Trump budget request cuts education funding

President Donald Trump released his fiscal year 2027 budget request in early April. The structure resembles his FY 2026 budget that called for numerous cuts in federal spending across all agencies.

The FY 2027 request includes $75.7 billion in discretionary budget authority for the U.S. Department of Education, a $3.2 billion, or 4.1%, reduction from FY 2026.

Similar to 2026, the request consolidates many K-12 and higher education programs into formula-funded state grants. These proposals will require Congress' support in the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education appropriations bills.

Elementary and Secondary Education budget highlights

Title I: $18.4 billion, level funding from FY 2026

Make Education Great Again (MEGA) grants: $2 billion for a new state formula program that consolidates existing grant programs. The MEGA grant funds would flow to every state for distribution to local school districts that address the underlying programs. MEGA grants consolidate these grants and programs:

• Student support and academic enrichment grants
• Comprehensive literacy state development grants
• Innovative approaches to literacy
• Supporting effective instruction state grants
• 21st century community learning centers
• State assessment
• Rural education achievement program
• Alaska Native education
• Education for homeless children and youth
• American history and civics education
• Magnet schools assistance
• Arts in education
• Javits gifted and talented education program
• Statewide family engagement centers
• School safety national activities
• Promise neighborhoods

Impact Aid program: $1.6 billion, level funding

Special education: $15.4 million for IDEA State Grants program, which also consolidates the preschool grant program and special education national activities programs

IDEA grants for infants and families program: $590 million, a $50 million increase

Special Olympics program: $38 million

Rehabilitation services: $4.7 billion in mandatory and discretionary funds

Charter schools: $500 million to expand the number of charter schools

K-12 programs targeted for elimination: Twelve programs, totaling $2.1 billion, are targeted for elimination. These programs have been subject to prior scrutiny as they incorporate practices not in alignment with the Trump administration's policy objectives. They are:

• Teacher quality partnership
• Training and advisory services - equity assistance centers
• Comprehensive literacy state development grants
• Innovative approaches to literacy
• Migrant education and special programs for migrant students
• English language acquisition
• Native Hawaiian education
• Education innovation and research
• Teacher and school leader incentive grants
• Supporting effective educator development
• Ready to learn programming
• Full-service community schools

Department of Labor/ETA Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE): a decrease of $1.5 billion

CTE state grants: Funded at $1.44 billion

CTE national programs: Funded at $10.1 million

Make America Skilled Again (MASA) grant: The budget request consolidates the following workforce development programs into a new single MASA grant: Adult employment and training activities; youth activities; dislocated worker employment and training activities; dislocated worker national reserve; Indian and Native American programs; national farmworker jobs program; reentry employment opportunities; apprenticeship; workforce data quality initiative; YouthBuild; and community projects.

MASA is funded at $3.425 billion to be disbursed directly to states and localities offering them flexibility to respond to their workforce needs.

CTE program eliminations:

• Job corps
• Community service employment for older Americans

Federal Pell grants: Maintains maximum award of $6,335 and provides an additional $10.5 billion to cover the Pell shortfall.

Federal work study: Level funded but proposes to reform the formula to ensure that funding goes to institutions that serve the most low-income students and that employers pay 90% of a student's hourly wages, reducing the federal contribution to 10%.

Program eliminations ($2.7 billion): These programs include the Teacher Quality Partnership program, and the Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence program.
Institute of Education Sciences: $261.3 million, $528 million less than FY 2026

Dismantling Education Department

Soon after President Jimmy Carter established the Department of Education in 1979, Ronald Reagan campaigned on abolishing it, arguing education is a local, not federal, responsibility. This movement has been a long-standing priority of the conservative platform, arguing for states' rights in opposition to heavy federal oversight.

Under the second Trump administration, a combination of executive actions and agency tactics have successfully reduced department staffing, moved programs to other agencies, and most recently, the Education Department vacated its longstanding Washington, D.C., headquarters.

Since May 2025, the Department of Education has announced 10 interagency agreements that transfer day-to-day management of more than $33 billion of its grant programs to five other federal agencies to administer. Many of the programs under the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education have been shifted over to the Labor Department, with a few others being moved to the Department of Health and Human Services. The agencies receiving the programs have responsibility to process and manage the grant awards, while policy decisions are to remain at the Department of Education.

Some employees were transferred to the Labor Department, but many program management functions are understaffed, and thus federal funding has slowed down as new grant management systems are put into place.

While interagency agreements can be undone by a future administration, they are designed to be difficult to reverse. As these changes are fully integrated into other agencies over the next two years, undoing them could cause further disruption and can be seen as a lasting shift in federal governance. It is important to note that these interagency agreements impact more than 40% of all the discretionary appropriations Congress provided for education programs in FY 2026.

Artificial intelligence

The House Education and Workforce Committee has held seven hearings on policies around artificial intelligence. The initial hearing discussed what is entailed in preparing students and employees to incorporate AI, from helping teachers personalize instruction to boosting productivity on the job. Witnesses and members raised concerns about over-reliance, accuracy and how this technology might reshape learning and entry-level work.

In K-12 environments, the focus is less on disruption and more on adaptation. Lawmakers are considering how teaching methods, curriculum and teacher training need to evolve so students know how AI tools work and when to question them. There has been a strong emphasis on providing schools with technical assistance to keep up with the new technology, while also making sure students still develop core skills like critical thinking.

Congress is currently deliberating policies that encourage responsible and ethical AI development, address how to construct necessary safeguards, and ensure parents and educators participate in age-appropriate deployment.

The hearings have been exploratory in nature thus far, but there is an increasingly urgent need to enact legislation that maximizes safety and security.

This article is provided by Van Scoyoc Associates, TCTA's retained lobby firm in Washington, D.C.

Federal K-12 Legislation

In 2015, President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) into law. ESSA reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 that governs federal K-12 education policy. ESSA does not have a formal expiration date, and it only authorized funding through the end of fiscal year 2020. While the authorization has lapsed, the law remains active until Congress passes a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), a complicated and difficult task.

In the 119^th Congress, the House and Senate have introduced numerous K-12 bills although only limited measures have advanced in committee as leadership recognizes those that serve a political intent or that can survive a floor vote. Below is a list of active bills.

Signed into Law

(Public Law 119-58) Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act - reauthorizes the bipartisan Secure Rural Schools (SRS) program, an initiative that provides funds to rural and mountain communities that are home to federal lands, which are tax exempt.

Passed on the Floor

H.R. 6392/S. 3747: Home School Graduation Recognition Act - amends the Higher Education Act by removing language that classifies homeschooled students as not high school graduates. It ensures equal access to federal student aid and prevents discrimination in admissions, specifically at vocational and technical schools.

Passed the House, Ordered reported in Senate, awaits floor vote.

H.R. 1005: Combating the Lies of Authoritarians in School Systems Act- requires public elementary and secondary schools to disclose certain funds received from, or contracts with, a foreign source, and for other purposes.

Passed House (Senate next) on Dec. 3, 2025

H.R. 1049: Transparency in Reporting of Adversarial Contributions to Education Act- ensures that parents are aware of foreign influence in their child's public school.

Passed House (Senate next) on Dec. 4, 2025

H.R. 1069: PROTECT Our Kids Act- prohibits the availability of Federal education funds for elementary and secondary schools that receive direct or indirect support from the Government of the People's Republic of China.

Passed House (Senate next) on Dec. 4, 2025

H.R. 2259: National Strategy for School Security Act - requires the development of a national strategy to secure elementary and secondary schools against acts of terrorism, and ensure domestic preparedness for and the response to terrorism.

Passed House (Senate next) on Nov. 19, 2025

Passed Out of Committee

S. 278: Kids Off Social Media Act - prohibits users who are under age 13 from accessing social media platforms, to prohibit the use of personalized recommendation systems on individuals under age 17, and limit the use of social media in schools.

Ordered Reported on Feb. 5, 2025

H.R. 2617: Say No to Indoctrination Act- prevents the use of funds under such Act to teach or advance concepts related to gender ideology, and for other purposes.

Ordered Reported on April 9, 2025

H.R. 3453: Empower Charter School Educators to Lead Act- authorizes states that receive grants through the Charter Schools Program (CSP) to use a portion of their funding to support the application process and development of new charter schools.

Ordered Reported on June 25, 2025

H.R. 7086: Equitable Access to School Facilities Act- supports the creation and implementation of state policies, as well as the expansion of existing state policies, for improving the quality and affordability of charter school facilities.

Ordered Reported on Jan. 21, 2026

H.R. 7082: Fostering Learning and Excellence in Charter Schools Act- allows charter schools to use existing funds to expand proven programs, add new academic offerings, and serve more students.

Ordered Reported on Jan. 21, 2026

S. 1602: Mathematical and Statistical Modeling Education Act- supports the modernization of math curriculum by providing grants to K-12 schools teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in innovative ways.

Ordered Reported on Feb. 26, 2026

H.R.7890 - Science of Reading Act of 2026- prioritizes federal funds to promote the use of evidence-based literacy instruction and supports aligned to the science of reading.

Ordered Reported on March 17, 2026