“The USDE’s decision is catastrophic,” Maryland schools chief Carey Wright told reporters, criticizing President Donald Trump’s Education Department. “These funds have been spent or committed with every expectation of reimbursement.”
As of early March, states collectively had some $2.5 billion in unobligated American Rescue Plan funds meant for elementary and high schools, according to an Education Department summary obtained by POLITICO. Hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of additional federal funds for homeless students and private schools were also at stake.
Dozens of states, plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, had received approval from Biden officials that would’ve let them extend their federal reimbursement timetable on previously approved projects through early next year.
Former Education Secretary Miguel Cardona’s administration had estimated nearly all of the American Rescue Plan’s education aid would be used by early this year to reimburse states and schools for projects finalized in advance of the September 2024 deadline to sign contracts or secure other plans for spending the funds. Some of the money, however, was still expected to be spent.
“Extending deadlines for COVID-related grants, which are in fact taxpayer funds, years after the COVID pandemic ended is not consistent with the Department’s priorities and thus not a worthwhile exercise of its discretion,” McMahon wrote on Friday. She added that governments could reapply for spending extensions on individual projects.
Murphy, however, was among state officials who suggested the abrupt end to the federal initiative has sparked a growing sense of crisis.
“These cuts are reckless and irresponsible, allowing us very little time for contingency plans,” Murphy said in a statement. “At a time of unprecedented chaos and uncertainty at the federal level, Washington is failing the next generation.”
Infrastructure projects in 20 New Jersey school districts would be affected, Murphy said.
The Education Department retorted that Murphy “doesn’t know what he is talking about” in a series of social media posts on Monday. “New Jersey is continuing to receive all recurring federal education funds — but his COVID slush fund is over,” the department said.
Local school officials had pressed former President Joe Biden’s administration for added breathing room to spend relief funds signed into law under the American Rescue Plan — arguing that a constellation of pandemic-era staffing challenges, vendor contract negotiations and construction concerns required government approval to stretch spending timetables through next year.
“Walking back a federal commitment to pandemic relief funds to improve the air quality, healthfulness, and safety of schools coming out of the pandemic is unacceptable,” Michigan state schools Superintendent Michael Rice said in a statement.
Twenty-seven Michigan school districts have struck contracts to replace ventilation systems, boilers and windows, he said.
“Without the promised March 2026 date for federal reimbursement requests, districts may be forced to reduce instructional expenditures for students, diminish savings, or both to honor these contracts,” Rice said.
Multiple state school systems contacted by POLITICO on Monday said they were still trying to assess the decision’s impact on their communities, or they did not respond to requests for comment.
Maryland school officials, meanwhile, said they were consulting with the state attorney general’s office and exploring their legal options.
“We’re still in, I think, a state of confusion,” Wright said Monday.
