The Heritage Foundation - Leadership for America

President Bush unveiled his budget proposal for the Department of Education today—pushing Congress to hold spending levels flat from last year. Cue the hyperbolic press releases from liberals about how the Bush administration is dramatically under-funding education.

The idea that public education has been under-funded during the Bush presidency is a cornerstone of many liberal stump-speeches. But a quick look at the record shows that federal spending on education has actually increased dramatically since 2000. See for yourself—if Congress approves President Bush’s request for 2009, Department of Education spending will have increased by 40 percent since 2000. On Title I grants to assist high poverty communities, spending will have jumped by 63 percent.

As we wrote in 2006, taxpayers should be wary when they hear politicians suggest that more spending is the answer in education.