How to resolve AdBlock issue? LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Right before the new fiscal year began for schools, the Trump Administration announced an abrupt freeze of over $6 billion in federal education funding nationwide — including an estimated $1 billion to California and $1.2 million to Lake County schools — despite congressional approval.
State and Lake County officials say the move — described as an “impoundment of federal funds” — will bring tremendous disruption to public school services.
The U.S. Department of Education announced the freeze on June 30, one day before the July 1 start of the school year, when funds are typically released.
It’s projected that $1.2 million has been withheld from county schools — about 16.5% of its over $7 million in total federal funds allocation, according to Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg.
Falkenberg told Lake County News that he had not received any official communication prior to the fund freeze, and that it occurred, “Without notice and without reason and without engagement or warning.”
“It is troubling; It will have a tremendous impact,” he told Lake County News. “We’re still trying to evaluate what actually is going to mean locally, but it is millions of dollars.”
Locally, such a decision “jeopardizes essential educational services, especially those that support our most vulnerable students,” Falkenberg said in a July 2 press release. “Programs supporting adults working toward a high school diploma, after-school initiatives that keep children safe and enriched, services for English learners, and resources for students from migrant families are all at serious risk.”
The freeze came abruptly without an explanation, raising concerns about its legality and motivation.
In a July 1 press release, the California Department of Education estimates a $1 billion freeze being “illegally impounded” statewide.
State Superintendent Tony Thurmond said the decision appeared to be politically driven.
“The President is completely disregarding the democratic process by impounding dollars already budgeted, rather than trying to make his case for cuts to elected representatives sent to Congress by the American people to make these decisions,” Superintendent Thurmond said in the press release. “In the notification we received, the Trump Administration provides no legal justification for withholding these dollars from our students. The Administration is punishing children for the sole reason that states refuse to cater to Trump’s political ideology.”
“It is unprecedented in my career,” Falkenberg told Lake County News in a phone call. “There’s always been respect for the budgets that have been in place as the administration changes.”
Falkenberg said he has worked as an educator and administrator for three decades. For him the current funding freeze breaks with that long-standing norm of respecting approved budgets, regardless of political and administration changes.
Worst case scenario, Falkenberg said, if the frozen funds ended as cuts and never came through, he would expect “a cut in staffing and a cut in programs that are supporting our adult learners, our after school programs, our programs to support and enhance teacher preparation, our support for students who are English learners — that’s the programs that are supporting families or students of families of migrants.”
‘Foundational to educational opportunities’
Falkenberg explained that education budgets were laid out in March, assuming these funds would be in place. “We have programs in place and have made purchases assuming these funds would be there. Only to the very last minute here that they may not come,” he said.
“These aren’t supplementary programs; they are foundational to educational opportunities,” Falkenberg said in his press release. “These funds were enacted by Congress and signed into law by the President. School districts across California, including here at home, responsibly integrated them into their budgets with the clear expectation of timely delivery.”
The answers to many questions remain unclear: Why did the abrupt freeze occur? Is it permanent or temporary? If it’s temporary, when will the fund be released?
“A lot of your questions are the same questions that we are trying to delve into right now,” Falkenberg said.
Lake County News made multiple calls over the past week to reach the U.S. Department of Education’s press office with these questions.
Each call was met with an automated message: “Our center is temporarily closed at this time.” After a voice message was recorded — with no options to review, re-record or mark it as urgent — the call ended abruptly: “Thank you for your message. Goodbye.”
News outlets are not alone in struggling to get answers from the federal agency.
“Everyone’s in the same position; they're scrambling,” said State Superintendent Thurmond in a KCRA 3 interview. “They have no idea what this means and what the impacts are. We can't even get the information out of the US Department of Education about what's being funded and what's not.”
While local access to federal information remains limited, Falkenberg is worried about what this may signal for the future.
“That's a good indicator even if we end up receiving these funds in a month or two, they won't be in the next budget,” Falkenberg told Lake County News. “If these are not a priority of the current administration, and there's a good possibility they won't be budgeted in the long run.”
He added, “I think the dust will start to settle — for lack of a better term — in the next week to two weeks, and at that point in time, we'll just be able to have much more robust conversations about next steps.”
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