May 11, 2009

Title 1 Basic Grants Proposed To Be Cut

President Obama’s education budget includes a proposed $1.5 billion cut to Title 1 basic grants.  The budget does not appear to affect the other three Title 1 grants: the targeted, concentration and school finance grants.  I advise your school district to reserve some of the new federal Title 1 funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to backfill the possible basic grant reduction.

Because the $1.5 billion basic grant reduction could be approximately 20% of the basic grant current funding, I suggest your district to consider this amount might need to be backfilled to maintain current Title 1 basic grant funded programs.

While this is the President’s proposal, Congress has not acted and will not act until they pass the details in the appropriations bills.  I expect the appropriations bills to be passed between late September and late October.