White House Should Propose a Vision for Federal K-12 Reforms

The White House and Department of Education are withholding nearly $7 billion in funding for K-12 education, including $2 billion for teacher training, almost $900 million for English language acquisition, and $375 million for migrant education programs. The move also halts $1.4 billion in after-school program funding. 

While there’s a real opportunity to improve the return-on-investment from federal expenditures on K-12 education, these funds were authorized and already appropriated by Congress. Therefore, the decision to withhold funding is subject to the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. Whether the White House chooses to release the funding, include the withheld funding in a rescission package, or challenge the law altogether remains to be seen.

However, for the school districts and schools that were counting on that funding, the decision to withhold it poses serious challenges just weeks before the start of a new school year. Schools and school districts may face difficult decisions, including staffing and teacher cuts, if federal funding is withheld. Working parents may need to find other after-school arrangements for their children – a particular challenge for lower-and middle-income families.

For these reasons, the Trump administration should pursue a more prudent (though more politically challenging) approach to reform: engaging Congress on statutory reforms of federal education laws and funding. The White House has already demonstrated support for significant reforms like expanding parental choice in education. 

The Trump administration is justified in questioning the value of some of these federal funding streams. For example, it’s unclear how or whether all of these programs advance the federal government’s longstanding national policies to promote equal opportunity in K-12 education. Congress and the administration should scrutinize federal teacher training programs under Title II to determine how those funds could be used more effectively to help children learn. However, cutting funding for English language learners or for public schools that serve migrant children will only exacerbate the already significant challenges that public schools face in ensuring that disadvantaged children have a chance to learn. 

Rather than withholding funding and disrupting the budgets of public schools and school districts for the coming school year, the Trump administration should capitalize on existing education reform momentum and present a full K-12 legislative reform agenda to Congress. In 2025, the national movement to expand parental choice in education through broad K-12 education savings accounts, which are now law in 18 states, demonstrates the moment for significant reforms. The Congressional Republicans’ reconciliation plan includes a historic expansion of education choice through a new federal tax credit to encourage donations to scholarship funds.

As FREOPP senior fellow Mike Toth and I wrote for The Hill in May, Congress should transform major federal K-12 funding programs into direct student benefits to help disadvantaged children: 

Congress should reform the $18.4 billion Title I program, which provides funds to public schools serving lower-income children, into a direct deposit program to benefit low-income children. This alone could put $1,000 into every low-income child’s 529 account. Eligible parents in the 18 states (including Texas) with ESAs could use state and federally funded accounts to pay for educational choice.

Congress could redirect the funds currently spent on other federal programs of questionable value, such as teacher training initiatives, to direct benefits for students. Lawmakers could review and potentially restructure current federal funding programs for English language acquisition and to support the education of migrant children similarly. 

Reforming these programs would require considering tradeoffs. But engaging in a deliberative process on Capitol Hill is a necessary step to achieving lasting change. By holding hearings, conducting oversight of these programs, and pursuing legislative reform, Congress and the Trump administration could better understand how to ensure that scarce federal funding is used in the most effective way to help disadvantaged children and build necessary public support for changing the law. 

For the White House and administration to implement President Trump’s executive order to close the Department of Education, they will need to engage Congress and present a clear vision for reforming federal education laws and funding. Such a vision should be much more compelling to American parents and students than the status quo. 

Unfortunately, withholding $7 billion in funding for public schools weeks before the start of the school year won’t convince the American public to support broader reform.