2010 Budget

The Department of Education today released its 2010 budget. You can read the full thing or check out Alyson Klein's first look. Things that I noticed:

• the budget shifts money around reading and early childhood. It would cut Reading First state grants and Even Start while creating two new programs called "Title I early childhood grants" and "Early learning challenge fund."
• $50 million for a high school graduation initiative is a nice thought but not likely to make a major impact.
• Weak language around $500 million annual "College access and completion fund." It says money should be used to "improve degree attainment rates in higher education and identify and promote what works in helping needy students get a degree," but gives states "considerable flexibility" and allows this money to replace spending on functions currently undertaken by guaranty agencies (that will be cut elsewhere). This program had promise, but it needs strong language in order to address persistent achievement gaps in higher education.
• On Tuesday the New America foundation called it an uncertain future for two grant programs that began in 2006. The future is clearer today, and it's a short one. They're axed after 2010-11.
• Harlem Children's Zone-like efforts can expand. The budget includes $10 million in competitive grants for nonprofits to plan "promise neighborhoods."
• Teach for America gets $15 million, notable because little of their government funding has come through the Department of Education.
• The "What Works and Innovation Fund" grows $100 million, from $650 to $750.
• Arguments about making the Pell Grant an entitlement program have been heated, but did you know that it is already, in part? In 2009, "7 million undergraduates will receive up to $4,860 from discretionary funding and an additional $490 from mandatory funds to help pay for postsecondary education."
• Obama has called for an end to Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program, citing cost savings. Some have criticized the plan by suggesting the federal Direct Loan program couldn't handle the volume. The answer to that can be found in the 2010 budget. Counting a program where the feds stepped in to ensure the availability of the student loan market during the credit crunch, "over 75 percent of Federal student loan volume in the 2008-2009 academic year will be financed through capital provided by the Department of Education."
• DC voucher program's funding decreases, but is not cut entirely. It would go from $15 million in 2008 to $12 million in 2010, presumably to pay for Obama's position that kids currently receiving scholarships could continue, but the program will not expand.