A portion of previously frozen federal funding has been released by the US Department of Education with billions for teacher training still in question.
In a mid-July decision the federal Office of Management and Budget finalized a review of funding for 21st Century Community Learning Centers and released about $1B worth of funding for after school programming and summer schools nationwide. These programs traditionally serve students and families in low income communities and are operating in Maryland.
Shortly after the release of those funds additional allotments were approved for adult literacy, english language instruction, and a variety of other programs. The decision came as dozens of states including Maryland filed lawsuits, challenging the authority of the agency to lock the funds up the day before payments were schedule to be delivered. In addition to the suits many federal lawmakers reiterated the bipartisan support that exists for many of these programs
The remaining funding withheld is still under review as the agency is assessing the receiving programs for bias. As previously covered on Conduit Street, of the $7B that has been stalled, the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), in an interview with the Baltimore Banner, estimated the original action would tie up $125M statewide. Of the five categories of programs impacting Maryland, two funding allotments remain in question including:
- Supporting Effective Instruction
- Student Support and Academic Enrichment Program
One of the largest portions of the federal grant funding still being reviewed is for professional development for teachers, particularly in high-need communities. Teacher recruitment, retention, and professional development was a significant focus of the most recent General Assembly session with the number of conditionally certified teachers being a major talking point and a target of new investments to get them fully certified faster. It is still unclear how reliant the school systems’ professional development budgets are on those federal dollars in FY26.
