Bush's budget is out. The highlights for education are as follows:
Improving Schools and Helping and Target Resources to Students Who Need it Most
1 - $14.3 billion for the Title I Grants to Local Education Agencies program, up 63% since 2001.
2 - $491.3 million for the Title I School Improvement Grants program that would build State and local capacity to identify and implement effective interventions to turn around low-performing schools.
3 - $1 billion for Reading First State Grants, up $600 million, for this program that has proven its effectiveness to improve the reading skills of students in high-poverty, low-performing elementary schools.
4 - $300 million for Pell Grants for Kids, a new K-12 scholarship program that would
allow low-income students attending schools in restructuring or that have high dropout rates to transfer to local private schools or out-of-district public schools. 5 - $200 million for the Teacher Incentive Fund to encourage States and school districts to reform compensation plans to reward principals and teacher who raise student achievement, close achievement gaps, and work in hard-to-staff schools.
6 - $11.3 billion, a $337 million increase, for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to maintain the Federal contribution toward meeting the excess cost of special education.
Investing in the American Competitiveness Initiative
7 - $175 million for programs aimed at improving math and science instruction.
8 - $95 million for Math Now to help prepare students for rigorous high school math courses.
9 - $70 million for Advanced Placement to help prepare teachers in high-poverty high schools.
10 - $10 million to create an Adjunct Teachers Corps of qualified professionals to help teach high school math and science courses.
11 - $24 million for Advancing America through Foreign Language Partnerships.
Increasing Affordability of Postsecondary Education through Pell Grants
12 - $18.9 billion for Pell Grants, up 116% since 2001, to create the largest annual maximum grant ever.
13 - 28% increase, or $1,050, in Pell maximum award since 2001 to $4,800.
14 - 33% increase, or 1.5 million, in the number of additional Pell grant recipients since 2001 to 5.8 million recipients.
Targeting Resources to Save Taxpayer Money
14. To save $3.3 billion in taxpayer dollars, the President's budget recommends eliminating 47 programs that are duplicative, narrowly focused, or unable to demonstrate effectiveness.
15 -The President’s budget proposal also does not include $328 million for 759 earmarks that were contained in the 2008 Omnibus Appropriation for Education.
The FY 2009 Department of Education Budget Summary is available online at .
Source: Department of Education
Comment Preview