What a day: on the federal freeze

via GIPHY

What a day, huh? The freeze on federal funds--which itself was frozen by court til Monday order minutes before it was to go into effect last night--was the classic Trump administration "we threw out this big thing and have no ability to manage details like which programs it impacts" maneuver. 

You may have caught the midday memo that specified that, for example, Head Start and SNAP were not included in the freeze. 

Last night, DESE shared with districts the following (CCSSO is the Council of Chief State School Officers): 

CCSSO received the following statement this afternoon from Madison “Madi” Biedermann, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications and Outreach at the U.S. Department of Education:

“The funding pause directed by the January 27, 2025, OMB memorandum only applies to discretionary grants at the Department of Education. These will be reviewed by Department leadership for alignment with Trump Administration priorities. The temporary pause does not impact Title I, IDEA, or other formula grants, nor does it apply to Federal Pell Grants and Direct Loans under Title IV, HEA. The Department is working with OMB to identify other programs that are not covered by the memo.”

For those a bit up on federal funding, what is of concern here is that, yes, federal grants are "forward funded" in July and October, but then they are drawn down over the course of the year. As AASA notes in their updated post:

We want to clarify that while states are fully allocated their forward funded programs on July 1 and October 1, the actual drawing down for these funds is continual throughout the year. 

Let me note very specifically that while the various updates appears to have excepted most of the education grants, the big one that no one has yet commented on is school nutrition. As EdWeek writes: 

The School Nutrition Association, meanwhile, is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture “to provide more detail on the extent to which this freeze will impact the programs” that provide federal support for students to eat healthy meals at school, Diane Pratt-Heavner, the group’s spokesperson, said on Tuesday afternoon.

If the pause eventually takes effect and funding for school meals does stop flowing, districts will immediately wonder whether they’ll get retroactive payments from the federal government once the pause ends, Thomas said.

“Those programs are running on paper-thin margins,” Thomas said. “Districts have to pass a balanced budget and so, if the meals program goes in the red, they’re going to have to pull money from elsewhere.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the school lunch program, didn’t answer questions from Education Week in time for publication.

I fear that there may be some confusion in Massachusetts and other states that have implemented universal free school meals; the state funding is SUPPLEMENTAL to federal funding on which districts still depend. In Massachusetts, school meals are funded: 

1. First, by the United States Department of Agriculture for meals for students eligible for free or reduced price lunch.
   In districts with high rates of poverty, including most (all?) of our city school districts, this funding is feeding ALL students, regardless of their own finances, through community eligibility. That means the highest need districts are feeding kids almost entirely through federal funds.
   
   
2. Then, through supplemental funding from the state, which fills the gap for districts not using community eligibility to feed all kids (because the finances don't work to support that) by reimbursing districts not using community eligibility. 

Thus, no, Massachusetts and other states that have committed to feeding all kids are not immune to this concern.

I was asked yesterday what the state's plan is for covering this if we lose USDA funding. As far as I know, there isn't one. 

If you haven't called your Congresspeople, please do. 
Pro tip: call their local office. Fewer people do.