President Barack Obama’s recently released 2013 budget and education “blueprint” request $130 billion in education spending. If enacted, this would mean that in one term Obama will have spent nearly the same as President George W. Bush did in two terms—and Bush nearly doubled the size of the Department of Education.
Obama’s fiscal year 2013 DOE budget request increases the agency’s discretionary spending 2.5 percent, to $69.8 billion, the largest increase of any domestic agency and an 18 percent increase over 2008.
“This is in addition to $13.3 billion in additional mandatory spending for Pell Grants, bringing the total [DOE] budget request to $83 billion—a 40 percent increase from Fiscal Year 2008,” noted Rep. John Kline (R–MN), chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee.
The blueprint, which would add $60 billion in new spending above the DOE budget increase, includes $25 billion in federal tax dollars to spend adding teachers to classrooms, $5 billion to increase teacher pay, and $30 billion for school construction.
“[U.S. taxpayers] are not getting a very fair return on the investment they’re making in education,” said Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA). “Are we truly being fair to the people we represent back home?”
—Staff Reports
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