Trump Admin Freezes $6B In Funds For At-Risk Students

Y’all, at this point, I think it’s safe to say the Trump administration simply hates kids. Nothing these people have done over the last six months has had any positive, tangible benefit for America’s youth. In yet another instance of the Department of Education saying “screw these kids,” they announced last Monday that $6 billion in funds meant for various K-12 programs that support at-risk youth will be frozen. 

According to AP, schools and various after-school programs designed to help at-risk students were expecting funds from congressionally approved grants to be distributed last Monday. Instead, they received a letter from the Department of Education (DOE) informing them that the funds are being frozen while all the programs that receive them undergo a review to make sure “taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the President’s priorities and the Department’s statutory responsibilities.” 

Considering that the Department of Education has spent an alarming amount of time and money to crack down on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in colleges and universities, one can only assume the review is to make sure the programs aren’t doing too much to help Black, Brown, and at-risk students. 

Exacerbating the issue is that the DOE didn’t provide a set timeline for when the reviews would be conducted and finalized. It’s left schools and after-school programs nationwide in limbo as they plan their budgets for the upcoming year. Some schools have already warned that if the funds aren’t distributed in a timely manner they may have to shutter some summer school classes and after-school programs. 

Alabama’s Gadsden City Schools is one such school district that would have to end its after-school program that serves 1,200 low-income youth should the funds not be released. “Those hours between after school and 6 o’clock really are the hours in the day when students are at the most risk for things that may not produce great outcomes,” Janie Browning, director of Gadsden’s after-school program, told AP. “It would be devastating if we lost the lifeline of after-school for our students and our families.”

Schools aren’t the only ones affected by the freeze, as the Boys and Girls Club relies on federal grants to keep its programs running. “If these funds are blocked, the fallout will be swift and devastating,” Boys and Girls Club President Jim Clark told AP. 

The group said that if the funds remain frozen, the organization may have to close as many as 926 locations, impacting over 220,000 children. As always, the group most affected by these changes are low-income, at-risk students, a disproportionate amount of whom are Black. 

One of the big issues with this freeze is that it targets money that was already approved by Congress to be spent. An executive order designed to prevent funds from going to several LGBTQ non-profits was partially blocked due to the president not having the authority to decide how congressionally approved funding is allocated. As always, I’m no legal scholar, but there does seem to be some degree of precedent for successfully blocking a move like this.  

Overall, this is yet another instance of the Trump administration explicitly attacking low-income, at-risk students. In May, the Department of Labor announced the abrupt closure of Job Corps centers nationwide. Job Corps was designed to help at-risk students from low-income families gain skills to help them succeed in the workforce, as well as provide food and shelter. Many of the students who use Job Corps don’t have homes and had nowhere to go when the order was issued to close the sites. Thankfully, a lawsuit was filed against the Labor Department, and a federal judge ruled the centers must stay open while the lawsuit proceeds. 

Cruelty is and has always been the point of this administration. It’s not as though they’re clueless about the potential ripple effects that result from their actions. It’s a concerted effort to deny opportunities for Black, Brown, and at-risk students to better their circumstances. The fewer options they have on the table to do something positive only increases their chances of engaging in negative behavior that will justify their criminalization.

Whether it’s Congress or the courts, we can only hope this freeze is lifted fast so our most at-risk students aren’t left high and dry.  

SEE ALSO:

Trump Administration Cuts Funding For Black Infant Health Research, Labeling It A DEI Initiative

DOGE Cuts Kill Georgia Internet Access Program For Black People