2005 Budget Drops Below Bush Request

Congress Appropriates Less for Title I, Special Education

The U.S. Department of Education will see its smallest budget increase in nearly a decade under the catchall spending plan approved by the Republican-controlled Congress in a lame-duck session.

For the first time since President Bush entered office, the budget will fall short of his overall request for education funding. The final fiscal 2005 spending plan undercut some of the president’s top education spending priorities, such as the Title I program for disadvantaged students and special education.

And it rejects altogether a few other proposals Mr. Bush talked up on the campaign trail this year, such as his plans to create a $40 million Adjunct Teacher Corps and provide $33 million for Enhanced Pell Grants for low-income students who take...