Committee on Appropriations
U.S Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator:
On behalf of our 3 million members and the 50 million students they serve, we urge you to build on recent investments in education and support President Biden’s FY2024 budget request for the Department of Education. The request is $90 billion in discretionary authority, a $10.8 billion or 13.6 percent increase over the FY2023 enacted level.
We are pleased that President Biden’s FY2024 budget proposal would continue to make historic investments in schools with high poverty rates through Title I funding, in children with disabilities through IDEA, and in community schools. Specifically, we urge you to support these elements of the budget, including:
- $20.78 billion for Title I, a $2.4 billion increase over FY2023 enacted levels, for schools with high poverty rates among students.
- $16.59 billion for IDEA, Part B, a $3 billion increase over FY2023 enacted levels, for special education and related services to children with disabilities.
- $400 million for Full-Service Community Schools, a $218 million increase over FY2023 enacted levels, to help meet students’ needs through integrated academic, health, nutrition, and economic services.
- $93 million for Supporting Effective Education Development, a $13 million increase over the FY2023 enacted level, to address the educator shortage that is already at crisis levels, especially in certain subjects.
- $578 million to increase the number of school-based counselors, psychologists, social workers, and other health professionals in K-12 schools, to address the mental health crisis among students and educators created by the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath.
- $405 million for the Education Innovation and Research program to help identify ways to recruit and retain educators.
- $1.47 billion for Perkins career and technical education grants, $43 million over the FY2023 enacted level, to support access to dual enrollment and work-based learning.
- $429 million over the 2023 enacted level for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Minority-Serving Institutions to support inclusive higher education and expand institutional capacity.
Tight budget controls severely constricted education funding for many years. As a result, ongoing education programs receive $13.6 billion less than they did a dozen years ago in inflation-adjusted terms. We urge you to help reverse this tragic trajectory by supporting increases in education funding.
Additionally, we call on you to resist cutting or capping non-defense discretionary (NDD) funding in a manner that reduces education funding during the FY2024 appropriations process.
Sincerely,
Marc Egan
Director of Government Relations
National Education Association
