LANSING, Mich. — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will be back on the hot seat on Capitol Hill in a few hours, a day after defending a proposal to eliminate federal funding for the Special Olympics.
Betsy DeVos is scheduled to present her budget to a Senate subcommittee at 10 a.m. Thursday.
Her testimony will come just days after she was grilled over the budget by lawmakers in the House. DeVos’s proposed budget makes nearly $7 billion in budget cuts for 2020. That includes getting rid of $18 million in federal funding for the Special Olympics.
For 2019, Michigan will get about $200,000 from the federal government to fund programs like the Unified Champions Program, which teams up kids with and without intellectual disabilities.
Seeing the future of such programs has local educators upset.
"When we hear soundbites and stuff that comes out of Washington, DC, sometimes we don't have a clear understanding of how that trickles down and impacts people here in Lansing, Michigan,” said Anne Goudie, Special Olympics Area Director A8. “And it doesn't sound like a lot of money when it comes to our federal budget, but it does trickle down to affect the students right here in the Lansing area."
DeVos says the Education Department had to make some difficult decisions, adding the Special Olympics benefit the most and is supported by philanthropy.
She is scheduled to testify before House lawmakers at 10:00 a.m. Thursday and the Trump Administration has tried to eliminate Special Olympics funding in its previous budget.
Congress ultimately increased the organization’s funding but lawmakers says the latest attempt to cut the funding will fail once again.
