WashingtonThe Education Department announced Friday that the Trump administration is releasing billions of dollars in delayed school grants, putting an end to weeks of uncertainty for teachers across who depend on the funding for adult literacy, English language education, and other initiatives.
In an effort to ensure expenditure, the administration of President Donald Trump banned more than on July 1.
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Numerous lawsuits had contested the funding freeze as educators, members of both parties of Congress, and others demanded that the administration release the funds. The funds were appropriated by Congress in a law that Trump approved this year.
The Education Department announced last week that $1.3 billion of the funds would be used for summer and after-school programs. Nonprofits like the YMCA and school districts had stated that they would have to reduce or eliminate their educational programs this autumn if they didn’t receive the funding.
According to the Education Department, the Office of Management and Budget has finished reviewing the programs and will start distributing the funds to states the next week.
In a letter dated July 16, ten Republican senators urged the administration to permit states to receive the frozen education funds, stating that the funds were used to support services and programs that are vital to their communities.
U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, stated on Friday that the programs have long-standing, bipartisan support. She cited schools that teach adults new skills that boost local economies, as well as summer and after-school programs that let parents work while their kids learn.
When the Office of Management and Budget refused to provide the monies, it claimed that certain programs supported a
The Republican senators wrote, “We share your concern.” We don’t think that’s the case with these funds, though.
Without the funds, school superintendents had threatened to cut academic programs. The superintendents’ group, AASA, praised Congressmen on Friday for their pressure to release the funds.
The district’s annual summer camp for English-learning children in Harford County, Maryland, was funded in part by the withheld federal funds. In order to integrate learning into the four weeks of summer camp, the district uses the funds to hire licensed teachers to serve the program. Over the summer, the program helps children maintain their academic and English progress.
There are about 1,100 non-native English speakers in the district. Many of them were born in the United States to parents who moved to the area in search of work, frequently in the warehouses and restaurants that have sprung up in the area northeast of Baltimore in recent decades. The soon-to-be-released federal funding covers the cost of tutoring children learning English during the school year.
On Thursday, the second-to-last day of summer camp, over 350 kids crowded the second floor of Bel Air High School. As they considered meals that began with the letters A through Z, young students huddled around an alphabet wheel, competing with one another to press each letter button.
After watching a robotics team presentation, some middle school pupils hesitantly raised their hands when asked whether they would like to join. The smallest children received art project assistance from high school student volunteers, some of whom had been campers learning English themselves not long ago.
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, stated that the financial uncertainty was an unwanted distraction for schools.
“Under President Trump, communities nationwide have been forced to spend their time reducing tutoring options and determining how many teachers they will have to lay off, rather than spending the last few weeks figuring out how to improve after-school options and raise our kids’ reading and math scores,” Murray said.
Among the grants reviewed were $2 billion for teacher professional development, $1.3 billion for after-school and summer learning programs, $1 billion for academic enrichment grants, which are frequently used for accelerated learning and science and math instruction, $890 million for English language learners, $376 million for migrant worker children’s education, and $715 million for literacy instruction for adults.
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