
New York Republican urges Trump to restore funding for after-school programs
The administration is withholding more than $6 billion in federal funds for after-school and summer programs that was included in the government funding bill signed by Trump on March 15. Officials say it's part of a review to ensure the programs align with White House priorities.
Trump also proposed cutting the funding in fiscal year 2026, which begins on Oct. 1.
Lawler wrote that the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) program 'is deeply aligned with your Administration's goals to return power to education authorities, instead of Washington, DC bureaucrats. State Education Agencies are fully responsible for administering the grant, providing each community with the opportunity to distribute funding where it is most needed.'
'Further, 21st Century Community Learning Centers are a perfect example of what happens when we take the federal government out of education – outcomes are better. Students that participate in these programs have been found to have better attendance records, are more engaged in their classes, and see improvements in their academic performance, including in reading and math,' he added.
According to the After School Alliance, 21st CCLC supports 10,000 local programs that serve almost 1.4 million children nationwide. It was allocated more than $1.3 billion for fiscal year 2025.
States participating in this program get funds based on their shares of Title 1 low-income students.
A spokesman for the White House's Office of Management and Budget said the freeze 'is an ongoing programmatic review of education funding' and no decisions have yet been made.
'Initial findings show that many of these grant programs have been grossly misused to subsidize a radical leftwing agenda. In one case, NY public schools used English Language Acquisition funds to promote illegal immigrant advocacy organizations. In another, Washington state used funds to direct illegal immigrants towards scholarships intended for American students. In yet another, School Improvement funds were used to conduct a seminar on 'queer resistance in the arts,'' they added.
According to a May 2025 study by the After School Alliance, 4 in 5 Republicans support greater investments in after-school programs, and 8 and 10 Republicans say it's an 'absolute necessity.'
'Afterschool and summer learning programs are an American success story. The Trump Administration's decision to withhold FY25 afterschool funding is a stunning betrayal,' wrote the After School Alliance in a statement.
'Withholding these funds will cause lasting harm to students and families, and to our education system, our future workforce, and our economy. If these funds are not released very soon, we will quickly see more children and youth unsupervised and at risk, more academic failures, more hungry kids, more chronic absenteeism, higher dropout rates, more parents forced out of their jobs, and a less STEM-ready and successful workforce as our child care crisis worsens dramatically,' they continued.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


CNN
a few seconds ago
- CNN
On GPS: The clock is ticking on Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin has just 37 days to meet President Trump's deadline for a deal to end the Ukraine war. But Moscow appears unfazed, as its forces continue to pummel Kyiv. Fareed discusses the situation with Alina Polyakova, president of the Center for European Policy Analysis.


Politico
a few seconds ago
- Politico
Mike Johnson pans discharge petition from Massie and Khanna
Another red flag: Johnson told Welker the bill doesn't include 'adequate protections' for Epstein's victims. 'These are minors in many cases who were subjected to unspeakable crimes, abject evil,' Johnson said. 'They've already suffered great harm. We do not need their names being unmasked. The Massie and the Khanna discharge petition does not have adequate protections.' Congressional Republicans have spent the last few weeks grappling with the fallout of the Trump administration's handling of its Epstein investigation. Many of their core supporters are in uproar. And recent pronouncements from the president that the controversy is a hoax perpetrated by 'Radical Left Democrats' have only increased the din. But Johnson insisted the legislative effort from the two lawmakers was not why he adjourned the House a day earlier than planned. Instead, he said the maneuver was necessary because of Democrats seeking to force Epstein votes in the House Rules Committee. 'So what we did do this week is end the chaos in the rules committee because the Democrats are trying to use this in a shameless manner for political purposes, quite obviously,' Johnson said. 'They hijacked the rules committee. And they tried to turn it into an Epstein hearing. That's not what the rules committee is about. So that's why the floor vote ended on Wednesday instead of Thursday.'

Politico
a few seconds ago
- Politico
Colorado lawmaker says Gabbard has become ‘weapon of mass destruction' for Trump
'There have been four investigations including a bipartisan Senate investigation led under the first Trump administration in part by Marco Rubio that is very clear on these findings,' he said, referencing Trump's secretary of state. 'These have been investigated and reinvestigated and reinvestigated and nothing has changed up until this past month.' Last week, Gabbard claimed newly declassified documents revealed 'irrefutable evidence' that Obama and his national security team created an intelligence community assessment 'that they knew was false' about Russian intervention in the 2016 presidential election. She and Trump said Obama's actions could amount to treason. All sides concede that Russia sought to undermine the election and that Vladimir Putin's government did not succeed in altering vote totals or actual results. The unresolved issue surrounds the question of whether an Obama administration report ignored contrary evidence in offering an intelligence assessment that the Russians preferred that Donald Trump win; Crow claimed that the conclusion was reasonable within the normal give-and-take of intelligence work. Obama officials have labeled the Gabbard claims of treason 'ridiculous,' while Democrats in Congress have accused the administration of trying to distract from the ongoing frustration around the withholding of information regarding the disgraced financier and convicted sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein. 'Let's be really clear again about what's happening here. This is being reinvigorated and concocted because Donald Trump doesn't want to talk about the Epstein files,' Crow said Sunday. Republicans have denied the accusations, instead calling for a full investigation into Obama and the intelligence community leaders under him. Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), who spoke to Bream on Sunday shortly after Crow, said the information Gabbard released had been hidden from Republicans for years.