Education advocates are biting their nails as the government shutdown begins.
A contingency plan for the Education Department has been put in place, with 95 percent of its staffers furloughed, apart from the Federal Student Aid Office. Most of the funding designated over the summer and other money set to be released Wednesday will continue, creating some cushion for schools. But facilities on tax-exempt federal land such as Native American reservations will feel the impact immediately, and others will be close behind.
In its plan, the department laid out services that would continue, such as student aid disbursement, funding for Title I, which goes to struggling schools, and the Individuals with Disabilities Act.
But new grantmaking activity will end, civil rights investigations will be put on pause and other regulatory actions or guidance will cease until the government reopens.
This plan, however, is only in place for a week; a shutdown longer than that would require revisiting it. The longest government closure in the past several decades, which came during President Trump’s first term, was 35 days.
“We don’t anticipate any direct impact on states or schools given the amount of funds that have already been allocated. The department has indicated that they would continue to move forward with the obligation of funds that would normally be obligated on October 1,” said Christy Wolfe, director of K-12 policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center during a press call.
Some schools on Impact Aid would be immediately affected, those such as districts on military bases or Native American reservations, where funding comes mostly from the federal government instead of state or local taxes.
In a longer shutdown, the impact across the country would vary by school district and what federal programs they depend on, Wolfe said.
Advocates were sounding the alarm ahead of Tuesday’s midnight funding deadline.
“We expect Trump to use the shutdown and Republicans to use the shutdown as just another tool to do what they’ve been trying to do all year, including dismantling the Department of Education, slashing programs that serve English language learners, migrant students, shutter community schools and services for young people that are in the most need, like homeless people,” said Kate Terenzi, lead Fight Back campaigner for Popular Democracy in Action.
If Republicans “came to the table and negotiated, we would be able to move past this and not have both the education and the health care of millions in there and can be at risk right now,” she added.
Democrats have dug in on health care issues in the funding fight, trying to reverse Medicare cuts and extend ObamaCare subsidies that are set to expire, while Republicans have insisted on a clean continuing resolution, which has passed the House but does not have the necessary votes in the upper chamber without minority support.
“This is sitting right now at the Senate desk,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said. “We could pick it up and pass it tonight, pick it up and pass it tomorrow before the government shuts down, and then we don’t have the government shutdown. It is totally up to the Democrats, because right now, they are the only thing standing between the American people and the government shutting down.”
This isn’t the first time K-12 and higher education funding has been caught in the crossfire of Trump policy fights.
Over the summer, $7 billion in afterschool, teacher preparation and English and adult learning programs were paused, sending panic throughout the country’s education professionals. The funding was eventually released but not without some activities for students getting temporarily shut down.
Higher education institutions have also seen billions of dollars paused after running afoul of Trump, who has warned that his administration could seek further cuts in a shutdown.
In the background of these funding concerns lurks Trump’s goal of eliminating the Education Department, especially as the administration is looking to use the shutdown as a catalyst for more permanent layoffs.
Much like with K-12 schools, high education funding dangers grow as any shutdown drags on, while applications for international students also may not be processed as quickly.
It also could delay the overhaul of the student loan system that was passed earlier this year by Republicans.
“I feel a lot of their standard operations will pause, so implementing guidance, providing technical assistance, including to borrowers” who have already been struggling with the return to payments, said Blair Wriston, government affairs lead at EdTrust.
“I guess we’ll see what happens with the negotiations here. I think a shutdown of sort of that length, I think would be unprecedented, but I guess we are in unprecedented times currently,” Wriston added.
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