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The future of a teacher training program in rural Nebraska is in danger since the Trump administration has cut diversity-related grants in its effort to shift the direction of the federal government.

The program is known as RAICES - or 'roots' in English. It's designed to recruit would-be teachers from rural Nebraska communities, train them and place them in their hometown classrooms.

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Ted Hamann - an anthropologist and professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who helps oversee the program - said it connects the communities to their schools and the people teaching their kids.

"Obviously it has teaching to read, teaching mathematics, academic content," said Homann. "But it's also, you know, the friendly face that welcomes teachers at a parent conference. All of the features about making schools part of the infrastructure of a community being healthy."

The RAICES program aims to create and retain teachers who better reflect and understand the student populations they serve. But the recent federal cuts to diversity programs have placed it in jeopardy.

Hamann said the cuts will mean a loss of funding for 16 student scholarships - about $450,000.

While Hamann said he's cautiously optimistic that RAICES organizers will be able to make up the funds from local donors, he admitted that the cuts create instability.

"We didn't think that we'd have to rally our troops in this way," said Homann. "We thought our work at this time was to implement the grant, not to go out looking for new resources to sort of keep it going. But, you now, you take adversity - you drop a couple swear words - and then you get on task and figure out, sort of, what's the way that we're going to go forward?"

He said should it continue, the RAICES program will recruit and train rural Nebraska high school students who are considering teaching careers.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.