Dive Brief:

• Tuesday's budget hearing intensified when Rep. John Kline (R-MN), who chairs the House Education & the Workforce Committee, pushed against Arne Duncan and the Obama administration's lack of funding for students with disabilities.  
• Kline argued that the Obama administration keeps rolling out programs without addressing the needs of special education students.  
• Duncan countered Kline's accusations, arguing that special education was receiving an increase of $100 million.  

Dive Insight:

While Duncan argued students with disabilities would be receiving a boost of $100 million, this is small potatoes when compared to the rest of the federal government's education spending. In reality, this amount is only a 2% increase from last year, and programs like Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act will get no new funds.

A majority of the Obama education funds go to Race to the Top programming — another point of contention for Kline.  He argued against RTTP's competitive angle, which only benefits a few states, versus old education funding models that were rooted in equalizing the playing field.