After months of legal limbo, federal funds previously withheld by the Trump administration, including more than $1 million for Charlottesville and Albemarle County schools, have started to flow back into Charlottesville. In addition to public school funds, funding decisions for adult education, adult literacy and English acquisition programs were also reversed. Yet, regardless of the final status of the funds, the fragility generated by the lurching nature of these decisions only serves to further degrade Charlottesville’s educational institutions by forcing them to plan for a scenario in which the money never arrives.
These recent funding fiascos show that the federal government’s heavy hand has had a similar impact on local establishments as it has had on larger institutions like the University. Many of Charlottesville’s adult education programs help serve the city’s immigrants and refugees, owing to Charlottesville's status as a designated resettlement area. The federal government’s acrimony for these groups, when combined with vacillating funding decisions, breeds complete chaos for adult education services in Charlottesville. Unless funding is put on a more stable footing, Charlottesville education will continue to waste time fighting for the return of status quo funding instead of working to better provide for the community.
In addition to Charlottesville and Albemarle County’s public school systems facing precarious situations due to funding uncertainties, adult educational programs in Charlottesville stand to lose exceedingly from capricious federal action. Among the funds that were previously frozen were $6 billion in federal grants, much of which was intended for adult education programs in Charlottesville. These funds, which were frozen for nearly one month, help finance programs in Charlottesville aimed at providing adults with continuing education and English language instruction, which is vitally important in helping adults obtain essential documents and services like a driver’s license and U.S. citizenship. And, while these education services are crucial to all adults, many of those seeking assistance are immigrants and refugees — groups that these funding cuts unfairly disadvantage.
While most of the funds were released after bipartisan pressure, they come with warnings about providing services to undocumented immigrants that the federal government considers unqualified. These programs cannot stably operate while fretting over whether the government will continue to recognize their dependents as legitimate residents, with their essential funding tied to this designation. These restrictions all but guarantee that the government will find a reason to object to the services provided to Charlottesville’s non-citizen community. If these objections lead to more fund withholdings, adult education and literacy organizations will be forced to relitigate these same issues to the detriment of all their adult students.
The federal government’s thinly veiled threats to the legitimate practices of these programs fly in the face of the work these programs have provided to Charlottesville for decades. One such program is Literacy Volunteers, founded in 1983 to teach adults in the area to read, write and speak English. Projects like these face the combined threat of disorderly funding decisions and broad-stroke immigration policies that fail to address the nuances of specific communities. The uncertainty generated by these policies prevents adult education programs from dedicating their full attention to serving the community. The specter of a potentially cataclysmic withholding of funds casts doubt on their future ability to accomplish their mission in Charlottesville.
Even when federal funds have been restored, the delays caused by the initial withholding can cause chaos as institutions rush to plan for a no-funding outcome. Instead of preparation, time and resources are wasted on fighting to simply reestablish their base level of funding. This fight is a distraction from these institutions’ mission to provide for the Charlottesville community and limits their ability to seek more help when assets are instead being used to fight for the help they previously had.
The argument that the situation is not an issue because the funds are ultimately restored is a dangerous fallacy — resources that could be put to better use are ultimately spent strategizing the best way to survive. If these programs continue having to face down the federal government’s erratic choices to withhold and grant funding at a moment’s notice, Charlottesville will see a drastic reduction, if not outright elimination, of these essential services for the community’s adults. The only way these local institutions can reliably move towards their objective is by being able to depend on reliable funding decisions, not ones that change month-to-month.
The volatile nature of the federal government’s funding decisions creates a quagmire that local institutions will have a hard time escaping. When funding decisions become volatile, so does an institution’s ability to provide for those who depend on it. Charlottesville’s educational institutions have provided incredibly vital resources to the city for decades — whether it be schooling for youth, technical education for adults or English language instruction for refugees. If these resources dry up because of an impulsive federal government, Charlottesville will feel the reduced educational support for decades to come.
The Cavalier Daily Editorial Board is composed of the Executive Editor, the Editor-in-Chief, the two Opinion Editors, two Senior Associates and an Opinion Columnist. The board can be reached at eb@cavalierdaily.com.
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