Education Department says it will release billions in remaining withheld
grant money for schools
[July 26, 2025]
By COLLIN BINKLEY and ANNIE MA
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is releasing billions of
dollars in withheld grants for schools, the Education Department said
Friday, ending weeks of uncertainty for educators around the country who
rely on the money for English language instruction, adult literacy, and
other programs.
President Donald Trump's administration had suspended more than $6
billion in funding on July 1, as part of a review to ensure spending
aligned with the White House’s priorities.
The funding freeze had been challenged by several lawsuits as educators,
Congress members from both parties and others called for the
administration to release the money. Congress had appropriated the money
in a bill signed this year by Trump.
Last week, the Education Department said it would release $1.3 billion
of the money for after-school and summer programming. Without the money,
school districts and nonprofits such as the YMCA and Boys and Girls Club
of America had said they would have to close or scale back educational
offerings this fall.
The Office of Management and Budget had completed its review of the
programs and will begin sending the money to states next week, the
Education Department said.
Republican senators pressed the Trump administration to release the
money
A group of 10 Republican senators on July 16 sent a letter imploring the
administration to allow the frozen education money to be sent to states,
saying the withheld money supported programs and services that are
critical to local communities.
“The programs are ones that enjoy longstanding, bipartisan support,”
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said Friday. She pointed to
after-school and summer programs that allow parents to work while their
children learn and classes that help adults gain new skills —
contributing to local economies.
In withholding the funds, the Office of Management and Budget had said
some of the programs supported a “ radical leftwing agenda. ”
“We share your concern,” the GOP senators had written. “However, we do
not believe that is happening with these funds.”
School superintendents had warned they would have to eliminate academic
services without the money. On Friday, AASA, an association of
superintendents, thanked members of Congress for pressing to release the
money.
Grants supported camps and other programs for working families
In Harford County, Maryland, some of the withheld federal money made up
more than half the budget for the district’s annual summer camp for kids
learning English. The money helps the district hire certified teachers
to staff the camp, incorporating learning into children's play for four
weeks during the summer. The program helps kids keep their English and
academic momentum over the summer.
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LASOS summer campers hold up an art project at Bel Air High School
in Bel Air, Md., on Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/KT Kanazawich)
The district serves roughly 1,100 students who are non-native
English speakers. Many of them are born in the U.S. to parents who
came to the area seeking job opportunities, often in the restaurants
and warehouses that have popped up in the past decades in the region
northeast of Baltimore. During the school year, the
soon-to-be-released federal money pays for tutors for kids learning
English.
On Thursday, more than 350 children filled the second floor of Bel
Air High School for the second-to-last day of summer camp. Young
learners crowded around an alphabet wheel, jostling with each other
to push each letter button as they thought of foods starting with
letters from A to Z.
Middle school students watched a robotics team demonstration, and a
few sheepishly raised their hands when asked if they would be
interested in joining. High school student volunteers, some of whom
had been campers learning English themselves not many years ago,
helped the youngest children with art projects.
The uncertainty around the funding was an unnecessary distraction
for schools, said U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wa.
“Instead of spending the last many weeks figuring out how to improve
after-school options and get our kids’ reading and math scores up,
because of President Trump, communities across the country have been
forced to spend their time cutting back on tutoring options and
sorting out how many teachers they will have to lay off," Murray
said.
The grants that were under review included $2 billion for teachers’
professional development and efforts to reduce class size; $1
billion for academic enrichment grants, often used for science and
math education and accelerated learning; $890 million for students
who are learning English; $376 million to educate the children of
migrant workers; and $715 million to teach adults how to read.
It added up to millions of dollars for the nation’s largest school
districts. Data available from the Census for three of the grant
programs — teacher development, academic enrichment, and bilingual
education — shows the Los Angeles Unified School District, for
example, received $62 million in the 2022-23 school year.
Philadelphia’s school district got $28 million, while Miami’s got
over $24 million.
Smaller districts got more modest amounts, but they still would have
represented sizable gaps in their budgets. For example, schools in
Burlington, Vermont; Pine Bluff, Arkansas; and Norristown,
Pennsylvania, each got more than $300 per student from the same
three grant programs.
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Associated Press writer Sharon Lurye in Philadelphia contributed to
this report.
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