LANSING — Northern Michigan superintendents are optimistic that cuts to the Department of Education won’t heavily impact their operations, but say there’s still cause for concern in some areas
Josh Rothwell, superintendent of Kingsley Area Schools, said the funding makes a significant difference for low-achieving or disabled students.
“Typically, a tremendous majority of our funding comes from the state level, so in day-to-day operations, it’s not going to have a significant impact,” he said. “But for those low-achieving students or challenging learners, it may have a significant impact with that smaller group.”
Judy Walton, superintendent of Harrison Community Schools, says about 15% of the district’s funds come from the federal government.
“What I’ve asked our people to do is sort of plan for small, medium and big cuts and kind of game those pieces out,” she said. “I guess I’ll believe it when I see it, in terms of the money flowing back directly to the states,”
Walton says a total shutdown of the Department of Education would heavily impact her district, causing shortfalls the state likely couldn’t fill.
“We rely heavily on the federal funds to provide for both literacy and math interventionists,” she said. “There’s no way the Michigan Department of Education can afford to backfill to every district in this state all of the funding that we get from the federal government.”
President Trump has said that core functions of the Department, like funding for impoverished schools and special education, would continue or be transferred to other agencies.
Still, educators shared concerns about funds or programs possibly falling through the cracks or being mishandled by agencies less familiar with school administration.
“It’s still an educational function,” Rothwell said. “So it’s hard for me to see another group that is outside the world about our education, to be able to run an effective system like that, if they don’t know a lot about it.”
Educators also say they’re hesitant to take the administration at its word, given the often chaotic pace of policy changes seen in recent months.
“That funding stream, if it is pushed into another department and such — is that going to continue? Is it going to get cut? We really don’t know. Honestly, it’s just a huge question mark at this point. And that’s kind of — I think that’s the stressful part of it,” Rothwell said.