Electric school bus purchases. School-based composting programs. Education programs for aspiring teachers. Services for students with disabilities transitioning out of high school.
These are a few of the activities affecting K-12 schools that remain paused or have been halted as President Donald Trump鈥檚 administration has moved to freeze spending and cancel scores of contracts backed by funding appropriated by Congress.
The administration in the last month has moved to terminate grants, excise contracts, and freeze funding streams worth billions of dollars for efforts that don鈥檛 align with its priorities鈥� and prompting multiple court orders from federal judges demanding the funds continue to flow.
Even as announcements of executive orders and new policies pass through the news cycle, schools are continuing to feel the impacts of the Trump administration鈥檚 crackdown on federal spending in a wide variety of ways.
The freezes have hit plans to make school buildings more energy-efficient, initiatives to replace diesel buses with clean-energy alternatives, early childhood education providers, efforts to boost , , and . Services outside the school context, including , , and , have also been affected.
The school district in Little Rock, Ark., last May ordered 25 electric school buses that were set to transport students with disabilities to and from school beginning this coming fall. The district worked with a contractor late last year to destroy 25 of its diesel buses in order to follow the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules for the on the purchase of new electric buses.
Being short 25 school buses for the second half of the school year was already going to be a challenge, said Linda Young, the district鈥檚 director of grants. Now the district faces the possibility that it trashed 25 diesel buses for nothing, and won鈥檛 get any federal help replacing them.
District leaders were excited that the new buses don鈥檛 emit as many toxic fumes as their diesel predecessors. Many of the district鈥檚 students with disabilities struggle with asthma, Young said.
鈥淕etting them a clean ride to school is really a boon to their health, and helps them get their day started off on the right foot to have a good day academically,鈥� Young said.
Some school-based efforts that federal money was set to cover were just days from getting underway. In southern California, the environmental nonprofit Sustainable Claremont was preparing to start work on constructing 10 rain gardens, 10 native plant gardens, and 10 on-site composting programs at public schools in the San Gabriel district.
But since late January, the fueling these efforts has been frozen. If the money doesn鈥檛 come through soon, the nonprofit will have no choice but to move on to other projects.
鈥淭hese are places that really need the support, and were super on board to get things going,鈥� said Stuart Wood, executive director of Sustainable Claremont.
But, Wood said, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 have three or five more months of payroll in the bank account to work on something if we don鈥檛 know if we鈥檙e going to be reimbursed.鈥�
Efforts to cut spending began as the administration took office
The Trump administration has taken several steps to slash federal spending during its first month in office鈥攅ach prompting political uproar and a slew of court challenges.
On Trump鈥檚 first day in office, he aiming to 鈥渋mmediately pause the disbursement of funds鈥� tied to climate-focused spending packages approved by Congress during the Biden administration.
A week later, the federal Office of Management and Budget announced that all federal grant funding across the government would be suspended, and then two days later that it would reverse that plan.
Two federal judges, in separate cases, have the administration to keep all federal funds flowing. District Judge John McConnell Jr. on Feb. 10 saying that the Trump administration wasn鈥檛 complying with his original order to temporarily halt the spending freeze.
Eight days later, that is still the case. Even after OMB announced it was rescinding the Jan. 27 freeze memo, a wide range of funding recipients have said they鈥檝e struggled to regain access to the federal money they鈥檙e owed.
Representatives for the Education Department and the Environmental Protection Agency didn鈥檛 answer requests for comment in time for publication.
Some of the key federal funding streams for schools haven鈥檛 been disrupted so far, including Title I for districts with large populations of students from low-income households, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act for services for students with disabilities, and the National School Lunch program for student meals. 69传媒 get most of their operating money from state and local sources, which are entirely separate.
Even so, district leaders across the country are scrambling to take stock of how federal money fits into their budgets and bracing for further disruption to come. Some state education departments are urging districts to , and to safeguard the federal money they鈥檙e already owed.
Districts 鈥渁re strongly encouraged to make timely reimbursement requests, preferably monthly and at least quarterly,鈥� the Minnesota education department wrote to district leaders on Feb. 13. Districts often wait until the end of the school year to submit one federal reimbursement request for the entire year鈥檚 worth of expenses covered by federal grants, said Sam Snuggerud, the agency鈥檚 director of communications.
鈥淭he goal is to encourage accounting best practices and mitigate financial harm should there be another sudden stop or shift in the flow of federal dollars to schools,鈥� Snuggerud told Education Week.
Federally funded school buses may never arrive
The spending freezes for funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act have directly touched money for schools, including the Clean School Bus program and the for upgrading energy systems in school facilities.
In 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded $15 million to a coalition of 13 Illinois school districts. The project plan included investments in electric school buses, solar panels, and microgrids for energy storage鈥攁ll of which can help districts save on energy costs in the long term and enable school buildings to serve as emergency shelters during local power outages.
Some participating districts have already paid tens of thousands of dollars for design and planning work and were looking to soon be reimbursed with the federal grant money, said Tim Farquer, superintendent of the Mercer County district. Others haven鈥檛 yet paid the contractors they hired, and won鈥檛 be able to if the federal grant doesn鈥檛 come through.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e proof of concept,鈥� Farquer said. 鈥淚f you put these mechanisms in place, and the market continues to mature, then three to five years down the road, school districts would be able to do it without the incentives. That鈥檚 what we鈥檙e trying to portray.鈥�
Districts in many states are now wondering whether their electric school bus plans will be put on hold. The same is true for some and , including the , that received EPA grant and rebate awards, to ramp up electric bus production and distribution.
Districts that were expecting federal grants to improve energy efficiency might have to cancel their in-progress efforts until the market matures enough for projects like these to become affordable within districts鈥� finite means, Farquer said.
Without government incentives, though, that may never happen, Farquer said. 鈥淭he innovation just stops,鈥� he said.
Spending freezes and stoppages鈥攚hich now include hundreds of millions of dollars in terminated U.S. Department of Education contracts for research and programming鈥攈ave ripple effects on other areas of school operations.
The Ritenour district in St. Louis budgets $330,000 a year to replace diesel buses that have fallen into disrepair. Chris Kilbride, the district鈥檚 superintendent, had hoped the 21 new fuel-efficient buses the district ordered would generate enough long-term savings that he could get rid of that budget line item and shift that money to 鈥渢eacher salaries and student materials to support learning in the classroom.鈥�
But for more than three weeks, the district鈥檚 chief financial officer has been locked out of the portal that would allow him to pull down the $8 million EPA grant that was set to cover the purchase.
鈥淲e鈥檙e committed to not using local taxpayer dollars for this project,鈥� Kilbride said. 鈥淭here was a commitment to federal funding, and that鈥檚 the way we want to keep it.鈥�
