For the past three years the Orange Southwest School District has offered a five-week summer program for elementary students at no cost to families, including meals and transportation.

About 70 out of 400 students were part of the optional program each year and participated in various activities from field trips and cooking classes to reading and robotics, according to Heather Lawler, the assistant superintendent there.

So when administrators heard the federal government had blocked a grant expected to pay for the $200,000 program this summer, it was “an absolute shock,” she said.

The decision came in a March 28 letter dated from U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. It notified state education leaders that the federal department has reversed course on extending the deadline on a Covid-19 pandemic-era grant – the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, or ESSER – that has paid for Orange Southwest’s summer program.

While the money from ESSER, as part of the larger federal education stabilization fund, originally had to be spent by Sept. 30, 2024, the Biden administration had approved an extension to allow schools to use the money through the 2025-2026 school year. (Public schools in Vermont operate on a July 1 through June 30 fiscal calendar; the federal government’s fiscal year ends on September 30.)

McMahon’s letter noted that the federal department had “reconsidered” requests from state leaders to continue the extension after finding it “was not justified” and terminated the program at 5 p.m. on March 28 — three minutes before the statement was sent.

“Extending deadlines for COVID-related grants, which are in fact taxpayer funds, years after the COVID pandemic ended is not consistent with the Department’s priorities and thus not a worthwhile exercise of its discretion,” McMahon wrote in the one-page letter.

The decision arrived a month after the department announced a change to how the remaining ESSER funds would be paid out, which required states to pay for approved uses up front and then submit expenditures to the federal agency for reimbursement.

Established by the CARES Act in March 2020 and implemented to support a range of concerns from pandemic-related learning loss to building safety upgrades, the ESSER grants awarded more than $189 billion to state educational agencies across the country and more than $399 million to Vermont. 

The sudden reversal in federal funding has affected about 32 school districts and one mental health agency in Vermont, according to Jill Briggs Campbell, deputy secretary of the Vermont Agency of Education.

Vermont school districts have at least  $10 million pending in that grant funding, she estimated. The department has received about $800,000 worth of invoices but cannot request funds until it goes through the new process outlined in McMahon’s letter which states the federal department will consider extensions “on an individual project-specific basis.”

“All of these were approved for extension by the previous administration,” Briggs Campbell told the Senate Education Committee Wednesday during a hearing in Montpelier.

And there is no assurance the waivers will be approved, she warned, given the mixed messages coming in.

During a recent trip to Washington, D.C., Briggs Campbell said she asked a federal education official to confirm that the pandemic-era funds would continue to be available for reimbursement for school districts and states.

“And she said unequivocally, ‘Yes, I can confirm that,’” Briggs Campbell said.

The McMahon decision arrived just two days later.

“So basically, all bets are off,” Briggs Campbell told the committee.

Among affected programs is the Agency of Education’s Read Vermont initiative that aims to improve literacy statewide. “So all of that work has come to a halt,” she said.

A combined $1 million from the federal education stabilization program funds the initiative. While some of the allocated money has already been spent, there are several hundred thousand dollars left that the agency plans to submit a waiver for, she noted in an email.

“We have heard very clearly from educators and district leaders that this state level support for effective literacy instruction is important to their efforts to improve literacy outcomes for students,” she wrote in an email, adding that one of the consultants even offered a pro bono training Wednesday to more than 75 educators, in light of the federal stoppage.

Across the state, districts are reeling from the potential ramifications of the federal directive regarding money some have already spent.

The Harwood Unified Union School District, for instance, is waiting for approval of the $502,000 remaining from its original district ESSER allotment. It was used toward learning support and the summer academy program for students facing learning loss as a result of the pandemic, according to Superintendent Michael Leichliter.

The funds have already been spent and if a waiver is not approved the district will face a deficit in its budget.

“During a time of tremendous financial stress on our education system in Vermont, if the originally promised federal funds are not released, it will lead to increased pressure on our schools,” Leichliter wrote in an email.

At the Orange Southwest School District, Lawler sent out memos to staff and families on March 31 to notify them the school district “will not be able to offer summer programming as we have in the past three years” due to the abrupt ending of the grant program.

Janni Jacobs, a teacher in the district for more than 40 years, said summer school is an incredibly valuable offering, particularly for students who come from low-income households that can’t afford private tutoring, sports or summer camps. It is also a great way to get kids outdoors and exploring in the summer months while their families may be busy, she said.

“Many of the kids that go there have no other options. So instead of going to summer school, they’re going to be at home, and, I hate to say it, probably on their devices,” said Jacobs, who is an English Language Arts teacher at the Braintree Elementary School and has taught the summer program in previous years.

Having seen first-hand how the program benefits students during the summer break, Jacobs said that of the many changes to the federal government under the Trump administration, this one has hit her the hardest.

“If they’re trying to make America great again and everybody says that the kids are our future, why do you take away programs that directly benefit the kids?” she said.

There are many ways to cut waste in government, she added, “but not by starting at the bottom with the kids, you know. Start at the top.”