Democratic Senators Criticize ED for Front-Loading Grants

Two Democratic senators are urging Education Secretary Linda McMahon to reverse her department’s practice of “front-loading” grants. They argue that she has effectively withheld about $630 million in appropriations from new recipients across roughly 35 grant programs—preventing those funds from benefiting more students and institutions. 

Front-loading grants means doling out all the money for an existing multiyear grant at once rather than spreading the funds among a larger number of programs by giving them one year’s worth of funding at a time. 

In a letter sent Tuesday, Patty Murray of Washington and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin say that if the Trump administration had continued to administer the programs on a year-by-year funding basis, the Education Department could have awarded “well over 1,000 additional grants this year” that would have benefited projects ranging from student mental health to supporting additional education research and helping first-generation students succeed in college. Murray and Baldwin serve as vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and ranking member of the education appropriations subcommittee, respectively.  

Instead, the Trump administration awarded $71.4 million to 40 grantees in the Child Care Access Means Parents in School program—which supports childcare for low-income student parents. Initially, the Education Department had projected it would award 148 grants in the program.

Limiting the reach of aid, the senators said in the letter, is “indefensible” and “blatantly disregards congressional directives.

“This administration has chosen—brazenly and repeatedly—to prioritize its own backwards agenda over the needs of students, families, and communities across the United States,” they added.

The senators also noted President Trump and the Office of Management and Budget are seeking broader authority to cancel grants. Baldwin and Murray worry that Trump could front-load these grants and then terminate them and claw back the funding.

The senators called on McMahon to “abandon this approach” and administer funds “in full alignment” with the law.

“Congress expects no less, and the public deserves no less,” they wrote.