President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 1965. It’s one of the most important education-related pieces of legislation ever passed, in no small part because of its Title I provision.
House Republicans on the Appropriations Committee just voted to gut Title I. Specifically, they want to slash an astonishing 80% of its budget. With a Democrat-controlled Senate and President Biden’s veto pen ready, House Republicans have zero chance of enacting this funding cut. Democrats should waste no time making hay out of their maleficence.
Johnson designed Title I as “the” federal funding vehicle to help close skill gaps in reading, writing and math between urban and rural children from low-income households, and middle or upper-class children in suburban school systems. Johnson considered the U.S. poverty level a national disgrace that demanded a national response. He understood that poor children were not at fault for their socioeconomic status and, without resources dedicated to equalizing educational opportunity, many would be condemned to a life of hardship and want.
Now, without the safeguard of a Democratic Senate and White House, Republicans’ proposed Title I budget would kick 220,000 teachers out of classrooms and kneecap learning for millions of children. House Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), while arguing in favor of the bill, acknowledged, “While Title I funds are distributed to school districts everywhere, including rural schools in districts like my own, these funds disproportionally support big-city public schools, the same public schools that failed to educate the most vulnerable children entrusted to them by closing their doors for almost two years.”
This story was originally published in The Messenger on July 31, 2023.
