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Children, youths suffer most from Bush budget

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.