Ed Secretary Duncan Defends $2B Increase in 2012 Education Budget

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: DiverseEducation.com

WASHINGTON – Education Secretary Arne Duncan defended his department’s $48.8 billion funding request for FY2012 at a Senate Budget Committee hearing held Tuesday morning. The department is asking for a $2 billion, or 4 percent increase beyond the 2011 continuing resolution level, outside of Pell Grants.

“This proposed budget reflects our administration’s dual commitment to reduce spending and be more efficient while investing to secure our future. At the very top of the list of investments we must make is education,” Duncan told the panel. “It is the blanket of security for the middle class and the path out of poverty for millions of Americans who have been left behind my a changing economy.”

The higher education portion of the 2012 request includes a $67 million increase for TRIO programs for a total of $920 million; $323 million for GEAR UP; $651 million in combined discretionary and mandatory funding for Aid for Institutional Development programs at institutions that enroll large numbers of minority and disadvantaged students and $249 million in aid for Hispanic-Serving Institutions programs.

To preserve the $5,550 maximum Pell award, the department proposes to eliminate summer school grants and the interest subsidy for graduate student loans. According to Duncan, these steps would help close the program’s $20 billion shortfall and save $100 billion over the next decade.

Read more: http://diverseeducation.com/article/14841/ed-secretary-duncan-defends-2b-increase-in-2012-education-budget.html

[Orrex]

1. This money will be useful in teaching our children how to take standardized tests

[Wilms]

2. "proposes to eliminate summer school grants and the interest subsidy for graduate students"

Race to the flop.

[QC]

3. +1

But hey, do we really need large numbers of educated people in this country anymore? It seems clear enough bow now that Those Who Know Better are looking beyond the U.S. for places to make money.

[go west young man]

4. Maybe that 2 billion can be used in regards to basic math skills.

That way our children can try to figure out complex equations like this one.

"George has hundreds of billions of dollars. He pisses 2,000 billion down a fucking hole
in the desert with two useless wars. Blowing the heads of innocent people who are unfortunate to be in the wrong place.
9 billion of it just disappears into the Iraqi desert with no questions asked.
800 billion is given to his banker friends with no accountability. George then tells everyone there is no
money left for education, health care or a social safety net for senior citizens. Is George a selfish
halfwit dumbass prick with not a care in the world for anyone else like most right wingers?"