Threatened federal funding for education, workforce programs spark concern among Wyoming tribes

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A national narrative that Job Corps isn’t working couldn’t be further from the truth in central Wyoming, according to Jared Baldes, a field director and former carpentry instructor at Wind River Job Corps in Riverton. 

In a region of the state where high school dropout rates are high and traditional college paths aren’t the norm, Baldes said, Wind River Job Corps creates a viable pipeline for students to enter the workforce and earn high wages and good benefits. It helps keep youths out of the juvenile justice system, and is an important avenue for Wind River Indian Reservation youth.  

“Just in my trade alone, I’ve placed 15 students this year into jobs, six of them Native American,” Baldes told members of the Legislature’s Select Committee on Tribal Affairs last week. “So the national narrative that Job Corps isn’t working is very wrong. Job Corps is working, and it’s very effective, and it’s changing lives.”

Now, however, the free career training program for low-income young adults is in danger. The Trump administration proposed a significant cut to the Job Corps program following an initial call to eliminate funding entirely. The U.S. Department of Labor announced Thursday it will pause operations at contractor-operated Job Corps centers nationwide.

“It would be very unfortunate not to be able to continue that pipeline to small businesses and businesses around the state for these young men and women being trained by very good instructors,” Baldes said. 

Job Corps’ demise was among a chorus of warning bells rung during the meeting last week in Fort Washakie. Though the topic was not on the agenda, tribal representatives repeatedly raised worries that federal funding could end or decline for programs vital to Native communities. 

The tenor underscored deep trepidation about impacts that could ripple from federal efforts to cut spending.  

Wind River Job Corps has clearly been a positive force in the state, committee member Rep. Ivan Posey, D-Fort Washakie, said. He remembered cedaring the dorms with his brother when the facility opened.

“I hope that [Wyoming’s congressional] delegation realizes that it’s been a boon to our economy here, and that it’s been a good thing for us,” he said. “It changes people’s lives.”

Education 

School leaders are keeping close watch on potential cuts that could impact tribal education, they told the committee. 

Though the Trump administration has apparently backed away from a proposal to eliminate Head Start funding, the threat remains, Eastern Shoshone Business Council Wayland Large said. 

“On this reservation, each district has a Head Start  — one in Fort Washakie, Ethete and Arapahoe,” Large said. The program, which is under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides early childhood education, health, nutrition and parent services to low-income families with children from birth to age 5.

Fremont County School District 38 Superintendent Curt Mayer, meanwhile, said his district is concerned about Impact Aid funding. That federal program provides financial assistance to local school districts with concentrations of children living on tribal lands as well as military bases and other federal property. 

District 38 officials travel to Washington, D.C. twice a year to secure the funding, Mayer said, which is used to fund counselors, nurses, school resource officers and cultural staff in the Arapahoe schools. 

Deb Smith, superintendent of the Fort Washakie Schools in Fremont County School District 21, echoed that concern. 

“Impact Aid is huge for us,” Smith said. “So we’ve all been very worried about the funding, if it’s going to be there in the future.”

Committee chairman Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, asked about other implications. 

“It seems that the situation is evolving with respect to our federal partners in education,” Case said, “and I’m wondering what kind of implications are there, for example, with the elimination of the Department of Education?”

If the DOE goes away, Smith said, the hope is that Impact Aid can survive in a different federal department. Other areas of concern include federal funding for free and reduced lunch programs, Title I funds that help schools with high percentages of low-income students and similar programs.  

“We can’t provide some of the programming and resources without that funding,” she said. “And it’s scary. It’s very scary.”

Lawmakers listened sympathetically to Smith and others’ concerns but remained relatively mum. 

Higher ed

Central Wyoming College in Riverton has the state’s largest Trio Program, CWC President Dr. Brad Tyndall told the committee. The federal program offers outreach and services designed to provide pre-college services for people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

There are roughly 650 eligible students in the CWC service area, Tyndall said, and the college works with them by going through the high schools to identify and help students.  

“The recommendation from the White House budget is to cut all of that, and that would be devastating to our community, and especially our Native Americans, but it would be everybody,” he said. “The economic impact to the state is huge, and begs the question: ‘What do we do if that money goes away as a state?’”

College officials are also concerned about Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions Program, or NASNTI, grants, Tyndall said, which are on hold. 

“But NASNTI is kind of dwarfed by Trio,” he said. 

The college is also concerned about some changes to the Pell Grant availability in the federal budget bill, CWC Vice President of Student Affairs Coralina Daly said. 

The changes would require students to take 15 credits per semester. 

With many at-risk students, she said, taking 12 credits “is a significant load already. To ask them to take another class is really impeding their ability to be successful.”

There also is a proposal to cut Pell for part-time students, she added, “so all of these students that we know who are working and have these other obligations are going to have less access to aid.” 

Federal work study is also slated to be canceled in the budget bill, she said. “So that is another opportunity that would go away.” 

Of the funding coming to CWC’s self-identified tribal students, Daly said, “71% of those funds are coming from federal sources. That is disproportionately larger than our overall population.

“I think it’s important to note those federal funds are incredibly important for our tribal students,” she said. 

The federal budget bill, officially called the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, passed the U.S. House last week. It must still clear the Senate.

Uncertainty

Other areas of concern included Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which are both targeted for cuts. 

Conversations during the committee meeting also highlighted a high level of confusion related to when or how federal money will come through, the fact that some funds that were frozen have been released and if and how court intervention will impact programs. 

For example, staff in the federal department that oversees the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIEAP, were eliminated this spring, spurring worries that the program would end. 

“It does help our elders and the community with the gas and the lights,” Eastern Shoshone Business Council member Latonna Snyder said. “So that’s a big issue.”

However, LIEAP in Wyoming has been funded through September, the Wyoming Department of Family Services announced this spring, adding that for the time being, no changes were anticipated.