Symphony of Destruction, Megadeth

Table of Contents

• Kansas Reels from $100M in DOGE Cuts

  • AmeriCorps Cuts Erode Youth Opportunities

  • Arts Funding Slashed: Choirs and Theaters in Peril

  • FAA Staff Shortages Raise Safety, Delay Concerns

  • What We Lose, and What We Choose

Kansas Reels from $100M in DOGE Cuts

While it’s true that “all politics is local,” and that I’ve focused most of my research and writing on the goings-on in Topeka, the shadow of the national moment can be hard to ignore. Week by week, the aggressive actions in DC draw ever-closer; state and local governments (and businesses, and residents) are spending an increasing amount of time reacting to whipsaw actions from the Trump administration.

Here in Kansas, there are already over $100 million in documented cuts to grants and contracts. (The Center for American Progress is maintaining a great map and dataset here.) Some of the biggest victims so far have been K-State ($37.2M lost) and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment ($31M lost), but the impact is much more widespread.

Eventually (if it hasn’t happened already), all families will lose something. Below are a few stories from our family’s direct experiences, offered not in search of sympathy but as a reminder that DOGE is not an abstract thing. It is creating real consequences.

AmeriCorps Cuts Erode Youth Opportunities

When DOGE slashed AmeriCorps funding, the consequences in Kansas were immediate and profound. In April, AmeriCorps was ordered to terminate nearly $400 million in grants nationwide (about 41% of its funding), affecting over 32,000 service members and senior volunteers. Kansas was especially hard-hit: all funding for AmeriCorps State and National programs in the state was eliminated per a DOGE termination letter to the Kansas Department of Education. This meant abruptly cutting off resources for local organizations that rely on AmeriCorps members—many of them young people—for community service work.

One major impact has been the loss of youth jobs and mentorship roles tied to AmeriCorps. Our oldest son was one small example: we learned on the Internet on a Friday evening that AmeriCorps funding was being cut, even before his hiring manager was aware. By Monday morning, they confirmed that the position’s funding was gone.

The Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence had 55 AmeriCorps positions supporting its spring and summer youth programs, and all 55 were eliminated as of April 25. “Their only choice is to hire these members as staff to fulfill their commitment to the community,” a news release noted, but coming up with an extra $300,000 to do so on short notice is a huge challenge. In Manhattan, the Boys & Girls Club lost 33 AmeriCorps service members overnight. These sudden staff losses don’t just leave young people without summer jobs; they also jeopardize programming for hundreds of Kansas kids and teens who rely on those club activities. Local nonprofit leaders warn that “not only are the AmeriCorps members left with no job, but it also affects the nonprofits that are now having to find a way to pay for these employees, or…provide these services” in their absence.

Other community organizations in Kansas are facing similar ripple effects. In Lawrence alone, four agencies serving families were left $400,000 short for paying essential employees after DOGE’s mid-year grant cancellations. The Center for Supportive Communities in Lawrence lost 20 AmeriCorps members who provide crisis support and now faces “significant reductions in services and staffing”. Even the United Way of Kaw Valley, which helps coordinate volunteers across northeast Kansas, saw its federally funded volunteer coordinators cut, undermining an infrastructure that organized service valued at over $10 million for the region. As Jessica Lehnherr, CEO of United Way of Kaw Valley, explained, AmeriCorps isn’t just labor…it’s a training ground that teaches young adults “the value and importance of serving your community,” so stripping away that “infrastructure” has long-term costs for civic engagement.

Kansas officials and nonprofits are pressing for solutions – from emergency fundraising to pleas for intervention – but the immediate reality is bleak. Over $4.5 million in AmeriCorps funding and about 375 service positions vanished in Kansas due to DOGE’s cuts (according to the United Way). For many Kansas youths, a summer that should have been spent gaining work experience and helping their communities is instead marked by canceled programs and lost opportunities.

Arts Funding Slashed: Choirs and Theaters in Peril

Kansas’s creative community is also feeling the sting. DOGE targeted the National Endowment for the Arts with abrupt grant cancellations, and several Kansas arts organizations have been left scrambling. One example is the Allegro Choirs of Kansas City, a youth choral program in Bonner Springs. Allegro was informed that its previously approved NEA grant for next year was canceled, creating a $30,000 hole in its budget. (Our youngest son had participated in Allegro.)

Normally, the state of Kansas matches NEA grants dollar-for-dollar for groups like Allegro, but with no federal funds coming, “the state has zero funds to match,” explained Allegro’s Executive Director, Christy Elsner. The double loss of federal and state support has Elsner warning of staff cuts to keep the choirs running. The impact goes beyond the choir itself; the arts have a broader ripple in the local economy.

Allegro is not alone. Across the Kansas City metro, at least a dozen organizations received emails in early May stating their NEA grants were being terminated due to new “policy priorities” from the White House. Those priorities, according to the NEA’s notice, now skew toward projects that align with certain political themes (such as celebrating the American Revolution’s anniversary or promoting skilled trades and veterans); anything falling outside that scope is being defunded.

In practice, this meant that even small, community-focused arts programs got the axe. At the Spinning Tree Theatre – a Kansas City nonprofit that provides theater experiences for youth with disabilities – a $15,000 NEA project grant “exited stage left” with little warning. These cuts are especially frustrating to local arts leaders because they come on the heels of the pandemic, which Kansas arts organizations only narrowly survived. Now they must either find alternative funding or scale back programs.

Nationwide, the NEA’s budget is a tiny fraction (0.003%) of federal spending, yet it fuels countless community initiatives. In Kansas alone, arts groups generate over $8 million in tax revenue annually. Despite this return on investment, DOGE’s cost-cutting has swept away support for programs that enrich Kansas communities culturally and economically.

FAA Staff Shortages Raise Safety, Delay Concerns

Even the skies over Kansas have not been immune to DOGE’s drive for leaner government. In February, the Federal Aviation Administration quietly laid off about 400 employees. Most of those layoffs were support personnel (technicians, safety assistants, maintenance staff, etc.), not air traffic controllers themselves. The Department of Transportation insisted that “no air traffic controllers or critical safety personnel” were cut. But aviation unions and experts quickly sounded the alarm, noting that many of the roles eliminated were “essential support” jobs that keep the air traffic system running safely. Maintenance mechanics, for instance, ensure radar, radios, and other equipment are functioning; losing them can slow the response to technical failures.

Nowhere was this more visible than at Newark Liberty International Airport, in a cautionary tale that has implications for Kansas’s regional airports as well. In late April, Newark suffered a cascading systems failure: an outdated radar and communication system crashed for 90 seconds due to a burnt-out copper wire, leaving controllers briefly unable to see or talk to nearby aircraft. “We lost our radar… we don’t have a radar, so I don’t know where you are,” one controller frankly told a pilot during the chaos. Though disaster was averted, the stress on personnel was intense; several air traffic controllers who “were in the thick of it” took medical leave for traumatic stress, which compounded an already massive staffing shortage at the facility.

In the days that followed, Newark was plagued by hundreds of cancellations and delays. For example: the above advisory, live at the time of this writing, that reduces total flight volume through the tri-state area by 40-50%. Flights from the Midwest to the East Coast were delayed as the ripple effects spread, and Kansas Citians heading to Newark faced multi‐hour waits. More importantly, the underlying factors that led to Newark’s meltdown exist in our region too.

The FAA’s Kansas City Air Route Traffic Control Center in Olathe oversees much of the airspace in Kansas and the central U.S., and it relies on many of the same antiquated systems. On a recent tour of the Olathe center, U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids (D-KS) pointed out that “81% of Kansas’ [air traffic control] systems are functionally obsolete.” This means radar, landing aids, and other equipment here at home are aging and at risk of failure just like Newark’s. Davids also noted that the nation is running short on personnel: we’re short over 3,000 air traffic controllers.

Kansas has felt these staffing gaps indirectly; for instance, the control tower at Wichita’s Dwight D. Eisenhower Airport has had to operate with minimal backup, and smaller regional airports often struggle to fill controller and technician vacancies. So far, Kansas airports have avoided an acute crisis like Newark’s. But experts say without prompt action, we are one glitch or staffing emergency away from serious disruptions.

What We Lose, and What We Choose

None of this is hypothetical. The job offers that vanished, the concerts that won’t be performed, the systems one storm away from failure—these are the visible cracks in a philosophy that treats government like a business and the public like an expense.

But, remember: none of this is inevitable. DOGE’s cuts were choices. And the ripple effects happening across Kansas aren’t fate. They’re warnings

So here’s the ask: continue to pay attention. Continue to talk to your elected representatives in Topeka and in Washington. Ask who’s standing up for the programs that knit our communities together…and who’s quietly letting them unravel. Share stories. Write letters. Fundraise. Vote.

Because yes, these losses hurt. But we know how to rebuild.