Budget cuts on education threaten public education, working families, immigrants, and high-poverty students. According to American Progress, Ivy league schools and institutions—especially Harvard—have been attacked by these federal cuts, as well as other colleges and schools. These laws were implemented by the Trump administration in February of 2025 and were put into action in August of 2025.
Quinn Allred, CTE Coordinator at Taylorsville High, stated “We were going to have some major changes due to funding cuts, but luckily the school has made some really good financial decisions the last few years. As a result of that, we’ve had some internal funding that was able to fix and replace things we needed to work on. For example, we have a Utah college advisor, and her job is to help kids apply for colleges, find scholarship opportunities, and career opportunities. That position was going to be cut, but luckily the school had enough money left over from other things we did and we were able to have it funded instead of having the government fund it.”
Although our school has been able to tackle these cuts, other lower income schools and districts can’t say the same. In accordance with New America, there are funding risks by a total of 4 congressional districts in the state of Utah. They are at risk of losing 7-10 million dollars of funding in each district. These highly affect districts and schools with low income and schools that have a population of high-poverty students. These districts will lose 5 times more money than schools that hold a population of lower-poverty students.
“Trump cutting funds on education is the worst decision ever. He goes on the news and says to get involved and participate but then makes laws that prevent us from doing so,” said Tracie Phung, Junior at Taylorsville High. “For me personally, sports equipment and specific class equipment for SBO has increased a lot compared to my freshman year of high school. It increased by a couple hundred dollars since then, and it’s affected me a lot. A lot of funding came from the governments and most of the taxpayers are paying for the government to fund schools such as: police, fire fighters, etc. It defeats the purpose of people paying taxes if they’re just going to cut funding for schools and education. This decision was horrible because a lot of people came from other countries to the United States for a “better opportunity,” but it defeats the purpose if they’re cutting funding.”
These budget cuts affect a lot of students of color and non-english speakers. As Nea states, the ICE budget has increased from 10 billion to 100 billion annually. They are cutting funds from education so they can support the ICE movement which guarantees the increase of harassment, abduction, and the tearing apart of families. This law also enforces the hardship of students paying for tuition. According to Student Borrower Protection Center, the average college graduate will pay $2-3k more per year compared to what they had to pay under the SAVE plan enforced by Joe Biden.
These budget cuts on education are very impactful to working immigrants and people who came to the U.S. for better opportunities. Although good financial decisions may help, it doesn’t mean most schools aren’t facing crucial damage due to the budget cuts. Given all of that, the future is very dependent on the younger generations. Without education, they won’t be able to support themselves, their families, or the country of the United States of America.
