appropriations – ��

McMahon Takes Flak From Democrats, Republicans at Congressional Budget Hearing

Linda Jacobson — Wed, 21 May 2025 19:56:01 +0000

Education Secretary Linda McMahon defended a 15% cut in education funding Wednesday as she faced skeptical members of Congress on both sides of the aisle.

For over two hours, she fielded questions on a “skinny” 2026 budget that lacks details on how the administration would shrink $4 billion for K-12 programs into a $2 billion block grant for states. She drew sharp words from the ranking Democrat for canceling funding for school mental health professionals and grants to train teachers.

“By recklessly incapacitating the department you lead you are usurping Congress’s authority and infringing on Congress’s power of the purse,” said Connecticut Democrat Rosa DeLauro. The current budget, she said, “was passed in the House, was passed in the Senate — civics 101 — and the president signed it. It’s the law of the land.”

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for �� Newsletter

At least one Republican also questioned McMahon about why the department is recommending a $1.6 billion cut to programs intended to help more poor and minority students get into college.

“It is one of the most effective programs in the federal government,” said Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho, referring to TRIO, a package of eight programs that encourage connections between colleges and K-12 schools.

McMahon would also cut GEAR UP, a college readiness program that targets low-income students beginning in middle school. She cited an anecdotal report of TRIO funds covering the cost of a trip to Disney World.

“I’m not sure that all the expenses in TRIO should be there,” she said, but added that if colleges and universities aren’t reaching out to K-12 schools on their own, they should be.

‘Bare minimum’

While past secretaries have called for cuts in funding, none have presented a budget in the midst of such aggressive attempts to eliminate the department. The proposed cuts, she said, represent a desire to cut bureaucracy, end “federal overreach,” and give states and parents more control over education. Despite cutting over half the staff, she said employees who remain “haven’t missed a beat” in implementing the programs they’re charged with overseeing. She stressed that there are no plans to cut Title I grants to low-income schools or funding for students with disabilities.

“Democrats tried to tie proposed budget cuts to ending the department and, somehow, ending all public education,” said Neal McCluskey, director of the libertarian Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom and a proponent of funding private school choice. “But the secretary handled that very well, making clear that the goal is to cut bureaucracy and federal controls in order to improve education and adhere to the Constitution.”

But others say the overhaul has created confusion and chaos. States and districts nationwide are still waiting on details of how much in Title I funds they can expect to receive this fall — a delay that complicates hiring and budgeting decisions.

“We have not received any guidance from our state department of education,” said Jeremy Vidito, chief financial officer for the Detroit Public Schools Community District. Regardless of any cuts at the federal level, his district has promised not to lay off staff. But a delay of six months or more,” he said, “would lead to cash flow issues that we would have to manage.”

Last week, Democrats in the House and Senate sent McMahon a letter, laying out the ways they believe her department is stumbling — from giving districts compressed timelines for grant applications to abruptly ending funding that schools depend on.

“We were told your department’s work would be efficient, particularly after the reduction in force,” they wrote. “But that does not appear to be the case here.”

The department has not responded to questions about when it will release the remainder of funds for the current federal fiscal year, which expires at the end of September. But McMahon repeatedly told the committee she would follow the law.

“That is the bare minimum of what the American people should expect from a federal agency tasked by Congress with serving our nation’s children,” said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, who sat just behind McMahon during the hearing.

What bothered Rodrigues most was McMahon’s admission that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency made the decision to cut roughly 1,300 staff members. She just carried it out after she was confirmed and said she has little knowledge about the backgrounds of the DOGE staff that Rodrigues said are “wielding extraordinary power within the agency,”

The department has since hired back 74 staff members who were fired, McMahon said.

Eric Duncan, director of P-12 policy at EdTrust, which advocates for programs that improve educational equity, noted that McMahon aims to cut programs that received support from both sides of the aisle.

“We were encouraged by the critical feedback on the department’s decision to cut school mental health grants,” he said. “Cutting these funds risks bipartisan priorities: improved mental health supports increase school safety and improve academic outcomes.”

In one tense exchange, Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, a Democrat, asked McMahon if she’s ever met with students who survived school shootings, like in Uvalde, Texas, or Parkland, Florida.. The secretary said she had only met with parents from Sandy Hook because she’s from Connecticut.

“Do you plan to do that?” Dean asked about meeting with students. “How soon can you do that?

“I’ve got a lot of responsibilities,” McMahon said.

‘Lost the fundamental basics’

Aside from Simpson’s concern about college readiness programs, most GOP members of the committee commended McMahon for her efforts to downsize the agency and elevate school choice.

“Thankfully some states have pursued choice options for students whose traditional public schools have not served them well,” said Republican Robert Aderholt of Alabama, who chairs the subcommittee on education.

Prioritizing choice and giving states more control are two of the three goals for any future grant programs she laid out in a Federal Register posting Tuesday. The third is improving literacy.

“We have seen such decreases or failing in our schools because we are not teaching our children to read,” she said. “We’ve lost the fundamental basics, and I want to see our schools return to the science of reading.”

DeLauro, however, listed a federal literacy grant program, which provides up to $14 million to states to improve reading skills, especially among low-income students and English learners, as one of the 18 “unspecified programs” potentially on the chopping block.

“A block grant is a cut. All of my colleagues here know that,” she said. “The states cannot afford to pick up the slack.”

Advocates Fear Biden May Have Missed Best Chance for School Funding Windfall

Linda Jacobson — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 20:25:00 +0000

With President Joe Biden’s major education spending proposals for high-poverty schools and students with disabilities left out of this year’s , some advocates are already shifting their attention to next year’s cycle.

But with even Biden concerned that Republicans could of the House — and Congress increasingly unable to pass an annual budget on time — the chances that K-12 schools can count on next year’s budget for a reprieve appear slim.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for �� Newsletter

“I am hopeful that this is a down payment for what’s to come,” said José Muñoz, director of the Coalition for Community Schools. Congress appropriated $75 million for schools that work with outside providers to address hunger, mental health, housing and other non-academic issues for families — an increase of $45 million. But Biden proposed a $413 million increase. Muñoz said he was disappointed by the “extreme shift.”

“Now, we all have to go back to work to correct what just happened,” he said.

The White House has already indicated that Biden will request at least $400 million for community schools when he releases his fiscal year 2023 budget proposal, expected later this month. Advocates also expect to see him once again request big increases for Title I and special education. But based on this year’s process, some are highly skeptical that Congress will be able to pass a budget before the midterm elections or break out of its cycle of passing multiple short-term budget extensions to keep the government operating.

“We’ll welcome the commitment to education … but we saw how that shook out this year,” said Noelle Ellerson Ng, associate executive director for advocacy and governance at AASA, the School Superintendents Association. She added that she could see another series of continuing resolutions that stretch into the new year. “That brings up all the questions of who’s in leadership come January and how that shapes overall numbers and program allocations.”

The organization’s top priority will once again be full funding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act,or IDEA — meaning that the federal government would pick up 40 percent of the costs of services for students with disabilities. Biden pledged that he would meet that requirement of the law. He proposed a $2.7 billion increase for fiscal 2022, but the budget includes far less — a $448 million increase — bringing the total to $14.5 billion.

AASA was hoping Congress would at least maintain the higher level of funding special education received under the American Rescue Plan, which provided an additional $2.5 billion for students with disabilities.

Congress is missing “a true opportunity to redirect itself forward on the IDEA glidepath,” Dan Domenech, executive director of AASA, said in a statement. “We applaud them for the small increases included in [the] bill, while also holding them accountable for once again leaving IDEA severely underfunded.”

No more free meals for all

Domenech summed up educators’ less-than-enthusiastic reaction to the budget by calling it a “mixed bag.” The bill, for example, includes new funding to address students’ mental health and $30 million more for afterschool programs, but not a major increase for high-poverty schools.

The budget provides a $1.77 billion increase over fiscal 2021 for school nutrition, but leaves out waivers that would have allowed such programs to continue serving free meals to all students and have flexibility in meal planning to cope with food and supply shortages.

That means after more than two school years of free meals for all students, regardless of income, families in poverty will need to apply for the National School Lunch Program for the 2022-23 school year in order for their children to receive free or reduced-price meals.

And “given the , schools will likely need to raise prices on those families that do pay” said Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokeswoman for the School Nutrition Association. With the end of pandemic meal programs, schools will also “have to significantly curtail summer meal services,” she said.

Biden also campaigned on tripling Title I funding for high-poverty schools. He proposed a $20 billion “equity” grant program to help close funding gaps between rich and poor districts and between those serving primarily white students and those that enroll more Black and Hispanic students.

The budget instead raises Title I funding by $1 billion, bringing the total to $17.5 billion. That’s the highest increase in more than a decade, but doesn’t include the new funding to reduce disparities.

“The Title I equity grants would have given the neediest districts greater assurance that they could continue effective academic interventions beyond the pandemic,” said Robert Tagorda, who led equity initiatives in California’s Long Beach Unified School District and now consults with districts on their recovery efforts. “Districts are coming to terms with the one-time nature of COVID relief funds. They’re wondering how they can sustain the tutorials, summer programs and other student services once the funds expire, knowing that it will take a long time to get kids back on track.”

Advocates for young children had a similar response after being hopeful last year that Biden would be able to push through his $400 billion plan to pay for child care and universal pre-K as part of Build Back Better. That legislation is now stalled and it’s unclear whether universal pre-K will resurface in a of the bill.

For fiscal 2022, Biden originally proposed almost $20 billion for early-childhood programs, including Head Start and child care. The budget bill instead provides about $17.5 billion for programs serving preschoolers.

“Without more significant funding increases, these programs will continue to serve only a small portion of the children and families that are eligible to participate in them,” said Aaron Loewenberg, a senior policy analyst at New America, a center-left think tank.

Other advocacy groups say their recent lobbying efforts made a difference in the final numbers. The National Association of Secondary School Principals, for example, sent 350 members to Capitol Hill two weeks ago to press for increases in principal preparation programs and mental health services for students — a topic Biden addressed in his State of the Union address.

The budget includes a $27 million increase for state grants that fund teacher and principal training and $111 million — a $95 million increase over fiscal 2021 — that can be used to train more school counselors, social workers and psychologists. Beth Lehr, assistant principal at Sahuarita High School, south of Tucson, Arizona, was among the administrators advocating for those increases to address the aftermath of the pandemic. There are some teachers, she said, “who dread coming to work and parents who are struggling because they feel they can’t keep their kids safe.”