As the budget came out last week with the details this week, I expected that some in the education community would take the glass half full approach and talk about how the education community should be thankful for the 6 percent increase in funding at the same time that the President is proposing a domestic spending limit. While others would take the glass half empty approach and talk about the pending fiscal cliff that schools will face as the stimulus funding for special education and Title I run out and schools face federal funding cuts. What I did not expect was for the same person to be saying both. But, that speaks to the flexibility of NEA lobbyist Joel Packer.
Last week he was congratulating the administration for the substantial funding increase for education in the new budget, and this week commenting that federal funding cliff is a serious problem. What changed?