federal supplemental educational opportunity grants, education technology, and Reading is Fundamental. Bush also proposed large cuts to afterschool centers and safe and drug-free schools state grants.

Even as the administration pushes for the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act, the Bush budget would underfund the current law by $14.7 billion, for a cumulative shortfall of $85.6 billion. Under the President’s budget, NCLB funding would rise by just $125 million to a total of $24.7 billion.

Title I grants to local education agencies would increase by $406 million to a total of $14.3 billion, an increase intended to help school districts boost Title I funding to high schools. The Bush budget also level-funds the Title I School Improvement Grants program at $491 million.

Afterschool programs would be hit. The Bush budget slashes funding for 21st Century Community Learning Centers by nearly $300 million and restrucures it as a vaguely defined afterschool and summer school “scholarship program.” Under the proposal, some 635,000 to 1.1 million students would be dropped from the program and the Education Department “would continue to allocate funding by formula to states, which would award competitive grants to public or private nonprofit organizations to administer scholarships for students from low-income families who attend schools in need of improvement...or with a graduation rate of less than 60 percent.”

For Special Education, the Bush budget would provide a smaller share of states’ total costs, or 17 percent of the national average per-pupil expenditure, an increase of $337 million for a total of $11.3 billion. The proposal would be the lowest level of support since FY02.

The Bush budget proposes level funding of $2.874 billion for Vocational Education state grants, even though almost 30,000 disabled individuals were on waiting lists of state VR agencies at the end of fiscal year 2007.

Other programs cut in the Bush budget include teacher quality state grants, $2.8 billion, a cut of $100 million; safe and drug-free schools state grants, cut by $194.8 million to a total of $100 million; Teaching American History, cut by $67.9 million to a total of $50 million. Under the Presidenet’s budget, Head Start would get an increase of $149 million, for a total of $7.03 billion, but since 2002, Head Start has been cut by 11 percent. Approximately 895,000 children receive comprehensive child-development services through Head Start, including 61,000 in Early Head Start.