Congress Rejects DeVos' Agenda, Proposed Cuts With $4B Increase

Congress neutered the agenda and 5 percent cuts proposed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos by instead adding $4 billion to the Department of Education budget and rejecting her school-choice platform, The Washington Post reports.

DeVos' budget proposals, in part:

• $3.6 billion in cuts to the DOE, or 5 percent.
• $1 billion promoting school choice and private vouchers.
• Elimination of funding for after-school programs for needy youth.
• Cuts to the Office of Civil Rights.
• Elimination of grant programs in support of mental health programs.

Congress, instead, made these changes, in part, to the Education Department:

• Increase funding by $3.9 billion.
• Increase of $700 million investment for mental health grants.
• Addition of $22 million to combat school violence.
• Addition of $40 million for the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant.
• Increases funding for after-school programs and Office of Civil Rights.

It's the second consecutive year that Congress has rejected DeVos' proposals and agenda, the Post reports.

"After more than a year on the job, I would have hoped Secretary DeVos would have learned by now that her extreme ideas to privatize our nation's public schools and dismantle the Department of Education do not have support among parents or in Congress, but unfortunately that does not seem to be the case," said Sen. Patty Murray, the ranking Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee.

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