A portion of education funding for Arizona that was frozen earlier this month by the Trump administration will soon be released, though millions of dollars more remains in limbo as children across the state prepare to head back to school.
Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne announced Friday that the U.S. Department of Education would soon release roughly $24 million from the 21st Century Community Learning Center grant program. Those dollars fund after school programs that help students get additional academic help in subjects like reading and math, as well as the Boys & Girls Club of Arizona.
“This is welcome news for these programs that would have been affected by the loss of federal dollars,” Horne said in a statement. “Once we have formal notification from the federal government and allocations to schools are calculated, we will work very hard to pass these funds through to the recipients.”
Democrats in Arizona’s Congressional delegation has criticized the Trump administration for freezing billions of dollars in school grant funding. In total, Arizona was due about $118 million at the beginning of July.
Congressman Greg Stanton said the timing of freezing those dollars couldn’t have been worse — schools across the state were counting on those dollars as part of budgets for the impending school year.
In a statement, Stanton lamented that nearly $100 million remains frozen.
“These are dollars that Congress appropriated on a bipartisan basis, and they must be released immediately,” he said.
The Trump administration has said the previously approved grants are being reviewed to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent in accordance with the president's priorities.
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Last September, the Trump administration announced major cuts to Minority-Serving Institutions, including so-called Hispanic-Serving Institutions. There are 21 of those in Arizona.
