El Paso County school districts, already facing significant funding challenges, now are dealing with uncertainty over millions of dollars in federal grant funding they had been expecting this month.
The Trump administration said the grants nationwide are being paused for review because “many of these grant programs have been grossly misused to subsidize a radical leftwing agenda.”
“This political tactic further hinders our ability to effectively plan programming and services for our students. It places our most vulnerable students at risk of losing opportunities for growth, enrichment and success,” said Canutillo Independent School District Superintendent Pedro Galaviz, whose district is facing a potential $2.1 million shortfall just weeks after adopting a $65.8 million budget.
The five largest school districts in El Paso County – El Paso, Socorro, Ysleta, Clint and Canutillo – were expecting more than $19 million combined from the five grants put on hold by the U.S. Department of Education, officials from those districts told El Paso Matters.
According to an advisory sent by the Texas Education Agency on July 3 to the state’s school districts, the affected grants are Title I, Part C – Migrant Education; Title II, Part A – Supporting Effective Instruction; Title III, Part A – English Language Acquisition; Title IV, Part A – Student Support and Academic Enrichment; and Title IV, Part B – Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers.
“Currently, there is no timeline from the USDE regarding if or when these funds might be released to TEA. While TEA expected these grant awards on July 1, 2025, USDE has until the end of the performance period (Sept. 30, 2026) to obligate the funds by releasing them to states,” the TEA advisory said.
Nationwide, about $6.2 billion in funds have been placed on hold, according to USA Today. The funding was approved by Congress earlier this year.
In a statement to El Paso Matters, the Office of Management and Budget said no determinations have yet been made regarding the future availability of the funding.
“Initial findings show that many of these grant programs have been grossly misused to subsidize a radical leftwing agenda. In one case, (New York) public schools used English Language Acquisition funds to promote illegal immigrant advocacy organizations. In another, Washington state used funds to direct illegal immigrants towards scholarships intended for American students. In yet another, School Improvement funds were used to conduct a seminar on ‘queer resistance in the arts.’ As stated before, this is an ongoing programmatic review and no decisions have been made yet,” the statement said.
OMB didn’t provide specifics to support the claims of possible misuse of federal funds.
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, said withholding the grant funding is the latest blow to working-class families by the Trump administration.
“The Trump administration continues with its attacks on hard-working families in America, and this time their focus is education. By withholding Title 3 grant funding (for English-language learners), El Paso school districts stand to lose a financial lifeline that helps students and funds personnel. A reminder that Republicans and Donald Trump won their elections with a promise to help make lives better, a promise they continue to turn their backs on,” she said in a statement to El Paso Matters.
The TEA advised districts to plan their budgets as if the federal funds won’t be available for an extended period.
“School systems should review grant budgets for potential contracts, staffing, and procurements, and plan program services accordingly for these funds to not be available for an undetermined length of time. School systems may consider allowable uses and flexibilities of other grants and fund sources to assist with expenditures that were previously planned for the programs listed above,” the advisory said.
El Paso ISD, the county’s largest school system with more than 48,000 students, was expecting to receive more than $6.1 million for its $547 million budget from the affected grant programs.
“El Paso ISD is thoroughly reviewing all potential changes and will carefully evaluate every available option to ensure the best outcomes for our students and community,” district spokesperson Liza Rodriguez said.
Ysleta ISD was expecting to receive $4.8 million as part of a $420.2 million budget adopted recently by the school board, officials said. The district didn’t immediately comment on potential impacts of the funding uncertainty on its 34,000 students, but the budget for the 2025-26 school year approved by the school board already includes using up all but $11 million of the district’s $33 million in expected reserves at the end of this year.
Socorro ISD, which has 46,600 students and recently adopted a $452.2 million budget for next school year, expected to receive about $4.2 million from the now-frozen federal grant programs.
“The impact of the potential, sudden cuts in federal funding could have a substantial effect on district programming, specifically services for our most vulnerable students,” Socorro spokesperson Daniel Escobar said. “That said, it is still too early for us to know the full impact of the reductions which were announced after the district approved its budget for the 2025-2026 school year. While we gather more information and await the final determination, the district is working on contingencies to sustain federally funded programs through the start of the new school year.”
Clint ISD, the county’s fourth-largest school district with just over 10,000 students, was scheduled to receive about $2.2 million from the grants frozen by the Department of Education, spokesperson Deborah Luevanos said. Clint ISD hasn’t adopted a budget for 2025-26, but its 2024-25 budget was about $119 million.
“It is our understanding that while a president may temporarily withhold federal funds, absent an act of Congress, those funds cannot be permanently withheld. At this time, we are actively reviewing alternative funding sources and will limit expenditures as much as possible. Our district is also awaiting further guidance from the Texas Education Agency and will continue to monitor the situation closely,” Luevanos said in a statement.
In Canutillo ISD, which has 5,700 students, the suspended federal funding supports 30 full- and part-time jobs, most of them serving students, spokesperson Gustavo Reveles said. The district is carrying over enough of the grants from the prior year to sustain the impacted programs and positions through the end of August, he said.
“District leadership has already begun developing contingency plans in case funding is denied or significantly delayed. While no decisions have been made at this time, Canutillo ISD is actively engaging with state officials and other leaders to determine appropriate next steps and to explore viable alternatives should the district be forced to scale back or eliminate services due to the federal government’s inaction,” Reveles said.
El Paso’s school districts have generally run deficits for several years, eating into reserve funds, because of declining enrollment and stagnant state funding despite years of steep inflation.
The districts have adopted 2025-26 budgets in recent weeks that included the federal grant funding that’s now delayed. The suspended grants account for about 1% of the school budgets.
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