The March of the Recissions continues, apparently with an even greater focus on hollowing out supports for children.
The Trump Administration is planning to claw back Congressionally appropriated funding from the Department of Education, according to reports that surfaced this week, moving another step closer to effectively disabling the one-and-only federal agency devoted to children.
Rescissions appear to be the President’s newest weapon in his War on Children. Lawmakers handed $9 billion back to the Administration last week, funding drawn largely from foreign assistance, including international programs that support children, such as development assistance (which funds clean water and sanitation), refugee programs, UNICEF, and aid to victims of international disasters. A bipartisan group of senators did successfully preserve $400 million in funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — better known as PEPFAR — which included monies to feed and protect orphans and vulnerable children abroad.
The threat of rescissions at the Department of Education comes on the heels of other targeted — and likely illegal — Administration actions around the department’s funding.
The Trump Administration withheld nearly $7 billion from education programs earlier this month. This funding already had been appropriated by Congress, signed into law, and accounted for in school budgets. The Administration recently released $1.4 billion of this money for after-school and summer programs but continues to withhold more than $5 billion. The stalled funding was appropriated to support teacher preparation and retention, English language learners, and other student supports.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers appropriated this funding.Ten Republican Senators recently sent a letter to the Administration demanding release of the funds.
P.S. All of this happened just as the Supreme Court ruled that the Administration also could fire roughly 1,400 Department of Education employees. When added to previous cuts — the Administration cut the department from 4,000 employees to 2,200 earlier this year — the additional reduction in force will mean the department cannot meet its mission to serve our nation’s students, schools, and early learning programs.