President Obama's FY 2013 Budget: The Process Begins Anew
February 28, 2012
On February 13, 2012, President Obama released his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2013. The budget provides a modest two and a half percent increase in education spending over enacted FY 2012 levels, for a total of $69.8 billion. Last year, the President requested $77.4 billion in education spending. Of this amount, a full $28.6 billion is designated for the Pell Grant program alone. Programs in other agencies, as well as some individual programs within the U.S. Department of Education, were cut. Here is a breakdown of some of the proposed funding levels in the President's FY 2013 budget for programs critical to public media.
Department of Education
As the President has proposed in the last several budgets, Ready To Learn is consolidated into a larger pot of funding. Congress has prevented its elimination in the past, thanks to champion members and the work of the APTS advocacy team. The consolidation is not a surprise, and it will be similarly defended against in the coming months.
The President requests $850 million for Race To The Top and calls for a significant portion to be used for early childhood. He also requests $150 million for the Investing In Innovation Fund (i3), with a new priority for STEM projects. A portion of i3 funding would also be used to support the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Education (ARPA-ED) initiative that was proposed in the FY 2012 budget request.
The President requests $100 million for Promise Neighborhoods, a program which received a large increase in funding in FY 2012 ($60 million, compared to FY 2011's $30 million). While a $100 million appropriation may be unlikely, this is a program that Congress has demonstrated interest in and invested accordingly.
The budget requests $1 billion in funding for the creation of a new College Affordability and Completion Race To The Top program and a $55.5 million "First in the World" program, which would be similar to a higher education version of i3 and focused on completion, lowering costs and increasing quality and capacity.
The budget request also calls for a new $8 billion (over three years) mandatory spending community college initiative, the Community College to Career Fund, that would be jointly administered by the Departments of Labor and Education, designed to support community college partnerships with businesses.
The request level-funds the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program at $1.15 billion and maintains focus of the Administration's reauthorization proposal by including before- and after-school programs, summer enrichment programs, summer school programs, expanded learning time programs and full-service community schools as allowable activities under the program.
The budget request proposes $30 million for the Fund for the Improvement of Education (FIE) to support the development and implementation of a "robust, evidence-based K-12 STEM initiative." This funding would be combined with $30 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF). In addition, the request proposes to replace the existing Department of Education Mathematics and Science Partnership program with a new STEM initiative focused on effective teaching and learning. When combined with the proposed STEM priority in the i3 program, it is evident that there is a particular emphasis on STEM in this budget.
Adult Education State grants are level-funded at $595 million the FY 2012 enacted level. Of this, $15 million is to support a Workforce Innovation Fund, a combined project with the Department of Labor. This Fund would support competitive grants that propose innovative means of improving services and outcomes under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA).
National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities
President Obama proposed small increases to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). This is of particular interest because he has proposed cuts to both of these agencies in previous budgets. Each request is for $154 million, up from their current funding levels of $146 million each. This includes an increase of $4 million, each, for grants to nonprofit organizations.
Department of Labor
The request calls for $25 billion mandatory spending to help states and localities retain and hire teachers and first responders through the American Jobs Act and a $5 billion mandatory spending allocation through the American Jobs Act that would provide funds to states and districts to undertake various teacher-related reforms.
Department of Agriculture
The Rural Utilities Service Public Television Digital Transition Grant Program was marked for elimination in the budget. It was also marked for elimination last year, but it held on to a $3 million appropriation as the budget made its way through Congress.
Overall, there are some wins and some challenges for the programs that public media stations rely on. There are several proposed new programs and priorities, which could bring about new opportunities for public media, should Congress fulfill this request and appropriate funding. We will likely not know the ultimate fate of these programs until the end of 2012.
