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President's budget plan emphasizes investments in children |
President Barack Obama recently unveiled a 2013 federal budget that bolsters investments in children, with an emphasis on early childhood and K-12 education.
“While the spending plan is certain to be vigorously debated in the coming months, it offers a promising and fiscally responsible starting point for discussing investments in our children,” said Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children President and CEO Joan Benso. “The president’s budget plan shows a commitment to many programs that have been proven cost-effective to taxpayers and beneficial to children and families.”
Overall, the president’s budget invests an additional $1.4 billion in programs that benefit children, a modest increase of less than 2 percent over the current year’s budget. His budget plan calls for:
- $6 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, an $825 million increase (in discretionary and mandatory spending) that will serve an additional 70,000 kids and build on the progress of the Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge.
- $8 billion for Head Start, an $85 million increase.
- $12.4 billion – a $20 million increase – for special education funding under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
- Level funding of $14.5 billion for Title I grants to aid economically disadvantaged students.
- $850 million for Race to the Top to continue pursuing innovations in education.
The budget proposal also calls for the establishment of a $5 billion competitive grant program to help states and school districts reinvigorate the teaching profession. The goals include building educator evaluation systems that rely on multiple measures to gauge teacher effectiveness and expanding professional development opportunities for teachers.
"Our goal is to work with teachers and principals in rebuilding their profession and to elevate the teacher voice in federal, state and local education policy,” U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan explained. “Our larger goal is to make teaching not only America's most important profession, but also America's most respected profession.”
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