News Release

House Packages Rob Billions from Education  

NEA Calls on Senators to reject massive cuts and protect schools, students

WASHINGTON, DC— The Senate is poised to cut billions of dollars from public schools and poor students, and create a national voucher scheme that would divert public school money to private schools, as part of sweeping proposals to be finalized this week. The National Education Association is urging lawmakers to reject the voucher plan and oppose the cuts, which would reduce spending for public schools to levels not seen in years and drastically cut other education programs.

“Public schools were already under-funded, and this proposal guts a budget that was already inadequate to meet the education needs of our children,” said Reg Weaver, NEA president. “This is a 180-degree turn from where our country should be heading. Our schools, our teachers and our students need more support from lawmakers, not less.”

From 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. Monday, the House rushed through a series of proposals that attack public education. The rushed schedule, NEA noted, did not even allow many lawmakers enough time to read all of the bills. Those proposals are now before the Senate for consideration and approval early this week.

The proposed cuts come as public schools along the Gulf Coast are rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. Lawmakers are neglecting public schools hit hard by the hurricanes, NEA said, and are instead diverting money to private schools under the House proposal.

NEA noted that proposed cuts in education spending will have a devastating affect on public education.  Last week’s adoption of the Labor-HHS Conference Report includes funding cuts of more than $1 billion for the so-called No Child Left Behind Act alone, reducing spending on the controversial law below levels provided three years ago.  No Child Left Behind has come under increasing attack from schools, teachers and state lawmakers across the political spectrum who say that the law is already unfunded to the tune of $27 billion: the budget cuts in the packages before the Senate will make it more difficult for schools to meet the across-the-board standards in the law.

Before adjourning for the holidays, Senators will consider three spending packages that include massive cuts in funding for education, including: 

- A $12 billion reduction in funding for student aid over the next five years, representing the largest cut in history. 

- Freezing Pell Grants for needy students for the fourth year in a row.

- Cutting federal support for special education from 18.6 percent to 17.8 percent.

- Providing federal taxpayer-funded vouchers to private and religious schools, under the guise of hurricane relief.
 
NEA pointed out that cuts to student aid will hit poorest students the hardest. Other proposals affecting education that the Senate will consider before going home for the holidays include allowing religious schools to accept taxpayer dollars and proselytize, and allowing religious schools to discriminate in hiring on the basis of religion.

“This bill makes a bad situation much, much worse,” Weaver said. “There’s a reason the House passed these proposals in the middle of the night, hoping that Americans aren’t paying attention to a raid on our future. At a time when our public schools are already under-funded and experiencing teacher shortages, Congress is poised to use taxpayer dollars to help private schools with teacher recruitment and enrollment. When it comes to education, lawmakers should be answering to students and schools in the light of day, not stealing from them in the dark."

Dec. 19, 2005

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NEA Contact:

Will Potter, Public Relations, (202) 822-7223

The National Education Association is the nation's largest professional employee organization, representing 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers, college faculty, school administrators, education support professionals, retired educators and students preparing to become teachers.