The Executive Order Project - Education: 'Most Vulnerable Students' Would Be Hardest Hit by Funding Freeze
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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A freeze in federal grant funding would affect how Fredericksburg City Public Schools is able to serve its most vulnerable students, staff said this week.
City schools are budgeted to receive $7.3 million in federal grant funding for the current fiscal year, said Jennifer Brody, division finance director, this week. That amounts to 10.4% of the total budget.
“Our largest grants (Title I, Head Start, IDEA 611, School Nutrition) are used for payroll and benefits, so the impact of not having these federal funds would be significant and would harm our youngest and neediest students,” Brody wrote in an email.
The Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget issued a memorandum on January 28, announcing a pause on federal funding and requiring federal agencies to “identify and review all federal financial assistance programs and supporting activities consistent with the President's policies and requirements.”
A federal judge temporarily blocked implementation of the funding freeze, and the OMB rescinded the memo the next day, but White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said there had not been a recession of the federal funding freeze.
This confusion leaves school budget departments with uncertainty about what federal funding they may or may not receive.
The Trump administration has said that the Title I and IDEA funding streams would not be affected by the freeze, but the future of other federal grant funds relied on by city schools, such as Head Start and school nutrition, is not as clear.
Title I funds, authorized by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, provide supplemental financial assistance to school districts for children from low-income families, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Allocations from the federal government to state education departments are based on annual poverty estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Title I funds are not competitive but are formula-based, meaning that any state or school district that meets requirements—usually a certain number of students who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch—receive the funds.
IDEA funds, authorized by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, go to school divisions to support special education for children ages 3 to 21.
Head Start grants are awarded in five-year cycles to locally designed programs that provide early childhood education to low-income families. The National Head Start Association announced this week that according to a survey that remains open, “at least 45 grant recipients serving nearly 20,000 children ages zero to five and their families are experiencing delays in accessing funds.”
And according to EdWeek, the School Nutrition Association has asked the Agriculture Department for more information on how a funding freeze would affect federal support for school meals.
The National School Lunch program was among the more than 2,600 programs that were ordered by the Office of Management and Budget to provide more details about their spending by answering questions such as, “Does this program provide federal funding to non-governmental organizations supporting or providing services, either directly or indirectly, to removable or illegal aliens?” and “Does this program provide funding that is implicated by the directive to end discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI … mandates?”
Stafford County Public Schools is budgeted to receive $14.3 million in federal grant funds for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. “These [federal] funds are intended to enhance the delivery of instruction with supplemental services rather than provide the core program requirements,” according to budget summary.
In addition to Title I, IDEA, and Head Start, the division receives funds from Title II, which supports “principal leadership and teacher quality;” Title III, which “enhances the instructional opportunities for the education of English Learners (ELs) and immigrant students;” and Title IV A and B, the “Student Support and Academic Enrichment” and “21st Century Community Learning Centers” programs.
Stafford is also budgeted to receive $12.1 million in federal grant funds for school nutrition programs.
These federal grants, combined with $2.6 million in federal money that goes to the division’s operating fund, make up about 5.8% of the operating, school nutrition, and grant budget.
Caroline County Public Schools, like Fredericksburg, receives about 10% of its budget from federal grant funds, said Marcia Stevens, chief operations officer for the division.
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