Local school budgets move forward despite uncertainty surrounding federal funding

U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced on Tuesday, March 11, that 50% of the department’s workforce would be fired by March 21.

This workforce reduction coincides with cuts to the tune of over $1 billion in grant funding to teacher recruitment and training organizations, the Regional Education Laboratory program, Equity Assistance Centers and grants awarded under the Comprehensive Centers Program that provide “capacity-building” training to schools nationwide.

So far, federal funding to public school districts has not been cut. But some education advocates are raising alarm bells about the cuts and how they might impact local public school districts.

Region One, the administrative body that oversees public schools in Northwest Connecticut including Cornwall, Sharon, Salisbury, Falls Village, North Canaan and Kent, received just over $1.36 million in federal grant revenue for the 2024-’25 school year.

That represents 3.1% of the Region One budget, and funds programs like special education and healthcare for students that qualify for Medicare, Region One Business Manager Sam Herrick said.

“For students with disabilities we receive about $780,000 a year of the $1.36 million,” Herrick said. “So a little more than half of our federal money is related to special education.”

The remainder of the federal money funds student nutrition programs and remedial services, including funding a portion of those teachers’ salaries across the district.

As of Friday, March 14, Region One was going through budget talks under the assumption that federal funding will remain in place for those programs.

“We haven’t received any guidance from the State of Connecticut Department of Education or from the federal government,” Herrick said. “As we all see things are just happening pretty quickly, but there has not been any information forthcoming with what’s coming next.”

The story is largely the same across the New York border at the Webutuck School district. Federal funding supports programs for low-income students and families, students with disabilities, and universal pre-K to the tune of about $658,000 in the 2024-25 school year, representing a little over 2% of the revenue that Webutuck schools had available to them in this year’s budget.

That money is in addition to the money in the $27 million general fund that local voters approved last May, and Webutuck Business Administrator Robert Farrier says they factor it in to the operating budget of the district in specific ways.

“We use most of our Title funding for teacher salaries,” Farrier said. Grants for universal pre-K subsidize preschool teacher salaries at Webutuck schools, so Farrier only has to rely on the general fund for a small portion of preschool teacher salaries and the rest comes directly from federal grants.

“If we were to lose that, that’s where that impact would come,” Farrier said. “That $658,000 would have to be put back into the main budget, which would be obviously a big hurdle.”

Connecticut Education Association President Kate Dias emphasized the cuts to the federal Department of Education workforce and grant programs will have uneven consequences, mostly affecting low-income students and students with disabilities and schools in poorer communities.

“These are the extra services that are all about giving everybody the same chance of being successful,” Dias said. “When we start to look at where these cuts are going to hit, it’s really the services and the support network we’re building for out students that struggle.”

She said school budgets don’t have a lot of extra wiggle room to accommodate sudden cuts to funding, and special education program already falls short of the established goals. Dias said schools are supposed to be reimbursed at 40% for special education expenses from federal grants, but in reality that reimbursement typically falls in the 14-17% range.

“Then you layer in that the state reimbursement is coming up, I believe, $137 million short in special education funds,” Dias said. “And all of those dollars, particularly in special education, are mandated dollars. Those are bills that have to be paid. When we talk about any net loss in resources, it’s going to impact what we’re able to do for children.”

Until there are more answers and clarity from the federal government, schools must persist and adapt to the ongoing uncertainties.