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Katy Payne she/her
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Monday evening, the Trump Administration issued a memo directing all federal agencies to “temporarily pause all…obligations or disbursement of all federal financial assistance.” Today, the Administration rescinded the order, clarified that the intent of the order “remains in full force,” and issued new executive orders related to federal funding. State Superintendent Chris Reykdal’s statement is below.
OLYMPIA—January 29, 2025—The decision-making out of Washington, D.C. this week has caused immense disruption to schools, community-based organizations, and government programs that rely on federal funding to serve the American people.
While the U.S. Office of Management and Budget has rescinded their memo to federal agencies directing a funding freeze, the White House Press Secretary has clarified that the freeze “remains in full force and effect and will be rigorously implemented by all agencies and departments.”
Further, based on executive orders signed by President Trump this afternoon, we anticipate that the U.S. Department of Education will attempt to hinge the receipt of federal dollars on discriminatory practices and school privatization efforts, neither of which are legal in the State of Washington.
I am deeply concerned about the extent to which programs supporting some of our most vulnerable students may be impacted by this senseless decision-making. If this funding freeze moves forward, some of the programs potentially at risk are breakfast, lunch, and afterschool meal programs; academic supports for students experiencing poverty; afterschool learning programs for students in high-poverty and low-performing schools; mental and behavioral health supports; and targeted learning supports for many of our most marginalized student groups.
Washington is the third highest “donor state” in the nation, and our taxpayers subsidize services for other states at a very high rate. For every dollar that our taxpayers provide to the federal government, we only see $0.84 reinvested in services and programs that support Washingtonians.
This administration has made it clear that they plan to take decision-making away from states and local governments and will only be releasing federal funds to states that align themselves with the administration’s political beliefs.
In Washington state, we will not be privatizing our schools; it is a clear violation of our State Constitution, our state laws, and the system that we have legally created for charter schools. We will not allow the federal government to determine our learning standards; this authority belongs with the states and our standards align with our laws and values. And we certainly are not going to redirect public, taxpayer dollars to private schools that aren’t required to hire certificated educators or to assess and publicly report their students’ academic performance.
Our students continue to need targeted supports, especially in math, and many of our school districts are in financial distress due to the state’s underfunding of basic education. Now is the time to double-down on our efforts to ensure our students are led by the most qualified teachers and have access to all the resources and services from federal and state sources that they need to succeed.
If the Trump Administration restricts our state’s ability to access our federal funds because we refuse to step on the civil rights of our students and we refuse to send public funds to private, unaccountable institutions, then my office will be relentless about preserving our federal funds in support of our own constituents, and I hope our congressional delegation will join me.
Budgets are a values statement. Through bipartisan congresses and presidencies, our federal government has––for decades––invested in common-sense programs that were intentionally designed to ensure all students and families, no matter their background, have access to the resources and services needed to thrive in school and in life. This is the American dream. A president unilaterally deciding to cut access to these funds unless the programs are in alignment with his political ideology is unprecedented and dangerous.