Pierce County schools stand to lose big money under Trump’s proposed budget
School districts in Pierce County could lose millions of federal dollars in President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for the U.S. Department of Education.
The document released late last month takes steps towards establishing education solely as the responsibility of the states, moving towards a promise that Trump made on the campaign trail to eliminate the Department of Education. His efforts to do so have been temporarily stymied after a judge blocked an executive order he signed to dismantle the department in March.
In the meantime, the budget request he outlined late last month seeks to cut its overall funding by 15%, NPR reported. Washington state budget officials are sounding the alarm about the impact the cuts would have on local school districts, forecasting that the reductions, if implemented, would result in a loss of just under $7 million of federal funding for Pierce County school districts per school year.
Washington State Superintendent Chris Reykdal criticized the move, saying it was part of an “extremist ideology” that indicated Trump’s intention to “harm public education.”
“Cuts of this magnitude and with this focus on students who rely on additional support from the hard-working and passionate educators who serve them, is yet one more signal that this administration’s focus has little to do with the reality of student needs,” Reykdal said in a statement.
In Pierce County, Reykdal’s office forecasts that certain districts could lose as little as $8 per student, while others could lose up to $171 per student. The Carbonado School District tops that list, with a possible loss of $171 per student for a total of $30,189 lost per year starting in the 2026-2027 academic year. Tacoma Public Schools, which is already contending with a $30 million budget deficit and has started to cut staff positions to address the deficit, stands to lose the highest amount of total federal dollars in the county: $2,660,907, or $97 per student.
These proposed cuts would be in addition to the cuts to three grants that Tacoma Public Schools has been notified of this year, which funded mental health services for students in the district, outdoor education and schoolyard upgrades.
Reykdal said the cuts would disproportionately impact smaller school districts in rural parts of the state, like the Benge School District in Eastern Washington which could lose $1,787 per student per school year. Though the total loss per year for that district would only be $19,660, Reykdal said, school districts in rural communities are often more reliant on federal funding, and the loss would be a higher percentage of their total budget.
“Let me be clear — I am supportive of changes to federal programs in the name of government efficiency if there is a better, sustainable, and data-driven program to replace them,” Reykdal said in a statement. “By targeting and eliminating programs that directly support students, without establishing a ‘back-up plan,’ the Trump administration is being intentionally reckless in order to tear apart our public education system, while simultaneously harming our most vulnerable students and families.”