This page tracks the federal budget and appropriations process, focusing on news and funding levels for programs that benefit middle and high schools. It will be updated as warranted.

Historically, the federal government has directed billions of dollars to improving the kindergarten and elementary grades, and to supporting access to a college education. Correspondingly, our nation's younger students - particularly in recent years - have made demonstrable gains in reading and math while America's postsecondary system of colleges and universities remains the envy of the world. At the same time, however, federal government funding has almost ignored middle and high schools, and again results follow effort. Nearly 1.2 million students leave high school each year without a diploma - that's nearly 7,000 new high school dropouts every school day.

As shown in the chart to the right, while annual funding for grades Pre-K-6 totals nearly $18 billion and funding for postsecondary education totals over $21 billion, the nation's secondary schools are stuck in the "missing middle." Annually, the federal contribution to grades 7-12 is only about $6 billion. (Click on the chart for more information, including additional details on which programs fund which school year).

Click on an option below for additional resources:

• American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
• Fiscal Year 2009 Federal Budget and Appropriations
• Fiscal Year 2010 Federal Budget and Appropriations

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), a $787 billion economic stimulus plan, into law on February 17, 2009. ARRA includes significant funding for education, some of which will affect secondary schools directly.

Additional resources on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Fiscal Year 2009 Budget and Appropriations

In October 2008, Congress enacted a massive stopgap spending bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 that postponed most spending decisions until 2009. The bill, which froze nearly all domestic spending at 2008 levels, but provided spending increases for the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, military construction, and veterans’ affairs, will keep the government running until March 6, 2009.

In early February 2009, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said he expects the House to take up an FY 2009 omnibus spending bill after Congress returns from the Presidents’ Day recess, but prior to the March 6 deadline. The omnibus bill will include the nine remaining spending bills that the House and Senate did not pass last year, including the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill, which funds the U.S. Department of Education.

Additional resources on the FY 2009 federal budget and appropriations process

Fiscal Year 2010 Budget and Appropriations

On February 24, President Obama outlined the severity of the nation’s economic crisis in a speech to a joint session of Congress, and on February 26 he released a budget that, in his words, is “sober in its assessments, honest in its accounting, and lays out in detail my strategy for investing in what we need, cutting what we don’t, and restoring fiscal discipline.”

The president’s budget proposes to allocate $46.7 billion for the U.S. Department of Education in Fiscal Year 2010. More information on the president's budget request and the House-passed funding totals for fiscal year 2010 is available at http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget10/10action.pdf.

Additional resources on the FY 2010 federal budget and appropriations process