In the first few months of his administration, President Donald Trump has cut the Department of Education workforce in half and signed an executive order to eliminate it altogether. He's also targeted the state of Maine, by putting a freeze on funding for schools, citing DEI programs, transgender athletes and student protests. The uncertainties around the fate of the department and its mission are affecting all levels of the state's education system.
Colby Matolcsy is 14 years old, a student at Oxford Hills Middle school, and loves the movie Jurassic Park.
Colby has Down Syndrome, Autism, PTSD and a few other diagnoses. His mom Aranka Matolcsy said he rarely attends school in person because of incidents of hitting or being aggressive with school staff that cause him to be suspended. And she said the scale of recent changes within the education system are even more dramatic than those seen during the COVID pandemic.
"This is different, this is the scaffolding of the only things that have met critical needs," Matolcsy said.
She said when Colby is in school, he spends his time there alone with an ed tech, because he can't be safe in the classroom with other students. Ed techs are paid partially through federal funding, and Matolcsy fears what will happen if more cuts are made to classroom support mechanisms.
"The prospect of what's coming, I mean, if it's already been that bad, I mean already in the context of him being in school, he's lost a permanent tooth in his classroom. He's been lost by staff. This is already without staff and funding being cut," Matolcsy said.
K-12 public school budgets are split between allocations from the state and local property taxes. But federal funding is used to fill in the gaps for special education, rural schools and school nutrition. In fiscal year 2024, the Maine Department of Education received more than $275 million in federal funds. That represents about 10% of school district budgets across the state.
"There's a strong likelihood that 10% understates the actual dollar volume," Kimball said.
Ezekiel Kimball, interim dean at the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development, said some federal money also goes to grants that local districts receive, or nonprofit agencies for work done to support schools. And he fears that the loss of staffers at DOE, who can help solve problems at the local level, will be felt.
"The people that someone in the state of Maine, a local school, a local school district, the State Department of Education might have emailed two days ago, might not be there tomorrow," Kimball said.
The prospect of significant funding cuts comes as many communities are finalizing their school budgets for the coming year. Some are planning for an expected loss in funding. Portland, Maine's largest school district, is anticipating a downward budget adjustment of $1 million.
But the effects of these changes at the federal level will be felt at all levels of the system, said Jason Judd, executive director of the non-profit Educate Maine.
"And that comes in the form of everything from Career and Technical Education, to higher education, to preschool support and expansion, to working with our low income students and families coming from some of our most rural districts," Judd said.
Judd said he's concerned that staffing cuts at DOE could affect processing times for FAFSA, the federal application for student aid that is due each spring.
"If there's a slowdown in processing time based on shortage of staff, and those letters come in late. More families may choose to not send their student on to higher education," Judd said.
"Anything that has an impact on the ability of a student attending our Universities is worrisome," said University of Maine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy.
Malloy said the system received $225 million in federal funding last year, mostly in the form of direct student financial aid. Malloy said research funding is also a major concern. In early February, the Trump administration effectively shut down the independent research arm within the federal DOE and has also attempted to revoke more than $60 million of UMaine's USDA funding.
"We've been lead to believe that monies would be available, we're going to fight those fights but do it in a respectful way and try not to make ourselves anymore of a target than we have to be," Malloy said.
Back in South Paris, parent Aranka Matolcsy said she is worried about the future of her son's education.
"That's my biggest concern, is that there will not be any regulatory body that oversees the laws that that ensure my child's rights and the rights of all people with disabilities to free and appropriate education," Matolcsy said.
