Democratic-led states sue over Trump cuts to teacher training funding

By Nate Raymond

BOSTON, March 6 (Reuters) - Eight Democratic-led states on Thursday filed a lawsuit challenging cuts U.S. President Donald Trump's administration made to grant funding for teacher preparation programs, a move they said was in keeping with Republican's efforts to eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives from society.

The lawsuit was filed in Boston federal court and took aim at the U.S. Department of Education's decision to terminate grants awarded through two federal programs designed to support training teachers and creating a pipeline to fill positions in hard-to-staff schools in rural and urban areas.

Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk, the architect of the Department of Government Efficiency, have pledged to dismantle the Education Department as they push to rapidly slash spending and the size of the federal workforce.

The Wall Street Journal late Wednesday reported that Trump was set to issue an executive order to implement his long-held goal of abolishing the department. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on X dismissed the report as "fake news."

In letters notifying grant recipients about its decision to terminate the grants, the department said then-Acting Education Secretary Denise Carter had decided to terminate grants because they provide funding for programs that promote DEI or other initiatives that it said discriminate on the basis of race.

By February 17, the Education Department said it had canceled over $600 million in grants to institutions and non-profits that it said were used to train teachers and education agencies on "divisive ideologies," including DEI, "critical race theory" and "anti-racism."

State attorneys general from California, Massachusetts and New Jersey are co-leading the lawsuit, which is also being pursued by their counterparts in Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin. They are seeking a temporary restraining order to restore the funding.

They argue the cuts effectively eliminate the Teacher Quality Partnership and Supporting Effective Educator Development grant programs, which Congress had intended to help address K-12 teacher shortages and development needs.

They said the cuts to grant funding to public universities and non-profits would result in layoffs or reductions in hours for university staff, destabilize local school systems and exacerbate a nationwide teacher shortage.

Their lawsuit argues that the Education Department violated the Administrative Procedure Act by unilaterally canceling funding for grant programs that Congress had already authorized to receive millions of dollars.

"The power of the purse belongs to Congress and the Department of Education cannot unilaterally cut millions of dollars in funding for teachers and students who rely on it,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, said in a statement.

In California alone, the Education Department has terminated at least $148 million in grant funding that would go to state universities and non-profits, according to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat.

"As a father myself, I can't sit back while the Trump administration attempts to pull the rug out from under aspiring teachers -- especially when it's our kids' education on the line," he said in a statement.

The Education Department declined to comment.

The case is the second so far to challenge the grant funding cuts, following a lawsuit filed on Monday in federal court in Baltimore by three teacher preparation organizations including the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

That case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Julie Rubin, an appointee of Trump's Democratic predecessor Joe Biden. She has scheduled a March 13 hearing to determine whether she should issue a preliminary injunction blocking the cuts.

The case is State of California, et al, v. U.S. Department of Education, et al, No. 1:25-cv-10548.

For the states: Laura Faer of the California Department of Justice and Adelaide Pagano of the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office.