Education in America is already balanced on a thin economic rope. Thanks to President Trump, that rope could become even thinner.

The president released his 2018 Fiscal Budget Proposal, a blueprint exhibiting his plans for where our nation’s money is going to go. The Department of Education’s budget would decrease by $9 billion.

Thankfully, it is only a proposal. Congress could apply their own ideas or approve or reject the current ideas.

It does provide increased funds for certain programs, but it’s also full of decreases and cuts that could negatively effect millions of students

He wants to eliminate the funding to the Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants program, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program, and possibly GEAR UP if its evaluation is not up to par.

He also proposes reducing the funds to TRIO and the Federal Work-Study.

He mentioned 20 unnamed programs that will either be eliminated or reduced. They eventually named four of them: Teacher Quality Partnership, International Education programs, Striving Readers, and the Impact Aid Support Payments for Federal Property program.

What the rest of the programs are, nobody seems to know.

But all of the programs being cut were made to benefit students, including those already in college.

The best reasons Trump has for his plans are vague and he has failed to validate them.

The 21st CCLC program uses federal funds to make community learning centers for children, especially those who go to financially and academically struggling schools. They would have their funds eliminated. Trump said “the programs lacks strong evidence of meeting its objectives, such as improving student achievement.”

It is almost coincidental that they have provided no evidence of the successes of the programs.

He has also suggested the elimination of the Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants program, a program intending to make the quality of teachers and principals better.

The International Education program helps universities send students to study abroad, an experience that one can never replace. The Federal Work-Study gives part-time jobs to undergraduates and graduates who are not financially stable. The Teacher Quality Partnership program strives to have initiatives to test teacher and principal quality, and to have those who meet their expectations create partnerships to benefit schools.

All of the programs at risk work to benefit American students and educational communities. If any of these programs were to be cut, too many people would be negatively affected.

Someone could miss out on going to Spain to study their major. Someone could lose a chance to pay off their student loans. Someone could be struggling in school and not have a learning center to help them.

There are millions of students in the U.S. enrolled in school who depend on and appreciate these programs. Trump wants to get rid of them.

He would be doing much more than eliminating programs to save money. He would be eliminating amazing opportunities and chances for not only students, but the nation.