SDUSD faces uncertainty after Trump admin withholds $13 million in federal funding
Eugene Brucker Instruction Center is headquarters of the San Diego Unified School District Photo via KPBSNews Nearly million in federal funding for the San Diego Unified School District is in jeopardy following an unprecedented decision by the Department of Tuition to freeze more than billion in guidance grants nationwide The funding currently withheld from SDUSD includes million in programs for professional enhancement million in services for English language learners and million in academic enrichment as well as million in before and after-school programs The state of California joined a lawsuit with other states and the District of Columbia on Monday over the federal leadership s move For the fiscal year of - federal funding made up approximately of SDUSD s budget According to a - budget document the district s total projected revenue was billion SDUSD Board Vice President Richard Barrera announced that he doesn t expect the funding cut to take effect noting that the Trump administration has yet to request Congress to rescind the programs that the funding allocations are designated for These are programs that affect all states Barrera announced They re programs that Congress already appropriated So I would certainly expect that Congress would deny such a request In the meantime as the second largest school district in California SDUSD has specific flexibility to redistribute funding from their general operating fund Barrera noted Beyond the specific cuts to educational programs funding cuts to Medicinal and SNAP will also impact students and families in the district It s critical that we don t bury our head in the sand and that means we have to develop increased protections and strategies to advocacy our students and families and make use of the community-based information that exist in San Diego Barrera reported None of that is going to ever be a replacement for the loss of things like SNAP from the federal establishment but we ve got to do everything that we can
