The portion of the government funded through annual appropriations has shut down. For now, here’s what that means for students and educators:
• Nearly 95% of Education Department staff are furloughed, so there’s hardly anyone to monitor compliance, accept civil rights complaints, collect data, or answer inquiries.
• K-12 funding for the current school year is largely in place because programs are “forward funded.” Title I, Title II, and IDEA “advance funding” for the month of October is expected to go out.
• Impact Aid schools—on military bases and tribal lands, and in other federally impacted areas—will probably not receive their monthly payments.
• Pell grants and federal student loans continue, and payments remain due.
• FAFSA is open and operational, but a prolonged shutdown could affect customer service.
• WIC program that provides nutritious food for low-income parents and children could run short of funds and be forced to discontinue services.
The immediate reason for the shutdown is the GOP’s refusal to work with Democrats to find a bipartisan solution and lower healthcare costs for working families and middle-income Americans.
The GOP’s reconciliation bill extends all sorts of tax breaks for the ultra-rich, but not the tax credits that have made health insurance affordable for working families and small businesses. As a result, starting Jan. 1, premiums will skyrocket for 22 million Americans who buy their health insurance on Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges. The average monthly premium will more than double, according to an independent analysis by KFF.
If Congress fails to address the issue, about 4 million people now covered by ACA plans will lose coverage entirely. An additional 7.8 million people will lose Medicaid coverage as a result of the reconciliation bill, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
“Enough is enough,” said NEA President Becky Pringle. “On behalf of NEA’s 3 million members, I implore Donald Trump, Mike Johnson, John Thune, and every member of Congress to stop the dysfunction, do their jobs, and pass a bipartisan funding agreement to keep the government open.”
Tell Congress what you think!
In Solidarity,
Kimberly Johnson Trinca
National Education Association
CHEER:House Agriculture Committee Democrats sent Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins a letter demanding answers about the Trump administration’s decision to discontinue the annual survey on household food security. “The reasons provided by the department in its weekend announcement canceling this critical report were transparently insufficient and misleading and follow a pattern of reducing the value and quality of the data and analysis in USDA’s typically gold-standard reports when the administration feels threatened by their own scientist’s findings …” they wrote.
