Washington, DC - Congressman Edolphus "Ed" Towns (D-Brooklyn) voted against legislation today that would underfund New York public schools by nearly one billion dollars.   H.R. 2660, the Department of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act, which is the main federal legislation for providing federal funds to state and local schools, was approved by the House of Representatives.

"The President likes to talk about the inequities in our educational system but when it comes time to walk the walk, he proposes a budget that leaves all of our children behind," said Towns.   "The President and the Republican Party would rather provide millions of dollars in tax breaks to the top 1 percent than fully fund our education needs.   We should be fully funding the No Child Left Behind Act instead of lining the pockets of the rich."

Last year, with great fanfare, the Congress approved the No Child Left Behind Act that set forth new academic accountability standards for public schools and authorized additional funding to help schools meet those standards.  However, under the bill approved by House Republicans today, public schools will not get all of the funds called for by the No Child Left Behind Act.
   
"Today's vote shows very clearly whose priorities the Republicans in Congress have, and you can be sure it is not our childrenƒ­s education," said Towns.  "Promises are easy to make but keeping them is what counts.  A promise to strengthen and improve our public education system was broken today."  

Some of the promises broken to New York School children by H.R. 2660 include:

• Underfunding the program to help New York school districts with low-income children meet new accountability mandates by about $642 million.
• Underfunding After School Programs for New York children promised by No Child Left Behind by $74 million.
• Underfunding grants to train and improve New York teachers promised by No Child Left Behind by 24 million.

Overall, the bill underfunds the government's education promises in the Leave No Child Behind Act by $8 billion, and provides the smallest percentage increase in education funding in eight years.  "Those who voted for this bill walked away from our obligation to provide a quality education to all students," said Towns.  "I am going to continue to fight to make sure that the legislation includes additional dollars for education before it becomes law."