WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education today released the Administration's budget request for the 2019 fiscal year. The budget builds upon President Donald J. Trump's commitment to expand education freedom for all families and return power to local leaders.

"The president's budget request expands education freedom for America's families while protecting our nation's most vulnerable students," said Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. "The budget also reflects our commitment to spending taxpayer dollars wisely and efficiently by consolidating and eliminating duplicative and ineffective federal programs that are better handled at the state or local level. I look forward to working with Congress to pass a budget that puts students first and returns power in education to where it belongs: with states, districts and families."

Highlights from the FY 2019 budget include:

• $1 billion increase for public and private school choice through the new Opportunity Grants program
• $200 million dedicated to STEM education
• More than $13 billion to maintain the Federal investment in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act State formula and discretionary grants
• $15.5 billion to maintain the Federal investment in Title I grants to Local Educational Agencies (LEAs)
• $43 million for School Climate Transformation grants to help States and LEAs mitigate the impacts of the opioid epidemic on students and schools

Fact sheet: https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget19/budget-factsheet.pdf

Full budget request: https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget19/index.html