Congress dealt a blow to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s school choice agenda in a tentative spending bill released late Wednesday, rejecting her attempt to spend more than $1 billion promoting choice-friendly policies and private school vouchers. The White House had proposed cutting one-fourth of the budget in fiscal 2018 and all federal funding for fiscal 2019. The bill includes additional investments in early childhood education, including $610 million in new funding for Head Start. The bill also sets aside $1.01 billion, a $60 million increase, for programs that help disadvantaged students enter and complete college. And it pumps an additional $35 million into the Child Care Access Means Parents in School program that assists low-income college students with child-care costs.

Source: Washington Post March 22, 2018 03:30 UTC