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Senator Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.) Speaks to reporters as she goes to the Senate for votes on plans to end the government's closure on January 24th. (Melina Mara / The Washington Post)
The children of Fort Campbell Mahaffey Middle School will actually have a new construction project to hope for the coming year – but perhaps not the new school they were waiting for.
Instead, they could get a boundary wall – or a fence, or a barbed wire, or something like that – 1,000 kilometers southwest of their school, which is based on a military base straddling the Kentucky-Tennessee line.
Yes, this border wall.
Indeed, the $ 62 million allocated to building the school is part of the billions of dollars already allocated to the Department of Defense. It is the money that the Trump administration now wants to redirect to pay 230 miles of gates along the southern border. the president 's national emergency declaration.
And these Kentucky high school kids will be better because of that – at least, according to Senator Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.).
The powerful republican and true ally Trump said Sunday that border barriers dominate a new school.
"I would say it's best that Kentucky college students have a secure border," Graham said on CBS News' "Face the Nation." "We will get them the school they need, but we now have an emergency on our hands."
However, some people dispute Graham's claim. Namely, Kentucky teachers.
The president of the Kentucky Education Association, the state teachers' union, responded to the senator's remarks in a statement to the Washington Post.
"KEA supports any funding to provide quality public education to US students, regardless of their postal code," said Stephanie Winkler, union leader. "Any action that removes these funds is detrimental to student services, regardless of the reason or reason given."
Alison Lundergan Grimes, Democratic Secretary of State for Kentucky, also opposed Graham's observation.
"No," she wrote on Twitter, "… What we need are increases for high school teachers and high-speed Internet access in each class."
The money from the Department of Defense could be particularly valuable in Kentucky, a state that has received one of the largest shares of its federal government revenue in 2017, ranking 13th out of 50 states and the world. District of Columbia, according to data from the National Association of Education.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Told the Louisiana Courier Journal that the interruption of a school's construction project is "an assumption", adding that Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan would determine "which funds will be specific". used. "
Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) Said that Trump's declaration of a national emergency amounted to a seizure of power and that withdrawing funds from these defense projects would ultimately harm the country.
"Withdraw money at [the Department of Defense] To build this wall that is essentially a campaign promise, I think these are really mistaken priorities, "said Duckworth on" This Week "on ABC News." And I think this is very bad for the country. "
Read more:
"Illegal and treacherous": Trump says Rosenstein was part of a "coup d'etat" attempt
White House defends Trump's declaration of urgency as political trials and battles multiply
"Answer my question": Fox, Fox's anchor, challenges Stephen Miller about Trump's national emergency
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