Politics

Trump is all about school safety this week, but last week his budget slashed school safety funds

Last Wednesday a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, left 17 dead, so this Thursday, Donald Trump will have a meeting on school safety. But let’s flash back to last Monday, when Trump released his budget, about which Politico reported, in the wake of the shooting, that it dramatically cuts school safety funding.

The budget request calls for a $25 million reduction in funds designated for national school safety activities, compared with 2017. President Donald Trump’s budget would eliminate altogether a $400 million grant program that districts can use, for example, to prevent bullying or provide mental health assistance.

Trump’s budget would also zero out the School Emergency Response to Violence program, known as Project SERV — funded at $1 million in 2017 — that in years past provided millions in funds used by the district in Newtown. However, Hill said that the grant program’s funds carry over from year to year and the department projects that a current $5.2 million balance will be sufficient to meet needs through the next fiscal year.

The running joke is that there’s always a tweet—for everything that happens or everything he says now, Trump has tweeted something in the past that completely contradicts or condemns his current stance. It’s starting to seem like there’s always a budget cut—everything that happens, we’re going to find out how Trump’s budget would have made it worse.