Giving Compass' Take:

• Kristen Harper and Deborah Temkin break down the president's education budget proposal for 2020, highlighting the disparities between what advocates asked for and the proposal. 

• How can funders work to develop an impactful education spending strategy? 

• Learn more about impactful education funding. 

As part of the president’s 2020 budget proposal, the White House highlighted $700 million in programming to address school safety, spread across the Education, Justice, and Health and Human Services departments. While such funds would offer school communities a range of security and mental health grants to choose from, the package would also eliminate the $1.2 billion Student Support and Academic Enrichment grant, as well as $1.2 billion in funding for afterschool programming.

State and local education leaders need a federal budget that lives up to their vision of a comprehensive approach to advancing student health, safety, and learning. The 2020 proposal doesn’t come close.

Under the proposed budget, federal agencies would administer 14 competitive programs to secure school buildings, support student mental health, improve student behavior, implement threat assessments, and address gang and youth violence. Communities wanting federal funding would have to compete for dollars for mental health supports, compete again to secure funding for prevention programs, and so on. And yet, we know that keeping students safe often requires that attention be paid to all of the above.

For example, security cameras may help keep a building secure, but recent research suggests that cameras used inside schools to monitor and intervene in student behavior can make students feel less safe.

Read the full article about the president’s education budget by Kristen Harper and Deborah Temkin at The 74.