Today, the White House released President Trump’s full budget request to Congress for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018. This document outlines the Administration's spending priorities for the coming year fiscal year, including federal education and workforce training programs. The budget proposes drastic cuts in federal support for CTE, including a $168 million cut in the Perkins Basic State Grant! It also proposes to put an additional $20 million in the Perkins National Programs to establish a new grant that would support only certain CTE programs in STEM fields that are able to compete for funds.
Despite past statements from the president and members of his Administration in support of CTE, this 15 percent cut in state grant funding would have a devastating impact on millions of students across the country. The cut would be so deep that it would actually trigger a “hold harmless” provision in the Perkins Act and its “ratable reduction” rule, which means that certain states would see disproportionately larger cuts to their funding allocations before all states are reduced.
In joint statement with Advance CTE, ACTE Executive Director LeAnn Wilson said of the budget plan, “While the Trump Administration talks about supporting workforce and skills development, this dramatic cut is nothing short of an attack on CTE and the students and employers who benefit from it.
Overall, the budget would cut $9 billion (13 percent) in total from the Department of Education and $2.5 billion (21 percent) from the Department of Labor. Many programs supporting students and job seekers would be drastically cut or eliminated under the president’s budget plan, including:
- Adult education would be cut by $96 million.
- Teacher Quality Partnership Grants for teacher education would be eliminated.
- ESSA Title IV grants that can support career guidance programs and other CTE-related initiatives would be eliminated.
- ESSA Title II funds to support effective educators would be eliminated.
- WIOA youth, adult, and dislocated worker state grants would see a combined cut of over $1 billion.
We call on Congress to reject the Trump cuts to education and job training. Take a few minutes to tell your lawmakers on Capitol Hill that we cannot cut our way to a 21st century workforce!
Please secure the future of CTE and the funding to support it. The future workforce would be decimated without this educational funding. Your projected growth won't happen without us!
Posted by: Kurt Wismer | 05/25/2017 at 10:50 AM
On Thursday, February 23, 2017 President Trump brought two dozen manufacturing CEOs to the White House who declared their collective commitment to restoring manufacturing jobs lost to foreign competition. Executives at this meeting represented Dow Chemical, Caterpillar, 3M, and General Motors to name a few. The CEOs stated that there were plenty of openings for U.S. manufacturing jobs but too few qualified people to fill them. They urged the White House to continue to support Career & Technical Education training for the high-tech skills that today's manufacturers increasingly require. In another meeting, the same message was given by members of the Construction Industry. Where's the disconnect Mr. President?
Posted by: Mark | 05/25/2017 at 11:31 AM
This is critical funding for our CTE programs...another example of taking away from our schools. So sad.
Posted by: Robin Kvalo | 05/25/2017 at 02:08 PM
You get what you voted for, talk with your students parents.
Posted by: Brad | 05/29/2017 at 10:36 AM
CTE programming is essential for public schools to prepare students for college and career. Students who are involved in these programs are not only equipped with hands-on skills when they graduate, but also well-rounded and likely to seek out groups to be a part of like they were in high school. Being involved in college has been proven to boost the chances of student success. Please do not support cutting these funds.
Posted by: Stacey Troxel | 06/12/2017 at 06:14 PM