On March 26 and 28, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos testified before Congress about the Administration’s budget proposal (released March 12, 2019). As you know, the Administration’s proposed budget would once again zero out funding for Title II-A, a $2.05 billion program dedicated to professional learning. The Administration instead proposed a $220 million “teacher professional development voucher program” that would allow educators to customize their own professional development. Read Stephanie Hirsh’s statement on the President’s budget. During testimony before both the House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees, Secretary DeVos defended the Administration’s proposal to cut 10-12% of the Department’s overall budget.

Democrats in both the House and Senate – including Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) - blasted the Secretary for proposing and advocating for a budget that would make “cruel and unusual” cuts to public education programs while championing billions of dollars for school choice programs, charter schools, and new unauthorized programs. While both hearings featured mostly highly partisan criticism of the Department’s deep cuts to education, there was recognition from Republicans, including Ranking Member Cole (R-OK) on the House side, that these cuts were concerning and that the last Congress rejected similar proposed cuts. On the Senate side, Chairman Blunt (R-MO) noted that these cuts are not the will of the Secretary, but a result of the Budget Control Act, which required the President to write his budgets at a 9% cut. With that recognition though, he and Ranking Member Murray (D-WA) assured the Secretary that the Committee would work to pass a bipartisan bill, as they have done the last several years, that would not enact these cuts to education programs in FY20. Read Stephanie Hirsh’s statement on the President’s budget.