The Tucson Unified School District says about $6 million in federal funding for everything from teacher training to after-school programs and English language instruction is on pause as a federal grant review is underway.
On Monday, the Trump administration said it is withholding more than $6 billion in federal grants across five federal programs, which include after-school and summer programs, English language instruction, adult literacy and more as part of a review to ensure grants align with President Donald Trump’s priorities.
On Wednesday, the Office of Management and Budget said an initial review showed schools used some of the money to support immigrants in the country illegally or promote LGBTQ+ inclusion. The administration said it hadn’t made any final decisions about whether to withhold or release individual grants.
“Many of these grant programs have been grossly misused to subsidize a radical leftwing agenda,” the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement.
“It’s absolutely ludicrous to say that funding for before-and after-school care and academic supports for English language learners is “leftwing,” said Beth Lewis, director of Save Our Schools Arizona, a nonpartisan, community advocacy group dedicated to supporting strong public schools. “The Trump administration’s attempts to rob schools of $6.2 billion approved by Congress over false claims invoking LGBTQ+ inclusion and the education of migrant families is a hateful red herring designed to harm public schools and their students. They are playing games with truly important programs and kids will be hurt.”
Tucson-area school districts are in limbo as they try to figure out the viability of summer programs and where others stand as the coming school year begins in about five weeks.
“We are all stuck. Every district, every state is stuck,” said TUSD chief financial officer Ricky Hernández, adding that Congress could choose to let the funds expire because the federal fiscal year ends Sept. 30. “No state has the ability to make up three months worth of payments.”
Arizona school districts stand to lose nearly $120 million, according to the Learning Policy Institute. The money on hold represents more than a tenth of federal education funding for all states and territories.
The money was supposed to be available July 1. But the education department in an email on Monday, said states would not get the funds primarily earmarked for underserved students and families. There was no timeline given and the funds are under review.
“This directly targets migrant students and English-language learners. My heart is breaking. I feel sick,” said Raquel Mamani, a reading interventionist at a Phoenix-area public middle school. “This is all by design. We’ve known that the goal is to dismantle education.”
The Arizona Department of Education said in a statement that it is “taking steps to guide districts and charters regarding the affected programs in grant management for FY 2026 funding applications and we are working to obtain more information and access the federal funds as soon as possible.”
The six grant programs under review include one known as 21st Century Community Learning Centers. It’s the primary federal funding source for after-school and summer learning programs and supports more than 10,000 local programs nationwide, according to the Afterschool Alliance. Every state runs its own competition to distribute the grants, which totaled $1.3 billion this fiscal year.
Also under review are $2 billion in grants for teachers’ professional development and efforts to reduce class size; $1 billion for academic enrichment grants, often used for science and math education and accelerated learning; $890 million for students who are learning English; $376 million to educate the children of migrant workers; and $715 million to teach adults how to read.
The chaos created for families who need after-school programs and school districts who need to hire teachers is not lost on anyone, said Mamani, a Nogales native who graduated from the University of Arizona.
“We have school closures all around the state,” she said. “We have teachers giving up their prep times, giving up subs and bringing in tissues for kids. We already don’t have enough.”
At TUSD, the state’s third-largest school district with more than 40,000 students in 88 schools, officials are moving slowly, Hernández said.
“We were not expecting this pause. We are taking it very slow, being very methodical.”
TUSD’s three largest uses of the frozen grant funds are Title II programs, which include teacher professional development at about $1.96 million; 21st Century programs, including after-school programs and support for student families at $1.9 million (for fiscal year 2026 only) and Title IV-A programs, which can include everything from technology to mental health services at about $1.6 million.
Title III programs total about $510,000 for TUSD and can help English-language learners.
Two areas not affected include TUSD summer school, which ended last month and KIDCO, the City of Tucson’s after-school program with about 1,000 students from TUSD and the Vail School District at 19 sites. KIDCO does not use federal funds to operate, said Tucson Parks and Recreation Director Lara Hamwey.
Freezing the grants could impact almost anything for students, teachers and families, said Dan Ireland, the vice president of the Tucson Education Association and the exceptional education department chair at Palo Verde High School.
“We are talking classroom funds, positions, transportation, central services,” he said. “The District has had to become creative before.”
Includes reporting by the Associated Press
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