Among other things critics blasted the spending bill for:
- A $1 billion boost to Title I for low income students, specifically to be awarded to local school districts that promise to allow those dollars to follow students to the school of their choice
- A new $250 million federal program for states to replicate, expand and research the effectiveness of private school voucher programs
- The elimination of $1.2 billion for after-school programs
- The elimination of $2.4 billion for teacher preparation and class size reduction
The school choice proposals included in the budget go against calls from several conservative education policy experts for the administration to not go down that path. Policy analysts from the Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, Cato and others have argued private school choice programs should be left to states and that initiating a federal role would be an invitation to regulating them.
