Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Congress cuts some education programs in legislation to keep government operating

The stopgap spending bill that Congress passed today to keep the federal government running includes cuts in several education programs that benefit rural areas.

"The bill would scrap all funding for the rest of the year for the $250 million Striving Readers program, the $66 million Even Start program, and other literacy programs," Alyson Klein reports for Education Week. "The administration had wanted to see those programs consolidated into a new, broader, $383 million funding stream aimed at improving literacy. Now it appears there may be a lot less available money for that effort."

Klein adds: "The measure would also get rid of all funding for the rest of the year for the $88 million Smaller Learning Communities program, which was slated to be funneled into a broader program aimed at improving educational options. And it would scrap the Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnerships, or LEAP, program, financed at $64 million." (Read more)

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