Bilingual funding restored in Trump administration reversal

When Sandra Chevalier-Blackman, CEO of Eugenio Maria De Hostos Charter School in the North Clinton neighborhood, got news that her school might not receive federal grants this year, her team immediately planned alternative budgets. 

On July 1, the Department of Education announced it would withhold over $6 billion in funding to schools across the country. More than $400 million was frozen in New York for grants under Titles I-C, II-A, III-A, IV-A, IV-B.  This is when educators, including Chevalier-Blackman, realized that they need to plan for a budget without federal funding. 

“We were tasked with this major thing on how the school would be impacted without the grants,” says Chevalier-Blackman. “We were going to lose staff, we were going to lose some clubs, we were going to lose some programming.” 

Eugenio Maria De Hostos has an embedded dual language program, where native Spanish speakers learn English, but also offers an opportunity for English speakers to become fluent in Spanish.  

The school has about 180 students who qualify as English language learners, says Chevalier-Blackman. Thirty-eight percent of 2025 graduates obtained a seal of biliteracy, which states that the student can read, write, and speak in two languages. For Eugenio Maria De Hostos students, those languages are English and Spanish. 

The school is centered on bilingualism, making Title III-A—designed to improve the education of English Learner students through funding distributed to states—particularly important to its community. Eugenio Maria De Hostos received more than $25,000 in Title III grants last year; $78,303 in Title II-A grants; and $49,699 in Title VI- A funding. The school did not receive funding under Title VI-B. The school’s financial team had to present two grantless budget options to its board this summer. One of the options included the termination of about 22 staff members.  

“It was very stressful,” says Chevalier-Blackman, “Thank God we didn’t have to use budgets B or C.” 

On July 25, the Trump administration decided to release federal funding for these grants. 

The administration at Eugenio Maria De Hostos was conducting meetings about the frozen grants in secret.

“I was concerned that if people heard their jobs were insecure, they would leave,” says Chevalier-Blackman. “I didn’t want this out there to the families or to the staff, so when we got the news (that grants would be released), the first thing I said was 22 homes that we saved, 22 staff that now have a job.” 

Of the $6 billion allocated to these grants, roughly $890 million this year is dedicated to ESL services under Title III-A nationwide. The dramatic reversal came after a lawsuit by dozens of Democratic attorney generals and a letter to the President from 10 Republican senators representing rural areas. 

More than seven schools and school districts in the Rochester area received a Title III-A grant in the 2024-2025 academic year, including Brighton Central School District, Brockport Central School District, East Rochester School District, Eugenio Maria De Hostos Charter School, Rochester City School District, and the Rochester Academy of Science. 

The Rochester City School District was the largest recipient in the last academic year, receiving more than $500,000. RCSD and the Brighton School District did not respond to requests for comment.

Paul Miller, CEO of Charter Champions, a nonprofit that addresses the need of Rochester-area charter schools, notes that government funding is a lifeline for equitable education. 

While charter schools are eligible for Title III-A, Miller explains it often isn’t as much as they need. Still, it remains a lifeline for programming.

Miller explains that ESL students often deal with a learning curve. Despite having limited knowledge in English, they are still subject to the same graduation requirements as their counterparts. 

“This money (federal funding) will help create high-quality interaction and give the ability to really build programs so that (educators) can raise their proficiency level,” Miller says. 

If the funding ever falls through, Miller says charter schools lack alternatives. 

“Charter schools are 501(c)(3)s so (that) you can do fundraising, you can look to philanthropic dollars, you can apply for other outside grants,” says Miller. “But a grant is like rolling the dice; you don’t know what you are going to get or if you are going to be awarded any of that.” 

If government funding, such as Title III-A, fails to get allocated at some point, schools will start asking staff to do additional work for free, he believes.

“At the end of the day, putting this type of stress on school leaders who have a job, which is to educate every kid and make sure that every child has the opportunity to be successful, it’s really, really infringing on that,” Miller says.

At Eugenio Maria De Hostos Charter School, if the Title III-A failed to come through this year, it would have continued to offer ESL programming and cut back elsewhere, because bilingualism is a pillar of the institution, says Chevalier-Blackman. Over 48 percent of staff at Eugenio Maria De Hostos are Spanish speakers, including paraprofessionals, teachers, kitchen staff and administration—and the CEO. Title III grant money gets allocated to hiring English New Language teachers, curriculum materials in English and Spanish, and field trips. 

ENL teachers are hired to co-teach lessons in English and social studies classes, where vocabulary is most needed. Often, teachers work with students in small groups for test preparation and high school capstone presentation projects. 

Chevalier-Blackman believes that families seek out the school because of its bilingual education and culture, as it is the only institution of its kind in the area. 

“This programming is fundamental and it is a part of our school and the foundation of the school,” she says, “That will not change. Our founders are very centered and will continue with those services.” 

Malak Kassem is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and a member of the Oasis Project’s second cohort.

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