President's budget similar to last year's
By Matthew Dembicki, Published February 8, 2008

President Bush’s final budget proposal to Congress is similar to what he has proposed over the past few years—provide a minimal increase for Pell Grants, eliminate funding for the Perkins Career and Technical Education program and retain current levels for a community college job training initiative.

Under his budget proposal for fiscal year (FY) 09, Bush is requesting $59.2 billion in discretionary funding for the U.S. Department of Education, which is what Congress appropriated for FY 08. Of all the student aid programs, Pell Grants fare the best in his request. The maximum grant amount would increase by $69 to $4,800. (In FY 09, Pell recipients will receive $490 provided through last year’s budget reconciliation act.)

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings noted during a press conference that Pell Grant funding has increased 116 percent since 2001. She added that nearly 5.8 million college students will receive Pell Grants next year, with 35 percent of them attending community colleges.

"Higher education is more expensive and more necessary for future success than ever before. For most families, a college degree is one of the most important investments they’ll ever make," Spellings said. "The increase in funding and support for Pell Grants will help make college a reality for more of our students."

In a policy brief issue by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and the Association of Community College Trustees, the organizations said they would like to see the maximum award increased to $5,100.

Meanwhile, the president renewed his call to eliminate the $1.16 billion Perkins Basic State Grants and redirect the funds for high school improvements through the No Child Left Behind Act.

In its summary of the proposed budget, U.S. Department of Education said the request to eliminate funding for Perkins is "consistent with the administration’s policy of eliminating funding for programs that are unable to demonstrate effectiveness, are narrowly focused or whose objectives would be better accomplished through other programs."

The department added that the most recent evaluation of the program raised questions about the effectiveness of the program in helping high school students prepare academically for postsecondary education and the workforce.

Bush proposed cutting in half funding for Perkins Basic State Grants last year and eliminating funding for the program the previous year. The president also once again proposed not funding the Tech Prep program, which received $102.9 million in FY 08.

But AACC said funding for Perkins should increase to $1.7 billion.

"Increased funding for the Perkins Basic State Grants and Tech Prep programs is crucial to the continued success of the community college workforce development missions," AACC said in its joint policy brief.

As in previous years, Bush recommended freezing funding for Federal Work Study ($980.5 million), TRIO ($828.2 million), GEAR UP ($303.4 million) and Adult Basic Education ($554.1 million), while nixing funding for Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants ($757.5 million) and the Leveraging Education Assistance Partnerships ($63.9 million).

Bush also proposed decreasing funds for Title III Aid for Institutional Development by $119.7 million, to $451.7 million. The budget would zero out discretionary funding for Strengthening Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities ($23.2 million) and Strengthening Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-serving Institutions ($11.6 million).

The president said that these institutions will receive significant mandatory funds through the recently passed College Cost Reduction and Access Act (CCRAA) to offset the cuts.

Discretionary funds for the Strengthening Historically Black Colleges and Universities would be cut by $85 million, from $238.1 million to $153.1 million. Again, the president said the cut would be offset by mandatory funding through CCRAA ($85 million in FY 2009).

Similarly, the president wants to cut discretionary funding for the Title V Developing Hispanic-serving Institutions from $93.3 million to $74.4 million, noting that CCRAA would provide $100 million in mandatory funding.

According to the Education Department data, discretionary spending on student aid programs other than Pell Grants has decreased by $51.8 million (2.7 percent) since FY 01.

Regarding job training programs, the president’s budget called once again to retain funding for Community-Based Job Training Grants (CBJTG) at $125 million, saying it would allow the U.S. Department of Labor to award 70 to 75 new grants, ranging from $500,000 to $2 million. AACC would like to see funding for the program doubled to $250 million.

The president also reiterated his pitch from previous budget proposals to pull funds from various job training programs into one block grant to fund proposed Career Advancement Accounts (CCAs), which Congress has repeatedly rejected.

Still, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao touted the proposed $2.8 billion CCA program, adding that the self-directed accounts would place more training dollars into workers’ hands.

"The proposal would target more resources to education and skills training and provide states and local communities with greater flexibility to reduce competing bureaucracies and design workforce systems that best meet the needs of American workers and their regional economies," Chao said.

The Workforce Alliance, a coalition of community-based organizations, community colleges, business leaders and others, said the president’s budget continues "a long-term trend of disinvesting in a skilled workforce."

The group called on Congress—where the House and Senate will now devise their own budget bills—to increase investments in job training, vocation education and higher education programs by an additional $30 billion, which it said would annually ensure training for at least 10 percent of the nation’s workforce.