SHELBYVILLE, Ky. — When the funding for Shannon Johnson’s job as a school mental health counselor came to an abrupt end, two years into a five-year grant, she thought about the work left to be done.
Johnson taught elementary and middle-school students in rural Kentucky how to navigate conflict, build resilience and manage stress and anxiety before a crisis happens. Few districts, especially rural ones, can dedicate a full-time role to early intervention amid a national shortage of mental health staff.
But the Trump administration discontinued her grant, giving her a sudden end date. So when another job opened in Shelby County Public Schools — this one not reliant on federal grants — she took it.
The district 30 miles east of Louisville does not plan to fill her former position. Without the federal money, it cannot.
Federal dollars make up roughly 10% of education spending nationally, but the percentage is significantly higher in rural districts, which cannot raise as much money on property taxes.
When the funding is reduced, many districts have no way to make up the lost money.
Since President Donald Trump’s administration began its sweeping examination of federal grants to schools and universities, millions of dollars for programs supporting mental health, academic enrichment and teacher development have been withheld or discontinued. The Republican administration says the grants do not focus on academics and they prop up diversity or inclusion efforts that run counter to White House priorities.
Some grant cancellations have been temporarily paused during legal challenges. But for schools whose states are not fighting Washington’s decisions, there is little relief to be found.
That is the case in Kentucky. Nine rural school districts that received grants to hire counselors will have to decide whether they can afford to keep them. Already, more than half of those counselors have left for other jobs.
To keep jobs supported by lost grants, schools must make other cuts
Federal money supports school programs for the most disadvantaged students, such as those with disabilities, kids learning the English language and children living in poverty. Some is appropriated by Congress for bipartisan priorities such as reducing barriers to education and improving youth mental health.
In Shelby County, where federal spending makes up approximately 18% of schools’ budgets, it also helps pay for teacher development opportunities — a key to staff retention — plus expanded after-school offerings that include tutoring, clubs and transportation.
The programs are not political, Superintendent Joshua Matthews said, and the funding loss only hurts students.
“I don’t know about everywhere in the country,” Matthews said. “But I can tell you in Shelby County, our teachers show up every day to make for sure that our kids are well taken care of, and we’re not promoting anything one way or the other.”
Even current levels of funding sometimes do not feel like enough, Matthews said. The district could try to use state or local money to help sustain the programs, but at the cost of paying for field trips or keeping class sizes small, he said.
Read the rest at Spectrum News.
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