Concerns over federal funding freeze for Alabama schools

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WIAT) — The Alabama State Department of Education said it received a letter from the federal government last week notifying the department of a funding freeze.

Alabama State Superintendent of Education Eric Mackey said some $68 million for Alabama’s schools is on the line. While there are concerns, some argue that states should be more responsible with federal dollars.

“We certainly hope that our delegation understands that this money has already been committed to schools,” Mackey said.

That money being withheld and reviewed by the U.S. Department of Education could affect teachers, English language learners and migrant students, Mackey said.

“It is directly tied, most of it, to teacher salaries,” Mackey said. “So we certainly hope that Congress will look at that and say ‘Yeah, we really don’t need to do that. We need to make sure we fund our schools adequately.'”

State Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, said it’s only a pause on the funding and not a cut. As a former Etowah County Board of Education member, he said earmarked funds can be hard to spend.

“Most of our dollars were earmarked,” Butler said. “You literally at times would need to hire a new teacher, but you couldn’t. We’d have money appropriated for textbooks that we didn’t actually need.”

Butler said the pause gives the government time to reassess those needs if necessary.

“Our job — all of us — as elected officials is to be good stewards of what’s entrusted to us, and I think that’s all that Trump is doing is trying to be a good steward of what’s entrusted to him at this moment,” Butler said.

But Mackey said that stewardship could be costly for some school systems if any funds are not released to the state.

“If you’re in a school system that has more EL students or if you have more migrant or one of our couple of systems that does have a large migrant population, then they’re going to be directly affected,” Mackey said.

The state superintendent said he hopes to see a lift on that funding freeze. He also explained Title I funding, which is used to help school districts with low-income students, would be unaffected by the freeze.