ORLANDO, Fla.: President Donald Trump toured a private religious school in Florida on Friday, praising it as an ideal institution for “disadvantaged children” while re-emphasizing that his education agenda will focus on school choice.
Trump visited St. Andrew Catholic School in Orlando, dropping in on a fourth-grade classroom and shaking hands with students who said they were learning about the history of Florida. When one girl said she wanted to own her own business, he said with a smile that she’s “gonna make a lot of money. But don’t run for politics.”
The president, who was joined by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a longtime charter schools advocate, described St. Andrew as “one of the many parochial schools dedicated to educating some of our nation’s most disadvantaged children.”
“Education is the civil rights issue of our time,” said Trump, repeating a line from his address to Congress this week.
Teachers unions were quick to criticize the visit, saying it showed hostility by Trump toward public schools and an intention to turn education into a profit-making industry.
Trump said he would ask lawmakers to pass a bill that would fund school choice for disadvantaged young people, including minority children. He did not offer any details.
Among his guests were Gov. Rick Scott, Sen. Marco Rubio and Denisha Merriweather, who used Florida’s school voucher program to attend a private high school that she credits with turning her life around.
Many of St. Andrew’s students attend the school using the same voucher program as Merriweather, said White House spokesman Ninio Fetalvo.
“We want millions more to have the same chance to achieve the great success that you’re achieving,” Trump said. The president also told Latrina Peters-Gipson, the school principal, that “the love you have for what you do is really fantastic.”
After the visit, Trump flew to his coastal home in Palm Beach and later attended a Republican National Committee fundraiser that was closed to the news media.
Trump was scheduled to return to the White House late Sunday.
Environmental cuts
In another Trump administration initiative, the White House would slash programs aimed at slowing climate change and improving water safety and air quality, while eliminating thousands of jobs, according to a draft of the Environmental Protection Agency budget proposal obtained by the Associated Press.
Under the tentative plan from the Office of Management and Budget, the agency’s funding would be reduced by roughly 25 percent and about 3,000 jobs would be cut, about 19 percent of the agency’s staff.
Trump has said he plans to pay for billions of dollars more for the military by cutting spending on domestic agencies. He plans to submit his budget to Congress the week of March 13.
A spokeswoman for the EPA declined to comment, but acting Assistant Administrator Donna Vizian said in an internal memo that EPA leaders “will do everything in our power to protect our ability to support the mission of the agency in protecting human health and the environment.”
The White House also declined to comment.
The EPA is now under the leadership of Scott Pruitt, a former state attorney general for Oklahoma, who has questioned the scientific consensus that human activities are contributing to global warming and joined lawsuits against the agency’s emission curbs.
A final plan is subject to congressional approval, which likely is months away at the earliest.
Travel ban ruling
In Seattle on Friday, a federal judge granted a two-week extension to the Justice Department in a lawsuit alleging that Trump’s immigration order is blocking efforts by legal residents to reunite with their children who are trapped in war-torn countries.
U.S. District Judge James Robart, who halted enforcement of Trump’s immigration order nationwide in February in a separate case brought by the states of Washington and Minnesota, said in his order that the federal government could have more time before responding to plaintiff’s efforts to have the case certified as a class action lawsuit.
The Justice Department argued that Trump intends to rescind the order and replace it with a new, substantially revised executive order.
After being repeatedly postponed, a White House official said Thursday a replacement order now won’t be unveiled until next week at the earliest.
Keystone pipeline steel
The Keystone XL oil pipeline won’t use U.S. steel in its construction, despite what Trump said.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday that’s due to language in a presidential directive Trump issued in January. The directive applies to new pipelines or those under repair. Sanders said it would be hard to do an about-face on Keystone because construction is underway and the steel has been acquired.
Trump said as recently as last week that Keystone and the Dakota Access pipelines must use American steel “or we’re not building one.”
U.N. chief: U.S. to help
The U.N. humanitarian chief said Friday he is confident the United States will step up and donate to aid appeals amid concerns of possible foreign aid cuts under Trump.
The U.S., the world’s top humanitarian donor, pledged nothing last week at an Oslo, Norway, conference on Nigeria’s humanitarian crisis. And U.S. officials have said the Trump administration is proposing a 37 percent cut to diplomacy and foreign aid budgets to help pay for increased military spending.
Stephen O’Brien said the U.S. has indicated it is “very ready to donate,” and he suggested it may not have pledged yet because of its budgetary cycle. The budget plan is expected this month.