A coalition of California and other states sued Thursday to block the Trump administration’s attempt to reclaim hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds aimed at helping students recover academically whose education has been destroyed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Previously awarded funds, including over $200 million in California alone, are being used at schools for after-school and summer learning programs, student mental health services, new classroom technologies and other infrastructure needs. General Rob Bonta said in an interview with the Times.
The Covid-19 emergency has ended, but the negative impacts of school closures and online learning continue, with students across the country lagging academically behind, Bonta said.
The Biden administration had allowed extensions to use the funds. However, Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced last month that funds will be revoked soon after the pandemic ended. Bonta called the case “arbitrarily and whimsical” and therefore called it illegal under federal law.
“The Biden administration has expanded its funding because it is not solely related to emergencies, and is linked to the ongoing mental health challenges students face, as we all know and well documented. [and] “The need to deal with loss of learning,” Bonta said. “It’s a complete mistake and a red herring to suggest that the funds should also be terminated, as the emergency is over.”
The California lawsuit filed with 14 other states in New York and the District of Columbia, alleges that the withdrawal of McMahon’s funding violates the Administrative Procedures Act and calls for them to preempt withdrawal by immediately restoring access to funds by March 2026.
Neither the Education Department nor the White House responded immediately to requests for comment Thursday. Several school districts in the LA area were also unable to comment.
McMahon’s March 28 letter sent to school districts around the country was one of the latest moves by the Trump administration to eliminate or support federal funds previously allocated to states.
Trump directed McMahon to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, and fired about half of the employees at the agency, which are calling for California and other states to be suspended in early March. Democrats have criticised Trump’s stated intention to shut down the education sector as illegal and reckless — it would require Congressional action to shut it down completely — and many in Congress have similarly denounced McMahon’s attempts to cancel the remaining Covid-19 funds.
In her letter, McMahon wrote that the district had enough time to spend the funds, and that he would be stripped of it because he missed the original deadline to do so. The extension was “discretionary” and “considered” and therefore “not changing anything” the funds or an extension of the Biden administration to eliminate withdrawal of funds.
“Extending the deadline for Covid-related grants, which are actually taxpayer funds, is not consistent with departmental priorities years after the community’s pandemic ended and therefore is not a valuable exercise of its discretion,” McMahon wrote.
She said the new extension will be considered on a “individual project-specific basis” upon requests from the district.
In a letter on April 7th, Congressional Democrats, including Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif) and a small-time California House representative, called for McMahon to quickly reverse the decision.
Lawmakers called McMahon’s moves “no use to students” and “a sudden, chaotic revision of policy,” and said he was wary of McMahon’s “lack of recognition of the lasting impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on students in our country.”
The lawmakers pointed to a national assessment of the outcomes of recent educational advancements, which showed national scores below pre-governmental levels for all grades and subjects, continuing a high percentage of chronic absence rates.
Lawmakers argued that McMahon’s decision was “another way this administration could try to strip students of educational opportunities to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and large corporations.”
Bonta said there may be legitimate ways for the White House and the education sector to carefully consider educational funding and reevaluate individual grants, but McMahon’s drastic decision – the argument that the Covid-19 turmoil is over “not that.”
Thursday’s lawsuit is not the first one based on allegations that the Trump administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act, but the 13th lawsuit filed against the current Trump administration by Bonta’s office.
“I believe he broke the law again here. In the process, he took American students, critical funds,” Bonta said. “We don’t intend to support that, we’ll see it in court.”
Funds in question were originally allocated under two 2021 measures, the American Rescue Plan Act and the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplementary Budget Act.
California has joined the lawsuits by the states of Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maine, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and the District of Columbia. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro joined, but not the states represented by the Republican Attorney General.
Other litigation is also pending against the education department.
The lawsuit filed last month by a council of parental lawyers, advocates and two parents alleges that a cry for the Trump administration’s department has prevented the Civil Rights Office from investigating school-based discrimination.
“Even if the OCR ceased to investigate public complaints based on race or sexism in general, it sparkled with Cherry Pick and launched an investigation targeted at discrimination against white and cisgender students, in its own initiative,” the complaint alleges.
On Thursday, several additional parents and students who are receiving pending discrimination claims were taking part in the case, asking the court to “restore OCR investigation and processing power and to deal with OCR complaints promptly and equitably.”
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