The fiscal year 2012 budget process has been anything but typical or predictable. While fiscal year 2012 starts in just a few weeks on October 1, 2011, the annual appropriations process is far from complete, and funding for federal education programs has not yet been finalized. Nevertheless, congressional action in the months that have led up to…

More than a dozen education programs--including high-profile efforts focused on literacy, teaching, and learning--face the prospect of a permanent federal funding loss after they were chopped from a stopgap spending measure signed into law by President Barack Obama last week. The temporary spending law, intended to keep the government running…

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives appear determined to make deep cuts to education and related programs in the temporary spending bill that would keep the federal government operating for the rest of the fiscal year, even as President Barack Obama seeks a modest funding boost next year. That sets up a fiscal face-off in the…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Waiting Game Continues for FY 2011 Appropriations: Short-Term Spending Measure Averts Government Shutdown, Postpones…

The federal government's annual budget process was kick-started this year with a bold proposal that has implications for anyone who provides child care. But keeping child care front and center in Washington will take a lot of effort in 2010. On February 1, the Administration released the Budget Proposal for Federal Fiscal Year 2011. It calls for…

Suggests that the most practical budgeting system for most managers is a formalized combination of incremental and zero-based analysis because little can be learned about most programs from an annual zero-based budget. (Author/IRT)

A report of executive, legislative, and judicial action on environmental matters. Budget figures for air, water, and solid waste factors for 1972-1973 are compared in the areas of research, development, and demonstration; abatement and control; enforcement; and program support. (BL)

The National Institute of Education's (NIE) history demonstrates that the relevant criteria for characterizing budgeting as incremental are not the predictability and stability of appropriations but the conditions of complexity, limited information, multiple factors, and imperfect agreement on ends; NIE's appropriations were dominated by political…

Compares spending proposed by Bush Administration's tax cuts with ways funds might be invested for education and child care costs. Raises concerns regarding funding cuts or changes in Head Start, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, and the Child Care and Development Block Grant. Asserts that as states cut educational/child care…

Discusses public sector information technology (IT) funding problems, focusing on ways to improve government budgeting for IT. Presents three broad categories of insights from a Harvard workshop: Proposals to Improve Participation in the IT Budgeting Process; Proposals to Develop Better IT Investment Portfolios; Proposals to Utilize…

Reviews the proposed 1979 federal budget for basic research for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Defense, and Department of Energy. (SL)

Summarizes the research and development efforts involved in the 1975 annual federal budget proposals, including descriptions of priority national needs and funding of research programs. Included are statistics of actual and estimated expenses for the period from 1973 through 1975. (CC)

Provides a comprehensive picture of federal financial support for education, including both Department of Education programs and programs of other federal agencies. Categorizes support as on-budget support, off-budget support, and non-federal funds generated by federal programs. (SLD)

To maximize freedom from personal and political conflicts of interest, decentralized mechanisms of federal program evaluations are needed. Block grants mean that state legislatures and governors will become more responsible for oversight of funds. Three proposals are presented for helping the states deal with these increased evaluation…

Often federal legislation that creates educational programs also creates advisory councils to review and evaluate these programs. Such councils provide opportunities for close citizen participation in overseeing federal policy. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and describe the life of one such council, the National Advisory Council on…