Johnstown, Pennsylvania — which has been battered by floods and economic decline — is one of the poorest cities in the state, and its schools rely heavily on federal funding to serve its students. Nearly a third of the Greater Johnstown School District’s budget came from federal dollars in 2023, funding everything from safer classrooms to career and technical programs in autobody work, welding and cosmetology.
But the federal funding benefiting Johnstown’s public schools may be in jeopardy if the Trump administration’s plans to eliminate the Department of Education come to pass. Last week, the department laid off nearly half of its staff, signaling that the president is serious about his campaign promise to eliminate the agency.
Nancy Weaver Behe, who teaches cosmetology at Greater Johnstown High School, said the loss of federal support would come as a blow to kids that already must contend with poverty and “a lot of hardships.” The career education the school provides helps them stay motivated, she said.
At a campaign rally last fall not far from Johnstown in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Trump said eliminating the Department of Education would allow him to “move education back to the states.” But education is already largely the domain of states, which set curricula, establish academic standards and determine teacher certification requirements as well as graduation and testing benchmarks for students. States and local governments also provide public schools with a lion’s share of their funding. Just a fraction of public school funds — 13.6% nationwide as of fiscal year 2022 — come from the federal government.
Still, the Department of Education plays a critically important role in the education of underserved students, said Deborah Gordon Klehr, executive director of the Education Law Center in Pennsylvania. The main vehicle for helping struggling students is Title I, a federal program that provides extra funding to schools with high numbers of low-income students. Those schools are typically in communities with lower property values, which limits the revenue they can generate through local property taxes — the primary source of school funding.
Title I “helps so many students that are in dire circumstances and that need extra help in reading and math,” said Weaver Behe, who is the president for the central-western region of the Pennsylvania State Education Association. Title I funds supportive services, like teacher aides, learning specialists and reading and math intervention. Weaver Behe worries that the Education Department now lacks the staff to ensure those programs are funded. And if the worst happens and funding from the department is eliminated, she wondered aloud, “How do we adjust to make up for nearly a third of our budget?”
Trump cannot unilaterally eliminate programs like Title I, as they are enshrined in federal law and require congressional action to be dismantled. But Project 2025 — which opens its education chapter with a call to eliminate the Department of Education — may offer an indication of Trump’s legislative agenda. Project 2025 proposed transforming Title I and federal special education funding into no-strings-attached block grants, allowing states to continue the programs — or redirect education dollars elsewhere.
It’s unlikely the state could make up for any gaps if federal dollars are lost. As of 2022, Pennsylvania ranked 42nd in the country in share of state spending on education. In fact, Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court recently ruled that the state did not meet a constitutional requirement to fund a quality education system, and ordered the state to overhaul it through adequate investment.
“Pennsylvania schools very much depend on the federal government,” said Marc Stier, executive director of the Pennsylvania Policy Center. K-12 schools in the state receive about $1.6 billion in federal education dollars out of a total $36 billion budget. At a little more than 4% of total revenue, that’s “not a lot of money,” Stier said, “but it’s critical money.”
That funding, said Aaron Chapin, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association and a middle school teacher in Stroudsburg, is targeted toward “our most vulnerable students.” While the bulk of federal funding in Johnstown is intended for students from low-income families, other federal funding streams support students learning English or those in special education classrooms.
In Philadelphia, Marsena Toney is an autistic support specialist at John Story Jenks Academy for Arts and Sciences. In her special education classroom, there may be three or four professional aides supporting as many as eight students, who all have different needs and behavioral concerns, Toney said. For example, some aides may offer hands-on assistance with writing activities because a child can’t hold a pencil independently. Others provide speech and occupational therapy and even assist students with using the restroom.
And adequate support for students in need can be costly.
“Teachers already have to [buy supplies] out of pocket to aid in their day-to-day teaching,” Toney said. She purchases science materials, fidget toys to aid with focus, and calming supports for when her students get frustrated or overwhelmed.
If funding for special education classes were reduced and her students expected to learn in a general education classroom, the complex needs Toney must address in a single day “would be very difficult to manage.”
With the prospect of reduced federal funding on the horizon, Chapin said teachers are nervous about a possible future of overcrowded classrooms and students not getting the services they need. “It’s going to affect our kids,” he said, “but it’s going to affect all of our communities.”
