The Biden administration’s 2024 fiscal year budget, totaling $6.8 trillion, includes millions to help increase “racial and socioeconomic diversity” within the nation’s K-12 schools.
The budget allotted $100 million to the Department of Education (ED) for a grant program that would fund community “voluntary efforts” to “foster diverse schools.” In total, the budget requests $90 billion for the ED, some of which would address “racial isolation and concentrated poverty” within K-12 schools.
“Racial isolation and concentrated poverty in schools can undermine their ability to provide an equal opportunity for all students to learn and succeed,” the budget stated. “The Budget includes $100 million for a grant program to support voluntary efforts by communities interested in developing and implementing strategies to promote racial and socioeconomic diversity in their schools.”
The “foster diverse schools” program began in 2023, when the ED received $100 million to “develop and implement strategies” to increase “racially and socioeconomically diverse schools and classrooms.” The program is an effort to mend “the well-documented, persistent negative effects of racial isolation and concentrated poverty.”
The budget would give the ED $578 million to increase “school-based counselors, psychologists, social workers and other health professionals” within K-12 schools and colleges to help address the “lingering impacts of [the] COVID-19 pandemic.”
“Just as physical health and nutrition is critical to learning, so too is mental health,” the budget stated. “The lingering impacts of COVID-19 pandemic disruptions have taken a heavy toll on the physical and mental health of many students, teachers and school staff. Research shows that students who receive social, emotional and mental and behavioral supports perform better academically.”
The ED did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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