WASHINGTON, D.C.— Rep. Edward Markey today released an analysis of the Bush Administration’s cuts in funding to schools in high-poverty neighborhoods in his district, calling the proposal a “bankrupt educational policy unworthy of the United States of America.” On Friday, May 21, 2004, the Education Department announced that low income schools in Massachusetts schools will lose approximately $26 million in federal funding next year under the new Title I allocations. The Seventh District is slated to lose over $2.2 million in Title I funds. Title I funds are designed to provide additional funding to high poverty schools with large numbers of at-risk students.

Rep Markey said, “This loss of funding will be devastating in a time when schools are experiencing local budget cuts, struggling to meet the demands of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and trying to make adequate yearly progress. The Bush Administration has already under-funded NCLB by $9.4 billion, refused to fully fund special education, and now plans to deny high poverty schools money that they have counted on to educate their most underprivileged students. Next year our state’s neediest public schools are going to be asked to educate more students with fewer funds. This is a dark day for public education in this country, but if the Bush
Administration’s spending priorities continue, darker days are undoubtedly ahead.”

Massachusetts is not the only state losing money under the new allocations. The Education Department used new census data that shifts money away from over 7,500 school districts in the country including every single city and town in the seventh district. Rep. Markey along with a number of other Members of Congress whose districts are also affected by the cuts sent a letter to the Appropriations Committee requesting $237 million in supplemental appropriations for the Title I program. This amount of funding would be sufficient to ensure that no school district receives less Title I funding this fall than it received in the prior year.

In the seventh district every school district is slated to lose funding. Below is a chart of the funding cuts under
the new allocations:

Town       $ Cut    %Cut                          Town    $Cut      %Cut

ARLINGTON -57,137 -15.00%      REVERE  -197,779  -7.65%
BELMONT -97,879 -32.67%       STONEHAM  -43,051  -12.68%
EVERETT -275,258 -14.12%      WALTHAM  -196,273  -27.79%
FRAMINGHAM -318,237 -13.63%   WATERTOWN -82,700  -12.42%
LEXINGTON -152,000 -32.67%    WAYLAND  -59,554   -100.00%
LINCOLN-28,787 -32.67%         WESTON  -63,276   -100.00%
MALDEN -259,923 -14.32%       WINCHESTER-24,985  -15.00%
MEDFORD -112,409 -13.21%      WINTHROP -25,892   -15.00%
MELROSE -30,371 -15.00%       WOBURN -98,224     -12.57%
NATICK -102,432 -29.46%

Rep. Markey Letter to Appropriations Committee, May 26, 2004