President Ronald Reagan’s budget proposal for fiscal 1983 would reduce federal aid to education by one-third, from $14.9 billion in the current school year to $9.95 billion in the 1983-84 school year.
“We know these [budget cuts] will not be achieved without pain, but we must continue our efforts to restore the health of our economy,” said Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell in announcing the budget proposal.
Following are brief summaries of the effects of the cuts on various education and related programs. (Federal budget figures are listed in thousands of dollars.)
The 1983 Education Budget: Science Education Programs
After taking a precipitous drop in fiscal 1982, federal support for the National Science Foundation’s (nsf) Science and Engineering Education (see) directorate would almost disappear in fiscal 1983.
The see directorate is the only one of nsf’s 10 divisions that funds education programs. In the past, the directorate has been the major source of funds for research and curriculum development in science education. It has also funded numerous and well-received summer institutes for science teachers.
From the fiscal 1982 budget of $20.9 million--most of which is already committed to the support of multiple-year graduate fellowships--support will drop to $15 million, which will also be used to support graduate fellowships.
At the same time, nsf officials announced the creation of the National Science Board Commission on Pre-College Education. The National Science Board is the governing panel of the National Science Foundation.
The commission will receive $700,000 funding of its own for one year, fiscal 1982. It will then be supported through other foundation programs, according to John B. Slaughter, director of the foundation.
Fiscal 1981 $70,700
1982 Continuing Resolution $20,900
1982 Rescission Proposal no change
1983 Budget Proposal $15,000
The 1983 Education Budget: Title XX Day Care
Funding for day-care programs for economically disadvantaged children, programs which were consolidated into a social-services block grant last year, would be reduced by approximately $426 million in fiscal 1983.
Day care, social services, and state and local training programs--the three components of the block grant--are funded under Title XX of the Social Security Act and administered by the Department of Health and Human Services.
The programs, which received $2.4 billion in fiscal 1982, would be reduced by 17 percent in fiscal 1983.
Fiscal 1981 $2,991,000
1982 Continuing Resolution $2,400,000
1982 Rescission Proposal no change
1983 Budget Proposal $1,974,000
The 1983 Education Budget: Head Start Preschool Program
Funding for Head Start, a “social safety net” program in the Department of Health and Human Services that provides preschool programs for economically disadvantaged children, was spared any reduction in funding for fiscal 1983.
The proposed budget would provide $912 million for 377,300 children ages 5 and under, the same amount provided in 1982, not accounting for inflation. As in the 1982 budget, there would be no funds for Head Start summer programs.
Fiscal 1981 $819,000
1982 Continuing Resolution $912,000
1982 Rescission Proposal no change
1983 Budget Proposal $912,000
The 1983 Education Budget: Student Financial Assistance
Huge funding cuts in federal aid to college students and in other support programs for higher education are being proposed in the Reagan Administration’s fiscal 1983 budget.
Student-aid appropriations for fiscal 1983 would be cut by approximately 46 percent from the 1982 level set by the continuing resolution.
Pell Grants would be cut from $2.28 billion to $2.19 billion in the current fiscal year. That level would be further reduced by 36 percent to $1.4 billion in fiscal 1983. The maximum award of $1,800 provided for under current law would be cut to $1,600 next year by increasing the percentage of income that students and their families are expected to contribute to college costs.
Three additional programs--Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants (seog’s), National Direct Student Loans (ndsl’s), and State Student Incentive Grants (ssig’s)--would receive no new funds next year under the Administration’s proposal.
Under the plan, institutions could still provide students with ndsl’s using funds collected from former student borrowers’ loan payments.
Access to Guaranteed Student Loans (gsl’s) would also be restricted under the President’s proposal. Graduate and professional students would no longer be allowed to borrow under the program. Instead, they could apply for loans that carry a 14-percent interest rate and do not provide students with in-school interest subsidies.
Other changes in the gsl program would double the loan-origination fee from 5 to 10 percent for undergraduates, limit loan amounts to students’ “unmet” needs (college costs minus family contributions and other college aid), and require students to pay market interest rates two years after the loans first come due, instead of the current 9 percent.
The College Work-Study program would continue to exist, but at lower levels of funding--down from $528 million under the continuing resolution to $397 million in fiscal 1983.
The 1983 Education Budget: Impact Aid
The impact-aid program, which provides financial assistance to school systems to offset the cost of educating the children of federal employees, would be reduced another 34 percent next year. The program, which was allotted $446.4 million for fiscal 1982, would be funded at $291.8 million in fiscal 1983.
The current level of funding was cut by 41 percent from the fiscal 1981 level of $756.7 million. Taken together, the two years’ reductions would leave the program with 38 percent of the funds it received in 1981.
In addition, the administration of the program would be transferred from the Education Department to three other federal agencies, under the proposal to create a Foundation for Education Assistance.
The Treasury Department would assume responsibility for programs amounting to $287.7 million, including maintenance and operations and special provisions. The funds would be used to subsidize the education of only those children whose parents both live and work on federal property, known as “category A” children. No funds would be provided for ''category B” children, whose parents either live or work on federal property; neither would money be allocated for disaster assistance or school-construction assistance.
The administration of school construction on federal, rather than school-district, property would be transferred to two other agencies. The Department of the Interior would assume responsibility for $838,000 to fund construction on Indian lands. Administration of construction on military property would be transferred to the Department of Defense, with funding of $3.2 million.
Fiscal 1981 $756,750
1982 Continuing Resolution $446,400
1982 Rescission Proposal no change
1983 Budget Proposal $291,850
The 1983 Education Budget:
School Lunch and Child Nutrition Programs
Child-nutrition programs, including the National School Lunch Program, would continue to receive $2.8 billion in 1983, approximately the same funding level as in fiscal 1982.
The programs, which are administered by the Agriculture Department, had been cut heavily this year--by about $1 billion--from the 1981 level.
In addition to school-lunch reimbursement, the programs include school breakfast, equipment assistance, state administrative expenses, general nutrition assistance, and commodities procurement.
Although the combined funding level for all of the programs would be slightly lower than last year, not accounting for inflation, the Administration would make several legislative changes in the various programs. Funding for school-lunch reimbursement would total $452 million, compared to $425 million in 1982.
Other programs would be consolidated, transferred, or eliminated. These changes include:
Eliminating the special milk program in fiscal 1983; the program was funded at $23.9 million in 1982.
Abolishing the $61.1-million summer feeding program as of Oct. 1, 1982.
Replacing the school-breakfast and child-care feeding programs with a categorical grant of $612 million, which represents 80 percent of the current funding level.
Excluding the Department of Defense schools from the school-lunch program, at a savings of $1.1 million.
Transferring the $43.8-million funding for child nutrition and other food programs in American Samoa, Guam, the Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas to a block grant for nutrition assistance in those areas; and
Providing no funds for the $5-million nutrition-education-and-training program.
Fiscal 1981 $3,463,651
1982 Continuing Resolution $2,846,838
1982 Rescission Proposal no change
1983 Budget Proposal $2,825,781
The 1983 Education Budget: Education of the Handicapped
Twelve separate categorical programs that provide more than $1 billion for educating handicapped children would be consolidated into two grants packages in fiscal 1983. In addition, the budget for the programs would be reduced by 17 percent.
The state grants and preschool-incentive grants--funded in 1981 at $899.5 million--would become “special-education block grants.” The $152-million Title I program for handicapped students also would be included in that category.
Ten other programs, which received $125.7 million in 1981, would be consolidated into a “special-education discretionary fund.” Those programs include: centers for deaf or blind students, projects for the severely handicapped, early-childhood education, regional programs, innovation and development, media services, resource centers, recruitment and information, personnel development, and special studies.
Fiscal 1981 $1,025,231
1982 Continuing Resolution $1,042,080
1982 Rescission Proposal $258,572
1983 Budget Proposal $845,668
The 1983 Education Budget: Education Block Grant
Three programs--women’s educational equity, Follow Through, and civil-rights training--would be added to the 26 programs already included in the education block-grants package.
With the addition of those programs, which received more than $71 million in fiscal 1981, the block-grants package is slated for a 29-percent budget reduction in fiscal 1983, according to the proposal.
If the plan is accepted by Congress, the three programs would be included in the 1982 block-grants package, which will begin during the 1982-83 school year. In addition, the program would be reduced by more than $62 million in 1982.
The budget of the women’s program is spent principally on publication of textbooks and other educational materials that promote a balanced portrayal of women’s roles. The Follow Through program serves low-income elementary-school students who have participated in the Head Start program. And the civil-rights training program provides special in-service activities for school-system and state officials who must implement desegregation plans.
The budget proposal for the “Secretary’s discretionary fund,” which represents 6 percent of the total block-grant package, would eliminate educational television programming. The $26.9-million fund would be used to support Reading is Fundamental, arts in education, alcohol and drug abuse education, program evaluations, and discretionary projects.
Fiscal 1981 $608,971
1982 Continuing Resolution $533,040
1982 Rescission Proposal $62,640
1983 Budget Proposal $433,000
The 1983 Education Budget: Vocational and Adult Education
Federal funds for vocational and adult education, which currently are disbursed through 11 separate categorical programs, would be cut by 36 percent and consolidated into formula grants to states in fiscal 1983.
Vocational education, which received $681.6 million in 1981, and adult education, which received $100 million, would be merged into one program through which states could fund curriculum development, teacher training, research, literacy programs, and others.
Although details about the proposed consolidation were not available from the Education Department last week, Education Week has obtained a copy of a draft of the consolidation bill. (See story on page 17.)
Fiscal 1981 $781,639
1982 Continuing Resolution $739,666
1982 Rescission Proposal $105,741
1983 Budget Proposal $500,000
The 1983 Education Budget: Bilingual Education
Funding for bilingual education in fiscal 1983 would be cut by 41 percent from the 1981 level of more than $161 million.
The Reagan Administration also would change the statutory definition of a “fundable” bilingual-education program, which would permit school systems to use federal funds for English “immersion” classes or other programs that do not involve instruction in a student’s native language.
The plan would eliminate separate funding for bilingual-desegregation grants, which received $8.1 million in 1981, and the bilingual vocational-training program, which received $3.9 million in 1981.
Details of the proposal were not made available by the Education Department last week. According to a memorandum from the department obtained by Education Week, officials also are considering changing the definition of a “bilingual” child in order to reduce sharply the number of children eligible to participate in the program. (See Education Week, Feb. 10.)
Fiscal 1981 $161,427
1982 Continuing Resolution $138,057
1982 Rescission Proposal $11,504
1983 Budget Proposal $94,534
The 1983 Education Budget: Arts and Humanities Programs
Federal funds to support programs of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities would be sharply reduced in fiscal 1983.
Funds for the National Endowment for the Arts (nea), which has supported such programs as artists-in-the-schools, would be cut 29 percent from the fiscal 1982 level of $143 million.
Education and other programs funded under the National Endowment for the Humanities (neh) would be reduced by 26 percent from this year’s $130.5 million level.
The Institute of Museum Services (ims), which was a part of the Education Department until it was transferred to the foundation last year, would be eliminated in 1983. In addition, most of its current $12 million budget, which is provided by the 1982 continuing resolution, would be rescinded for the remainder of fiscal 1982. The rescission proposal would leave the institute with $643,000 for 1982.
