Trump prioritizes school choice, charter schools in latest budget proposal
Source: Think Progress
The president's spending on federal charter grants has increased by more than 30 percent since he first took office.
Elham Khatami
Mar 11, 2019, 3:58 pm
President Donald Trumps fiscal 2020 budget proposal reinforces the administrations controversial commitment to school choice while simultaneously seeking to slash the Education Departments budget for the third consecutive year.
Under the proposal, the president pushes for a first-of-its-kind federal tax credit for donations to private school scholarships, in addition to increasing federal charter school grants by $60 million. The plan seeks to gut the Education Departments budget by 10 percent, asking for $64 billion for the agency, or $7.1 billion less than the 2019 enacted level. Like last years proposal, Trump aims to eliminate more than $2 billion in teacher development funding, as well as over $1 billion in funding for after-school programs.
Trumps previous two education spending proposals were unsuccessful in Congress and this one is likely to fail as well. However, the administrations focus on school choice continues to be significant, as it has the attention of Republicans in Congress, who last month introduced a $5 billion measure to fund private school scholarships. That bill is similar to the federal tax credit proposed in the presidents 2020 budget, which aims to implement a private school scholarship tax credit of up to $50 billion over 10 years.
When the bill was first introduced in February, the proposal even garnered the ire of conservatives. The Heritage Foundation said the initiative poses a threat to education choice in the states, and undermines the goal of a streamlined federal tax code, adding that using the federal government to push for education choice risks igniting the same backlash that President Barack Obama received for his national education policies.
Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/trump-budget-charter-schools-f705cdf07603/
Traitor and Devos should be married, I mean really, Michigan has over 50% charters schools and most of the students are failing, and the charter schools are making millions off the taxpayer.........................profit, profit, profit.................
She really needs to be brought in and give testimony.......................on her absolute lack of only thinking except of making money off taxpayers for charter schools.......................
I am so glad that I went to a public school growing up, best education in the world at that time and still is, one of the democrat party main priorities was allocating fund's to "PUBLIC EDUCATION".................always....................
November 3, 2020 cannot get here fast enough.........................
kimbutgar
(21,224 posts)That's why Devos and the repukes are hoping for in these charter schools, with untrained teachers.
doompatrol39
(428 posts)Sorry but this is an area where Obama and his Sec of Education (Arne Duncan) were not all that much better. Being from NJ I know that at the very least Corey Booker has bought into the Charter school scam hook line and sinker. I hope the rest are better than the previous admin was. And yes, I know Republicans are worse but that does not excuse anyone on our side falling for such a rotten, regressive, scam as charter schools.
Ohiogal
(32,118 posts)I, too, get really discouraged to see some of our Dems (and that included Obama) supporting the for-profit scam system of education. Once you institute that, it's all about the money. I would LOVE to hear one of our candidates come out with a strong plan to support our public schools. I went to a public school, and so did my husband and 3 adult sons, we all had a strong and well rounded education. My husband is a retired public school teacher, too. He ended up teaching at the high school he attended. (like "Welcome Back Kotter"
Get rid of the politics and the unreasonable demands and the nit picking and the overseeing of every move teachers make (by right wing nut jobs), fund the system properly, and it will soar.
MH1
(17,608 posts)I've noticed a lot of low income and African American families WANT the charter option. If you have a kid in elementary school you want a solution NOW, not "we'll fix public education" (someday).
I'm not saying I agree, I'm saying I sympathize. Also these are generally Democratic voters but do not take their votes for granted, just because what they think they want to solve their near-term problem, is going to make things worse in the long term.
I don't know that charters have to be evil. I know I absolutely don't want vouchers that go to religious schools, and I do NOT want the undermining of public education. I don't want the situation where the only kids left in the public school are the ones who have parents who couldn't get organized enough to get them into a charter, or that couldn't get into a charter because they didn't meet selection criteria.
But it isn't a simple yes/no answer for our candidates.
CentralMass
(15,265 posts)doompatrol39
(428 posts)...that shows that charters get the same or most of the time worse results than the public schools in the same neighborhoods. Studies have been done, data has been analyzed. Just like trickle down/supply side economics, the evidence is there that this is a scam and doesn't work.
One of the main reasons low income and AA families believe it's a solution is because they have heard our side, the politicians they trust, like President Obama and Senator Booker, tell them that they would work. Now that we know better it should be a no brainer.
Unfortunately I'm afraid a lot of the damage has been done and now much like supply side economics, it's now become an "even most Democrats agree" orthodoxy that dare not be questioned despite reams of evidence to the contrary.
ancianita
(36,158 posts)The public has committed to public schools at state levels, and must now an the future stay committed by admitting that they get the private, charter or public schools that they pay for.
What we need is education to become a fundamental right through a constitutional amendment. THEN states may not be sold the cheap-out rhetoric of elites that amounts to funding schools by state taxes only, and then proceed to dominate media issues about spending for schools as only an issue of "affordability."