05.11.09: Title 1 Basic Grants Proposed To Be Cut
By David Walrath
President Obama’s education budget includes a proposed $1.5 billion cut to Title 1 basic grants. The budget does not appear to affect the other three Title 1 grants: the targeted, concentration and school finance grants. Because small districts tend to receive a higher proportion of Title 1 funding from the basic grant the affect of the President’s proposal could be more significant for small districts than for larger districts. SSDA advises small school districts to reserve some of the new federal Title 1 funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to backfill the possible basic grant.
Because the $1.5 billion basic grant could be approximately 20% of the basic grant current funding SSDA advises districts to consider that this amount of money might need to be backfilled to maintain current Title 1 basic grant funded programs.
While this is the President’s proposal, Congress has not acted and will not act until they pass the details in the appropriations bills. SSDA expects the appropriations bills to be passed between late September and late October.
