California Department of Education expects to receive substantial sum the Trump administration had withheld
SACRAMENTO COUNTY
The California Department of Education said on Thursday that it has received a notice that nearly $1 billion in federal funding frozen by the Trump administration
is on its way.
The delay of funding due to schools on July 1 prompted a bipartisan backlash and a lawsuit from many states, including California. The grants fund teacher training, migrant education, summer school and after-school programs, and support English learners.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond confirmed in a statement that the CDE expects the estimated $939 million funding, which he says
was “illegally impounded.”
“The Trump administration’s delay created unacceptable uncertainty for our schools and harmed many of our most vulnerable students,” said Thurmond’s statement. “However, we are moving swiftly to ensure these funds support students, educators, and school communities without further interruption.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who joined a coalition of 23 state attorneys general in suing the federal government, called the release of funds a
“major win.”
“We’re glad to see the Administration back down from its illegal effort to withhold these funds, but we can’t lose sight of the long-term damage caused by the President’s campaign of chaos and uncertainty,” Bonta said in a statement.
On July 25, the administration said it would begin to release the funds this week. Some advocates worried that the administration would attach strings to those funds. However, a spokesperson with the CDE said the department is confident that the money is on its way. The department received grant award notifications from the federal government this week, with a timeline for when the money is expected.
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ROCKVILLE, MARLAND
Deep Staff Cuts at a Little-Known Federal Agency Pose Trouble for Droves of Local Health Programs
A little-known federal agency that sends more than $12 billion annually to support community health centers, addiction treatment services, and workforce initiatives for America’s neediest people has been hobbled by the Trump administration’s staffing purges.
The cuts are “just a little astonishing,” said Carole Johnson, who previously led the Health Resources and Services Administration. She left the agency in January with the administration change and has described the sweeping staff cuts as a “big threat” to the agency’s ability to distribute billions of dollars in grants.
Since February, about a quarter of workers at HRSA — including analysts, auditors, scientists, grant managers, and nursing consultants — have left, according to a KFF Health News analysis.
The agency, headquartered on side streets in Rockville, Maryland, employed about 2,700 staffers in early 2025. Employees worked behind the scenes to manage and monitor thousands of projects nationwide that fund primary health providers, HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention, maternal and childcare programs, rural hospitals, and workforce training.
On the ground, HRSA’s grants have helped create telehealth initiatives for mothers in rural New Mexico, funded workforce training for Indigenous nurses in South Dakota, and supported Healthy Start programs for expectant mothers and babies in places like rural Georgia.
Ryan Alcorn, a co-founder and the chief executive of GrantExec, a company that helps organizations match and apply for funding, said every American benefits from the programs HRSA’s funding supports: “When the safety net fails, hospitals become overwhelmed, unpaid costs rise, and premiums go up for everyone.”
Several former HRSA leaders, who have been in touch with employees, confirmed the magnitude of the cuts estimated by KFF Health News.
More than 700 workers were fired or chose to leave from February through the end of June. The analysis is based on data from the HHS employee directory.
Johnson, who is now a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, and several other former employees interviewed by KFF Health News said they are concerned that specific programs will be eliminated, but also that reduced staffing could affect ongoing program oversight.
For at least one program, revealed during a tense moment on Capitol Hill in July, money to help low-income and minority students has already stopped flowing to colleges and universities. The Scholarship for Disadvantaged Students program, established through congressional legislation, helped schools pay for students to train to become dentists, physician assistants, midwives, and nurses — all of whom are in short supply in rural and some urban areas.
Asked about the canceled funding, officials from several schools declined to comment. Patrick Gonzales, a spokesperson for the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley, said in an emailed statement that the school is “helping students navigate this transition with clarity and care.”
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