1. Viewers may have seen the headlines of the Trump administration stopping the funds and then the judge reversing that. Where does the case stand now?
A: States received a March 28 letter from Education Secretary Linda McMahon abruptly announcing that the administration had moved up the due date for spending pandemic relief funds.
16 states sued, saying the agency can’t rescind money that Congress allocated.
The federal judge ruled earlier this month that the states were correct, the Education Department didn’t give enough notice before cancelling funds BUT
the Department of Education could again terminate the funding after giving states advance notice.
2. How much funding is at risk for Nevada schools?
A: $29 million is what remained in unspent Covid funds for schools that the department tried to pull back.
Now, Nevada was one of the states that had gotten an extension in February to use the funds through March 2026, but the letter by McMahon moved the deadline up.
She argued in her March letter that schools had ample time to spend the COVID relief funds, which were initially allocated in 2021.
But school districts argued that some projects got a late start because of procurement and hiring delays, especially at the height of the pandemic, preventing schools from being able to fully spend their funds.
3. What’s the total federal funding that our local schools get, and how much of that could be cut?
A: Clark County School District got almost $3 billion from the federal government in the last 5 years for things like refugee school impact grants, funding English language learners and for low income students, early childhood spending, special education grants, ARPA/ESSER, national school lunch program, and more.
Almost $300 million has been given to UNLV and College of Southern Nevada in the last five years.
University Medical Center of Southern Nevada got $11 million in the last 5 years for Covid testing, HIV testing and treatment, and more.
Like we talked about previously, even if Trump doesn't eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, his administration has been making big cuts, and while they’re always challenged in court, they could eventually get cut and have a huge impact on what districts and universities get.