Higher Education Title VI Cuts & K-12 Language Grant Program Eliminations
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WASHINGTON, D.C, July 10th, 2024 – Today, the House Appropriations Committee approved on a 31-24 vote its Fiscal Year 2025 Labor HHS Education bill. Overall, the bill would slash approximately $11.1 billion from the Department of Education’s budget, eliminating 17 programs, including Title II-A and Title III, and making deep cuts to several others, such as Title I. A few major programs, like Title IV-A, IDEA, Career and Technical Education and Impact Aid, remain protected and actually received small increases in this bill. The House will attempt to pass this bill on the House floor in late July. The Senate has not yet introduced its own version of this bill but that also is expected later this month.
The largest K-12 cuts in the House’s FY25 Labor HHS Education bill come from cutting $3.78 billion from Title I, Part A; eliminating entirely the $2.19 billion Title II-A, the Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants program; and deleting the $890 million Title III, English Language acquisition program.
Other smaller but important K-12 programs eliminations include:
● State Assessments ($380 million)
● Promise Neighborhoods ($91 million)
● American History and Civics National Activities ($20 million)
● Teacher and School Leader Incentive Grants ($60 million)
● Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) ($90 million)
● Arts in Education ($36 million)
● Javits Gifted and Talented ($16.5 million)
● Statewide Family Engagement Centers ($20 million)
In Higher Education, the bill would eliminate the $70 million Teacher Quality Partnerships program and cut $4.133 million from the Higher Education Act’s Title VI International Programs section. The Institute for Education Sciences, which conducts education research, would see a nearly $53 million cut.
By far and away the most devastating cuts for language education, though, are the proposed eliminations for Title II-A and Title III. The House’s report provides a troubling rationale for the elimination of Title II-A, the sole direct federal K-12 professional development grant program. Regarding the reasoning for these cuts, the committee noted, “This funding has not been shown to improve teacher quality or advance student achievement. Additionally, the Committee notes that according to the Department’s August 2023 report (‘State and District Use of Title II, Part A Funds in 2021–2022’), professional development was the most popular use of Title II–A funds among school districts. Seventy five percent of districts reported funding professional development for teachers, and 56 percent of districts reported funding professional development for principals and other school leaders. Among districts that invested Title II–A funds in teacher professional development, 78 percent funded topics related to ‘content knowledge.’ The Committee is concerned that school districts are using these Federal funds to train teachers in "divisive ideologies.”
In addition to trying to defund Title II-A, the Committee demands – perhaps in an effort to crack down on the alleged “divisive ideologies” training noted above – that all school districts that have received Title II-A funding provide “a report that lists any use of this funding for the most recent year data is available, by schools or school districts to pay outside consultants or firms for the purposes of teacher and/or school leader training or professional development. The report shall include the specific names of any applicable consultants or firms who were paid using Title II–A funds and where possible a description of the training or other materials provided.”
For the Title III-A elimination, the report offers no criticisms but merely states: “Due to funding constraints, the Committee does not provide funding for these formula and competitive grants.”
The other significant language education-related cut is to Title VI of the Higher Education Act. The report does not explain the reason behind the $4.133 million cut, only indicating that: $2.071 million of the cut will come from the Domestic Programs of the International Education and Foreign Languages program and $2.062 will come from Overseas Programs, which matches the Administration’s budget request.
Beyond these cuts, other key language education bills fared better than expected. Title IV-A (+$10 million), Indian Education (+$7 million) and Native American Language Resource Centers (+$100,000) actually received small increases. The Native Hawaiian Education and Alaska Native Education programs received flat funding.
Below is a breakdown of key K-12 program funding levels:
Language advocates can take action to protect language education programs with one-click through the JNCL-NCLIS Legislative Action Center. Click here: https://www.votervoice.net/JNCL/Campaigns/116672/Respond
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About JNCL-NCLIS: Established in 1972, the Joint National Committee for Languages (JNCL) and the National Council for Languages and International Studies (NCLIS) unites a national network of leading organizations and businesses comprised of over 300,000 language professionals to advocate for equitable language learning opportunities. Our mission is to ensure that Americans have the opportunity to learn English and at least one other language.
Contact: info@languagepolicy.org