The Durango Adult Education Center is facing significant funding cuts after the passage of a federal budget reconciliation bill signed into law by President Donald Trump last week.
Two federal grants that fund the center’s English language and basic adult education programs are likely to disappear, leading to a reduction of course offerings and the elimination of staff positions, said Susan Hakanson, executive director of the center.
The nonprofit, which serves adult learners across five Southwest Colorado counties, primarily helps students earn their high school equivalency diplomas and improve their English language skills.
Hakanson said the bill’s language removes all funding for programs concentrated on English language learning – the purpose of one of the two federal grants. The other, which provides funding for general adult education programs, is also likely to dry up, she said.
Both are four-year grants, Hakanson said, and the center had built its 2026 budget – as well as projections for the following years – on the assumption that those streams of revenue were assured.
Further compounding the center’s financial challenges is a lack of state support this year. Previously, the Durango Adult Education Center received $90,000 to $130,000 annually through state-administered grants funded by federal revenue streams. That money was significantly reduced after federal cuts – and this year, the center received nothing.
“We had a very, very good year with student success and student numbers, and we did not receive anything from the state of Colorado,” Hakanson said. “So that compounds what’s going on, and a lot of that’s been driven by what’s going on at the federal level.”
If the federal grants are also lost, the center will see a 40% reduction in funding – about $400,000, she said.
“That’s a giant chunk, and it almost exclusively would have gone toward teacher salary,” she said.
Earlier this year, the center laid off four part-time instructors when state funds dried up. If the federal grants are cut as well, the center will likely eliminate another four to six teaching positions.
“We’re going to try and serve students the very best we can, but we’re definitely going to look different from we have for many years,” Hakanson said.
That means fewer course offerings and a return to relying heavily on volunteer teachers, she said.
Founded in 1987, the Durango Education Center’s mission is to help people become economically and socially self-sufficient through education.
“Our goal is to give everybody the chance to be socially and economically mobile, and to move through our economic and social systems,” Hakanson said.
The center will look to private donors and organizations to attempt to make up some of the revenue loss, but she said it will be unable to substitute the almost half-million dollars that could be yanked.
And with the expansive number of nonprofits across all sectors also facing dried up federal revenue streams, there will be an oversaturation of organizations looking for supplemental funding in the coming months, and possible years, she said.
“We are not the only types of services that are losing funding, so I’m anticipating that many, many of our regional nonprofits will also be losing federal and state funding that they’ve relied on over the years to do some really essential things,” Hakanson said. “I think that there will be a fair number of services that are no longer offered in our region.”
jbowman@durangoherald.com
