Congress is expected to agree Friday on a $1.1 trillion spending bill to keep the government open. Inside the deal is a $1.2 billion increase in spending for the Department of Education, according to U.S. News & World Report.
Most of that increase goes to two federal programs for disadvantaged students.
Title I, the portion of federal law that gives extra funding to schools with high portions of students living in poverty, receives a $500 million annual boost in the spending deal. But a November study from the Brookings Institution found the now $14.9 billion program is largely ineffective. Most program funds get spent on ineffective services, such as teacher professional development, that research has shown not to be useful.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2576854
The Individuals with Disabilities Act, a special education program, gets a $415 million boost in the spending deal, bringing it to an $11.9 billion cost per year.
Federal funding for charter schools gets an $80 million boost, up to $333 million a year.
Head Start, a federal preschool program for low-income students, gets a $570 million boost to $9.2 billion. Head Start is actually run under the Department of Health and Human Services, not the Department of Education. Even a 2012 HHS study acknowledged that any academic gains students made under the program were nullified by the third grade.
Because of a calendar quirk, the new federal education money will take effect at the beginning of the 2016 to 2017 school year.
Despite the seemingly large impact of federal education spending, most education spending comes from state and local governments. The federal government provides about 10 percent of total funding for K-12 education.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
