Could Trump Budget Cuts Lead to More Cyberattacks Against Schools

pSchools stand to lose vital cybersecurity support from the federal government as the Trump administration takes dramatic steps to shrink its size and the Education Department suspends a major cybersecurity support initiative ppThe federal government plays a crucial role in sharing threat information best practices and other resources with school districts that are frequent targets of cybercriminalsmany operating outside of the United StatesppDistrict technology directors like Jun Kim of Moore public schools in Oklahoma are bracing to see how cuts at the federal level will affect the services they have come to rely on to protect their districts systems and students data Kim said his IT team does not have the capacity to stay ahead of every emerging cyber threatppppSchools are rich targets he said We need that support so when we do get attacked federal agencies have resources and people who help you get back on your feet quickerppSpecifically K12 cybersecurity experts who spoke with Education Week are concerned that funding cuts and policy changes by the Trump administration will kneecap information sharing networks that schools rely on to stay one step ahead of cyber criminals and data leaks ppEducation Week has confirmed that the US Department of Education at the behest of Homeland Security has suspended at least for the time being its K12 Cybersecurity Government Coordinating Council which brought together representatives from federal agencies state education departments school districts and education technology companies to provide guidance and coordinate responses to cyber threats and attacks The move comes in response to an executive order signed in February dissolving an initiative that allowed these various groups to meet exempt from some public meeting laws to protect the sensitive information being sharedppAnd the future of another group the MultiState Information Sharing and Analysis Center that serves as the central cybersecurity resource for state and local governments is in limbo as the nonprofit that helps runs it faces steep funding cuts from the US Department of Homeland SecurityppppKim who was recognized in 2024 as an EdWeek Leader To Learn From said he relies on the training and threat levels distributed by MSISACppSchools were kind of isolated said Kim We need support and information and training from these large organizations to keep us engaged to help us develop policies to look at emerging threat factors and to create some security strategiesppStaffing reductions at the US Department of Education and the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency could also hinder schools abilities to respond to and recover from cyberattacks say K12 cybersecurity expertsppThese cuts come at a time when schools need more not less support to meet the flood of cyber threats targeting them This is one realm where states and schools simply cannot fill the role the federal government does said Doug Levin a school cybersecurity expert and the national director of the K12 Security Information ExchangeppWith respect to cybersecurity the folks who are attacking schools are coming from overseas so it is a classic federal defense of the homeland and to devolve that to states or even local school districts is putting them at a grave disadvantage he said ppUnder the Biden administration the federal efforts to support school cybersecurity were just emerging said Levin We were starting to build the infrastructure and capacity we neededppppWith the Trump administration cuts it seems like were taking a step backwards here he saidppIn response to those concerns a spokesperson for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency which is part of the US Department of Homeland Security said the cuts to staffing and funding will not affect services or support for school districtsppUnder President Donald Trumps leadership we are making sweeping cuts and reform across the federal government to eliminate egregious waste and incompetence that has been happening for decades at the expense of the American taxpayer a CISA spokesperson said in a statement to Education Week Personnel cuts across DHS will result in roughly 50 million in savings for American taxpayers and incalculable value toward accountability and cutting red tapeppThe spokesperson said DHS is continuing to identify other wasteful positions and offices that do not fulfill its mission The Education Department did not immediately respond to requests for commentppRegardless of that mission the reality is that schools have become a leading target for cybercriminals especially as they increasingly rely on technology in their daytoday operations A majority of schools82 percentexperienced a cyber incident between July 2023 and December 2024 according to a report from the Center for Internet Security and the Consortium for School Networking both nonprofit groups published in March 2025ppCyberattacks are costly both financially and academically A 2022 US Government Accountability Office report found that districts have lost between 50000 and 1 million per cyberattack and the loss of learning time after a cyberattack has ranged from three days to three weeks Cybersecurity has been the top concern for district technology leaders for more than five years according to CoSNppppMost of the support the federal government provides school districts does not come as direct funding but rather in sharing expertise and intelligence ppOne way the Education Department had facilitated this was through the K12 cybersecurity government coordinating council created in 2024 which was supposed to host trainings recommend policies and communicate best practices around this major challengeppHowever a recent directive from the Department of Homeland Security suspended the work of all government coordinating councils which has halted the work of the Education Departments coordinating council according to an email obtained by Education WeekppWithout the cybersecurity coordinating council K12 schools lose a valuable resource to respond to incidents especially largescale ones said Michael Klein the senior director for preparedness and response at the Institute for Security and Technology and a former senior adviser for cybersecurity for the Education Department during the Biden administrationppIf we dont have the ability to pull together those critical leaders from across superintendents school boards state agency leaders as well as principals and IT directors we wont be able to understand the needs in these states and we wont be able to provide schools with uptothemoment critical information when there is a nationwide incident like with the PowerSchool breach he saidppPowerSchool a software giant that runs the most commonly used student information system in US schools suffered a data breach in January that could have exposed the personal information of tens of millions of students and teachersppAnother federal agency that supports school cybersecurity is CISA which operates 10 regional field offices CISA provides cybersecurity readiness checklists and templates for preparedness drills In the event of a cyberattack CISA often alerts schools that they have been compromised and can help connect schools with additional agencies and resources within the federal government ppIn 2023 CISA published a report on the risks K12 schools face along with recommendations and resources to help schools build better cybersecurity programsppThousands of local education agencies especially underresourced ones also rely on the MultiState Information Sharing and Analysis Center for free services and products such as cybersecurity monitoring selfassessments alerts and webinars said Terry Loftus the MSISAC chair and the assistant superintendent and chief information officer for the San Diego County Office of EducationppMSISAC which is fully federally funded and operated by the nonprofit Center for Internet Security in partnership with CISA is part of the Trump administrations dramatic federal funding cuts with about 10 million of its funding terminated as first reported by freelance reporter Eric Geller and confirmed by Education Week Its annual budget ranges between 27 million to 30 million Loftus saidppCuts to MSISAC services include the team that performs sectorspecific cyber threat analyses which provides alerts and informs members how to better protect themselves against attacks and stakeholder engagements such as webinars and trainings Loftus saidppThese cuts are deeply concerning to members Loftus said There are many schools and districts that dont have any money to provide cybersecurity training to staff and this is the way that they get that at no costppFor now the Center for Internet Security plans to use its own budget to keep those services running so members dont feel the impact of the federal cuts but the nonprofit organization is exploring ways to fund MSISAC in the future Loftus said Charging membership fees is one possibility he said ppIn terms of direct funding for schools cybersecurity the federal government provides comparatively very little said Noelle Ellerson Ng the associate executive director for advocacy and governance at AASA The School Superintendents Association ppFor years education organizations have advocated for additional federal resources to help schools boost their cybersecurity practices The federal government in recent years had started to provide these resourcesppLast year the Federal Communications Commission launched a cybersecurity pilot program to provide up to 200 million in competitive grants over three years to help schools and libraries purchase cybersecurity equipmentppThe pilot received more than 2700 applications representing 37 billion in requests In January 707 awardees were announced This demonstrates the already vast and fastgrowing need for more funding for cybersecurity among schools said Ellerson Ngsomething AASA advocates for ppThe No 1 resource you need is mitigation and mitigations cost money The federal government had no dedicated funding to help school districts procure cybersecurity protections until the pilot she said The money available through that first tranche of funding through the pilot is nowhere near what were going to need as demonstrated by the demand alone But in this moment something is better than nothingppppBut Ellerson Ng along with other cybersecurity experts Education Week spoke with is not optimistic the current administration will continue funding the pilot let alone expand itppI dont think this is the administration that is going to lead the way to find funding to support cybersecurity Ellerson Ng said I think they have demonstrated an interest in both reducing the size of the federal government in general as well as cutting spending to education that is not focused on privatization such as expanding school choice policies like vouchers and education savings accountsppThe FCC said in a statement to Education Week that the pilot is still ongoing and there havent been recent updates to the program The FCC did not respond to a question about the programs future ppIts unclear how much of a priority K12 cybersecurity will be to FCC Chair Brendan Carr Carr had voted against the cybersecurity pilot program because he didnt think it was within the agencys authority though he agreed its important for schools to have resources they need to secure their networksppLooking ahead Kim the technology director in Oklahoma said he will watch to see if he continues to find uptodate information and guidance from the federal governmentservices he fears will be affected by further staffing and funding cutsppIf we use the same strategies to mitigate cyberattacks and phishing scams from five years ago much less five months ago were toast he said ppppDistricts meanwhile could potentially have to pay membership fees to organizations for the services they were once receiving for free from the Education Departments government coordinating council and the MSISAC say the cybersecurity experts Education Week spoke with ppStates and districts might be able cobble together their own information sharing networks and resources but theyll likely be duplicating efforts and it will take a lot of time and money to get those services operational Klein saidppIts a system that you dont notice until its gone or it breaks said Klein Thats how critical infrastructure works water comes out of the tap electricity comes out of the socket and schools run If they fail we wont have the proper mechanisms in place to respondand thats the role of federal governmentp