As Trump orders DOE breakup, here’s how much federal money flows to Pierce County schools
More than $174 million in federal funding flowed to Pierce County schools during the last school year, with some local districts receiving among the largest quantities in Washington and relying on those dollars more than others in the state.
In the 2023-24 school year, Tacoma Public Schools and the Clover Park School District received $50.1 million and $35.7 million in federal funding, respectively, excluding one-time emergency relief money tied to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Of 295 districts in Washington, TPS and Clover Park collected the second- and fourth-most federal dollars in the state, an analysis of the data showed.
Now as President Donald Trump has directed closing down the Department of Education, which distributes federal aid to schools, education union representatives say they fear disruptions to critical funding streams.
“We are certainly very concerned,” Washington Education Association spokesperson Julie Popper said in an interview Friday. “I think the biggest concern is our schools are already underfunded.”
Trump signed an executive order Thursday to dismantle the Education Department, writing that the “experiment of controlling American education through Federal programs and dollars — and the unaccountable bureaucracy those programs and dollars support — has plainly failed our children, our teachers, and our families.”
Congressional approval ultimately would be required to abolish the department, which supports impoverished schools and students with disabilities, enforces federal civil rights laws and manages student-loan debt. The executive order directed that the agency’s “main functions” be shifted to the states and federal funds be scrutinized, including to ensure that recipients weren’t promoting diversity, equity and inclusion or gender ideology.
The Education Department in February announced $600 million in cuts to grants it said were used to train teachers and education agencies on divisive ideologies, and more than $350 million in cuts to “woke spending” that same month resulted in a Tacoma Public Schools math study getting shelved.
Trump vowed last week to preserve the Education Department’s core responsibilities — such as Title I funding for high-poverty schools and aid to students with disabilities — through other agencies and departments, multiple news outlets reported. Following Trump’s signing of the executive order, Education Secretary Linda McMahon assured that federal dollars would continue to be dispersed to those in need of them.
“Closing the Department does not mean cutting off funds from those who depend on them — we will continue to support K-12 students, students with special needs, college student borrowers, and others who rely on essential programs,” McMahon said in a statement. “We’re going to follow the law and eliminate the bureaucracy responsibly by working through Congress to ensure a lawful and orderly transition.”
In an interview with McClatchy days before Trump’s executive order, Washington state Superintendent Chris Reykdal outlined three key, congressionally authorized programs that he said accounted for about 70% of federal funding in the state: Title I assists low-income schools, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provides aid to students with disabilities, and school meals are funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In Washington, roughly 400,000 students benefit from Title I funding, according to Popper.
The National Education Association has raised concerns that Title I could be decimated if shifted into block grants to individual states without accountability or oversight and that IDEA’s transfer to another agency could significantly lessen the likelihood that students with disabilities get needed support and services.
Shannon McCann is a special education teacher in Federal Way who sits on the board of the National Education Association. McCann said in an interview that she was unconvinced by any sweeping promises from the Trump administration to retain critical funding for public education.
McCann was in an elevator on the day Trump signed the executive order when she heard someone say: “That money’s not going to administer itself.”
McCann said the remark encapsulated her worries about efforts to take apart the Education Department, which saw about half of its workforce gutted a week prior to Trump’s directive. Without the staff to fulfill the agency’s purpose of ensuring that federal funds are distributed equitably, the appropriate and lawful administration of those dollars are at risk, she said.
Planned departmental shifts also exacerbated existing concerns over the logistics of distributing federal funds to the nation’s roughly 14,000 school districts, McCann said. She pointed to special education, which is anticipated to be moved under the oversight of Health and Human Services. McCann noted that 95% of students with disabilities attend a public school and they could not afford any interruptions to programs.
McCann said she saw the targeting of the Education Department as “a wrecking ball motion” that was part of a confluence of attacks on multiple agencies and programs that she warned would have “massive” compounding effects on communities.
“Any type of effort to jeopardize and cause confusion in the system is just a terrible thing to hold our kids hostage to,” McCann said.
On Monday, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown joined 20 other state attorneys general in a federal court action seeking to block the Education Department’s dismantling. That same day, at least two separate lawsuits were filed against the Trump administration on behalf of educators and others also challenging Trump’s executive order, according to media reports.
Districts monitoring Trump’s actions
Two of the largest benefactors of federal funding in the state, TPS and Clover Park, also represent the largest and fourth-largest school districts by enrollment in Pierce County. Both declined invitations from The News Tribune for interviews seeking to discuss federal funding and Trump’s executive order.
“We’re closely monitoring the proposed changes to the federal Dept. of Ed and working to fully understand the implications,” TPS spokesperson Tanisha Jumper said in an email.
Any disruptions to federal funding could prove to be costly for TPS and Clover Park, which both relied on those dollars more than the state average. About 14.5% of Clover Park’s total K-12 funding was the result of federal money, OSPI data shows. For TPS, it was roughly 9.35%. The statewide average is 6.95%, which Reykdal had said was much lower than most other states.
No district with at least 10,000 students had a higher share than Clover Park, although some much smaller districts drew as much as 40% of their total funding from the federal government, according to the data.
The Franklin Pierce School District (9.03%) also surpassed the statewide average.
Clover Park has a large presence of military and special-needs families, which helps to explain why it receives as much federal funding.
One-third of Clover Park’s approximately 12,000 students is connected to the military, with the district operating six elementary schools on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, according to district spokesperson Leanna Albrecht. For that reason, the district receives impact aid funds, which are intended to provide assistance to districts with increased expenses due to federally-connected enrollment or lost property tax revenue because of tax-exempt federal property.
JBLM also is a designated installation equipped to assist military families with children who have special needs, according to Albrecht.
“We are monitoring the situation and will be prepared to adjust as needed based on actual impacts to the school district,” Albrecht said in an email. “As always, our priority remains the academic success and well-being of our students, and we will continue to provide the necessary support to ensure their success.”
In addition to being large districts, Clover Park and TPS also received the most federal funding per full-time equivalent student in Pierce County, the data shows.
Clover Park received nearly $3,000 per student — a figure surpassed by 30 smaller districts in the state but the largest among districts with at least 10,000 students.
Messages to education unions for TPS and Clover Park, seeking to discuss federal funding and efforts to close the Education Department, were not returned.
Uncertainty over what’s next
In response to an inquiry about concerns over the potential implications of Trump’s executive order, the Department of Education referred The News Tribune to McMahon’s earlier statement.
“Education is fundamentally a state responsibility,” McMahon previously said. “Instead of filtering resources through layers of federal red tape, we will empower states to take charge and advocate for and implement what is best for students, families, and educators in their communities.”
She said teachers would be empowered to return to teaching basic subjects by being freed from onerous regulations and paperwork.
“Taxpayers will no longer be burdened with tens of billions of dollars of waste on progressive social experiments and obsolete programs,” she said. “K-12 and college students will be relieved of the drudgery caused by administrative burdens — and positioned to achieve success in a future career they love.”
Both Popper and McCann said it was uncertain where the Education Department’s dismantling might lead.
“We don’t know,” Popper said. “We need to be there for those kids, no matter what is going on.”
McCann called for action.
“This is the time for neighbors to look at each other and to say, ‘we need to speak up, we need to call our representatives, we need to do something to protect our public schools,’” she said.
