Obama Budget Plans Selective Boosts in Education Aid

U.S. Senate Budget Committee assistant Kathleen Llewellyn unloads copies of President Barack Obama’s 2013 budget request for Congressional staff on Feb. 13 in Washington.

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Postsecondary, teacher issues pushed in proposal

By Alyson Klein

Education figures prominently in President Barack Obama's otherwise austere, election-year budget request , which calls for new investments in community colleges, money to prevent teacher layoffs, funding for school facilities, and aid to spur state action on teacher quality.

But the fiscal 2013 budget proposal—which also emphasizes the administration's signature competitive-grant programs while flat-funding key formula-grant programs, such as Title I aid to districts—now heads to a Congress where Republicans are seeking to squelch the federal role in K-12 policy and rein in spending. And the fate of many of the Obama administration's marquee proposals is likely to hinge on the results of the presidential election.

As part of his $3.8 trillion budget, the president is requesting $69.8 billion in discretionary spending for the U.S. Department of Education in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, an increase of $1.7 billion, or 2.5 percent, over...