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Federal funding is restored for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida

Children at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida.
Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida
Children at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida will receive its federal funding from the U.S. Department of Education, part of a major reversal from the agency.

The money had been frozen for months as the Trump administration conducted a review of the education budget.

The nonprofit won’t have to cancel programs or lay off staff now that it will receive $2.4 million in previously earmarked federal funding.

The U.S. Department of Education announced it would release $1.4 billion dollars in funding for some afterschool programs nationwide like Boys & Girls Clubs after widespread outcry.

In Orlando, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Dani Moritz said it’s thanks to Central Floridians that the money was restored.

“Across the nation over 23,000 people sent emails in support of the club. We had 3,200 calls across the nation to members of Congress," Moritz said. “Florida really led those numbers in terms of outreach.”

Moritz said the moment she found out the money had been restored was almost indescribable.

“I think we all took a deep breath, a big sigh of relief, and just felt immense gratitude that we would be able to receive the funding, that our kids wouldn't experience any kind of disruption in service, and just immensely grateful to everybody who made that happen, because it really was a community effort,” Moritz said.

In total, $396 million in federal funding was frozen that was meant for Florida schools and other educational groups. The money for Florida’s K-12 public schools is still frozen.

Florida schools and the Florida PTA and Florida Education Association have sued the Trump administration to release the rest of the funds.

UCF political science professor Aubrey Jewett said the good news is that most public schools in the state only get a small fraction of their funding from the federal government.

But he said frozen funds will disproportionately hurt schools in low-socioeconomic areas that serve underrepresented student populations.

“The federal government only accounts for about 10% of K-12 funding,” Jewett explained. “So that's the good news. It's not the bulk of the funding. On the other hand, some of the funding that the federal government (withheld) is awfully critical to certain groups of people, right? So if you're in a poor community or poor school, just to use one example, that's where a lot of federal funds are often geared towards.”

And there’s the fact that many Central Florida public schools are already facing funding deficits amidst drops in enrollment as more families opt to use vouchers to send students to private schools.

Jewett said regardless of what happens with the federal funding, all of these changes, from frozen federal funds to widespread layoffs at the Department of Education, are adding to the stress of a new year.

“So the bottom line is, it's going to be more difficult to plan. It's going to be more difficult for them to hold the programs. It's more difficult, probably, in some cases, to make payroll,” Jewett said.

“It may lead to some layoffs for full or part-time employees. So it presents a lot of difficulties. It's the uncertainty, I think that adds even more problems for planning and figuring it out.”

The Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget says a full review of the budget and some cuts to education funding are needed as some of the money was being used to support DEI, or diversity, equity and inclusion, and other “woke” programming.

Danielle Prieur covers education in Central Florida.
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