President Trump backs off Special Olympics funding cut

UPDATE 03/28/19 4:45 p.m. Special Olympics Northern California officials are breathing a sigh of relief after President Donald Trump announced he is backing off a budget request to cut funding for the Special Olympics.

This comes after days of criticism from both parties.

Trump told reporters at the White House Thursday, “I’ve overridden my people for funding the Special Olympics.”

The Trump administration’s education budget proposal calls for the elimination of $17.6 million in funding for the Special Olympics, roughly 10 percent of the group’s overall revenue.

Special Olympics Northern California said they recieve about a third of their funding from the federal government.

Chief Development Officer, Kathryn Morrissey, says the S.O.N.C. serves about 3,000 students in Monterey County.

They’ve been working in Monterey County for more than 20 years and developed a new program called Unified Champion School Program, which includes students with and without disabilities.

Morrissey says that budget cut could have been detrimental to the programs that teach the students about inclusion.

“It’s been an amazing way to take students from special education and integrate them fully with students without disabilities onto sports teams and provides them that extra layer of socialization and opportunity to really be embedded in their school community and no longer segregated,” said Morrissey.

The rest of the funding comes from both private and corporate fundraising. The Special Olympics Northern California is pairing up with Folktale Winery in Carmel next week for the first ever Sip and Swing event.

The winery’s barrel room will be turned into a 9-hole minigolf course. For more information or tickets to the event click here.

President and CEO of Folktale Wintery, Greg Ahn, says he looks forward to being a part of Special Olympics fundraising for years to come. “As soon as we started talking about the special olympics it was amazing how many people that we didn’t realize had been effected.”

Democrats pressed Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on the topic during a Senate budget hearing Thursday, just days after House Democrats grilled her on the proposal and sparked criticism online.

DeVos said she “wasn’t personally involved” in pushing for elimination of the funding, but she defended it as her agency seeks to cut $7 billion from the 2020 budget.