Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Summary May 7, 2009
America will not remain true to its highest idealsand America's place as a global economic leader will be put at risk...if we don't do a far better job than we've been doing of educating our sons and daughters; unless we give them the knowledge and skills they
need in this new and changing world.
President Barack Obama
March 10, 2009
Section I. Summary of the 2010 Budget
In the six months since winning election as America's 44th President, Barack Obama has
sent the strongest possible signal that improving our education system will be one of the
highest priorities of his Administration. Even before taking office, the President worked
to ensure that the economic stimulus package he crafted in cooperation with the
Congressional leadership would not only help to save jobs and jump-start a stalled
economy, but also begin laying the foundation for America's long-term prosperity by
making large investments in critical areas of our education system.
As a result of these efforts, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, or
Recovery Act), which President Obama signed into law on February 17, 2009, provided a
total of $98.2 billion in funding for the Department of Education, creating an
unprecedented opportunity for States and school districts to make significant changes to
strengthen and improve all levels of education.
One month later, the President outlined five pillars for reforming our schools that are
guiding both the implementation of the Recovery Act and the President's fiscal year 2010
budget request for the Department of Education:
First, investing in early childhood education and expanding access to quality childcare.
Second, challenging States to adopt world-class college- and career-ready academic
standards and assessments.
Third, recruiting, preparing, and rewarding effective teachers.
Fourth, promoting innovation and excellence in America's schools by expanding charter
schools, extending learning time, and turning around low-performing schools.
And fifth, increasing the number of people pursuing higher education and earning a
postsecondary degree or certificate.
To build on the historic levels of support provided for these goals in the Recovery
Act, the President is requesting $46.7 billion in discretionary appropriations for the
Department of Education, an increase of $1.3 billion over the comparable
discretionary total provided in the regular 2009 appropriations act. In addition, the
President's mandatory funding proposals would help make available more than
$129 billion in new grants, loans, and work-study assistance for postsecondary
students in 2010, an increase of $31.7 billion, or 32 percent, over the 2008 level.
The 2010 request is focused on laying the foundation for the expansion of early
childhood education as part of the President's comprehensive Zero-to-Five initiative;
vigorously supporting and rewarding effective teaching; expanding State and local efforts
to turn around low-performing schools, including the so-called high school "dropout
factories" that graduate 60 percent or fewer of their students; and expanding opportunities
for students to go to college and graduate by increasing grant and loan assistance, shifting
resources from banks and middlemen toward students, and creating new incentives for
colleges to focus on student completion.
Key proposals in the 2010 budget include the following:
$500 million for a new program of Title I Early Childhood Grants, which would encourage LEAs to use Title I Recovery Act funds to start or expand Title I preschool
programs.
$300 million for a new Early Learning Challenge Fund, a central component of the President's Zero-to-Five initiative, to help States develop or refine systems for rating
and improving the quality of early learning programs.
$10 million for the Promise Neighborhoods initiative to provide 1-year planning grants to non-profit, community-based organizations to develop plans for
comprehensive neighborhood programs that provide the necessary support for
children and youth from preschool through college so that they may succeed in school
and beyond.
$162.5 million for Early Reading First, an increase of $50 million to expand support for high-quality, research-based early literacy services for preschool children.
$370.4 million for an expanded Striving Readers program, a $35 million increase for adolescent literacy demonstration grants and $300 million for a new initiative to help
school districts implement comprehensive and coherent programs of reading
instruction for children in the elementary grades.
$517.3 million for the Teacher Incentive Fund, an increase of $420 million over the regular 2009 level, to stimulate comprehensive State and local efforts to strengthen
the educator workforce, in particular by providing financial rewards for principals,
teachers, and other personnel who raise student achievement, close achievement gaps,
and work in hard-to-staff schools.
$1.5 billion for Title I School Improvement Grants, an increase of $1 billion to help ensure that States and LEAs have the resources to develop and implement
comprehensive, research-based improvement plans for the growing numbers of
schools (including middle and high schools) identified for improvement, corrective
action, or restructuring.
$50 million for a High School Graduation Initiative to promote innovative strategies for increasing high school graduation rates, particularly in the so-called "dropout
factories."
Raising the maximum Pell Grant award to $5,550, an increase of $200 over the 2009
level, indexing the maximum grant to grow faster than inflation in future years, and
making Pell Grant funding mandatory to eliminate the perennial uncertainty created
for students, parents, and the Congress created by the difficulty of estimating required
discretionary appropriations.
Saving $21 billion over 5 years by making all new postsecondary student loans
through the Direct Loan program. The Administration also is proposing to restructure
and expand the Federal Perkins Loans program to serve five times as many students
while saving taxpayers $3.2 billion over 5 years.
The 2010 request for the Department of Education supports these priorities while also
proposing significant mandatory and discretionary savings that are essential to meeting
the President's goal of cutting the annual Federal deficit in half over the next 5 years. For
example, the discretionary request includes the proposed elimination of 12 programs for a
total savings of $551 million. In addition, the request eliminates 700 earmarked projects
totaling an estimated $182 million. On the mandatory side, the request would save an
estimated $24.3 billion over 5 years by making all new postsecondary student loans
through the Direct Loans program and by restructuring the Perkins Loans program.
Comparable Department of Education Appropriations
(in billions of dollars)
|
2008 |
2009 |
2010 Request |
|
Discretionary (w/o Pell Grants) |
$45.0 |
$45.4 |
$46.7 |
|
Pell Grants (Mandatory only in 2010) |
14.2 |
25.4 |
28.7 |
|
Recovery Act Funds(Non-Pell Discretionary) |
|
81.1 |
|
|
Other Mandatory |
8.1 |
-11.3 |
-16.9 |
Total |
67.4 |
140.5 |
58.5 |
Most education funding is discretionary and is appropriated annually for each program
within the limits established by authorizing legislation. Mandatory funding does not
require annual appropriations because the authorizing legislation itself establishes a fixed
funding level or a method for calculating automatic appropriations without further
Congressional action. The largest mandatory programs in the Department's budget are
Federally subsidized loans for postsecondary students, the costs of which are estimated
based on assumptions about interest rates, lender fees, repayments, defaults, and
collections. Other education programs funded in whole or in part through mandatory
appropriations include Vocational Rehabilitation State Grants, Academic
Competitiveness/SMART Grants, Pell Grants, and certain programs in the Higher
Education account.
An additional factor affecting the display of discretionary appropriations in Federal
budget documents is the use of "advance" appropriations, a method of funding that makes
budget authority available in the fiscal year after it is appropriated. Examples of
Department programs that receive advance appropriations include Title I Grants to Local
Educational Agencies and IDEA Part B Grants to States.
Federal funding makes up about 7.8 percent of the estimated $667 billion that America
will spend on elementary and secondary education during the 2008-09 school year. The
relatively small size of the Federal investment in education dictates an emphasis on
supporting promising, research-based programs that have the potential to leverage more
effectively the much larger State and local share of national education spending to bring
about real improvement in student achievement. This is why a key goal of the 2010
request is to "scale up success" by identifying and replicating successful models and
strategies that raise student achievement.
Major proposals in the 2010 request for the Department of Education include the
following:
EARLY CHILDHOOD AND EARLY LITERACY EDUCATION
Decades of research show definitively that investment in high-quality early childhood
education and services reaps outsized gains in higher student achievement once students
enter school, and in improved high school graduation and college attendance rates,
reduced unemployment, and increased lifetime earnings. This is why President Obama
has put such strong emphasis on developing and implementing a comprehensive Zero-to-
Five initiative to expand access to quality childcare and education. A key goal of this
initiative is to improve readiness for school, particularly in the area of early literacy and
reading skills. The following items in the 2010 request support improved early childhood
education:
$500 million for Title I Early Childhood Grants, a new program that would provide incentives for school districts to use a larger share of Title I Grants to LEAs
fundingstarting with Title I Recovery Act fundsto establish or expand Title I
preschool programs.
$300 million for the first phase of the Early Learning Challenge Fund, a central component of the President's Zero-to-Five initiative. Initial awards would support the
development of statewide infrastructures of integrated support and services for early
learning that would maximize the effectiveness of later investments in quality early
childhood education.
$162.5 million for Early Reading First, an increase of $50 million to expand local efforts to improve the quality of their early literacy services for preschool-aged
children.
$370.4 million for an expanded Striving Readers program, an increase of
$335 million, to provide demonstration grants to LEAs to implement comprehensive
and coherent programs of reading instruction for children in the elementary and
secondary grades.
RECRUITING, PREPARING, AND REWARDING OUTSTANDING TEACHERS
President Obama believes strongly that "America's future depends on its teachers." This is why the Recovery Act provided billions of dollars to States and school districts to keep
teachers working and avoid layoffs during the current economic downturn. However, the
Recovery Act not only will save teaching jobs, but provide incentives and resources for
States to improve their collection of data on teacher effectiveness and develop plans to
ensure that teaching talent is more evenly distributed, and that poor and minority students
are not taught at higher rates than other children by inexperienced, unqualified, or out-of-
field teachers. The 2010 request supports these same goals by calling for:
$517.3 million for the Teacher Incentive Fund, a $420 million increase over the regular 2009 level, to support comprehensive strategies for recruiting, preparing, and
rewarding effective teachers. In particular, these funds would encourage changes in
teacher and principal compensation systems to reward principals, teachers, and other
personnel who raise student achievement, close achievement gaps, and work in our
most challenging schools. This request includes $30 million for a National Teacher
Recruitment Campaign.
$2.9 billion for Improving Teacher Quality State Grants, a major source of flexible Federal funding to help States and school districts strengthen the skills of the teaching
force. Program funds support high-quality professional development that research indicates can improve teaching skills that raise student achievement.
$50 million for the Teacher Quality Partnership program, to help improve the effectiveness of teachers working in high-need schools and early childhood education
programs by creating model teacher preparation programs and model teaching
residency programs.
$29.2 million for the School Leadership program, an increase of $10 million, to expand the number of projects that recruit and train principals and other school leaders to serve in high-poverty schools. The request focuses on (1) developing and
implementing incentives for principals with demonstrated records of effectiveness to
go to failing or high-need schools, and (2) training and mentoring highly effective
teachers to become principals in those schools.
PROMOTING INNOVATION IN STRUGGLING SCHOOLS
The school improvement requirements of Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act (the Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies program) have helped
States and school districts identify and begin to address the needs of low-performing
schools. In general, these are schools that are not meeting State proficiency targets, are
not preparing their students for success in college or a career, and too often fail to
graduate large numbers of their students. The 2010 request would help intensify efforts
to turn around these struggling schoolswhich typically are identified for Title I
improvement, corrective action, or restructuring actionsby expanding State and local
efforts to identify and adopt effective turn-around strategies. In addition, the Budget
would support the continued expansion of charter schools, both as a public school choice
option for students in low-performing schools and as a promising alternative governance
option for schools in restructuring status.
$1.5 billion for Title I School Improvement Grants, an increase of $1 billion over the regular 2009 level, to help build State and local capacity to identify and implement effective interventions to turn around low-performing schools. The request also
would begin to help take on the dropout crisis by requiring States to ensure that 40
percent of School Improvement Grant allocations are spent on improvement activities
in middle and high schools.
$100 million for the What Works and Innovation Fund, to be combined with the $650 million provided for this activity by the Recovery Act, to support competitive
grants to LEAs and partnerships between non-profit organizations and LEAs that
have made significant gains in improving student achievement, or have demonstrated
significant improvement in other areas, to expand or evaluate their work and serve as
models of best practices
$268 million for Charter School Grants, an increase of $52 million representing the first installment on the Administration's commitment to double funding for Charter
Schools over 4 years to promote successful models of school reform.
$50 million for a High School Graduation Initiative to fund innovative and effective strategies designed to increase the high school graduation rate. Grantees will be
required to track and report on student indicators found to be effective in identifying
students at risk of dropping out.
$10 million for a Promise Neighborhoods initiative that would provide 1-year planning grants to non-profit, community-based organizations serving low-income
urban neighborhoods or rural areas to help them develop plans for comprehensive
programs that provide the support children need to achieve success from birth through
college and beyond.
MEETING THE NEEDS OF SPECIAL POPULATIONS
The State accountability systems required by the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act are based on accountability not just for the overall performance of all students in a
school, but also for the achievement of minority subgroups, including students from low-
income families, students with disabilities and English language learners. The 2010
request provides significant resources to help ensure that States, school districts, and
schools can meet the academic and other needs of such students and help them reach the
same proficiency goals as other students.
$13.0 billion for Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies, $1.5 billion less than the regular 2009 level but building on the unprecedented $10 billion increase
provided for this program through the Recovery Act, much of which will remain
available in fiscal year 2010. The request, in combination with Recovery Act funds,
would continue to provide historic levels of support for State and local efforts to
ensure that students in high-poverty schools meet the same challenging State
academic proficiency standards as other students. The full decrease will be redirected
toward activities that effectively improve low-performing schools under the School
Improvement Grants program and the Title I Early Childhood Grants initiative.
$11.5 billion for Special Education Grants to States, building on the extraordinary $11.3 billion increase provided by the Recovery Act to ensure that States and school
districts have adequate resources to help students with disabilities meet the same
challenging State proficiency standards as other students. The request would provide
a per-child average of $1,713 for an estimated 6.7 million children with disabilities.
In addition, in the school year covered by this request (2010-2011), States and school
districts will have billions more to spend on IDEA activities since both the Recovery
Act funds and the 2010 funds will be available at the same time.
$730 million for English Language Acquisition to help States and school districts meet the needs of the growing population of limited English proficient students, and
to help these students reach the same proficiency goals for reading and mathematics
as other students.
$445.2 million for Title I Migrant Education and Neglected and Delinquent State
agency programs to help pay the higher costs often associated with meeting the
educational needs of approximately 537,000 children of migrant agricultural workers
and to help an estimated 132,000 neglected and delinquent students return to and
complete school and obtain employment after they are released from State
institutions.
HELPING MORE STUDENTS ENTER AND COMPLETE COLLEGE
The President's 2010 Budget includes four major proposals, previously announced in the
February 2010 President's Budget Overview, to streamline and simplify Federal student
aid programs, save taxpayer dollars, and significantly increase available student financial
assistance so that more students are able not only to enter a postsecondary institution but
also to earn a degree or certificate. These proposals are essential to reaching President
Obama's goal of restoring America to number one in the percentage of citizens holding
college degrees. Today, roughly 40 percent of 25-34 year-old Americans hold college
degrees; the President's goal is to raise that to 60 percent.
Under the 2010 request, the Department of Education would administer over $129 billion
in new grants, loans, and work-study assistance in 2010a 32 percent increase over
the amount available in 2008to help more than 14 million students and their families
pay for college.
The request would convert Pell Grants to a mandatory program to eliminate
uncertainty and end the practice of "backfilling" billions of dollars in Pell shortfalls.
The maximum Pell Award would rise to $5,550 in fiscal year 2010 (for the 2010-11
academic year), with future increases linked to the Consumer Price Index plus 1
percent. These changes would increase our investment in Pell Grants by an estimated
$46.7 billion over the next 5 years.
The proposed budget would eliminate the heavily subsidized and costly Federal
Family Education Loan (FFEL) program and make all new loans through direct
lending, which relies on low-cost and stable sources of capital and private-sector
providers to efficiently process loans and repayments. This change would save an
estimated $21 billion over 5 years, savings that would be reinvested in student aid
through the expanded Pell Grant program.
The request also would expand and modernize the Perkins Loan program so that it would provide $6 billion a year in new loan volumesix times the current Perkins
volumefor up to 2.6 million students at roughly 2,700 additional postsecondary
education institutions. The Department would service Perkins Loans along with other
Federal loans, with estimated overall savings totaling $3.2 billion over 5 years.
A College Access and Completion Fund would invest $2.5 billion in mandatory
funding over 5 years to build a Federal-State-local partnership to improve college
success and completion, particularly for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
HIGHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS
In addition to student financial assistance, the 2010 request supports a variety of
activities designed to improve access to, and success in, postsecondary education.
$454 million in discretionary funding for the Aid for Institutional Development
programs, an increase of $31.6 million over the 2009 level. The request for Title III
demonstrates the Administration's commitment to assisting institutions that enroll a
large proportion of minority and disadvantaged students by providing funds to
improve these institutions' academic programs and administrative and fundraising
capabilities.
$97.9 million for Developing Hispanic-serving Institutions, a 5 percent increase over the 2009 level, to enable these institutions to improve and expand their capacity to
serve Hispanic and low-income students.
$905.1 million for the Federal TRIO programs to maintain 2009 levels for college preparation and college student support services.
$313.2 million for the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate
Programs (GEAR UP), the same as the 2009 level, which would help an estimated
765,000 middle and high school students prepare for college.
$118.9 million for the International Education and Foreign Language Studies programs, the same as the 2009 level, to help meet the Nation's security and economic needs by expanding the number of individuals with expertise in foreign languages and area and
international studies.
Recovery Act
For further information contact the ED Budget Service.
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