Annysa Johnson and Erin Richards

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers is urging Congress to reject the Trump administration's plan to cut $10.6 billion in federal funding for education, saying it would strain public institutions, usurp local control and undermine efforts to make college more affordable.

"Educational opportunities for Wisconsin students would be deeply damaged," Evers said in a statement that criticized the proposed budget President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos are expected to release next week.

"As it stands, the proposal ... seeks to benefit students attending private schools, while drastically cutting back funding for public schools," he said.

Evers' comments followed a Washington Post story Wednesday that detailed the cuts. The story was based on internal documents made available to the newspaper. The details are much more specific than a budget blueprint Trump released in March.

According to the Post, the Department of Education would see a $9.2 billion cut, or about 13.6% of the spending approved by Congress last month. The story quoted documents suggesting the budget would, among other things:

Invest $500 million in charter schools, up 50% from current funding, and $250 million to expand and study voucher schools.

Spend $1 billion on encouraging school choice within districts.

Cut $490 million, or almost half of the funding, for college work-study programs and cut $700 million in Perkins loans for disadvantaged students.

End student loan forgiveness programs for graduates who take lower-income public-service jobs, such as in teaching or nonprofits.

Cut funding for a program that helps schools pay for mental health services, anti-bullying initiatives, physical education, Advanced Placement courses and science and engineering instruction.

Eliminate $1.2 billion for after-school programs that serve 1.6 million children, most of whom are poor, and $2.1 billion for teacher training and class-size reduction.

Cut a $15 million program that provides child care for low-income parents in college.

Cut a $12 million program for gifted students and $12 million for Special Olympics education programs.

Slash $168 million in grants to states for career and technical education and eliminate $96 million for adult literacy instruction.

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Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Darienne Driver said the budget "strips billions of dollars from educating our future workforce here in Wisconsin" and would be "harmful to public school districts across Wisconsin."

"If the Department of Education truly wants to improve student achievement and wants to support states and local public schools, it cannot then remove the very funding that allows us to do just that," Driver said in a statement.

"Education is an investment, not an expense," she added.

On the other side of the fence, advocates for school choice, who tend to lean conservative, are optimistic about what's to come in Trump's budget.

Many choice advocates agree with Trump and DeVos that the federal government has long wasted billions of dollars on educational initiatives that do little to improve achievement, especially for poor and minority children trapped in under-performing public schools that answer to lumbering district bureaucracies.

Justin Moralez is the Wisconsin-based lobbyist for American Federation for Children, the national nonprofit started by DeVos to fund school-choice initiatives. He said Friday he was pleased to see some "funding muscle" put behind the administration's commitment to expand school-choice initiatives nationwide.

"Between funding in the budget and, hopefully, advancing a federal education tax credit later in the year, this administration understands that educational choice is an essential component to ensuring every child can access a quality education and to improved educational outcomes across the board," Moralez said in a statement.

But William Henk, dean of Marquette University's College of Education, said he believed the cuts in federal education funding could be seen as a negative for the profession and serve to discourage even more people from pursuing teaching. That's a significant concern in Wisconsin, where education school enrollments are at historic lows.

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The proposed cuts to federal funds for teacher training, after-school programs, advanced coursework, and mental health programs, if enacted by Congress, "are going to be hard for us," Henk said.

Henk said the proposed cuts to loan programs like the Perkins grant would make it even harder for low-income students to pay off education-school debt, especially since teachers do not generally make high salaries once they go into the field.

The Post said the proposal is likely to meet resistance on Capitol Hill because of strong constituencies seeking to protect current funding, ideological opposition to vouchers and fierce criticism of DeVos, a longtime Republican donor and school choice advocate.

Trump's full budget for fiscal year 2018 is expected to be released Tuesday, according to the White House.

Contact Annysa Johnson at annysa.johnson@jrn.com or Erin Richards at erin.richards@jrn.com.