The Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) is ending a student-led grant program that was funded by a $20 million gift from MacKenzie Scott and redirecting the funds to fill the district’s budget deficit, Cleveland.com reports.

Spearheaded by the district’s new CEO, Warren Morgan, the decision has sparked controversy among students and faculty. In November 2022, the unrestricted gift was awarded to CMSD, and then-district CEO, Eric Gordon, created the Get More Opportunities program along with the board of education. The grant program would use the Scott gift to fund student and faculty grant proposals—the plan was to award $4 million in grants annually for five years. The program was designed and consisted of CMSD students who created a process for voting on and awarding grants. In the year that it existed, funded efforts included music therapy, college campus visits, and programs for victims of crime, among other initiatives.

Following the appointment of Morgan and a November 2023 board of education meeting that outlined several serious district budget deficits, which were worsened by the end of pandemic relief funding, Morgan and the board amended the original resolution that created the grant program—effectively ending the program—and shifted the remaining $16 million to cover parts of the budget deficit. Students and faculty involved have voiced anger and sadness at the dissolution of the program, which guided students through the grantmaking process and encouraged community engagement.

“A very public promise was made, and [students] anticipated that promise would be kept,” Cleveland Teachers Union president Shari Obrenski told Cleveland.com. “Now that it’s not, it’s quite a blow. They had the access and opportunity to dream and to reach that they hadn’t before, so they’re feeling that broken promise very deeply.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/SDI Productions)