WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration on Friday, lifting an order from a judge that blocked the cancellation of grants to recruit and train new teachers in California.
With a 5-4 vote, the judge granted the administration’s appeal and for now it has frozen funds.
Supreme Court Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said he denied the appeal and that three liberals in the court, Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, presented their dissent.
“In my view, nothing in this case called for immediate intervention,” Kagan wrote.
The majority did not explain the decision. In a short, unsigned order, the plaintiff said he had not rebutted the government representative.
Trump administration lawyers have urged the courts to curb judges acting as “self-appointed administrators” of the federal government.
In early February, Trump’s appointees in the education sector considered “discriminatory practices, including the form of DEIs,” or pending grants aimed at ending funds for diversity, equity and inclusion.
They have decided to close 104 of the 109 teacher training grants worth around $600 million nationwide. They did so through a form letter saying the grant “no longer effective… agency priorities.”
It is led by California Atty. Eight democratic nations filed lawsuits in Boston, Congress approved the grant, claiming that sudden cancellations were “not approved by law.” The lawsuit covers approximately $250 million in cancelled grants, of which approximately $148 million was sent to California.
Participating in California was in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, Wisconsin and Colorado. Republican-led states have not filed lawsuits.
Bonta’s lawsuit relies on the Control Procedure Act, prohibiting agencies from sudden changes to regulatory policies without clear and reasonable explanations.
Biden’s appointee, US District Judge Myung Jun, agreed that the Department of Education’s decision to terminate the grant abruptly was “arbitrarily and whimsical” and illegal under the Administrative Procedure Act. He said, “There was no personalised analysis in any of the programs.”
On March 10th, he issued a temporary restraining order to maintain the status quo.
When the federal appeals court refused to lift the order, Trump administration lawyers sued the Supreme Court.
“This court should make a prompt termination of the unconstitutional governance of the U.S. District Court as a self-appointed administrator of the Enforcement Division Fund,” wrote representative Attorney General Sarah Harris in an appeal by the California Department of Education vs. the US Department of Education.
California State University and the University of California lost eight grants valued at around $56 million, according to the Bonta lawsuit. The purpose of the federal grant was to recruit and train teachers to work in rural and urban “hard-working staff” schools.
Among the cancelled programs was a $7.5 million grant to Cal State LA to train and prove 276 teachers in five years at Need or High Poverty Schools in Los Angeles’ Unified Pasadena Unified School District.
Other cancellations included a $8 million program at UCLA, which trained at least 314 middle school principals, with mathematics, English, science and social science teachers serving in Los Angeles County school districts.
In a statement, California teacher Assn. President David Goldberg criticized the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“When we face continuous staffing shortages in public schools, we should devote more resources to recruiting and retaining educators.
Times staff writer Daniel Miller contributed to the story.
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