Bush Budget: Modest Growth, Fewer Programs

By Erik W. Robelen

Washington

The Department of Education's boom days may be coming to an end, if President Bush has his way.

The budget proposal for fiscal 2003 that Mr. Bush submitted to Congress last week seeks to curb the record growth seen at the agency over the past two years. It would secure sizable increases for top White House priorities, such as special education and the Title I program for disadvantaged students, while freezing or cutting a host of other programs.

Critics were quick to voice disappointment at numbers they argue fall far short of the promises—and the demands—in the "No Child Left Behind" Act Mr. Bush signed in...