It’s that time again. Budget season!

Washington is moving into budget mode and beginning discussions on the federal budget for fiscal year 2015, which begins October 1, 2014. A December 2013 budget agreement set the budget ceiling, or how much Congress could spend, for fiscal year  2015 at $1.014 trillion. But that agreement doesn’t mean that policy makers won’t try to make political points when cutting the proverbial pie to fund individual programs.

Budgets are an expression of values, and politicians of all parties use them to express their priorities. Take President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2015 budget proposal, released earlier. The $3.9 trillion proposal has no realistic chance of becoming law, but it does express the president’s policy priorities.

By reading his budget, we can see that Obama views affordable higher education, campus safety, early childhood learning, workforce training, paid leave, and increased enforcement against gender pay discrimination as priorities, because his proposal increases funding for these programs. These are AAUW priorities as well — as we’ve repeatedly told the administration and Congress — and we’re glad to see them supported.