How much less each state could get under Trump's workforce block grant.
Plus, gaming out Trump’s apprenticeship funding proposal.
Reluctantly, let’s do a lot of math.
Below, for paid subscribers, I have put together an estimate of how much each state’s workforce funding will be cut from current funding levels as part of the Trump Administration’s plan to eliminate most of the Department of Labor workforce programs and replace them with block grants.
For the uninitiated: most of the workforce money Congress appropriates every year goes directly to states to fund their workforce activities under certain specifications. Congress appropriates this money to DOL, then DOL calculates each state’s cut according to a formula and passes it on to the states. Hence, “formula dollars.” All those programs would be killed and replaced in the White House’s workforce block grant proposal.
This is opposed to “discretionary” grant programs, which, for the sake of simplicity, are the programs that training providers and other organizations must apply for and win through a competition. All those programs would die, too. The White House has claimed these programs are being “consolidated,” but nah, they’re just being completely eliminated. That’s what the budget proposal shows.
Killing everything and starting over isn’t exactly conducive to a one-to-one comparison, but I do think there is a useful estimate to be had in adding up the formula dollars, putting it next to the block grant proposal, and letting math happen.
Because these states will have more needs resulting from the elimination of direct federal grants to training providers—and an unknown amount of administrative costs to take over those sort of grants and meet DOL’s new requirements—these lower amounts will need to feed more needs.
This means the chart below is actually a more conservative estimate of the total cuts. This is just the start of reckoning these cuts, but it’s a useful early sketch of the future.
Behind the paywall.
The estimated block grants for each state.
How I reached my calculations.
Will states really get more money for apprenticeship?