Temple University President John Fry this week signaled that officials expect to eliminate jobsas the public institution in Philadelphia navigates choppy fiscal waters.
University leaders forecast a $60 million structural deficit for fiscal 2026, Fry said in an announcement to the Temple community. That comes after the university shrank an $85 million projected deficit to $19 million for fiscal 2025.
As the university tries to close the persistent structural deficits, Temple leaders have asked vice presidents and deans to reduce their total compensation spending by 5% across units, Fry said. “Unfortunately, this will result in the elimination of some positions,” he added.
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Over fiscal 2025, Temple shrank its deficit by tightly controlling hiring, travel and other discretionary spending. Nonetheless, long-term enrollment declines have weighed on the budget.
“For the previous years that we had a structural deficit, university reserves were used to cover expenses, which is not a sustainable practice,” Fry said. “We must work toward achieving a structurally balanced budget where our expenses do not exceed revenues going forward.”
Specifically, Fry pointed to a drop of 10,000 students from fall 2017 levels, with much of that dip occurring during the pandemic.As of fall 2023, Temple’s enrollment totaled 30,205 students.
The declines, Fry noted, have translated into a roughly $200 million falloff in tuition revenue.
However, Fry pointed to “positive indicators” for the class of 2029. He said Temple is on track for its second consecutive year of increases in first-year students.
But while enrollment is still being rebuilt, state appropriations have remained flat and operating costs have increased.
“For this reason, fiscal year 2026 — and the next two years — will continue to be challenging until we significantly grow overall enrollment and identify new revenue sources,” Fry said. “In short, we have some difficult but necessary decisions to make over the next three fiscal years.”
Employee compensation accounts for 62% of operating expenses, which is why university leaders are homing in on those costs. Even so, the university is planning a 1.5% increase in the budget for merit salary raises.
The university is also making capital investments, including building a new home for its public health collegeand an arts pavilion. Fry noted that these projects are funded with donations and state money.
Temple is far from alone in its austerity measures.
In recent months, both public and private universities have undertaken some combination of hiring freezes, furloughs, layoffs, tuition hikes and other measures to address funding challenges from both the state and federal level. The Trump administration, for example, has unilaterally slashed grant funding, and congressional Republicans are eyeing policy changes, such as eliminating Grad PLUS loans.
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President Donald Trump on Friday proposed wide-ranging cuts to federal higher education spending in his fiscal 2026 budget request, calling to eliminate some grant programs altogether and for states to take over others like Federal Work-Study.
The budget request offers a broad look at Trump’s priorities, which include shaving 15.3% off the U.S. Department of Education’s budget, a move in line with his broader plan to shutter the agency. Across the federal government, Trump’s request would eliminate some $163 billion in nondefense domestic spending, including the dramatic cuts to education programs.
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement Friday that the budget reflects “funding levels for an agency that is responsibly winding down, shifting some responsibilities to the states, and thoughtfully preparing a plan to delegate other critical functions to more appropriate entities.”
Presidential budget proposals are akin to executive wishlists and are never enacted as introduced. And Trump’s budget request for the 2026 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, faces key obstacles before it could be approved. Even though Republicans control both the House and Senate, at least one GOP lawmaker has already objected to some of Trump’s proposed cuts.
But other party leaders signaled a willingness to embrace Trump’s proposals.
“The American people sent Republicans to Washington to lower costs and rein in wasteful government spending,” Tim Walberg, chair of the House Committee on Education and Workforce, said in a Friday statement. “The budget proposal President Trump released today not only gives us a blueprint but shows us it is possible to deliver on this promise.”
Student aid takes a blow
The budget takes aim at Federal Work-Study, which provides part-time jobs to students who need help paying for college. Under the program, the federal government covers up to 75% of students’ wages.
Trump’s proposal calls for a $980 million reduction in funding for the program, which was appropriated $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2024.
In his budget plan, the president called for Federal Work-Study to be run by the states and the colleges “that financially benefit from it.”
“Reform of this poorly targeted program should redistribute remaining funding to institutions that serve the most low-income students and provide a wage subsidy to gain career-oriented opportunities to improve long-term employment outcomes of students,” it says.
Trump’s proposal would also eliminate funding for Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, which assist undergraduate students who have “exceptional financial need.” The program was allocated $910 million in fiscal 2024 — all of which would be cut under Trump’s budget.
The budget document accuses the grants of contributing “to rising college costs” that colleges have used to pay for a “radical leftist ideology.” Colleges that receive these grants pass the money onto students, and the institutions must contribute 25% of their own money for those awards.
Two other programs are on the chopping block: TRIO, which provides support for middle school through college students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and Gear Up, which helps low-income students prepare for postsecondary education. Trump’s budget called these programs a “relic of the past when financial incentives were needed to motivate” colleges to increase access to low-income students.
“Today, the pendulum has swung and access to college is not the obstacle it was for students of limited means,” the budget document claims, saying higher education institutions should use their own resources to recruit students.
Together, the programs received nearly $1.6 billion in fiscal 2024, all of which would be cut under Trump’s plan.
The budget documents released Friday did not address funding for Pell Grants, the largest student aid program.
Department services and college grants also targeted
The proposal would also cut $49 million from the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, a 35% reduction from fiscal 2024 levels, according to the budget. The agency recently cut OCR’s workforce in half as part of mass layoffs.
In his budget plan, Trump accused colleges of misusing the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, which awards grants for projects aimed at improving postsecondary educational opportunities. The budget claims they used the program to “fund ideologies instead of students.”
Trump proposed cutting $195 million from FIPSE and said colleges and states should be responsible for funding innovative programs themselves.
He also proposed sending responsibility for the Strengthening Institutions initiative to states and colleges. Under this program, the Education Department provides grants to help colleges expand their ability to serve low-income students, bolster their academic quality and become more financially stable, according to the agency’s website.
The program was allocated $112 million in fiscal 2024 — and Trump’s plan calls for zeroing that amount out.
The budget would also slash $64 million from Howard University, the only historically Black institution in the country that is federally chartered. The Trump administration said the move would bring the university’s funding back to 2021 levels and “more sustainably support” the institution.
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President Donald Trump on Friday delivered a federal budget that would slash more than $4.5 billion in K-12 funding for fiscal year 2026. In total, cuts to the Education Department would amount to $12 billion, or 15% of its current funding.
The deep cuts would hit programs meant to ensure equitable access to education for underserved students and to protect their civil rights. And though maintained at current funding levels, Title I and special education programs would be reorganized into separate single grants aimed at letting states spend the money as they see fit.
“The Budget continues the process of shutting down the Department of Education,” the White House’s funding request states.
Among the cuts:
All $70 million for Teacher Quality Partnerships grant, often used to diversify the teacher workforce.
All $7 million for Equity Assistance Centers, established as part of desegregation efforts.
All $890 million for English Language Acquisition.
A $49 million, or 35%, reduction for the Office for Civil Rights.
At the same time, Trump’s budget would boost funding for charter schools by $60 million.
Funding for Title I and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act programs — which public school advocates had worried would be cut — was preserved. Head Start, which was widely rumored to be on the chopping block, appears to have survived for now as it is not among the cuts listed in the budget document.
Cuts reflect administration’s anti-DEI priority
Many of the proposed cuts reflect Trump’s course reversal from the previous decades-long focus on equity in the education sector.
For instance, the budget would zero out Equity Assistance Centers, originally established under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to level the playing field for students of color, and especially Black students, after decades of segregation and its long-standing impact on their achievement over generations. Friday’s White House budget request characterizes such efforts as “distractions” from focusing on core subjects like math, reading, science and history.
Another program that would be halted is the Teacher Quality Partnerships grant, which funds teacher pipeline programs and helped establish a master’s program for teachers of color. The budget document argues that the program centers “racism in their pedagogy” by including instruction for aspiring teachers on “social justice activism, ’anti-racism,’ and instruction on white privilege and white supremacy.” Professional development workshops funded by the grants have included topics such as “building cultural competence,” “dismantling racial bias,” and “centering equity in the classroom,” which the administration took issue with.
Also on the chopping block: The budget would eliminate the $890 million English Language Acquisition program, which the administration says “encourages bilingualism,” and “deemphasizes English primacy.”
The administration also proposed an end to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Preschool Development Grants. In the budget overview, the White House cited efforts by the Minnesota Department of Education to use the money to implement “intersectionality” and “racial equity” in early childhood education programs and by Oregon to provide “quality care” for the state’s LGBTQIA+ families.
One of the few increases included in the proposal to K-12 program funding was an additional $60 million for charter schools, which it says “have a proven track record of improving students’ academic achievement” and will create more local school options while expanding parental choice.
Proposed cuts follow recent moves to gut Education Department
The president’s budget request “reflects funding levels for an agency that is responsibly winding down, shifting some responsibilities to the states, and thoughtfully preparing a plan to delegate other critical functions to more appropriate entities.” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.
The budget proposal “supports the President’s vision of expanding school choice and ensuring every American has access to an excellent education,” McMahon said in a statement on Friday.
Many of the proposed cuts reflect moves already made to pare down and eventually close the Education Department “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law,” as Trump ordered in a March directive.
For example, as part of a massive reduction in force that eliminated half of the department’s employees, the ELA office was already entirely slashed.
The RIF also cut OCR’s workforce by half, shutting down half of the nation’s offices that were responsible for investigating thousands of school civil rights complaints. OCR operations under Trump have pivoted to focus on eliminating LGBTQ+-friendly policies, and much of its investigative responsibilities and all of its enforcement work has been shifted to the Department of Justice.
One of the first cuts made to the department, even prior to the mass layoffs, was the February cancellation of Teacher Quality Partnership grants, which the administration called “divisive.” Those grants, entirely eliminated in Friday’s proposed budget, were part of a $600 million cut that was challenged in court by Democratic attorneys general and temporarily reinstated in March, only for the Supreme Court to then allow the cuts to move forward.
Next steps in the budget process
While far from final, presidents’ budget proposals reflect their priorities for the nation and oftentimes hint at the road ahead. Though priorities shift between administrations, and particularly so when the party in power changes — but the shifts have been nothing short of dramatic and unprecedented from Biden to Trump.
Appropriations are ultimately set by Congress, which is now controlled by Republicans who espouse many of Trump’s priorities and seem sympathetic to the president’s K-12 priorities, including shutting down the Education Department. Long considered impossible, the agency’s total shutdown still seems like a longshot to many. But, it’s possible that many of the president’s funding proposals — which would eliminate or greatly reduce many of the department’s functions — will be pushed through.
“The President’s Budget Request is simply one step in the annual budget process,” said U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, in a statement Friday. Noting that the budget was submitted late and isn’t comprehensive, Collins said, “Ultimately, it is Congress that holds the power of the purse.”
The House and Senate Appropriations committees will hold hearings to learn more about the president’s proposal and then are to mark up their own bills to fund the federal government for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
