President Trump’s FY27 Budget Request Supports Pell Grants but De-Funds Other Critical Supports for Community College Students

April 3, 2025

Jonathan Elkin

Today, the White House sent the president’s annual budget request to Congress for the upcoming fiscal year 2027 (FY27). The FY27 budget proposes to eliminate or consolidate critical programs for community college students, while protecting some others. Overall, the budget requests $76.5 billion the U.S. Department of Education (ED) for FY27, a $2.3 billion or 3 percent cut.

The budget proposes an additional $10.5 billion to help shore up the Pell Grant program, the main federal program for low-income students to pay for college. In 2020, Congress passed and President Trump signed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Simplification Act, which resulted in additional Pell Grant eligibility and uptake, thus causing an expected shortfall of $17 billion for FY27. Thanks to the advocacy of community college leaders and students, last week a record number of both Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. House signed on to support Pell Grant funding.

The budget’s proposed cuts include:

Eliminate the Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants (SCCTG) program for community college workforce development ($65 million). Instead, consolidate SCCTG and many other Department of Labor workforce development programs into a Make America Skilled Again block grant to states, with a reduction in overall funding. Instead of a separate Apprenticeships fund from the Department of Labor, states would be required to spend at least 10 percent of their block grants on registered apprenticeships.
Eliminate Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS, $75 million).
Eliminate Adult Basic Education (ABE) state grants ($715 million).
Move Perkins Career and Technical Education (CTE) state grants to DOL, but only allow the program to be used in middle and high schools, not community colleges.
Eliminate Federal TRIO Programs ($1.191 billion) and GEAR UP ($388 billion) for first-generation and low-income college access and completion.
Eliminate Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG, $914 million).
Slash Federal Work-Study by $1.1 billion (90%) and change the program from colleges paying 25% of student wages to colleges paying 90%.
Eliminate funding for Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP), which helps colleges with high enrollment of low-income students and low resources per student ($112 million).
Eliminate funding for Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI) programs ($354 million total), including Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs), Asian American and Native American Pacific-Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions (ANNHSIs), and Native American Serving Nontribal Institutions (NASNTIs).. The Trump Administration claims these programs are unconstitutional, and litigation continues. In 2025, ED moved funding from MSI programs to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs). The FY27 budget request would preserve flat funding for HBCUs and TCCUs.
Eliminate all competitive grant funding for Postsecondary Student Success Grants (PSSG), Basic Needs for Postsecondary Students, Centers of Excellence for Veteran Student Success, and the entire Fund for Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE, $136 million).
Eliminate funding for International Education ($81 million).

Community colleges need your voice! Contact your senators to reject cuts and support top priority funding for community college students.

** Click here to email your U.S. senators! **

ACCT has prepared a sample email template you can easily send to your two senators, and provided the contact information for their legislative directors and education legislative assistants.

What Happens Next?

In March, the U.S. House members collected funding requests from their constituents. Based on constituent requests, each House member submitted their requests to the Appropriations Committee. The Senate is collecting constituent requests now, with deadlines rapidly approaching for senators to compile, prioritize, and submit their requests in April. This spring and summer, the committees will start writing and voting on the 12 annual spending bills for the upcoming fiscal year. Here are additional ACCT resources on appropriations: