The White House will release $5.5 billion in frozen education funds, administration officials announced Friday, bringing an end to a chaotic saga of the administration’s making, which had sent school districts scrambling with weeks to go before the school year.

The Trump administration had been facing growing bipartisan pressure, including from 10 Senate Republicans who signed a rare public letter urging the White House to release the funds.

The money was part of nearly $7 billion in education funding that had been approved by Congress and was set to be released July 1, before the Trump administration abruptly withheld it a day before the deadline.

The money included more than $2 billion to help train and recruit teachers, particularly in low-income areas that often have trouble competing for the most qualified teachers. It also included money for arts and music education in low-income districts, extra help for children learning English and support for children of migrant farmworkers.

The Department of Education said that it would begin sending the money to states next week.

On June 30, the administration said it was conducting a “review” and later said it had found instances of federal dollars being “grossly misused to subsidize a radical left-wing agenda.”

But the administration quickly faced mounting pushback, including two lawsuits in federal court. Last week, the White House announced that it would release $1.3 billion that had been withheld for after-school programs.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Sarah Mervosh/Whitney Curtis
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