[Dec-advocacy] news update

[Sarah Hadden]

Welcome to the DEC Advocacy List. The Division for Early Childhood 
(DEC) of the Council for Exceptional Children is a non-profit 
membership organization advocating for individuals who work with or on 
behalf of children with special needs, birth through age eight, and 
their families. For more information about DEC, please contact the DEC 
Office at: The Division for Early Childhood, 27 Fort Missoula Road, 
Suite 2, Missoula, MT 59804. Phone: 406-543-0872, Fax: 406-543-0887, 
e-mail: dec at dec-sped.org. If you would like to either join or be 
removed from the DEC Advocacy List, email Sarah Hadden at 
dsh5gn at virginia.edu. Additional information about governmental 
relations activities can be obtained by visiting the DEC website: 
http://www.dec-sped.org/


3/13/06

Good morning. I am forwarding, in its entirety, CEC's most recent 
policy update. The update provides information about the  FY 2007 
budget resolution that has been passed by the Senate's Budget 
Committee.

Sarah Hadden
DEC Governmental Relations Committee


 From CEC's  Policy and Communication Services Unit 3/10/06
Senate Budget Resolution Provides Empty Promises For Education, IDEA

On Thursday of this week, the Senate Budget Committee passed a budget 
resolution for Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 that claims to provide increased 
funding for education and IDEA, but in the end it only continues the 
trend of under-funding this nation's education programs. The House will 
consider its budget resolution in the coming weeks.

In February of each year, after the President has sent his formal 
budget request to Congress for the ensuing fiscal year, each house of 
Congress passes a budget resolution detailing how Congress will spend 
money on a wide variety of programs. These programs are categorized 
under functions, and appropriations bills, bills that specify how money 
is spent on federal programs, can include several functions under their 
authority. For example, Function 500 is Education, Training, 
Employment, and Social Services, and Function 550 is Health. Both of 
these functions fall under the Health, Education, Labor, and 
Independent Agencies appropriations bill.

When the House and Senate Budget Committees recommend funding amounts 
for these functions, the members of the appropriations committees 
adhere to these spending levels. If, for example, Function 500 receives 
$100, then the appropriators can spend $20 on the Department of Labor, 
$50 on Social Security, $15 on Training programs, and $15 for the 
Department of Education. Or they can spend the $100 on those programs 
any way they want, so long as they don't spend more than $100 total, 
and they can't take money from another function, like defense, to give 
more money to education. For this reason, CEC has asked its members in 
recent weeks to contact their members of Congress asking them to 
provide increased funding in the House and Senate budget resolutions 
for IDEA and Javits grants for students with gifts and talents.

The FY 2007 Senate budget resolution claims to have increased funding 
for education, but the overall funding for FY 2007 in the resolution is 
below the FY 2006 level, and the total money for discretionary spending 
is the same as President Bush's FY 2007 budget request. The Senate 
budget resolution as passed by the committee seeks to provide 20 
percent of the full funding level for IDEA for FY 2008 through FY 2011, 
but this is achieved by providing $2 billion extra for IDEA in each of 
those years, and assumes that the additional $1.5 billion for education 
for FY 2007 in the resolution all goes toward IDEA. For FY 2007, the 
next fiscal year, the Senate budget resolution only adheres to the 
President's recommendation of an additional $100 million for IDEA.

CEC is appalled that the Senate Budget Committee is again ignoring 
Congress' 31-year-old promise to fully fund IDEA. Even the proposed 
funding total for IDEA in FY 2008 falls well short of what Congress is 
authorized to spend on IDEA under the IDEA 2004 reauthorization. The 
full Senate is poised to debate this budget resolution early next week, 
and it is our understanding that amendments will be offered to provide 
more funds for Function 500. When we learn what the details of those 
amendments are, we will make letters available to you on our 
Legislative Action Center so that you can tell your Senators that 
enough is enough and now is the time to fully fund IDEA!


Secretary Spellings Testifies on 2007 Education Budget; Defends $3.5 
Billion in Cuts


On March 9, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, testified before 
the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Labor, Health and Human 
Services, and Education defending President Bush’s fiscal year (FY) 
2007 education budget proposal, which seeks to cut funding by $3.5 
billion.

Throughout her testimony, Secretary Spellings stressed that the Bush 
Administration’s budget recommendations to Congress emphasized 
competitiveness in the global economy. To that end, Secretary Spellings 
discussed specific requests in this budget recommendation, including:

- $100 million for IDEA Part B – State grant program

- $1.5 billion for High School Reform – The stated goal of this program 
is to ensure that every student graduates from high school with the 
skills need to succeed. This reform would also expand current NCLB 
assessments beyond the one grade in which they are currently 
administered.

- $100 million Striving Readers program – This program would expand 
research-based methods for those reading below grade level, using the 
Reading First model.

- $250million for Math Now – A program focused on implementing 
instructional practices for students kindergarten through middle 
school.

- $90 million for Advanced Placement program

- $12.7 billion for Title I Grants to LEAs

- $200 million School Improvement Grants program – under NCLB

- $100 million America’s Opportunity Scholarships for Kids – funding 
that would be given to parents of student who attended low performing 
schools who would have the option of placing their child in a private 
school setting.

During the question-and-answer portion of her time before the 
subcommittee, members of the subcommittee from both parties grilled Ms. 
Spellings over the Administration's policies on numerous issues, 
including:

- Congressman Obey's (D-WI) objection to the overall decline in 
education funding;

- Congressman Simpson's (R-ID) agreement with Congressman Obey's 
critique;

- Congressman Kennedy's (D-MA) concerns about IDEA, Pell, and Even 
Start funding;

- Congresswoman Granger's (R-TX) concerns about the Department's 
programs on childhood obesity and physical education;

- Congresswoman Roybal-Allard's (D-CA) concerns about Pell grants, 
TRIO, GEAR Up, Perkins loans, and the Safe and Drug Free Schools 
program;

- Congressman Peterson's (R-PA) concerns about lack of technology 
funding;

- Congresswoman Lowey's (D-NY) concerns about Perkins loans for higher 
education;

-Congresswoman Northup's (R-KY) concerns about Head Start and after 
school programs;

- Congressman Hoyer (D-MD), who stated, "The President's budget is 
sounding the retreat on meeting the goals of NCLB and expanded 
opportunities for higher education previously announced by the 
President".;

- Congresswoman DeLauro's (D-CT) concern about federal student aid; and

- Congressman Regula (R-OH), who voiced his concerns about dropout 
prevention, teacher/principal quality, and reading, which he feels was 
not adequately funded. He also added that he strongly agrees with need 
to increase education funding to meet challenge of global competition.



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