Despite Administration’s desire to slash education spending, a final bicameral, bipartisan bill restores most funding, including English Learner, World Language, EdTech, and Professional Development
With a January 30 deadline coming up, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees released a four bill FY26 “minibus” appropriations bill that contains final compromise funding levels for the Departments of Education, Defense, Labor, and HHS.
Key K-12 programs that the Trump Administration proposed for elimination—including Title II-A (Professional Development), Title III (English Language Acquisition), Title IV-A (flexible block grant, often used for EdTech), Native Hawaiian Education and Alaska Native Education—are being retained at the same funding levels as last year.
Title I, IDEA, and Impact Aid will remain at last year’s funding levels as proposed by the President, but the Department of Defense will boost spending on the World Language Advancement and Readiness Grants program by 50%, despite it being zeroed out in the President’s budget.
In higher education, Title VI/Fulbright-Hays, which the Administration had also sought to defund, was preserved but did sustain a $5 million cut. The Native American Language Resource Center received a small increase.
Programs supporting HBCUs, Hispanic Serving Institutions, Tribal Colleges, and MSIs, including Title III and Title V, will receive funding increases across the board, despite the Justice Department’s recent claim that these programs are unlawful because they “effectively employ a racial quota.”
Institute of Education Sciences will receive $790 million, far above the administration’s $261 million request.
Office for Civil Rights funding will be maintained at $140 million, rejecting the proposed $49 million cut.
However, Congress chose not to put a complete stop to the dismantling of the Department of Education. Despite the raising of concerns about shifting education programs and responsibilities to other agencies, the report does not prohibit such changes and instead relies on briefings and oversight requirements, meaning some staffing changes and interagency agreements may still proceed.
The minibus also attempts to deal with implementation issues, including attempts to prevent the Department from withholding funds as it did last year. Senate Appropriations Ranking Member Patty Murray says in her statement that the bill “includes new measures to ensure the Department of Education makes formula grants available to states and districts on time, preventing funding from being withheld and creating chaos for students, teachers, and families.”
The reaction of Senate Democrats to events in Minnesota may delay passage of the bills, as they may block consideration of the package unless the Department of Homeland Security funding bill is separated out, while Senate Republicans have resisted breaking up the package. Any Senate changes could require the House, currently in recess, to return to Washington.