Although Congress appropriated $890 million in Title III funds for FY25, the U.S. Department of Education has not yet allocated these funds to the states. The July 1st deadline has since passed and the funds are still being withheld with no real explanation.
These funds support important efforts like migrant education, after school programs and parent engagement, impacting more than 5 million English learners nationwide. For more information on the issue and how to take action, refer to this fact sheet from NABE.
As our friends at NABE have pointed out, this withholding is already impacting schools’ ability to:
- Provide language instruction programs and targeted academic support
- Offer critical professional development for teachers of English Learners
- Ensure proper planning, staffing, and budgeting for the 2025–26 school year
The time is now to act, and we need all hands on deck to support our EL students, families and communities. Here are a list of ways you can take action below.
Step 1: Email your representatives
Use this tool from our friends at TESOL to easily contact your members of Congress about the importance of Title III funds and the urgency of releasing these funds.
Step 2: Call your representatives
Use this script from NABE to call your House Rep and Senators:
“I’m calling from XXX town/state to urge Rep./Sen. XXX to take immediate action to direct the U.S. Department of Education to allocate the Title III funding enacted of $890 million to states for FY25. States have still not received FY25 funding allocations for Title III. These funds aim to ensure that English Learners become proficient in English.
The delay of funding is causing states and school districts to terminate contracts and staff lay-offs severely impacting the planning process and budgeting serving English Learners across our country.
Our states need reliable, stable, and timely federal funding to continue to provide support and services to English learners to attain proficiency and develop high levels of academic achievement in English.
Please ask Rep./Sen. XXX to commit to protecting this critical funding for our English Learners.”
Step 3: Email these key federal government stakeholders
Email these key federal stakeholders to demand the release of crucial education funds.
- Murray.Besette@ed.gov
- Linda.McMahon@ed.gov
- Rachel.Oglesby@ed.gov
- Hayley.Sanon@ed.gov
- Sarah.Wilson@ed.gov
Step 4: Demand legal action
Contact Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and urge him to take legal action to release these funds at (217) 782-1090 and (312) 814-3000.
