Education Budget

On Tuesday the Education Budget should pass the House. While there will be a long debate I suspect, it should pass overwhelmingly. Here is a couple of key stats from the budget. In the Fiscal Year 2008 budget the break down between K-12 and Higher Education was 70% (K-12) to 30% (Higher Ed.). While the Education Budget Committee recommended a larger 71%-29% spending formula the federal stimulus made the funding breakdown alomst identical to the 70-30% spending last year.

I do not expect a lot of controversy in this budget because, like the General Fund there is a whole lot less money than years past to spend. The overall Education budget is about $420,000,000 more than the year before primarily because of the federal stimulus/bailout monies. Of course the dollars will be only a one year payout so they cannot be counted on for next year.

Compared to previous battles this should be a pretty slow one. While $420,000,000 sounds like a lot, in fact with it being one time money in a $6,200,000,000 budget it does not have nearly the impact in the debates as it should since the feds have already earmarked it.