By Elizabeth Evans

On September 28, President Trump signed into law the 2019 Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act and the 2019 Continuing Appropriations Act. Within this minibus the Department of Education (ED) was allocated a total of $16,543,790,000 for fiscal year 2019 (FY19). Despite all of his bluster for a reduction in funding, and a mid-year proposal to merge the Departments of Education and Labor, Congress ultimately decided to bump the department’s budget by a full $100 million more than they had appropriated in 2018! Following, we break down ED’s budget for FY19 with a specific eye towards grant funding; we’ll tell you what programs received funding increases, as well as which ones are funded at the same level as last year.

K-12 Funding

The total funding allocated for activities under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act’s (ESEA) Title I, II Part B subpart 2, and the Higher Education Act’s section 418A in FY19 will be $16,543,790,000. This is a $100 million increase from the $16,443,790,000 allocated in 2018. This appropriation is known as “Education for the Disadvantaged” and is where the bulk of Title funding for districts comes from. Programs of note for FY19 include:

·         $6,459,401,000 for Title I Part A: Basic Grants to Local Education Agencies (held even from 2018);

·         $1,362,301,000 for Title I Part A: Targeted Concentration Grants (held even from 2018); and

·         $4,019,050,000 for Education Finance Incentive Grants (a $50 million increase from 2018).

Funding for programs under the “School Improvement Grants” category will also see a $88.5 million boost. The total funding allocated for activities under ESEA Title I Part B, Title II Part A, Title IV Part A subpart 1, Title IV Part B, Title V Part B, Title VI Parts B and C; the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act; section 203 of the Educational Technical Assistance Act; the Compact of Free Association of Amendments Act; and the Civil Rights Act in FY19 will be $5,246,967,000. Grant funding highlights include:

·         $1,170,000,000 for Title IV Part A: Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants (a $60 million increase from 2018);

·         $1,221,673,000 for Title IV Part B: 21st Century Community Learning Centers (held even from 2018); and

·         $180,840,000 for Title V Part B: Rural Education (held even from 2018).

The total funding allocated for activities under ESEA Title II Part B subparts 1 ,3, and 4; and Title IV Parts C, C, E, and F subparts 1 and 4 in FY19 will be $1,035,556,000. This is a $53.3 million increase from the $982,256,000 allocated for activities in 2018. This funding bucket is largely tied to grant programs for “Innovation and Improvement”. From these funds, an additional $10 million has been allotted to the Education and Innovation Research Grant program (Title IV Part F subpart 1) for a FY19 total of $130,000,000. The total funding for programs under Title II Part B subparts 1, 3, and 4 was also boosted by $1.3 million for a FY19 allocation of $279,815,000. Grant programs falling within this allotment include the Teacher and School Leader Incentive Grants, Supporting Effective Educator Development, and the American History and Civics Programs. Lastly, the total funding bucket for grant programs housed under Title IV Parts C, D, E, and F subpart 1 increased by $42 million (for a total of $625,741,000 in FY19). Some of the programs expected to benefit include: the Magnet Schools Assistance Program, Arts in Education, as well as the suite of grant opportunities under the Charter Schools Program umbrella.

Higher Education Funding

The total funding allocated for activities under the Higher Education Act’s Title II, III, IV, V, VI, and VII; the Mutual Education and Cultural Exchange Act; and Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act in FY19 will be $2,312,356,000. This is a nearly $66 million increase from the $2,246,551,000 allocated in 2018. While the FY19 budget doesn’t break down individual programming allotments (as was the case in 2018), we can see from materials provided by ED what each of the House and Senate committees proposed for the various programs. Highlights for the discretionary grant programs under the Higher Education Act include:

·         Title III Part A, section 311: Strengthening Instructions Program ($98,866,000 FY18 allocation) - $98,886,000 originally proposed by House and $101,067,000 originally proposed by Senate committees for FY19 budget.

·         Title III Part A, section 316: Tribal Colleges and Universities Program ($31,539,000 FY18 allocation) - $31,539,000 originally proposed by House and $32,234,000 originally proposed by Senate committees for FY19 budget.

·         Title III Part A, section 317: Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions Program ($15,772,000 FY18 allocation) - $15,772,000 originally proposed by House and $16,120,000 originally proposed by Senate committees for FY19 budget.

·         Title III Part A, section 318: Predominantly Black Institutions Program ($11,361,000 FY18 allocation) - $11,361,000 originally proposed by House and $11,611,000 originally proposed by Senate committees for FY19 budget.

·         Title III Part A, section 319: Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions Program ($3,826,000 FY18 allocation) - $3,826,000 originally proposed by House and $3,910,000 originally proposed by Senate committees for FY19 budget.

·         Title III Part A, section 320: Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions Program ($3,826,000 FY18 allocation) - $3,826,000 originally proposed by House and $3,910,000 originally proposed by Senate committees for FY19 budget.

·         Title III Part B, section 323: Strengthening Historically Black Colleges and Universities Program ($279,624,000 FY18 allocation) - $279,624,000 originally proposed by House and $285,788,000 originally proposed by Senate committees for FY19 budget.

·         Title III Part B, section 326: Strengthening Historically Black Graduate Institutions Program ($72,314,000 FY18 allocation) - $72,314,000 originally proposed by House and $73,908,000 originally proposed by Senate committees for FY19 budget.

·         Title III Part E subpart 1: Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program ($$11,025,000 FY18 allocation) - $11,025,000 originally proposed by House and $11,268,000 originally proposed by Senate committees for FY19 budget.

·         Title V Part A: Developing Hispanic Serving Institutions Program ($123,163,000 FY18 allocation) - $123,183,000 originally proposed by House and $125,898,000 originally proposed by Senate committees for FY19 budget.

·         Title V Part B: Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans Program ($11,052,000 FY18 allocation) - $11,052,000 originally proposed by House and $11,296,000 originally proposed by Senate committees for FY19 budget.

·         Title VII, section 723: Strengthening Historically Black Masters Programs ($8,571,000 FY18 allocation) - $8,571,000 originally proposed by House and $8,760,000 originally proposed by Senate committees for FY19 budget.

Overall

ED’s budget for FY19 is set at $71,500,000,000. This is an increase of $581 million from 2018, and a stark contrast to the 10.5% decrease in the ED budget originally proposed by Trump last February. Not adjusting for inflation, this budget is the largest ever appropriated by Congress for ED.

Interested in reading the budget for yourself? Check out the official bill (H.R. 6157) and its companion piece, the House Conference Report (115-952). Both documents are available at: https://www.congress.gov/resources/display/content/Appropriations+for+Fiscal+Year+2019

Congressional Committee Proposed Program Appropriations Chart https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget19/19action.pdf from ED website at https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/news.html?src=rt