Trump budget proposal would cut $2.3 billion in education for 2027

Kate Rix, EdSource

The Trump administration released its proposed 2027 budget Friday, requesting $76.5 billion for education — a $2.3 billion decrease from 2026 funding.

The funding request puts the federal Department of Education “on a path to elimination,” according to the proposed budget, because the DOE “has failed the Nation’s children, teachers, and families.”

The plan includes a $10.5 billion increase in funding for the Pell Grant program, maintaining the maximum award at $7,395 for the 2027-2028 academic year. The proposal will now go to congressional committees for review.

According to the American Council on Education, the administration’s proposal would eliminate the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program and sharply cut federal Work-Study, cutting funding to $123 million and shifting most costs to employers. The request would eliminate federal TRIO programs, which support low-income, first-generation students and students with disabilities, in addition to other college access programs.

The administration’s request repeats a 2026 proposal to consolidate some federal education program funding into a $2 billion Make Education Great Again block grant. These programs include the majority of elementary and secondary education grant programs. According to the budget request, the $2 billion program maintains full support for Title I, but directs “virtually all of its fexible [sic] funding to States and school districts for K-12 education and empowers them to make spending decisions based on the needs of the 26 million students they serve.”

Education Week reports that this block grant amount would be $4.6 billion short of the total value of the programs it would merge.

The administration also proposes a total of $2.7 billion in cuts to higher education programs, including $354 million in grants for minority-serving institutions and a permanent shift of $1.5 billion in funds for career, technical and adult education to the Department of Labor for 2027.

Kate Rix writes for EdSource.