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Education Funding

Will Trump Get His K-12 Budget Cuts? Washington Edu-Insiders Say No.

By Alyson Klein — October 10, 2017 1 min read
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President Donald Trump alarmed a lot of the education community when he proposed slashing the U.S. Department of Education’s nearly $70 billion budget by $9 billion. So will those cuts become a reality?

Probably not, say a couple dozen inside-the-beltway education experts surveyed by Whiteboard Advisors. In fact 79 percent of them don’t think Congress will follow through on the proposals.

Here’s a handy graphic breaking this down:

Most of those surveyed expected to see Title II, a $2.05 billion program aimed at improving teacher quality, stick around too, although it might be reduced. (A bill passed by the House would eliminate the program. The Senate version keeps it in place.)

And, sorry school choice fans, most of the insiders aren’t super optimistic about the chances of a private school vouchers or a federal tax credit scholarship becoming a reality during DeVos’ tenure. Only a little more than 20 percent of the insiders expect that will happen. A whopping 94 percent aren’t anticipating that DeVos and company will get their way on allowing Title I money to follow children to the school of their choice. And a little more than 50 percent don’t expect DeVos will get pretty much anything on school choice. (So far Congress hasn’t been interested).

Want more? Here’s the full survey.

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