Trump Administration Wants To Cut Millions From Special Olympics Funding
✔ @repmarkpocan
In @ BetsyDeVosED ’s budget, there are major cuts to programs like the Special Olympics. Sec. DeVos didn’t know the number of kids who would be hurt by that cut, so I made sure she now knows that 272,000 kids are seeing their support taken away.
Tags
Who is online
96 visitors
Appearing before a House subcommittee Tuesday to review the department’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, DeVos said, “We had to make some difficult decisions.”
DeVos’s remarks came in response to questions from Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), who pressed her on the amount of kids the budget cut would impact.
“I don’t know the number of kids,” DeVos said before Pocan answered that 272,000 kids would be impacted.
“I think Special Olympics is an awesome organization, one that is well supported by the philanthropic sector as well,” DeVos said.
The budget proposed by President Trump and supported by DeVos calls for nearly $18 million in cuts to the Special Olympics.
Last year, DeVos donated a portion of her salary to the Special Olympics, according to Politico .
Tuesday was DeVos's first appearance before a Democrat-controlled House panel.
Formerly the chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party, DeVos was approved as Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Education following a contentious confirmation hearing with strong pushback from Republicans.
DeVos has long been an advocate for school choice, and her proposed budget includes increased charter school funding.
Last year, DeVos donated a portion of her salary to the Special Olympics
Let's see...she makes $207,800 a year in her position as Secretary of Education. She is worth over $1 billion. How generous of her to donate part of her 'salary' to the Special Olympics, and then cut $18 million in funding.
I nominate Betsy DeVos for sainthood!
I don't think sainthood is what I'd recommend as a descriptive word. Do they have saints in Hell, or in trump heaven?
I thought maybe a young, pure, fine Omish Nun such as yourself might know.
I agree !
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/14/betsy-devos-salary-charities-347468?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=in-text-link
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will donate her $199,700 salary to four nonprofits — one of which would have its federal funding eliminated per the White House budget request.
DeVos will write checks divided equally among the four organizations, including the Special Olympics, Education Department spokeswoman Liz Hill told POLITICO.
She plans to give a quarter of her nearly $200,000 salary to Kids Hope USA, a nonprofit focused on mentoring programs designed by churches to target at-risk children in public schools.
DeVos has served as a mentor for the organization, Hill said. And her philanthropic foundation, the Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation, has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kids Hope USA in recent years.
A 2016 financial filing lists a $250,000 donation as “approved for future payment” and a $235,000 donation as paid during the year.
DeVos also plans to donate to Vision to Learn, an organization that provides glasses to low-income children at no cost, and Dreams Soar, a nonprofit focused on encouraging girls to pursue degrees and careers in the fields of STEM and aviation.
DeVos’ family also founded an aviation-focused charter school, called West Michigan Aviation Academy, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which Waiz praised in the op-ed.
The donations to charity are another way in which DeVos' wealth sets her apart from past secretaries. Education Department officials have also noted that DeVos has tried to save taxpayers money by flying privately in her own plane and footing the bill.
DeVos also pays for her protective detail — which is provided around the clock by the U.S. Marshals Service — to fly with her on her private plane. That protective detail is highly unprecedented for an Education secretary and is projected to cost up to $6.54 million through September 2018.
I'm not sure if I agree with that assessment or not, but whether or not the US Govt should be subsidizing Special Olympics is certainly a fair question.
We don't subsidize HS football. We do subsidize sports like baseball or track or women's basketball, but we don't subsidize alternative competitions for non-special needs kids who can't make those teams.
I get that, and to a certain degree I concur.
But that gets me thinking how we apply that idea when looking over the sports we've traditionally funded. I don't have a problem with football, as that almost always pays for itself.
But what about soccer? What about swimming? What about all those other sports that don't pay for themselves and are only open to kids who are athletically gifted enough to make a 12 man basketball roster or a 4 woman relay team? Why are we subsidizing those activities that are only open to a select few?
Your seed link is screwed up, here's a link to the same story.
trump also wants to cut out about two Billion in Pell Grants and Billions out of about 30 other programs dealing with education. It seems that his threat to cut College funds to force "free speech" was just some extra sugar to his base so they can recruit flunk-outs to their noble ultra-conservative causes.
JUST for the hell of it...
Here's the recruitment poster they might use, I've taken the liberty to interpret and condense it, like AG Barr.
ARE YOU FLUNKING OUT?
DID YOU SPEND YOUR FIRST TWO YEARS OF COLLEGE PLAYING "ANIMIAL HOUSE" AND SLEEPING IN PAST ALL YOUR CLASSES?
ARE YOUR PARENTS ON YOUR BACK ABOUT THE MONEY THEY MORGAGED THEIR HOUSE TO GET FOR YOUR EDUCATION?
WELL, DON'T SWEAT IT!
We recruit you into our order and you can tell them that YOU now know that the liberal intelliculzs are destroying the AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE, and as a patriot, YOU can't allow yourself to be one and go against god's eternal mysterious plan and besides, you're already so bright people can read books at midnight from your glow.
YOU GET TO HANG WITH PEOPLE JUST LIKE YOU, TO DO COKE AND METH WITH OTHER MEN JUST AS 'BRIGHT' AS YOU ARE SO YOU NEVER HAVE TO FEEL INFERIOR OR STUPID AGAIN. You can read inspirational propaganda leaflets so you can even feel superior to 'them other people!" and we have lists of "other people."
We'll keep you up-dated on the latest chants and catch phrases to scream out repeatedly over anything anybody else is saying!
*When you're ranting, your parents can never ask you any questions and you don't have to admit you're a 4-alarm f**k-up loser living in a car and you flunked out of all your classes including remedial art.
There, just had to let that out.
Cutting aid to the happiness of disabled children. Good job Trumps.
How about we cut the subsidies to oil companies and other corporate welfare. Or maybe Trump takes a couple less weekend trips to his Florida resort this year. That would make up the shortfall for the kids in no time.
Outstanding idea. What, specifically, did you have in mind?
Trump's yuge corporate tax cuts are a benefit to whom? Big corporations...
Tax cuts aren't actually subsidies.
What would you have the US corporate tax rate be?
[Deleted]
How about not building another aircraft carrier. We have 11 and the last one cost $13 Billion.
Or one less of any type of ship. The administration wants 350 ship navy vs the current 272...
That should save a few million.
Much of what the U.S. administration does has little effect on me, but cutting the funding for the Special Olympics is a low blow to what was very important for me over the years. As a past President of the Ontario chapter of a prominent charity for disabled and disadvantaged kids, and then a member of the board of its international organization, serving as an International Ambassador for it, I was well aware of how important it was for kids who don't have all the advantages of other kids, and the word "Special" was always very appropriate, because it was very special for those kids and their families. DeVos has decided to deprive them of an essential ray of sunshine in their lives, and I resent it.
Zeroing out federal support would not drain the organization’s budget. Its annual global revenue is about $429 million, according to a 2017 Reach Report.
Can you link that?
According to Charity Navigator, their revenue is only $ 129 million.
which is consistent with Special Olympics Inc's own website and most recently published, audited financial statements (2017).
Again ?
It was right at the top of my comment, but you'd have to read down the article to see it.
Did you read the "Linked" article I provided ?
It even had the "Link" to the "2017 Reach Report", when you read down the article.
It's pay walled.
google '2017 Reach Report ' and it takes you to athletic participation on the Special Olympics web site.
I can only provide what is written.
You have to click on the "Financial" Section provided on the site on the left !
Besides...… I was supposed to believe the media for the last two years, why should I know not believe what this article notes ?
I guess I'm blinded by the light or something.
sure looks like total revenue for the last audited year was $148,726,084, not $429 million
maybe WAPO misread something......
Blame the article....not the messenger. Apparently the article saw more than we do.
It's the Washington Post after all.
Good let’s hope it’s just the tip of the iceberg of the cuts that need to be made. This runaway spending is clearly a sign of a government allowed to grow out of control with little representation for fiscal conservatives.
I'm sure you also object to the taxpayers paying for Trump to go golfing just about every weekend often hundreds of miles from where he lives, and for his numerous personal campaign rallies almost all of which also require the use of expensive air travel.
Trump golfs "just about every weekend"? That's something that even CNN, MSNBC and NYT don't report.
Did you object to taxpayers paying for Obama to go golfing thousands of miles from where he lived while he was POTUS? I didn't.
This may surprise some people, but US presidents have played golf while conducting national and international business for decades.
Exactly.
I said this when Obama was president, and I'm repeating it now. Who cares if they're playing golf?? Presidents do not play golf like regular people. These guys are NEVER off duty. Decisions are being made, things are being done, WH staffers and other minions are on the phone, and the nuclear football is close at hand.
Playing golf is no different than being on Marine 1.
To get back to the subject of the article, today, Trump has said the following regarding the monies for Special Olympics.
Not to be jaded about what he said, but it does sound like a politician that didn't expect the blow back and is CYA'ing.
What's funny is that the dunce devos was outraged at the blowback. Betsy, how f-----g stupid can you be ?
I just saw this new post on the Internet. Looks like the idiot had to eat her words after all:
DeVos reverses course on Special Olympics cuts after Trump orders funding
This is not the first time she has attempted to under fund the Special Olympics. And each time she has had to eat her words. You'd think the idiot would learn. Especially, now that her Boss has made a public rebuke more or less.
SMH....
Sort of like he overrode the new sanctions against NOKO and there was hardly any kerfuffle over it. Congress be damned.
It's a dictatorship, when Congress allows it to be...
CHEROKEE NATION DONATES $25K TO SPECIAL OLYMPICS OKLAHOMA
Front row: Tahlequah Outlaws Special Olympics athletes Vanessa Hilderbrand and Charleston Hughes. Back row: Special Olympics Oklahoma Vice President of Development and Marketing Derek Cain, Special Olympics Oklahoma President and CEO Adrian DeWendt, Tahlequah Outlaws Special Olympics athlete Kendal Davis, Tahlequah Outlaws coach Bea Dougherty and Cherokee Nation Deputy Chief S. Joe Crittenden.
Published March 29, 2019
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — The Cherokee Nation donated $25,000 to Special Olympics Oklahoma to help defray costs of the Summer Games event this May in Stillwater.
Deputy Chief S. Joe Crittenden recently met with representatives from Special Olympics Oklahoma and members of the Tahlequah Outlaws Special Olympics team, who helped present the check. The Outlaws are taking 51 athletes to the summer games this year, with more than half of the team being Cherokee Nation citizens.
Special Olympics Oklahoma provides year-round sports training and athletic competitions in a variety of sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. The goal is for all persons with intellectual disabilities to have an opportunity to become useful and productive citizens who are accepted and respected by their families, friends and community members.
“Special Olympics Oklahoma is changing thousands of lives each year by providing these athletes with a place to showcase their many talents,” Crittenden said. “If we could all spend time with Special Olympic athletes like our friends on the Tahlequah Outlaws team, we’d come away with a better understanding of being positive and upbeat about life. These athletes are a blessing to us. I’m proud the Cherokee Nation is a long-time supporter of Special Olympics Oklahoma and teams like the Tahlequah Outlaws.”
The funding for Special Olympics Oklahoma is provided through the Cherokee Nation’s annual charitable contributions fund.
“The annual donation from the Cherokee Nation is a huge deal for us,” said Adrian DeWendt, Special Olympics Oklahoma president and CEO. “Cherokee Nation has been a longtime partner with us, and we really could not do what we do without the support of the Cherokee Nation.”
This year’s Summer Games event will be May 15-17 on the Oklahoma State University campus in Stillwater. It is the largest summer games event for Special Olympics in North America, according to organizers.
More than 5,200 athletes are expected to compete in the 2019 Summer Games.
For more information on Special Olympics Oklahoma, visit .
What a wonderful way to support the Special Olympics.
Damn them no good, lazy, good for nothing, ignorant, drunkin' Indians. /s