Naomi Norman, superintendent of the
Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD), never imagined she'd have to deal with cuts to the county's Head Start program.
"This is the 60th year of Head Start, and in those 60 years, it's had incredible bipartisan support," Norman says. "And it's not a program that I thought would be even considered for reductions in any way, because it … has incredible outcomes."
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Doug CoombeWISD Superintendent Naomi Norman.
But in January, the WISD received word from the federal government that HeadStart funding would be "paused" for two weeks. Local school districts have since received word that budgets for several other federally funded programs will be cut.
President Donald Trump's new policies and budget cuts have hit not only HeadStart but a number of other educational programs in the county, including those related to special education and educational research. In early March, the administration announced that U.S. Department of Education (DOE)
staff and funding had been cut by nearly 50%, with some individual departments cut even further. The Office for Civil Rights and the Institute of Education Sciences experienced the biggest reductions. Trump has vowed to eliminate the Department of Education altogether, but that would take an act of Congress.
Norman notes that the "core function of school is completely managed by the state" and only about 10-15% of school funding comes from the federal government. But that sliver of funding is what allows schools to provide early childhood programs for at-risk children, required accommodations for special education students, and more.
Families, teachers, and administrators across Washtenaw County have been hosting meetings and strategizing about what comes next.
On April 21, the Ypsilanti nonprofit
Student Advocacy Center (SAC) hosted a community conversation on school funding, co-sponsored by two other local organizations, the
Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice and the
Washtenaw Regional Organizing Coalition. The event attracted about 50 community members, including teachers, parents, students, and local politicians. SAC invited those affected by the cuts to speak, including a parent of a disabled student who spoke on the importance of special education, and a student who spoke about how education could be improved in the district.
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Sarah RiggThe April 21 meeting at EMU.
Another speaker was Floki Ivey, a teacher at Ypsilanti Community Schools' (YCS) Achieving College and Career Education program. She noted how hard it was to keep teaching when there has "been a lot of disinvestment in schools" even before the recent wave of cuts. She said that in some online schools, there's a ratio of one teacher to 200 students. That makes it difficult for kids to get any kind of one-on-one attention or assistance, which in turn can lead to kids dropping out before graduation.
On April 30, the Washtenaw Superintendents Association and the Washtenaw Association of School Boards convened an Education Town Hall at Washtenaw Community College. The event featured a panel that included Norman, YCS Superintendent Alena Zachery-Ross, Ann Arbor Public Schools Superintendent Jazz Parks, State Board of Education President Pamela Pugh, State Sen. Jeff Irwin, and State Rep. Jimmie Wilson Jr. About 100 residents, including many teachers, attended.
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Sarah RiggWISD Superintendent and Michigan Sen. Jeff Irwin welcome people to the April 30 meeting.
Norman gave an overview of how the branches of government work together and how federal funds flow to local districts. Zachery-Ross addressed the impact of recent policy changes on immigrant students at YCS. Parks talked about DOE's Feb. 14 "Dear Colleague" letter, which instructed educational institutions to cease diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs or lose federal funding, and the state of Michigan's response.
The town halls and community meetings have been scheduled in part because school administrators have been inundated with calls and emails from parents worried about the impact of the changes.
Zachery-Ross says she normally has the school calendar planned for two years in advance, but that's impossible now with so much in flux. She says the changes are causing chaos for parents and families who might rely on programs like HeadStart for child care while they work or attend college.
"I think the biggest thing is the uncertainty. A school is typically that stable force in a community that parents and community members can depend on. And right now, we're giving a message of uncertainty," Zachery-Ross says. "It's a challenge for parents and it disappoints me. I continue to send letters out so parents are going to know what I know as soon as I know it."
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Doug CoombeYCS Superintendent Alena Zachery-Ross.
Schools across Michigan have been emphasizing a "preschool for all" initiative, and YCS recently opened up a "Great Start" classroom for 3-year-olds. The current cuts could mean moving backward on those efforts.
"We are trying to open up more seats for our students to come to Head Start, and yet we're hearing that it's on the chopping block, on the list of programs being eliminated," Zachery-Ross says.
Despite the challenges, Zachery-Ross says parents can continue to "expect YCS to provide our scholars with a world-class education, no matter what it takes." She urges parents to write to their legislators to emphasize the importance of the programs being cut.
"Our politicians need to understand how much the public values these programs," she says.
Norman says her top concerns include funding loss or restructuring in "ways that are not equitable" and a loss of national focus on education, including data and best practices.
"I'm also concerned about the loss of focus on kids who are most at risk of not being well-served by our systems, and the loss of data access with the high levels of cuts to the Institute of Education Sciences," she says.
Norman says gutting the DOE's civil rights division is also a big problem, as it's the main place where parents, students, or community members can have discrimination complaints investigated.
For example, she notes that WISD and about 200 other Michigan school districts had to update their websites due to a resident complaint that school district websites weren't accessible for people with visual impairments who use screen readers. Norman is concerned that those kinds of issues might get overlooked if DOE's civil rights division is eliminated, even if the DOE itself survives.
"In the end, we did a complete overhaul to make [the WISD website] accessible, and I'm glad we did that. We didn't realize it wasn't accessible," Norman says.
During the town hall, Norman said she and her staff have been doing a lot of "scenario planning" for what will happen if funding cuts aren't reversed or the DOE is eliminated. She has vowed not to end any program immediately as a result of cuts, but to try to at least finish out the school year and find other sources of funding.
"It's like a little tear in our democracy when we're saying we're not going to watch out for everyone in our system," Norman says. "We need to be educated so we can make smart, strong decisions for ourselves and for our community and as a country. My biggest fear is that if we take away attention on making sure we have a high-quality educational system serving all kids, that starts this tear in our country."