NWLC Early Childhood and After School Appropriations Update
August 2009
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The Senate expects to take its bill to the floor in September. (The 2009 federal fiscal year runs out on September 30.) Some programs did not receive increases of significant increases compared to current levels because they were included in the ARRA (stimulus) legislation that covers fiscal years 2009 and 2010.
Highlights of the bills include:
- Head Start / Early Head Start received $7.2 billion in funding in both the House and Senate bills, an increase of $122 million over 2009 levels. This is intended to cover inflation / cost-of-living adjustments.
- Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) is level funded at $2.1 billion in both the House and Senate bills, the same as FY 2009.
- Title I Grants for Low-Income Children is flat funded at the current level of $14.5 billion in the House bill. Both the House and the Senate rejected the Administration's request to shift $500 million from Title I to preschool programs in districts that use their stimulus funds for preschool. The Senate Appropriations Committee funded the program at $13.7 billion, which would be a cut from the current funding levels. School districts continue to have the option of using Title I funds for early childhood education and comprehensive services for children from birth.
- Even Start is funded at $66 million in the House bill, $3 million less than current funding; the Senate Appropriations Committee eliminates the program, as suggested in the Administration's budget.
- Literacy: The House bill retains the Early Reading First program as a separate program, proposing funding at $127.5 million, an increase of $15 million over the 2009 funding level, but $35 million less than was requested by the Administration. The House also would fund Striving Readers at $146 million to improve middle and high school literacy as well as early literacy. Of the total, $66 million would be directed to early literacy, $70 million would be used for adolescent literacy, and $10 million for national activities and evaluation. The Senate Appropriations Committee provides $236 million for a new Striving Readers bill, which will create a birth-through-high school literacy bill and would subsume the Early Reading First Program.
- IDEA Preschool Grants and Grants for Infants and Toddlers would continue to be funded at 2009 levels ($374 million and $439 million respectively) in both the House and the Senate Appropriations Committee bills.
- CAMPIS (Child Access Means Parents In School) received a $1 million increase for a total of $17 million in spending in the House bill, but no increase in the Senate bill.
- 21st Century Community Learning Centers afterschool program received an increase of $50 million in spending for $1.1 billion in 2010 spending in the House bill, but received no increase in the Senate bill. Pell Grants: Both the House approved measure and Senate Appropriations bill maintain the discretionary portion of the maximum Pell Grant award at $4,860, which, combined with a mandatory supplement of $690, will support a $5,550 maximum Pell Grant in fiscal year 2010, an increase of $200 over the 2009 award level.