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March 28, 2019

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Defends Plan to Cut Special Olympics Funding
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And the Trump administration is struggling to justify its plans to cut
federal funding to the Special Olympics and other programs benefiting
students with disabilities, while spending tens of millions more to fund
charter schools and higher salaries at the Department of Education.
Under President Trump's 2020 budget plan, Education Secretary Betsy De
Vos proposed zeroing out funding for the Special Olympics-the third year
in a row she's made such a request. This is Betsy De Vos being
questioned Tuesday by Wisconsin Democratic Congressmember Mark Pocan.

Rep. Mark Pocan: "Do you know how many kids are going to be affected by
that cut, Madam Secretary?"

Education Secretary Betsy De Vos: "Mr. Pocan, let me just say again, we
had made-we had to make some"-

Rep. Mark Pocan: "OK."

Education Secretary Betsy De Vos: -"difficult decisions with this
budget. And"-

Rep. Mark Pocan: "OK, and this is a question of how many kids, not about
the budget."

Education Secretary Betsy De Vos: "I don't know the number of kids."

Rep. Mark Pocan: "OK. It's 272,000 kids."

Education Secretary Betsy De Vos: "I also know that I-I think"-

Rep. Mark Pocan: "That's all-OK, I'll answer it for you. That's OK, no
problem. It's 272,000 kids that are affected."

Education Secretary Betsy De Vos: "Let me just say that I think Special
Olympics is an awesome organization, one that is well supported by the
philanthropic sector, as well."

Rep. Mark Pocan: "Sure."

As of Thursday morning, a Move On petition asking De Vos to reverse
plans to cut programs for the Special Olympics had gathered nearly
100,000 signatures. Last year Congress allocated about $17.6 million to
the Special Olympics. The Washington Post reports that figure is roughly
equivalent to the amount taxpayers allocated to President Trump's last
five trips to his golf resort at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.


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