GOP senators push back on Trump's education funding freeze
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Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W. Va.) speaks to reporters at Capitol Hill on June 24, 2025. Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
Ten Republican senators asked the Trump administration on Wednesday to release $6 billion in congressionally approved funding for K-12 educational programs.
Why it matters: The lack of money could disrupt essential school services such as summer, after-school and other programs at a time when about a third of K-12 students are behind grade level.
- The Trump administration froze the money on June 30, the day before the funds are traditionally disbursed.
- The money was slated to fund a wide variety of grants, including professional development for teachers, services for english learners and adult literacy programs.
- The Department of Education previously told states that the funding is being reevaluated "given the change in administrations."
- A White House Office of Management and Budget spokesperson told Axios that "no decisions have been made yet" on which grants would be unfrozen.
What they're saying: "The decision to withhold this funding is contrary to President Trump's goal of returning K-12 education to the states," the senators wrote in a letter to OMB Director Russell Vought.
- "This funding goes directly to states and local school districts," the letter continues. "Local leaders decide how this funding is spent, because as we know, local communities know how to best serve students and families."
- Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W. Va.) led her colleagues in writing the letter. She was joined by fellow West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice, former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and seven others from South Dakota, Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Maine, North Dakota, and Nebraska.
- Alaska, South Dakota, Kentucky and Arkansas all receive at least 20% of their school district revenue from the federal government in the 2021-22 school year, Axios' April Rubin reported.
- Of the nine states represented in the letter, only Nebraska and Maine get less than 15% of their education revenue from the federal government.
The big picture: Withholding the funds is a part of the Trump administration's much broader push to reshape public education, which Trump has said has gone too far in pushing diversity policies and lessons on sensitive subjects such as racism in America.
- The lawmakers wrote in the letter that they share the president's "concern about taxpayer money going to fund radical left-wing programs," but that they "do not believe that is happening with these funds."
- Instead, the funding would go to programs with longstanding, bipartisan support that "provide learning and enrichment opportunities for school aged children which also enables their parents to work and contribute to local economies."
Go deeper: Trump-voting states have more to lose if Education Department dismantled
