Already facing a $7 million budget shortfall, the Durham school system is now grappling with the potential of federal funding cuts.
At a meeting on Feb. 21, district officials discussed their 2025-2026 budget priorities ahead of the release of the superintendent’s recommended budget on March 27.
“Changes at the national level have the potential to impact public education in our district,” Superintendent Anthony Lewis said at the start of the meeting. “And please know that we are closely monitoring these shifts.”
Jeremy Teetor, DPS’ chief financial officer said he and his team calculated that the district spends five to six million dollars in federal funding every month. The estimate includes funding for the Community Eligibility Provision, a federal program DPS joined this year that provides free breakfast and lunch to all students regardless of income.
While uncertainty loomed at the Feb. 21 meeting, Teetor said DPS is working to be prepared.
“We’re monitoring very carefully as a senior leadership team what are the threats to various forms of federal funding and how we might need to react,” Teetor said.
Thus far, federal cuts to education spending have not affected the district directly.
Under President Trump, the U.S. Department of Education has been axing what it characterizes as “woke spending.” That includes ending diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and enforcing President Trump’s executive order that bans transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.
The department cut over $600 million in grants for teacher training on concepts such as Critical Race Theory, DEI, social justice, anti-racism, white privilege, and white supremacy.
Further, the federal government has implemented $562 million in cuts for programs that provide technical assistance and training services in centers across the country. In North Carolina, those cuts are landing primarily at the SERVE Center at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, which runs both the Comprehensive Centers Program and the Regional Educational Laboratory for the Southeast.
Likewise, the Department of Education cut $33 million in grants to support the Equity Assistance Centers Program. In the South, the program is run out of Atlanta and provides technical assistance and training in areas such as race, sex, national origin, and religion to school systems, among other work.
While those cuts won’t affect the district directly, they will affect DPS employees, said Nicholas King, the school system’s deputy superintendent.
“Those organizations do not provide direct services or funding to Durham Public Schools but our employees do sometimes access and take advantage of programming provided by these agencies,” King said in an email response to The 9th Street Journal on Friday. “Ending funding for these programs would therefore reduce access to a number of outside professional development programs that would help our educators to hone their skills.”
DPS officials are also warily eyeing potential state funding reductions. North Carolina’s new State Treasurer, Brad Briner, has proposed changes to the State Health Plan, including increasing premiums to keep up with inflation. At the meeting, Teetor said his team is “a little bit nervous” about the state health plan changes.
All in all, with an unbalanced budget and potential funding reductions at the federal and state level, the DPS finance team has its work cut out for it.
“So just a lot of things that we’ve had to take under review as we think about developing the budget,” Teetor said.
The district will be rescheduling a public hearing about the budget, which was cancelled due to snow.
Above: Durham Superintendent Anthony Lewis, speaking at a groundbreaking ceremony in the fall. Photo by Abigail Bromberger — The 9th Street Journal
Lily Kempczinski
