Money For Nothing

Trump just blocked billions in education funding. If he's going to be pressured into backing down, local news outlets might be the key.

The Trump administration is withholding funds from the states, on the basis that the money was authorized by some dumb President in a previous administration way back in March of this year.

Yes, this is an incredibly dumb situation, which is no surprise at this point. But I wonder if it might turn into a serious political problem for Trump.

The answer might be an interesting test of what power remains in our country’s much-diminished local news outlets.

Here’s the situation. On Tuesday of this week, it being July 1^st, the United States Department of Education was due to distribute a whole bunch of money—close to $7 billion—to state governments. The money is slated for K-12 school districts, after-school program providers, and community colleges, The funds support pretty uncontroversial programs: $2.2 billion for professional teacher development, for instance; $1.4 billion for before- and after-school programs; $629 million for adult literacy instruction.

Well, forget that. On Monday, the day before the money was due, the Education Department informed state education officials via email that the money is not coming. The email, according to multiple reports, proclaimed that “given the change in Administrations, the Department is reviewing the FY 2025 funding.”

That funding was included in the Continuing Resolution (CR) signed into law in March by President Donald J. Trump. To the best of my knowledge, there has not been a change in administrations since that time.

The generous interpretation of that “change in Administrations” line is that, although the total amount distributed will be the amount authorized in the CR, the new administration might use different state-by-state formula calculations than were used in previous years. These varying formulas are why states, and individual program operators, are typically given estimates in the Spring of what dollar amounts await them on the first of July. Those estimates were never sent. Now budgets are being written, summer programs are gearing up, and hiring decisions are being made for the school year that begins, for many school districts, next month. Educators across the country need to at least know how much money they’re going to get, even if the money itself isn’t yet in hand. An open-ended “review’ of those funding numbers, of unspecified duration, is decidedly unhelpful.

But that’s the generous interpretation. In reality, nobody believes that folks are toiling away within the Education Department, crunching numbers or “reviewing” anything.

The administration doesn’t want to hand over the money; it’s hardly a well-kept secret. Trump tried to eliminate all of the funding for these items in his budget proposal. Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought have both indicated for months that they don’t want to pay out those funds. Trump, of course, wants to shut down the Department completely if he can find a way.

So basically, the assumption is that the administration is impounding these billions of dollars—which, again, Trump signed into law just a few months ago—rather than pay the money legally due, which is being awaited by schools everywhere in the country. Just as the administration is impounding lots of other money under the constitutional theory of “I don’t wanna.”(Several web sites are tracking dozens of these ongoing impoundments, and the legal challenges to them.)

Speculation is that Vought’s plan, with these education funds as well as other impounded billions, is to try a “pocket rescission.” Rescission is the legal method if an administration wants to not distribute authorized funds; it requires approval from Congress. For a pocket rescision—which, for what it’s worth the Government Accountability Office deemed illegal during the first Trump term—the administration would dawdle until late September before sending the rescission request; if Congress (predictably) fails to act, the September 30 end of the government’s fiscal year renders the funds unpayable. “The clock’s run out, time’s up, over, blow,” as our de facto national poet laureate once opined.

I have little doubt that Vought and Trump intend to try this route. The only thing likely to stop them would be intense public political pressure during the three-month dawdle from now through the end of September.

At first blush, that seems like a slim chance. The general public has not seemed to get much worked up over the various reported impoundments to date. The withholding of these funds generated news stories on Tuesday from the big national outlets with dedicated education reporters, but was drowned out, understandably, by Senate passage of the reconciliation bill (which includes its own education cuts). Now we’re heading right into a holiday weekend, and summer is always a tough time to stoke agitation over a political dispute.

But, I wonder. This is education. School funding. Money ripped away from school districts everywhere.

School funding, to me, is the sweetest of sweet spots for local news outlets. As Tuesday wore on, the parochial headlines began popping up:

“Estimated $90M in federal funding for Alabama schools under review”—WBRC News

“U.S. Department of Education freezing federal funds for Maine, other states”—Morning Sentinel

“$118 million withheld from Arizona schools by U.S. Department of Education.”—ABC15

“Trump freezes education grants, $811M lost in California”—Sacramento Bee

I suspect that’s just the start. Many others ran the Associated Press or other syndicated national day-one story, but this is a natural for local-angle follow-ups. Superintendents, teachers’ unions, and advocates will be eager to describe their predicaments. There will be angry parents to interview about cancelled summer programs.

And who’s going to argue the other side? The Trump administration clearly isn’t eager to engage the debate. There was no press release or fact sheet put out about the “review.” The Department of Education directed inquiries to OMB, which ducked all those inquiries. Nobody from the administration, or allies outside it, was quoted spouting talking points in any of the news articles I saw.

I’m sure the administration would love to play possum until that fiscal year end date comes around—“Wake me up when September ends,” to quote another treasured American wordsmith. Can our badly withered patchwork of local newsrooms possibly stir up enough trouble to make a difference? I’m interested to find out.