Fallout from DOGE cuts to vulnerable children felt in KY and across US

Since launching a fundraising campaign Monday after being notified of DOGE cuts, Hindman Settlement School has raised 20% of a $250,000 goal, the school’s executive director Will Anderson said Wednesday.

“There is still much work to be done,” Hindman Settlement School Senior Director of Operations Josh Mullins said.

Last weekend, Hindman Settlement School officials were told federal funding for reading and math intervention programs for children has been eliminated by billionaire and President Donald Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, effective immediately.

That means the program in Knott County will lose $250,000 this year and could lose an estimated $1.2 million next year, Anderson and Mullins have said,

School leaders are asking supporters to donate the $250,000 needed immediately to continue programs through the remainder of the school year and the on-campus summer session.

The board of directors and staff have already begun planning a long-term strategy “to deal with the fallout of this dire situation and, as in past emergencies, we will come together to solve the problem,” Anderson said Tuesday.

Mullins has said Hindman Settlement School is one of about 1,000 grantees who have had funds slashed President Trump took office.

Officials at several Kentucky organizations affected by the DOGE cuts didn’t immediately comment Wednesday.

Heather Musinski, AmeriCorps Program Director at the Kentucky Division of Family Resource and Youth Services Center, referred questions Wednesday to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Officials there did not immediately comment.

But in a national news release Wednesday, Jodi Grant, executive director of Afterschool Alliance, said cuts to AmeriCorps are a major blow to the nation’s after-school and summer learning programs.

“The $400 million in cuts to AmeriCorps announced late last week are hitting many of our country’s after-school and summer learning programs hard, at a time when many are already unable to meet the demand due to rising costs and inadequate funding,” Grant said..

“AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps VISTA programs have long been an essential component of after-school and summer learning,” she said.

DOGE leaders have ordered AmeriCorps to terminate close to $400 million in grants — roughly 41 percent of the national service agency’s total grant funding, the Washington Post has reported.

AmeriCorps members support students academically, help with snacks and meals, coordinate STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and arts activities, provide outreach to the community, and work one-on-one with students to improve their confidence, engagement, and social skills, Grant said.

Grant said without that support it will be even more difficult for these programs to do their work to keep kids safe, inspire them to learn, and give working families peace of mind that their children are safe, supervised and learning while they are at work.

“We are still collecting information on the impact of these cuts, and programs are still adjusting,” she said.

In West Virginia, the Flipside AmeriCorps afterschool program in Marion County, which provides after-school support, mentorship, and enrichment to hundreds of middle school students, only has funds to remain open through the end of the school year, the news release said.

In South Dakota, Maȟpíya Lúta – a nonprofit on the Pine Ridge reservation – has lost 10 employees across five sites, causing reduced support for after-school and summer learning programs including challenges in covering transportation costs.

Camp Fire Green Country – which has served the Tulsa-area community for 21 years – has 11 members and two staff positions funded by its AmeriCorps grant. Effective immediately, they can no longer provide service hours, the news release said.

At Kentucky’s Hindman Settlement School, officials say the risks are several including,

Immediate elimination of programs serving nearly 1,000 children with learning differences in 25 schools in five counties; A dyslexia summer school, affecting 50 students; Loss of 47 full-time tutor positions;. Loss of reimbursement for administrative costs essential to Hindman Settlement School’s overall operations.

Kentucky, represented by Gov. Andy Beshear, is one of 25 states across the nation on Tuesday that filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Maryland against AmeriCorps.

The lawsuit is asking that the court declare the Trump Administration’s dismantling of AmeriCorps as unconstitutional and to vacate the dismantling of AmeriCorps.

This story was originally published May 1, 2025 at 4:00 AM.