Revitalizing Education in America

No More Broken Promises: Reject Bush's Education Cuts
by Robert L. Borosage and Earl Hadley

This week the House and Senate debated budget resolutions that called for significant cuts in education spending over the next five years. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, these resolutions would lead to more than $30 billion in cuts to education and training from 2006-2010, compared to current spending adjusted for inflation. They also cut billions of dollars in funding to other programs that are vital to educating children -- such as nutrition assistance and healthcare. At the same time, the president is calling for new top-end tax cuts that'll add $1.6 trillion to continuing deficits over the next ten years.

This fits neither the needs nor the desires of the American people. A majority of Americans, as a recent poll by the Program on International Policy Attitudes and Knowledge Networks shows, reject the administration's budget priorities and want substantial increases in education funding. But the Republican majority in Congress is following the priorities of the president, not those of the American people.

And President Bush is breaking his promise to Americans. After calling on the nation to reform our public schools, pledging to make sure that all children receive a quality education, the president has turned his back on his own commitment. Bush's budget is $12 billion short on funds he promised for the No Child Left Behind Act and cuts education funding this year. The president's proposals would cut 25,000 children from Head Start, leave 1.7 million children without after-school programs, and kick 2.8 million adults out of programs that help them learn to read.

Educating children may be close to the president's heart, but it is not in his budget. Instead he's pushing tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, while schools are laying off teachers. The sad reality in American education is that we're still not even doing the basics -- children go without pre-school, classes are growing larger, not smaller, after- school programs aren't available, college is getting priced out of reach of more and more working families. We need a president who will rouse Americans -- and leaders at all levels -- to make the reforms and investments needed to insure that every child has access to a good education. But this president and the Congressional majority that follows him have decided to fight for tax cuts instead of our schools.

The president and Congressional leaders assume that Americans don't pay attention to budget debates. They believe that rhetoric about "fiscal discipline" and "shared sacrifice" can hide the reality that they are cutting the most vital investment in our future -- the education of our children -- while passing a budget that increases tax breaks for the wealthy, while racking up deficits as far as the eye can see.

Americans shouldn't let them get away with it. It is time to stand up for America's children and to protect America's future.

Robert L. Borosage is Co-Director of the Campaign for America's Future and Earl Hadley is Education Coordinator for the Campaign for America's Future.