As school districts in Colorado prepare for the 2025-26 academic year, a freeze of $71 million in federal education funding by the U.S. Department of Education is affecting districts across the state, including in the Roaring Fork Valley.
In an email, the federal government said it is holding $6.8 billion in education funding while they carry out an “ongoing programmatic review” of schools. This email came only one day before schools expected the money to be released.
Since the initial freeze, the federal government has unfrozen $1.4 billion as of July 18, but the remaining $5 billion has yet to be released.
Roaring Fork School District (RFSD) Superintendent Dr. Anna Cole said the district is dealing with a freeze of approximately $366,000 in expected federal aid. Cole said that money is critical for staffing, student support programs and professional development.
“We’re in the business of people,” said Cole. “There’s only so much you can do before you’re cutting people.”
Cole said that while the district is committed to keeping cuts away from the classroom in the short term, the long-term outlook presents a tougher situation. “I think we’re going to be able to mitigate the immediate impacts,” said Cole. “What I’m really worried about is the compounded impacts of where this is headed for the 2026-27 school year as we grapple with potential additional cuts at the federal level, the state budget that is looking flat at best, rising cost of living in the Valley and the rising cost of health insurance.”
These frozen education grants, called title funds, were supposed to provide targeted resources for schools and programs that serve low-income students and families and English-language learners. In the Roaring Fork schools, that would have contributed to some teacher and support staff salaries, curricular materials and professional development. School leaders had been counting on these allocations, until they were abruptly frozen.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis called the freeze “absurd” and joined a number of other states in filing a lawsuit demanding that the U.S. Department of Education release the funds.
“Colorado schools and families face enormous uncertainty as the Trump administration continues to play politics, violate the law and refuse to prioritize the needs of Americans and what is best for families,” said Polis in a press release. “In Colorado, we will not back down from the fight and we will continue to make sure that every student and educator has the resources they need to succeed.”
“Unless federal funding levels are restored, Colorado is projected to lose more than $70 million in education support for the 2025–26 school year based on current allocations,” said Susana Córdova, Colorado’s education commissioner. “Without them, schools may face significant cuts to programs and services that families and educators rely on.”
This budget freeze hit RFSD almost immediately after the district resolved issues from the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years related to staff health insurance plans. RFSD had switched to a self-insured plan from the previously-used managed insurance plan as an attempt to save costs, but the new plan negatively impacted the district’s finances.
Cole, who became acting superintendent in August of 2023 before assuming a permanent position in 2024, said RFSD then quickly pivoted and switched back to a managed insurance plan at the beginning of this year and budgeted to fix the discrepancy.
Looking forward to the 2025-26 school year, Cole said, “We built a conservative budget, and now what we’re up against moving ahead is external risk.”
RFSD is now facing a declining student population projection on top of the federal budget freeze. “We know that from a demographic study we did in the 2024-2025 school year, as a whole, RFSD is anticipating to see declining enrollment over the next decade,” said Cole. “Our revenue is really based on our student enrollment and title funds.”
“Our school leaders return this week. We have these immediate impacts that we’re trying to mitigate so that schools can open consistently with the staff that we have agreed to fund,” said Cole. “We’re not pulling the rug out from some of the amazing people who’ve committed their professional lives to our district right now.”
Looking ahead to the coming years, Cole understands the challenges the Valley may face. “I feel very responsible for our communities to understand what’s going on,” said Cole. “I think we’re headed for challenges that we’re going to really need our community to understand, to be aware of, to help us look outside of ourselves … We definitely can’t fight this on our own.”