Bush plays 'shell game' with budget, AFT charges

The AFT is mobilizing against President Bush's $2.23 trillion budget proposal--a plan that is long on tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans but short on assistance to education and other vital domestic programs.

The administration's budget plan for the 2004 fiscal year is littered with a host of tax breaks, a move toward privatizing services, elimination or consolidation of programs and only modest increases for a handful of domestic programs that are not defense-related.

"President Bush's budget proposal amounts to little more than a shell game played on the American people," said AFT president Sandra Feldman. "The administration moves funds around from one program to another, claiming overall increases, while hacking away at many crucial programs, hoping no one notices."

Although the budget provides for a 5.8 percent increase for the U.S. Department of Education, this increase is a smoke screen, says AFT legislative director Charlotte Fraas. What sounds like good news--$1 billion increases for Title I and IDEA, respectively, $75 million for reading programs and $100 million for mentoring initiatives--does not tell the whole story. When all programs under the No Child Left Behind Act are added together, the proposal provides $9 billion less than Congress authorized for 2004 and is $199 million below the amount needed to maintain current services, Fraas explains.

The proposal eliminates 45 federally funded initiatives, most notably the Comprehensive School Reform program and federal support for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Instead, the Bush administration is bankrolling inclusion of more than $758 million in education voucher and choice proposals and tuition tax credits. Nearly half the funds ($301 million) can be directed to private schools, with the remaining funds provided for public school choice, charter schools, and magnet programs.

"It is just plain wrong that the president's budget does so little for America's neediest students while providing another round of indefensible tax cuts that would benefit America's wealthiest citizens," says AFT president Sandra Feldman. "It is particularly unconscionable that the president's budget proposal includes hundreds of millions of dollars for unproven voucher and tax credit schemes but inadequately funds the No Child Left Behind Act. To truly leave no child behind, we must leave no funding promise behind."

Federal assistance to higher education also is threatened under the Bush proposal. The administration's proposed $1.9 billion increase for the Pell program does nothing to boost the maximum Pell award of $4,000. Instead, the funds will satisfy the shortfall from prior years. While modest increases are targeted to institutions that serve high proportions of minority and disadvantaged students, other higher education programs are being cut (student loans, for example).

In the vocational education arena, the president's budget would axe $300 million and move vocational education funding to a block grant program. The block grants would be distributed by states to high schools and to community colleges that partner with high schools--and there is no indication that this money will only go to public schools. In addition, the budget eliminates the Tech Prep state grants and demonstration grants.

Also on the chopping block is federal support for after-school programs. The Bush budget recommends cutting appropriations from $1 billion to $600 million. "If Congress goes along with President Bush's cut, more than half a million children will be denied access to the after-school programs that keep them safe [and] help them learn," states Judy Y. Samelson, executive director of the Afterschool Alliance, a nonprofit coalition of education and community groups.
 

HEALTHCARE AND TAX CUTS

While education will be a major piece in the budget battle, much of the debate will also involve healthcare and tax cuts. The administration has proposed $400 billion over 10 years for an overhaul of Medicare, including a prescription drug benefit. However, the prescription drug proposal would require the over 85 percent of elderly Americans covered by Medicare to leave the system and get private insurance for drug benefits. Bush also has proposed a Medicaid block grant to states. This plan will leave at risk nearly a third of Medicaid beneficiaries--mostly children, disabled and elderly in nursing homes--because they no longer can be assured that Medicaid will pay for their care.

On the tax-cut front, Bush is proposing $1.5 trillion in tax cuts over the next 10 years on top of the $1.35 trillion package passed in 2001. The new tax benefits include a reduction of the tax on dividends, new higher tax-free saving accounts, acceleration of prior tax cuts, and an effort to make permanent the tax cuts from 2001. These tax breaks would be a bonanza for only the wealthiest taxpayers. If enacted, the tax cuts will further undermine the ability of the government to provide funds for domestic priorities.

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