Earlier this week, the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee released their Labor-HHS-Education bill for Fiscal Year 2019. In total, the bill would provide $177.1 billion in discretionary spending, which includes $71 billion for the U.S. Department of Education and its associated programs. This is a $43 million increase from their proposal in FY 2018. On Friday, June 15, the bill went through an uncontentious markup featuring no amendment process and was cleared by the presiding subcommittee through a voice vote.
Education Provisions of Note
Below is a table consisting of several education programs of note to music education and their proposed funding levels. Enacted levels of funding from FY 2018’s omnibus have been provided for reference.
|
Federal Education Programs |
FY 2018 Omnibus |
House FY 2019 |
|
Department of Education – Total |
$70.86 Billion |
$70.91 Billion |
|
Title I Grants to LEAs (School Districts) |
$15.46 Billion |
$15.76 Billion |
|
Supporting Effective Instruction (Title II, Part A) |
$2.06 Billion |
$2.06 Billion |
|
Title IV, Part A (SSAEG) |
$1.1 Billion |
$1.2 Billion |
|
Arts in Education |
$29 Million |
TBD |
Source: The Committee for Education Funding (CEF) & House Committee on Appropriations
NAfME is most pleased to see the continued support for the Student Support and Academic Enrichment (SSAE) grant program, otherwise known as Title IV-A of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). As our top appropriations priority, we were most pleased to see SSAE’s 250% increase in FY 2018. The House’s proposed $100 million increase continues the trend towards fully funding this block grant at its authorized level of $1.6 billion.
For those unfamiliar, SSAE is one of the new opportunities created within ESSA that provides states and school districts with supplemental funding to support three broad areas:
- Providing students access to a well-rounded education (e.g. music and arts),
- Supporting safe and healthy students (e.g. comprehensive school mental health, drug and violence prevention, training on trauma-informed practices, health and physical education) and
- Supporting the effective use of technology (professional development, blended learning,
devices).
NAfME is currently collecting stories regarding the success of Title IV-A. If you have received Title IV-A funding previously or will receive funding for the upcoming 2018-2019 school year, please visit bit.ly/TitleIVstories to tell us your Title IV story!
The Senate
As seen in recent years, the Senate is moving their budgetary process significantly more slowly than their counterparts in the House. Although not yet scheduled, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, and Education, has announced their intent to markup their bill the week of June 25. This is impeccable timing, as it will coincide with NAfME’s annual Hill Day event on Thursday, June 26, where over 300 music educators and advocates will carry our appropriations agenda to hundreds of offices on Capitol Hill.
Stay tuned, as we will provide updates as Congress nears the finish line for this year’s budgetary process.
Ronny Lau, Assistant Director of Public Policy, June 15, 2018. © National Association for Music Education (NAfME.org)
