Local leaders stress low impact to school budgets under Trump’s education plan

Cambria County, PA — Local school district leaders say they are at the mercy of the law, when it comes to whether the department of education is changed or eliminated.

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This after President-Elect Donald Trump says he wants to overhaul the department of education, which would give power back to individual states for funding and departmental decisions.

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Richland school district superintendent, Arnold Nadonley, tells me this might not be as big of a change to school districts as people may think.

“I think there’s a lot of misconception out there that the federal government provides the majority of a school district’s budget, and that’s not true. Traditionally, across the United States, it’s less than 3%.” Nadonley says.

According to Nadonley, Richland school district receives over $400,000 dollars from the federal government, which represents 1.4% of the school’s total yearly budget of $28,530,000.

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Nadonley and other leaders tell me bigger issues with educational funding are specific projects not directly receiving federal funds, including title IX and lunch programs.

“Most people are familiar with Title I, Title I schools. Students have students with a significant number of economically disadvantaged students. That money that is given to schools by the federal government goes through the State Department of Education as a pass-through. So it’s really the bulk of the work is occurring at the state level.” says Jason Moore, with Central Cambria School District.

Moore tells me higher education is more likely to be affected than basic education, because of student loans and grants in the spotlight.

“It doesn’t really change that our teachers or our principals are going to give the best they can for our students every day.” says Moore.