President Barack Obama's fiscal year 2011 budget will propose freezing some $447 billion in discretionary programs. The change will save about $15 billion next year (or to put in perspective, a little more than the federal government spent on Title I grants to districts last year).
The freeze doesn't apply, apparently, to military and veterans programs, as well as programs such as Social Security. And it likely would not apply to programs covered under the health-care-overhaul bill, the future of which is pretty uncertain. And it won't apply to any spending put into a "jobs bill," such as the $154 billion measure the House approved late last year, which included some substantial education spending.
It's not clear yet whether, and which, K-12 education programs will be subject to the freeze, since it is for overall spending levels not individual programs. (We know that at least one program, the $4 billion Race to the Top competition, will be slated for an increase of $1.35 billion and opened up to school districts).
But it certainly sounds as if programs such as Title I grants to districts and special education, or smaller Education Department programs, such as TRIO, could be in the mix for cuts or freezes. And if they see even a small increase when everything else is level-funded, that will be a big deal, symbolically.
But, at the same time, symbolism may not mean much to cash-strapped districts, which are still making program and staff cuts despite the $100 billion in