President Trump Expands Educational Opportunity for America’s Children and Families Impacted by the Pandemic

EMPOWERING PARENTS AND STUDENTS: President Donald J. Trump is taking action to expand K-12 educational options for disadvantaged children impacted by the pandemic.

•  On Monday, President Trump signed an Executive Order offering flexibility to provide certain disadvantaged children with emergency K-12 scholarships to access in-person learning opportunities.
• The Order allows States and eligible entities to use available Federal Community Service Block Grants (CSBG) funds to provide life-changing scholarships to families whose children cannot access in-person learning.
  • CSBG funds totaled nearly $1.7 billion in FY 2020.
• Scholarships provided with CSBG funds can help families pay for private school tuition, home schooling, micro schooling, learning-pod expenses, special education services, or tutoring.

FIGHTING FOR OUR CHILDREN’S WELL-BEING: President Trump is protecting America’s children who need an in-person learning option from prolonged school closures.

• Despite providing $13 billion in Federal support for K-12 schools this spring to safely resume in-person learning, more than half of all public school students began school remotely this fall.
• A lack of in-person learning most harms low-income students and students with disabilities.
  • Research shows that during school closures this spring, students’ math progress in low-income neighborhoods decreased by nearly 50 percent and those from middle-income neighborhoods fell by almost a third.
  • According to surveys, children with special needs were twice as likely to receive little or no virtual instruction and to be dissatisfied with the virtual instruction they received.
• A recent survey of educators found student absences have doubled during the pandemic.
• Analysts project that if in-person classes do not fully resume until January 2021, low-income students will lose over a year of learning.
  • Projections also show that an average student could lose between $61,000 to $82,000 in lifetime earnings, or the equivalent of a full year of full-time work.

EXPANDING EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY: President Trump continues to help each child have a fair shot at the American dream through school choice.

• President Trump has led a national conversation on expanding school choice and introduced the most transformative education funding proposal ever, Education Freedom Scholarships.
• President Trump has twice signed legislation re-authorizing the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program.
• The Trump Administration has invested nearly $1.5 billion in the development of public charter schools, helping this innovative sector grow to 7,500 charter schools serving more than 3 million students.
• Because of the President’s historic tax reform, parents across the nation can now withdraw up to $10,000 tax-free per year from 529 education savings plans to cover public, private, or religious K-12 schooling costs.