Trump’s New Campaign: Make America Stupid Again
How cutting $9.2 billion from the Department of Education will affect you.
Bad news for low-income students, STEM students, and fine arts departments. As if Trump hasn’t already become the infamous news headliner on every platform of social media you read and hear about everyday, the proposed 2017 budget cuts just made things a lot more…personal.
The U.S. Department of Education is just one of many departments whose funding is getting slashed, but for college students, this would have a more direct effect.
While the Pell Grant program-which many low-income college students rely on in order to alleviate the cost of tuition-won’t be completely cut, its funds are being reduced by $3.9 billion. The Pell Grant program has been around since 1972, and, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, it is the largest federal grant program around. According to U.S. & World Report News, almost 90% of students at New Mexico State University and 83% of students at Florida Institute of Technology rely on Pell Grants as one form of financial aid-and these are only two schools on a list of many.
The Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) program has also been proposed to be completely eliminated. This grant is campus-based and supplies $100-$4,000 per year for students with severe financial need.
Goodbye grants, hello loans. Without substantial funding from grants, students will be forced to rely more on building student debt, competitive scholarships, or not be able to afford a higher education at all. Some even go as far as to scream systematic racism, as it is typically people of color who heavily rely on these grants to keep them in school.
In addition to grants, Trump is hoping to slash international education programs, which support international exchange students and global academic initiatives. NASA’s education office will also be getting chopped, as well as community service organizations, social and community work, teacher recruitment and training programs, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Clean energy initiatives, climate change research, and certain environmental protections will also be losing funding. Global warming is on the rise, and it looks like we’ll be paying for its damage later since we’re not paying for its prevention now.
Of course, everything is placed into the hands of Congress for approval, so there’s no need to panic yet.