Here’s how Trump’s education cuts are starting to affect Santa Cruz County schools

President Donald Trump’s cuts to education, including mass layoffs and calls to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, are beginning to have direct impacts in some Santa Cruz County schools.

Officials say they know of at least one federal program that is ending and will reduce funding by $200,000 for five local school districts, while two superintendents said they’re concerned about every single federal dollar being pulled back in the future. 

“Mainly what I feel is the chaos,” said Pacific Elementary School District Superintendent Eric Gross. 

A number of the Trump administration’s memos, threats and orders might not ultimately have an effect on local schools due to lawsuits, the need for congressional action and state jurisdiction over some of the moves by the White House. But Gross said the speed and frequency of the federal policy changes has been dizzying for school leaders like him.

“It’s one thing to have a policy change and you don’t like the change, but it’s another thing to have the policy change, not like the change, and not even know if it’s going to be a policy, or if it used to be, but no longer is,” he said. “I also feel defiance … when policies aren’t in the best interest of children, it’s hard to support that, and we need to do the right thing no matter what.”

The one federal program local officials know has been affected by Trump’s actions so far is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Local Food For Schools program. USDA is ending the $660 million initiative, which provides funding to K-12 schools across the country to purchase food from local farms. 

Starting in May, the approximately $213,000 that was allocated across five school districts in Santa Cruz County, including Pacific Elementary, will be ending. 

Gross said his district receives about $5,994 annually from the program, funding it started receiving during the pandemic. He said officials with the single-school district haven’t made plans yet for how they will adjust the budget without that funding, but they will have to cut back somewhere.

“When you don’t know what’s going on, or you just learned what’s happening, then you have to kind of scramble to make a plan,” he said, adding that the options for the district are likely “either buy less food from local farmers, or buy less expensive food.”

County Superintendent of Schools Faris Sabbah said the end of the federal program won’t cause school districts to struggle to meet the nutritional needs of students. But as Gross said, it will ultimately lead them to make reductions elsewhere. In addition to Pacific Elementary, Pajaro Valley Unified School District, San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District, Santa Cruz City Schools and Live Oak School District are part of the USDA program and will lose that funding starting in May, according to the Santa Cruz County Office of Education. 

The COE estimates that about 12% of K-12 public schools budgets in Santa Cruz County come from the federal government. The remainder comes mostly from local and state sources. For the 2024-25 school year, local schools received about $92 million from the U.S. Department of Education. The dollars go to different areas, including nearly $14 million for special education services, more than $15 million to child nutrition programs and about $9.2 million to students who qualify for free or reduced-cost lunch. 

Sabbah said he’s heard rising concerns from community members about Trump’s goal of dismantling the U.S. Department of Education and the impacts of the mass layoffs his administration has carried out. Some of the major concerns include the loss or delay of federal funds for local school districts and how Trump’s changes could affect investigations into civil rights complaints, along with protections and funding for students with disabilities. The layoffs have also seriously affected research and data collection.

“Not having the proper staff could very well impact the distribution of those funds to us,” Sabbah said. “So even if the funding is allocated by Congress, those funds may not actually come to us.” 

Live Oak School District Superintendent Pat Sánchez said his district receives about $873,000 from the federal government, which goes to its general fund, and about $1.3 million in federal dollars for its nutrition program. He’s concerned about potential losses of that money.  

“Anything that’s from the federal government, I think is uncertain. There’s a lot of dollars there that we rely on to supplement our budgets,” he said. “Budgeting in California is already a challenge. And now, for federal dollars to be at risk, we’re all very worried.” 

Sánchez added that he’s also hearing concerns about how Trump’s economic policies could affect district employees’ and teachers’ retirement savings.

“The jobs are stressful enough, and now hopefully we don’t worry about our pensions,” he said. 

Gross said he’s heard concerns from teachers at Pacific Elementary about what they can say or teach in their classrooms. They even worry it could cost them their jobs.

“People who work in education are not rich, so if they suddenly say the wrong thing, get in trouble, then they fear that they could lose their jobs,” he said. “They don’t have a big safety net to fall back on. So there’s a lot of anxiety.”

Gross is responsible for evaluating the job performance of educators and has the authority to terminate employees, not the federal government. Still, he said, the fears are real. 

As for federal funding uncertainties, Gross said about 4%, or around $135,000, of the school’s budget comes from the federal government.

“If we only get 4% of our budget from the feds, and we lose all of it, we will still do good work,” he said. “And if we lose all of it, we’re not beholden to any of their rules. So like, bring it on.” 

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