More than $118 million in federal funding grants for Arizona public schools have not been released by the federal government just weeks before the start of the school year.
The funding limbo comes as the Trump administration announced Monday it is withholding more than $6 billion in federal grants for review. These funds finance summer and after-school programs, English-learning instruction, staff training, mental health counseling and art programs.
“The most directly impacted group, with regard to loss of these funds in the largest amount of money, will be the students,” said Gabriel Trujillo, superintendent of Tucson Unified School District.
TUSD recently announced the district was facing a potential loss of $6 million due to the federal withholding.
The funds, approved by Congress, were expected to be released July 1, but the US Department of Education said in a last-minute notice that the money would be withheld while programs were reviewed to ensure they align with President Donald Trump’s priorities, . Trujillo said TUSD was notified June 30 that it would not receive the funds.
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“If you’re going to cut the $6 million, do it in a professional and compassionate and humane way. Do it for the 26-27 school year so we have the year to plan and communicate with parents,” Trujillo said about the Arizona Department of Education, the agency that passes federal money to the state’s public schools. Trujillo said there has been no help from the state education office to navigate the potential loss. “When they say what kind of support do we need, that support is give us our $6 million that was penciled into this year’s fiscal budget.”
Tucson Unified School District could lose about $6 million in federal funding to pay for services like tutoring, after school programs and teacher training as part of $118 million in federal funds being withheld from Arizona, Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo says.
The primary program the loss will affect is about $2 million that goes toward student programming through the 21st Century afterschool program, Trujillo said. The program provides academic intervention and tutoring at 23 schools and serves about 1,000 students to help get their reading and math up to grade level.
“Parent’s rely on us during that time to take care of their students until they can get off work,” Trujillo said.
The other $4 million goes toward professional development courses and resources for teachers, English as a Second Language and English Language Development courses for students. It also covers student support services, including social work, student behavioral intervention and social emotional learning programming.
“Right now, we’re still working on putting the strategy together, because we just found out about this,” Trujillo said. “The biggest priority is figuring this out through a combination of strategies, working with the city’s Kidco program and Boys and Girls Club to see if we can expand some access there.”
The Arizona Education Association, the labor union for Arizona public school educators, took to Tuesday, July 1, to criticize the freeze, calling it “outrageous, illegal, and wrong.”
“This is an outrageous attempt to defund public education and steal from the 1.1 million Arizona students who attend public schools,” Arizona Education Association President Marisol Garcia said in a . “The Trump administration has no authority to withhold funding that was already promised to our districts, and we expect this illegal freeze to be successfully challenged in the courts.”
Late last week, Sen. Mark Kelly and Rep. Greg Stanton to Director of Management and Budget Russell Vought and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, demanding the Department of Education release the grant money.
“This freeze is putting Arizona school districts in an impossible financial situation, as school districts have already adopted their annual budgets and signed contracts for the upcoming school year,” they wrote. “To minimize harm to students, teachers, and families and to uphold the Constitution, we urge you to immediately release these congressionally appropriated dollars as required by law.”
Arizona’s Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, at a July 10 news conference, accused the White House of “ripping away” important programs “with no explanation and no warning,” reported the .
“Our public schools have been planning on that money,” Hobbs said. “These cuts are not a Democratic or Republican problem. They are a problem for every elected official, in all 50 states, who wants to expand opportunity and give every kid in their state a shot.”
