Warning signs are piling up that schools could experience more funding turbulence in the coming months, even though Congress recently approved a federal budget with no major education cuts.
The Trump administration is pushing to rewrite grant rules across the federal government to more explicitly restrict efforts to prioritize racial equity and support undocumented immigrants. Several anticipated education grant competitions haven’t yet begun soliciting applications. And the U.S. Department of Education is testing rarely deployed mechanisms for doling out funds with fewer strings attached.
On top of all that, ongoing efforts to shift Education Department program responsibilities to other agencies are raising fears that the routine process of accessing funding could soon become even more difficult for school districts and other grantees.
In its first year, the Trump administration disrupted at least $12 billion in previously awarded federal funds for education. Formula grants for school districts arrived weeks late. Hundreds of ongoing competitive grants worth at least $2.2 billion were abruptly discontinued. Policies governing federal spending changed dramatically, sometimes several times within a few weeks.
Lingering memories of those episodes have put many education officials on edge. And the Trump administration’s new efforts to inject its political priorities into federal grants are likely to prolong those anxieties for the foreseeable future.
“The theme here for me is: [The Trump administration] got stopped in one way, and this is another way they’re trying to do it,” said Catherine Pozniak, a school finance consultant who works with states and districts nationwide.
Trump admin. is incorporating its political priorities into grantmaking in novel ways
President Donald Trump signed a slew of executive orders during his first year in office, telling the federal government to crack down on undocumented immigration, support for transgender people, and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives, broadly defined.
One order, on Aug. 7, 2025, called for a political appointee from each agency to review grantees for compliance with the policy prescriptions in Trump’s previous orders.
Executive orders lack the force of law, and many of Trump’s have been challenged in court. Most recently, the administration dropped its appeal of a court ruling that voided the Education Department’s effort to require states and school districts to sign an anti-DEI pledge.
Now, the Trump administration is instead moving to implement some executive orders through the more formal regulatory process. The changes could cause major strife for educators, and they could have more staying power than those enacted by executive order.
“Institutions that receive federal funding should not interpret recent court decisions as ending federal scrutiny of DEI-related activities,” reads a recent memo from the Sligo Law Group, an education law firm founded by two recently departed Education Department lawyers.
The General Services Administration, the agency that manages federal property, is soliciting public comments until the end of March on a proposal to require all federal grantees—220,000 and counting—to certify that they won’t violate federal anti-discrimination laws, engage in “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives, or knowingly work with undocumented immigrants.
Federal officials have also signaled plans to insert similar requirements in alterations to the “uniform guidance” agencies use as the basis for grant competitions. The Treasury Department has also floated creating a new system of records—outlined in the same Aug. 7 executive order—that would increase the government’s capacity to track federal funding recipients.
These changes, if implemented, could present novel legal dilemmas for school districts, which are required to serve all K-12 students, regardless of race or immigration status.
Commenters criticizing the GSA proposal so far include the president of New Jersey’s chapter of the National Federation for the Blind and a member of the board of directors of an early childhood education program in Colorado. “It doesn’t make sense for the word inclusivity to be considered illegal,” the latter wrote.
Some observers believe the Trump administration will move quickly to implement this change, regardless of backlash.
“In normal circumstances, there would be time to review comments because they want to hear public comments,” said Rachel Werner, a longtime consultant on federal grants compliance. “I feel like this is more pro forma—I think they’re trying to move this through pretty quickly.”
Trump’s political agenda is already showing up in some solicitations for federal grants. New funding competitions launched this year by the Institute of Museum and Library Services—a small federal agency the Trump administration last year tried and failed to unilaterally close—explicitly promise to favor projects aligned with Trump’s policy priorities, including “uplifting and positive narratives” about the country’s history, and a rejection of the “anti-Christian weaponization of government.”
The restrictions are getting tougher and tougher. It just seems like more hoops they need to jump through in order to do the same level of service.
Rachel Werner, longtime consultant on federal grants compliance
Even before policies like these take effect, many school district leaders and state education agencies are likely to operate as though they have, said Pozniak, who served from 2017 to 2020 as Louisiana’s assistant superintendent of education.
“They’re not like, ‘We won a lawsuit, now we’re going to put [the term] DEI back in,’” Pozniak said. “The change has been made. People understand that there has been a pretty massive cultural shift.”
Trump finds a way around new political obstacles
Last year’s grant disruptions were possible in part because conditions were favorable for the Trump administration to make unilateral—and sometimes illegal—changes to education funding.
Congress left room for executive branch interference in 2025 after it approved an abbreviated “continuing resolution” instead of a more detailed federal budget. Narrow Republican majorities in both chambers rarely bucked the president in public. A pileup of legal battles over funding cuts—at least 20, according to Education Week’s lawsuit tracker—scrambled grantees’ projects even when court orders ultimately restored canceled grants.
This year, the Trump administration faces several fresh political obstacles.
Congress last month rejected nearly all of the Trump administration’s proposed funding cuts for education, maintained funding for programs the Trump administration had moved to nix, and tightened legislative restrictions on the White House overriding lawmakers’ funding prescriptions.
The administration has already bowed to bipartisan backlash and reversed some of last year’s most aggressive moves.
And dozens of court rulings in lawsuits from other sectors have blocked the Trump administration from bypassing Congress to revoke funds or rewrite grant rules.
These setbacks haven’t necessarily deterred the Trump administration, though.
Top White House officials vigorously opposed efforts by lawmakers to explicitly prohibit the executive branch from tweaking Congress’ spending decisions.
In the weeks since, the White House has followed through on threats to fiscally punish cities and states that disagree with Trump policy preferences—including cuts to child care in five Democrat-led states, health research in four Democrat-led states, transportation grants in Colorado and Illinois, and Medicaid in Minnesota.
Even with a full-year budget in effect for the first time during the second Trump presidency, agencies including NASA and NIH have reportedly experienced spending blocks imposed by the federal Office of Management and Budget.
The Ed. Dept. has yet to launch many routine grant competitions
Federally funded education programs do have some justification for cautious optimism.
Even before Congress passed the newly approved budget, the Trump administration had taken steps to walk back some of its unconventional funding cuts.
The Education Department in recent months announced new rounds of awards for five competitive programs—one for arts education, one for civics instruction, one for education research, and two for school-based mental health services.
Across those programs, the Trump administration had previously discontinued funding for several hundred separate grants. At least 17 of the newly awarded grants went to recipients that lost funding in those earlier cancellations, Education Week found.
Even so, education grantees across the country worry that programs they rely on could be the next victims of the Trump administration cuts.
In some cases, lawmakers have taken notice of potential funding problems. Thirty-three U.S. senators, including six Republicans, urged the Department of Education last month to begin soliciting applicants for two programs under the banner of TRIO, which supports college and career transitions for middle and high schoolers from low-income families.
As of March 10, the department hadn’t launched either competition. A spokesperson for the agency didn’t answer requests for comment.
The Trump administration has been dropping hints for months about other potential disruptions.
Last summer, the agency canceled in-progress competitions for separate grant programs supporting career-and-technical education for Native Hawaiian and Alaska Native students. Then in December, the Department of Justice issued a memo casting doubt on the legality of federal programs specifically targeted to those populations. Education Secretary Linda McMahon issued a statement the same day affirming the opinion.
“We cannot, and must not, attach race-based conditions when allocating taxpayer funding,” she wrote.
Meanwhile, the Education Department hasn’t run a competition for either the broader Native Hawaiian Education Program or the Native Alaska Education Program since 2023.
Congress last month allocated $45 million in new funding for each program—but if new opportunities to seek grants don’t arrive soon, a funding shortfall could hit for education providers like the Partners in Development Foundation, which runs early childhood programs at 38 sites across Hawaii.
“With the kind of uncertainty we’re facing, we’re looking at really tough decisions to scale back operations or pause programs until we can close significant funding gaps,” said Shawn Malia Kanaiaupuni, the foundation’s CEO. “The hardest part is knowing that these services support children and families who rely on them every day.”
Some universities may be forced to scale back child care support for students who are also parents if new funding opportunities don’t pop up soon for the Child Care Means Parents In School program.
The department in November announced plans to transfer that program to the Department of Health and Human Services.
A spokesperson for HHS responded to questions from Education Week with a link to the agency’s agreement with the Education Department. Neither agency answered questions about the status of the grant competition.
Educators still don’t know whether they can trust the federal government
As part of the Trump administration’s stated goal of closing the Education Department, four other agencies so far have agreed to assume many day-to-day responsibilities for dozens of the education agency’s programs.
The Department of Labor is partnering with the education agency to manage funding for most K-12 programs, including Titles I, II, III, and IV, as well as several major higher education grant programs.
The Department of Health and Human Services will take over competitive grant programs supporting community schools, mental health, and school safety.
And the Department of the Interior has been designated the new home for education funding for Native American students.
Education officials haven’t specified when these transitions will take place or how long they’ll last. But depending on the timeline, they could further strain the agency’s ability to meet the July 1 deadline for sending billions of formula dollars for schools to state education agencies for distribution.
“Even working between ED and HHS for early childhood, there are just cultural differences in how those grants operate and run, the relationships that you have with program offices,” Pozniak said.
Some state education chiefs experienced difficulties accessing career-and-technical education funds that began moving from Education to Labor last summer. Others reported minimal disruption.
Last year, the Trump administration announced on June 30 that it would withhold nearly $7 billion nationwide that was due to flow the next day through seven education programs. Some states filed suit, lawmakers from both parties balked, and the Education Department unfroze all the money by the end of July.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon later said schools shouldn’t expect similar nationwide delays for future years of formula funding. But many schools are still wary of trusting the federal government and have developed budget scenarios in case expected money doesn’t flow on time or at all.
Neither the Education Department nor any of the partner agencies has announced new competitive grant competitions for any of the programs slated to move to different agencies.
The department is, however, in the process of soliciting proposals for $15 million in funds through the Connecting Talent to Opportunity Challenge. The competition closely resembles the Career-Connected High Schools program the Trump administration quietly discontinued last year, but the funds will be awarded as prizes for completing project steps, and only governors can apply.
“They’re able to get some money out the door, but there’s far less scrutiny,” said Phillip Lovell, associate executive director of All4Ed, a nonprofit advocate for workforce preparation in schools.
Several states are also seeking permission from the Education Department for flexibility to spend certain federal funds on a wider variety of expenses, and on longer timelines.
Other states are stepping in to cover gaps left by federal cuts. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont in January announced the state would cover more than $4 million in grants for community schools programs that the Trump administration abruptly discontinued the previous month. Democratic lawmakers in Illinois are pushing for a similar investment for their state’s community schools projects that recently lost federal funds. And California lawmakers have proposed a bill that would make it easier for community colleges to use other funding sources to backfill the Education Department’s slashing of support for minority-serving institutions.
The cumulative effect of the upheaval, experts say, is weighing heavily on federal grantees, including in education.
“The restrictions are getting tougher and tougher,” said Werner, the federal grants compliance consultant. “It just seems like more hoops they need to jump through in order to do the same level of service.”
2026-03-11 20:09:06
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