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DEPT. OF ED. CUTS BUDGET EXCESS FROM IDEA PROGRAMS, OTHERS

January 15, 2000

WASHINGTON -- What Congress giveth, if over federal budget caps, the Department of Education hath taken away. As expected, the department cut back spending for federal programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and many others that were funded in the fiscal year 2000 budget above the level originally requested for those programs. Through a compromise between Congress and the Clinton Administration last fall, all federal agencies were forced to trim 0.38 percent from the amounts allocated for their programs, but no program could be cut by more than 15 percent. Some IDEA programs got the axe, totaling a 7.5 percent reduction, but after the final tally all of those services are still being funded at or above 1999 levels.

In all, the Department of Education cut $108.6 million from its budget. Federal IDEA programs were cut by $450,000, and only programs that were overfunded based on the department's original budget request were cut. In that sense, IDEA programs fared better than a few others, such as Pell Grants and Safe and Drug-Free Schools State Grants, which were not earmarked for any cuts but received 0.78 percent and 1.3 percent cuts, respectively. The department also cut its own salary and expense budgets by $250,000

Spending for IDEA is allocated in two categories: state grants and national activities, called Part D programs. No state grants received cutbacks, but four of seven Part D programs did. Spending for research and innovation efforts was trimmed by $75,000, technical assistance and dissemination by $75,000, personnel preparation by $187,000 and technology and media services by $113,000.

State grants for K through 12 programs, which comprise more than 80 percent of the total IDEA budget, were not touched, leaving the total amount of money to be divided among the states at nearly $5 billion. In a creative accounting move that was used throughout the federal agencies for the 2000 budget, this year's Education Department books defer accounting for nearly 80 percent of IDEA state K-12 grants to the 2001 budget. Preschool Grants, funded at $390 million, and Grants for Infants and Families, at $375 million, remained at the law's original levels with no deferrals to 2001. The final allocations for those two programs were higher than the Clinton Administration had requested. Other related services for people with disabilities -- the American Printing House for the Blind, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and Gallaudet University -- also were untouched.

Within each of the Part D IDEA programs that were cut back, only projects that had already been identified as overfunded were cut, according to the Council for Exceptional Children, a Washington group that has closely watched the entire budget process. Earmarked programs are often special projects individual members of Congress authorized for their own states, the CEC said, such as Special Olympics in Alaska, Paralympics in Salt Lake City, the Early Childhood Development Project of the National Easter Seal Society for the Mississippi Delta Region and the Center for Literacy and Assessment at the University of Southern Mississippi. As reported, all of those projects were allocated funds in the original spending package that President Clinton signed in November.

IDEA INCREASE SURVIVES CAPITOL HILL'S FINAL CUT December 4, 1999

The four IDEA programs were among a total of 20 federal education programs that received cuts. No one in Washington was surprised by the cuts, which had been anticipated since negotiations between Congress and the White House started hitting snags back in September. Nevertheless, the CEC says it is continuing its campaign to raise support for increased funding for IDEA in next year's budget, particularly for the four Part D programs that received spending cap-related cuts. The council plans to release its Fiscal Year 2001 Budget Book, "The Federal Outlook for Exceptional Children," this spring to educate members of Congress on special education issues and programs.8