Interested in receiving weekly state and federal legislative updates from the WASB? Sign-up for the Legislative eNewsletter.

2009 Education Budget

No Child Left Behind Act

Pledge for America's Schoolchildren

U.S. Senate Housing Relief Package

The ability of school boards to increase their tax rates would be in jeopardy under legislation being debated by the U.S. Senate that is intended to provide relief to homeowners facing foreclosure.

 Federal Property Tax Limitation Informational Paper (54.82 KB)

2009 Education Budget

The U.S. House and Senate are working on a budget for the 2009 fiscal year (FY), which begins on Oct. 1, 2008. Currently, the House-Senate proposed conference agreement calls for an overall budget of approximately $3 trillion for FY2009 and would provide $94.3 billion for education and related programs based on the budget resolutions approved earlier by each house. This is $8.4 billion more than the President's budget request for education, training, employment and social services programs. The proposed conference agreement also includes a number of reserve funds for school infrastructure, teacher training programs, and continued school-based Medicaid reimbursement.

Next steps: Once the House and Senate approve a final budget conference agreement, the separate House and Senate appropriation committees will begin crafting legislation to establish funding levels for individual programs including Title I, special education, and teacher quality.

WASB Position: As the budget and appropriations process moves forward, the WASB continues to urge strong support for an increased federal invesment in discretionary funding for education programs, including:

• Increases of $2.5 billion for title I grants for disadvantaged students and $2.5 billion for IDEA/special education - the two major programs that benefit a majority of districts.
• Rejection of proposed cuts/eliminations to other programs such as vocational education and education technology.
• Rejection of any private school voucher proposals including a new Pell Grants for Kids Plan and the conversion of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program into a voucher experiment
• Maintenance of Medicaid reimbursement for school-based administrative and transportation services.
  

 WASB Position Paper on Federal Education Funding (43.44 KB)

 WASB Position Paper on School-Based Medicaid Reimbursements (46.33 KB)

 WASB Sample Medicaid Letter to Kohl and Feingold (13.86 KB)

House Budget Resolution: The House budget resolution would provide an increase of $7.1 billion (9 percent) over the Administration's  FY 2009 budget request for education and training. The measure includes:

• A reserve fund to accommodate tax credits for school construction.
• A reserve fund for Medicaid and other programs to accommodate "legislation that prevents or delays the implementation or administration of regulations or administrative actions affecting Medicaid, SCHIP, or other programs."

Senate Budget Resolution: The Senate budget resolution would provide $5.4 billion above the Administration's FY09 request and $4.8 billion over the FY08 enacted amount (8 percent increase).

• The Senate measure includes a floor amendment introduced by Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) that would increase the Teacher Incentive Fund program by $300 million.
• The measure also includes provisions for a second economic stimulus package that could include general assistance to state and local governments.

In addition, Wisconsin's two U.S. Senators, Herb Kohl (D) and Russ Feingold (D), recently signed onto a  letter (913.61 KB) calling for a doubling of Title I funding over the next five years.

Original 2009 Budget Request: The $3 trillion budget requested by President Bush for FY09 would keep the overall funding level for education programs - i.e., discretionary grant programs within the U.S. Department of Education - at $59.2 billion, at approximately the same level as FY08.

• Some key programs would see a funding increase:
  • $406 million increase for Title I grants for disadvantated students, over the current funding level of $13.89 billion.
  • $337 million increase for special education (IDEA-Part B grants), over the current funding level of $10.9 billion.
  • $607 million increase for the Reading First Program in an effort to restore that programs' appropriation to its FY07 level. Charges of mismanagement within the program led Congress to dramatically scale back its funding last year.
  • $300 million to create a new voucher program, "Pell Grants for Kids," to allow students in public schools found to be "in need of improvement" under the No Child Left Behind  Act to transfer to another public or private school.
    

• The increases proposed for Title I and IDEA would come at the expense of 47 programs that are proposed to be terminated. The programs on the "chopping block" total $3.2 billion, and include, among others: Career & Technical Education State Grants, currently funded at $1.16 billion; Education Technology State Grants, currently funded at $267.5 million; and Tech-Prep Education State Grants currently funded at $102.9 million.

No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)

Regulatory Update

The U.S. Department of Education has proposed new NCLB regulations (published in the federal Register on April 23, 2008) that, among other things, would require states to use a uniform method to calculate high school graduation rates by 2012-13. 

The calculation method under the proposed regulations mirrors the method endorsed previously by the National Governor's Association.  It calculates how many students graduate in four years by tracking individual students' progress through high school, taking into account transfers and dropouts. It would require states, districts and schools to disaggregate graduation rates by subgroups. The proposed regulations also add more requirements for school districts in the areas of data management and administration of school choice and supplemental services (SES), and would change how districts determine adequate yearly progress (AYP) for high schools.

The Review and Comment Period on the proposed regulations runs through June 23, 2008.  The Department of Education will hold four regional hearings to receive comments, including a hearing in Kansas City, MO on May 19, 2008. The department plans to issue final regulations in the fall.

Legislative Update

The WASB has urged House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-CA-7th) to include provisions of  H.R. 648, the No Child Left Behind Improvements Act of 2007 in the reauthorization legislation

H.R. 648 includes more than 40 provisions for improving the law based on feedback and input from school districts throughout the country. These provisions would promote increased achievement by all students and improve accountability measures for schools, school districts and states.

The WASB also urges its members to contact their U.S. Representative to encourage Chairman Miller and members of the House Education and Labor Committee to include the key changes contained in H.R. 648 in the upcoming committee bill to reauthorize NCLB. Rep. Tom Petri (R-6th) is the lone Wisconsin member of the House Education and Labor Committee.

 WASB Position Paper on NCLB Reauthorization (57.05 KB)

Pledge for America's Schoolchildren

The NSBA is spearheading an initiative to promote excellence and equiity in public education through intergovernmental partenrships

Pledge for America's Schoolchildren