Appropriations FY 2008
Omnibus
Spending Bill
In December, after the President vetoed
an appropriations bill, which increased
education funding, Congress and the
Administration agreed on a compromise
omnibus spending bill that will fund the
federal government for FY 2008. Within
this huge bill, the Foreign Language
Assistance program (FLAP) received an
increase from $23.8 million to $25.7
million. In higher education,
International Education and Foreign
Language Studies grew from $105.7
million to $109 million. Civic Education
went from $29.1 million to $32 million.
FIPSE, with many earmarks, grew from $22
million to $120.3 million. Star Schools
finally was eliminated and funding for
technology decreased to $267.5 million.
Regarding recently created and new
programs, The Baccalaureate and Master’s
STEM and Foreign Language Teacher grants
got $1 million each. SMART grants
increased from $850 million to $1,445
million. The new TEACH grants, which
include foreign languages, were funded
at $58 million. The President’s request
for $24 million for Advancing America
through Foreign Language Partnerships
was not approved.
In other agencies, the National
Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
gained funding from $140.9 million to
$144.7 million. In the State Department,
Education and Cultural Exchange programs
grew from $445.3 million to $505.4
million. Finally, the National Security
Education Program (NSEP) increased from
$16 million to $44.7 million.
Budget
Recommendations
The President's budget
proposal for fiscal year 2008, the
Senate Committee recommendations, and
the House Committee recommendations have been released.
The budget proposal
allots $56 billion for education, with
almost half of that going toward Pres.
Bush's No Child Left Behind Act.
Of importance for foreign languages
would be the $2 million increase in FLAP
funding ($24 million), $15.4 billion for
Pell Grants, and $1.2 billion for
Academic Competitiveness and SMART
grants, which would be a $390 million
increase from FY 2006.
Senate
Recommendations
The Labor, Health and Human
Services, Education and Related Agencies
Appropriations Act for FY 2008 has some
very strong report language regarding
the Foreign Language Assistance Program
(FLAP):
"The Committee
intends for funding available under this
program to promote the goal of
well-articulated, long-sequence language
programs that lead to demonstrable
results for all students. The Committee
directs the Department not to make
grants to schools that are replacing
current traditional language programs
with critical needs language
instruction."
"... At least 75
percent of the appropriation must be
used to expand foreign language
education in the elementary grades..."
"The Committee is
concerned that this program ... is
unavailable to the poorest schools
because grant recipients must provide a
50 percent match from non-Federal
sources. The Committee, therefore,
strongly urges the Secretary to use her
ability to waive the matching
requirement..."
House
Recommendations
Among other things, the House Committee
revives Star Schools at $11.5 million;
increases the Foreign Language
Assistance Program (FLAP) by $3 million;
provides a $4.2 million push for Civic
Education; and provides significant
additions in earmarks for the Fund for
the Improvement of Education (FIE) and
the Fund for the Improvement of
Postsecondary Education (FIPSE).
Significantly in higher education,
International Education and Foreign
Language Studies receive a $9.9 million
increase.
As with the Senate Committee
report language, the House Committee
has some strong views on a number of
these programs, such as International
Education and Foreign Language Studies,
where they urge greater coordination and
improved data gathering and reporting.
They do not fund the Administration's
request for funding for NSLI's Advancing
America Through Foreign Language
Partnerships and suggest that the goals
of this initiative can be accomplished
through expanding FLAP.
JNCL-NCLIS Appropriations Chart
Appropriations FY
2007
The budget has been
passed by Congress for fiscal year 2007.
It follows the same figures as FY 2006
and will fund the
various government agencies (except for
Defense and Homeland Security where
appropriation bills were passed) at the
same levels as last year, i.e.
International Education and Foreign
Language Studies at $105.8 million, the
Foreign Language Assistance Program at
$21.7 million, Civic Education at $29.1
million, the National Endowment for the
Humanities at $140.9 million, and
Education and Cultural Exchange (State
Dept.) at $437.1 million. For other
program funding, please see the
appropriations chart.
Foreign Language Assistance Program
(FLAP)
For the first time in his
Administration, President Bush did not
eliminate FLAP. The President requested
a $2 million increase to $23.7 million
for FY 2007. As a part of NSLI, FLAP
will be re-focused to create incentives
to teach and study critical languages
including Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and
Korean along with other languages the
Administration deems to fall under this
heading.
Please visit
All About FLAP to learn more about the
program.
Title VI and
Fulbright-Hays
The budget proposes level funding for
Title VI and Fulbright-Hays, except for
a $1 million increase for Title VI
domestic programs. The increase is "to
establish a nationwide distance
education E-learning Clearinghouse to
deliver foreign language education
resources to teachers and students
across the country." The new E-learning
Clearinghouse is a part of the
President's NSLI.
Overseas Programs/Fulbright-Hays
Institute for International Public
Policy
$1.6 million (FY 06 funding is $1.6
million)
Advancing America
Through Foreign Language Partnerships
As a part of NSLI, this is a program
of "competitive grants to establish
fully articulated language programs of
study in languages critical to US
national security. Twenty-four grants of
$1 million each would be made "to
institutions of higher education for
partnerships with school districts for
language learning from kindergarten
through high school and into advanced
language learning at the postsecondary
level." The goal is to "produce
significant numbers of graduates with
advanced levels of proficiency in
languages critical to national security,
many of whom would be candidates for
employment with agencies and offices of
the Federal Government, across a wide
range of disciplines." The funding level
request for this program is $24 million.
New legislation authorizing the creation
of this program is needed.
Language Teacher
Corps
This program will be funded under the
Fund for the Improvement of Education.
The Administration requested $5 million
for this program that will provide
training to college graduates with
critical language skills who are
interested in becoming foreign language
teachers. This program is also a part of
NSLI.
Teacher-to-Teacher
Initiative
Another NSLI program, the initiative
will fund intensive summer training
sessions for foreign language teachers,
especially those of critical languages.
Three million dollars was requested to
fund the initiative.
E-Learning
Clearinghouse
This program is a nationwide distance
education Clearinghouse to deliver
foreign language education resources to
teachers and students across the
country. It received a $1 million
request for funding in the
Administration’s budget proposal.
National Security
Education Program
There was an additional $19.2 million
requested for NSEP. The Flagship
programs will receive $10.2 million and
the Civilian Linguistic Reserve Corps
will receive $9.0 million. The total
budget request is $27.2 million.
View a copy of the
Department of
Education's Appropriations chart for
all programs.
(This is a .pdf document. You need Adobe
Acrobat to view the chart.)
View a copy of
JNCL-NCLIS' budget table, please
click here.
(This is a Microsoft Word document.)