Oppose Trump’s education budget

May 24th, 2017|Action of the Day|0 Comments
The proposed education budget from the Trump administration has impacts for both current and former students. The Washington Post reports reductions to after school programs, teacher training, and most academic enrichment opportunities in the K-12 setting. But the cuts also impact public service loan forgiveness, childcare for low-income parents, and other areas that impact college students and graduates. For those who aren’t easily persuaded by Washington’s role in education, the budget also eliminates $168 million for technical education which negatively impacts the trades that the Trump administration claims to support. Similarly, cuts to loan forgiveness will reduce social services to rural areas, another area more likely to have supported Trump.
Even more disturbing than the cuts is that they are being done in the name of school choice, giving $500 million for charter schools (a 50% increase) and $250 million to research vouchers for private and religious schools. This is bad news because we already know that vouchers don’t work. The NYTimes reported earlier this year that comprehensive students of vouchers in Louisiana revealed “significant losses in achievement” in math and no improvement in reading. This corroborates with research from the Walton Family Foundation, which also revealed losses in math and stagnation in reading, despite their charge of supporting voucher efficacy.

CALL TO ACTION

  • Advocate nationally. Call your two U.S. Senators and one U.S. Representative to tell them that you do NOT support Trump’s education budget. Below is a mad-lib type text where you can plug in your own details. Calls over DeVos got flack from Utah leadership for being “robo-calls”. While that’s not true, it does show that the more unique the messaging, the better!

Sample text: I’m a constituent from ZIP CODE calling to voice my concern over the Trump education budget. May I ask whether the SENATOR/REP supports it?

Listen for staffer response and, if appropriate ask if you can give specific reasons why the budget is upsetting. 

I am troubled by the loss of PROGRAM OF YOUR CHOICE and also by the way changes to LOAN FORGIVENESS OR TRADE EDUCATION will impact rural Utahns. Reducing these funds to research vouchers is misguided because many studies identify a decrease in academic achievement among students receiving vouchers. I call on SENATOR OR REP to support the public schools in his/her district; NAME ONE BENEFIT OF YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD PUBLIC SCHOOL.

  • Hate calling? Calls are great because they are immediately tallied. If you know you just aren’t going to make the call please consider using the sample text above to send a fax via Resist Bot. Text “resist” to 504-09 and follow the prompts to send a fax.
  • Advocate locally. When national cuts loom and the state legislature is ineffective at closing funding gaps, consider signing up to volunteer for Our Schools Now. They will need signatures gathered in the coming year to get a ballot initiative to better fund schools through local tax. Click here for more information or to sign up.

Utah Members of Congress Contact Information

Sen. Orrin Hatch (202) 224-5251 (DC) // (801) 524-4380 (SLC) // (801) 375-7881 (Provo) // (435) 634-1795 (St. George) // (801) 625-5672 (Ogden) // (435) 586-8435 (Cedar City)
Sen. Mike Lee 202-224-5444 (DC) // 801-524-5933 (SLC) // 435-628-5514 (St. George) // 801-392-9633 (Ogden)
Rep. Rob Bishop (Congressional District 1): 202-225-0453 (DC) // 801-625-0107 (Ogden)
Rep. Chris Stewart (Congressional District 2): 202-225-9730 (DC) // 801-364-5550 (SLC) // 435-627-1500 (St. George)
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (Congressional District 3): (202) 225-7751 (DC) // (801) 851-2500 (UT)
Rep. Mia Love (Congressional District 4): (202) 225-3011 (DC) // 801-996-8729 (West Jordan)

Not sure who your U.S. Representative is? Check here.

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