The Trump administration will release billions of dollars in withheld grants for schools, the Education Department said Friday, ending weeks of uncertainty for educators around the country who rely on the money for English language instruction, adult literacy and other programs.
President Donald Trump’s administration suspended more than $6 billion in funding July 1, part of a review to ensure spending aligned with the White House’s priorities. A little more than $1 million of that was intended for public schools in Charlottesville and surrounding Albemarle County.
Several lawsuits challenged the funding freeze as educators, Congress members from both parties and others called for the administration to release the money. Congress appropriated the money in a bill Trump signed this year.
Earlier this month, the Education Department said it would release $1.3 billion of the money for after-school and summer programming. Without the money, school divisions and nonprofit groups such as the YMCA and Boys and Girls Club of America said they would have to close or scale back educational offerings this fall.
The Office of Management and Budget completed its review of the programs and will begin sending the money to states this coming week, the Education Department said.
A group of 10 Republican senators sent a letter July 16 imploring the administration to allow the frozen education money to be sent to states, saying the withheld money supported programs and services that are critical to local communities.
“The programs are ones that enjoy longstanding, bipartisan support,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Republican, said Friday. She pointed to after-school and summer programs that allow parents to work while their children learn and classes that help adults gain new skills — contributing to local economies.
In withholding the funds, the Office of Management and Budget said some of the programs supported a “radical leftwing agenda.”
“We share your concern,” the GOP senators wrote. “However, we do not believe that is happening with these funds.”
School superintendents warned they would have to eliminate academic services without the money. On Friday, the American Association of School Administrators thanked members of Congress for pressing to release the money.
Schools left scrambling
After the administration announced the cuts, Albemarle County Schools Superintendent Matt Haas said this past Monday that the county school division expected to lose roughly $660,000 in federal title grants. The next day, his counterpart in the city, Charlottesville Superintendent Royal Gurley, announced the city school division could lose about $417,000.
Schools across the commonwealth were set to lose a total of $108 million, according to a joint statement from Virginia’s two Democratic senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner.
Haas equated the estimated loss of $660,000 to six full-time school division jobs. The Daily Progress reached out to the division’s chief operating officer, Rosalyn Schmitt, to determine if the school division was actively considering laying off six full-time employees, but received no response.
Gurley did not allude to any layoffs in his brief announcement Tuesday. He did mention that the city had “carryover funds that will enable us to soften the blow,” but that would only be a temporary fix.
“Should these cuts become permanent, we will feel the impacts in areas including services for English language learners, professional development for staff, and some staff stipends and contract services,” Gurley said.
Title grants are a broad category of grants established in 1965 under President Lyndon Johnson. The largest funding pool in that category is Title I, Part A, which is for a school’s entire student body and not just a certain demographic.
Trump’s grant freeze left Title I, Part A grants untouched, but other tiers weren’t as fortunate.
According to Haas’ statement, the state Department of Education notified school divisions that the funding for multiple title grant programs would be “withheld by the federal government,” including:
Title I, Part C for the education of migratory children.Title II, Part A for preparing, training and recruiting high-quality teachers and principals.Title III for language instruction for English learners and immigrant students.Title IV, Part A for student support and academic enrichment grants.
On July 18, more than two weeks after deciding to withhold the title grant funding, the Trump administration said it would release $1.3 billion directed for Title IV, Part B. That particular grant program is for “eligible organizations that implement community learning centers aimed at enhancing educational opportunities outside of the regular school day,” or after-school programs, according to the Virginia Department of Education.
The release of those funds was announced in a letter signed by Patrick Rooney and La’Shawndra Scroggins, both with the agency’s School Support and Accountability Office. The letter stresses that recipients of Title IV, Part B grants will be subject to federal reviews to ensure the money is being used in compliance with various anti-discrimination laws.
“To the extent that a grantee uses grant funds for such unallowable activities, the Department intends to take appropriate enforcement action including under section 451 of the General Education Provisions Act (GEPA), which may include the recovery of funds,” wrote Rooney and Scroggins.
Announcing the news at a meeting of the Albemarle County School Board on July 10, Schmitt said Trump’s decision to withhold the money did not come as a surprise to the county school administration and that administrators had developed plans to fill gaps should the White House make good on its threats to cut federal funding to local school divisions.
“It’s our goal to maintain these programs and fill positions. We knew that this was a possibility, and so we’re enacting our contingency plans,” she said. “We hold back some staffing that we typically release for other needs; we’ll be using that.”
What those contingency plans entail is unclear, as Schmitt did not respond to a Daily Progress inquiry. However, at the School Board meeting, she did mention that the division is “taking advantage of some vacancies” in its Central Office “that we will not fill.”
The Daily Progress reached out to multiple members of the Albemarle County School Board via phone and email with no response.
Daily Progress reporter Emily Hemphill contributed to this story.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
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