Trump's first full education budget: Deep cuts to public school programs in pursuit of school choice

[DonViejo]

By Emma Brown, Valerie Strauss and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel May 17 at 3:14 PM

Funding for college work-study programs would be cut in half, public-service loan forgiveness would end and hundreds of millions of dollars that public schools could use for mental health, advanced coursework and other services would vanish under a Trump administration plan to cut $10.6 billion from federal education initiatives, according to budget documents obtained by The Washington Post.

The administration would channel part of the savings into its top priority: school choice. It seeks to spend about $400 million to expand charter schools and vouchers for private and religious schools, and another $1 billion to push public schools to adopt choice-friendly policies.

President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have repeatedly said they want to shrink the federal role in education and give parents more opportunity to choose their children’s schools.

The documents — described by an Education Department employee as a near-final version of the budget expected to be released next week — offer the clearest picture yet of how the administration intends to accomplish that goal.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/trumps-first-full-education-budget-deep-cuts-to-public-school-programs-in-pursuit-of-school-choice/2017/05/17/2a25a2cc-3a41-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html

[IronLionZion]

1. As Biden said, "Don't tell me what you value, show me your budget"

Republicans don't value an educated population and want to keep people down. This talk of school choice does nothing for the millions of Americans who don't have a choice of schools because they can't afford it or because of where they live.

[WinkyDink]

2. "another $1 billion to push public schools to adopt choice-friendly policies." AKA: "CONSULTING

FEES."

AKA: FUNNELING PUBLIC MONIES TO THE PRINCE/DEVOS FAMILIES.

AKA: Here's $500, sucker. Now you can send your kid to Choate Rosemary Hall, just like the 1%!
Total tuition and fees = $57,420.

https://www.choate.edu/admission/tuition-and-financial-aid

[Ilsa]

3. Fuck this shit. I'll be protesting with the teachers, and

my kids aren't long to be in the system any more.

[MissB]

4. Shaving money from work study programs is only one of the horrible parts of this

For so many low income college students, that work study money helps them with incidentals, or keeps them from having to borrow the absolute maximum. It burns me up that THIS is what they'd cut. Bastards.