Budget plan seen as weak on science and financial-aid funding

By Jacquie Powers and Betsy Cooper

The outlook for higher education under President George Bush's fiscal year 2005 budget proposal is cloudy at best, according to Stephen Philip Johnson, Cornell's interim vice president for government and community relations.

"The federal budget picture is not bright for higher education," Johnson said. "The president's budget proposes few increases for student financial aid, minimal increases for science and some cuts, and increases for arts and humanities endowments. We in the higher education community are going to need our friends in Congress as budget discussions proceed."

Overall, the president's budget plan, released Feb. 2, proposed a 4 percent increase for all discretionary spending, or programs not required by law. However, most of that would go to defense and homeland security. Funding for activities outside those areas would rise by just 0.5 percent.

Bush requested small increases to the two largest sources of federal funds for academic scientists, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NIH would get a 2.7 percent increase, to $28.8 billion; the NSF would get a 3 percent increase, to $5.7 billion.

This proposal comes after several years of healthy increases for NIH and NSF and includes increases below inflation for most science programs. Total science and technology spending would decline by 0.4 percent, to $60.4 billion, excluding Pentagon expenditures. Spending for science and technology programs at agencies other than the NIH would drop by 3 percent.

Meanwhile, money for basic research would rise slightly, by 0.6 percent, to $26.8 billion.

The proposal calls for an increase of 54 percent in the Department of Agriculture appropriation, for homeland security projects performed by Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Services (CSREES). But CSREES research projects not related to homeland security would face significant cuts, and Cooperative Extension itself would face a 4.1 percent decrease in funding.

While NASA funding would increase overall -- by 5.8 percent to $16.2 billion -- many of the funds would shift from current exploration and research projects to spaceflights and unmanned exploration, to reflect Bush's goal of sending astronauts back to the moon and on to Mars. But NASA's division of exploration, science, and aeronautics -- the one with the most ties to universities -- would see its budget cut to $7.7 billion, down 1.8 percent.

Nonetheless Joseph Burns, vice provost for physical sciences and engineering, remains optimistic and said he is "quite curious to see how the moon-Mars initiative in the president's 2005 budget is received by Congress."

Funding for the arts and humanities fared substantially better than the sciences under the president's proposal. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) would receive a 15.2 percent increase, to $139.4 million, while the National Endowment for the Humanities would get a 19.7 percent increase, or $18.4 million, to $162 million. Most of the increase for the humanities would go to the agency's American history program, aimed at increasing the understanding of American history and culture. The "We the People" program provides money for programs for history teachers in elementary and secondary schools, an annual lecture given by a renowned scholar and projects sponsored by state and territorial humanities councils.

The president's request did not offer good news for students needing financial aid, but Bush instead asked Congress to allow college freshmen to take out larger student loans.

"I am not at all encouraged by the news on the federal budget," said Mona Lucas, dean of financial aid. "Even with a minimal increase in freshman level student loans, needy students (both new and continuing) will be more dependant on university or endowed grants and scholarships as well as private, alternative loans."

Under Bush's proposal, the Pell Grant maximum would be frozen for the third year in a row at $4,050, without addressing the $3.7 billion shortfall in the program's budget. Other student programs, including College Work-Study and the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, would maintain 2004 levels without covering the rate of inflation.

The proposal would not allocate any new funds for the Perkins Loan Program, which provides low-interest loans that go predominantly to students from low-income families, and it would eliminate the Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnerships (LEAP) program, which matches each dollar that states commit to need-based aid. LEAP funds are used by New York state to help finance the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP). The proposal did include $33 million for a pilot program that would reward low-income students who take specific college-preparatory courses in high school, with an additional $1,000 in Pell Grants for their first year of college.

"In the past we've enjoyed great support from faculty, students and the administration in our advocacy efforts," Johnson said. "President Lehman already has been to Washington, D.C., to articulate the need for increased investment in science and research and student financial aid, and we will continue to push for campus needs with our representatives in Congress and their staff members."