From: Kimberly Jones <[log in to unmask]>
Date: February 14, 2011 7:09:47 AM PST
To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [Trio-list] President Obama Proposes a $67 million Increase in Appropriations for TRIO in FY 2012

This was distributed via Congress Plus at 10:05 a.m. today

February 14, 2011

 

Dear Colleague:

 

Today President Obama will propose a $67 million increase in funding for FY 2012 to provide adequate funding for next fall's Upward Bound and McNair competitions and to prevent an absolute loss of students and programs (a 7.8% increase over the current funding level). In his proposed budget, President Obama requests level-funding for GEAR UP and also provides additional money for the Pell Grant program to allow the maximum grant to remain at $5,550.   

 

COE will provide additional information when the proposal is released but we wanted to share this with you as soon as possible. This is the first increase the President has requested for TRIO since he has taken office. This is due in part to the advocacy efforts of the TRIO community to the White House and Congress. We must keep up this fight to protect our programs and ensure the voices of TRIO students, TRIO alumni and students needing TRIO services are heard.

 

For more information on the President’s education agenda, please see the article below published in today’s Politico on President Obama’s education focus in the FY 2012 Budget.      

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

Arnold L. Mitchem

President

 

 

Politico Obama's clarion call for education By: Abby Phillip February 14, 2011 04:21 AM EST

President Barack Obama, balancing his blueprint to recalibrate the nation’s economy against a looming confrontation with Republicans over federal spending, will use the issue of education to help frame the budget debate. As he argues for a budget that includes painful cuts to government-funded initiatives he favors, such as home weatherization programs, community development plans and even college Pell Grants, the president will use his bully pulpit to defend spending more on education — a domestic issue that has been overshadowed by debates about the economy and the health care overhaul. “I think they have to,” James Carville, a Democratic political strategist, told POLITICO, referring to Obama’s budget strategy. Carville appeared at Teach For America’s 20th anniversary celebration in Washington on Saturday, where thousands rallied for the president to push for a more aggressive education reform agenda. Later in a recorded video message, Obama praised TFA and pledged his administration will continue to support teacher recruitment. Republican “budget cuts call for cutting AmeriCorp, which funds this stuff,” Carville said referring to the education award given for domestic public service that incentivizes much of Teach For America’s corps of teachers. “I think he can draw some pretty sharp lines in this budget fight.” To drive home the point, Obama plans to unveil his 2012 budget at a school in Baltimore on Monday with Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Budget Director Jack Lew. The stop launches a weeklong focus on science and technology education — subjects the president has linked to the country’s future economic competitiveness; the tour ends with Obama touring the Intel computer chip manufacturing site in Oregon . The education spending the White House plans to announce this week includes money to recruit science and math teachers, education grants and a third round of funding for Obama’s “Race to the Top” school reform competition, a program that has been credited with sparking dramatic reforms at the state level. Obama has used the competition to encourage states to create more charter schools and merit-based-pay systems, ideas viewed as a challenge to a powerful constituency: teachers’ unions. But because Republicans continue to blame the White House for high unemployment and seem fixated on gutting the health care law, Obama may be hard pressed to get more education reforms through Congress. Overhauling the No Child Left Behind law in particular would require intense engagement with Capitol Hill at a time when there is little political will for policy battles. At the same time, Obama can’t ignore growing anxiety among the Democratic education constituency that wants his administration to follow through on their promises for change. “The question is: Is this our Egypt moment?” asked former New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, a hero of the education reform movement, referring to the potential of grass-roots pressure to force Obama’s hand. “I challenge us to make this our Egypt moment, because our country cannot wait.” Duncan will lead the push in Congress to fund some of the administration’s key priorities, in addition to any other education policy reforms that it intends to pursue. He’ll also be on the front lines of outreach to the education reformers who have split on the issue of support for teacher unions. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Duncan will travel to Colorado , a major hot spot for education — and political battleground for Obama in 2012. Duncan is scheduled to address teacher union contracting negotiations. The budget fight is also a major test of the president’s ability to keep the Democratic Party’s diverse constituency united despite wide-ranging cuts to beloved programs. “It’s hard to have the ‘Democrat message,’” Carville added. “But I think the party can be well united, and I think successfully, that we’re against what they’re doing. And I think the White House senses that and is going to get into this fight really good.”

© 2011 Capitol News Company, LLC

 

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