Children, youths suffer most from Bush budget
By
Heather Cottin
Published Feb 17, 2005 8:57 PM
The Bush budget will literally take food out
of the mouths of babes.
In a rampage that leaves no child untouched,
George W. Bush has taken a meat cleaver to programs that help infants, children
and youths across the country. Nearly one-third of the cutbacks are to education
and programs that feed hungry children.
Bush's rapacious slash-and-burn
campaign targets the 40-year-old Head Start Program with a plan to restrict the
right of toddlers and pre-schoolers to attend. Head Start is already starved for
funds, and is effectively closed to three-quarters of eligible children, or 3
million pre-schoolers, according to the National Education Association. Bush's
budget would cut an additional 59,000 Head Start student slots, reports the
Service Employees Web site.
The budget will eliminate child care benefits
for 350,000 low- and moderate-income families by 2009.
Meanwhile, Title I,
the program that gives additional help and resources to low-income children,
will be slashed to 40 percent of its current funding.
Aid for public
schools will be $12 billion short because of the "No Child Left Behind Act"
(NCLB). (The Advocate, Baton Rouge, Feb. 15) The states will have to pick up the
tab for funding the test-centered NCLB program. States are already struggling
with a cumulative budget shortfall of an estimated $100 billion, and education
cutbacks and teacher layoffs have been spreading across the country.
In
addition, programs which were set up under the NCLB will now exclude 700,000
children from after-school help. (NEA) Disabled children face a budget which
receives less than half the funds they received in 1975 under the Individ uals
with Disabilities Education Act.
Defense spending has increased, but
domestic spending has gone from 15 percent to 1 percent of the budget. Education
for children of military personnel is on the cutting block. Defense Department
schools overseas ended the school year a week early last year because of a lack
of money. Now children of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan face additional cuts
of more than 30 percent.
Push more students into debt
The
Bush administration touted its great goals to improve education in 2001, but
there are few education programs that have not been brutally scaled back. Public
college students are already reeling from last year's massive tuition increases.
Now they face more increases, and also lower Pell Grants for all but the poorest
college students. Bush wants to substitute lifelong debt, so he increases
"Perkins Loans" for students eliminated from the Pell Grants system.
Bush
cut Pell grants by $270 million for the 2004-2005 academic year. The new cuts
will deny scholarships to 84,000 students who currently qualify for support.
They also freeze the amount of money Pell Grants offer at the same levels they
were in 2001, despite increases in tuition and college costs since
then.
Cindy, a student at La Guardia Com munity College in New York City,
said, "The removal of my Pell Grant has made my education nearly extinct. The
government says I can take out a loan, but my life will be devoted to paying it
back."
Another La Guardia student said, "My little sister now has to work
two jobs to pay for school. She questions her ability to continue her
education." Rosalind, who works as a security guard, is attending La Guardia
studying to be a teacher. "Without the assistance of Pell, I will not be able to
fulfill my dream."
The education cutbacks include over $250 million that
had been marked for teacher training.
Bush's budget doesn't hurt the
rich. They get permanent tax cuts, which earmark $62,500 to each millionaire in
the United States, according to the Children's Rights Fund. Wall Street analysts
gave Bush high marks for his generosity.
The wars against Afghanistan and
Iraq have cost over $200 billion. Bush has asked for $82 billion more. This
money could be used to lower class sizes with the hiring of 1.3 million public
school teachers. In most cities across the country, class size hovers around
40.
Half of the money spent on the war in Iraq could have furnished
pre-school education for 10 million children. It could provide a free college
education to 4 million students. It could enable school systems to hire 1.3
million new teachers.
Congress is set to give the Pentagon and the
military industry a bonanza of half a trillion dollars. Education, which serves
all children in the U.S., is scheduled to receive one-tenth of that
amount.
This "Education President" is committing a crime against the
future. The education cutbacks amount to no less than a coldhearted and cynical
crusade against children, parents, teachers and youth.
The Troops Out Now
Coalition will demonstrate in New York's Central Park and around the country on
March 19 calling for "Money for education, not for war!"
For more
information, visit www.troopsoutnow.org.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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