Trump administration cuts $1 billion in school mental health grants, citing conflict of priorities
Source: Scripps News/AP
Posted 1:44 PM, Apr 30, 2025 and last updated 5:36 PM, Apr 30, 2025
The Trump administration is moving to cancel $1 billion in school mental health grants, saying they reflect the priorities of the previous administration. Grant recipients were notified Tuesday that the funding will not be continued after this year. A gun violence bill signed by Democratic President Joe Biden in 2022 sent $1 billion to the grant programs to help schools hire more psychologists, counselors and other mental health workers.
"The Department [of Education] decided not to continue funding these grants beyond the initial award terms. These grants are intended to improve American students’ mental health by funding additional mental health professionals in schools and on campuses. Instead, under the deeply flawed priorities of the Biden Administration, grant recipients used the funding to implement race-based actions like recruiting quotas in ways that have nothing to do with mental health and could hurt the very students the grants are supposed to help," said Madi Biedermann, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications with the department.
A new notice said an Education Department review of the programs found they violated the purpose of civil rights law, conflicted with the department’s policy of prioritizing merit and fairness, and amounted to an inappropriate use of federal money.
The cuts were made public in a social media post from conservative strategist Christopher Rufo, who claimed the money was used to advance “left-wing racialism and discrimination.” He posted excerpts from several grant documents setting goals to hire certain numbers of nonwhite counselors or pursue other diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
Read more: https://www.scrippsnews.com/us-news/education/trump-administration-cuts-1-billion-in-school-mental-health-grants-citing-conflict-of-priorities
"Price of eggs", "Kitchen table issues", "Working class".
(I bought a dozen eggs at my local supermarket yesterday here in Philly and it was $4.49)
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