Trump’s K-12 Education Budget Expands Choice, Won’t Help Public Schools Meet Myriad Needs
This blog will take a week-long late spring break after today. Look for a new post on May 30!
On Wednesday, the Washington Post acquired a leaked, near final copy of the budget the Department of Education is preparing as part of President Trump’s full budget proposal scheduled for release on May 23. This document reflects the same priorities outlined in what was called “the skinny budget,” released in mid-March.
Andrew Ujifusa of Education Week summarizes the overall direction of the proposal leaked on Wednesday: “President Donald Trump’s full education budget proposal for fiscal 2018 would make notable cuts to the U.S. Department of Education and leverage existing programs for disadvantaged students and K-12 innovation to promote school choice…. Trump’s full education funding blueprint would cut $9.2 billion, or 13.6 percent, from the Education Department’s current $68 billion budget….”
Ujifusa continues, describing the “Title I Portability” plan which is part of the proposal that surfaced Wednesday: “Also, the spending plan calls for the creation of a new, $1 billion federal grant program under Title I to allow students to take federal, state, and local dollars to their public school of choice. That money would be added to the $15.9 billion Title I receives this budget year….” Ujifsa reminds us that currently Title I funding is distributed entirely by formula.
Keep in mind that Title I Portability would undermine the purpose of Title I, as it was designed in the original 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act: providing supplementary funding for school districts serving concentrations of children in poverty. Helping the public schools that serve our nation’s poorest children is a big problem because our society is becoming more segregated economically. Under Trump’s Title I Portability proposal, if a poor student were to transfer to a wealthier public school district, that child would carry her funding, including the extra Title I money. The poor district—still in need of help because it is serving a mass of poor children, including a significant homeless population as well as students who are part of the county’s foster care system—would lose the Title I dollars intended to help its schools.
The Washington Post‘s Emma Brown, Valerie Strauss and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel collaborated to explain the many implications of the documents they received Wednesday. They describe the new $1 billion added to Title I to encourage school districts to undertake or Trump’s K-12 Education Budget Expands Choice, Won’t Help Public Schools Meet Myriad Needs | janresseger: