But now the department she wants to lead has abruptly canceled more than $600 million in grants designed to prepare teachers, especially in high-need schools.

The cancellations include a $3.38 million grant to in Fairfield, Connecticut, where McMahon serves on the Board of Trustees. The funds supported a program focused on recruiting special education teachers and strengthening instruction in STEM subjects. 

The university was among 20 recent recipients of a Teacher Quality Partnership grant, a program that aimed to attract and prepare a more diverse educator workforce. In response to Biden administration priorities, several of the grantees targeted the funds — $70 million in 2024 — toward recruiting and training future educators from underrepresented communities. But now those goals put organizations at odds with the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

“Without warning all funds were swept, thus all employees on the grant were terminated without cause or warning,” Erin Ramirez, an associate professor at California State University Monterey Bay, said in an email.

Ramirez said her university’s $5.7 million grant was “illegally terminated.” The funds were supporting an alternative teacher preparation program that aimed to draw 1,350 residents of the central California region into teaching in their local school districts. The revocation of funds, including $3.76 million in scholarships, will result in larger class sizes, higher teacher turnover and “exacerbates existing workforce shortages and economic instability,” according to a summary Ramirez provided. 

In letters sent to grantees last week, Mark Washington, the department’s deputy assistant secretary for management and planning, said the cancelled grants were “inconsistent with, and no longer effectuates, department priorities” and could “unlawfully discriminate” based on race or other characteristics. 

In a , the department cited some of the activities it found objectionable, such as workshops on “building cultural competence” and an emphasis on social justice activism. Grantees have until March 12 to challenge the department’s decision.

Also among the cancellations were Supporting Effective Educator Development grants, which sought to train more highly effective educators. TNTP, a nonprofit that aimed to prepare almost 750 teachers to work in the Austin, Baltimore and the Clark County school districts, and , which worked to address a teacher shortage in New Orleans schools, were among those affected.  

“Not only does it feel like chaos, it just feels disheartening,” said Libby Bain, executive director of talent at New Schools for New Orleans, one of the organizations working on the grant. The funds supported nearly 300 high school students in nine schools who were earning credit toward an education major in college. Schools might have to cancel summer school, she added, because the grant also paid for the aspiring teachers to work as tutors to gain extra experience.

“They’re going into a field that already feels hard to go into,” Bain said. “Now this thing that they were so excited about at 17 or 18 is being taken away.”

Three-year grants were last and would have ended in September. The department is arguing that under , it has a right to terminate grants early if they are no longer in line with the administration’s goals. But some grantees say they plan to appeal, and Julia Martin, director of policy and government affairs at the Bruman Group, a Washington law firm, added, “We’ll likely see some litigation.”

‘The next generation of teachers’

Both grant programs help lower the cost of becoming a teacher through scholarships and stipends that help defray housing expenses, especially for teacher education students completing their training in higher-priced urban areas. The universities and nonprofits often focus on recruiting teachers for math, special education and other hard-to-fill subject areas. The grants also pay for research staff who evaluate which aspects of preparation programs, like having a mentor, are more likely to keep novice teachers in the field.

“I have a lot of concerns over what’s going to happen to aspiring teachers in areas where we already had local teaching shortages,” said Kathlene Campbell, CEO of the National Center for Teacher Residencies, which had a $6.3 million grant that was cancelled. 

The center was working with 13 organizations, including several historically Black colleges and universities, in four states. Some students might not complete their program if they can’t cover tuition and fees on their own, Campbell said. She was still collecting data on how many staff members have lost their jobs because of the cuts. 

“If we lose the people who are preparing the next generation of teachers, as well as a significant portion of aspiring teachers, we could see a really big problem in a couple of years,” she said.

Such programs seek to respond to multiple challenges in K-12 classrooms. Over 400,000 teaching positions last year were either unfilled or were staffed by someone without the proper credentials, according to the .  

The nation’s public schools also continue to grow more racially diverse. By 2030, Hispanic students are projected to make up a third of enrollment. Between 2012 and 2022, the percentage of white and Black students in the nation’s classrooms fell, while there was an increase in Asian students and those of two or more races. A diverse teacher workforce has been shown to have positive effects on students, including higher math and reading , regardless of students’ race. Black students matched with Black teachers are also more likely to and less likely to be identified for .

The education department’s move to pull funding for the programs came ahead of its Friday “” letter putting districts on notice that any efforts that could be perceived as encouraging DEI would not be tolerated. 

In the letter, Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, discouraged schools “from using race in decisions pertaining to admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life.” And he encouraged those who think any programs or activities violate laws against discrimination to file a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights.

Campbell, with the teacher residency organization, said there’s a misunderstanding over how the programs view diversity.

“Individuals who come from a different socioeconomic status are now able to become teachers when they didn’t think they could afford to do so,” she said.

And Stephanie Cross, an assistant professor who was preparing teachers to work in Atlanta Public Schools, said her program didn’t discriminate against anyone who wanted to be in the program based on race.

The department’s DEI purge — in keeping with President Donald Trump’s inauguration day — explains why officials turned against the grant programs, but some observers also question whether they offered taxpayers a good return on their investment. Chad Aldeman, who conducts research on teacher workforce issues, said the Teacher Quality Partnership and the Supporting Effective Educator Development programs “aren’t exactly screaming cost-effectiveness.” One Teacher Quality Partnership grant for aimed to prepare 60 teachers and administrators in South Carolina. 

“With this kind of money, the more effective route would probably be paying people directly,” he said. “My preference would be paying in-service teachers who demonstrate strong results and are serving in hard-to-staff roles, rather than focusing on the supply side.”

But Bain, in New Orleans, said higher pay alone might get people into teaching, but won’t necessarily keep them there.

The cancellation of the grants also seems to contradict other signals from the new administration and Trump’s supporters in Congress. Trump nominated former Tennessee education chief Penny Schwinn, who has championed “grow-your-own” teacher preparation initiatives, to serve as deputy education secretary.

Tennessee was the first state to implement a teacher apprenticeship program registered with the Department of Labor. Forty-four states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have . At the time, the effort would “remove barriers to becoming an educator for people from all backgrounds.”

And during McMahon’s hearing last week, Sen Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican, focused on getting more teachers in the classroom. 

“We need teachers,” he said. “We need people in the classroom teaching these kids. Hold them accountable and put more money in the teachers and less money in administrators. I think we’d be a heck of a lot better off.”

Disclosure: Chad Aldeman, who writes about school finance and teacher compensation, is a regular contributor to ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ.

The $10.5 million the state provided to help people pay for job training and industry certifications ran out approximately six months ahead of schedule.

Legislators added an additional $7.5 million worth of grants to the last week during a budget hearing. The initial $10.5 million for the program was supposed to last through June but ran out in December, .

Named for former Gov. Mike Foster, the grants provide financial support for students looking to earn credentials in high-demand, skilled industries such as construction, health care and information technology.

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The money can be put toward programs at Louisiana’s community and technical colleges and the state Board of Regents has approved. Students can generally receive $3,200 per academic year or $1,600 per semester if they are enrolled full time. The award maxes out at $6,400 in total over three years.

People who qualify must come from households earning less than 300% of the federal poverty level, which is $43,740 for a single person or $90,000 for a family of four. They also cannot have previously earned an undergraduate degree, and the students must also be at least 20 years old to qualify for the current academic year.

The types of job training the grant covers include nursing degrees, masonry, roofing, plumbing, cloud computing and .

The extra $7.5 million being used to fund the programs is unspent money from 2023, the first year the grants were awarded. Not as many people took advantage of the program that year because it was new and not well known at the time, officials said.

Monty Sullivan, head of Louisiana’s Community and Technical College System, said he believed the surge in interest in the program is related to economic factors, such as the rising cost of groceries. People are seeking ways to make more money, he said.

“The program is working. That’s the bottom line,” he said.

The Louisiana Board of Regents has asked that state lawmakers double the funding available for M.J. Foster grants to $21 million for the next academic year.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.

OKLAHOMA CITY — A Multi-County Grand Jury investigation determined Gov. Kevin Stitt’s administration and state Superintendent Ryan Walters carried out “grossly negligent handling” of federal pandemic aid funds, but grand jurors found insufficient evidence for criminal indictments.

At the request of Attorney General Gentner Drummond, the grand jury reviewed evidence and heard witness testimony over the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund. The GEER Fund was a $39.9 million aid package from the federal government that Stitt could apply to education-focused programs of his choosing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The grand jury Tuesday, finding the Stitt administration had an “irresponsible, disappointing and indefensible” lack of internal controls over some GEER programs, including one Walters designed.

However, the grand jury said the evidence was insufficient to prove any willful corruption or criminal act.

Spokespeople for Stitt and Walters blamed the failures on a vendor hired to help administer one of the GEER programs, though the grand jury found the state was at fault.

The Governor’s Office also accused the attorney general of weaponizing the grand jury.

“Ultimately, this was an inappropriate and unlawful use of a grand jury, all to pursue a headline in the attorney general’s campaign for governor,” said Abegail Cave, communications director for Stitt.

The report reflects many of the complaints raised in state and federal audits of the GEER Fund. The federal government already in questioned costs.

The Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector’s Office that the state’s poor oversight of GEER initiatives led to the misspending of $1.7 million. State auditors questioned another $6.5 million spent on private school tuition assistance.

Grand jurors said the misspending could have been avoided had the Stitt administration chosen the Oklahoma State Department of Education to administer all of the GEER programs.

Instead, the Governor’s Office relied on two unvetted and unqualified private citizens, including Walters, rather than a state agency with extensive experience in federal grant management, according to the report.

“The evidence shows state officials, though perhaps well-intentioned, disregarded available administrative safeguards in favor of advancing a political and philosophical agenda,” the grand jury stated.

The grand jury recommended the state implement mandatory grant management training for all state agencies with federal funding of at least $10 million and require those agencies to establish written policies for grant management.

It also encouraged the Oklahoma Legislature to enact new laws limiting the delegation of authority over federal funds to private individuals.

State leaders must use available resources and experience “regardless of political and philosophical differences,” grand jurors said.

The Education Department, which state Superintendent Joy Hofmeister led at the time, received $8 million from the GEER Fund and spent all of it appropriately, auditors and grand jurors found.

But prior policy differences between Stitt and the Education Department led the Governor’s Office to rely instead on two school choice non-profit leaders to run key GEER programs funded with millions of federal dollars.

The Governor’s Office did so despite the governor’s then-secretary of state and education, Michael Rogers, advising Stitt to have the Education Department handle all of the GEER programs, according to the grand jury report.

The two chosen school choice advocates were Walters, who at the time was the director of Every Kid Counts Oklahoma (EKCO), and Jennifer Carter, of the American Federation for Children-Oklahoma.

“Evidence was presented that this selection was attributable, in part, to representations made by the EKCO Director (Walters) that EKCO had the staffing and expertise necessary to administer a federal grant program,” the report states. “However, at that time, the EKCO Director was the sole employee of EKCO and had no federal grant experience. Basic due diligence by the State would have uncovered this glaring lack of qualifications.”

The Governor’s Office wanted to use GEER funds to launch a pilot program for private school vouchers, an idea that became the Stay in School Fund, according to the report. Grand jurors found the Stitt administration made an unfounded assumption that the Education Department wouldn’t agree to manage private-school-focused programs.

The administration tapped Carter to run the Stay in School program, which was meant to give $10 million in private school tuition assistance to families experiencing financial hardship because of the pandemic.

However, state auditors found individuals from five private schools received preferential treatment when they were allowed to apply early and received funds in excess of students’ tuition obligations.

More than 1,000 students, accounting for over half of the program’s funds, received Stay in School support despite their families attesting they suffered no financial hardship from the pandemic, according to the state audit. Meanwhile, more than 650 qualifying students from low-income families were rejected because funds ran out.

Evidence presented to the grand jury showed Carter had a spreadsheet with applicants’ personally identifiable information, which the panel said it found concerning.

Even “more disturbing,” grand jurors said, was that the spreadsheet contained information that families didn’t put on their applications, like their political party registration and voting district.

“This indicates that, unbeknownst to families, their information was being collected and processed for purposes other than that for which it was disclosed,” the report states.

Carter did not immediately return a request for comment.

Walters developed and led an $8 million program, called Bridge the Gap Digital Wallet, that offered $1,500 grants for families to spend on education-related costs while their children learned from home, according to the report.

The grand jury, along with federal and state auditors, determined the Bridge the Gap program was rife with misspending because Walters chose not to apply available guardrails on purchases and did not ensure anyone checked the items families bought.

As a result, grant recipients spent $1.7 million on gaming consoles, Christmas trees, doorbell cameras and other non-educational expenses.

Walters has since tried to distance himself from the program and blamed a company managing the program’s online platform for not stopping the improper purchases.

“Superintendent Walters has prioritized carefully and efficiently using taxpayer funds,” Walters’ spokesperson, Dan Isett, said. “Unfortunately in this case, the vendor involved did not adhere to the same standards.”

The grand jury disagreed that any vendors were responsible. The report instead attributed “ill-advised” decisions to Walters and Carter but found the state bears the ultimate responsibility for misuse of funds.

“This mismanagement prevented the most vulnerable Oklahomans from getting help they desperately needed during a global pandemic,” the grand jury stated. “Citizens deserve more from their government.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com. Follow Oklahoma Voice on and .

A state audit shows at least eight Maryland school systems didn’t use $12.3 million designated for students in underserved communities.

According to the from the Office of the Inspector General for Education, officials with the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) didn’t provide training and guidance for local school officials to utilize what are known as concentration of poverty grants.

Those grants are to aid students inside buildings designated as community schools, which receive services such as before- or after-school tutoring, access to mental health professionals and educational field trips. Community schools, which are around the state, are part of the education reform plan.

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Two pieces of legislation focused on community schools are part of this year’s set of priorities. The bills are proposed to help expand the number of community schools in school systems with fewer than 40.

“Several [school districts] shared frustrations about the lack of clarification or guidance by MSDE staff about whether certain items, positions, or services could/could not be procured using [concentration of poverty] funding,” Inspector General Richard P. Henry wrote in last week’s audit. “Specifically, [the districts] advised that MSDE staff would primarily provide only verbal guidance regarding how to spend CoP funds on wraparound services, and little to no written approval or guidance was provided.”

The audit, which reviewed records from July 1, 2019, through Jan. 31, 2023, noted about $1 million was returned to the state. The “selected” school systems, also referred to as local education agencies, or LEAs, that were investigated were Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Dorchester, Montgomery, Somerset, Washington and Wicomico counties.

According to the audit, money from the concentration of poverty grants is disbursed in two portions:

• Personnel grants: A fixed amount to hire a community school coordinator and a health care practitioner.
• Per-pupil grants: Money used to provide various wraparound services that can include additional school counselors, English language leaner classes and professional development for teachers and other staff.

However, the audit shows personnel grants allocated between fiscal years 2020 to 2022 were only used in Dorchester and Wicomico counties.

Some local school officials used the concentration of poverty grant funding to pay consultants to train staff on how to use the money. One example in the audit noted a school system entered into a five-year, $4.1 million contract to receive “continued technical support in implementing a community school strategy.”

Senior staff with the MSDE weren’t aware of this going on, the audit said, but “LEAs appropriately reported these training costs to MSDE, but MSDE did not have any follow-up questions regarding these expenses. This absence of follow-up appears to be attributable to MSDE’s lack of adequate controls regarding LEAs’ submitted reports and expenditures.”

A recommendation from the audit to the department: develop a strategy for communicating policies and procedures to all school staff. In addition, the department should establish a team of subject matter experts, legal counsel and other stakeholders in the process such as representatives from the Blueprint Accountability and Implementation Board. The board, known as the AIB, oversees the education reform plan through 2032.

Responses

Interim Superintendent of Schools Carey Wright, who began working as the state’s , wrote in a letter dated Feb. 1 that the agency “is committed to continuously improving its processes and internal controls…”

The department submitted several responses to the inspector general, including that a concentration of poverty grant program manager continues to coordinate the development of policies and procedures that began in November. A draft of the procedures will be shared with the AIB, with full implementation estimated for March 1.

The program manager is coordinating an annual review process of the concentration of poverty grant policies and procedures with stakeholders to be implemented by July 1, the agency said in response to the audit.

One recommendation where the department disagrees with the inspector general was a suggestion to temporarily pause specific finance and program activities. mandates funding for buildings designated as community schools.

The department hired an independent firm in September 2023 to verify grant expenditures incurred from fiscal year 2020 to fiscal year 2023. The contract is set to expire this September.

Henry, the inspector general, wrote in response that the department should “continue to engage the independent firm” beyond September.

The [inspector general’s office] “believes that the State Audit referenced in MSDEs response will not ensure that LEAs are using grant funds in accordance with State law,” Henry wrote.

Shamoyia Gardiner, executive director of Strong Schools Maryland, said it’s not the first time an audit has reported problems with the department.

“It’s not a surprise,” she said after a rainy rally Monday in Annapolis by advocates requesting that lawmakers “fully fund” the Blueprint plan.

Gardiner said the Blueprint board has the authority to approve all implementation plans and assess the spending of funds.

“The fact that didn’t happen is a sign that perhaps we need stronger accountability,” she said.

This article originally appeared in .

A new version of the federal application for student aid will open by Dec. 31, two months later than usual.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA, is how prospective college students access federal financial aid programs, including grants, subsidized loans and unsubsidized loans, which can be forgiven in certain circumstances. Many colleges and private scholarship programs also use a student’s FAFSA to determine that student’s financial need.

It will look different from previous years. The FAFSA Simplification Act of 2022 made several changes to the application process and the methodology for determining how much aid a student can get.

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The FAFSA is largely based on parents’ income and tax information.

EAB, an education research and consulting firm, found that in 2021 more than % of first-generation and low-income college students said completing the FAFSA was “difficult,” citing lack of parental support, difficulty locating tax information, confusing questions and immigration status.

The U.S. Department of Education is marketing the reworked application as “,” promising to deliver a shorter, more efficient form and to provide additional aid to the students who need it most. The changes, however, have delayed the application’s opening date and raised questions about whether the new FAFSA will be better for everyone.

The changes in aid calculations will increase aid to low-income students, extending Pell Grants — need-based financial aid that students don’t have to repay — to an additional 610,000 students nationwide. In Minnesota, an estimated 13,000 additional students will receive a Pell grant, a 12.5% increase from 2022.

The Department of Education also says under the new rules, more students will receive the maximum Pell Grant award compared to previous years.

The changes also reduced the number of questions on the application; previously, students and families manually answered questions based on their tax returns. Now, the FAFSA application will import data directly from the IRS, saving families time.

Parents will have to provide up-front consent on the new online application to allow the IRS to share their tax information, presenting a potential barrier for students whose parents are concerned about data privacy.

Students will not be able to submit the FAFSA if their parents don’t consent to sharing the data.

As part of the new application process, parents will also have to use their Social Security number to create a unique login to the online application — paper applications do exist but are “highly discouraged,” according to Zoey Haines, a program manager with Achieve Twin Cities, which provides college and career services.

For parents who do not have a Social Security number, the Federal Student Aid Office will use alternative questions to verify a person’s identity; if the initial round of online questions isn’t sufficient to verify the parent’s identity, they will have to go through an additional round of verification. The details of that process aren’t clear yet, Haines said.

With the application opening delayed two months, the window for students and families to complete the application, receive their award letters and decide on a college is shorter than in recent years.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com. Follow Minnesota Reformer on and .

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture Monday announced $33 million in funding to 19 Historically Black Colleges and Universities designated as land-grant institutions to support research and education projects.

The funding through USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture will support in sustainable farming practices such as reducing use of plastics, enhancing nutritional value in vegetables and addressing shortages in sunflower seed oil.

“The work these universities will take on as a result of this funding have ripple effects far beyond the walls of their laboratories and classrooms,” Agriculture Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small said in a statement.

Torres Small said the investments will help “deliver real-life, applicable solutions to make our food system stronger, while at the same time inspiring a next generation of students and scientists who will help us meet tomorrow’s agricultural challenges.”

1890 Land-Grant Institutions are a byproduct of a Civil War-era law that gave land to dozens of universities, including the HBCUs, but In total, nearly 11 million acres were taken from more than 250 tribes, published in High Country News.

“USDA looks forward to the impact these visionary projects will have in improving the supply of affordable, safe, nutritious and accessible food and agricultural products, while fostering economic development and rural prosperity in America,” NIFA Director Manjit K. Misra said in a statement.

Many of the projects are geared toward sustainable practices in farming. U.S. agriculture contributes to about , and the Biden administration has focused on “climate smart” farming practices.

at North Carolina A&T State University was awarded about $250,000 to conduct farm trials of biodegradable mulches, which would be an alternative to plastic mulch.

Another land-grant university in Wilberforce, Ohio, the , was awarded about $500,000 to explore the use of a perennial flower — meaning it comes back year after year — as a way to improve honey production in order to enhance sustainability practices in agriculture.

And in Nashville, at Tennessee State University was awarded $100,000 to evaluate climate resiliency in legume species, which are crops such as snow peas, chickpeas and lentils, that are crucial to fixing nitrogen into the soil to improve soil health.

A full list of projects can be found , and the 19 land-grant universities sharing in the $33 million include:

Alabama A&M University

Alcorn State University

Central State University

Delaware State University

Florida A&M University

Fort Valley State University

Kentucky State University

Langston University

Lincoln University of Missouri

North Carolina A&T State University

Prairie View A&M University

South Carolina State University

Southern University and A&M College

Tennessee State University

Tuskegee University

University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff

University of Maryland Eastern Shore

Virginia State University

West Virginia State University

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com. Follow Kentucky Lantern on and .

Southern Illinois can be a mental health care desert, with residents forced to drive hours to seek care for mental health and substance abuse issues. 

But that is changing thanks in part to  from fossil fuels in places where coal plants and coal mines have closed.

The first round of funding under the state’s Energy Transition Community Grant program is helping communities add mental health care services, expand workforce training opportunities, and restore local budgets battered by the decline of fossil fuels. The grants were created by Illinois’s 2021 Climate & Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA).

Coal has deep roots around Randolph County, and like most Illinois coalfield communities it has suffered as coal mining jobs diminished and became non-union, and coal plants closed. Peabody’s local Gateway Mine closed (though its Gateway North is still operating), and Vistra Energy’s Baldwin coal plant has slashed generation and will .

“I come from a long family of coal miners — a grandfather who was a mule skinner and a coal miner, my brothers were both coal miners,” said county commissioner Marc Kiehna. “I’m the youngest of three boys, by the time I was out there on the market for jobs, coal mining was kind of on the decline.”

Randolph County is slated to receive $1.6 million that, along with federal Covid relief dollars, will allow it to transform a wing of an underutilized nursing home into a behavioral health center with 16 in-patient beds and space for group therapy and other programming.

“This will really provide some care for an underserved population,” said Kiehna. “We struggle here in the rural area with meth, fentanyl, opioid abuse, all that goes along with that. This gives us an opportunity to try to make families healthier and have a positive impact.”

All Illinois fossil fuel plants must close by 2045, unless they can capture and sequester emissions, under CEJA. And most coal plants will close much sooner, thanks to market forces. Since 2007,  have partially or entirely shut down in Illinois, according to Energy Information Administration data.

CEJA allocates $40 million per year through 2045 to provide grants to communities within 30 miles of coal plants or mines that have closed within the past six years, or are slated to close within six years. (A separate provision addresses nuclear plants.)

State officials recently released a list of more than 50 agencies that will receive the grants, provided they complete a phase two application detailing their spending plans and required stakeholder engagement efforts.

Agencies were urged to apply late last year for the inaugural round of funding, in a process some described as rushed to make sure that communities with already-closed plants and mines could benefit for the maximum number of years. The $40 million was divided among the applicants, with amounts based on estimated impact of coal closures.

“The 2023 grants were a pleasant surprise for many of the eligible entities,” said Prairie Rivers Network energy campaign coordinator Amanda Pankau. “I worked with several school districts who applied thinking they may get the minimum $50,000, and they all ended up with more than $500,000. While it was a welcome surprise, we do want communities to have more time to plan and involve community stakeholders in the future.”

The first round of grants went to school districts, park districts, and city and county governments in many of the state’s best-known coal mining communities: Harrisburg, Carbondale, Marion, Mount Olive, Galatia, Hillsboro. John A. Logan Community College in the heart of coal country got a grant, as did the Lake of Egypt Fire Protection District.

A $1 million grant went to , the northern Illinois city where an NRG coal plant closed last summer, and where residents have long demanded a voice and funding for just transition plans.

Learning in Harrisburg

In decades past in Southern Illinois, Harrisburg Unit 3 schools superintendent Amy Dixon remembers, students “could go off in the mines making more money than we do, and take care of their family.”

But many coal mines closed or reduced their workforces, and now “we need to equip our students with skills they can utilize here in our community,” said Dixon. 

Often that means jobs requiring Career Technical Education (CTE) — in carpentry, contracting and electrical work, including in the burgeoning solar economy. The Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council recently featured Harrisburg High on its , and students have gotten work with the trade union.  

“We have more students wanting to take CTE classes, and we also have a workforce that’s needing more electricians and plumbers and carpenters,” said Dixon. “We would love to give more students that skill set. But we have one building where we are trying to teach our welding and automotive and electricity and building trades all together. It is maxed out, we’re needing some more physical space so we can expand our CTE offerings.”

Now the school district can build a new pole-barn-style CTE training center, thanks to a $539,000 Energy Transition Community Grant. The district qualified based on three nearby coal mines that closed between 2017 and 2019: Galatia, Wildcat Hills and New Future. More than 50 people came to community meetings to talk about the plans. 

“This grant will be invaluable in helping us expand opportunities for our students,” said Dixon. “We wouldn’t have the money to do it otherwise. The community partners, the parents, businesses, education partners, students, staff — it’s just an outstanding example of how Harrisburg comes together to support our schools and each other.”

Pankau noted that while coal plants must inform grid operators in advance of plans to close, mines have no such mandate. Mines often ramp staffing down based on coal demand, and rely on contractors, meaning even the federal  about impending mass layoffs might not apply. 

“Unfortunately, we do not have information or advanced planning when it comes to the future of Illinois’ coal mines,” said Pankau. “We would like to see [the Illinois Department of Natural Resources] work with communities and industry to help plan for upcoming coal mine closures, so that those communities may apply for grants and begin to plan for the anticipated impacts of closure.”

Hope in Havana

Havana, a town on the Illinois River in central Illinois, saw its tax base decimated when the local coal plant closed in 2019, soon after energy company Vistra acquired Dynegy’s Illinois fleet. Grace Mott had just started her job as director of parks and recreation at the time, and within a month her workforce plummeted from 15 to three employees.

“My budget was cut by a full third when [the plant] stopped paying their taxes,” Mott said. “I had to cut everyone except maintenance — the recreation director, all my office staff, because we have 13 parks and nine buildings to take care of. Honestly I didn’t know if we would survive this. I spent the first year cutting costs every single place I could find.”

Mott made it her mission to keep the town’s popular parks running despite the funding drought, and she cobbled together grants for projects like renovating the historic pool and century-old gymnasium. 

“I was so new to the job, and so stubborn, I’ve just been working hard to make it happen,” she said. 

But finding grants for operations — including staff — is extremely difficult, and she found herself having to forego opportunities for new investments since she wouldn’t have the people to run them. That’s changing thanks to a $157,000 Energy Transition Community grant, which will be used to hire more staff.

“If not for the energy transition community grant, I’m still not sure we’d be sustainable in the long run,” Mott said.

The new investment in staff and operations will dovetail with infrastructure projects funded by a separate state grant — putting a roof on the riverside open-air stage that hosts a popular bluegrass festival, installing fitness equipment and launching e-bike rentals in the park, and building three teepees for scouting camps and visitors. Together, the investments will help build Havana’s burgeoning reputation as a tourist destination. The community energy grant can also pay for marketing to visitors.

“I wanted to go somewhere I could make a difference,” said Mott, who moved with her husband from DeKalb, Illinois, where she had started a successful online newspaper. “We’re certainly doing that here in this town — it’s been just wonderful.

Havana’s local school district, meanwhile, is getting a $757,000 energy transition grant, and the city of Havana was awarded $55,000. Schools superintendent Matt Plater said the schools’ grant replaces a similar amount that the district has lost through the coal plant’s taxes, although federal Covid relief funds — which the park district did not receive — helped tide the schools over. 

The energy transition funds will go towards a plan that Plater already had underway to replace the elaborate shingle roof on the town’s middle school, along with roofs on a transportation building and the ballfield restrooms and concession stand.

While just transition efforts often focus on job training for displaced fossil fuel workers, Plater noted that not many locals were actually employed in the coal plant. The tax base and opportunities for the younger generation are the bigger issues for the town, where almost two-thirds of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

“Ideally, sure, they’re thinking you could do job training, help employ displaced workers” with just transition funds, Plater said. “But these plants didn’t hire that many people. We didn’t feel a lot of that job impact in our community, it was the tax base, the assessed valuation that impacted us the most.” 

The energy transition grant will allow the district to pay for the roofing overhaul without taking out bonds, as a district would normally do.

“We’re not putting money in anyone’s pockets or giving a job to someone who lost one, but this allows us to do a project without bonds and keep our property taxes low as a result,” Plater said. “We’re not paying interest on a bond 15 years out. It’s a win-win-win for the community.”

Back in Randolph County

When the Baldwin plant was operating at full force, Randolph County received about $2 million a year in taxes from it, Kiehna said. Now they get about $300,000, and that amount will continue declining.

“It affected us in a lot of ways,” Kiehna said. “We probably lost 100 good-paying jobs, and with the tax issues, we’re trying to make sure we have funds to provide public safety, the sheriff, all the things we do. It’s been a struggle. We laid off staff, we’ve cut here and there to make sure we balance our budget.”

County leaders decided the behavioral health center was a priority, and the nursing home where only about one-third of beds were occupied seemed the ideal place to create it. The effort is also funded with federal Covid relief dollars.

“We said to ourselves, ‘What can we do to provide for a long-lasting benefit?’” Kiehna said. “If we can make our families healthier, guess what, our kids will do better in school and have better lives.”

Kiehna is hoping that  connecting St. Louis and Southern Illinois towns and the Shawnee National Forest could also boost tourism and economic opportunity in the region.

“I’d like to have some jobs here for my grandkids, let people live a good life down here. It’s a beautiful area.”

This article was Energy News Network

The U.S. Department of Education on Wednesday posted two notices for grants under the Charter Schools Program — one for and another for those charter schools. The announcements reflect new rules meant to create more racially diverse schools and increase transparency when for-profit companies are involved in running them. The deadline is Aug. 5, giving states far less than the four months they’ve had to apply in previous years.

The regulations represent a compromise between the Biden administration, which wanted to limit competition between a growing charter sector and traditional schools, and advocates who argued that such schools play an important role in meeting students’ needs after the pandemic.

Karega Rausch, president and CEO of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, described the new rules as “workable,” but said he remains concerned about a requirement that new charters be racially and socioeconomically diverse — or explain why they’re not. The rule says operators must note how their charter school won’t “hamper, delay or negatively affect any desegregation efforts in the local community.”

The provision “places additional unnecessary and unwarranted burdens on schools proposing to serve large proportions of lower-income students and students of color,” Rausch said. “And there is no clarity on what constitutes a valid desegregation effort and how applicants will know if any effort exists.”

In March, the department posted a draft of the rule for the $440 million program, which provides start-up and expansion funding for charters. It sparked immediate backlash from the charter school community, with advocates arguing that it would squash growth, especially among smaller, independent operators unaffiliated with charter management organizations. Three Democrats in the Senate and a bipartisan group of mayors later joined opposition to the new rule, and charter supporters outside the U.S. Department of Education and the White House May 11, telling the Biden administration to “back off.” Department officials say the rule is meant to increase accountability, prevent charters from closing because of insufficient demand and promote integrated schools.

“We are at our strongest as a nation when we embrace the rich diversity across our country,” Anna Hinton, director of the program at the department, wrote in a Friday about the final version. “Federal resources should not be used to increase racial or socioeconomic segregation and isolation.”

Work from the Century Foundation contributed to the department’s revision. In 2019, the progressive think tank ways the program could increase diversity. While many urban charter schools predominantly serve Black or Hispanic students, others in suburban communities mostly white students, data shows.

Stefan Lallinger, a senior fellow at the organization, said not all charters “take proactive steps” to attract a diverse student body. 

“In some instances, particularly in what are known as ‘white flight academies,’ some charter schools actually exacerbate segregation in a given region,” he said, adding that while the new rules won’t prevent “hypersegregated” schools, they “represent real progress, and signal a growing recognition among education leaders that they should be part of the solution.” 

In her blog post, Hinton said the department recognizes that some charters exist in racially isolated communities and that such schools won’t be “at a competitive disadvantage for funding.”

Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, which is critical of charter schools, was the most outspoken in support of changes to the program.

“Unscrupulous individuals who used the program for their enrichment will find it more difficult to do so,” she wrote Monday in , highlighting requirements that charters disclose any contracts with for-profit entities and hold public hearings on proposed schools or expansions.

But in a win for the charter sector, officials won’t force charters to collaborate with district schools in order to receive funding — a requirement included in the original draft — but they still want to encourage partnerships. And they clarified that applicants can demonstrate demand for their programs in multiple ways, including waitlists. 

“The fact that they have taken some of our comments seriously indicates the power of advocacy,” said Nina Rees, CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. But she added that if the added documentation required and the small window to apply “dampens interest” in seeking the funds, that would be “victory for our opponents.”

Yomika Bennett, executive director of the New York Charter Schools Association, was among those who rallied in Washington in May. 

“As far as I’m concerned, we’re not fully heard until the broken education system is fixed,” she said. “School systems in cities across [New York state] and across the country are allowed to fail to educate students year after year, generation after generation. Officials, union bosses and critics attack charters, school choice and fight to keep students trapped in failing district schools.”