Big news came out of the National Governors Association (NGA) Summer Meeting in Colorado Springs, Colorado this week, and many governors are thrilled.
According to Fox News, Secretary Linda McMahon of the Department of Education announced the unfreezing of $6.8 billion in previously frozen funds. She assured the attending governors that it would never happen again.
The previously frozen funds were set aside for K-12 programs, and the announcement comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed against the Trump administration by 20 Democratic attorneys general.
They argued that the federal funding freeze was crippling for states with the new school year just around the corner, insisting that states desperately need the funds to keep everything operational.
Department of Education spokesperson Madi Biedermann explained to Fox News that the funds were unfrozen after a review by the Office of Budget Management (OMB) was completed.
Biedermann said the OMB "has completed its review of Title I-C, Title II-A, Title III-A and Title IV-A ESEA funds and Title II WIOA funds and has directed the Department to release all formula funds. The agency will begin dispersing funds to states next week."
Sec. McMahon was thanked by many of the Democrats in the coaltion that sued the administration.
Fox News noted:
The bipartisan group of governors, including the NGA's outgoing chair, Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado, and its vice chair, Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, thanked McMahon for unlocking the funding during the NGA's education session Friday.
Gov. Jared Polis asked, "How can we better communicate to make sure that this chaos and uncertainty doesn't occur again around funding and that people know things earlier?"
McMahon responded, "No guarantees from me that we will eliminate all the communications gaps that do happen, but I can say that part of it is just the transition aspect."
McMahon went on to assure the governors that the funds were frozen due to the review process.
Fox News added:
The education secretary said the other aspect of the federal funding freeze was that the OMB budget office "took some time to really review the title funding to look at all the programs, etc., before they were released. They were well satisfied. So, now, those funds are going to be going out."
The news comes also as Trump continues to do whatever he can to dismantle the Education Department.
Trump and his administration recently won a major Supreme Court ruling that allowed the firing of nearly half of the DoE's workforce.
