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Regional educational groups serving children and adults worry that crucial federal funding won’t come through after the U.S. Department of Education paused more than $230 million to review whether the money has been misused.
“It’s a big problem for us,” said Carey Harris, CEO of Literacy Pittsburgh.
The nonprofit offers free educational programs for almost 4,000 adults and families in Allegheny and Beaver counties each year. The organization has had to rescind three job offers and cannot fill other open roles until this funding comes through, which accounts for about a third of their $7.3 million budget, she said.
“We will be serving 1,600 less if this money is not released,” Harris said. “That's 1,600 fewer people building their skills to get good jobs to help their kids in school, to advance their careers, to go to college, to go to job training. It's just 1,600 fewer people that will be in a better position to build their futures here in western Pennsylvania.”
Harris also said the organization’s programming waitlist currently sits at about 400 students, who they cannot accommodate without this federal funding. In the meantime, they are looking for more community volunteers.
Butler County Community College’s adult literacy program provides free instructional services to adults in Butler and Mercer Counties, including high school equivalency exam preparation and English as a second language classes. It also provides instruction to inmates and has helped over 600 students earn commonwealth secondary school diploma in the last 15 years.
The program received $349,334 in federal grants last year, over half of $611,000 budget.
Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Josh Novak said they have had to put an open staff position on hold as a result of the funding freeze.
“This is a huge impact,” Novak said by email. “We can’t just operate on state funds. At this point, we are running previously scheduled courses, but if we don’t have the funding, we can’t continue.”
College officials are trying to conserve funds and place any possible spending on hold for the time being, Novak said.
State departments of education were informed on June 30 that the funds would be unavailable; normally the money is accessible every July 1. Congress approved a spending bill that included the funds in March, which President Trump signed into law.
The administration is holding back more than $6 billion, The Associated Press reports, amid a review to determine whether spending complies with administration priorities.
The funds support various before and after school programming, teacher training, and professional development, adult and family literacy programs, education for children from farming families, and education for students learning English. The Pennsylvania Department of Education provided a breakdown of the estimated funding frozen in the Commonwealth:
· Title I-C (Migrant Education) - $11 million
· Title II-A (Supporting Effective Instruction) - $70 million
· Title III-A (English Language Acquisition) - $20 million
· Title IV-A (Student Support and Academic Enrichment) - $55 million
· Title IV-B (21st Century Community Learning Centers) - $54 million
· Adult Education Basic Grants to States – $20 million
21st Century Community Learning Center grant recipient Boys and Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania is in a little bit of a different position. President and CEO Chris Watts said the organization, which serves about 11,000 students a year, received a letter a few weeks ago that their funding would be renewed for the next year.
“[The grant] is one of the only funding sources dedicated to after school programs for youth and teens, and it’s a five-year contract which is pretty significant,” Watts said.
While the 21st Century grant makes up 2% of their annual budget, Watts said they still have to be less flexible in other areas, such as awarding scholarships for students to attend their programs.
“We're going to leverage every resource we have to not cut programing, to not transition any staff to make sure that we're serving the kids and teens that we committed to despite this funding being uncertain,” Watts said. “But that ability to do that requires financial flexibility, that if we have to leverage all of that to plug holes in the gap at the last minute, it's going to be really tough for us to issue scholarships at scale.”
Smaller Boys and Girls Clubs are in a more precarious position, Watts said. Over 920 clubs are at risk of closure if they do not receive this funding, meaning about 220,000 students would be without programming, he said.
The Boys and Girls Clubs serve about 55,000 in Pennsylvania across over 220 locations.
“This funding stream was supposed to be a supplement to that and communities that don't have access. And now, if that's pulled, there's no other resources to support it,” Watts said.
Neighborhood Learning Alliance Executive Director Kashif Henderson said without the 21st Grant, their after-school program will face a possible closure next March. The nonprofit serves about 140 students in Allegheny County each year, working to provide educational opportunities to low-income kids.
“I’m at a real battle of raising over $331,000 that we planned for,” Henderson said. “This affects a whole ecosystem.”
The organization also employs college students for summer programs; something Henderson says he hopes can continue.
“We’re talking about an ecosystem that provides space for aspiring teachers, the students they serve and their families,” Henderson said. “We hope to build a stronger Pittsburgh workforce in our programs and the people who lead these programs.”
An organization that is facing the freeze across several areas is the Allegheny Intermediate Union, providing specialized services to over 110,000 students in Allegheny County.
In 2024-25, the AIU was awarded $206,600 in Title II-A funding, $590,574 in Title III, and $163,482 in Adult Basic Education, officials said.
In a prepared statement, AIU officials said they contacted federal legislators earlier this week to urge for the release of funds.
They noted that funding is customarily available at the start of the fiscal year for most school entities and that the Education Department’s “decision to withhold funding that was already appropriated by Congress puts the AIU, school districts and other funding recipients in the difficult position of either choosing to maintain services without any assurance of payment, or discontinuing services until funding is disbursed.”
The White House Office of Management and Budget said the funding delays are part of an ongoing programmatic review of education funding, and “no decisions have been made yet.”
A spokesperson for the agency said in a prepared statement that initial review findings show that “many of these grant programs have been grossly misused to subsidize a radical leftwing agenda.”
National Association of Bilingual Education Board President Margarita Machado-Casas said an estimated 5.3 million English language learners will be affected by this pause.
“These delays are not just technical; they're costing real and immediate harm,” Machado-Casas said. “They're laying off staff. They're canceling contracts and freezing services that English language learners depend on in order to succeed.”
As of Thursday, the state Department of Education said they are still assessing the impact of the delay, determining next steps, and “will keep school leaders and local programs informed,” as updates become available.
“The time is now, right? We can't wait. Our students can't wait. Our parents can't wait. Our families; our communities can wait,” Machado-Casas said. “We cannot put an additional burden on teachers and families that already don't make enough money.”
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