FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, March 14, 2025
Contact: media@edtrust.org

The Continuing Resolution Is Not a Win for Students

Failure to Specify Funding Priorities Gives the Trump Administration Dangerous Authority

WASHINGTON – While a federal government shutdown is never in the national interest, the continuing resolution currently before the United States Senate fails to protect students. Instead of providing stability and ensuring investments in education, it leaves critical funding decisions in the hands of an administration that has repeatedly deprioritized the needs of students — particularly those from underserved communities.

By failing to include typical funding directives that specify how funding for key programs and priorities should be spent, this legislation grants the Trump Administration broad discretion to reallocate education funding in ways that can undermine student success. This is unacceptable.

Without these directives, essential education programs are at serious risk. For example:

• The bill fails to include language ensuring continued funding for countless programs supporting public schools, such as Statewide Family Engagement Centers and Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) grants, which provide critical resources for parent engagement and teacher training.
• It fails to set the maximum Pell Grant award for the 2025-26 school year, leaving this decision to the same U.S. Department of Education that recently laid off critical staff responsible for assisting students with financial aid. With FAFSA already facing delays and technical failures, this uncertainty only adds to the burden on students seeking to afford college.
• Other higher education programs that support low-income students — including Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, Federal Work-Study, and funding for HBCUs and MSIs — could be deprioritized or cut entirely. Instead of expanding access to higher education, this legislation opens the door to further inequities.
• The bill eliminates earmarked funding that would have supported innovative programs designed to improve student academic achievement. This move disproportionately harms under-resourced communities and schools that rely on these investments.

These funding risks must be viewed in the broader context of the Trump Administration’s ongoing attacks on public education. From cutting funding from education research and teacher preparation programs to weakening enforcement of civil rights protections, this administration has already taken steps that put our nation’s students at further risk. We are now seeing these consequences: delays in state reimbursements for P-12 expenses, disruptions in critical federal programs, and even a day-long FAFSA application shutdown that left students scrambling.

Cutting essential funding for educational research gives unaccountable billionaires additional license to ignore not only congressional directives but also the best interest of students. Our students deserve more, but this legislation gives them less.

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EdTrust is committed to advancing policies and practices to dismantle the racial and economic barriers embedded in the American education system. Through our research and advocacy, EdTrust improves equity in education from preschool through college, engages diverse communities dedicated to education equity and justice, and increases political and public will to build an education system where students will thrive.