Trump's proposed cuts to education funding creates friction in charter school community
his should be a time of celebration for charter school advocates. Both President Donald Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos have focused their education agenda on providing parents with more choices, which include charter schools. The number of charter schools continues to grow, with nearly 3,000 charter schools enrolling nearly 3 million students nationally.
But instead, Trump’s and DeVos’ endorsement of charter schools is driving a wedge between traditional allies and is threatening to undermine the bipartisan support charter schools have received almost throughout the quarter century since they emerged on the education landscape.
In a remarkably frank speech earlier this month, Nina Rees, president of the National Alliance of Charter Schools, acknowledged at her organization’s annual conference in Washington D.C. that “the Trump administration’s policies have put us in a difficult spot.”
The difficulty, she explained, is that the Trump administration is proposing a $168 million increase in funding for the Charter Schools Program, on top of the current level of $333 million, while at the same time cutting other education funding. Most of the charter program funds are used to help new charter schools get off the ground. Trump is also proposing adding $1 billion to the Title 1 program for low-income students to allow parents to send their children to any public school of their choice, which could include charter schools.
However, Trump’s budget also includes massive cuts to federal education programs — some $9.2 billion from the current level of $68 billion in federal K-12 education Trump’s proposed cuts to education funding creates friction in charter school community | EdSource:
