Public education also threatened by school vouchers order 

A week of frenetic activity by the Trump Administration has raised questions around health care, food and other aid to children, HIV treatment for kids, and the future of public education.

“It is unfair to keep children in limbo,” said First Focus on Children President Bruce Lesley. “Children are not children for very long. As the Administration dithers, children continue to grow despite not knowing whether they will get health care, food, shelter or other assistance that they need to thrive. The uncertainty is inexcusable. And many of the orders — specifically the ones surrounding federal aid and school vouchers — likely are illegal. We hope the courts will resolve these issues quickly.”

  • Aid to children: Confusion remains around the Administration’s directive to freeze all federal loans, grants and assistance, an order that threatens more than $329 billion in children’s programming — or an average of $4,500 per child, according to calculations based on Children’s Budget 2024. The funding in question supports Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, food stamps, school meal programs, Head Start and other early education initiatives and myriad other programs that support low-income children. The order, which acts on the principle of impoundment, appears to be illegal and likely will be challenged in court.
  • Public Education: President Trump signed three executive orders on education this week, including one to promote school vouchers nationwide. A new analysis by First Focus on Children finds that a nationwide voucher program could decimate the country’s public schools, increase discrimination, widen the income gap, and ensure that the United States has two different education systems with vastly disparate resources. In addition, Congress has not given the Administration the authority to spend funding outside the designated scope, making the order on vouchers likely illegal. School vouchers, referred to as “school choice” by supporters, divert taxpayer funds from public schools to private, often religious, schools and home schooling. Read School Vouchers and the Growing Threat to Public Education.
  • HIV treatment for kids: Internationally, a freeze on funding previously appropriated by Congress for overseas programs likely has halted distribution of HIV drugs, even among programs that already have the drugs in hand. Experts estimate that the stoppage could cause an estimated 1,471 babies per day to be born with HIV. A new State Department waiver allows some emergency humanitarian assistance, but the definition of “emergency” remains unclear. In addition, a blanket freeze on poverty-focused development assistance could halt any new maternal and child health programs, clean water efforts, routine vaccinations, nutrition programs, and control of malaria and other infectious diseases.