CEC Disappointed with President's FY '05 Budget Proposal

-- Fails to Keep Full Funding Promise for IDEA

On Monday, February 2nd, President Bush released his FY 2005 Budget Request that includes $57.3 billion in discretionary funding for the U.S. Department of Education. As the President indicated early last month, his budget proposes a $1 billion increase in both Title I grants under No Child Left Behind, and for special education grants to states under Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). These increases fall short of promised levels, and all increased program funding appears to come at the expense of other important programs.

If enacted, IDEA Part B would receive $11.1 billion next year. The $1 billion increase, however, is based on the final FY í04 figure AFTER a 0.59 percent across-the-board rescission, instead of the figure Congress intended for the program before the cut. The Part B request includes $16 million that would be reserved for studies and evaluations to assess progress in implementing IDEA.

There will be approximately 6.9 million children served under IDEA next year. The Presidentís budget would therefore provide an average of $1,612 for each child identified as needing special education and related services. Although the federal contribution would amount to 19.7 percent of the national average per pupil expenditure (APPE) for all children, it is not even half of what is needed to meet Congressís commitment to provide 40 percent of funding for IDEA. CEC is outraged that the Administration continues to ignore Congressís original promise.

When Congress originally passed IDEA into law almost 30 years ago, a commitment was made to provide 40 percent of each stateís ìexcess costî of educating children with disabilities. That amount ‚ commonly referred to as the ìIDEA full fundingî amount ‚ is calculated by taking 40 percent of the national average per pupil expenditure (APPE) multiplied by the number of children with disabilities served under IDEA in each state. Congress has made significant progress in recent years, but with the proposed increase, it is still only funding IDEA at 19.7 percent of the promised 40 percent.

Although CEC is pleased to see that grants under Part C of IDEA, Grants for Infants and Toddlers, would receive a $22.2 million increase in the Presidentís proposal, all other programs under IDEA would receive the same amount of funding as last year. However, if you factor in the 0.59 percent across-the-board cut applied in the FY í04 budget, funding for the Section 619 Preschool program will have actually decreased in funding from previous years. In addition, the President is proposing to cut $6.8 million from the Technology and Media Services under Part D. By reducing or level-funding these critical programs, the President is not acknowledging cost of living increases or the additional children served under IDEA each year.

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President Says Heís Committed to Students with Disabilities,
But His Budget Proves Otherwise

Following is information concerning students with special needs that the President included in his budget request:

Renewing Americaís Commitment to Students with Special Needs. Americaís schools need better tools to improve services for students with disabilitiesó11 percent of all students. The President is committed to reforms for Federal special education programs that increase accountability for results, reduce administrative burdens on States and schools, enhance the role of parents, and ensure that research-based practices are widely used. The 2005 Budget demonstrates the Presidentís commitment to serving students with disabilities by providing $11.1 billion for Special Education Grants to States, a $1 billion increase from last year, and a $4.7 billion, or 75-percent, increase since the President took office.

The Administration continues to work with the Congress on revising the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to improve services for students with disabilities. The Administrationís reauthorization principles for this law promote accountability for results, provide flexibility and reduce paperwork burdens for States and school districts, enhance the role of parents, and improve student achievement based on sound research. These principles also align IDEA to the framework of the landmark NCLB Act so that the 6.5 million children who receive special education services are fully included in the effort to raise academic achievement for all students. The 2005 Budget provides significant new resources, over $1 billion in total, to assist States in implementing reforms that will benefit States, schools, students with disabilities and their families. Since 1975, the Federal Government has played an important role in helping States and school districts provide a free, appropriate public education for special needs children.

The President is firmly committed to expanding opportunities for students with disabilities, one of the priorities of his New Freedom Initiative. Since taking office, the President has sought and received unprecedented funding increases for IDEA Grants to States. In 2005, the Budget requests another $1 billion, or 10-percent, increase for a total of $11.1 billion. In addition, the President is targeting resources to the most at-risk populationóinfants and toddlers with disabilities. The Budget provides $467 million, a $22 million, or five-percent, increase for the IDEA Infants and Families program because research has shown that early intervention may help reduce or eliminate the need for special education when children enter school. As part of this initiative, the Administration will work with State and local governments to demonstrate how this program benefits children and their families.

A Public Agenda survey in 2002 showed that more than half of parents with children in special education agreed that ìbetter programs and policies, not more money, is the best way to improve special education.î The Administration believes that research can be better focused and coordinated so that schools can learn from programs that work and put them into practice. Consistent with the legislative proposals to create a new Center for Special Education Research, the Budget moves the IDEA Research and Innovation program to the Department of Educationís Institute of Education Sciences. This association will strengthen the Departmentís investment in relevant, high quality special education research that can also help inform regular education practices.

NOTE: CEC is on record as strongly opposing the movement of IDEA research programs from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), where all other IDEA programs are administered, to IES. We continue to question the removal of these critical programs from OSEPís purview.

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Javits Gifted and Talented Students Act. The President is proposing to eliminate funding for this critical program in FY ë05, as well as 37 others, including: Even Start, Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration, Foreign Language Assistance, and many others.

The rationale to ìzeroing outî these programs is that their functions can better be served through more comprehensive legislation, in which one lump sum would be provided for all programs listed. It would then be up to individual states to decide how to use this money. The language in the legislation is so vague that the likelihood of funds being allocated to gifted education is extremely slim.

This is not the first time that Javits has been targeted for elimination; however, each year, due to the effective advocacy of the education community, funding for this crucial program has been restored, albeit to less than adequate levels. In FY í04, Javits received $11.1 million.

Below is a chart comparing the funding levels for IDEA and Javits programs under the Presidentís Proposed FY í05 Budget with the amount each program received in FY í04.


(In Thousands) FY í04 FINAL PRESIDENTíS REQUEST
IDEA State Grants
Part B Grants to States $10,068.1 $11,068.1
Preschool Grants 387.7 387.7
Part C Infants & Toddlers 444.4 466.6

Part D National Activities
State Improvement Grants $51.1 $51.1
Research and Innovation* 78.1 78.1
Technical Assistance & Dissemination 52.8 52.8
Personnel Preparation 91.4 91.4
Parent Information Centers 26.2 26.2
Technology & Media Services 39.1 32.3
Total, Special Education 11,238.8 12,254.2

Javits Gifted & Talented 11,111 -0-

* Program moved to the Institute of Education Sciences

CEC Continues to Push for Increased Funding for IDEA and Javits

Despite our disappointment in the Presidentís budget proposal, CEC will continue to work with members of Congress as they begin the budget process this year. We will urge them to fulfill their commitment to IDEA programs, and to support gifted and talented programs under the Javits Act by not only reinstating the program, but also greatly increasing the amount of funding Javits will receive.

Next Steps. We will be contacting our CAN network over the next few weeks, asking you to send letters to your members of Congress on the Budget process. We need to let Congress know that the Presidentís budget proposal is completely inadequate, and fails to provide the resources necessary to fully serve all children in need.

We will soon be putting a letter on our Legislative Action Center (LAC) that you can use to send your message to Congress. The LAC is located at http://capwiz.com/cek/home/>. Watch for it!!!

For more complete information about the Presidentís Proposed FY í05 budget, click on the links below.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2005/

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2005/education.html

http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget05/summary/edlite-section2b.html