The Trump Administration’s proposed “Budget for America’s Future” for the 2021 fiscal year would increase U.S. spending to an all-time high of $4.8 trillion but drastically cut safety net programs by $2 trillion, including $6.1 billion in cuts to education. Ironically, it seems America’s children are not a part of America’s Future.
The Trump administration’s budget proposal would reduce or eliminate a wide range of programs shown … [+]
For the third year in a row, the Trump Administration is proposing cuts to critical programs that strengthen our global competitiveness and come at a time when more than one-fifth of children in the United States live in severe poverty and when 8.4 million Black and Latino/a children learn in extremely segregated schools that deny them the same opportunities to learn as their White and wealthier peers. Adopting this budget would, in fact jeopardize America’s future, further undercutting the social services and educational opportunities that offer the best hope of supporting America’s children in meeting their full potential.
The administration’s budget proposal would reduce or eliminate a wide range of programs shown to be among those that are effective in closing opportunity and achievement gaps.
At the heart of the administration’s education spending request is a block grant of $19.4 billion that would combine 29 programs and fund them at $4.7 billion below current levels. A few of the critical programs that would either be eliminated or lose funds under this proposal include:
- Title IV of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), a $1.2 billion grant program that funds mental health and anti-bullying programs, science and art curriculum, physical education, and technology, all of which foster the kinds of academically rich positive school climates that support student learning.
- Title II, Part A, of ESSA that provides $2.1 billion for teacher professional development and class-size reduction. This is concerning because teachers are the single most influential in-school factor in student learning and effective teacher professional development ensures they are well-equipped to teach students 21st century skills. Class-size reductions are also positively associated with student outcomes, especially for young children and those who are struggling in school.
- The Full-Service Community Schools program, a research-based approach that provides mental, physical, and academic supports and continues to be one of the most effective approaches to promote success for underserved students.
- The Magnet School Assistance program which is a critical tool for addressing the nation’s increasingly segregated schools.
- Teacher Quality Partnership grants that support the development of model teacher preparation programs to grow the pool of well-prepared and diverse new teachers for high-need communities—an important strategy for ensuring all students have access to effective teachers, including compared to their white peers.
A Very Different Educational Vision Has Bipartisan Support
By contrast, a bipartisan Congress actually increased the education budget from 2019 to 2020 by $1.3 billion. Investments included substantial funding for evidence-based approaches to improve students’ opportunities to learn, including $123 million for a new Social-Emotional Learning Initiative; $25 million for the Full-Service Community Schools Initiative (a $7 million increase from the previous year); an additional $7 million for Teacher Quality Partnership Grants; and additional funding for the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grant program.
These bipartisan congressional investments recognize that money, when spent wisely, matters to student success. This is proven again and again in contemporary research.
But the United States has a long way to go. We continue to leave too many of our nation’s students and their talents behind in segregated and under-resourced schools. Public schools in the United States are among the most inequitably funded of any in the industrialized world, and inequalities have grown as education funding has shrunk by 10% over the last decade, since the Great Recession began in 2008.
Education can be the great equalizer, helping to address the structural barriers encountered by students of color and those from low-income families, but only if the nation takes real steps to equalize school funding, address childhood poverty, create universal and high-quality early learning programs, provide health and social services and after-school care, and invest in educators.
Our future well-being will reflect our present values. Republicans and Democrats in Congress have been wise to reject the cuts to education that the Trump administration has annually proposed. For the United States to truly be a country by and for the people, Congress should double down on education, investing in the nation’s children and youth through the very institutions — including public education — that the Trump Administration budget would undermine.
