Advocacy Group Releases Budget Response Opposing Trump Proposal
Last week, the Committee for Education Funding (CEF) released its annual “Budget Book” analysis of the president’s federal spending proposal and its impact on education programs. This year’s report presents detailed narrative, charts, and tables illustrating concerns about President Donald J. Trump’s proposed cuts to education funding for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018. CEF highlighted the findings at a Capitol Hill briefing featuring practitioners from several states and various education sectors.
At the briefing, panelists from Missouri, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and New Jersey all urged for education spending to be increased. Several speakers noted that even “level-funding” a program amounts to a cut when factors such as cost-of-living and other inflation-related expenses are considered, and they advocated for funding increases to permit at least the continuation of current programming.
CEF Deputy Executive Director Sarah Abernathy pointed out that education-related expenses account for only 2% of all federal spending – far short of the 5% called for in CEF’s “Five Cents Makes Sense” campaign. She highlighted components of the report, which called the president’s education cuts “devastating” and noted that the budget is more than $6 billion below FY 2010 education spending levels, proposing cuts that are far deeper than in any of the previous five administrations.
Throughout the briefing, panelists provided local examples of how the federal investment in education has been paying dividends in their communities while urging members of Congress and their staff to protect education from the cuts proposed in the president’s budget.
CEF is a coalition of more than 100 organizations, including AACTE, that share the goal of achieving adequate federal funding for education throughout the United States.
Although the full report is not yet available for download, you can find numerous charts and other highlights here.
Tags: advocacy, federal issues, funding
