CMS says it is in ‘best-case scenario’ after fears about Trump’s federal cuts
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools leaders feared some federal funding was in limbo for the 2026-27 school year, but announced Monday there will be no cuts.
In December, CMS Chief Financial Officer Kelly Kluttz said up to 60% of the district’s Title II, III and IV funds from the federal government were at risk of being cut. That funding goes toward professional development, resources for multilingual students and enrichment.
But in a 2026 federal budget passed Tuesday, Congress maintained funding levels for nearly every existing K-12 program.
“There has been a federal budget that’s been passed, and there are no cuts to K-12 education that we’d feared,” Kluttz told the CMS board at its budget workshop Monday evening. “This is the best-case scenario for us.”
Last summer, President Donald Trump’s administration angled for steep cuts to Title II, III and IV grants as part of larger proposed reductions to federal education spending. The administration froze around $6 billion in already-allocated Title II, III and IV grants June 30, including a potential $12.5 million in CMS. The administration later reversed course in July after 24 state attorneys general, including North Carolina’s Jeff Jackson, sued for the money to be released.
Even with federal funding the same, it only accounts for about 6.1% of CMS’ budget. The district is still expecting a budget squeeze next school year.
Because of a 1.7% drop in enrollment in CMS last fall, the district will get less state funding in the 2026-27 school year than it did for the current year. As a result, CMS plans to hire about 10% fewer new employees this summer than it typically does. That comes out to about 200 fewer new hires.
“We’re not going to automatically revert to our prior spending patterns,” Kluttz said Monday after sharing the news of federal dollars staying put.
CMS Superintendent Crystal Hill won’t present an official 2026-27 budget recommendation to the board until March 24, and then, Mecklenburg County commissioners will need to vote on it in June.
But, Hill shared broad estimates for spending hikes CMS may see next year. They included approximately $8.7 million in county-funded increases to teacher pay, $10 million in state-driven pay and benefits changes, $6 million for new devices for students and $2.8 million for utility cost increases.
Board members discussed putting some money toward efforts to draw more students into CMS and increase the district’s market share, which would also increase the amount of funding the district gets from the state in the future.
Hill said, while she would support those efforts, she would not be in favor of asking Mecklenburg County for more money explicitly for that purpose. Instead, she said, she would advocate for the district to look at how it can make cuts elsewhere.
“It would not be my recommendation to add that as a new ask (for the county),” Hill said. “I don’t feel like I’m being a good CEO of this organization if every time we have a need, we go back and ask for more dollars.”
This story was originally published February 9, 2026 at 9:29 PM.