Protect our classrooms

Reject Trump's FY 2026 budget proposal with devastating cuts to education

The administration’s FY 2026 budget proposal calls for a devastating $12.1 billion cut to education, slashing 15 percent of K–12 funding and threatening the future of millions of students. This proposal includes:

• A $9.2 billion decrease for K–12 education

• A $1.4 billion decrease for student financial assistance

• Cuts to full-service community schools and English language acquisition programs

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

Representative Rosa DeLauro has warned that these cuts would force 72,000 teachers out of classrooms, and we have sounded the alarm alongside NABE and others about the long-term damage of eliminating services for 5.5 million English learners who bring a wealth of knowledge and talent into classrooms nationwide.

How the Budget Process Works

Every year, the administration releases a proposed budget for the next fiscal year (beginning October 1). This proposal outlines the President’s priorities, but Congress holds the “power of the purse” - the constitutional authority to decide how taxpayer dollars are spent. Lawmakers negotiate and pass annual appropriations bills that ultimately determine what programs are funded, not the President.

Two types of spending are in these budgets - mandatory spending and discretionary spending:

• Mandatory spending covers programs like Social Security and Medicare that are funded automatically under existing law.

• Discretionary spending covers programs that must be renewed each year by Congress. Education, housing, research, and public health are all “discretionary.”

Because education falls under discretionary spending, it must be funded year by year. This means schools are directly vulnerable when cuts are proposed - fewer teachers, fewer after-school and summer programs, and fewer resources for multilingual learners.

Non-defense discretionary funding is already at historic lows. Adjusted for inflation and population growth, 2025 levels are the lowest since 2017 and nearly 10 percent below where they were in 2019 before the pandemic. Meanwhile, funding for the military continues to rise. We are investing in war while disinvesting in education, leaving classrooms underfunded at the very moment families and communities are calling for more investment, not less.

Graphic credit: Center on Budget & Policy Priorities

Adjusted for inflation and population growth, 2025 levels are even lower than in Trump’s first term. The administration’s FY 2026 budget would push funding down further, cutting billions from K–12 classrooms, student aid, and English language learner programs. Congress must act to protect education funding.

Even more troubling, we are deeply concerned that regardless of what Congress decides, the Administration will again illegally block or delay funds - a process known as impoundment. Earlier this year, the Department of Education experienced unprecedented delays in releasing billions in promised funding, creating havoc for schools across the country. The federal courts have already ruled such impoundments illegal, and we alongside NABE and other organizations raised the alarm to ensure school districts across the country received funds promised to them by our government.

This is why the bipartisan Senate Labor-HHS bill is critical: it rejects the administration’s harmful cuts and maintains education funding, while Congress must also ensure that appropriated funds are actually spent as intended.

Our Call to Action

Our organization stands firmly with parents, educators, and students in calling on Congress to reject the administration’s harmful FY 2026 budget proposal. Instead, we urge lawmakers to support the bipartisan Senate Labor-HHS bill, which protects education funding and ensures no cuts in our classrooms.

We amplify and support the work of the National Parents Union, NABE, and advocacy organizations nationwide that are uplifting parent and educator voices in education policy decisions. Parents must be at the center of shaping solutions, not sidelined by harmful budget cuts. Every one of us is an advocate, and now is the time to make our voices heard - call until the phones ring off the hook.

Education powers opportunity, equity, and the American Dream. We cannot allow reckless cuts to dismantle public education, limit opportunities for students, or silence the voices of families who depend on strong schools.

We call on our community to act:

• Contact your representatives and demand that they stand with families by protecting education funding. Use this quick contact form from NPU.

• Ask that they support the bipartisan Senate Labor-HHS bill.

• Call, call, call - until their inboxes are as full as funding for education should be.

We refuse to believe that our children deserve less investment than we received as students growing up, and call on Congress to do their jobs - by listening to the people who elected them.

-Tricia McGhee, Senior Director of Communications RevED & LEC

Read more on the budget process and updates here from the CBPP.