Appropriations and Budget

Congress is in the middle of serious budget negotiations involving not only the National Board budget, but also the funding for virtually all federally funded discretionary programs and operations. The status changes almost daily.

Final FY2011 Appropriations Bill Signed into Law

The final full-year FY2011 appropriations bill was signed into law on Friday, April 15th.  In a tough fiscal environment, there are some good though cautious, wait-and-see news.  Although the Advanced Credentialing line itself was not funded, the bill sets aside approximately $25 - $29 million to create a new competitive grant funding stream for national not-for-profit organizations to engage in teacher training or professional enhancement activities.  This new funding stream was specifically designed with programs like the National Board in mind.
There are two particularly helpful things about this language for the National Board.  First, the “professional enhancement” language is pulled directly from the purpose of the Advanced Credentialing program, the budget account that has funded National Board exclusively in recent years.  Second, the Appropriations Committee press release and summary of the bill specifically indicates that this funding is aimed at funding such programs as National Board, Teach For America, and the National Writing Project. 

That said, NBPTS must still compete for this funding at the Department of Education later this year – this merely gives the National Board the competitive funding opportunity to do so.  Although the specifics of how that competition will work are not yet available, NBPTS is already well underway in preparing the strongest case possible for the maximum amount of funding.  This amount, however, is likely to be considerably less than the $10.649 million received in recent years, but NBPTS has prepared for that contingency.
There are additional opportunities in the bill as well.   Other competitive funding available to partner with states and districts on going forward include:

• $400 million for the Teacher Incentive Fund
• $700 million for Race to the Top (NBPTS was included in 8 of 10 RTTT Round Two applications);
• $150 million for Investing in Innovation Fund (to scale up the best practices of organizations and school districts); and
• $536 million for School Improvement Grants.   

Overall, many long-standing educations programs were eliminated or had funding slashed.  The final bill cuts $38 billion from FY2010 levels, including $5.5 billion from the section of the bill that funds education ($13 billion lower than the President’s FY2011 Budget proposal).  
All in all, in a challenging fiscal environment with disproportionate cuts overall in education, there is much opportunity in this bill for NBPTS to compete for funding.

2011 Continuing Resolution through April 15

Thanks to a 11th hour—literally—deal, a looming federal government shutdown was averted.  Shortly after 11:00 pm on April 8th, congressional leaders announced a deal had been reached to fund the remainder of FY2011, which ends on September 30, 2011.  The deal that was reached will reduce the budget by $78.5 billion from the original amount proposed by the President.  Details about specific cuts, including education, were not part of the agreement, and must be worked out in the next few days.  To provide the time necessary to hammer out the details of the specific cuts and to have the final agreement passed by Congress, another week-long Continuing Resolution (CR) was passed.  This CR will expire on Friday, April 15th.  Unlike the CR that the House passed earlier in the week, this CR does not eliminate funding for NBPTS.

Continuing Resolution Extended until April 8

On Tuesday, March 15, by a vote of 271 - 158, the House passed H.J. Res. 48, continuing appropriations through April 8, 2011. Unlike the last extension, where the vote was almost unanimous on the GOP side, 54 Republicans voted against extending the CR, suggesting it would be difficult to secure the votes to extend it again, rather than resolving the budget differences between the House and Senate. The party divisions were not limited to the Republican side either, as the top two Democrats in the House split their vote.  Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and 103 of her colleagues voted no, while Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland and 84 other Democrats voted yes.  There were an additional $6 billion in cuts from earmarks, but none were in education.  The Senate is scheduled to take up the bill on March 17.  Unless the bill is passed by March 18, a government shutdown would result. 

Appropriations Committee Introduces a Three-Week Continuing Resolution, with $6 billion in Cuts 

On Friday, March 11, House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (Kentucky) introduced a Continuing Resolution (CR), H.J. Res. 48, to fund the federal government at current rates through April 8, while cutting $6 billion in spending.

The cuts in H.J. Res. 48 include funding rescissions, reductions, and program terminations. The bill also eliminates earmark accounts within the Agriculture, Commerce/Justice/Science, Financial Services/General Government, and Interior subcommittee jurisdictions. No additional cuts to Education were included.
All of the spending cuts in this legislation were also included in H.R.1, which was passed by the House, and many of these reductions and terminations were supported by President Obama in his annual budget requests.

2011 Continuing Resolution through March 18

The president signed the fiscal year 2011 Continuing Resolution, which expires on March 18. The resolution eliminated funding for many education programs. The National Board's operations will not be adversely affected in 2011 by their actions, because monies were obligated in 2010 for this purpose. Candidates for the 2011-12 cycle can be assured that monies traditionally provided by the National Board using federal funding remains intact and available.

The National Board is one of a dozen programs -- such as Teach for America, National Writing Project and Reading is Fundamental -- for which funding was eliminated in the fiscal year 2011. In addition, the House has proposed eliminating more than 50 other federal education programs. NBPTS is working with the U.S. Department of Education and Congress to identify funding sources for applicants in calendar year 2012.

Senate Democrat Budget Plan to Restore Funding

On Friday, March 4, Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Chairman of the Appropriations Committee introduced an alternate FY2011 Appropriations bill which would fund the government through September 30. This bill is to counter the House Republicans' proposed budget cuts of over $6 billion from education programs and Head Start. The Senate bill, among other things, restores funding for Advanced Credentialing, the budget account that funds the National Board. Overall, it would cut about $51 billion below what President Obama included in his budget for fiscal year 2011. 

NBPTS will continue to watch Congress, which is in the middle of serious budget negotiations involving not only the National Board budget, but also the funding for virtually all education programs.

Earmark Moratorium (Coburn Amendment #4697 to S.510)

On Monday, November 29, 2010, Congress is expected to vote on Coburn Amendment #4697 to S.510 that would ban all congressionally directed spending in FY2011, FY2012, and FY2013.  While this amendment is meant to eliminate congressional earmarks (typically local projects that benefit the district of one member of Congress), Coburn's amendment would also eliminate funding to well-established national programs.

Some of the education programs that would lose funding include NBPTS, Teach for America, National Writing Project, New Leaders for New Schools, Reading is Fundamental and more.  Read the letter signed by the leaders of thirteen national education organizations that urge a no vote on this amendment.