House and Senate Appropriations Committees Clash on Education Funding Priorities in FY25 Budget
A House appropriations subcommittee has introduced an education funding bill for FY25 that makes deep cuts to foundational K-12 education programs—but there's still time for us to take action and urge the House to change course.
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a FY25 education spending bill that makes significant investments in pre-K-12 education and stands in sharp contrast to the House approach, which imposes drastic cuts to key federal K-12 programs. The widely divergent funding levels have set up an important House-Senate negotiation on a final agreement later this fall.
The Senate committee leaders, Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) and ranking Republican Susan Collins (R-ME), undertook a bipartisan approach in developing their spending bill. They also abided by both the spirit and letter of the Bipartisan Budget Agreement that was enacted back in 2022, which set overall budget limits for both FY24 and FY25. The result is a Senate bill that increases Title I by $280 million, IDEA by $295 million, and Head Start by $700 million. It also maintains funding for Title II professional development grants ($2.2 billion) and Title III English language acquisition grants ($895 million). The Senate Appropriations Committee overwhelmingly approved this bipartisan plan by a 25-3 vote.
For comparison purposes, the House Appropriations Committee chose a strictly partisan approach to FY25 funding that slashed Title I by 25 percent and eliminated all funding for Title II and Title III. The House committee approved it on a straight party-line vote.
Here’s a helpful chart to see key funding differences between the two bills.
The 2025 fiscal year starts Oct. 1. Congress will have to pass what is called a “continuing resolution” to provide temporary stopgap funding to keep the government running for several months past this October deadline. After the November elections, congressional negotiations will begin in earnest with the election results obviously influencing the negotiating posture of the respective congressional parties. Hopefully any funding deal can be completed before Congress adjourns in early January 2025 or the new administration takes office Jan. 20, 2025.
Between now and then, it is extremely helpful for school leaders to let their elected officials know how important education investments are and the need to support the Senate funding levels and to reject the House spending cuts.
NAESP has created an easy way to send an email to your two senators and representatives with that message or to customize it. Click on this link to send a quick email now.
David Griffith is associate executive director, Policy and Advocacy, at NAESP.
