(CNSNews.com) - The White House announced Wednesday that President Donald Trump is donating his quarterly salary to the Education Department.
“Last quarter, the president's salary went toward the restoration of two projects at a national battlefield. After his donation, additional donors quickly stepped up to bring the total gift to over $260,000,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
Sanders presented a check for $100,000 to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. The money will go towards a STEM-focused camp for kids at the Education Department, DeVos said.
“Just yesterday, Ivanka Trump and I hosted a summer reading event at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, where the focus was on getting young girls, age six to ten, excited about learning science, technology, engineering, and math. It was fun to see their eyes light up as they got to explore, create, and experiment in a collaborative environment,” DeVos said.
“Today's and tomorrow's economy requires students prepared for STEM careers. That's why we've decided to use the president's second-quarter salary to host a STEM-focused camp for students at the Department of Education. We want to encourage as many children as possible to explore STEM fields in the hope that many develop a passion for these field,” DeVos added.
DeVos said the president is committed to students and to “reforming education in America, so that every child, no matter their ZIP code, has access to a high-quality education.”
“He and I have had many conversations about how best to put students' needs first, and ensure we are setting them up for a lifetime of success. There's much work to be done, but we are certainly on the right track thanks to the president's leadership,” she said.
When asked why if Trump cares so much about education that he is calling for $9.2 billion in spending cuts to the Education Department in the next budget, Sanders said, “I think that oftentimes you have a lot of duplicative efforts, and they want to streamline the process, and we simply have a government that's completely out of control when it comes to spending.
“We have an outrageous deficit, and we're looking to make things so that we have a balanced budget in the next 10 years,” she said. “The president campaigned on it.
“He's committed to seeing it through, but he's also committed to education, as you can see by his own personal commitment and looking for ways that we can save and continue on to make education better, passing some of the decision-making down to more local and state control, and something we're certainly supportive of,” Sanders said.