The U.S. Department of Education will release federal education funding frozen by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced Friday.
Nationwide, around $6.8 billion in funding for migrant education and other grants was held up a day before it was supposed to be released on July 1, according to reporting by the Alaska Beacon.
Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Superintendent Clayton Holland said on July 7 that the “freeze on several federal grants for schools” would halt funding for multiple programs, including migrant education, Indigenous education and English language learning. He said the missing funds could lead to further cuts to programming and staff on top of deep cuts made by the KPBSD Board of Education this year in the face of a steep deficit driven by declining state education funding.
To the KPBSD alone, Holland said the frozen funding represents a loss of around $3 million.
“We don’t know if its a temporary freeze, we don’t know if this is going to come back at a different time or not,” Holland said. “In a year of uncertainty from the borough, from the state, from the federal government, it’s one more thing that’s very late in the game and that we have to deal with.”
In Juneau, KTOO reports that the federal funding freeze blocked around $420,000 to the Juneau School District.
Murkowski was among 10 Republican senators — from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and West Virginia — who called on the federal Department of Education to restore the funding on July 16.
“Withholding these funds will harm students, families, and local economies,” the letter, which was addressed to Director Russell Vought of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, reads.
A fraction of the total was released a couple of days after that letter was released, but nearly $6 billion remained in flux until Friday.
“Today, we received official notification that the U.S. Department of Education will release all remaining Congressionally-approved education formula funding that was due to the states,” said Sen. Murkowski in a Friday press release. “This is a tremendous win for our students, families, and school districts across Alaska. I am grateful that OMB Director Vought agreed with me and my colleagues as we reminded the administration that local communities have the best understanding of the unique needs of their students and how best to serve them. But the anxiety, disruption, and extra work to figure out how to serve students without this funding should never have been necessary.”
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
