Education Spending Affected in Various Parts of 2005 Federal Budget

The domestic-spending package passed by Congress last month spells out the budgets of education programs not only within the Department of Education but also in several other federal agencies.

Two of the biggest education- related programs in the Department of Health and Human Services—the Head Start preschool program and the Child Care and Development Block Grant—would both have their funding almost frozen in fiscal 2005, with increases of about 1 percent. The fiscal year began Oct. 1.

Head Start would receive $6.8 billion; the child-care-grant program is to get $2.1 billion. Both of those funding levels are slightly below President Bush’s request. The child-care money goes to states, which use it to pay not only for child-care help for mothers on welfare, but also for a wide variety...