On Thursday, August 1, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved on a 25-3 vote its Fiscal Year 2025 Labor HHS Education bill. Significantly, Title IIA, which had been eliminated in the House bill, was level-funded in the Senate bill. The committee’s legislative report that accompanies the bill included this statement: “The committee notes that Title II, part A funds can be targeted toward effective preparation and professional development designs that enable teachers and school leaders to expand their knowledge and skills regarding the science of child and adolescent learning and development, including teaching challenging content, teaching diverse learners, and supporting social-emotional and academic development in culturally and linguistically responsive ways.”

Overall, the Senate appropriations bill represents a significant funding upgrade from the House Appropriations Committee’s version. Where the House bill proposed to cut approximately $11.1 billion from the Department of Education’s budget and eliminate 17 programs, the Senate bill would actually increase the department’s funding by more than $900 million and retain all programs. As in previous years, the Senate focused on making significant additions to the major Title programs – Title I (+$280 million) and IDEA (+$300 million) – while level funding or providing only small increases to other K-12 and higher education programs. Title IIA was level funded. A chart showing the proposed funding for major programs is included below.

Congress is now in recess until September. When it returns, it will have very few days left to legislate before recessing for the election. Thus, it is unlikely that either the full House or the full Senate will consider on the floor their respective version of the FY25 Labor HHS Education Appropriations bill. Instead, it is anticipated that Congress will pass a Continuing Resolution, a temporary budget measure, to keep the government operating from October 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year, until December. Only when the results of the November elections are clear will congress begin negotiating final funding levels for federal education programs.

Below is a breakdown of key K-12 program funding levels in the Senate bill:

Today, the House Appropriations Committee unveiled the legislative report for its fiscal year 2025 Labor HHS Education bill, which it will mark-up on July 10 (Update: The committee voted 31-25 to approve the appropriations bill on July 10.) Overall, the report details how the House Appropriations Committee plans to slash approximately $11.1 billion from the Department of Education’s budget, identifying the 17 programs that would be eliminated and other deep cuts should it become law. It also shows how other major programs, like Title IV-A, IDEA, Career and Technical Education and Impact Aid, would remain protected and actually receive small increases in this bill. The House will attempt to pass this bill on the House floor in late July. The Senate has not yet introduced its own version of this bill but that also is expected later this month. The largest K-12 cuts in the House’s FY25 Labor HHS Education bill come from cutting $3.78 billion from Title I, Part A; eliminating entirely the $2.19 billion Title II-A, the Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants program; and deleting the $890 million Title III, English Language acquisition program. Other smaller but important K-12 programs eliminations revealed by the report include:

• State Assessments ($380 million)
• Promise Neighborhoods ($91 million)
• American History and Civics National Activities ($20 million)
• Teacher and School Leader Incentive Grants ($60 million)
• Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) ($90 million)
• Arts in Education ($36 million)
• Javits Gifted and Talented ($16.5 million)
• Statewide Family Engagement Centers ($20 million)

In higher education, the report shows that the bill would eliminate the $70 million Teacher Quality Partnerships program and cut $4.133 million from the Higher Education Act’s Title VI International Programs section. The Institute for Education Sciences, which conducts education research, would see a nearly $53 million cut.

By far and away the most devastating cut is the proposed eliminations of Title II-A. The House report provides a troubling rationale for this elimination:

“This funding has not been shown to improve teacher quality or advance student achievement. Additionally, the Committee notes that according to the Department’s August 2023 report (‘‘State and District Use of Title II, Part A Funds in 2021–2022’’), professional development was the most popular use of Title II-A funds among school districts. Seventy five percent of districts reported funding professional development for teachers, and 56 percent of districts reported funding professional development for principals and other school leaders. Among districts that invested Title II-A funds in teacher professional development, 78 percent funded topics related to ‘‘content knowledge.’’ The Committee is concerned that school districts are using these Federal funds to train teachers in divisive ideologies.”

In addition to trying to defund Title II-A, the Committee demands – perhaps in an effort to crack down on the alleged “divisive ideologies” training noted above – that all school districts that have received Title II-A funding provide “a report that lists any use of this funding for the most recent year data is available, by schools or school districts to pay outside consultants or firms for the purposes of teacher and/or school leader training or professional development. The report shall include the specific names of any applicable consultants or firms who were paid using Title II-A funds and where possible a description of the training or other materials provided.”

Below is a breakdown of key K-12 program funding levels: