On Tuesday, April 30 the House Appropriations Subcommittee in charge of education spending voted through its FY20 spending bill that includes a $4.4 billion increase in funding for the U.S. Department of Education. This funding would include for Title II-A an increase of $500 million for this critical program. If enacted, Title II-A would receive a total of $2.555 billion next year. The bill also includes substantial investments in the other large k-12 title programs:

• Title I -- $1 billion increase
• IDEA -- $1.05 billion increase
• Title IVA flexible grants -- $150 million increase
• 21^st Century Community Learning Centers (Afterschool programs) -- $100 million increase

The House bill would also add and/or retask $260 million for a Social-Emotional Learning Initiative. Specifically, it would fund the Education Innovation Research Grants at $170 million but refocus its grants on SEL innovations and spend an additional $90 million on SEL related activities through SEED, School Safety National Activities and Full-Service Community Schools. The bill also reserves $125 million in Title IV National Activities funding for STEM and computer science grants.

While these are very large increases compared to what we have seen from the House Appropriations Committee in recent years, they must be taken with a grain of salt. Congress and the President have not yet agreed on an overall spending caps deal and, without one, these programs would all sustain massive cuts below last year’s funding level. Thus, these spending increases will only become law if Congress and the President reach a spending caps deal and the Labor HHS Education spending bill receives its fair share from any agreed-upon increase, something that did not really happen after the last spending caps deal was implemented.

For reactions to the House Subcommittee’s appropriations bill, see Stephanie Hirsh’s statement and a statement from a large coalition of national education associations.