Tad DeHaven does a fine job of exposing the mere window dressing that are the cuts in President Obama’s FY 2010 budget proposal. I’ll not add much to that other than to say that while Tad gives Obama’s predecessor a deserved hard time for his own paltry efforts to rein in spending, President Bush’s Education Department budgets looked downright Draconian compared to what the Obama team just produced.

Bush’s FY 2009 ED budget proposal included nearly $3.3 billion in cuts, generated by eliminating 47 programs. Given the dismal performance of all federal education efforts, this was obviously far too little, but compare it to Obama: His proposed budget would cut just twelve measly programs from ED’s budget, for a puny savings of about $551 million. And if that doesn’t give you a powerful feel for just how unserious this administration seems to be about saving taxpayers even a thin dime or two, look what program is not among those proposed to be cut:

EDUCATIONAL, CULTURAL, APPRENTICESHIP, AND EXCHANGE PROGRAMS FOR ALASKA NATIVES, NATIVE HAWAIIANS, AND THEIR HISTORICAL WHALING AND TRADING PARTNERS IN MASSACHUSETTS

The purpose of this program is to develop culturally based educational activities, internships, apprentice programs, and exchanges to assist Alaska Natives, native Hawaiians, and children and families living in Massachusetts linked by history and tradition to Alaska and Hawaii, and members of any federally recognized Indian tribe in Mississippi.

For this whale of a waste – and so many others in the ED budget – to have survived portends nothing but ill for the nation. Nothing but ill.