The Trump administration cuts $ 1 billion in subsidies for mental health

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is advancing to cancel $ 1 billion in subsidies for mental health in schools, arguing that they reflect the priorities of the previous government.

The beneficiaries of the subsidies that financing would not continue after this year were notified. A law on armed violence promulgated by the then Democratic President Joe Biden in 2022 allocated $ 1,000 million to programs to help schools hire more psychologists, counselors and other mental health workers.

A new notice indicated that a review of the programs by the Department of Education found that they violated the purpose of the Civil Rights Law, conflict with the department’s policy of prioritizing merit and equity, and constituted an inappropriate use of federal money.

The cuts were made public in a publication in social networks of the conservative strategist Christopher Rufo, who said that the money was used to promote “racialism and discrimination of the left.” He published extracts from several subsidy documents that established objectives to hire certain numbers of non -white counselors or to follow other policies of diversity, equity and inclusion.

“No more funds for activists under the pretext of mental health,” Rufo wrote.

The Department of Education confirmed the cuts. In an update to the members of Congress that was obtained by The Associated Press, department officials said the Republican Administration will find other ways of supporting mental health.

According to the notice, “the department plans to reimagine and compete again for the funds of its mental health program to more effectively support students’ behavioral health needs.”

The administration of President Donald Trump has cut billions of dollars in federal subsidies that are considered are related to inclusion policies and has threatened to cut bill more millions of schools and universities for practices of diversity. The administration says that any policy that treats people differently due to their breed equivalent to discrimination, and argues that inclusion policies have often used to discriminate against white and Asian-American students.