Dems warn of ‘devastating’ education cuts in GOP budget

House Democrats launched an attack on Republicans for cutting education spending Friday even before a GOP spending measure was released.

Democrats are accusing Republicans of threatening America’s
competitiveness with a plan they expect will cut billions of dollars in
federal spending on education this year.

Democrats charged that the cuts would have “a devastating
effect” on teachers, students and the nation’s ability to compete in an ever
globalizing world.

{mosads}“An uneducated workforce is a non-competitive workforce,”
Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) told reporters Friday in the Capitol. “America
won’t grow if Americans don’t learn. And Americans won’t learn with 30 percent
cuts in education across this country.

Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) piled on the criticism as well,
noting that the U.S. has slipped from first to sixth in the world in its
percentage of high school graduates attending college, and from first to 12th
in the percentage of people holding college degrees. 

“Those two numbers do not bode well at all for our future,”
Bishop said.

It’s unclear how much the Republican plan will cut education
spending, though federal funds are clearly being targeted.

A partial list of proposed cuts released Thursday doesn’t
name any programs directly under the Education Department, but does slash
several programs that could directly affect the education system.

For instance, the initial proposal cut $1.1 billion from the
Office of Science, a branch of the Department of Energy that funds scientific
research. It also eliminated the Americorps program, a Clinton-era public
service initiative that’s placed thousands of teachers in underserved schools.

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who chairs a House Appropriations
subcommittee on the environment, noted Friday that the initial proposal
eliminated about 60 federal programs, and the latest version will surpass that.

Republicans won control of the House last November largely
on a message that government spending is out of control and needs reining
in. They are trying to find deeper cuts in the budget after conservative
members of their caucus rejected a proposal to cut current spending by $32
billion.

The GOP cuts — and the sharp Democratic response to them —
foreshadows a looming battle between House Republicans and Democratic leaders
in the Senate and White House. GOP leaders will likely have little problem
moving their proposal through the House, while Democratic leaders are confident
they can block it in the Senate. 

“Today is not the day for us to figure out who’s going
to blink,” Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said Friday of the coming standoff.

Meanwhile, some teachers are urging Congress to reconsider
any further cuts in education funding. Shelly Moore, a 13-year veteran of
Ellsworth High School in Wisconsin, told reporters Friday that her situation
should be a cautionary tale. The only advanced placement teacher at the school,
Moore was told recently that she will be laid off in June. 

“The impact of these cuts is real,” Moore said. “What costs
more – paying to educate our children or not?”