The late, great David Berliner was the Regents’ professor emeritus in the psychology of education at Arizona State University, a former president of the American Educational Research Association, and the former dean of the College of Education at Arizona State.  In the first chapter of The Manufactured Crisis, a book he co-authored 30 years ago with another academic expert on education, Bruce Biddle, he derided what he saw as the misdirection of education reform ideas developed as a response to the 1983 A Nation at Risk report: “One of the worst effects of the Manufactured Crisis has been to divert attention away from the real problems faced by American education—problems that are serious and that are escalating in today’s world… (A)lthough many Americans do not realize it, family incomes and financial support for schools are much more poorly distributed in our country than in other industrialized nations. This means that in the United States, very privileged students attend some of the world’s best private and public schools, but it also means that large numbers of students who are truly disadvantaged attend public schools whose support is far below that permitted in other Western democracies.” (The Manufactured Crisis, pp. 4-5)

Then, in a 2017 analysis, Berliner listed some of the factors that underlie the test score achievement gap that No Child Left Behind was supposed to have addressed: “It’s neither this nation’s teachers nor its curriculum that impede the achievement of our children. The roots of America’s educational problems are in the numbers of Americans who live in poverty. America’s educational problems are predominantly in the numbers of kids and their families who are homeless; whose families have no access to Medicaid or other medical services. These are… families to whom low-birth-weight babies are frequently born, leading to many more children needing special education… Our educational problems have their roots in families where food insecurity or hunger is a regular occurrence, or where those with increased lead levels in their bloodstream get no treatments before arriving at a school’s doorsteps. Our problems also stem from the harsh incarceration laws that break up families instead of counseling them and trying to keep them together. And our problems relate to harsh immigration policies that keep millions of families frightened to seek out better lives for themselves and their children…  Although demographics may not be destiny for an individual, it is the best predictor of a school’s outcomes—independent of that school’s teachers, administrators and curriculum.”  (Emphasis in the original.)

We tend to think of these problems as though they reside exclusively in urban places where poverty is concentrated, but journalist Beth Macy just published Paper Girl to expose the very same issues in Urbana, Ohio, a small, MAGA town located in Jim Jordan’s Congressional district.

In a policy strategy left over from No Child Left Behind’s test-and-punish regime, lawmakers seem to believe that a teacher’s role is to produce test scores, that prescribed strategies like the Science of Reading and the Third Grade Guarantee will raise test scores, and that state takeovers of so-called failing schools will force teachers to work harder and smarter. But more thoughtful educators and policymakers have looked instead to reforms that surround vulnerable families with support. Full-Service Community Schools, designed to wrap medical and social services, and extracurricular enrichment programs right into the school building, have grown in their reach and are now valued by families and educators.

The Trump administration has begun canceling Full-Service Community Schools grants.  In December, however, the Trump administration cancelled $168 million in federal grants from the Education Department’s Full-Service Community Schools program. Education Week‘s Mark Lieberman reports: “Those 19 grants—spread across 11 states and the District of Columbia—amounted to nearly $61 million in funds that were due to flow Jan. 1, and another $107 million that was due to flow by 2028.  The loss of those funds could lead to layoffs for dozens of public school educators nationwide within weeks.  In Idaho alone, 60 community schools coordinators across 47 rural school districts have salaries funded in part or in full with the now-excised grant funds.”

Why cut grants from a federal program that has continued to grow due to the documented effectiveness of Full-Service Community Schools? Lieberman explains: “Grant cancellations are part of Trump efforts to eradicate DEI. The Trump administration has argued in ‘notices of non-continuation’ to affected grantees that the programs in question may be promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that top federal officials have characterized as divisive and harmful. Community schools advocates, though, describe their mission as a painstaking, constantly evolving, and research-backed effort to identify and meet the specific needs of students and their families—ranging from unemployment and food insecurity to difficulty accessing medical care and navigating bureaucracy.”

What is a Full-Service Community School?  Community Schools are public schools which collaboratively incorporate additional professional social and medical services, and additions like after-school programs right in the public school building. While in Ohio, the state calls privately operated charter schools “community schools,” Full-Service Community Schools are not the same as charter schools.

New York City’s Children’s Aid Society has a history of 25 years of experience operating community schools as part of New York City’s public schools, and operates 19 public community schools today. The Children’s Aid Society defines a community school: “The community school strategy delivers holistic services for children and families, connecting them to resources in their communities and fostering academic success… No two community schools look alike. When we partner with a school to make it a community school, we assess the needs of that student population and community. At all of our community schools, we are placing an emphasis on chronic absenteeism. We offer services that improve attendance and get the entire family involved in the academic success of their children… Services at a community school can include comprehensive health services, after-school academic enrichment, mentoring, parent engagement, and more.”

For The Progressive, education writer Jeff Bryant further explores what community schools do: “The community schools approach looks different depending on location, but the basic idea is that schools should serve as local hubs not only for education services, but also meet the broader needs of students and families such as physical and mental health, housing, transportation, after-school care, and neighborhood improvement. To provide these services, schools partner with local organizations, including nonprofits and businesses. And students, parents, community members, and school staff help to determine school policies and activities, such as curriculum offerings and sports programs.”

More recently Bryant reported on new research confirming the effectiveness of the model: “According to a 2020 analysis conducted by the nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization RAND, schools in New York City using the community school strategy experienced… positive results. Compared to similarly matched non-community schools, community schools saw higher graduation rates; decreased chronic absenteeism, especially among Black students and high school students in temporary housing; fewer disciplinary incidents among elementary and middle school students; and significantly improved measures of student achievement—such as math scores, credit accumulation, and on-time grade progression.”

What does the Trump administration’s slashing of Community School Grants mean?  Clearly the Trump administration’s sudden cancellation of Full-Service Community Schools grants is part of the administration’s broad attempt to scrub from federal policy any program or policy that furthers the goals of Brown v. Board of Education, to include, welcome, and equitably serve students in groups that have been historically marginalized. Education Department staff have not been subtle about the administration’s redefinition of civil rights protection.  In a second article on the sudden cancellation of community school grants, Mark Lieberman reported: “Education Week reviewed one letter dated Dec. 12 announcing the non-continuation of a Community Schools grant. The stated reason for the cuts will look familiar to more than 200 other federal education grant recipients across close to 20 other programs that have received nearly identical letters in recent months as the Trump administration screens grants and pulls the plug on anything it claims is related to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion…”

Lieberman quotes: “Madi Biedermann, the agency’s deputy assistant secretary for communications, (who) wrote in an email that the Trump administration is generally repurposing non-continued grants into ‘high quality programs that better serve special needs students… The Trump administration is no longer allowing taxpayer dollars to go out the door on autopilot—we are evaluating every federal grant to ensure they are in line with the administration’s policy of prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in education.’ ”

Lieberman reports that last week the Department of Education also cancelled a grant for “at least one recipient of a Promise Neighborhoods grant.” While federal support for Community schools goes back decades, the Promise Neighborhoods program was launched by the Obama Administration to “bolster… academic and social supports for children in high-need neighborhoods.”  Lieberman adds that both Community Schools and Promise Neighborhoods were “zeroed out” of Trump’s proposed federal budget for education last year.  While the U.S. Senate’s proposed  education budget last summer fully funded both programs, the GOP- dominated appropriations committee in the  U.S. House proposed a budget that would end both programs. In Russell Vought’s federal shutdown layoffs, only one staff member was left in the office that oversees these grants. Then, “Congress passed a law in November rescinding those layoffs, but employment for those workers is only assured through Jan. 30.”

Lieberman contrasts Trump’s cancellation of funding for community schools with the Biden Administration’s increase in 2023 of annual funding for community schools from $25 million to $150 million.

AFT files a lawsuit to block the Trump administration’s cancellation of grants for community schools. Last week, Education Week reported that the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and Chicago’s Brighton Park Neighborhood Council filed a lawsuit to block the termination of grants for Full-Service Community Schools and charged that the Education Department “cut off funding without notice, without lawful justification, and without following required procedures.”  EdSource adds: “The plaintiffs also have asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order to stop the department from withholding the funds while the court hears the case.”

AFT’s Randi Weingarten points out that “there was no communication with districts or even a request to ask for modifications. These grants were simply terminated on a whim.”  Patrick Brosnan, who leads Chicago’s Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, declared that programs supported by the cancelled grant, “advanced the stated mission of the U.S. Department of Education Full-Service Community School grant to support low-income students and families in our community, to ensure their access to high-quality after-school academic support, and to provide technical and career support to help mold the workforce of the future.”

Community schools have been among the most effective strategies to address the effects of family and neighborhood poverty — the educational opportunity gaps that David Berliner and other experts blame for disparities in standardized achievement test scores.  Because federal dollars help school districts pay for the professionals who coordinate social service programs with the academic programs in a community school and pay for medical and social service professionals who provide specific services, the loss of federal funding will imperil the future of Full-Service Community Schools.