FACT SHEET: President Trump’s FY 2018 Budget

A New Foundation for American Greatness

Prioritizing Students, Empowering Parents

“This budget makes an historic investment in America’s students. President Trump is committed 

to ensuring the Department focuses on returning decision-making power back to the States, 

where it belongs, and on giving parents more control over their child’s education. 

“By refocusing the Department’s funding priorities on supporting students, we can usher in a 

new era of creativity and ingenuity and lay a new foundation for American greatness.”

— Betsy DeVos, U.S. Secretary of Education

The five major themes in the President’s FY 2018 Budget:

• Expanding school choice, ensuring more children have an equal opportunity to receive a 

great education

• Maintaining strong support for the Nation’s most vulnerable students

• Simplifying funding for postsecondary education

• Continuing to build evidence around educational innovation

• Eliminating or reducing Department programs consistent with the limited Federal role in 

education

The Budget eliminates or reduces more than 30 programs that duplicate other programs, are 

ineffective; or are more appropriately supported with State, local, or private funds.

The President’s Budget provides $59 billion in discretionary funding, a $9 billion or 

13 percent decrease below the 2017 annualized CR level. 

A full-year 2017 appropriation was not enacted at the time the fiscal year 2018 Budget was 

prepared; therefore, the Budget is built off of the Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2017

(P.L. 114-254).
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Creating New Education Options through School Choice

The FY 2018 Budget offers $1.4 billion toward new public and private school choice 

opportunities, enabling more students an equal opportunity for a great education

• $1 billion increase for Title I for new Furthering Options for Children to Unlock Success 

(FOCUS) grants. FOCUS grants would provide supplemental awards to school districts that 

adopt student-centered weighted student funding formulas combined with open enrollment 

systems.

• $250 million increase for the Education Innovation and Research (EIR) program for 

competitive awards for applicants to provide scholarships for students from low-income 

families to attend the private school of their parents’ choice.

• $167 million increase for the Charter Schools Grant program to strengthen State efforts to 

start new charter schools or expand and replicate existing high-performing charter schools 

while providing up to $100 million to meet the growing demand for charter school facilities.

Maintaining Support for the Nation’s Most Vulnerable Students

The President is committed to ensuring the nation’s most at-risk and vulnerable students are 

protected. The FY 2018 Budget level funds Title I, IDEA and other critical programs

• $14.9 billion in level funding for the core Title I Grants to local education agencies (LEAs) 

program to support State and local efforts to ensure that more than 25 million students in 

high-poverty schools have access to rigorous coursework and teaching.

• $12.7 billion to maintain the Federal investment in the IDEA formula grant programs, which 

help support services to the 6.8 million children with disabilities nationwide and to States in 

their ongoing work to design and implement program improvement efforts under the 

Department’s Results Driven Accountability framework.

• $736 million for the English Language Acquisition program to implement effective language 

instruction educational programs designed to help English learners attain English language 

proficiency.

Simplifying Funding for Postsecondary Education

The FY 2018 Budget expands Pell Grants to year-round and simplifies loan repayment program 

to help students 

• Safeguards and strengthens the Pell Grant program by level funding the discretionary 

appropriation and supporting year-round Pell, which will increase aid available to eligible 

students by $16.3 billion over 10 years. The budget also proposes the cancellation of 

$3.9 billion from unobligated carryover funding; this cancellation will have no effect on 

students and will leave the Pell program on sound footing.

• Streamlines subsidized student loans and replaces five different income driven repayment 

plans with a single plan aimed at prioritizing expedited loan repayment for undergraduate 

borrowers.

• Provides $808.3 million for the Federal TRIO Programs and $219 million for GEAR UP, 

resulting in savings of $193 million from the 2017 annualized CR level. Funding for these

programs is reduced in areas that are either not supported by rigorous evidence of 

effectiveness or that can be supported through other resources.
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• Provides $492 million for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), MinorityServing Institutions, and Hispanic-Serving Institutions through the Higher Education Act 

Titles III and V programs. Titles III and V funding are important vehicles for helping close 

gaps among racial and socioeconomic groups in college enrollment and degree attainment by 

improving these institutions’ academic programs, institutional capacity and student support 

services.

• Reduces Federal Work-Study while reforming the poorly-targeted program to ensure funds 

go to undergraduate students who would benefit most.

Building Evidence around Educational Innovation

The FY 2018 Budget provides strong support for identifying and replicating program that are 

proven to work

• $616.8 million for the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) for continued support of 

research, evaluation, and statistics that help educators, policymakers, and other stakeholders 

improve outcomes for all students.

• $370 million for Education Innovation and Research to expand support for evidence-based 

initiatives to develop, validate, and scale up effective education interventions that help States 

and LEAs meet ESEA requirements (includes the $250 million private school choice 

initiative highlighted above).

• $42 million for Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) to provide evidencebased professional development activities and prepare teachers and principals from 

nontraditional preparation and certification routes to serve in high-need LEAs.

Streamlining Existing Programs

The FY 2018 Budget saves taxpayers $9 billion by streamlining or eliminating ineffective and 

redundant programs

• Eliminates funding for Supporting Effective Instruction State grants, a reduction of 

$2.3 billion. The program is proposed for elimination because evidence shows the program is 

poorly structured to support activities that have a measurable impact on improving student 

outcomes and it duplicates other ESEA program funds that may be used for professional 

development.

• Eliminates funding for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, saving 

$1.2 billion. The program lacks strong evidence of meeting its objectives, such as improving 

student achievement. 

• Eliminates Striving Readers/Comprehensive Literacy Development Grants, which will save 

$190 million. This program has limited impact (only 5-10 State grants are expected in the 

final cohort) and duplicates activities that may be supported with other Federal, State, local 

and private funds. 

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