The Price That Is Paid When Federal Funding Is Cut

Although teachers, class opportunities, and curriculums help students succeed, school budget and funding is the cornerstone. Without adequate funding students encounter: fewer opportunities, less experienced teachers, as well as a lack of resources to fuel curriculums.

Last summer, Trump froze over $5 billion used for public education. In the FY2026 report, Trump proposed cutting around $12 billion dollars used for public education across the country during the 2026/2027 school year. Even though the federal government only supports around 8% of the funding needed for public schools, districts are expected to face intense consequences. Denver Public Schools, specifically, is projected to lose around $13 million from federal funding; equivalent to 315 first-year teachers, 45,000 school-provided chromebooks, and 6,700 extracurricular activities (Education Law Center). 

In order to keep schools on track, the funding must be upkept contemporarily. Without federal funding, opportunity gaps will continue to increase. Unfortunately, federal support is rapidly declining forcing districts to rely on state funding and local taxing. When communities face challenging economies they are unable to fund schools the same way that communities with more money do. When schools do not receive adequate funding, they spend more; ultimately leading to lower-income families paying more for their child than high-income families since wealthier schools provide more opportunities for students. 

As schools are unable to hire new teachers, or ones with experience, classes are projected to become much larger. However, according to the Center of Public Education, classes with 18 students or less often perform better. The recent budget cuts can result in the student:teacher ratio, in many schools, shifting from 1:18 to 1:40. Larger class sizes lead to less students academically succeeding. Class sizes are going to rise, which doesn’t just influence students but also teachers. Teachers are now going to have to be in charge of double the amount of students, which not only increases the workload without an increase in salary, but also hinders teacher’s ability to give individualized attention to students.

The sudden lack of funding to public schools causes many schools to rely on out-dated textbooks, chromebooks, and lessons. This lowers classroom engagement and motivation, eventually resulting in less people graduating and students having lower overall academic success. Test scores are already steadily declining even with sufficient funding. To further the issue, cutting a school's budget by even 10% has the same effect on test scores as replacing current teachers with ones from the bottom 10% of applicants (Walden University). 

Spending cuts limit the amount of new teachers schools can hire, which further exacerbates teacher shortages. If schools do not have a large enough budget to sufficiently pay teachers, good teachers are going to leave to find better job opportunities, opening the door for less qualified teachers (PBS).

Federal spending cuts are not the only threat to Denver Public Schools, but also the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR). TABOR consistently restricts collecting revenue. For example the state will have to cut around $1 billion dollars in spending according to Colorado Education Association, the largest teacher union in the state. Colorado schools are already underfunded in comparison to other states. Colorado spends around $16,000 per student annually, while New York spends $33,000 per student, and even Wyoming spends around $20,000 per student per year (World Population Review). Meaning that Colorado underfunds all students combined by nearly $4 billion each year. 1,927 schools, 114,553 educators, and 881,065 students in Colorado are affected by the cuts to public school funding every single day as 95% of Coloradan students attend a public school (Colorado Education Association). 

The effects are not yet to their full extent. It is expected that with spending cuts, special education programs are going to collapse, Title IX (in school sexual harassment and assault cases) will go unanswered, mental health resources will dramatically decrease, and early childhood education will become increasingly more expensive. 

Schools are already incredibly underfunded, an increase in funding cuts will only put schools, teachers, and students at deeper risk. As essential programs are taken away, classrooms are left without necessary resources, and the quality of education will inevitably decline. Over time, these cuts widen existing inequities and destroy needed support systems that help all students succeed.