STIMULUS PLAN SHOULD NOT INCLUDE EDUCATION SPENDING

Congressional leaders recently unveiled a draft of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Widely touted as an economic stimulus package, the $825 billion draft legislation includes as much as $142 billion for education -- roughly twice the annual budget of the entire Department of Education. Should it pass, this legislation will dramatically increase the role of the federal government in education, says Dan Lips, a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation and a senior fellow with the Goldwater Institute.

The plan would spread the funding among early education, K-12 and higher education programs, and in order to access the funding states will have to comply with a host of new regulations. Setting aside the fact that increasing federal spending on education will not improve the economy, and that a federal bailout for state governments is irresponsible, there are a few more reasons that this plan is bad for states:

• Experience shows that more K-12 spending does not significantly improve educational performance.
• Federal early childhood education programs have not provided lasting benefits to disadvantaged children.
• The proposal does not address waste in the Department of Education budget.
• The spending package would prohibit school choice.

Instead of increasing federal spending -- and federal debt -- the federal government should help states meet current fiscal challenges by offering state policymakers greater flexibility to prioritize how federal education dollars are allocated to best meet their students' needs.

[But schools choice and greater flexibility would transfer power away from Washington...]

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