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Short-Changing Programs that Promote Equal Educational and Employment Opportunity
The President's budget freezes discretionary education funding and eliminates critical programs at a time when it is more important than ever to ensure that all students are receiving a quality education. It cuts the Department of Labor's discretionary budget authority by around $900 million and reduces funding for employment and training programs at a time when economic conditions have led to rising unemployment rates for women and men.
The President proposes ending federal support for career and technical education (CTE) programs, which last year constituted over $1.1 billion. Although Congress reiterated its commitment to CTE programs in its reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Act in 2006, the Bush Administration claims that these funds should instead be directed toward programs that help to address the dropout crisis. But the Administration fails to recognize that CTE programs themselves hold the promise of keeping students in school. Moreover, it is particularly important that CTE monies be used to encourage girls to enter CTE programs that are nontraditional for their gender. Girls remain vastly under-represented in the traditionally male CTE courses that can lead to high-skill, high-wage, high-demand jobs and are still funneled in large numbers to traditionally female - and low-paying - fields like cosmetology. In its reauthorization of CTE programs in 2006, Congress enhanced school accountability for improving recruitment and retention of students in nontraditional CTE classes; the President's budget would effectively eviscerate schools' ability to meet this critical goal.
The President once again proposes to eliminate several Workforce Investment Act (WIA) programs that provide employment and training services for workers: the WIA Adult Program, the WIA Dislocated Worker Program, and the WIA Youth Program. The President proposes replacing the WIA programs with Career Advancement Accounts (CAAs). At the same time, the President proposes reducing the overall budget for training and employment services from an estimated $3.5 billion in 2008 to 3.1 billion in 2009.
As of July, 2009 funding will be eliminated for the Women in Apprenticeship and Non-Traditional Occupations (WANTO) program. WANTO provides funding for initiatives designed to increase the participation of women in apprenticeable occupations and non-traditional occupations. This program is of vital importance to women. Despite progress, the U.S. labor force remains largely segregated along gender lines. Women account for less than 25 percent of computer software engineers, construction workers, and truck drivers. Yet, these very same occupations generally offer higher wages and more benefits than female-dominated occupations.1
The President also eliminates the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program, which last year provided $757 million in need-based grant aid to eligible undergraduate students to help reduce financial barriers to postsecondary education. Higher education is especially critical for women, who make up a majority of undergraduate students. Because women are paid less than men to perform the same work, women need some college education to earn as much, on average, as male high school dropouts.2
Once again, President Bush would eliminate funding for the Women's Educational Equity Act (WEEA), which provides curricula and materials to help schools comply with Title IX, research and information on model programs to promote gender equity, and technical assistance and training programs. The Bush Administration explains the elimination by asserting that "there is no longer a need for a program focused on eliminating the educational gap for girls and women." But this statement is flatly inconsistent with the realities faced by many young women and demonstrates a misunderstanding of WEEA. Despite improvements that have decreased some of the gaps in education between the sexes, educational equity is far from a done deal, and female students still face pervasive inequities. For example, women's participation in the high-paying STEM disciplines -- science, technology, engineering, and math -- still lags far behind that of men. 3 Furthermore, WEEA does more than simply strive to reduce the educational gap; it supports a range of much-needed programs (including technical assistance) to schools to prevent and respond to sexual harassment and to help pregnant and parenting teens stay in school.
The budget would increase Title I local education grants, the main source of federal funding for low-income students, by only 3%, an amount insufficient to keep pace with inflation. This critical program remains dramatically underfunded in spite of the President's rhetoric about improving educational outcomes.
The President's budget flat funds Training and Advisory Services under Title IV of the Civil Rights Act, a three percent decrease in real dollars. These funds support grants that provide technical assistance to school districts in addressing educational equity related to issues of race, gender, and national origin. Such funding is critical to addressing the struggles and discrimination that students of both sexes, particularly students of color, face in school.
President Bush reduces funding for several programs which have the promise of reducing dropout rates. Currently, one in four girls and one in three boys fail to graduate from high school in four years, and the numbers are even worse for students of color. Although we know that students are more likely to drop out when they feel unsafe at school,4 the President eliminates almost $200 million, nearly two-thirds of the previous funding, from the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities State Grants program, which supports research-based approaches to keep students safe in school.
As noted in the Child Care and Early Education section of this report, the Administration's budget would cut over $280 million from the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program. The cut would cause hundreds of thousands of children to lose vital after-school support, even though numerous studies have shown that after-school programs improve graduation rates and academic achievement.5 These cuts illustrate the President's short-sighted approach to the dropout crisis.
Footnotes
(1) "A Women Work! Factsheet: Gender Occupational Segregation: It's still blue collars and pink ghettos." Women Work! October 2007. Available online at http://www.womenwork.org/pdfresources/nontrad.pdf.
(2) U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2007 Annual Social and Economic Supplement.
(3) Today, women receive only 20% of bachelor's degrees, 21% of master's degrees, and 16% of doctorate degrees in engineering. United States Government Accountability Office, "Gender Issues: Women's Participation in the Sciences Has Increase, but Agencies Need to Do More to Ensure Compliance with Title IX" (July 2004). Available on-line at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04639.pdf, accessed February 5, 2008.
(4) Russell W. Rumberger, Dropping Out of Middle School: A Multilevel Analysis of Students and Schools, 32 Am. Educ. Res. J. 583, 607 (Fall 1995).
(5) National Women's Law Center, When Girls Don't Graduate, We All Fail: A Call to Improve High School Graduation Rates for Girls 19 (2007).
