SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — It’s unclear what federal funding from the Department of Education will look like during President Donald Trump’s second administration. He has previously said he wants to move those responsibilities back to the states.
School districts across New Jersey are preparing for potential budget cuts. A panel of educators and administrators spoke at a joint Assembly and Senate Education Committee hearing in Trenton on Tuesday, stressing how such budget cuts could impact their day-to-day operations.
Egg Harbor Township Business Administrator Daniel Smith said his school district receives $2.1 million in federal title funding.
“Losing that funding would be detrimental to the district,” he said. “Like we’ve already said, seven to 23 staff members, services for our neediest students, and our gains that we’ve made academically in the past four to five years would start to be erased.”
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School officials in Trenton said much of their federal funding goes toward equity, through tutoring, mental health programs, meals and other resources for economically disadvantaged families.
“In order to make our children ready for school, we’ve had to go into the homes and provide support for those homes, especially post-COVID, in order to support our families, so that they can provide the structure in homes for our children to be successful,” said Hope Grant, Trenton assistant superintendent of schools.
Others said losing federal funding would also lead to significant layoffs.
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Although the Department of Education could be targeted for elimination in a second Trump administration, that does not mean Trump wants Washington out of classrooms. He still proposes, among other maneuvers, using federal funding as leverage to pressure K-12 school systems to abolish tenure and adopt merit pay for teachers and scrap diversity programs at all levels of education.
He calls for pulling federal funding “for any school or program pushing Critical Race Theory, gender ideology, or other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.