Trump and DeVos Continue to Undermine Public Education with Their Proposed Fiscal Year 2019 Budget

The following article by Stephenie Johnson, Neil Campbell and Scott Sargrad was posted on the Center for American Progress website February 12, 2018:

President Donald Trump, with Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, gestures as he walks, November 2017 Credit: Getty/Jabin Botsford

Today, President Donald Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos released their proposed budget for the 2019 fiscal year. The Trump administration’s budget proposal for this year makes strikingly similar drastic cuts to the administration’s fiscal year 2018 proposal, which represented the most devastating funding cuts to the U.S. Department of Education since Ronald Reagan’s presidency. On the heels of that widely criticized proposal, the Trump administration has doubled down this year with a $7.1 billion cut to the Department of Education’s funding—a 10.5 percent decrease from 2017 levels. And while an unusual addendum—released on the same day as the original proposal—seems to restore $3.3 billion to the education budget, Trump and DeVos have made their priorities clear: Starve public schools to fund private school schemes that benefit the wealthy. Continue reading “Trump and DeVos Continue to Undermine Public Education with Their Proposed Fiscal Year 2019 Budget”