by AFT President Sandra Feldman
June, 2003 

After giving the wealthiest
Americans a huge tax cut,
Congress and the President now
have to decide who will pay for it. 

Just weeks ago, Congress passed, and President Bush signed into law, a massive tax cut that benefits primarily the wealthiest Americans. Now Congress is ironing out the details of the President’s 2004 budget proposal, and we see how this tax cut may be paid for--with massive cuts in funding for crucial education programs and other services affecting children and families.

President Bush promised to make education his top domestic priority. But his budget proposal breaks that promise. For instance, his proposal shortchanges Head Start, the valuable program for disadvantaged preschoolers; it doesn’t fully fund special education; and it undercuts our nation’s long commitment to opening doors to higher education. Perhaps the most egregious contradiction in the budget is that it fails to appropriately fund the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the centerpiece of the President’s education agenda.

When he signed the law, the President said that "all students will have a better chance to learn, to excel and to live out their dreams." To its credit, NCLB included provisions that would help low-performing schools improve by raising standards and increasing accountability. But as it now stands, the law may create more problems than it solves--because it contains new mandates but doesn’t provide schools with the funding to meet them. For example, NCLB mandates "a highly qualified teacher in every classroom," yet the 2004 budget cuts millions for teacher training. And states can’t pick up the slack--many have already cut education and other services to cope with their own huge budget deficits.

The administration’s budget defies logic in other ways, as well. It provides no financial support for school districts to modernize run-down buildings or construct new ones to relieve overcrowding. It slashes popular and proven after-school and summer learning programs that have helped boost achievement in urban school districts. And it eliminates money for school counselors, dropout prevention programs, and efforts to make schools and class sizes smaller--things we know make a difference in a child’s education.

A budget crafted to sustain a huge tax cut can’t possibly support the needs of America’s children and their schools--and it doesn’t. But it does clarify the priorities of some elected officials. It’s time for the elected representatives of the richest nation in the world to make our children’s education a real priority--through their actions, as well as their words.