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Press Releases

 

 

Thursday March 16, 2017

 

 

Dear CEF Members:

                   

This morning at 7am the President released the outline of his fiscal year 2018 budget (also attached) – a so-called “skinny” budget that has only discretionary totals for agencies and a few specifics on programmatic funding.  We sent a link this morning to where the Washington Post published an early copy of it.

        

I.                    The President’s Budget

 

The President’s budget slashes Department of Education funding by $9 billion (13 percent) below the 2017 level, to a total of $59 billion.  The budget specifies less than $5 billion of its cuts plus another $3.9 billion from rescinding previously appropriated Pell Grant funding that isn’t new 2018 funding.  That shouldn’t be the $9 billion cut the budget references, so there may be an additional $4 billion in 2018 cuts.  Below is a list of what the budget does specify.

 

Increases:

  • $1.4 billion for school choice, with plans to ramp up to $20 billion over time.  The new funding is comprised of                       the following increases:

  •         $1 billion for Title I to allow funding to follow a student to the public school of his or her choice, not                                  necessarily a school that receives Title I

  •          $250 million for a new private school choice program

  •          $168 million for charter schools

 

Program Eliminations:

  •         $2.3 billion for teacher training – eliminates the supporting effective instruction teacher training state grant                   program

  •          $1.2 billion for after school – eliminates the 21st century community learning centers program

  •          $732 million for student grant aid – eliminates the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants for low-                     income college students

 

Cuts:

  •          $3.9 billion from Pell Grants – rescinding $3.9 billion of the Pell Grant surplus while keeping new 2018                                 funding at last year’s level

  •          $92 million cut to TRIO – a 10% cut

  •          $104 million cut to GEAR UP student aid – a 32% cut, funding only continuation grants

  •         Unspecified cut to Work Study student aid

  •          Eliminates or reduces funding for a total of 20 categorical programs including:

                         Striving Readers ($190 million)

                         Teacher Quality Partnerships ($43 million)

                         Impact Aid Support Payments for Federal Property ($66 million)

                         International Education programs ($72 million)

 

Funding Freezes:

  •         IDEA – maintained at the 2017 level of almost $13 billion

  •         Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions -  the budget says it maintains                       funding at $492 million, but that level is a cut of $87 million from the current level.

 

Other programs CEF follows that are not in the Department of Education:

  •       Institute of Museum and Library Services – eliminated

  •       The budget is entirely silent on Head Start and child care.

  

II.                  CEF Press Statement

 

Attached is a statement CEF is releasing this morning on the budget.  We are working on some tables and charts, although they cannot be comprehensive given the lack of detail provided in the budget. 

My best,

 

Sheryl

 

 

Sheryl V. Cohen, Executive Director

 

 

 

 

 

 

1800 M Street, NW

Suite 500 South

Washington, DC 20036

T: 202-327-8125

cohen@cef.org

www.cef.org

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