Fiscal Year 2003 Appropriations Alert
House-Senate Conference Committee to Consider Cuts to
Education Technology Programs
Although more than 4 months late, Congress is finally moving towards
completion of FY03 appropriations: the House recently passed its version
of an FY03 Omnibus Appropriations measure, which comprises eleven of the
federal government's FY03 spending bills, including the bill that funds
FY03 education programs; and the Senate has just wrapped-up work on its
version of FY03 Omnibus Appropriations legislation. Both the House and
Senate bills now head to a House-Senate conference committee, from which
will emerge a compromise version of this Omnibus Appropriations bill. To
become law, both Houses of Congress must pass this compromise version
and the President must sign it.
While eagerly anticipated, this action on FY03 Appropriations may
prove to be a mixed blessing for education technologists because the
final compromise bill is likely to include funding cuts and/or
eliminations in all major federal education technology programs. The
House bill maintains funding at last year's rates for the large state
education technology block grant program (i.e. $700.5 million), but
eliminates funding for smaller education technology programs, including
the Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3), the Star
Schools, and the Community Technology Centers (CTC) programs. The House
bill also provides no funding for the Regional Technology Centers (RTECs),
which provide technical assistance to states and districts. The Senate's
initial version of this bill represented some improvement over the House
bill as it contained not only level funding for the education technology
block grant but also funded all of the small technology programs at last
year's levels. Thus, the initial Senate bill provided $62.5 million for
PT3, $32.5 million for CTC, and $27.5 million for Star Schools.
Additionally, the Senate bill level-funded the RTECs at $10 million.
The Senate's initial figures were altered significantly, however,
during debate on the Senate floor. In order to preserve some funding for
all programs, including the education technology programs, and to inject
more than $6.7 billion in additional funding into Title I, special
education, and the Title V state block grant program, the Senate agreed
to offset these increases with 2.9% across-the-board funding cuts in all
FY03 programs. [These offsets help ensure that the approved funding
increases do not greatly raise the cost of the overall Omnibus
Appropriations spending package.] On the positive side, the Senate's
decision to infuse an additional $5 billion into the Innovative State
Grant Program, from which the districts in each state will receive a
formula allocation to be used for virtually any educational priority,
could lead to states providing more funds for education technology.
[Under the terms of the amendment, states will not be allowed to retain
any of this new Title V money for their own purposes; they must send all
funds received to the districts.] This additional cash for districts,
though, is tied directly to cuts in funding to all other programs,
including education technology. For instance, the state education
technology block grant program stands to lose more than $20 million of
its FY03 funding and the RTECs could lose nearly $1.7 million if the
Senate's spending cuts are ultimately enacted. The other education
technology programs would sustain 2.9% cuts as well. Moreover, with only
8 months remaining in this fiscal year, the burden of any cuts will be
felt over a shorter time period than normal, rather than being amortized
over a full year. The conference is expected to be finished in early
February, but it is unclear how the conference committee will resolve
their differences. |