Charter Schools

$60 million increase

“Budget invests $500 million, a $60 million increase, to expand the number of high-quality charter schools, which have a proven track record of improving students’ academic achievement and giving parents more choice in the education of their children”.

Ed100 lesson 5.5 explains public charter schools.

There are some great charter schools, and there are quite a lot of ordinary ones.

Title I

No change*

“Preserves full funding for Title I, the supplemental Federal financial assistance to school districts for children from low-income families.”

* The proposed “full” funding does not include inflation, so it means a loss of services at schools.

Streamline K-12 Programs

$4,535 million cut

“Consolidates 18 competitive and formula grant programs into a new $2 billion formula grant designed to reduce ED’s[*] influence on schools and students and reduce Bureaucracy.

“The new approach allows States and districts to focus on the core subjects—math, reading, science, and history—without the distractions of DEI[**] and weaponization from the previous administration.”

* ED refers to the US Department of Education.

** DEI is an abbreviation for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion]

There are concerns that cuts this massive will lead to major cuts in programs that students and families rely on, such as afterschool and summer programs. Direct costs of K-12 programs associated with DEI are tiny in comparison.

Special Education Funding

No change in funding, but significant changes in policies

“Consolidates seven Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) programs to provide States and school districts greater flexibility to support students with special education needs, maintaining funding at the 2025 level.

“Parents of students with disabilities would remain empowered to direct these funds because the Federal IDEA law would remain in place;

“Maintaining a base set of Federal funds means they can also be withdrawn from States and districts who flout parental rights.”

Proposed funding remains significantly below the needs of students.

Trump administration references to “parental rights” have varied interpretations including the intention to direct funding to private and religious schools.

The Trump administration is investigating the state’s ban against outing trans students.

English Language Acquisition

$890 million cut

The Budget proposes to eliminate the misnamed English Language Acquisition program which actually deemphasizes English primacy by funding NGOs and States to encourage bilingualism.

The budget explicitly aims to cut support for programs that enable students to develop multilingual skills, aiming instead to limit education to English.

For context, see the Ed100 blog The bilingual advantage.

Migrant Education and Special Programs for Migrant Students

$428 million cut

“The Budget eliminates programs that work to the detriment of children’s academic success by encouraging movement from, rather than stability and consistency in, a single location.”

“These programs have not been proven effective, are extremely costly, and encourage ineligible non-citizens to access U.S. IHEs stripping resources from American students.”

Children don’t choose their parents.

In agricultural areas of the state, it is common for migrant workers to move where the work is, children in tow. Many of these children are US citizens. Either way, they are entitled to the opportunity for a better life through education.

For more, see Ed100 lesson 2.9 Undocumented students

Department of Education

$127 million cut

“The Budget provides $293 million for program administration, a reduction of $127 million, or 30 percent.”

The federal department of education (DOE) plays an essential role in enforcing civil rights in education. Data assembled by the federal government is essential to overcome states' noisy, varying approaches and figure out a little bit about what works. See Ed100 lesson 7.2 about the federal government.

Teacher Quality Partnerships

$70 million cut

“The Budget proposes to end Federal taxpayer dollars being weaponized to indoctrinate new teachers.”

“In addition, many of these grants included teacher and staff recruiting strategies implicitly and explicitly based on race.”

Ed100 Lesson 3.1 explains the teacher recruitment challenge.

In California as elsewhere, the teaching profession is dominated by white women. It makes sense to actively recruit teaching candidates more broadly.

Training and Advisory Services — Equity Assistance Center

$7 million cut

“The Budget eliminates Equity Assistance Centers that have indoctrinated children. Funds have been weaponized to force local districts to implement Washington-directed DEI practices against their will.”

This small program provided advisory assistance.

Office for Civil Rights (OCR)

$49 million cut

“To refocus away from DEI and Title IX transgender cases, the Budget provides OCR with $91 million, a reduction of $49 million, or 35 percent, compared to the 2024 enacted level.”

“At this funding level, OCR would continue to ensure that schools and other institutions that receive Federal financial assistance for education programs and activities comply with Federal civil rights laws and Presidential Executive Orders while removing their ability to push DEI programs and promote radical transgender ideology.”

These cuts are explicitly part of an effort to dissuade the federal Office of Civil Rights (OCR) from pursuing an important part of its core work: protecting students from discrimination on the basis of their gender identity or sexual orientation.

Most don’t realize that this kind of protection is directly relevant to about a fifth of students, as Ed100 Lesson 2.1 explains.

Preschool Development Grants (PDG)

$315 million cut to early education.

Eliminates program.

Ed100 lesson 4.1 Preschool: Yes, Early Childhood Education Matters.

Small Agency Eliminations

$3,586 million cut

Among the agencies cut:

- AmeriCorps

- Corporation for Public Broadcasting

- Institute of Museum and Library Sciences

- National Endowment for the Arts

- National Endowment for the Humanities

“The Budget includes the elimination of, or the elimination of Federal funding for, the following small agencies—consistent with the President’s efforts to decrease the size of the Federal Government to enhance accountability, reduce waste, and reduce unnecessary governmental entities.”

Ed100 lesson: Arts are crucial to how children learn

Ed100 Humanities

The need to understand and empathize with each other has arguably never been greater

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Programs

$3,588 million cut

“The Budget eliminates duplicative, DEI, or simply unnecessary programs”

Ed100 blog: Health and Learning: What Can Schools Do?

National Institute of Health (NIH)

$17,965 million cut

“NIH has broken the trust of the American people with wasteful spending, misleading information, risky research, and the promotion of dangerous ideologies that undermine public health.”

Ed100 blog: Health and Learning: What Can Schools Do? Physical and Mental Health Affect Learning.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

$1,065 million cut

“The Budget proposes to refocus activities that were formerly part of SAMHSA and reduces waste by eliminating inefficient funding.”

Ed100 blog Mental health for learning

School communities increasingly recognize that the social-emotional challenges children face must be addressed in order for them to learn.

Health programs:

$180 million in cuts

- Administration for a Healthy America

- Sexual Risk Avoidance Program and Teen Pregnancy

- HHS Office on Women’s Health

- HHS Office of Minority Health

“Consistent with the recently announced HHS reorganization, theBudget relocates these programs within the newly formed Administration for Healthy America.”

Ed100 blog Sex Education in California