Area public schools are bracing for the impact of President Donald Trump’s dramatic cuts in the Department of Education, an action that Congressman Wesley Bell says he will fight.
“By dismantling the (Department of Education) kids across the country will lose access to critical funding that helps them meet basic needs,” Bell states on Twitter.
“There is nothing more important to me than the wellbeing of our children. I won’t stop pushing back on this.”
According to Bell, through the DOE, St. Louis Schools received $53.7 million in funding for low-income students, $17.3 million in Child Nutrition Act Funding, and 8.5 million in Children with Disabilities Funding.
The cuts are underway and education experts and analysts are assessing the impact of dropping more than 1,300 jobs from a department responsible for things like providing funding for poorer schools and defending the rights of vulnerable students.
With Missouri’s Republican politicians marching mostly in lockstep with the president, public school officials in the St. Louis area probably aren’t looking for relief from Jefferson City.
Meanwhile, The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) said in a release it “is awaiting further guidance from the U.S. Department of Education (USED) to better understand how the announced reduction in force may impact programs and funds administered by DESE.”
According to DESE, as reported by the Springfield News-Leader, federal funds represent 27% of the state’s appropriated $8.7 million budget for this fiscal year. Of that, 11.05% are the remaining federal pandemic relief funds yet to be spent and 16.43% are other federal funds to support programs and services.
Excluding pandemic relief funds:
- U.S. Department of Agriculture child nutrition − $375 million
- U.S. Department of Education (DOE) Title I, Part A − $279 million
- (DOE) Title I, Part B, special education − $253 million
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Child Care and Development Fund Block Grant − $223 million
- (DOE) Adult Education and Family Literacy − $38 million
- (DOE) Vocational Rehabilitation Services − $36 million
Offices that Black and low-income students depend on the most, including the offices that handle civil rights protections for minority and disabled public school students and federal student loans for college as well as research and data collection on school equity are bein gutted.
“Look at who is hurt by these cuts: 26 million kids from low-income families, 13 million kids who get financial aid for college, 7.5 million kids with disabilities. The list goes on and on,” Fedrick Ingram, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers tells Word In Black. “Trump has turned our children into cannon fodder in an unnecessary culture war that will have real-life consequences for millions.”
“They’re hellbent on destroying public schools, not just (in Illinois), but across the nation,” said Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
He also sounded an alarm that many Trump voters in outstate Missouri and southern Illinois seem to refuse to consider.
“Rural communities, who have relied upon federal funding to keep their schools open, are likely to see school closures and will have to travel further and more minutes, more hours to get to the education that they deserve.”
At the Education Department, employees were notified that their positions would be terminated in 90 days, according to senior agency officials. Those fired began teleworking on Wednesday and will go on paid administrative leave.
In addition to the Office of Civil Rights, which saw the biggest cuts, and IES, about 300 or more staff were cut from the Federal Student Aid Office.
According to the Education Student Initiative, 66% of Black students use student loans to attend college. Moreover, Black student borrowers are more likely to struggle financially after graduation, with average monthly student loan debt payments of $258.
Ingram says that while the Department of Education has many functions, its core mission is to level the playing field for Black, Brown, and poor children by filling the opportunity gaps to help every child in America succeed.
“From bias testing to school funding, Black students have had the chips stacked against them for decades,” he says. “Gutting the department that helped them is not just cruel, it is directly in line with Trump’s overall effort to erase any gains made by Black folks, women, the LGBTQ community and anyone else he seems to dislike.”
Aziah Siid of Word In Black contributed to this report