(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) today introduced an amendment to restore funding to forty-eight education programs that were eliminated in the President’s budget.
Murray’s amendment, offered to the Senate Budget Committee’s fiscal year 2006 budget, would have provided $4.75 billion to reinstate programs ranging from family literacy to career and tech education to the TRIO and GEAR UP programs which provide critical early intervention and preparation programs to help students graduate from high school and succeed in college.
Murray’s amendment was defeated on a party-line vote.
“The President’s budget is an assault on education,” Senator Murray said. “By accepting the elimination of critical early learning, tech education and college prep programs, the Republican majority is jeopardizing the future strength of our workforce and economy. We can do better, and that’s why I offered my amendment.”
The Republican Senate Budget Resolution upholds the President’s short-sighted cuts.
The Resolution cuts education funding for the first time in a decade, eliminates forty-eight critical education programs and freezes funding for an additional seventy. The Senate Budget Resolution also underfunds the promise of the No Child Left Behind Act by $12 billion and shorts Title I, which provides funding for disadvantaged students, by $9 billion.
“I’ve visited schools in every corner of Washington state, and I know first-hand that educators are working harder than ever to help their students and to move forward. They want to do a good job. They want to do what’s right. But this budget does little to help them reach their goals,” Murray said.
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