Testimony before the Senate Policy Forum

Al Shanker argues strongly that President Reagan's budget proposal should be rejected and overhauled. Reagan's proposals include a 32% cut in education funding and a 40% cut in children's nutrition funding. These cuts are larger than for other agencies, and Shanker deplores the disproportionality as well as what the cuts would mean for schools. Not only would educational programs be endangered, but the nutrition cut would also seriously jeopardize the school lunch program. He further notes that while federal funding would disappear, federal laws and court decisions would not, meaning that states and municipalities would still have to meet legal and judicial mandates but would no longer have federal funding to do so. The result, Shanker asserts, would be that state and municipalities would have to increase taxes. He also comments on how loan and grant programs for college and university students would be decimated by the President's proposals. He includes a chart of how many teachers would be lost in each state (and some cities) if the budget is enacted.

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