President’s Budget Seeks Help for High Schools, But Again Targets Cuts in Many Areas

The Bush administration released a fiscal year 2008 budget request today that includes new money to help struggling schools and a renewed push to retool high schools, but would provide less money overall for the U.S. Department of Education than a fiscal year 2007 spending bill approved by the House last week.

President Bush requested $56 billion for the department, a 2.75 percent increase over the administration’s fiscal 2007 request of $54.4 billion, but 2.6 percent less than the $57.5 billion the House approved last week for fiscal 2007, which started on Oct. 1. ( "House OKs 2007 Budget Hike for Education," Feb. 7, 2007.) The Senate could consider a similar measure as early as this week.

The administration’s request includes a funding boost for Title I grants to districts, increasing the main federal K-12 program from $12.7 billion in fiscal 2006—the last fiscal year for which a budget was completed—to $13.9 billion in fiscal 2008. That would be a 9.4 percent increase. That extra money would be directed to serve low-income high school students, rather than spread out among...