As we have previously reported, the budget proposals of the President and some in Congress that would slash education funding, along with many other parts of the budget, will be impossible to pass under the current rules of the Senate. This gives rise to the now-frequently used practice of passing stopgap government funding called “continuing resolutions,” or “CRs.” In an environment of budget cutting and constant threats to school funding, we like continuing resolutions because they are largely predicated on whatever funding levels we received in the prior year. When Congressional leaders talk about a “clean CR,” they are generally referencing an intent to continuing program funding at last year’s levels. Of course, most of these “clean” proposals do have other sneaky provisions that the party in charge tries to include, and this current effort is no different. Fortunately, none of the extra language in the Republican proposals for a continuing resolution impacts schools. So if there is no shutdown, the money will go out the door as usual.
However, if a CR is not passed by October 1, we also wanted to shed some light on the potential impacts of a shutdown on education funding, which should be fairly minimal if the administration follows the law and agreements they made this Summer on FY 2025 spending for education. That is a big “if.” A shut-down would give the Trump administration the potential opportunity to hold those dollars with the excuse that the US Department of Education has nobody working to send it out. If they want to play hardball with Democrats, that could be something they try. I am hoping they just follow the law and the agreements they made over FY 2025. In any case, a shutdown would have almost no impact on FY 2026 education funding since those dollars are not distributed until next Summer, the beginning of California’s fiscal year.
Kevin
Kevin R. Gordon
President | Capitol Advisors Group