IEL expresses deep concern about the impact President Trump’s proposed FY 2018 budget would have on the young people, families, and communities supported by IEL’s work.
IEL expresses deep concern about the impact President Trump’s proposed FY 2018 budget would have on the young people, families, and communities supported by IEL’s work. With deep proposed cuts to the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor that support IEL’s work and effective programs like 21st Century Community Learning Centers, President Trump’s budget disinvests in our youth and puts in jeopardy the transformational work local communities are leading that are supported by these federal programs.
“These cuts would hurt families and communities,” says Johan Uvin, president of IEL. “As one example, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program that supports out-of-school time learning has served more than 10 million children across 10,000 centers in the past five years, who would be stripped of this access under this proposed budget.”
From Houston to Nashville, Tenn. to Oakland, Calif., and dozens of other places across the country, IEL partners with local communities to help change outcomes for young people, particularly those most at-risk, so they can realize a better future. From the community schools strategy to the Ready to Achieve Mentoring Program (RAMP) to our family and community engagement work and other initiatives, our work equips leaders to better prepare children and youth for college, careers, & citizenship.
IEL stands behind the children, youth, adults and families involved in the programs of our local partners to request a federal budget that invests in our young people and in the power of their potential to create a better future for us all. We call on Congress to recognize the strong value of multiple federal programs that build capacity to help our young people learn and thrive, and to approve a budget that better reflects our country’s value of equal opportunity for all, especially for our young people.