COLORADO SPRINGS —Millions of dollars in federal funds could flow to Colorado schools after U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon confirmed Friday that the Trump administration will lift a funding freeze impacting grants that help schools educate kids with significant learning needs and recruit and retain teachers.
That money is part of a pot of more than $5 billion the Trump administration will release weeks — days in some states — ahead of the new school year, The Washington Post first reported.
The federal government announced that it planned to withhold that money earlier this month, on the day school districts were expecting to receive the grants that had already been factored into their budgets. At the time, the U.S. Department of Education told state education departments that federal agencies were reviewing grant programs to make sure “taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the President’s priorities and the Department’s statutory responsibilities.”
Speaking to Gov. Jared Polis Friday afternoon before an audience of governors from across the country at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, McMahon said the grant programs under review ultimately passed the federal government’s approval test — but she didn’t promise that another funding freeze or delay won’t happen.
After thanking McMahon for ensuring the funds make it to states for the new school year, Polis asked her why the funding freeze was not more clearly communicated to states.
“How can we better communicate to make sure this chaos and uncertainty doesn’t occur again around funding and that people know things earlier?” Polis asked during a question-and-answer session with McMahon during the National Governors Association’s summer meeting at The Broadmoor. Polis is chair of the association and has spearheaded a national iniative to better prepare students for careers after high school.
“No guarantees from me that we’ll eliminate all the communication gaps that do happen,” McMahon said, pointing to the transition of administrations as one reason for the funding freeze and resulting uncertainty rippling across schools.
“We were well satisfied so now those funds are going to be going out,” she said, adding that the federal administration will review its process of analyzing grant programs so that “a year from now we won’t find ourselves in that same situation.”
The decision to withhold funds sent a wave of panic across school districts, forcing them to consider tough decisions about cutting staff or programs or dipping into reserves and money set aside for other priorities.
It also prompted Colorado to band together with 23 other states and Washington, D.C., in a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the frozen funds.
Colorado’s share of the withheld money is estimated at $70 million.
The Trump administration’s decision to release the funding follows a separate decision made last week to disburse about $1.3 billion in previously withheld dollars for after-school and summer programs across the country.
Boys and Girls Clubs across the state hailed the development as a win for their programs over the next several months, though federal funding uncertainty about next year’s budget continues to raise questions about how they’ll operate long term.
In an email forwarded to The Colorado Sun by Colorado Department of Education spokesperson Jeremy Meyer, Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova wrote to superintendents to share that the department had seen a news report of the funds being released but had not yet directly heard confirmation from the federal education department.
“We have not received official notice, so I cannot say that all of these funds will be released, but I am hopeful that they will be,” Córdova wrote in the email, sent out Friday. “Federal dollars provide critical support for every child in Colorado – no matter where they live – to learn, grow, and thrive. We are grateful to U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and to the many educators, district leaders, community partners, elected officials, and public education supporters who advocated for the release of these much-needed funds.”