House and Senate to Reconcile Budget Resolutions

With the expectation of an impending announcement of more specific numbers to President Obama’s March budget proposal, both the House and Senate passed similar budget resolutions of their own which now need to be reconciled. Within both budget resolutions, there is much to be offered in way of education.

Upon passage of the House resolution Rep. John M. Spratt, Jr. (D-SC), Chairman of the House Committee on the Budget, stated “Our resolution supports the President’s goals of putting the budget back on a fiscally sustainable path while advancing key priorities in health care, energy, and education.” “…These are goals that the American people support. I was pleased to see our budget pass the House.”

Moreover, the House Budget Committee prepared a summary of its budget resolution that emphasizes the various similarities existing between the House budget resolution and the Presidents budget. The summary included the following education aspects:

“Builds on Recovery Act’s Historic Investment in Education — Our budget includes the $100 billion in education funding provided in the Recovery Act to help states maintain elementary, secondary, and higher education services. The Recovery Act targeted funds to Title I (Education for the Disadvantaged), Head Start, and special education, where the funding can be used to train more teachers to provide needed services in the future. In addition, Congress this year increased the maximum Pell Grant award by $619 to a total of $5,350– the largest annual increase in the program’s history – and created the American Opportunity Tax Credit to give eligible students a partially refundable tax credit of up to $2,500 to cover college costs.

Makes College More Affordable and Accessible — Our budget embraces the President’s goal of further investments in educating Americans from early childhood through post-secondary education and training. It accommodates the President’s proposal to continue raising the maximum Pell grant award in a fiscally responsible way, and to provide additional assistance to help more low-income high school graduates attend and complete college.

Increases Education Funding — The budget matches the President’s increase education funding for targeted services that will raise student achievement using both proven practices and innovative approaches that bring more of the community into cooperative efforts to educate our children.

Supports Early Childhood Education — Our budget supports education at a young age through a range of approaches, including the President’s initiatives to help strengthen and expand early childhood education programs, and paid-for increases in a new evidence-based home visiting services and child nutrition that includes school meals.”

In addition, the House budget resolution also references the America COMPETES Act. Directly written into the Resolution it states:

“it is the sense of the House that:
the House should provide sufficient investments to enable our Nation to continue to be the world leader in education, innovation, and economic growth as envisioned in the goals of the America COMPETES Act.”

As for the Senate budget resolution, it “fully funds the President’s request for education and training programs over the five-year budget window.” It emphasizes such areas as early childhood education, “expanding Pell Grants”, Title I, achievement gaps, and the federal funding share of the Disabilities and Education Act. Furthermore, the Senate resolution states in the overview printed in the resolution that “employers indicate that we are not producing enough trained workers with the skills in the modern workplace, particularly in high-growth sectors such as health care and green energy technologies.” Thus, upon passage of the Senate budget resolution, Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said: “We invest in education to prepare our workforce to compete in the global economy.”

The Congress will look to reconcile both budget resolutions now that it is back in session.