It’s clear that the Trump administration is committed to cutting federal K-12 funding to schools, but keeping track of those cuts has been challenging. Last month, EducationWeek posted an article written by Mark Lieberman that attempted to explain the cuts within the wider context of exactly how federal education funding works:
“The first three months of the second Trump administration have brought a dizzying cascade of threats to federal investment in K-12 schools, and even bigger existential battles loom in the near future.”
“The administration has already terminated hundreds of grants and contracts supporting teacher preparation and education research; frozen funding doled out by the Biden administration for electric school buses and other clean-energy improvements; and canceled approvals for districts and states to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic relief funds on projects and programs they’ve already committed to carry out.”
“The cuts and chaos are far from over. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has said it’s moving to block all federal funding from K-12 schools in Maine after the state declined to comply with the administration’s executive order banning transgender girls from women’s sports. President Trump has threatened similar action for states and districts that don’t commit to ending ‘illegal DEI’ initiatives and rolling back COVID-19 vaccination requirements for children attending public school.”
“Meanwhile, congressional Republicans have been advancing budget resolutions that promise hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending cuts for education and other related priorities. …Project 2025, the widely circulated conservative policy document the Trump administration has followed closely in its early months, calls for consolidating, phasing out, or altogether eliminating key federal funding streams for schools.”
“Court challenges have followed most of the Trump administration’s most significant moves to reduce education funding. That will likely continue as the administration aggressively pursues its policy agenda through executive action.”
“In the meantime, here’s what districts need to know about the biggest threats to federal funding for schools, what the administration can and can’t legally do, and how Congress might intervene – or not.”
“In 2022, the most recent year for which federal spending data are available, the federal government spent $119 billion on K-12 schools – roughly 13.6 percent of the overall investment.”
“During the pandemic years, the federal government’s pandemic relief aid boosted its share of K-12 funding. In a typical year, funding from federal agencies – including for core instructional programming, meals, early childhood programs, school improvement efforts, professional development, and career and technical education – makes up roughly 8 to 10 percent of nationwide investment in public K-12 education.”
“State governments and local taxpayers supply much larger sums of money to schools than the federal government. In 2022, K-12 schools received $384 billion from state sources and $375 billion from local sources, totaling close to 87 percent of overall investment nationwide.”
“Even so, federal funding plays a vital role in school district budgets. It often pays for staff and programs districts otherwise wouldn’t have the resources to offer. And it provides key support for costly services districts are required by federal law to provide, regardless of how many students need them or how much they cost.”
“Virtually every district gets some money from the federal government. But some states and districts rely on federal funding far more than others, depending on a variety of factors such as the number and share of students who qualify for additional aid.”
“In 2022, six states – Alaska, Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, and South Dakota – got more than one-fifth of their K-12 funding from the federal government. Four other states – Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York – got less than 10 percent from federal sources.”
“Title I funds are designated for students from low-income families. For some schools with a small number of those students, districts can only spend Title I funds on services for those specific students. Schools with higher percentages of students that qualify for Title I aid get more flexibility to use those funds for programs and services that serve all students.”
“The vast majority of schools annual operating budgets go to salaries and benefits for employees. Federal funds help cover those costs in many places.”
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“Funds from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) help pay for special education services that districts are required by law to offer regardless of how much funding support they get. Title III operates similarly for services for English learners.”
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“Most federal funding streams for K-12 schools pass through state education departments. Each year on July 1, the federal government updates states’ federal award platforms with roughly 75 percent of allocations for most key programs, including Title I and IDEA. The remaining 25 percent goes out to states the same way on October 1 – the start of the new federal fiscal year.”
“In almost every state, districts are notified by their state departments of education of the amount of money they’re getting from each federal funding stream. They use cash from their own accounts to make purchases according to the spending guidelines. Then they draw down that federal money from the state, which in turn draws that amount down from the federal government.”
“Some states reimburse districts once a month or every other week, while others do it on a less predictable cadence.”
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“Could the federal government decide on July 1 not to send out all the money states and districts are expecting? That would be illegal. The Impoundment Control Act, passed by Congress in 1974 to rein in executive overreach by the Nixon administration, requires the federal government to secure approval from Congress before declining to appropriate funds according to the budget law Congress approved.”
When I led an educational non-profit, even though we had invested millions of dollars in a new model of personalized learning, we knew it was our moral duty to provide funding and support to the traditional K-12 system since most of our kids still depend on that system for reading, writing, problem-solving, and character development education. The Trump administration would be wise to be careful while cutting funding to school districts and schools as no one should be interested in “killing the patient” so that money can be spent in other areas – like tax breaks and refunds for the rich.
Til tomorrow. SVB
A Better Path to Learning 
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