Other Agencies' Budgets Would Also Affect Education

Under President Bush's proposed fiscal 2006 budget, the federal Head Start program would get a $45 million increase in funding. That money, however, would go for a project involving only a handful of states, not to increase the main program educating preschoolers. The proposed increase to Head Start's fiscal 2005 budget of $6.84 billion would go to nine states participating in a pilot project in which they would receive their Head Start funds directly (normally, the federal money is distributed to individual Head Start programs). Critics have labeled the pilot program an attempt to dismantle Head Start, but the Bush administration has argued that the experiment would help states align and coordinate their state and federally financed pre-K programs. Head Start is among the largest of several education-related programs underwritten by agencies outside the Department of Education. This article presents the highlights of the budget proposals of some of those other agencies: Department of Health and Human Services, National Science Foundation, Department of Agriculture, Department of the Interior, Arts and Humanities Endowments, and Department of State.