The Trump administration is refusing to say if and when it will release $6.8 billion in federal education grants to states pending a review, arguing that several states and school districts have misused the funds to perpetuate “a radical left-wing agenda.”
Key Democrats this week decried the administration’s decision to withhold the funds, which are usually granted to states by July 1, and intended for English-language instruction, after-school and summer programs, adult literacy, and other programs. The funding freeze, which the administration abruptly announced this week, is disrupting summer camps as the providers struggle to determine if they can still offer their day camps and after-school programming. It’s also upending school districts’ ability to plan for the next school year.
A Department of Education spokeswoman referred questions about the frozen funds to the Office of Management and Budget. An OMB spokesman said no decisions have been made on whether to release, cut, or rescind the funds, calling it a “an ongoing programmatic review” to ensure that the grants reflect President Trump’s priorities.
“Initial findings show that many of these grants programs have been grossly misused to subsidize a radical left-wing agenda,” the spokesman said in statement to RealClearPolitics.
Asked for specifics, OMB officials said it had found an example in New York in which public schools had used funds designated for English-language learning to promote “illegal immigrant advocacy organizations.” The agency, which oversees federal spending, also said funds had used the grants to steer illegal immigrants towards “scholarships intended for American students.” In an unspecified case, the school improvement funds were allegedly used for a seminar on “queer resistance in the arts.”
Congressional Democrats, governors and Democratic state education administrators are vowing to fight the freeze in court, arguing that the Trump administration’s abrupt action is illegal because Congress already appropriated the money.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, on Thursday called on OMB Director Russell Vought to “immediately reverse the illegal and unconstitutional decision.” Sanders said the funding supports more than 10,000 summer and after-school programs for 1.4 million students throughout the country and nearly 100 after-school and summer programs in Vermont, which serve 11,000 students.
“Your unexpected and cruel decision has sent shockwaves, distress and heartbreak in local communities all over America who now may be forced to cancel or substantially delay summer school activities that had been planned for months,” Sanders wrote in a letter to Vought and Education Secretary Linda McMahon.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday labeled the freeze an “assault on public education.”
“These are the programs for the most vulnerable that were already budgeted, which the state already contributes on behalf of the districts 25% up front,” Newsom said. “We’ll try to stop and stay these efforts to vandalize our democracy and to assault our rule of law, and notably, to take grant funding that Congress has legally appropriated that the president does not have the unilateral authority to take.”
Vought told Senate appropriators last week that the administration could potentially cut the education funding through a rescissions package – a legislative mechanism used to draw back funds Congress has already provided.
Tony Thurmond, California’s school superintendent, said the state is one of the hardest hit with $811 million suddenly hanging in the balance.
“The courts have already taken action in our favor in these cases, and California will continue to pursue all available legal remedies to the Trump administration’s unlawful withholding of federal funds appropriated by Congress,” he told reporters in Sacramento earlier this week.
Program administrators point to a 1982 Supreme Court decision, Plyler v. Doe, that guarantees public education to children in the country illegally. Still, it’s unclear just how broadly that ruling applies and whether it would be used to prevent the Trump administration from blocking funds for English-language education and other programs widely used by legal as well as illegal immigrants.
In California alone, there are 1 million “English learners,” amounting to roughly 19% of the student population, according to the California Department of Education.
While a legal fight appears inevitable, local school districts and parents depending on the funds are immediately feeling the impacts of the funding freeze.
“Local school districts can’t afford to wait out a lengthy court proceeding to get the federal funding they’re owed – nor can they make up the shortfall, especially not at the drop of a pin,” Sen. Patty Murray, Washington Democrat and ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, said in a statement.
“Every day that this funding is held up is a day that the schools are forced to worry about whether they’ll have to cut back on after-school programs or lay off teachers instead of worrying about how to make sure our kids can succeed,” she added.
Margarita Machado-Casas, a National Association of Bilingual Educators board member, said all states and territories are affected by the funding pause, but 33 states and territories are severely impacted because the cuts make up 10% or more of their federal funding or payroll funding.
“These delays aren’t just technical issues,” she told reporters Tuesday. “They’re causing real and immediate harm. School districts are laying off staff, canceling contracts and freezing services that English-language learners depend on to succeed. The time to act is now.”