Trump’s Education Budget: Less Support for Schools, Heavier Student Debt Burdens
The Trump administration’s budget proposal calls for deep cuts to K-12 and higher education that would hamper the state’s ability to provide an excellent education to all Maryland children. These cuts would fall hardest on the students who need the most help at school. If implemented, these cuts to education funding would weaken Maryland’s economy.
By Dscot018 from Wikimedia Commons
The president’s budget would cut $65 million in federal aid for K-12 education in Maryland. The bulk of these come from the elimination of three programs:
- Supporting Effective Instruction ($30 million in federal budget year 2017): School systems use these grants to help teachers and principals work more effectively by funding professional development and smaller class sizes. Maryland desperately needs this support; all 24 school districts struggle to attract and retain qualified teachers.
- 21st Century Community Learning Centers ($17 million): This program funds before- and after-school programming to help students in high-poverty schools succeed in math, reading, and science. Maryland legislators softened cuts to a similar program in Gov. Hogan’s budget earlier this year, but the loss of this federal funding will cause even more widespread damage.
- Student Support and Academic Enrichment ($6 million): This program enables high-poverty school districts to “support well-rounded educational opportunities (e.g., arts, STEM), safe and healthy students, and the effective use of technology,” according to the administration’s own justification for ending the program. Eliminating this funding would worsen existing inequality in access to rich educational offerings.
Another $12 million in K-12 cuts come from programs that are not eliminated outright, but would receive significantly less support under the president’s spending plan. These include reductions in core support for low-income students and students with disabilities, cutting $10 million from Maryland’s Title I and special education grants compared to 2017. While the administration claims that these only look like cuts on paper—the Department of Education intended to level-fund these programs but failed to anticipate current-year increases passed by Congress—this argument doesn’t hold water. Changes in federal education law mean that some of this expanded funding was predictable. Ultimately, the budget’s hard cap on overall education funding will make it impossible to spare these programs.
Making matters worse, the budget suggests that states use Title I funding to fill holes left by other programs that are eliminated, which would leave even less for existing services. Federal funding for career and technical education and educational services for homeless children are also in line for significant cuts.
The president’s budget also proposes deep cuts in higher education aid that enables students with limited resources to go to college. The budget eliminates need-based Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants and cuts federal work-study by half, for a combined reduction of $17 million in aid to Maryland students. While Maryland would receive a $5 million increase in Pell Grants, the net result is a $12 million drop in need-based financial aid. On top of this, the budget reduces repayment options for low-income adults struggling with high student loan payments and eliminates a loan forgiveness program for borrowers who forgo lucrative careers in the private sector to work in public service.
If enacted, the severe cuts to education in the president’s budget would seriously damage Maryland’s economic future. Congress should take a more productive approach when it tackles the budget. This would mean strengthening federal investments in education, easing the burden of student debt on borrowers, and rejecting arbitrary spending caps.
