The Trump administration sent a preliminary budget to Congress with massive cuts in education, environment, and foreign aid. Smaller cuts are proposed for most other domestic programs except for the entitlement programs of Medicare and Social Security. By contrast, major funding increases are proposed for the military, homeland security, and the veteran administration. This post will concentrate on the education cuts.
Donald Trump's preliminary budget cuts 13.5% or $9.2 billion dollars from the education budget. However, the federal education cuts are actually more massive for public school education as it's 16% since there will be an increase in private school vouchers and charter school funding.The biggest cuts will be to before and after school programs, summer programs, and teacher training. In addition, twenty departmental programs are also being either frozen or eliminated. Finally. Title II funding will be adversely affected as well. Check the NYC Public School Parents Blog for how the cuts will affect thee NYC classroom.
By contrast, the preliminary budget increases by $1.4 billion dollars for private school vouchers and Charter school funding.
Interestingly, the preliminary budget actually increases Title 1 funding but with a catch. The Title 1 funding would follow the student rather than the school. The result would be that both private and charter schools would try to pick off as many Title 1 eligible students who don't have major disabilities and leave the rest to the public schools. The public schools would experience a significant funding shortfall and staff layoffs due to the budget crunch.
The passage of the preliminary education budget is uncertain at best and final passage will probably result in minimal increases for the non-public sector and significant reductions in add-on programs to the public schools. The bottom line is that its tough times ahead for the public schools.