The Trump administration violated federal laws and the U.S. Constitution when it abruptly withheld $6.8 billion in federal education funding that was required by law to flow July 1, 22 Democratic attorneys general and two Democratic governors allege in a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court.
The lawsuit, filed July 14 in the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island, characterizes the Trump administration’s unprecedented withholding of billions of dollars Congress appropriated for education in March as a brazen attack on the constitutional separation of powers. The move, it contends, also violates federal laws governing education programming, administrative procedures, and executive branch spending of funds allocated by Congress.
The lawsuit seeks to restore all the federal funding cut from schools in the states listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
The White House has proposed that Congress in future years eliminate all of the programs from which it’s currently withholding funds. Congress has not yet acted on those proposals.
“Today’s challenge is this administration ignoring the Constitution, seeking to act with absolute power” before Congress weighs in, Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser said during a Monday press conference announcing the lawsuit.
The U.S. Department of Education told states on the afternoon of June 30 that their annual funding allocations due to arrive the next day wouldn’t include any funding Congress approved in March for five formula grant programs for K-12 education and two programs that support adult education.
The federal Office of Management and Budget has said the funding is under review but hasn’t specified when the review will end or whether it will release the money once the review is over. A spokesperson for OMB didn’t answer detailed follow-up questions in time for publication.
The Education Department and OMB as well as their leaders, Secretary Linda McMahon and Director Russell Vought respectively, are listed as defendants in the lawsuit alongside Trump.
In the weeks since, state education agencies have scrambled to help districts prepare to shift to other sources of funds or cut programs and lay off staff.
Affected funds include grant programs that support professional development and teacher training; services for English learners and migrant students; academic enrichment and student supports; before- and after-school programming; and adult education, including on literacy and civics.
Education advocates and more than 100 elected Democrats in the House and Senate have decried the funding freeze—invoking a 1974 federal law, the Impoundment Control Act, that lays out a process the president must follow if he wants to withhold spending federal lawmakers have already approved.
Trump didn’t follow that process, the lawsuit says.
“To impound is to seize, to take someone else’s property under legal custody,” said Joshua Weishart, a professor of education law at Suffolk University who has been closely following litigation against the Trump administration. “There’s no credible argument that would grant the president the authority to seize these funds.”
The states seeking relief on behalf of their schools are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. The District of Columbia is also a plaintiff.
Trump has aggressively pursued executive authority to withhold funds Congress approved
The seven grant programs are:
- Title I-C for migrant education ($375 million)
- Title II-A for professional development ($2.2 billion)
- Title III-A for English-learner services ($890 million)
- Title IV-A for academic enrichment ($1.3 billion)
- Title IV-B for before- and after-school programs ($1.4 billion)
- Adult basic education and literacy and civics grants ($715 million)
The 1974 impoundment law requires the executive branch to send a “rescissions” request to Congress in order to withhold spending lawmakers have already approved. The Trump administration hasn’t done that for K-12 education funding so far.
The Trump administration on June 3 did propose to Congress a package of rescissions of roughly $9 billion in already-withheld federal funds, largely for public broadcasting and foreign aid. That package will expire Friday if Congress doesn’t approve it by then. Administration officials have teased more rescission proposals, but none has emerged so far.
Vought, the Trump-appointed director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, told senators on June 25 that the administration hadn’t decided whether to propose rescissions for education funding.
Even if the administration plans to propose education funding rescissions to Congress, there’s no guarantee lawmakers would support them. Cutting the funding without issuing that proposal or receiving Congressional approval is “arbitrary and capricious,” the lawsuit alleges.
In the meantime, schools have already begun cancelling summer initiatives, scaling back or postponing fall programming, and laying off employees.
Some states have kicked in funds to help school districts postpone the unexpected fiscal cliff. Others have already finished budgeting for next year or lack the surplus cash to chip in.
Democrats have ramped up court battles with Trump while Republicans opt out
The lawsuit marks the latest in a slew of legal challenges filed this year by top Democratic state officials against the second Trump administration over education funding and policy.
Republican state officials, meanwhile, have stayed almost entirely on the sidelines. Some education chiefs have sent stern letters to the Education Department. But no Republican governors or attorneys general, to date, have challenged Trump administration decisions over K-12 education in court—even when those decisions led to funding cuts affecting students in their states.
Two states with Republican attorneys general are involved in the impoundment lawsuit—but in both cases, the states’ Democratic governors—Andy Beshear in Kentucky and Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania—are listed as the plaintiffs.
Asked on Monday why the participating states are pursuing relief only for their schools, rather than a nationwide injunction that would stop the funding freeze across the country, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Republican state leaders during the second Trump administration “have sat on their hands, done nothing, have not had the courage to stand up for the rights of their constituents.”
The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled against the authority of federal courts to issue “universal nationwide injunctions.” During the press conference, Bonta said Republican states “have to step up now, and fight for the funding they feel they deserve, or do some explaining to their children.”
The current impoundment is hitting states hard regardless of party.
Florida, for instance, is losing nearly $400 million from the seven affected programs. Texas is losing $738 million—more than any other state, save California ($927 million).
Some education chiefs in Republican-led states have been critical of the $6.8 billion impoundment.
Richard Woods, Georgia’s education superintendent, issued a statement July 7 saying he believes strongly in fiscal responsibility, “which means evaluating the use of funds and seeking out efficiencies, but also means being responsible, releasing funds already approved by Congress and signed by President Trump.”
Georgia is short $224 million due to the ongoing impoundment. Georgia’s state teachers’ union is calling for a special session of the legislature to allocate funds to fill the gaps.
Others, however, have defended the funding freeze or downplayed its significance.
Megan Degenfelder, Wyoming’s education superintendent, said in a written statement to local news media: “We are constantly in contact with our partners at the federal level, and while we do not yet know the details of this review of funds, President Trump’s education priorities are Wyoming’s priorities, and I continue to support his leadership.” Wyoming is losing $25.5 million unless the withheld federal funding starts to flow.
Tom Horne, the education chief in Arizona, has said the Trump administration is simply reviewing the funds to ensure schools are spending them appropriately. Arizona’s total expected funding from the seven affected programs is $134 million. (While Horne is a Republican, Arizona’s Democratic attorney general has signed onto the multi-state lawsuit.)
“In the studies they’ve done they’ve seen instances of far-left ideology being taught to students,” Horne told Arizona’s Family, a local TV station. “If there’s any of that in Arizona I would cooperate enthusiastically with the federal government to get rid of it.”
