The dizzying Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) news cycle may seem to many like the distant past, but the slimming down of the federal government continues. Two separate initiatives—an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, and the Defense Department cancelling millions of dollars in contracts—are still causing aftershocks across the country, even—or perhaps especially—in ways that the president and his allies had not intended. One such aftershock is the ability of some Catholic parents to provide religious education for their children.
St. Richard Catholic Church in Jackson, Miss has a parish school of about two hundred students. In an April 3 email, pastor Joe Tonos notified his congregation that the school had stopped receiving previously authorized COVID-era funds. The federal government grant promised the school $2 million to assist with services, staffing, and equipment. Specialized education coaches and the school nurse/office assistant would be gone the next day, he informed them. “We are in danger of losing all that we had counted on for the new school,” said Tonos, alluding to the plans to start the school year in a new building. In a pattern consistent with the confusion and reversals that DOGE often left in its wake, the school was notified at the end of June that the funding would be restored.
Earlier this year, Catholic families at some Army installations learned that government contract cuts would also curtail their religious education classes. The Archdiocese of the Military Services (AMS) relies on contractors at U.S. military communities around the world to complete records of baptisms, first communions, and weddings. Already dealing with a priest shortage across the services, the cuts present yet another challenge for the archdiocese. Although they could not provide a comprehensive list of which installations have been affected or attribute a rationale for the cuts, a representative from the AMS told me by email that they are concerned.
In a pattern consistent with the confusion and reversals that DOGE often left in its wake, the school was notified at the end of June that the funding would be restored.
On February 20, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the DoD would be working with DOGE to identify wasteful spending and excess, and would immediately cut funding to “nonlethal” programs. In a letter dated February 27, contractors hired to assist with Catholic chapel operations at Fort Drum learned that their employment would end on March 31.
Fort Drum is in rural Watertown, N.Y. The three surrounding civilian Catholic parishes are linked together to form one community under a single pastor. Kids’ religious education for all three churches happens in a single location on Sunday mornings. On post, there is a single priest to say Mass and a non-Catholic Director of Religious Education (DRE) who serves as a sort of superintendent over every denomination’s religious education activities.
“We built a program here over the months,” said Jena Swanson, whose contract since August 2024 to serve as Fort Drum’s Catholic religious education coordinator was among those terminated. “We were all pretty blindsided and confused,” she said. “There wasn’t any justification.”
Swanson says military families often preferred religious education on post for logistical reasons, as well as feeling more at home. “Every one of the people I met with joined due to it being closer for their families and everyone understanding military life while building their faith.”
Despite a stated hope that terminated contractors might continue in their jobs as volunteers, Swanson refused. “I’ve seen the damage that losing these positions causes in a military faith community,” she said; as a military spouse, she had seen contracts for these positions cancelled at other duty stations before. In one instance, once they got volunteers in place, the installation never renewed the contracts. The on-post faith community dwindled, she said.
Nevertheless, Swanson found herself filling in to teach classes and coordinating first communions and confirmations. “The DRE did not know any of our volunteers, or even what the beliefs Catholics had in regards to the remaining Sacraments that needed to happen for our faith community,” she said in an email. “Our community here at Fort Drum was thrown into a bit of chaos.” She estimates that weekly attendance at Mass on post went from 200-250 to roughly one hundred.
“I feel they are trying to cut religion for families,” said Swanson.
“We were all pretty blindsided and confused,” she said. “There wasn’t any justification.”
In a letter dated March 28, 2025, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon informed Mississippi’s education agencies that they would cease to receive funding from liquidated COVID-19 educational monies. One program, Educational Assistance to Non-public Schools (EANS), gave state governors $2.75 billion for private schools “most impacted by the qualifying emergency” with “a significant percentage of low-income students.”
St. Richard principal Russ Nelson said over two thirds of the student body receive some kind of tuition assistance, where tuition can cost up to $11,025. Speaking in May, before McMahon’s department notified Mississippi and other affected states that they would regain access to the Covid-era funds, Russell said his school stood to lose $1.5 million in funding.
St. Richard had completed multiple EANs purchase requests to the state education department by the end of September 2024, and a purchasing agency had begun acquiring the approved items. Nelson said St. Richard was just starting to receive the requested and approved items when EANs was cut. The school received only a fraction of the iPads and Macbooks they were expecting. “We were supposed to get like 280,” Nelson said. “That all went away.”
According to Tonos’ email, other cut services included support personnel for students needing “additional academic and behavioral guidance,” specialized desks for students with ADD and ADHD, copiers, textbooks, internet, and subscriptions to online education programs. “We received cafeteria tables, textbooks, and some desks,” Nelson said in May, “And that’s about it. But it wasn’t the whole order.”
In his April email, Tonos urged his flock—residents of a state that went +22.9 points for Trump, and members of a religion that the president carried by a nationwide 15 point margin—to make their voices heard in support of restoring EANS. “Being in support of Catholic Schools is not a sign of weakness or being disloyal to DOGE,” Tonos wrote. “Hopefully, by reinstating the grants, the excellence we hope to bring to Jackson and the state can be magnified. We want to be part of this new golden age and MAKE JACKSON GREAT AGAIN!”
Both the Mississippi Department of Education and the governor’s office reapplied for the funds in April. On June 26, following two federal court injunctions preventing the Education Department from withholding the funds from states, Mississippi learned it would regain access to approximately $137 million in previously approved COVID funds, including EANS. St. Richard can restore the key staff positions that went away in the spring. “We are thrilled to have received the funding again,” said Nelson. “We are excited for what the future holds.”
U.S. Catholics who rely on government funding to pass on the faith to their children, even in part, are learning an important lesson. Uncle Sam can give—and Uncle Sam can take away.