By: Jamie
On February 1, President Obama will release his budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2011. This budget will outline his spending priorities for the upcoming year and serve as a blueprint to guide Congress as it begins the budget and appropriations process.
Earlier this month the president announced his intention to expand the Race to the Top program by providing $1.35 billion in his budget proposal to provide an additional round of funding for states and localities. In addition to this expansion, the education community can expect a few other changes in this year’s presidential budget. A rumor is circulating on Capitol Hill that many individual programs will be consolidated into larger programs. It is unclear how this change would look, but it is possible that smaller programs will be combined with other programs that share similar goals in an attempt to reduce duplication and reach the same goals with less money.
Another item you can expect in the president’s budget is a freezing of domestic discretionary spending for the next three years. Discretionary programs are programs that are not entitlements (Medicare, Social Security, etc.), but instead go through the appropriations process every year. There has been a great deal of speculation about what this might actually mean and what agencies will be included. The Administration has said that defense, homeland security, veterans’ and intelligence programs will be excluded, and that although this will freeze overall spending, it will not be across the board and essential programs, like education and job creation, could see increases.
It is unclear at this time how all of these budget proposals might affect CTE programs, including Perkins. More details should be available after the president’s State of the Union speech on Wednesday, January 27, at 9:00 p.m. ET.
ACTE will continue to follow the budget process and will alert the CTE community to action that is needed to ensure that CTE funding is protected.