Trump administration’s pause on federal grants sent DC-area school systems scrambling
Before a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s freeze on federal grants and loans, school systems across the D.C. region scrambled to figure out what the directive could mean for them.
In a Monday night memo, the White House’s budget office said the freeze was necessary to make sure spending is in line with President Donald Trump’s executive orders. Judge Loren AliKhan blocked it Tuesday before 5 p.m., when the pause was scheduled to go into effect.
But in the hours before AliKhan’s decision, officials across the D.C. region sought to get their questions answered about the implications of the directive.
Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid said after she reviewed the memo, the fate of school lunch programs was unclear. Almost 68,000 students in Virginia’s largest school division get free meals, and in some cases, Reid said it’s the only meal they get all day.
Federal grants, Reid said, fund 60% of the FCPS school lunch program.
“We have a school breakfast and lunch program because we know that children who are not fed are not able to learn,” Reid told WTOP before the judge’s ruling. “I want to believe that this will be clarified very shortly, and until then, it remains a grave concern for me.”
WTOP has contacted the Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the federal school lunch programming, for comment on the impact of the freeze on schools.
In a post on X, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said the pause wouldn’t impact money for meals and lunches. He said misinformation is spreading through a “partisan stunt to disseminate knowingly misleading information.”
However, Reid said the implications of the pause, had it gone into effect as planned, were unclear.
“I have grave concerns that we haven’t heard explicit guidance that supports the continuation of that funding,” Reid said Tuesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, before the judge’s ruling, a spokesman for Arlington schools said there wouldn’t be any effects in the short-term, because the school system has “sufficient reserves to ensure that all food service programs, special education programs and economically disadvantaged student programs will continue unabated for the remainder of this school year.” The finance team had been assessing the potential long-term impact.
Before the judge’s ruling, a spokesman for Loudoun County said the pause wouldn’t disrupt student services and “any costs not covered by federal grants will be absorbed by the operating fund.”
In a memo sent to staff Tuesday, Prince William County Superintendent LaTanya McDade said 95% of the school system’s operating budget comes from state and local funding, and staffing and programs “will continue without interruption.”
Before the ruling, a spokeswoman for Montgomery County Public Schools had said the state’s largest school system was waiting for Maryland Department of Education guidance on what it all would mean for federally funded programs.
AliKhan’s ruling lasts until Monday afternoon.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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