Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was recently asked to defend the department’s proposed budget, which includes $7 billion in cuts to education programs, including cutting almost $18 million in federal funding to the Special Olympics.
Rep. Mark Pocan asked DeVos whether she knew how many children would be affected by the cut to Special Olympics funding, to which she responded she did not know. (The answer, by the way, is 272,000.) DeVos said that she thinks the Special Olympics is an “awesome organization” that is well-supported by the philanthropic sector. It’s also worth noting that, according to Politico, DeVos donated a portion of her salary last year to the Special Olympics.
Pocan also pointed out to DeVos that the proposed budget would reduce state grants for special education by 26 percent, as well as cut funding to programs for students who are blind. Toward the end of his remarks, Pocan said, “I have two nephews with autism. What is that we have a problem with with children who are in special education? Why are we cutting all of these programs over and over within this budget?”
DeVos responded by saying, “Supporting children with special needs, we have continued to hold that funding at a level amount and in the context of a budget proposal, that is a 10 percent reduction,” before Pocan reclaimed his time, saying DeVos was not answering his question. At one point, DeVos did say the department had to “make some difficult decisions” for the year’s budget.
According to NBC, the Trump administration has honed in on education spending in previous budget proposals, but Congress increased spending for programs for students with learning disabilities last year.
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