The Trump Administration released a budget proposal early this month, seeking to reduce federal spending by cutting funding for several departments - including education. The proposal outlines plans to reduce funding for K-12 programs by more than $4.5 billion.
Paso Robles Joint Unified School District Superintendent Jennifer Loftus shared how those cuts could impact local schools starting in the 2026 school year.
"I think as we get closer to the next school year, we might become more aware...of what additional budget cuts might be coming our way and it might have an impact on our programs and on our staffing," Superintendent Loftus said.
She explained that the district has discussed cuts already, due to their ongoing budget deficit.
"We've had a lot of conversations around reductions just in general in the past, the Rebels Joint Unified School District simply because we're operating at a structural deficit anyway," Loftus said. "We already anticipate there might be further reductions in addition to what we had to make going into the 25/26 school year."
PRJUSD is funded through a combination of federal, state, and local tax dollars.
“If we were to lose our revenue from any one of those three sources, it would have a significant, devastating impact on our school district," Loftus said.
Loftus said 85% of the district's costs go towards staffing. While staffing cuts would be necessary to balance the budget, it's not a solution that meets the needs of students or staff.
"We are a human organization. At the end of the day, we need to be able to employ people to help take care of our students," Loftus said.
She added that federally funded programs would also have to be cut.
“Further budget reductions would mean further reductions to staffing. That would mean not having programs that we have in place for our students looking first at programs that are funded federally," Loftus said.
Since neither staffing nor program cuts offer practical solutions for the district, Loftus proposed parents, staff, and community members advocate for continued federal funding.
“We should really be advocating strongly with our legislators around this topic,” Loftus said. ”Pay attention and speak up because schools do need to be appropriately funded.”
