The Obama administration isn’t waiting until Congress returns from its August recess to try to gain an edge in the fall’s looming budget showdown with Republicans.
Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan and Education Secretary Arne Duncan held a conference call with reporters Monday warning about the impact of GOP education cuts or a government shutdown would have on federally subsidized pre-school programs across the country.
Republican spending bills, Donovan said, would “shortchange our economy and our national security” and bring discretionary funding to the lowest level in a decade if adjusted for inflation. “The debate is not abstract, it’s about our nation’s future,” he said.
President Obama, he said, will only accept a balanced approach to ending sequestration that “fixes non-defense and defense simultaneously.”
If Republicans continue to “lock in” the spending cuts that occurred under across-the-board sequestration, Donovan said, fewer workers would have access to job training, schools across the country would receive billions less in federal money, and research for the National Science Foundation and infrastructure projects would be cut.
Duncan criticized Republicans decision to slash the administration’s Preschool Development Grant program, arguing it would siphon off funds from states in the last two years of a grant for kids with a critical need for early education.
“Early learning is critical to helping students succeed in school and ultimately in life,” Duncan said. “That is especially true for kids from poorer neighborhoods.”
Duncan said low-income children start kindergarten more than a year behind other kids’ development. By cutting this program, Republicans would jeopardize plans to help 150,000 additional children across the country, he said.
Fewer than half of the country’s 4-year-olds are enrolled in pre-school programs, Duncan said, and called that statistic “unacceptable.”
