Bush Administration Plans Steep Cuts for 2006 Education Funding

[LWolf]

http://www.house.gov/budget_democrats/analyses/back_to_school.pdf

From the House Budget Committee Democratic Caucus:

Will “Back to School” Be Harder Next Year?
Bush Administration Plans Steep Cuts for 2006 Education Funding

Across the country, children and parents are getting ready for the first day of the school year with the usual mixture of excitement and trepidation. But there is also deep concern among parents who know that the Administration plans to cut federal education funding by $1.5 billion the following school year. A White House memorandum of May 19 confirms that, despite previous denials, the President is planning a fiscal year 2006 budget that will impose deep cuts in key government
services, with programs at the Department of Education (ED) suffering more than any other: a total cut of $1.5 billion below the President’s proposed 2005 level of funding.


The May 19th memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) clearly directs agencies to “ssume accounts are funded at the 2006 level specified in the 2005 Budget database,” a database that shows the spending levels in the President’s budget for agencies and programs for 2005 through 2009. In that database, ED funding for 2006 is cut by $1.5 billion from the President’s 2005 requested level, with every education account taking its share of the cut. Funding is then essentially frozen at that level for the remaining three years for which OMB submitted data.

Cutting $1.5 billion from the requested 2005 level of education funding will eliminate vital services that help our children learn and succeed. These funding cuts are going to hurt all students: children,
adults who lack a high school degree, and students seeking to attend college. For the Administration to meet its stated future deficit reduction targets without scaling back its tax cuts, it will have to cut spending, and the effect of these cuts on education programs will be painful.

<snip>

I have some news, people. "Back to school" this year hasn't exactly been a piece of cake. At my school site, district budget cuts and related staffing cuts have already resulted in:

*A gutted supply budget. If the parents and I can't fund it, it won't happen.

*No field trips. Unless the parents pay for the school bus.

*A gutted copy budget. I can make my multifunction machine at home do the extra duty; at $35 per ink cartridge, I'll do about 1.5 ink cartridges a month. And it is slow...very slow. But cheaper than kinkos.

*No administrator on duty for much of the year. Our vp has been eliminated. Our principal is assigned to numerous committees at the district, running departments that used to be run by district office employees who have been laid off or not replaced when they moved or retired. We expect to see him one or two days a week, and then he will be doing the staff observations/evaluations required, budgeting, etc. We've been told that no discipline problems will be sent to the office. There is no one there to handle it. No matter what is happening, we're on our own in the classroom. We do not have the authority to suspend students. I don't expect many problems with my class; they are a great group of kids. But if a student commits an act of violence or hate against another student, I want to be able to remove him/her from the classroom. Not this year.

*Our music teacher is now serving 6 schools. That's less than one day a week to provide a music program for our school.

*Same with our school psychologist. If a student has a suspected learning disability, and you'd like it identified so that he/she can qualify for special services, expect it to take a couple of years at that rate.

*No more school busses. All bussing except for special ed has been eliminated.

*Have I mentioned that my 5th graders are all sitting in chairs sized for 2nd graders, because that's what we have enough of, and we can't buy any more chairs to make sure they get a chair big enough to sit comfortably? I have one full-sized student chair in the room. Any suggestions for how to fairly allocate it?

[clydefrand]

1. Oh, our Bushie wouldn't be responsible for this....

He's the No-Child-Left-Behind prez just like he's a war'n peace prez. Two great distinctions...besides his lying lips.

[fdr_hst_fan]

27. Does anyone remember when Bush41

wanted to be remembered as the "Education" president? What a bang-up job HE did!

[EnfantTerrible]

2. This really pisses me off!!!

I suppose it's unrealistic to expect the chimp to appreciate the importance of funding for public schools when he probably never went to one, but to fund a war at the expense of childrens education....:argh:

[LWolf]

3. You're not the only one!

There are more specifics at the link; I only clipped the first three paragraphs.

:grr:

[AnnInLa]

4. Jeez, I hope Kerry/Edwards report this loudly and often!

As a teacher, I find this repulsive. But, how do you keep people ignorant? You cut funding to public schools, obviously. You can't have the majority of the citizens actually thinking.

[LWolf]

5. That's the whole point, isn't it?

The whole reason we've got this big push for scripted curriculums, one-size-fits all teaching and bubbling, no need for anything else...you can't be teaching the next generation of citizens to think or to be active. They are supposed to be passively accepting and following the leader.

[pop goes the weasel]

26. scripted curricula

Oh, yes! The perfect conservative school is a madrassa--all students on the same page uncomprehendingly chanting the same thing. At the end of the school day, military training! Be sure to work those babies hard and feed them little, so that at night their tired heads hit the floor too fast to consider who their enemy really is.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. Would you please...

Email a detailed version of this to the K/E campaign? Grist for the mill and all that...

[LWolf]

7. Hi, T_S!

At the risk of having the thread moved, I'll say that I've communicated with the K campaign about public ed since last spring; I can make this the next.

[Deja Q]

8. 'Bush can do no wrong!'

How the hell can people still support this wretched little fucker* in office?!?!

Even when hearing about the truth, they still want to support him*.

:argh:

[LWolf]

13. You've discovered the "beauty" of it all.

By instituting reforms that suppress questioning, thinking, and active participation in favor of passive listening and following....

children are hard-wired to repeat what they hear and follow the directions they are given without critical thought before they reach voting age.

Deal with this now, or face the consequences when all these kids become voters.

[TrustingDog]

18. wasn't he just bragging about Ed $ in his Convention screetch on Thurs?

and his lobotomized believer/follower/swallowers accept it as a truth...

oiy. unbelievable.

[Ilsa]

9. Meanwhile, check out this waste:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5868529/

Report: Federal vehicle fleet mismanaged
$1.7 billion program rife with waste and abuse
By John Seigenthaler
Anchor, "Weekend Nightly News"
NBC News
Updated: 7:40 p.m. ET Aug. 30, 2004

SNIP

"I was astonished to learn that the federal government spends some $1.7 billion each year on its fleet," says Sen. Collins.

According to the GAO, some government agencies are badly managing their vehicles. They don't know whether their fleet is the right size, or whether they even have the right vehicles for the job.

It's not just that the federal government is having a hard time keeping track of the vehicles it owns. The GAO report says too often money is being wasted to buy vehicles the government doesn't even need or use.

SNIP

The GAO report also says the federal government could save taxpayers millions just by getting rid of the vehicles it doesn't need. It estimates the Department of Interior alone could save $34 million a year on unnecessary vehicles. A previous GAO report ten years ago highlighted the exact same kind of waste.

SNIP

[LWolf]

12. I have no words for that.

At least, not words for a public board.

:grr:

[Soldier]

29. This doesn't surprise me...

The fraud, waste and abuse in the GSA fleet is staggering.

BTW, never buy a used GSA vehicle at auction, the maintenance done on them is pathetic. Unless you need something to use as a prop or are doing a car crash sequence for a movie.

[Davis_X_Machina]

10. When your school 'fails'....

-- and because of NCLB's 'Yearly Adequate Progress' requirement, all public schools will be failing by the end of the next decade -- it can be taken over, and run, by a for-profit corporation, or a church, with all of the money, and none of the accountability, that public schools now get and are subject to.

Leave No Coporation Behind.
Leave No Pastor Behind.

[LWolf]

11. Yes.

I'm crystal clear about that. I have been since before NCLB, since my state (CA) has been on the "standards and accountability" reform track for a decade. NCLB is patterned after state programs instituted by * in TX, Jeb in FL, and Pete Wilson in my state, among others.

I cannot believe the extremes the general public seems willing to go to before they even notice that there might be a "little" problem with this agenda.

[fdr_hst_fan]

28. Sieg Heil!

And welcome to the Fourth Reich, where no one questions the leader, because the leader is always right!

[BeHereNow]

15. Manufacturing Cannon Fodder-

That's the bottom line in the neocon education plan.
Those who can afford private education will be groomed
for their place in the empire elites, everbody else
will be grist for the mill, drone workers for the multi-nationals
or deployed to military service the world over.
That is the future.
BHN

[LWolf]

16. I have said this so often

that I'm sure people run when they see me coming..."oh no, she's going to start in on public ed again..."

We need to keep it out there; it needs to be heard again and again until it is understood.

Keep letting people know.

[strategery blunder]

25. Sadly, some TEACHERS already think this way

I should know because I was in high school a couple of years ago.

Sit down, don't ask questions, shut up. The new hires always seemed to be among the worst, and it got worse every year.

Of course, now that funding has been cut so badly, maybe the new hires are gone.

It also struck me that the most controlling teachers also were the ones who supported Iraqnam.

[TrustingDog]

17. that lousy son-of-a-bitch bastard from hell fucking LIAR!!!!!!

arghghghghghgh!!!

[TrustingDog]

21. sorry for the profanity, I hope u understand.

tho it is a good release to be able to... many boards wouldn't allow this.

[LWolf]

22. You are only typing

what we feel when we contemplate the current mis-administration.

:hug:

[VOX]

19. Guess our children **isn't** learning.

That lying, LYING SOB! Everytime this scumbag lies, someone gets hurt (or dies).

:grr:

[LWolf]

20. He's left us all behind.

And he doesn't seem to care how much damage he does, or how many people he hurts, to achieve his agenda.

[jackieforthedems]

23. I Believe It

They're closing another elementary school here, where I live in Inver Grove Heights, MN ( the 2nd in 5 years ). About 90 teachers lost their jobs in Mpls this year. Band and alot of sports programs are now strictly Park & Rec programs here. It's disgusting. Maybe we ought to home school our kids?!

[cynthia]

32. every man for himself seems to be the repugs plan

You see, if everyone bails on the public schools and homeschools their kids, then every family is out paying for all their own books and materials, thus relieving the government of their fiscal responsibility to the schools, thus freeing up more money to give back to the people who earned it (tax breaks). The problem is someone has to be home with the kids in order to homeschool, which doesn't work so well when it takes two working parents to pay the bills. Bottom line: if you are wealthy enough you have a choice: send your kids to private school (pay for tuition yourself) or homeschool them (pay for books, materials yourself, while one parent is home with the kids all the time). If you are not wealthy, what do they expect? the kids will get no education at all?

I am so sick of hearing about this small government crap. Whether schools are paid for by the local government, the state or the feds, we need to have a public education system that levels the playing field and gives kids a chance. Or we could become like some third world country where the kids spend their days picking through the dumps finding something to eat or sell, or working in a sweatshop making stuff to be sold at Walmart.

[cthrumatrix]

35. the people will nevr be informed until it's too late ... again

[DeepModem Mom]

24. kick

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

30. Don't you understand?

Cutting the budget is HELPING the education system! Uh, by making it more efficient or something! And anyway, how can we fund all the schools in Iraq if we're spending all that money on schools in the U.S.??

You didn't drink your kool-aid today, did you?

[LWolf]

31. Nope.

I'm one of those "difficult" people who never drinks her cool-aid, bubbles her tests/ballots, etc. as ordered. I just don't do unquestioning compliance, which leads my boss to call me a "pain in the ass," even when he asks me to mentor colleagues who are struggling. ;-)

[obiwan]

33. Eye m surprized that r prezdent is goin to kut edjewcayshun...

...dont he no edjewcayshun is th' bedrok uv r sosyetie?

[LWolf]

34. Well, he sure doesn't seem oncerned

about running too many good teachers getting out of the business. I personally know several who have. A couple have taken early retirement, one just quit because her husband makes enough money that she could, and 3 have started programs to complete new Masters degrees so that they can change fields entirely.

I guess he doesn't want us "practicing our love" of learning and students in America's classrooms.