Senate Republicans Reject DeVos Proposed Education Cuts

Policy
Senate Republicans Reject DeVos’ Proposed Education Cuts
‘The kinds of cuts that are proposed in this budget will not occur’
Posted Jun 7, 2017 5:01 AM
Emily Wilkins


Senate appropriators told Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday that the Education Department’s budget request was dead on arrival in Congress, with Republicans and Democrats alike defending programs the department proposes to slash or eliminate in fiscal 2018.

At the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, DeVos also clarified remarks she made in the House last month. She pledged Tuesday to ensure that federal school choice programs would require schools to follow laws for students with disabilities. She didn’t commit to any protections not in federal law.

DeVos declined to say whether the federal government would intervene if states sent vouchers to schools that discriminated against LGBT or minority students.

The department’s budget request proposed a $9.2 billion cut in fiscal 2018, to $59 billion from $68.2 billion in the annualized spending levels from the fiscal 2017 continuing resolution enacted in December. Several school choice programs, including vouchers and charter schools, would receive an additional $1.4 billion.

Sen. Roy Blunt, the subcommittee chairman, said students would be hurt if programs that promoted career and technical education and helped disadvantaged students attend college were cut. The Missouri Republican said that when it came to ending federal assistance to before- and after-school programs, it would “be all but impossible to get those kinds of cuts through this committee.”

“The kinds of cuts that are proposed in this budget will not occur,” he said.



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