(WASHINGTON) — Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she’s worried the Trump administration’s federal education funding freeze could mean “closing schools” in her home state.
“Many of our school districts have already made really hard decisions about closing schools,” Murkowski said in the wake of three of Alaska’s school districts suing the Trump administration for freezing more than roughly $6 billion in congressionally authorized federal education funding nationwide.
“Both in Fairbanks and Anchorage, we’ve seen layoffs,” Murkowski said.
Earlier this month, the Anchorage School District announced in a letter to the community that the district had already begun laying off some staff members after $46 million was impacted by the pause. The district receives about a third of the state’s federal education funds, according to Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt.
“I wish I could say that we were really solid on the state level, but we’re not. And now there’s questions on the federal level as well,” Murkowski added.
Murkowski and nine other Republican senators signed onto a letter last week requesting the Trump administration reverse the funding pause, which they said prompted the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to unfreeze more than $1 billion in after-school and summer learning funding.
However, OMB did not indicate whether it would be unfreezing the rest of the roughly $6 billion in federal funds for programs, such as English language learning, educator development and adult education, among others.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., led the group of 10 senators signing on to the letter. She told ABC News that she hopes the administration can successfully restore all education funding to states by time school starts.
“I’d like to see some of the other programs released, but, you know, we haven’t heard one way or the other,” Moore Capito told ABC News.
School district leaders are now scrambling due to the uncertainty, according to state officials who’ve spoken to ABC News. At least two dozen states, several school districts and education advocacy groups have now sued the administration over the funding freeze.
An OMB spokesman said the funds are under review for “grossly” misusing programs that promote “radial leftwing agendas.”
But Murkowski slammed the administration for contending that districts in Alaska pushed programs with radical ideology. She said the programs are not “woke or ideologically out of line.”
Murkowski fears the programmatic review from the OMB — the stated reason for the freeze — could stretch into the school year, suggesting it would harm adult and English language learners the most. The delayed funding could in turn impact the workforce, according to Murkowski.
“If your literacy skills are weak, if you’re working on your English skills, I mean, these are all things that are keeping people out of the workforce at a time when we’re trying to get people into it,” Murkowski said, adding “So I am very worried.”
Since the funding pause ensued on July 1, North Dakota Republican Sen. John Hoeven said he has been hearing from concerned educators in his state as well.
Hoeven was relieved when the after-school and summer learning grants were unfrozen because they, too, help the workforce, he said.
With funding for those programs secured, parents won’t have to make other arrangements for their children, potentially missing work to do so, Hoeven told ABC News. “That was the one that was most timely.”
Hoeven and Murkowski said they’re reaching out to Education Secretary Linda McMahon, hoping she can help release the additional funding to schools. OMB hasn’t made a decision yet on how long its review will take.
ABC News has reached out to the Education Department for comment.
Meanwhile, Arkansas Republican Sen. John Boozman said at this point unfreezing any aid is a positive first step.
“The good news is that we are moving in the right direction,” Boozman told ABC News.
“Hopefully we can get them [the rest of funding] restored as soon as possible.”
As the school year approaches, Murkowski stressed that the administration must move quickly.
“I don’t want to call it cuts yet, because my hope is that they’re just unpaused and that they are going to materialize,” she said.
The senator, who grew up in Alaska and raised her children there, told ABC News that she is hopeful McMahon understands that rural communities will suffer without critical education programs.
“It’s just kind of making it real to her,” Murkowski said, adding, “I know we’re worried in Alaska, and I have to assume it’s the same all over the country.”
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