A bill approved Wednesday morning by the House Appropriations Committee panel that oversees education spending would cut about $1.1 billion from the U.S. Department of Education's roughly $68 billion budget, according to an analysis by the Committee for Education Funding (CEF).
The bill covers fiscal year 2013, which starts on Oct. 1. The Senate Appropriations Committee has already approved its own version of the fiscal year 2013 spending bill. And there are some big differences. The Senate version would keep Race to the Top, Investing in Innovation, SIG, and other key presidential initiatives, while providing some very modest funding increases for Title I and special education.
The measure approved by the House appropriations subcommittee would get rid of funding for most of the key presidential programs including Race to the Top, Investing in Innovation, and the School Improvement Grant program. It would also eliminate a number of smaller, more targeted programs, including Advanced Placement, School Leadership, and Arts in Education, according to CEF.
Many other programs—including Title I grants to districts and Career and Technical Education—would be level-funded. The panel did, however, approve a large, $500 million boost for special education state grants, bringing the total to $12.1 billion.