Federal Budget's Approval Sets Stage for Future Battles

Education advocates are already bracing for protracted budget battles in the coming year, even as they sort the winners and losers in the bill approved by Congress on Thursday financing the U.S. Department of Education and the rest of the federal government through September.

The hard-fought agreement followed months of wrangling between Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, who aimed to significantly curtail domestic discretionary spending, including for K-12 education, and the Obama administration, which sought to shelter education and other priorities.

Though a number of smaller, targeted programs ended up being eliminated or cut back over a series of stopgap spending bills, in the end just over $1 billion was sliced from the U.S. Department of Education’s discretionary budget. The final tally: $68.5 billion for fiscal year 2011, down from $69.8 billion in the previous fiscal year,...