Educators Claim Cuts Will Affect Health Care, Food Access and Building Upgrades
Federal funding cuts are affecting local school district budgets for mental health services, food access, educational preparedness, building improvements and children in foster care.
“It is possible to say we need our families to be healthy, we need our kids to be fed, we need the bonds of neighborhood to hold – and that is not a political statement,” Salem-Keizer School Superintendent Andrea Castañeda said in a recent video press conference.
“I think that’s a statement that could be accepted in Bend. It could be accepted in Salem. It could be accepted in Klamath Falls,” she said. “That resonates because it’s about an underlying ethical value that I believe almost all Oregonians hold.”
Castañeda also said talking about the health and wellness of families shouldn’t be like “touching some electrified line of politics.”
“No one wants to see Oregon’s children go hungry, but since January, over 4 million pounds of federal food aid, worth more than $7 million, has been cut from our food banks,” Portland Public Schools Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong said.
“More than 144,000 children in our state are already facing hunger, and the crisis is only getting worse,” Armstrong added. “Decisions made in D.C. are showing up as empty plates in Oregon, and it’s our children who are going without.”
Cuts Impact Small, Rural Districts
The impacts are also being felt in small rural districts whose constituencies tend to vote for Republicans. The Corbett School District says it won’t be able to retain five mental health counselors after being notified by the U.S. Department of Education that a 5-year grant is being terminated after three years.
The Grant School District in Eastern Oregon was notified by the U.S. Department of Energy that grants issued under the 2024 Renew America’s Schools program have been indefinitely suspended. “Nobody said anything. Nobody reached out to us,” said Superintendent Mark Witty. “We don’t have any information one way or another. Frankly, my gut instinct is that we’re not going to get the money.”
Witty explained the district has already spent money in anticipation of the grant to pay for HVAC air quality improvements at its junior and senior high school. “Our county has taken hit after hit after hit after hit from an economic standpoint,” Witty told OPB. “At some level, we’re a bit shell-shocked.”
Grant was one of seven school districts in Oregon selected to receive $190 million to decrease energy costs, improve indoor air quality and foster healthier learning environments.
The economic consequences faced by local school districts mirror similar impacts in other sectors as the Trump administration cancels programs and Congress grapples to approve a budget that includes spending cuts and tax cuts.
The Battle Against DEI
The U.S. Department of Education announced in February it was slashing $600 million in what it called “divisive teacher training grants” as part of the Trump administration attack on programs using the words “diversity, equality and inclusion” and training to teach Critical Race Theory.
Oregon is one of 19 states suing the U.S. Department of Education to release funding it is withholding for what it calls “illegal DEI practices”.
Partial List of Targeted Cuts
In January, The New York Times published a list of 2,900 federal programs being scrutinized for cancellation or funding cuts. A cross-section of the Department of Education list included $1.4 billion career and technical education grants, $452 million for charter schools, $202 million for comprehensive literacy development, $129 million for educating homeless children, $277 million for educational innovation research, $17 million for talented and gifted student programs, $70 for research on special education and $1.3 billion for academic enrichment.
Programs on the chopping block affecting school districts were also included in other agency spending cut lists.
Trump has stated his intention to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, rolling some of its programs such as Pell Grants to other agencies but ending many others.
Trump’s Proposed FY 2026 Budget
Trump’s proposed FY 2026 federal budget calls for $6 billion in funding cuts affecting K-12 schools and consolidate 18 grant programs into a single funding stream that states could allocate as they wish. Observers believe reducing aid to a single program is the first step toward creating a block grant.
The proposed budget, which would affect the 2026-2027 school year, would maintain Title I funding at $18 billion and Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) funding at $14 billion. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said during her confirmation hearing she would protect funding for both programs.
The budget would eliminate programs that support 5 million English language learners and children of migrant farm workers. Funding for the Office for Civil Rights would be cut by more than a third.
Federal charter schools would see a 14 percent increase to $500 million and potentially set the stage for opening funding to religious charter schools.
Postsecondary programs would be trimmed by $4.6 billion, which would mean $10 billion of Trump’s proposed $163 billion in spending cuts would come from education programs.
