President’s Budget Would Cut Education Spending

President Bush’s blueprint for federal education spending in the next fiscal year includes a high-profile plan to boost math and science education, new money for private school vouchers, a renewed push to improve high schools—and the most drastic cut in Department of Education funding in more than a decade.

In his proposed federal budget for fiscal 2007, released last week, Mr. Bush calls for a 3.8 percent drop in the department’s discretionary spending, or $2.1 billion less than the agency received for fiscal 2006, excluding hurricane relief and adjusting for a recent accounting change for financial aid. If approved by Congress, his plan would mean the largest percentage cut for the department since fiscal 1996.

The president would sink new federal education money into fresh initiatives, particularly those intended to strengthen learning in mathematics and science, and provide generally flat funding to K-12’s two largest programs: Title I for low- income students and...