Tag Archives: Politics

Implications for PreK-12 Education in Trump’s New Budget

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By Aaron Loewenberg, Abbie Lieberman, Roxanne Garza, Abigail Swisher and Elena Silva
FEB. 12, 2018

On Monday afternoon, the Trump administration released its FY 2019 budget. While the budget proposal was quickly dismissed by some as “dead on arrival,” it is still an important indicator of the administration’s priorities for the upcoming year.

The proposal includes a 5.6 percent decrease in funding to the Department of Education. If enacted, this would amount to a total funding cut of $3.8 billion compared to what was enacted in the 2017 fiscal year. The administration originally sought a far larger cut of $7.1 billion to the department, but $3.3 billion were restored in an addendum that reflects the increased spending levels reached in last week’s congressional spending deal.

The proposal also includes a 21 percent decrease in funding to the Department of Health and Human Services, requesting a total of $68.4 billion for HHS. HHS is where many early care and education programs are housed, such as Head Start and grants to subsidize child care.

This post provides an overview of what the proposed budget means for public education.

Source: New America

Available at: https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/edcentral/implications-prek-12-education-trumps-new-budget/

Head Start hit hardest by federal shutdown, but other education programs face problems in long term

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For the short term, most schools will likely be unaffected by the federal government shutdown that went into effect today. But if the impasse in Congress lasts a long time, schools may feel the financial squeeze.

The shutdown is a result of the House and Senate’s failure to agree on a funding bill, which forced more than 800,000 federal employees into furlough Tuesday morning.

If it lasts beyond one week, the government interruption is expected to delay funding to school districts, colleges and universities that rely on federal funds, according to a U.S. Department of Education contingency plan. With more than 90 percent of its employees expected to be furloughed, officials at the Department of Education will be unavailable to assist school districts or answer questions as they attempt to implement reforms, The Washington Post reports.

The biggest immediate impact could be felt in Head Start programs, though, which are still reeling from federal sequestration cuts that pushed 57,000 children out of the preschool program for low-income children. According to the National Head Start Association (NHSA), an advocacy group, 23 programs in 11 states with grant cycles that begin Oct. 1 are poised to lose grant money due to the shutdown.

Source: The Hechinger Report

Available at: http://hechingered.org/content/head-start-hit-hardest-by-federal-shutdown-but-other-education-programs-face-problems-in-long-term_6399/

New Early Learning Deputy Assistant Secretary to be Appointed

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7/30/2013

Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced that Dr. Libby Doggett will be named Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Early Learning at the U.S. Department of Education. She will head up the Office of Early Learning within the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), which jointly administers the Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) program with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This fall, the Departments will hold another RTT-ELC competition.

In her role as Deputy Assistant Secretary, Dr. Doggett will work closely with the White House on promoting President Obama’s plan to make high-quality, full-day preschool available to all 4-year-olds from low- to moderate-income families through a new state-federal partnership. The plan is part of the President’s proposal to create a birth to age five pipeline of services and supports, including investments in home visiting and Early Head Start-child care partnerships, to prepare children for success in kindergarten and beyond. The plan also includes $750 million in Preschool Development Grants, which the Senate Appropriations Committee recently approved as part of its mark-up of the FY 14 appropriations bill.

Source: US Department of Education

Available at: http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USED/bulletins/856e23?reqfrom=share

Doubling-Down on Dumb: The GOP War on Being Smart

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3/15/12

This is the first in a three-part series on the need for education reform in the United States. This first installment explores the political discourse criticizing public education, at a time when it is critical to restore the worldwide prestige the United States once enjoyed for the exemplary quality of its primary, secondary, and post-secondary educational systems.

We’re supposed to be exploring every conceivable alternative for turning the domestic economy around. So why are Republicans, at state and federal levels, waging a rhetorical, legislative, and administrative War on Education?

Source: The Huffington Post

Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-smirniotopoulos/war-on-education_b_1348323.html

Santorum Opposes Early Childhood Education: Government Wants To ‘Indoctrinate’ Children ‘From The Womb’ | ThinkProgress

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8/4/11

Last month, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) — a long-shot contender for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination — said American students scoring low on history tests is proof of “a conscious effort on the part of the left, who has a huge influence on our curriculum, to desensitize America to what American values are so they are more pliable to the new values that they would like to impose on America.” During a campaign appearance at the Perry Public Library in Perry, Iowa this week, Santorum took this line of thinking a step further, explaining that he is opposed to early childhood education programs because he feels they are a government attempt to “indoctrinate your children“:

It is a parent’s responsibility to educate their children. It is not the government’s job. We have sort of lost focus here a little bit. Of course, the government wants their hands on your children as fast as they can. That is why I opposed all these early starts and pre-early starts, and early-early starts. They want your children from the womb so they can indoctrinate your children as to what they want them to be. I am against that.

Source: ThinkProgress

Available at: http://thinkprogress.org/education/2011/08/04/287987/santorum-opposes-early-childhood-education-government-wants-to-indoctrinate-children-from-the-womb/