it also takes money away from what some consider beneficial- if not necessary- government funded programs. Effects of budget freezes on education(USA) Budget freezes and cuts can negatively influence public education. In the United States, School districts have frozen teachers' pay without providing cost of living increases. These types of freezes on teachers' wages can cause strikes. Budget freezes can also increase the amount of money students need to pay for education, possibly decreasing the likelihood of attending college. While teachers oppose freezes on salaries, school districts claim that the freezes are necessary to continue funding other aspects of education and keep teachers employed rather than firing other employees to provide cost-of-living and seniority raises. Controversy Freezing a budget, whether for government programs, wages, or other things, affects many people. This can be both positive and negative. A budget freeze can have political implications, especially in the case of the government, but also where businesses are concerned. They can do this by affecting policy or by increasing or decreasing the approval rating for a politician. Past budget freezes in the USA Budget freezes in 2009 The recent economy has caused problems in business and government, leading to budget cuts and budget freezes. Wage freezes can lead to reduced spending at the individual level, which, in turn, leads to reduced revenues for government and business. This can cause the recession to feed on itself. During his presidency, former United States President George W. Bush proposed many budget freezes in order to alleviate economic problems, including freezes on the United States Department of Education, domestic programs such as health care, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Science Foundation. Flexible freeze In the late 1980s, former U.S. President George H. W. Bush also proposed a flexible freeze, which would increase budget according to inflation and population growth for certain government programs, but completely freeze others. Some viewed this as a political tactic and accused Bush and his associates of being inconsistent with the use of the term freeze. This proposal caused difficulties for Congress, especially among Democrats, as the budget cuts would force some programs to reduce contributions because of population growth and inflation and many claimed that Bush wanted to take credit for the cuts while forcing Congress to make all of the difficult decisions. When Bush did make his own priorities clear, there was a clear