State leaders are considering their next steps as they face the potential loss of nearly $30 million in federal education funding halted by the Trump administration — a cut that could devastate afterschool programs, multilingual learning, and adult education in Rhode Island.
The funding is part of the roughly $6.8 billion for K–12 school districts nationwide halted abruptly by the U.S. Department of Education last week, despite being earmarked by Congress for programs supporting migrant students and English learners, as well as educator training, school technology, and afterschool programs in high-poverty schools.
“This will impact every single school district in Rhode Island — everyone is going to feel this,” state Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green said at a press conference inside the Providence Career & Technical Academy’s library. “No one saw this coming, and we have been left in the dark.”
Funding was expected to be disbursed by the federal government on July 1.
But just as the work day was wrapping up on June 30, Infante-Green said she received an 83-word email from the U.S. Department of Education. It stated the Trump administration would review federally-funded education programs in order to ensure “taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the president’s priorities.”
The email did not provide any timeline on how long that review would take, and Infante-Green said she still has yet to hear anything back from the Trump administration.
“It’s ridiculous,” she said in an interview with Rhode Island Current. “Historically, we would have gotten projections and gotten the money on July 1.”
A spokesperson for the White House Office of Management and Budget said in an unsigned emailed statement that federal school funds were withheld after officials found some districts across the country had allegedly misused the money “to subsidize a radical left-wing agenda.”
The spokesperson claimed New York schools used funds for English language instruction to promote organizations that advocate for undocumented immigrants. Washington allegedly used the money to give undocumented students scholarships the administration said were “intended for American students.” Grant funds also were supposedly used by an unnamed district for a seminar on “queer resistance in the arts,” according to the office.
“As stated before, this is an ongoing programmatic review and no decisions have been made yet,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson did not answer a question on whether funds had been misused by school administrators in Rhode Island.
Rhode Island’s Democratic U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner said he believes the Trump administration’s latest funding freeze will be litigated in the courts — with a filing likely within the next few days.
“I have had conversations already with our state’s attorney general and I know he has been in discussions with other states across the country,” he said.
Attorney General Peter Neronha’s office is already involved in a multi-state lawsuit filed in April against the U.S. Department of Education filed in U.S. District Court in Boston after the Trump administration threatened to withhold $116 million in funding for Rhode Island over diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Loss amounts to 17% of K-12 funding
In total, the state stands to lose $29.4 million if the Trump administration continues to withhold the funds. That represents around 17% of the K-12 funding the state receives from the federal government, according to Magaziner’s office.
Nearly $108 million was withheld from Massachusetts, $53.6 million from Connecticut, $27 million from New Hampshire, $26 million from Vermont, and $25 million from Maine.
A breakdown provided by the Rhode Island Department of Education shows that about $6.5 million was designated for 21st Century Community Learning Centers, 16 programs serving students in high-poverty, low-performing districts during non-school hours.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said the city relies heavily on federal grants to fund programming, often through the Providence After School Alliance, which operates on a $2 million budget.
“About half of PASA’s budget comes from 21st century grants,” he told reporters.
Summer programming is still set to go, but cuts may be on the horizon for the fall semester if funding remains held. Those decisions will likely be made in the next month, Smiley said.
The federal freeze risks about $2.4 million in funding for adult education — a cut that organizations like Dorcas International Institute say could hinder Rhode Island’s workforce development. Chief Operating Officer Milagro Sique told reporters the programs help adults build skills in literacy, GED preparation, English language learning, and digital literacy.
Taking away adult education could also hinder a child’s own development, Sique said.
“We know parents are a child’s first teacher,” she said. “If a parent is not thriving, then the child will face challenges in their growth and learning.”
Magaziner called the administration’s freeze “misguided” and “illegal.”
“This is funding that Congress passed on a bipartisan basis,” he told reporters. “In fact, a Republican-controlled Congress passed a budget with this funding and the Trump administration does not have the authority to unilaterally withhold it for no reason.”
U.S. Rep. Gabe Amo issued a statement calling the funding freeze an “assault on public education, teachers, and working families.”
Rhode Island GOP chairman Joe Powers said in a statement that putting federal funds under review was a “reasonable step” by the Trump administration and called Magaziner’s press conference “political theater.”
“These funds were appropriated by Congress with a clear intent to improve education,” Powers said. “And given the state of public education in Rhode Island, we should all be demanding transparency and results.”
As the Trump administration continues to review education spending, Magaziner urged Rhode Islanders to continue to raise the alarm in the hopes the federal government will release the funds — as it has for Head Start and infrastructure money.
“Today is not the end of this fight, it is the beginning,” Magaziner said. “Let’s get a drum beat going — public pressure does matter.”
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
