Well, here we are again. Not Groundhog Day, just the end of another federal fiscal year, and yet again, it appears that Congress might not pass a budget. Last night, to hold things over for a bit, the House passed a short term spending bill (known as a continuing resolution or CR) which would fund the government, basically, at FY2011 levels through November 18, 2011. The hope is that this would give Congress enough time to finish the appropriations process and reach an agreement.
But the CR the House passed yesterday, wasn’t acceptable to the Democrats in the Senate who defeated t it because it defunded a few projects that are important to them. If past is prologue, this will not be the end of the discussion however. And, there is still a week left to get this deal done and one thing is for sure: Nothing seems to happen in DC before it absolutely has to.
While we wait for the outcome of the latest budget saga, it’s important to note that this week the Senate Appropriations Committee passed a bill outlining what it believes education spending should be for FY2012. Although this could change in the coming months, and of course has not been voted on by the full Senate, the numbers give some indication of where we may end up.
Here are some important details from the Senate’s bill:
- IDEA Part B Grants to States was level funded
- IDEA Part B Section 619 Preschool Grants was level funded
- IDEA Part C was increased by $5 million to a total of $443.5 million (+1.1%)
- IDEA state personnel development was cut from $46.846 million to $44 million
- IDEA Technical assistance was increased from $48.806 million to $49.306 million
- IDEA personnel preparation was increased from $88.466 million to $90.653 million
- IDEA technology and media services was increased from $28.644 million to $30.644 million
- Special Education Research was level funded at approximately $51 million
- New Program: $4 million in ED for a new program under special education: Promoting School Readiness for Minors in SSI (PROMISE). There is also $10 million in SSA for this. This is a Joint Program proposed by the President this year to develop and evaluate innovative approaches to improving outcomes of children receiving Supplemental Security Income and their families.
The Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students program – which was defunded in budget battles earlier this year – was not funded again for FY 2012 in the Senate Appropriations Committee’s bill. However, the Committee did include key language
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