DOGE funding cuts impact health and education in Kentucky 2025

DOGE funding cuts have deeply affected Kentucky's public health, education and cultural services. Health departments face a $148 million loss, limiting vaccine access, mental health staffing, and addiction treatment across the state. Higher education is threatened as the University of Kentucky could lose at least $40 million for medical research, impacting research on cancer and opioid use disorder.

Programs like AmeriCorps reading and math tutoring at Hindman Settlement School, as well as Head Start and SNAP benefits, face major disruptions, with low-income families, schoolchildren, and vulnerable populations being hardest hit. Additionally, cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts and Kentucky Humanities mean fewer arts programs, lost jobs and diminished educational opportunities for thousands.

Voices of Hope staff in front of their building on North Broadway in Lexington. The group just received $2 million from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.

NO. 1: ‘DEVASTATING FOR KENTUCKY.’ FEDERAL FUNDING PAUSE SOWS CHAOS, CONFUSION IN THE STATE

Linda Blackford: From small drug treatment centers to huge programs to feed children, Kentucky is dependent on federal funding for sustenance of every kind. | Published January 28, 2025 | Read Full Story by Linda Blackford

A medical research laboratory that doubles as an active research lab and joint classrooms designed to increase department collaboration between students, faculty, and staff at the Healthy Kentucky Research Building on the University of Kentucky campus on November 26, 2024, in Lexington, Ky. By Tasha Poullard

NO. 2: FEDERAL FUNDING CAP ON COLLEGES WOULD CUT AT LEAST $40M FROM RESEARCH AT UK

A policy announced last week would cap indirect funding on grants given from the National Institutes of Health, which could impact millions of research dollars at Kentucky universities. | Published February 11, 2025 | Read Full Story by Monica Kast

The Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort on January 7, 2025. By Tasha Poullard

NO. 3: KY SCHOOL DISTRICTS MUST MAKE CUTS NOW TO DEAL WITH $40.6 MILLION SHORTFALL, KDE SAYS

Chay Ritter, director of the Division of District Support, said Kentucky’s 171 school districts will have to make cuts to accommodate a shortfall in the state funding formula. | Published February 11, 2025 | Read Full Story by Valarie Honeycutt Spears

About 14,000 people work for the University of Kentucky — including its William T. Young Library shown here — making it Central Kentucky’s top employer.

NO. 4: TRUMP CUTS COULD MEAN KENTUCKY LIBRARIES, UNIVERSITIES AND MUSEUMS LOSE MILLIONS

Trump signed an executive order Friday targeting the reduction of several federal agencies including the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the only federal funding source for libraries and museums | Published March 18, 2025 | Read Full Story by Beth Musgrave

Rock formations are seen inside Mammoth Cave National Park Feb. 22, 2025 By Andrew Henderson

NO. 5: FIRED KENTUCKY MAMMOTH CAVE, RED RIVER GORGE EMPLOYEES TO RETURN TO WORK AFTER COURT ORDER

It’s not known how many federal probationary status employees were terminated and how many have returned to the job. | Published March 24, 2025 | Read Full Story by Beth Musgrave

Gov. Andy Beshear during a ceremony Thursday at the Kentucky Capitol commemorating the five-year anniversary of COVID-19. By Tasha Poullard

NO. 6: KY STATE AND LOCAL HEALTH DEPARTMENTS COULD LOSE $148 MILLION FOR VACCINES, TREATMENT

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced last week it would cut $11 billion in funding to state and local health departments. | Published March 31, 2025 | Read Full Story by Beth Musgrave

Authors Wendell Berry and Bobbie Ann Mason laughed while chatting at the 2017 Kentucky Book Fair in Alltech Arena at the Kentucky Horse Park. Both authors are scheduled to be at this years event. By Matt Goins

NO. 7: LEXINGTON-BASED KY HUMANITIES LOSES 70% OF ANNUAL BUDGET DUE TO DOGE CUTS

Kentucky Humanities is one of 56 humanities councils across the country that will lose cultural programming funding. | Published April 4, 2025 | Read Full Story by Beth Musgrave

Students in Hindman Settlement School’s summer dyslexia program walk over Troublesome Creek as they return to a classroom building.

NO. 8: TEACHING KY KIDS TO READ IS WASTE AND FRAUD, ACCORDING TO TRUMP AND MUSK | OPINION

Linda Blackford: The cuts to the Americorps program hurt those who need the most help, whether it’s in Eastern Kentucky or the rest of the nation. | Published May 7, 2025 | Read Full Story by Linda Blackford

NO. 9: KENTUCKY IS MAKING PROGRESS AGAINST OPIOID CRISIS. FEDERAL CUTS COULD UNDO IT | OPINION

OpEd: Cutting essential recovery infrastructure is not a pathway to economic stability. | Published May 15, 2025 | Read Full Story by Tara Hyde and Van Ingram

People walk along the trails at Ashland Ð the Henry Clay Estate in Lexington, Ky., on Tuesday, March 24, 2020. The Ashland house is closed, but the grounds and formal gardens remain open to the public. By Ryan C. Hermens

NO. 10: ‘DEVASTATING FOR OUR COMMUNITY.’ KY ARTS GROUPS RAVAGED BY TRUMP CUTS

“I am dismayed at the lack of support for arts and culture,” said Robby Henson, artist director of Pioneer Playhouse. “This is not waste, fraud and abuse. No one takes their NEA grant and goes to Mexico.” | Published May 27, 2025 | Read Full Story by Beth Musgrave

Americans are divided over President Donald Trump’s budget — referred to as the “One Big Beautiful Bill” — which just passed in the House, according to new polling.

NO. 11: DESPITE KENTUCKY’S LOYALTY TO GOP, TRUMP’S BUDGET WOULD HURT KENTUCKIANS DEEPLY | OPINION

Herald-Leader Editorial Board: Deep cuts to the social safety net while increasing tax cuts for the wealthy will leave Kentucky and the United States in worse, not better, shape. | Published May 22, 2025 | Read Full Story by Herald-Leader Editorial Board

The summary above was drafted with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists in our News division. All stories listed were reported, written and edited by McClatchy journalists.