'Doesn’t sit well out here:' Trump caves on funding freeze after massive rural backlash

The Donald Trump Administration’s decision in late July to reverse course on a $6.2 billion funding freeze in education dollars came amid a swath of bipartisan backlash, though it's the pushback from local education officials in pro-Trump communities that may have moved the needle, argued reporter Toluse Olorunnipa Tuesday in The Atlantic.

“On the campaign trail, Trump’s promise to ‘send education back to the states’ was often greeted with applause, and the Supreme Court has allowed the president to go ahead with his plans to gut the Education Department,” Olorunnipa wrote.

“But the four-week funding freeze – and the backlash it sparked – showed that cutting popular programs for schoolkids can be as unwelcome in Trump country as it is in coastal cities.”

The funding freeze largely applied to before- and after-school programs, and with states that voted for Trump in 2020 or 2024 relying more heavily on federal funding than those that backed Democratic candidates, and by a significant margin, local education officials in pro-Trump districts soon began to openly express their frustrations.

“I’ve got to be honest, this doesn’t sit well out here,” said Steven Johnson, superintendent of the Fort Ransom School District in North Dakota, where Trump won by a large margin in 2024, speaking with The Atlantic.

“You can’t freeze money that was already allocated, leave schools hanging through hiring season and budget planning, and then expect us to just be grateful when it finally shows up. Rural folks don’t like being jerked around.”

Johnson went on to say that even with the education funding freeze being reversed, “the delay tactics already have hurt,” given the district’s hiring had already been compromised by the temporary lack of funds, funds that had already been approved by Congress back in March.

Another individual – Wayne Trottier, former superintendent in a different North Dakota school district – said that the education funding freeze was so impactful that he recently confronted Trump’s pick for Education Department assistant secretary, Kirsten Baesler, who also resides in North Dakota, asking her whether she would “fight from the inside” against Trump’s education cuts.

And even a handful of Republican lawmakers have joined in opposing further education funding freezes, with nine Republican senators urging the Trump administration to end the then-ongoing funding freeze.

“Withholding these funds will harm students, families and local economies,” the joint letter, sent in mid-July, read.