The Education Budget Battle Continues

Here we go again. A House appropriations subcommittee has introduced an education funding bill for FY25 that makes deep cuts to foundational K-12 education programs.

Just like last year, the House bill would completely eliminate funding for Title II professional development grants (-$2.2 billion) and Title III’s -$890 million for English language acquisition grants. Perhaps the best that can be said is that the House bill “only” cuts Title I by 25 percent, or -$4.7 billion, as opposed to the 80 percent cut the House proposed last year.

With the expiration of the final tranche of emergency COVID-19 funding at the end of September, schools are already facing a challenging budget environment that would be made much more difficult by the simultaneous loss of a significant portion of their annual federal funding from these major grant programs.

To make matters worse, the House bill would also rescind $900 million in Title I funds and $1.7 billion in Title II funds that were previously approved by Congress for FY24 and in the process of being sent to states and districts. The claw back of these already appropriated funds would play havoc with current school budgets.

Fortunately, there is still time for the House to change course. The full House Appropriations Committee will vote on the bill on July 10.

NAESP is urging committee members to restore the K-12 funding to existing levels. If your representative is a member of the appropriations committee, we encourage you to contact their office and urge them to restore the funding in committee. You can send a quick message—and find out if your representative serves on the committee—using our advocacy tool.

David Griffith is associate executive director, Policy and Advocacy, at NAESP.