Trump administration targets $106M in K-12 grant funding for Mass.

The Healey-Driscoll administration today issued statements condemning the Trump administration’s move to terminate $106 million in K-12 education grant funding for Massachusetts.

The funding supported student mental health services, tutoring, school security, and building upgrades. Nationally, it is estimated that this decision terminates more than $2 billion in grants across 41 states.

Last Friday at 5:03 p.m., the U.S. Department of Education notified all states about its decision to end the federal Education Stabilization Fund liquidation period, effective three minutes prior, at 5 p.m. This notification came despite the Trump administration’s assurance, in February, that Massachusetts had until March 2026 to spend the funds.

“At a time when students are still struggling to recover from the pandemic, we need to be doing everything we can to address learning loss and the youth mental health crisis,” Gov. Maura Healey said. “This action is jeopardizing mental health care and math tutoring for our students, as well as projects that are already underway to enhance school security and ensure that the air in our school buildings is clean.

“Massachusetts has been making important progress helping students recover from the pandemic, but President Trump is trying to take us backwards.”

Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler said many students in Massachusetts and across the country are still experiencing pandemic-related learning loss and mental health challenges.

“The federal government had repeatedly reaffirmed these extensions in acknowledgement of continued supply chain issues, labor shortages, and to ensure continuity in learning acceleration efforts,” Tutwiler said. “Projects funded by these grants are underway.”

He said the Trump administration’s “outrageous and cruel decision” featured “a new arbitrary deadline.”

The funding was intended to support a multitude of statewide efforts to address pandemic-related learning loss, with a focus on literacy, math and science — areas where learning was particularly disrupted during the pandemic.

Recent test scores show that Massachusetts students still have not fully recovered from the learning lost during the pandemic, the administration said.

The funding was also supporting building upgrades across 20 school districts to improve air quality through HVAC installations and to build outdoor learning spaces for students. Some projects were enhancing security in schools.

As the federal government had committed to these funds, the projects are all currently underway, though they had been delayed due to continued supply chain issues and labor shortages, the administration said.

The following are the affected school districts and the funding amount at risk:
• Springfield: $47,357,654
• New Bedford: $15,603,433
• Fitchburg: $6,578,468
• Everett: $4,897,300
• Revere: $4,613,327
• Boston: $3,468,659
• Leominster: $1,868,215
• Stoughton: $1,512,470
• Worcester: $1,454,350
• Chelsea: $1,448,715
• Lawrence: $1,307,307
• Dracut: $648,702
• Holyoke: $395,863
• West Springfield: $354,868
• Lynn: $339,357
• Fairhaven: $250,802
• Greater Fall River Regional Vocational Technical: $115,465
• Ludlow: $83,334
• Blue Hills Regional Vocational Technical: $21,461
• Mashpee: $2,481

Impacted nonpublic schools:
• Mater Dolorosa Catholic School in Holyoke: $118,894
• Saint Stanislaus School in Chicopee: $172,692