FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 2, 2025
CONTACT: Nicole Hill, press@texasaft.org
Texas loses more education funding than any other Republican-led state in latest cuts to fund billionaires
Texas stands to lose $660,898,120 across five critical programs
Austin, Texas – Yesterday, the Trump Administration announced that it will illegally freeze $6.2 billion in federal education funding nationwide across five federal programs that support our public schools. Analysis from the Learning Policy Institute shows that Texas trails only California in the amount our schools stand to lose in this latest round of cuts. The analysis also shows that these cuts make up roughly 16% of all U.S. Department of Education pre-K-12 funding to Texas. The program facing the deepest cuts in Texas is a grant supporting effective instruction – essentially professional development and recruitment/retention efforts for Texas educators – as Texas combats an unprecedented teacher shortage. This is just one more example of the Trump Administration circumventing congressional authority to push its agenda and punish public schools.
Zeph Capo, president of Texas AFT, issued the following statement:
“Just like clockwork, here comes the Trump Administration doubling down on the longstanding plans of this Texas leadership to starve, punish, and dismantle public schools. It wasn’t enough for DOGE to cut the Department of Education staff and programming that protects the rights of our most vulnerable students. It wasn’t enough for Texas special education classrooms to lose over half a million in needed federal funds. And it apparently wasn’t enough for Gov. Greg Abbott to veto a program that feeds the poorest kids in our state over summer break. No, Trump had to take hundreds of millions more from Texas schools already struggling amid rising costs and chronic underfunding.
The real kicker is the targeting of programs focused on boosting student achievement. Texas leaders love to talk about student performance when they’re threatening districts with undemocratic state takeovers and ever-changing goalposts for high-stakes testing. So, where’s their outrage over Trump’s impoundment of vital funding? If they won’t say a word to challenge Trump’s cuts, it’s an admission that they share his goal of undermining and ultimately privatizing public education in this country. Texas students deserve classrooms that are fully funded and talented teachers who are paid what they’re worth. Texas voters deserve leaders who will fight tooth and nail for our schools.”
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The Texas American Federation of Teachers represents 66,000 teachers, paraprofessionals, support personnel, and higher-education employees across the state. Texas AFT is affiliated with the 1.8 million-member AFT and the AFL-CIO.