The 1996 GOP platform called for abolishing the Department of Education and ending "federal meddling in schools.", it also called for eliminating the departments of Commerce, Energy, and Housing and Urban Development and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The $56 billion in total discretionary funding for federal education is an all-time high. Under President Bush, in just three years the Education Department’s overall funding will have increased by $13.8 billion.
Federal education spending has increased by 118 percent from 1996 (the first fiscal year under a Republican majority in Congress) to 2002. The President’s FY 2004 builds on that increase.