April 10, 2013 1:39PM 

# Bad Stuff in Obama Ed Budget 

By [Neal McCluskey](https://www.cato.org/people/neal-mccluskey) 

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Details are still emerging about the Obama Administration’s 2014 [education budget proposal](http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2014/assets/education.pdf), but from the overview there seems to be a lot of bad stuff. Here are the hi — or low — lights, and links to some important context:

- Increase Department of Education spending to $71.2 billion, up 4.6 percent from 2012 enacted level: This is neither [constitutional](https://www.cato.org/blog/federal-education-think-progress-should-think-harder) nor [effective](https://www.cato.org/publications/congressional-testimony/sequestration-needed-federal-education-programs).
- “Invests” in preschool: [Head Start](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/us-government-our-head-start-program-doesnt-work), [Early Head Start](https://www.cato.org/blog/its-big-sibling-early-head-start-not-built-last), and [state programs](https://www.cato.org/blog/who-cares-pre-k-would-work) either are shown to fail, or have little to no good evidence supporting them.
- $12.5 billion in mandatory funds to “prevent additional teacher layoffs and hire teachers”: We’ve [been getting fat](https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/america-has-too-many-teachers) on [staff](https://www.cato.org/blog/obama-vs-romney-public-school-jobs) — including teachers — for decades, and it hasn’t helped.
- $1.3 billion for 21st Century Community Learning Centers: Federal studies have found these have [*negative* effects](https://www.cato.org/blog/ill-take-whatever-evidence-i-hundreds-billions-alex).
- Race to the Top for higher education: So far, RTTT has been big on [promises](https://www.cato.org/blog/promises-unfulfilled-what-next-federal-education-failure), small on outcomes, and huge on [coercion to adopt ](https://www.cato.org/blog/common-core-supporter-maybe-opposition-not-paranoia)national curriculum standards.
- $260 million to scale up higher education innovation: MOOCS and other innovations have been [developing pretty well](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=massive-open-online-courses-transform-higher-education-and-science) without federal “help.”
- Maintain “strong” Pell Grant program: Pell is part of the tuition [hyperinflation problem](http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=436507), not the [solution](https://www.cato.org/publications/congressional-testimony/reducing-federal-aid-not-changing-bankruptcy-laws-key-college-affordability).

There will no doubt be more-detailed analyses of specific education proposals to come. Stay tuned!

##### Related Tags 

[Education](https://www.cato.org/education), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy), [Center for Educational Freedom](https://www.cato.org/center-educational-freedom) 

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