The Trump administration is reportedly considering an executive order to scale back or abolish the U.S. Department of Education, which oversees federal funds for things like special education services, school infrastructure improvements, and student loans. Paige Parks, executive director of the nonprofit Rhode Island Kids Count, spoke with morning host Luis Hernandez about the potential impact on families in Rhode Island.
Interview highlights
On how scaling back or abolishing the U.S. Department of Education would impact Rhode Island:
Paige Parks: It would be catastrophic for our public school systems. Each district receives a different amount of federal funding that comes from the U.S. Department of Education through their Title I funds for low income students, for students with disabilities through the IDEA Act, which is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. We’re talking about multiple millions of dollars that our state will be losing out on.
The impacts are different in every district. Of course, we have our urban core districts that serve a high concentration of children in poverty, which means those districts receive more Title I funding. If you’re looking at how much federal funds came into, say, Providence public schools: before the pandemic, about 12% of the school district’s budget was directly from the U.S. Department of Education. That’s just under $52 million. In Central Falls, it’s 16% of their budget. In Woonsocket, 15%.
But it’s not just their urban core districts. Every school district receives some level of federal funding. Newport is 10%. Warwick was 5% before the pandemic. Even communities that you wouldn’t think of like Tiverton, where 8% of their funding before the pandemic came from federal sources. So this will impact every community, especially at a time where our state is already anticipating a large deficit in our state budget. To have additional pressure, including losing or potentially losing or decreasing funding from the federal government, would be horrible, catastrophic, and go against what we’re trying to do as a state, which is improve academic outcomes for all of our students.
On if the state can compensate for a loss in federal funding:
Parks: There is not enough money, say in philanthropy or in the state budget, to completely replace all of the federal dollars we receive.
Philanthropy has been wonderful in Rhode Island. There have been great partnerships between different foundations, individual donors, helping out with special projects in school districts. But it’s still not enough.
It costs more money to educate a child from a low-income family or for children where there is a higher concentration of poverty. It just costs more because there are more services that are needed to address the needs of those children. So if there’s not additional funding going into those school districts that are serving low-income students, it means those school districts are going to have to find another way to be able to address kids’ needs.
On what school districts will have to do in response to a loss in federal funding:
Parks: So what does that mean? What does that mean actually in the classroom? If millions of dollars are no longer in a district’s budget, they may have to increase classroom sizes. They may have to lay off teachers. They may have to have less services available. The U.S. Department of Education also provides funding for after-school programs. The 21st Century Community Learning Centers address the needs and provide accelerated academic opportunities and safe places for kids to be after school. If that funding is gone, what’s going to happen to kids after school, as well? So many of our low income districts are 21st Century Community Learning sites, too. We’re talking about loss of opportunities in the classroom, as well as after school.
On the Trump administration’s threat to cut federal funding to schools that have Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs:
Parks: Well, I do know that there are some school districts that are considering that. Barrington Public Schools has rolled back its transgender protection policies. From what I’ve read, the school committee didn’t want to do that but may have felt the pressure to do so, and that is just horrific for all kids. Our schools are being put in this position of compromising, going back on the core principles that every single student deserves a high-quality public education. They deserve protection while they are receiving that education as well. I mean, diversity and equity are a core part of education and a part of our state — we are a very diverse state.
This interview was conducted by The Public’s Radio.
