A Look At Proposed Federal FY 2011 Funding for Early Education: Part 2

The Early Learning Challenge Fund is still in play.

 

Last week we wrote about the House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee’s mark-up of its FY 2011 appropriations bill. Earlier this week, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education took its turn at proposing levels of funding for FY 2011. For more detailed discussion about the Senate Subcommittee’s mark up and how it compares to the House Subcommittee’s mark up read this Ed Money Watch post.

 

Looking at the table below, we can see that the Senate Subcommittee – like the House Subcommittee – proposes higher levels of funding for some early childhood education programs including a $1 billion increase (compared to FY 2010 levels) for both the Child Care and Development Block Grant program and for Head Start.

 

However, the Senate Subcommittee proposes much lower amounts than the President and somewhat lower amounts than the House subcommittee for the Administration’s signature programs including Race to the Top, Investing in Innovations, and Promise Neighborhoods.

 

But, unlike the President’s request and the House Subcommittee, the Senate Subcommittee proposed funding for Striving Readers at $250 million and the Early Learning Challenge Fund at $300 million. (The Early Learning Challenge Fund wasn’t included in the President’s request because it was assumed that it would pass as part of student loan reform.) Early Ed Watch has written a lot about the Early Learning Challenge Fund and is glad to see its inclusion by the Senate Subcommittee.

 

The Senate Subcommittee also proposes $11.9 billion for Special Education Grants to States and $459 million for infants and families; both amounts are more than the President’s request. The House Subcommittee’s proposed funding for special education was not broken down in the same manner, making it difficult to make comparisons.

 

Comparison of FY 2011 Proposed Funding Levels: President Request, House Subcommittee Proposal, and Senate Subcommittee Proposal ($ billions)
Program	Enacted FY 2010	President Request FY 2011	House Subcommittee FY 2011	Senate Subcommittee FY 2011
Child Care and Development Block Grant	2.1	2.9	2.8	3.1
Head Start	7.2	8.2	8.1	8.2
Race to the Top	0	1.35	.800	.675
Investing in Innovation	0	.500	.400	.250
Promise Neighborhoods	.010	.210	.060	.020
Title I	14.5	14.5	14.89	14.94
Special Education	12.6	12.8	12.99	NA
IDEA- Grants to States	11.5	11.75	NA	11.9
IDEA- Grants for Infants and Families	.439	.439	NA	.459
Striving Readers	.250	0	0	.250
Early Learning Challenge Fund	0	0	0	.300

As we said last week, there’s still a long road ahead before we have a FY 2011 budget. Early Ed Watch will continue to write about the appropriations process and proposed early education funding. Stay tuned.

 

Read all of Early Ed Watch’s coverage of the FY 2011 budget here.