Nevada ‘should be ready for anything’ when it comes to Trump and K-12 funding cuts, lawmaker warns

By April Corbin Girnus

Nevada Current

An estimated $49 million in federal grants appropriated by Congress for K-12 education is still being withheld from Nevada, according to state leaders.

The Trump administration earlier this month withheld $6.8 billion in federal grant funding for K-12 schools nationwide, with the U.S. Department of Education writing in an email that a review was needed to ascertain that “taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the President’s priorities and the Department’s statutory responsibilities.” The money, which had been expected by states on July 1, was meant to support a variety of programs, including afterschool activities, teacher training, and expanded science and technology opportunities for students.

Nevada Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro’s office estimated Nevada’s portion of funding at $61.2 million for the upcoming school year, which for some students begins in less than three weeks. Similar estimates from other state leaders had the amount a few million lower, but all estimates came with warnings about the negative impact it would have for school districts and students.

On Friday, following bipartisan backlash on the withholding of money to states, the Trump administration announced it would release funding for before- and after-school programs through the 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative.

Nevada was expected to receive approximately $12.3 million through that initiative.

But that still leaves nearly $49 million frozen for the Silver State, including $19.5 million for professional development for educators and school leaders, $12.8 million for academic enrichment and student support, and $8.2 million for English learners.

Clark County School District “is still waiting to hear about the status of about $28 million in other federal grants that were recently frozen,” said district Superintendent Jhone Ebert in a statement Monday. CCSD, which enrolls about two-thirds of K-12 students in the state, was estimated to receive half of the state’s total frozen funding. It will receive $2 million from the 21st Century community grants that were released.

What the money’s for

The biggest pot of still-frozen funds is tied to what’s known as the Supporting Effective Instruction program — or Title II, Part A. The Nevada Department of Education describes these grants as “the only dedicated source of federal funding for preparing, training, and recruiting high-quality school leaders and educators.”

Nevada, which already faces difficulties with teacher recruitment and retention, was expected to get about $19.5 million in grant funding, which would be divided among individual school districts and charter schools using a set formula. CCSD is supposed to receive $12.8 million, according to Ebert’s statement.

Another $12.8 million of Nevada’s withheld funds are for the Student Support and Academic Enrichment program, or Title IV, Part A.

According to guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Education, acceptable uses of those funds include providing college and career counseling, improving instruction in key subjects like science and technology, dropout prevention, and school-based mental health services. The grants are described as being “used to improve the capacity of schools to provide all students with access to a well-rounded education, to improve school conditions for student learning, and to improve the use of instructional technology.”

Programs for English learners are also impacted, to the tune of $8.2 million in Nevada.

Known as Title III, Part A grants, English Language Acquisition State Grants are “used to meet the needs of English learners by supplementing effective language instruction educational programs, to provide effective professional development in English language development, and provide parent, family, and community engagement.”

CCSD last year spent Title III funding on software programs specifically designed for English learners, extra-duty pay to support professional development for educators, and classroom supplies, according to a district report.

In Nevada, 14.4 percent of public school students are classified as English learners.

The freeze also impacted a much smaller pool of money for the Migrant Education Program — Title I, Part C. That program helps children whose parents are migratory agricultural workers. Nevada was estimated to receive around $60,500 for the program.

Nye County received the largest share of Migrant Education Program money in 2022: $20,000, according to the most recent report available on the Nevada Department of Education’s website. Humboldt County received the second largest amount. Those two counties were consistently the biggest beneficiaries of the program between 2017 and 2022, according to state reports.

An additional $8 million in federal funding was frozen for “Adult Basic and Literacy Education” and “Adult Integrated English Literacy and Civics Education.”

What’s being done

A group of 32 Senate Democrats publicly called the withholding of funds “illegal.” The funding for the affected programs was included within a bipartisan appropriations act passed and signed into law in March.

Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen were not among the Democrats who signed that June 10 letter. Instead, they signed onto a separate letter of 13 Democratic senators expressing “strong opposition” and urging disbursement of the funds and transparency of the review process.

U.S. Reps. Dina Titus, Steven Horsford, and Susie Lee signed onto a letter with 150 House Democrats calling the withholding illegal.

Meanwhile, Democratic attorneys general, including Nevada’s Aaron Ford, have sued over the funds.

Ford in a statement on social media called it a “direct attack on Nevada’s students and families” and characterized the withholding of funds as “yet another attempt at federal overreach by the Trump administration.”

Bigger threats loom

The $49 million lawmakers are currently focused on may only be just the beginning of cuts to local schools and their districts.

At an event last week where Nevada speakers slammed the funding cuts, Cannizzaro noted that figure represents just the impact on the upcoming school year: “So we’re talking about significant cuts over the biennium that we will have to manage as a state and the school districts are going to have to figure out.”

She warned that, if money appropriated by Congress and signed by the president can be “cut in a moment’s notice” and devastate local programming, “then we should be ready for anything.”

President Donald Trump has vowed to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. The U.S. Supreme Court last week temporarily cleared the way for his administration to carry out mass layoffs and a plan to dramatically downsize the department.

The National Education Association, the largest labor union in the country, has warned dismantling the federal department “will send class sizes soaring, cut job training programs, make education more expensive and out of reach for middle-class families, take away special education services for students with disabilities, and gut student civil rights protections.”

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April Corbin Girnus is an award-winning journalist and deputy editor of Nevada Current. A stickler about municipal boundary lines, April enjoys teaching people about unincorporated Clark County. She grew up in Sunrise Manor and currently resides in Paradise with her husband, three children and one mutt.