More than 100 organizations that represent researchers, K-12 administrators, school boards, and universities are urging top congressional lawmakers to help reinstate funding for dozens of education-related grants the Trump administration has terminated recently.
The groups today addressed a joint letter to six U.S. senators and three U.S. House of Representatives members, including the chairs of both chambers’ respective education and appropriations committees, calling on them to tell the acting U.S. secretary of education to “immediately reverse the cancellation” of three grant programs that have collectively enabled hundreds of college students across the country to pursue teaching careers.
The letter addresses three sets of grants: the Teacher Quality Partnership program, the Teacher and School Leader incentive program, and the Supporting Effective Educator Development program. Many were focused on building up the labor pool for highly sought-after specialists in areas like math, science, special education, and instruction for English learners and students from low-income families.
“I got into education because I believe every child should have a good teacher, and a well-prepared one,” said Kathlene Campbell, executive director of the nonprofit National Center for Teacher Residencies, which received close to $7 million in SEED money in 2022. “I’m shocked that I’m having to argue that right now.”
In addition to supporting the academic careers of future educators, grant-funded initiatives were also providing services to children currently attending public schools, the groups said.
“For K-12 schools, the cancellations disrupt a pipeline of qualified educators needed to fill key vacancies next year and eliminate vital services, such as tutoring, that teacher candidates are providing this year,” the letter said.
Prominent K-12 organizations that signed the letter include AASA, The School Superintendents Association; the National Association of Secondary School Principals; the Council of Administrators of Special Education; and the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union.
The letter is addressed to Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine; Patty Murray, D-Wash.; Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.; Bill Cassidy, R-La.; and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; as well as Reps. Tom Cole, R-Okla.; Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn.; Robert Aderholt, R-Ala.; Tim Walberg, R-Mich.; and Bobby Scott, D-Va.
Grant cuts affect spending from earlier this year, as well as future funds
Education organizations that received now-terminated federal grants in recent days have struggled with a fresh complication: They can’t access federal money to get reimbursed for expenses they had already incurred before the grant was terminated.
Last Wednesday, Campbell opened the online federal grant platform to draw down roughly $25,000 for expenses in January and early February—including paychecks for her staff, and payment for a contractor that was helping the organization develop professional learning programs for current teachers who would be mentoring college students.
But when she opened the portal, the grant had an unfamiliar status: “Routing.” She was unable to draw down the money.
With the help of an acquaintance in the know, she learned that her organization now must get approval from a federal Education Department staffer, known as a “program officer,” before money from the contract will appear in the group’s bank account. The federal government typically uses this pre-approval mechanism sparingly when an individual organization appears likely to misuse grant funds.
But the program officer she had worked with on this grant hasn’t responded to any of her emails since the contract was terminated Feb. 10. Many Education Department staffers have been placed on administrative leave or laid off in the last month as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing push to shrink the federal workforce. On Friday, department staff received an email offering up to $25,000 in exchange for quitting by Monday in advance of a larger reduction in force, Politico reported.
This new complication means that the organization and its university collaborators may be unable to cover tuition funds for some college students in teacher prep programs, both going forward and even for the current semester. In some programs funded by the grant, freshman students now wonder if they’ll have to abandon their teaching aspirations because they won’t get the scholarship money they had counted on.
Many other grant recipients appear to be facing similar struggles, Campbell said, and some may not even realize yet that their money is frozen.
“It’s a daunting task to try to suddenly figure out how to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Campbell said.
This new wrinkle isn’t simply inconvenient. It may also violate federal rules that lay out a multi-step process for applying new conditions on grants that have already been awarded to the recipient. Federal rules also require the government to notify recipients that new conditions have been added; those notifications don’t appear to have gone out for affected education grants.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Education Department didn’t respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
Trump administration plans to continue shrinking the federal education footprint
Cuts to these programs were among the earliest and highest-profile efforts by the newly formed and unofficial Department of Government Efficiency to eliminate “waste, fraud, and abuse” across the federal government. White House officials have been circumspect when asked who is overseeing DOGE work, but reports indicate President Trump’s billionaire adviser Elon Musk and dozens of his young associates are the primary players.
In an apparent rebuke to the spending authority of Congress that’s laid out in the U.S. Constitution, the Trump administration has pursued a broad campaign of cutting federal spending, placing new conditions and bureaucratic hurdles on existing programs, and at times even undercutting the administration’s ostensible priorities.
Several recipients of these grants, for instance, were using the money for programs in career and technical education—one of the top priorities of presumptive Education Secretary Linda McMahon.
Congress passed the Teacher Quality Program and the Teacher and School Leader incentive program during the Obama administration. The Supporting Effective Educator Development has been a federal priority for more than 50 years, since Congress passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965.
Trump signaled in late February that he intends to pursue further efforts to cut federal spending. On Feb. 26, he signed an executive order for agency heads to review grant and contract spending, and subsequently terminate or modify existing programs in a bid for greater efficiency. “Educational institutions and foreign waste” merit priority consideration, the order said.
That review is due to the president on March 28.
