(NewsNation) — As President Donald Trump looks to remake education in the country, cuts have started taking place. In the past week, funds have been slashed for many AmeriCorps programs.
The administration also announced it would end $1 billion in mental health grants to schools. This comes after the administration also notified states that pandemic funding that had been used for after-school, summer and tutoring programs would not continue.
On March 20, 2025, Trump signed an executive order to close the Department of Education effectively. Though closure of the department would require congressional approval, steps are being taken to dismantle it.
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AmeriCorps cuts
AmeriCorps is the federal agency for national service and volunteerism. Although it does not fall directly under the Department of Education, members and volunteers support students in a variety of ways, including during school hours, after school, and in summer programs.
Last Friday, many AmeriCorps programs were told to shut down immediately. America’s Service Commissions said the Trump administration was “illegally and immediately terminating nearly $400 million in grant program funding” and that the sudden termination “will shutter more than 1000 programs and prematurely end the service of over 32,000 AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers.”
Shannon Yost, head of the Flipside after-school and AmeriCorps programs with the Tygart Valley United Way in Fairmont, West Virginia, said they are “losing around 250 member slots. States like California and Kansas lost their full AmeriCorps portfolio. So what that means in the state of West Virginia is that we now have these programs that are left immediately without this funding. … This wasn’t ‘we’re going to finish the end of your grant year, and then you’re going to close your grant.’ This was immediate.”
Yost said she did not receive any reason why everything was so sudden, other than “these programs no longer effectuate agency priority.” Yost said the programs that were cut “seems to be random … there didn’t seem to be a formula behind the cuts.”
After school and summer programs provide students with a positive developmental outlet, support families, especially lower and middle class families, who may not otherwise be able to afford child care, improve educational outcomes and prevent juvenile crime, according to Afterschool Alliance Executive Director Jodi Grant.
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She explained that “kids in an after-school program are much less likely to be involved in any kind of inappropriate behavior, whether it’s juvenile crime, whether it’s abusing social media, alcohol, drugs, etc.” and that students have better school attendance and are “more likely to behave in the classroom and more likely to complete the coursework.”
When asked for comment about these grant terminations, White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said, “Americorps has failed eight consecutive audits and identified over $45 million in improper payments in 2024 alone. President Trump has the legal right to restore accountability to the entire Executive Branch.”
The White House did not respond to questions about what would take the place of the programs and staff that are being cut.
This week, over 25 states sued the Trump administration over these cuts, including Maryland.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore told NewsNation that “AmeriCorps members help address critical needs in Maryland. … Seeing yet another direct attack on public servants who simply want to make it easier for others to serve their communities runs counter to who we are as a country.”
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Pandemic funding cuts
As announced in March, more cuts are coming to schools after school and summer programs with the end of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds. This money focused on improving students’ educational outcomes after the learning losses from the COVID pandemic.
Ellie Mitchell, director of the Maryland Out of School Time Network, said that “many school districts across the state of Maryland have been using those funds to fund summer and after-school programming and tutoring…and there’s just not a good replacement for that level of funding.”
Since the pandemic is over, NewsNation asked why there was an expectation that funding would continue.
Mitchell said that traditionally after-school and summer programs are underfunded and that the ESSER funds “gave districts an opportunity to do something they haven’t been able to do.”
Grant acknowledged that these programs knew they would eventually lose the funds, but that “our hope was always that once you build it, people would see the value. … Like 90% of voters say after-school programs are an absolute necessity in their community.”
Grant said that some states have seen how valuable the programs are and have been finding funds to continue them. But also notes that the abrupt cancellation with no exit ramp and no time to make alternate plans has made things more difficult for the programs, students, and their families.
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Mental health grants
The Trump administration announced this week that it will not renew $1 billion worth of school mental health grants.
The grant money was part of the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which included bringing thousands of mental health professionals into schools. It came on the heels of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications, told NewsNation the funding is being pulled because “under the deeply flawed priorities of the Biden Administration, grant recipients used the funding to implement race-based actions like recruiting quotas in ways that have nothing to do with mental health and could hurt the very students the grants are supposed to help.”
NewsNation did not receive a response to questions about what the administration will do to support mental health in schools after these grants end.
Democratic lawmakers railed against the decision, including Senator Dick Durbin, who wrote on X, “Republicans blame ‘mental health issues’ for America’s gun violence epidemic, not guns. But now, President Trump is cutting bipartisan mental health funding for schools. What a disgrace.”
President Trump released his budget proposal today, and it included additional cuts to education funding.
