You can almost feel the anguish from the Secretary of Education, defending her department’s proposed elimination of federal funding to the Special Olympics.
Appearing before a House subcommittee Tuesday to review the department’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, DeVos said, “We had to make some difficult decisions.”
But, don’t worry, DeVos has no doubts that the wealthy people will make up the $18 million difference.
“I think Special Olympics is an awesome organization, one that is well supported by the philanthropic sector as well,” DeVos said.
The cut is about 4% of the organization’s annual income, which doesn’t sound like much unless you’ve ever worked for a non-profit organization. And the organization’s leadership have noted that being a recipient of federal money actually helps encourage additional private donations.
The cuts are just part of $7 billion the agency is proposing to eliminate from federal support for education programs in the department (10% of the current budget) — though the proposal also calls for $60 million more in taxpayer funding for charter schools (DeVos’ pet project), and funding for a big tax credits for people and companies that fund scholarships to private schools. Because public teacher training and reducing public classroom size and helping decaying public schools isn’t nearly as exciting as throwing money at charter and private schools.
It has been pointed out that the annual federal funding to the Special Olympics only costs as much as five Trump visits to Mar-a-Lago, or less than half the value of her personal yacht, the SeaQuest (one of ten her family owns), or, y’know, about 3/4 of a mile of Vanity Wall on the border. Clearly, difficult decisions.
In fairness, Betsy DeVos purports to love the Special Olympics.
It was great to spend time with the @SpecialOlympics athletes! Thanks for all you do, @TimShriver. https://t.co/tCrpx40xaN
— Betsy DeVos (@BetsyDeVosED) February 15, 2017
But difficult decisions are difficult.
DeVos has promised to donate a quarter of her salary — about $50K — to the group to help make up for the $18M being yoinked. I’m sure all of her friends will join her in this endeavor — unless she talks them into donating to those private scholarship funds as a great tax deduction instead.
Do you want to know more?
- Betsy DeVos defends Special Olympics budget cuts: ‘We had to make some difficult decisions’ | TheHill
- Betsy DeVos wants cuts to Special Olympics, other student programs
- Trump DOE Proposes Eliminating Federal Funding For Special Olympics
- Special Olympics Delegates Made Case of Impact and Need for Critical Funding on Capitol Hill 2019
Republican Jesus hates anyone who is not a perfect rich white male just like him.
Just when you think you know what his administration will do or is about, President Trump steps in and overrides Ms. DeVos. I would recommend not believing the first, second, etc… thing that is reported about this administration. It looks like the media can’t wait or investigate until the matter is at hand.
Well, it’s not like it was a hoax, since she was literally testifying in front of Congress the other day about how it was How Things Had To Be.
The reality seems to be that Trump found it to be so universally disliked that he felt obliged to back down on it. Which, bully for him, even if it leaves his Education Secretary dangling in the wind.
That this was the President correcting an errant or overzealous minion is belied by the fact that the DoE budget included reducing or eliminating federal funding for the Special Olympics the past two years as well:
One can only assume that this is what the Administration would prefer to do, but has not yet found a favorable climate to make it happen.