Latest victim of federal cuts? $5 million in Cal Poly grants supporting SLO County teachers
The federal government slashed two Cal Poly grants targeted at getting qualified teachers into local special education and bilingual education classrooms, documents provided to The Tribune show.
The move comes amid President Donald Trump’s promises to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and revoke funding for so-called “illegal” and “discriminatory” diversity, equity and inclusion practices in schools and universities nationwide.
Grant recipients say the cuts could have detrimental impacts on already struggling SLO County classrooms — and most of all, English learners and students with disabilities.
Stephen Crutchfield, an associate professor in Cal Poly’s special education department and a lead on one of the sliced grant projects, described the decision as “disruptive”
“It’s clearly not about producing a better working system,” he said. “It’s just about being chaotic and disruptive and punitive.”
What would the education grants have done?
Cal Poly’s $4.6 million INSPIRE grant aimed to bolster the workforce in SLO County schools — especially in the field of special education.
California has suffered a chronic special education teacher shortage since the ‘70s, said Crutchfield. Over the last decade, around 25% of the special education workforce has retired — and the shortage was further compounded during and after COVID.
“Since the pandemic, we’ve seen a decrease in applications to special education credential programs by about 30%,” he said.
In that same time, the demand has gone up as more and more students are placed on individualized education plans or otherwise require special education services.
To compensate for the shortage, many educators obtain emergency special education certifications to fill vacancies — but often, this means the most vulnerable students are being taught by the least prepared and most overburdened teachers, which further exacerbates achievement gaps between special education students and their peers.
This can open districts up to legal liability for not adequately providing services that are mandated at the state and federal levels. Plus, as class sizes and caseloads increase, districts risk losing even more teachers to burnout, perpetuating a vicious cycle.
“It’s put a lot of pressure on the rest of the system — general education teachers, counselors, school psychologists, leadership — to try to provide these services to students,” Crutchfield said. “Districts have seen increases in litigation for not providing services. It’s just caused a huge mess.”
In preparation for their grant application, Crutchfield, colleague Jess Jensen and the rest of their Cal Poly team examined the special education and general teacher shortage at the local level. The team spoke with district administrators countywide to ask about their needs.
The conversations resulted in a successful application for the INSPIRE grant, which aimed to provide $4.6 million in funds to help get qualified, prepared teachers and leaders into both general and special education classrooms, and to help support English-language learners.
According to Jensen, the grant would have supported 1,350 teachers and at least 75,600 students in SLO County over five years by providing training, support, mentorship and micro-credentialing opportunities to local educators and school leaders. It would have touched the lives of thousands more as the impacts of having fully staffed classrooms and fully qualified teachers began to take effect, both locally and statewide.
The grant was especially important for districts like Paso Robles, which confirmed Tuesday that it will eliminate at least 20 teaching positions and two counseling positions due to budget cuts.
“It really can’t be understated how much this is hurting our local community and beyond,” she said.
The TIER grant — the second education grant to be eliminated — provided living wage stipends to aspiring special education and bilingual classroom teachers in local high-needs schools.
Residents of the program’s first cohort landed jobs in districts in SLO County and Santa Maria.
Losing the TIER grant resulted in another $500,000 reduction in support for local special education and bilingual classrooms, according to Cal Poly associate professor Tina Cheuk.
Sliced grants are ‘inconsistent with’ federal priorities
Jensen said she received word of the INSPIRE grant program’s elimination in a letter Wednesday.
“This letter provides notice that the United States Department of Education is terminating your federal award,” the communication began.
The reasoning? The goal to get qualified teachers into classrooms was “inconsistent with” federal priorities, the letter read.
The same language was used to justify the cut to the TIER grant, which was retracted Thursday.
Although it didn’t give a specific reason, the Department of Education took the stance that the grant programs fell under the scope of diversity, equity and inclusion, and were therefore unlawful.
The communications stated that the grants — because they were deemed DEI initiatives — were either discriminatory, fraudulent, in violation of civil rights law or in conflict with education standards. Or, if one of those wasn’t the case, the programs would “otherwise fail to serve the best interests of the United States,” the department wrote.
“The grant is therefore inconsistent with, and no longer effectuates, department priorities,” the letters concluded.
Crutchfield and Jensen told The Tribune they were expecting some roadblocks with the transition of a new administration — but what they weren’t expecting was to get scolded for trying to help students in need.
“What our grant is focusing on that they are considering diversity, equity and inclusion, is supporting special education and English-language learners,” Jensen said. “So supporting them is now not allowed.”
“We all expected some potential hiccups in funding with changes in administration — this stuff happens,” Crutchfield said. “But this is extreme.”
The grant funding was cut off immediately, but a path to appeal the decision was laid out in the letter. The Cal Poly team was still working to determine how to proceed — and they were hopeful, if unsure, that the work can continue.
“It’s really devastating and disheartening that this significant investment of time and energy and resources is just kind of being cut off and wasted, in a way,” Jensen said.
The team was also concerned additional Cal Poly education grants will be cut, further compromising the health of local education.
“We’re kind of all just sitting ducks at this point, waiting for the cuts to happen,” Jensen said. “We know that it’s coming, but we’re not sure how far it’ll go.”
This story was originally published February 19, 2025 at 9:00 AM.
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