A Tool for Tracking Federal Spending on Education and Other Programs for Children

It is deceptively difficult to determine how much money the federal government spends on America’s children each year. Money spent on children’s health, education, and nutrition — as well as a host of other government programs that promote child welfare — comes from 180 different federal programs, making it hard to account for just how much is spent each year.

Enter First Focus, a nonpartisan children’s advocacy organization that created the Children’s Budget, a document that provides a birds’ eye view of all federal spending on education. This week, using data from Congressional appropriations bills through fiscal year 2009, First Focus released its latest report. It shows that, while there are 82 different federal programs aimed at children from birth through age 18, the share of federal money spent on children in the non-defense budget has decreased from 10.5 percent to 9.2 percent over the past five years.

The report comes with an array of helpful charts and searchable databases at ChildrensBudget.org. We here at Early Ed Watch were curious about whether spending on education programs in particular has been going up or down over the years. Using the tools on the site, we found:

• Education’s share of overall federal spending declined between 2005 and 2009, from 2.09 percent to 1.51 percent.
• When funding levels are adjusted for inflation, the amount spent on Head Start from 2005 to 2009 decreased by 7.9 percent.
• Title I funding stagnated between 2005 and 2007, but received a boost during the last two fiscal years. When adjusted for inflation, funding for Title I in 2009 was 3.2 percent above 2005 funding levels.

There’s lots more you can do with the Children’s Budget website, including tracking programs and money by program type, federal department, and a variety of other criteria. Keep in mind, of course, that several changes may be ahead in the fiscal 2010 budget, which Congress should pass this fall.

Don’t forget that here at New America we have another helpful tool — the Federal Education Budget Project — which features data on students’ academic achievement and demographics that can be analyzed alongside federal, state and district funding data.