Many researchers agree that the most important in-school related factor to supporting student achievement is teacher quality (Rice, 2003). Simply put, the better prepared and trained a knowledgeable teacher is, the better students seem to perform. Effective professional development contains some essential characteristics like “using models of what effective practice looks like, providing coaching and support, feedback and reflection, and [training that] is sustained over time” (Darling-Hamilton, 2017). However, providing these types of sustained training and coaching for teachers requires a significant investment, and Title II-A funding is sought to address schools’ needs for continuous teacher development, ensuring that students make academic progress. The pause or delay in funding that supports teacher development and training could have significant impacts on teaching quality and, unfortunately, student achievement.
Understanding the Current (2025) Title II-A Funding Pause
In late January 2025, the Office of Management and Budget issued a pause on disbursements for thousands of federal grant programs, which included funds like Title II-A, despite these funds having already been signed into law in a previous House appropriations bill. While many funds have since been released, including $1.3 billion for after-school and summer enrichment programs, Title II-A funds, and several other federal K-12 funds are still paused as of late July 2025. Since plans for the upcoming school year are typically determined in the new school fiscal year, which begins after July 1st, these pauses have caused chaos and uncertainty in school districts, leading to concerns over long-term planning for teacher training and support programs, as well as worries about how to support teachers for this school year and in the future.
As many as 29% of districts have indicated that they would need access to the frozen funds as early as August 1st, 2025, to avoid cutting services for students and teacher support programs, such as teacher professional development, according to an AASA survey.
“Without timely disbursement of funding, the risk of disruption to essential educational supports for children grows significantly,” AASA said.
While many educators are hopeful that funds will be released and much-needed funds for professional development will be allocated back to schools, there is an air of uncertainty about what PD might look like with these current delays. Do schools wait and hope that the funds will be released soon? Or do schools begin to get more creative with how they can provide teacher training, professional development, coaching, and other support to their teachers?
A lawsuit filed in a U.S. District Court in Rhode Island by a coalition of 14 school districts, parents, teachers, teachers’ unions, and nonprofit organizations is applying pressure for the administration to release the full $6.2 billion in funds. Failure to release the funds could result in cancellation or delays of student and teacher services, layoffs, and even a reduction in student instructional effectiveness.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has not provided a schedule for review and release of the funds, including Title II funds, as of July 24th, 2025. Resulting in several states and districts having already reported cuts to the upcoming school year, including:
- Temporary budget cuts and freezes of services by Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District following a 12.5 million funding pause.
- A dozen East Tennessee school districts have had to implement dramatic cuts and reallocation of funds to support student services, professional development services, and have even had to eliminate staff.
- The state of Pennsylvania estimates $200 million, or about 13% of the overall state’s K-12 education budget, may be reduced across the state.
What Can Schools and Districts Do About the Title II Funding Cuts?
What can schools do to continue to provide professional development to teachers in the absence of Title II-A funding?
On average, schools that used Title II-A funds for professional development spent approximately $500 per teacher per year. With Title II-A funds currently paused, school districts may need to explore alternative ways to provide professional development to teachers at a lower cost. So, what can schools do right now to help bridge the gap and still fund PD opportunities for teachers in the absence of Title II-A funds? Based on our research, here are several steps districts are taking to supplement their teacher training and professional development needs, in lieu of the funding cuts:
- Utilize discretionary budgets to fund PD: since these funds are more flexible, principals may be able to utilize funds in many different ways, including funding teacher PD.
- When applicable, leverage some Title I funds to support strategic PD for teachers who qualify. Though Title I funds are used to help at-risk students improve academic performance, a portion of funds can be used to support teacher PD as long as the PD is directly applicable to improving academic achievement in the target student population.
- Select effective and low-cost PD programs to stretch funds further. Unfortunately, even attempting to utilize other funds to support professional learning can be difficult for schools that already have razor-thin budgets. But there are effective and high-quality programs available that can support teachers’ training needs on a tight budget.
How Model Teaching Can Support Schools in Offering PD
Model Teaching has always provided high-quality, low-cost online professional development programs to schools. With our most popular full-menu-bundle options for teachers, individual schools were able to provide teachers with a personalized approach to PD, allowing teachers to choose any courses they wish from our 500+ hour bundle menu starting at $149 per teacher, but as low as $37 a teacher when schools purchase subscriptions for multiple teachers. School districts that sign up multiple schools with Model Teaching enjoyed even lower per-teacher pricing. While the full menu bundle option remains a great and cost-effective choice for schools, strained budgets may make even this option too expensive.
In response to recent Title II-A funding freezes, Model Teaching now offers smaller, bundled options at an even more significantly reduced rate, providing professional development opportunities to teachers during uncertain times. With discounts for groups of 5 or more teachers, we help bridge the funding gap for schools.
New, smaller bundled hours options for schools provide each teacher on campus with up to a certain number of hours of professional development. Some key features of these new bundles include:
Importantly, our course menu contains a wide range of course topics that are implementation-focused and include tools for admins to manage and monitor successful implementation. This includes full-length comprehensive courses, as well as our Quick Courses, designed to fit perfectly into 1-hour PLCs.
