Budget battle puts medicaid, student aid at risk
Moderates balk at deep domestic cuts aimed at nation's
most vulnerable

Congressional budget reconciliation is showing signs of balancing the nation’s books on the backs of the less fortunate." That’s the lesson the South Florida Sun-Sentinel is drawing from the latest budget battle on Capitol Hill—a view seconded by millions of Americans and many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, thanks in part to aggressive AFT lobbying inside and outside the Beltway.

Much of the battle has focused around a budget reconciliation package that was moving through the House of Representatives as American Teacher went to press. Critics question the House leadership’s efforts to cut $50 billion from programs for the nation’s most vulnerable citizens while pushing a new round of reckless tax cuts.

Children, nursing home patients, disabled individuals and low-income working families would bear the brunt of the $11.8 billion Medicaid cut included in the House budget bill. Also at risk are students entering college and their families. Cuts in several major student loan programs could total more than $14 billion and result in an average increase of $5,800 in loan interest payments.

Standing to gain, of course, would be the wealthiest Americans, who would reap the bulk of benefits under the $70 billion in tax cuts contained in a companion bill moving through the House.

In a key break from the past, however, this package of draconian cuts in critical programs combined with lavish tax breaks is giving many moderate Republicans pause. Several lawmakers also point out that spending cuts would be more than offset by tax breaks—increasing the federal deficit by another $20 billion at a time of unprecedented demands on the nation.

At press time, several GOP House members indicated they were ready to stand with Democrats, who are solidly against the GOP leadership’s budget package. The shift prompted a flurry of last-minute amendments designed to salvage the House budget bill.

The AFT at every level has lobbied aggressively for a new direction in Congress that puts working families and children ahead of tax breaks. The AFT’s legislative team in Washington, D.C., visited more than 110 GOP offices in the days preceding the vote to lobby against deep domestic cuts and school voucher initiatives (see story this page). The union’s legislative action center generated almost 8,000 letters and hundreds of phone calls to Hill offices.

As the budget fight heads into December, AFT members are urged to visit AFT Online (www.aft.org) and click on the legislative action center for new updates and ways to make their voices heard.

Gulf region vouchers miss the mark, AFT warns
House version checked by grassroots activism

Hurricane relief can and should be done quickly by Congress without opting for precedent-setting school vouchers. That’s the message that thousands of AFT activists sent to Capitol Hill this fall, and it helped block the Family Education Reimbursement Act (FERA), one of the most dangerous voucher proposals on the Hill.

FERA would have broken harmful new ground by providing aid to students in private schools in the form of vouchers. And because FERA requires parents, not the districts themselves, to make reimbursement claims, the bill also would have made it hard for school districts to receive the assistance they deserve for educating displaced students.

This voucher bill was defeated in committee on a 26 to 21 vote but remained a threat, since bill sponsor Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) asked the House Rules Committee to fold it into the federal budget reconciliation package (see story this page). But FERA was ultimately dropped, thanks in part to the outpouring of calls and e-mail from AFT members around the country, who told their representatives that vouchers have no place in a relief effort for students and schools along the Gulf Coast. That helped prompt 24 GOP representatives to write to the commitee opposing Boehner’s move.

The AFT urges quick action in helping students and schools in the region. But this aid should be fashioned in a bipartisan manner, using existing, time-tested programs for helping students.

This fall, the union called upon lawmakers to channel relief through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. "Title I of ESEA provides a ready-made funding mechanism already approved by Congress," AFT president Edward J. McElroy stressed in an Oct. 21 letter to Congress.

Using Title I "would be the most efficient way to provide services to these students," McElroy said. "It would not open up an unnecessary ideological battle that could further delay rather than expedite the relief desperately needed by the students and schools in the Gulf Coast."