In the shadow of the dome of the U.S. Capitol last week, an old-fashioned bake sale was going on, education-style. On the menu were fudgy Title I brownies and IDEA tortes. The icing on the Pell Grant cupcakes melted in the sun.
The Sept. 13 event was a stunt鈥攏o actual sales were made鈥攕taged to call attention to what the sponsors view as the need for more federal education funding. Sponsored by the Washington-based Committee for Education Funding, the bake sale featured real goodies and celebrity baker Warren Brown.
Members of the CEF, an umbrella group that lobbies for federal school aid, were protesting proposals in both the House and Senate education appropriations bills that would provide only nominal increases for two key programs: Title I aid and funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Both the House and Senate appropriations committees have approved bills totaling about $56.7 billion in discretionary money for the Department of Education for fiscal 2006, which would essentially freeze spending at this year鈥檚 level.
鈥淐ongress doesn鈥檛 want us to eat cake,鈥� said CEF Executive Director Edward R. Kealy, who presided over the sweets wearing an apron. 鈥淭hey want to starve us this year.鈥�
The sweets were ultimately given away to lobbyists and CEF members in attendance.
The CEF estimated that its members would have to sell 1.49 billion brownies at $6.67 a square to provide the funding authorized for Title I. They鈥檇 have to sell 274 million IDEA tortes, at $14.42 each, to keep special education dollars on track toward so-called full funding in six years.
Mr. Brown, a lawyer-turned-baker who owns Washington鈥檚 Cake Love Bakery, sliced into his pink-lady cake鈥攁 heavenly raspberry, butter-cream concoction鈥攖o represent the sliver of dollars from the federal budget pie that goes to education.
鈥淛ust imagine if the portion I鈥檝e sliced had to be shared among everyone here,鈥� said Mr. Brown, who has a popular show, 鈥淪ugar Rush,鈥� on the cable-TV Food Network. 鈥淚 think people want more cake.鈥�
It鈥檚 hard to argue with that.
