Archives: Federal Education Budget Project Policy Papers

Summary and Analysis of President Obama’s Education Budget Request

  • By Federal Education Budget Project
February 2, 2010

President Barack Obama submitted his second budget request to Congress on February 1st, 2010. The detailed budget request includes proposed funding levels for federal programs and agencies in aggregate for the upcoming five to ten fiscal years, and specific fiscal year 2011 funding levels for individual programs subject to appropriations. Congress will use the president's budget request to inform its consideration of tax and spending legislation later this year, including the fiscal year 2011 appropriations bill that will set specific funding levels for federal education programs.

Key Questions on the Obama Administration's 2011 Education Budget

February 1, 2010

President Barack Obama submitted his second budget request to Congress on February 1st, 2010. The detailed budget request includes proposed funding levels for all federal programs and agencies in aggregate for the upcoming five to ten fiscal years, and specific fiscal year 2011 funding levels for programs subject to the annual appropriations process. It is important to remember that the president's 2011 budget request is a policy and budget proposal, but not legislation or law.

Student Loan Purchase Programs Under the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act of 2008

  • By
  • Jason Delisle,
  • New America Foundation
December 15, 2009

In May of 2008, Congress passed the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act (ECASLA) in response to concern that credit market conditions could disrupt federal student loan availability. The law gives the U.S. Department of Education temporary authority to purchase federally backed student loans made by private lenders, effectively providing a secondary market for the loans. Congress opted to leave the new purchase authority largely undefined in statute, giving the Department considerable discretion to design and administer it.

2010 Education Appropriations Guide

  • By
  • Jason Delisle,
  • New America Foundation
December 14, 2009

Congress completed the fiscal year 2010 appropriations process on Dec. 13, 2009, finalizing annual funding for nearly all federal education programs through September 2010 at $63.7 billion, up $1.1 billion from the prior year, excluding economic stimulus funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Making sense of the federal education budget and the appropriations process can be a frustrating task for education advocates, state and local policymakers, the media, and the public. The now concluded fiscal year 2010 appropriations process is no exception.

Rethinking the Middleman

  • By
  • Benjamin Miller,
  • New America Foundation
July 13, 2009

Each year, the federal government guarantees billions of dollars in loans disbursed through the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program, a public-private partnership that provides financial aid to students attending institutions of higher education. Despite the significant investment of taxpayer dollars, the actual  administration of the FFEL Program is largely handled by participating lenders and a group of 35 non-federal guaranty agencies across the country. Guaranty agencies perform a number of administrative functions, such as disbursing federal default insurance provided to private lenders issuing FFEL loans, preventing loan default, and collecting or rehabilitating loans that borrowers have failed to repay.

Equitable Resources in Low Income Schools

  • By
  • Lindsey Luebchow,
  • New America Foundation
June 8, 2009

Teachers with the least experience and fewest credentials teach in our poorest schools, putting low-income students at a disadvantage. School finance disparities in teacher spending within school districts are a major cause of this problem. However, school district budgeting techniques mask these intra-district disparities, allowing administrators and policymakers to ignore them.

Summary and Analysis of President Obama’s Education Budget Request

May 11, 2009

President Barack Obama submitted his first budget request to Congress on May 7, 2009. This request follows the initial summary budget request he submitted in February that included only aggregate funding levels for federal programs and agencies.

Key Questions on the Obama Administration’s 2010 Education Budget

  • By Education Policy Program
May 5, 2009

President Barack Obama submitted his first budget request to Congress on Thursday, May 7, 2009. This request follows the initial summary budget request he submitted in February that included only proposed funding levels for federal programs and agencies in aggregate. The detailed budget request includes proposed funding levels for federal programs and agencies in aggregate for the upcoming five to ten fiscal years, and specific fiscal year 2010 funding levels for programs subject to appropriations.

10 Ideas to Ensure College Readiness in the No Child Left Behind & Higher Education Acts

  • By
  • MaryEllen McGuire,
  • New America Foundation
April 27, 2009

It is a stark, indisputable fact that many of America's high school graduates are not ready for the rigors of college. Fewer than half of the high school juniors and seniors who took the ACT national college admissions test in 2008 met its college readiness benchmark in mathematics. Of the 40,000 freshmen admitted into the California State University system in 2007, more than 60 percent needed remediation in English or math. Nationwide, nearly a third of all incoming freshmen—42 percent of first-year students at public two-year colleges—require remediation.

A Primer on the 2009 Budget Resolution’s Impact on Education Funding

  • By
  • Jason Delisle,
  • New America Foundation
March 15, 2009

The budget resolution put forward by Congress each year sets out a budget plan for the next five to ten years. The budget resolution and the ensuing budget process itself can have significant effects on education funding. The arcane procedures Congress uses to produce and act upon the budget resolution, however, are often confusing to the media and education advocates alike. This confusion is made worse by political rhetoric and partisan spin.

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