When Scotland County Schools’ leaders put together a budget last spring, they knew that laying off even one teacher or staff member would be detrimental.
In one of the poorest school districts in North Carolina, Board of Education Chair Rick Singletary said teaching economically disadvantaged students requires more support from teachers and administrators. More than half of the district’s 10 schools are considered “low-performing” by the state.
“Our scores show that we have made tremendous gains, but we’re still lagging behind where we’d want to be,” Singletary said. “That’s where personnel is crucial, because you can come up with any kind of program and there will be nothing as effective as a human person helping out.”
Public schools across North Carolina welcomed students back to classrooms last month amid economic uncertainty under President Donald Trump’s plan to slash federal spending. North Carolina could lose more than $203 million for schools this fiscal year, according to the Education Law Center. The five school districts in the Border Belt region of Bladen, Columbus, Robeson and Scotland counties could lose about $7.6 million. Although most of the money has been released while lawsuits wind their way through the court system, the whiplash has made it tough for schools to know what money is available and when.
It’s especially hard for Scotland County Schools, where a new state law removed the school funding “floor,” which previously mandated a minimum funding level from the county. The district received $9.75 million from the county this school year, a 2.5 percent drop from the previous year.
Singletary said the district was able to avoid layoffs by cutting money for athletic uniforms and school supplies, including pencils, paper and crayons. But he fears what might lie ahead.
“It’s a scary feeling for me personally and I think the district as a whole, just this unexpected anticipation,” he said. “Once you hear of possible cuts that may be coming and even those that we’ve not heard yet, it’s just the thought of some of them that has been absolutely alarming for me.”
In North Carolina, the state pays teachers’ and administrators’ salaries, while counties pay for school construction and salary supplements. Federal funding is designated for special programs, including Title I for schools with large numbers of low-income students. Every public school in the Border Belt receives Title I funds, as do half of all schools in North Carolina.
North Carolina schools were set to lose nearly $170 million from the U.S. Department of Education as part of the Trump administration’s freeze on federal funding for programs that primarily help low-income students and those who don’t speak English as their first language. Border Belt schools expected to lose $6 million. Some, if not all, of the money was released after N.C. Attorney General Jeff Jackson joined several other states in suing the administration.
In Bladen County, some Title I funds are used for arts education and educator workshops. Superintendent Jason Atkinson said the district used leftover money from previous years to cover costs while it waited for federal funds to be released. It’s not a long-term solution, he said.
“We’re busy all year long, but this really puts a significant hiccup on our district,” he said. “There have been a lot of sleepless nights and heartburn and especially anxiety for program directors. They’re thinking about, ‘OK, we’ve been doing these services for kids. What’s gonna happen now?’”
Robeson County schools were set to lose more than $14 million in unused pandemic-era funding that the district earmarked for construction and facility upgrades, including a new HVAC system at Lumberton High School. The money was reinstated in late June and later switched to a reimbursement system, according to Richard Schwartz, attorney for the school district.
The change complicates things, Schwartz said, because construction crews don’t always want to wait to be paid.
Schwartz said he was frustrated by the broader cuts, which have forced schools to dip into savings, craft emergency plans or reallocate money.
“It’s been enormously time consuming,” he said. “The amount of time and effort that is being wasted across the country is incalculable, with people having to stop and go and start again and respond to things and deal with the legal issues and all the uncertainty, and make contingency plans and make backup plans and scrap those plans and start over again with new rules.
“It’s just mind boggling how much waste there has been,” Schwartz continued. “It’s been the most disruptive thing I could imagine. I never could have imagined this coming out of our federal government.”
Some of the slashes in funding have targeted students who don’t speak English as their first language. Sandra Paula Lopez Greenfield, who leads Robeson County schools’ multilingual learners program, said the cuts have solidified the Trump administration’s stance against immigrants, including students.
“They are here [in this program] for a reason, and the reason is to learn English,” she said.
Singletary says he worries about potential federal cuts to programs for students with special needs, and the program that provides free and reduced-price lunch to low-income students. He also worries about the Trump administration’s push to eliminate the Department of Education and hand over more responsibility to states.
“It’s a scary feeling,” he said, “just to say the least.”
