U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon has unveiled what the Network for Public Education (NPE) is calling the most destructive budget in the Department's history. The fiscal year 2026 proposal eliminates $8.5 billion in Congressionally funded programs-abolishing 10 entirely and collapsing 18 others into a drastically reduced $2 billion block grant. That's $4.5 billion less than what those programs received last year.
NPE describes the budget as partisan. Among the programs, states are nowprohibitedfrom supporting with block grant funds:
— Support for migrant children of agricultural workers
— English Language Acquisition grants
— Community schools offering health and wraparound services
— Teacher leadership and effectiveness programs
— Innovation and research for school improvement
— Comprehensive Centers, including for students with disabilities
— Desegregation technical assistance
— The Ready to Learn early childhood education program
“These aren't just budget cuts-they're calculated eliminations of programs serving the most vulnerable,” said Executive Director Carol Burris. “McMahon is dismantling the supports that give low-income, working-class, and English learners a fair shot. Even a program for veterans gets the axe.”
Burris notes McMahon justified slashing aid for migrant students by claiming the program encourages “ineligible non-citizens” to misuse taxpayer funds-a claim she refutes. The majority of these students are U.S. citizens or legally present.
Higher education is also under fire.
— Pell Grants are cut by $1,400 on average, slashing the maximum from $7,395 to $5,710.
— Federal Work-Study loses $1 billion-an 80% reduction.
— TRIO programs for veterans and campus childcare for student-parents are wiped out entirely.
— In total, $1.67 billion in college student support has been allocated.
NPE President Diane Ravitch characterizes these cuts as “shortchanging young people who want to go to college. Simply put, it's a plan to undermine our future. This budget abandons America's neediest children and our public schools.”
Yet amid these cuts, the federal Charter Schools Program isincreasedto $500 million. Simultaneously, McMahon's allies in Congress are advancing theEducational Choice for Children Act(ECCA), a $5 billion voucher scheme designed to subsidize private and homeschool tuition.
“This is not a budget-it's a roadmap to privatize education, under-educate America, and destroy public schools,” said Burris. “It's cruel. It's deliberate. And it puts corporate interests above America's children.”
To learn more about these cuts, visit https://networkforpubliceducation.org/
Contact:Carol Burriscburris@networkforpubliceducation.org(646) 678-4477
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SOURCE Network for Public Education
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