OPPOSTION TO REAGANOMICS

WHEREAS, President Reagan's budget represents a disastrous confluence of ill-conceived ideas and theories that have proven to be completely wrong; and

WHEREAS, President Reagan who campaigned on the promise that he would balance the federal budget has caused the greatest deficits in the history of our nation; in fact, the projected deficit for the four years of the Reagan administration will exceed the entire debt incurred from independence to the inauguration of the Reagan administration; and

WHEREAS, President Reagan's remedy for our budgetary problems is to further cut spending on programs vital to our society such as education, health, and job training; and

WHEREAS, President Reagan's already-enacted budget cuts have the potential for turning the worst recession since World War Il into a depression; and

WHEREAS, in the area of education alone, Reagan's budget cuts would cause more than 2 million students to lose compensatory education services, and cause the layoff of 150,000 teachers, paraprofessionals, guidance counselors and other vital education personnel in elementary and secondary education alone; and

WHEREAS, President Reagan's budget for higher education would cut more than $3.9 billion out of student aid programs, reducing by more than 1 million the number of students who receive aid from Pell grants, and cutting 615,000 students from the Supplemental Opportunity Grant Program; 250,000 students from work-study programs; 266,000 out of the National Direct Student Loan Program. In fact, when all student aid cuts are added up, some 2,149,357 awards made to students attending college in 1981 will be lost:

RESOLVED, that the AFT convention calls for opposition to the President's budget cuts and urges the Congress to enact legislation that meets the following criteria:

• Restores needed funds in education.

• Restores cuts in health programs and in vital job training efforts.

• Modifies the tax-cut law to make it fair to middle and low-income families. The AFT endorses the AFL-CIO plan on tax equity in the personal income area. This would make an income of $40,000 the point at which no further tax relief occurred.

• Increases in defense spending must not be financed by cuts in social programs.

• Fighting unemployment must become the focus of the government's economic plans; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT continue its campaign against budget cuts by working with organizations such as the Committee for Educational Funding, the AFL-CIO Budget Coalition and the Committee for Health Funding in opposition to the President's budget cuts and to enact legislation that addresses the needs of our country.