English-learner advocates say there’s a growing and urgent need to protect federal funding dedicated to the nation’s English-learner population as the Trump administration seeks to eliminate this source of support.
Title III state formula grants, totaling a little more than $890 million, help school districts hire bilingual tutors, purchase supplemental curricular materials, and offer professional development for teachers.
In late June, the Trump administration withheld these funds along with billions in other congressionally approved education funding, sparking nationwide backlash and lawsuits. By July 25, the administration announced all the withheld funding would be unfrozen.
But the Trump administration has also proposed the elimination of Title III funding for the 2026 fiscal year in its May budget proposal.
In light of the year’s developments regarding Title III funds, the National Association for Bilingual Education, or NABE, convened English-learner and language education advocacy groups in a webinar on Aug. 21 to discuss what’s next for English learners in the federal policy landscape.
Advocates call on Congress to protect funds
On July 31, key senators from both sides of the aisle voted to advance a federal budget bill for education, labor, and health that rejected virtually all the Trump administration’s proposals to slash K-12 education investments, including his call to eliminate Title III.
The bill, however, still needs support from 60 members in the full Senate, and the public continues to wait for a House version, which isn’t due for a comparable markup until early September.
During the NABE webinar, Jeff Hutcheson, the director of advocacy and public policy for TESOL International Association, a professional association focusing on English-language teaching, said in the past two years, members of the House have proposed eliminating Title III dollars.
With President Donald Trump now advocating for the same cuts, webinar panelists spoke of an urgent need for grassroots and national outreach to protect federal dollars aimed at helping English learners succeed academically and linguistically. Panelists cited advocacy work this past summer as being instrumental in the Trump administration’s decision to unfreeze federal education dollars in late July.
“Proposed budget cuts represent a deliberate step backwards on equity, civil rights, and the promise to educate all our students across the United States,” said Margarita Machado-Casas, president of NABE, during the webinar.
States now tasked with further protecting English learners’ rights
Webinar speakers also spoke of the increasingly important role state education leaders play in helping schools protect English learners’ rights amid shifting federal policies.
Julie Sugarman, co-chair of the National Association of English Learner Program Administrators, which represents state and local education leaders, reminded the webinar audience that earlier in August, the Trump administration quietly rescinded a 2015 Dear Colleague Letter, which outlined how schools can meet federal requirements for teaching English learners.
Sugarman said even before the guidance was rescinded, the administration was already signaling a desire to no longer use the U.S. Department of Education’s office for civil rights, nor the U.S. Department of Justice, to oversee and enforce civil rights rules for English learners and immigrant students.
As a result, she said, it’ll be up to states to ensure schools are safeguarding students’ rights.
“States should be making sure that they are disseminating information about expectations for serving English learners and their families through clear guidance to LEAs,” Sugarman said. “Preferably, states can pass laws that mirror existing federal civil rights provisions to make sure they are enshrined in state policy.”
She added that states should have plans in place should Title III funds go unappropriated for the 2026-27 school year. For instance, states could help school districts use data to ensure the funding they have is properly targeted, and foster cooperation to share resources and expertise with other states and local agencies.
States can also create communities of practice to help districts conduct evaluations and review data of English learners and make sure their data systems are properly maintained.
