Low-income kids hurt most by education cuts

Using populist campaign promises to help working families and improve lives and the economy, Donald Trump was swept into office. But now that he and his education secretary, Betsy DeVos, are in office, the public should feel duped. Frankly, this administration is engaging in the deceptive practice of bait and switch.

In addition to despicable cuts to Meals on Wheels for needy seniors, job-training programs, and National Institutes of Health and medical research, President Trump’s proposed 2018 budget attacks programs that directly help low-income kids and affects a wide swath of students and educators by cutting other funding, such as ways to reduce class sizes and provide more professional development opportunities so educators can hone their skills.

The proposed budget slashes education spending by 14 percent, or $9 billion, the largest dollar cut to the education budget ever and the largest percentage reduction since the Reagan administration. DeVos had the audacity to proclaim this week that the budget actually invests in underserved communities because it invests in school choice (privatized alternatives like vouchers, charters and virtual schools), and that it reflects an intention to support programs that work and eliminate those considered ineffective, duplicative or best left to states or local districts.

Underserved communities refers to communities with disadvantaged families whose children need additional academic programs and social, emotional and healthcare services to overcome the impact of their circumstances. The proposed budget guts programs that directly help those communities and families. For example, it would wipe out funding for the 21st Century Community Learning Center program, which provides funding to approximately 9,500 centers, serving 1.6 million children with before-school, afterschool and summer school programs aimed at improving academic outcomes.

Ohio would lose $43.1 million in 21st Century Community Learning Center funding. That means 43,195 Ohio children will lose services unless Congress restores the funding, or the state steps in, an unlikely possibility. The loss of these funds for Ohio kids would be not only devastating but demoralizing. After-school programs have a proven record of improving student academic success, engaging parents, making schools safer and providing nutrition to children facing food insecurity. The government’s responsibility is to make sure that the next generation is better off than the previous generation. These cuts would put at risk the lives of children living in low-wage households and would contribute to harming our economic future.

At the higher-education level, Trump and DeVos are just as uncaring about the less fortunate. The proposed budget eliminates funding for the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program, which provides lowincome students with up to $4,000 in need-based grants to help them afford higher education — to help them achieve the American dream. But those dreams could go up in smoke. In Ohio in the 2015-16 award year, 53,100 people received these grants. Nationally, more than 1.5 million students took advantage of the help to get a college education. Does this administration realize that not every child can rely on family wealth like Trump and DeVos were able to do?

DeVos insists that the proposed education budget reflects an intention to invest in education programs that work. Really?

Research shows that vouchers in any form — which use taxpayer dollars for private school tuition — do not produce better student outcomes than public schools, and they often do worse. They are generally unregulated and unaccountable, and they defund and destabilize our public schools, which educate 90 percent of our children. Charters have a mixed record, and Ohio has been among the states that have wildly unregulated charters that benefit the operators more than the students. They are dominated by for-profit companies whose focus is profit margin, not academic quality.

Privatization doesn’t work, and it hurts underserved communities to pretend differently.

When low-income kids get the supports they need, and when disadvantaged young adults get a helping hand to be able to attend college, they have just as much chance of getting a good job as anyone else, becoming taxpayers themselves and being productive members of society.

Let’s not let this administration get away with what it rails against: spending taxpayer dollars inefficiently. Let’s hold it accountable to investing in education programs that actually will give our kids the best chance for success.