Dear Patrons of our Public Schools,
President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos recently released their full budget proposal to fund the government in 2018.The proposal includes more than $9 billion in cuts to funding for public schools and postsecondary students that, if passed, would be devastating for our schools and community.
As Superintendents of our local school districts, we know firsthand that money matters in education. Without sufficient resources, we cannot provide an equitable education to all students. The Trump administration’s plan to siphon money away from our public school system to help fund private school voucher schemes will hurt our students, schools, and community.
In fact, Trump and DeVos have proposed cutting funding that districts like ours use to provide critical resources to students and their families.
For example, the administration’s budget eliminates federal support for after-school and summer learning programs. The Trump administration also proposes eliminating funding to support and train excellent teachers. For districts like ours that need that funding to recruit and retain teachers, these additional cuts would be devastating. We are already short teachers in areas like foreign language, science, and special education.
The administration’s budget doesn’t stop there – it also attacks 20 other critical programs such as arts in education, gifted and talented education, foreign languages, and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). While President Trump and Secretary DeVos may find these programs non-essential, the reality is that they mean a great deal to the students in our districts.
What’s worse, President Trump and Secretary DeVos are proposing to redirect these funds to private schools through a national voucher program. Although decades of research shows that voucher programs do not lead to better outcomes for kids, Trump and DeVos and continue to praise voucher programs as a model for increasing school choice across the country.
The reality, however, is that the creation of the voucher program in our state has been devastating for our public school systems. When a student receives a private school voucher, the school he or she leaves behind loses thousands of dollars in per pupil funding. In our districts, that’s $5000 -$6000 per student. Even a slight drop in enrollment in school districts like ours could mean laying off teachers, eliminating advanced or elective courses, or reducing activities and supports for students to offset the loss of per-pupil funding that would result from the student accepting a voucher. We need to invest in our public schools, not drain them by diverting public funds to private schools. We’re not opposed to school choice; we just don’t believe funds should be taken from public schools to fund private schools.
To be clear, we also know that we must improve our public schools so that all kids are ready to succeed in college, career, and life. Our schools have focused on increasing our graduation rate, shrinking the achievement gap, and getting more students into advanced courses, but there is still work to be done. Siphoning public dollars away from public schools is not the answer.
All students deserve access to an equitable education. Instead, President Trump and Secretary DeVos want to take money away from public schools—which educate 93% of students—to invest in private school voucher schemes. Our elected officials in Washington, D.C. must stand up for students and say no to the administration’s irresponsible efforts to privatize our public schools.
Your Area Superintendents,
Donna Burroughs, Triton School Corporation
Annette Zupin, North Judson-San Pierre School Corporation
Chuck Kitchell, Culver Community Schools Corporation
Robert L. Boyd, Argos Community Schools
Dr. Donald E. Harman, Oregon-Davis School Corporation
Jim Dermody, Knox Community School Corporation
