The Trump administration said Friday that it is releasing $5.5 billion in education funding that it was withholding as part of a review meant to align spending with White House priorities.
The administration had frozen nearly $7 billion in money for public schools just before a July 1 deadline. The freeze included funds for teacher education, English language programs, arts and music education in low-income districts and other programs. It came just weeks before the new school year was scheduled to begin, prompting widespread, bipartisan concern and several lawsuits as lawmakers and others pushed for the administration to release the money appropriated by Congress.
Ten Senate Republicans led by Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia wrote to White House budget director Russell Vought earlier this month calling for the congressional funding to be implemented. “The decision to withhold this funding is contrary to President Trump’s goal of returning K-12 education to the states,” they wrote. “This funding goes directly to states and local school districts, where local leaders decide how this funding is spent, because as we know, local communities know how to best serve students and families.”
The letter also pushed back on White House claims that the funding was going to subsidize a “radical left-wing agenda.”
The administration previously said it would release $1.3 billion of the funding. Friday’s announcement covers the remaining federal funding that the administration had blocked.
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the White House had created an entirely unnecessary problem for schools with its delay. “Instead of spending the last many weeks figuring out how to improve after-school options and get our kids’ reading and math scores up, because of President Trump, communities across the country have been forced to spend their time cutting back on tutoring options and sorting out how many teachers they will have to lay off,” Murray said in a statement. “This administration deserves no credit for just barely averting a crisis they themselves set in motion. You don’t thank a burglar for returning your cash after you’ve spent a month figuring out if you’d have to sell your house to make up the difference.”
The bottom line: This batch of funding will be released, but the Trump administration still has its sights set on dismantling the Department of Education and cutting federal funding for certain educational programs.