Perched on the side of a mountain in the Columbia River Gorge, the White Salmon Valley School District is the kind of place where the school is the heartbeat of the community.
There aren't any YMCAs or many options for after-school care. The district fills in that gap, offering a place for students to go. So when news emerged that the Trump administration was proposing broad cuts to education programs, Superintendent Rich Polkinghorn feared it would hit one of the area's only safety nets.
"This would be catastrophic," said Polkinghorn.
Under President Donald Trump's proposed federal budget, the 1,100-student district stands to see federal money cut by more than a third. Although federal funding makes up just 5% of the total budget, there's little room to absorb the blow. Just a couple of years ago, before Polkinghorn took over, the district had to lay off 10% of its 80-person staff because of declining enrollment and the loss of pandemic relief aid.
The cuts are expected to hit small districts the hardest, warned Washington’s top education official, Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal. These districts often have higher concentrations of students serviced by federal programs, including English learners and homeless students.
“He wants public schools to have less money. Because with fewer services, people will say they want a private option,” Reykdal said of Trump. “ ... I fundamentally think that is a horrific direction to go in this country.”
The average Washington district received only 7% of its funding from the federal government last school year. In the Shoreline district of roughly 10,000 students, the loss will be about $20 per student, out of an average of more than $800 per student in funding.
But in districts of just a few hundred pupils, the loss is double that percentage or more because their enrollments are so small. Some reported nearly half of their overall funding came from federal sources last year.
In a recent interview, Reykdal said the proposal is an ideological blueprint for dismantling public education. He called it “intentionally reckless” and warned that the biggest impact would fall on students with the fewest resources and the least political power.
The proposal is part of a larger effort to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. Washington and several other states just won a court order to stop these efforts, but the Trump administration plans to appeal.
“The federal government has invested trillions of taxpayer dollars into an education system that is not driving improved student outcomes — we must change course and reorient taxpayer dollars toward proven programs that generate results for American students,” U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement last month.
In Wahluke, a farming district in Central Washington where 98% of about 2,500 students are Latino and nearly 60% are English learners, the projected loss is even sharper: around $936 per student, or about $2.2 million. Around 16% of its revenue comes from federal funding, which averaged around $3,200 per student during the 2023-2024 school year.
“They don’t want immigrants here. They don’t want Black and brown people to have success,” Reykdal said. “I believe it’s racist.”
Wahluke Superintendent Andy Harlow said the blow would come after years of gradual staffing reductions as the district weaned off pandemic-era federal relief. With even less federal support, Harlow fears the district would have to gut programs.
“We don’t have a Plan B,” he said. “This has so many levels.”
The pressure, he added, isn’t just fiscal, it’s emotional. The fear of immigration enforcement showing up at school events is constant for some community members, said Harlow. Now he’s faced with the prospect of having to cut services for those very families.
Federal funds for migrant and English learners, both targeted for cuts, are critical for districts like Wahluke. They pay for staff dedicated to ensuring students and families receive support in their home language. The money is also essential to making sure students are identified for services, or for public school generally.
“If we lose the ability to identify families, you’re gonna see kids in the fields at earlier ages,” said Reykdal.
In Thorp, a district of just 258 students east of the Cascades, the anticipated cut is $135,000, or $522 per student down from an average of $1,600 per student in federal funds. Superintendent Andrew Perkins said they’re most worried about losing the Rural Education Achievement Program, which provides flexible funding to isolated districts. It’s not one of the programs mentioned for cuts, but he’s worried things could change.
Though Thorp hasn’t had to lay anyone off yet, Perkins sees a larger concern: that federal cuts will mask ongoing underfunding at the state level. “I don’t want this to be a smoke screen,” he said. “The state’s not fully funding education, and now everyone’s focused on D.C.”
The proposed budget still has to clear Congress. If it does pass as proposed, school districts would first feel the effects the following summer, in time for the 2026-27 school year.
