“It’s catastrophic,” said Jodi Grant, executive director of the Afterschool Alliance, a group that works to expand after-school services for #students. She estimated that the federal dollars for after-school & summer-school programs — about $1.3 billion annually — support 1.4 million students, mostly lower income, representing about 20% of all students in after-school programs nationally.
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The #Trump admin offered little explanation, saying only that the funds were under review. It gave no timeline for when, or if, the money would be released, saying instead that it was “committed to ensuring taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the president’s priorities.” The frozen funds are unrelated to the millions of dollars in cuts included in the domestic policy bill that squeaked through the #Senate on Tuesday.
“It’s catastrophic,” said Jodi Grant, executive director of the Afterschool Alliance, a group that works to expand after-school services for #students. She estimated that the federal dollars for after-school & summer-school programs — about $1.3 billion annually — support 1.4 million students, mostly lower income, representing about 20% of all students in after-school programs nationally.
The move is likely to be challenged in #court & has already been criticized [correctly characterized] as #illegal by #Democrats & #teachers’ #unions, who emphasized that the money had been appropriated by #Congress & was approved by #Trump in March as part of a broader #funding bill.
“This is lawless,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
The #Trump admin has taken an aggressive approach to cutting back the federal government’s role in #education, including plans to eliminate the Education Department entirely. Though only #Congress can abolish the department, the Trump admin has taken an ax to education staffing & #funding more broadly as it seeks to whittle down the department.
The admin has suggested that it may seek to eliminate the nearly $7 billion in frozen funding. [which it absolutely cannot do]
#RussVought, the director of the White House #OMB, said during a #Senate#Appropriations Cmte hearing last week that the admin was considering ways to claw back the funding through a process known as rescission. The admin would formally ask lawmakers to claw back a set of funds it has targeted for cuts. Even if #Congress fails to vote on the request, #Trump’s timing would trigger a #law that freezes the money until it ultimately expires.
“No decision has been made,” Vought said.
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