How the government shutdown is now disrupting public education

We’re nearly one month into the government shutdown with crucial deadlines approaching. Amid layoffs at the Department of Education, the prolonged shutdown is starting to turn some heads.

The impact of a prolonged shutdown

Generally speaking, the shutdown won’t have an immediate impact on K12 schools, says Dale Chu, a senior visiting fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Most federal funding has already been distributed.

However, he’s concerned about the federal oversight of state accountability and assessment waivers.

“Specifically, Iowa and Indiana have submitted waiver requests under ESSA, and reviews appear to be moving forward despite the shutdown,” he says. “The question is, who is actually providing the horsepower for these reviews, given the layoffs and disruptions at the Department of Education?”

These layoffs are also concerning for charter schools, he adds. While the Trump administration has made charters a priority by adding $60 million in funding, the office supporting these schools has cut exstensively.

Similarly, Maggie Cicco, a research fellow at Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab, says districts are receiving their federal dollars as normal. However, she’s paying close attention to school meals.

“Those programs run on a reimbursement cycle, so a lapse in USDA funding after Nov. 1 wouldn’t necessarily affect schools immediately, but could start showing up in December if the shutdown continues,” Cicco says.

She adds that no new grantmaking or federal technical assistance is happening during the shutdown. This could impact district planning, but not the funding administrators were expecting this month.

The lack of impact has convinced federal officials such as U.S. Secretary Linda McMahon that the Department of Education is an unnecessary government entity.

The Democrat government shutdown has forced agencies to evaluate what federal responsibilities are truly critical for the American people. Two weeks in, millions of American students are still going to school, teachers are getting paid, and schools are operating as normal. It…

— Secretary Linda McMahon (@EDSecMcMahon) October 15, 2025

However, for leaders and long-time educators like Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, McMahon’s statement seems far removed from the realities educators face daily.

Pringle reflected on her 31 years of teaching eighth-grade science and the Education Department’s role in closing access gaps for students with disabilities.

“I know what the Department of Education does, and Linda McMahon could not even tell us what IDEA stood for,” Pringle says. “That’s our secretary of education.”

Meanwhile, she says the educators closest to kids and their families are the ones feeling the impacts of a shrinking Department of Education.

A looming deadline

For the first time ever, funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps, may lapse on Nov. 1. According to the Economic Research Service, children accounted for nearly 39% of all SNAP participants.

Pringle says, “kids can’t learn if they’re hungry.” This year, the NEA estimates that teachers will spend up to $500 of their own money on classroom supplies, including food and snacks for their students.

“When you’re talking about $186 billion being cut out of the food assistance that we give to kids because of H.R. 1, the ‘big, bad, terrible, really no good bill,’ we can’t stand in those gaps,” Pringle says.

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