Schools in Puerto Rico are bracing for Trump cuts after gains made during the Biden years

The island, with the seventh-largest school district in the US, is unusually reliant on federal funding

Maraida Caraballo Martinez has been an educator in Puerto Rico for 28 years and the principal of the elementary school Escuela de la Comunidad Jaime C Rodriguez for the past seven. She never knows how much money her school in Yabucoa will receive from the government each year because it isn't based on the number of children enrolled. One year she got $36,000; another year, it was $12,000.

But during the Biden administration, Caraballo noticed a big change. Due to an infusion of federal dollars into the island's education system, Caraballo received a $250,000 grant, an unprecedented amount of money. She used it to buy books and computers for the library, whiteboards and printers for classrooms, to beef up a robotics program and build a multipurpose sports court for her students. It meant a huge difference for the school," Caraballo said.