Office of English Language Acquisition
Department of Education
Budget Subfunction: Elementary, Secondary & Vocational Education
Budget Function: Education, Training, Employment & Social Services
Website: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oela/index.html

Program Spending:

Language Acquisition State Grants
This program provides formula grants to States to improve services for limited English proficient and immigrant students. States are accountable for demonstrating that limited English proficient students are learning English and meeting the same high State standards as all other students. The statute also authorizes national activities including professional development and evaluation, and requires funding for a national information clearinghouse on English language acquisition.
FY06 Cost: $678 million

Voice - I'm still working on modelling your Social Security/Medicare means test and Capital Gains taxation ideas... but in the meantime, I can address your ideas on Foreign Aid spending, if you like. Here's how spending on International Affairs breaks down:

International Affairs Subfunctions:

International Development & Humanitarian Assistance
FY01: 0.071
FY06: 0.151
Change: +0.080

International Security Assistance
FY01: 0.065
FY06: 0.063
Change: -0.002

Conduct of Foreign Affairs
FY01: 0.050
FY06: 0.066
Change: +0.016

Foreign Information & Exchange Activities
FY01: 0.008
FY06: 0.008
Change: +0.000

International Financial Programs
FY01: -0.031
FY06: -0.021
Change: +0.010

Since spending on International Development & Humanitarian Assistance comprises the bulk of foreign aid, I'll break that subfunction down further here when I get a chance.

Thanks Cordelier. .15% of GDP is approx. double the .07% and I'm guessing the GDP is much greater in 2006 than 2001. Wow thats alot of greenbacks. I intend to go to the website and look in better detail myself. Just got busy with life lately. Thanks again for the information and leg work. And thanks to all who care enough to dig into this issue.

Voice - Funny how life tends to do that every now and again, isn't it? *L* Hope it's a good busy, though. I agree it's a big run-up, but most of the change is due to reconstruction money being pumped into Iraq, as you'll see below. Let me know which areas you want me to break down further:

International Development & Humanitarian Assistance
Budget Function: International Affairs

Outlays by Department:

Executive Office of the President
Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund: 0.0537

Department of Agriculture
McGovern-Dole International Food for Education & Child Nutrition Program Grants: 0.0008
Public Law 480 Title II Grants: 0.0097
Expenses, Public Law 480, Foreign Assistance Programs, Agriculture Liquidating Account: -0.0048

Department of Defense
Operating Expenses of the Coalition Provisional Authority: 0.0002

Department of State
Global HIV/AIDS Initiative: 0.0086
Migration and Refugee Assistance: 0.0064
United States Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund: 0.0002
International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement: 0.0057
Andean Counterdrug Initiative: 0.0080
Democracy Fund: 0.0005
Millennium Challenge Corporation: 0.0025
Multilateral Development Assistance: 0.0206
Agency for International Development: 0.0361
Overseas Private Investment Corporation: -0.0001
Trade and Development Agency: 0.0004
Peace Corps: 0.0021
Inter-American Foundation: 0.0002
African Development Foundation: 0.0002
Tsunami Recovery & Reconstruction Fund: 0.0017

Ok, here's my cuts.

Office of Innovation & Improvement


Teaching American History: I went to web site and read the details. Basically it's a grant to teachers to go back to school and learn American History so they can teach it in new and exciting ways.

Cut --- pay 1% of that money for a contractor to produce a new and exciting American History curriculum and send it to the schools.

Ready to Learn Television: Develop educational programming and resources to be distributed on PBS.

Cut --- Tax dollars don’t need to fund another TV program. There is more than enough on the tube already. Maybe we should pay parents to turn off the TV.

FIE Programs of National Significance: Grants money to promote educational reform and rewards to schools that have achieved success.

Cut --- Waste of money

Exchanges with Historic Whaling and Trading Partners: This program supports culturally based educational activities, internships, apprenticeship programs, and exchanges for Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and children and families of Massachusetts.

Cut --- How in the heck did 9million get earmarked for this??

Women’s Educational Equity: This program promotes educational equity for women and girls through competitive grants to public agencies, private nonprofit organizations, and individuals.

Cut --- Waste of money


Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools

Couldn’t find anything to cut here – but curious how much is overlap that the States already fund.

Office of English Language Acquisition

Under Title III, the office is responsible for:
• Administering grant programs that help children develop proficiency in English and achieve high content standards.
• Recommending policies and promoting best practices for meeting the needs of English language learners.
• Strengthening collaboration and coordination among federal, state and local programs serving English language learners.
• Monitoring funded programs and providing technical assistance that focus on outcomes and accountability.

CUT --- Nowhere in there does it say funding for teachers. It looks like all bureaucratic bull at a cost of 678 million.

Note: This coming from the parent of a child that came to this country speaking no English and about 70% fluent 5 months later from total emersion.

Office of Innovation and Improvement

Teaching American History
In his latest budget, Bush has cut the funding for this program for FY07 from $120 million to $50 million. Would you cut it further, Chief? Or were you being literal about cutting it by 99%?

Chief's "Zeroed-Out" Eliminations:
Ready to Learn Television: $24 million (Bush kept funding constant)
FIE Programs of National Significance: $12 million (Bush increased to $39 million)
Exchanges with Historic Whaling & Trading Partners: $9 million (I think that was Senator Ted Stevens' little bit of pork - Bush zeroed it too)
Womens' Eduational Equity: $3 million (Bush zeroed it)
Total Chief Zeroes: $48 million

Additional Bush FY07 Zeroes:
National Writing Project ($21 million)
School Leadership ($15 million)
School Dropout Prevention ($5 million)
Close Up Fellowships ($1 million)
Academies for American History and Civics ($2 million)
Star Schools ($15 million)
Ready to Teach ($11 million)
Excellence in Economic Education ($1 million)
Mental Health Integration in Schools ($5 million)
Foundation for Learning ($1 million)
Arts in Education ($35 million)
Parental Information and Resources Centers ($39 million)


As you can see, Bush has made some pretty extensive cuts to Education funding in his latest Budget - assuming that Congress goes along with his cuts, that is.

Do you want to increase/decrease funding by a certain percentage for any other programs here, Chief?

Well, don't forget that a lot of the money the Federal Government spends on Education goes to grants to States to help fund their programs and level the playing field between poor and rich States.


Office of English Language Acquisition
This is going to be a good one. Are you sure you want to "zero" this out? Don't forget, pretty much all of the money spent by OELA goes to grants to States to help educate English-deficient students. By my way of thinking, this pretty much means it especially helps border States with the extra costs of educating the children of illegal immigrants. Why should border States carry those costs on their own? Is it an alternative to tell border States not to educate them? What else are they going to do? Wander the streets all day?

Lots of questions here... But I figure there are two choices - pay for their schooling and try to help them grow up to become productive members of society or pay for the extra law enforcement you're going to need to offset the crimes they'll commit just from sheer boredom and desperation.

Just put yourself in the Governor of Arizona's shoes... the Federal Government dropped the ball on securing the border, and now you've got a problem with educating all the children of illegal immigrants, because the last thing you want is for them to turn in on themselves and start turning into delinquents. Isn't it only fair that the Federal Government helps with those costs?

Spending less on education would be a long term economic problem IMO. Chief, what motivates you to cut this area?

bush's tax cuts have actually helped the poor.. my dad for example was battling with cancer and the tax cut helped pay for the expenses that were negating the surgery. Rich people seem to have a problem with this because they don't think they can take it when they can.

Robster - I'm not saying Bush's Tax Cuts haven't had beneficial effects for some people - even most people - like your father, for example (and I hope he's doing okay). My main point is that the Tax Cuts have created the massive deficits we're seeing today and that in the long run, as interest rates start going up, the short-term good effects of the Tax Cuts will be outweighed by their long-term costs.

It's a critical question to address because now Bush is calling the Tax Cuts to be made permanent. I'm arguing that if you want the Tax Cuts to be made permanent, you ought to sit down and show how you'd pay for it... it's just irresponsible and counter-productive to make the deficit permanent right along with the Tax Cuts. Show me what spending you'd cut and by how much to offset the Tax Cuts - that way we can see if the benefits can outweigh the costs, both for the short-term and the long-term.