Rhode Island attorney general leads 24 states, DC in suit over $6.8 billion cut in education funding
By Alexander Castro, Rhode Island Current
The lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island against the U.S. Department of Education, the Office of Management and Budget and President Donald Trump.
The complaint is the first legal response to a June 30 email memo sent from the U.S. Department of Education to education departments nationwide detailing the abrupt suspension of billions in federal education grants.
A quarter of the grant money typically arrives in state education coffers on July 1, the start of a new fiscal year, so local education departments can plan for the year ahead. But the expected payments were paused on June 30, the last day of fiscal year 2025.
“It is impossible for states to effectively budget for an upcoming school year…when the president takes the football away from us like Lucy in a Charlie Brown cartoon,” Neronha said.
The funds supported after-school and summertime programming for kids, as well as adult education, and teacher training. In states like Massachusetts, the grants also subsidized education for children of migrant workers.
Rhode Island would lose an estimated $29 million in federal funds. Across New England, Massachusetts would see a loss of over $100 million, and Connecticut would receive $50 million less. Vermont and Maine would lose $25 million each. New Hampshire, which would also see a $25 million loss of grant funding, is the only New England state not listed as a plaintiff in the suit.
The grants now depend on a review meant to ascertain whether “taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the President’s priorities and the Department’s statutory responsibilities,” according to the three-sentence email from the education department sent June 30.
The U.S. Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. A July 9 statement Office of Management and Budget shared with Rhode Island Current noted that the funds were paused after some school districts had allegedly used previous grant money “to subsidize a radical left-wing agenda.”
The attorneys general argue that the funding freeze violates an assortment of federal laws and constitutional principles — both recurring themes in the arguments they made in dozens of similar multi-state lawsuits brought to court since Trump took office in January.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who hosted the press conference, described the lawsuit as the latest defensive move against what he called the Trump administration’s “little regard for the law.”
“In fact, out of the 31 lawsuits I and many of my colleagues have now filed against the Trump administration in the last 25 weeks, eight of them challenge unlawful attacks on education,” Bonta said.
The coalition of attorneys general wants a federal judge to rule that the funding freeze is illegal, as well as order the federal government to release the money. A pair of court filings seeking both outcomes comprises over 180 pages, and describe the freeze as “contrary to law, arbitrary and capricious, and unconstitutional.”
Neronha told reporters that, in Rhode Island’s case, the funding freeze comes at an especially inopportune time, with the state’s part-time legislature having just wrapped up its legislative session three weeks prior.
“It was a very difficult budget year,” Neronha said, with lawmakers forced to make tough fiscal decisions amid the state’s many money troubles, including an ailing health care infrastructure.
But the AG said he hoped that the issue would be resolved “far, far, far before” legislators return for a new legislative session in January.
Rhode Island Department of Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green previously denounced the funding freeze at a July 9 press conference. In a Monday statement, Infante-Green again decried the funding stoppage as one that “harms Rhode Island’s students, families, and teachers.” The $29 million loss of Congressionally approved aid means “there will be cuts” to before- and after-school programs, STEM learning, multilingual education, and professional development for teachers, Infante-Green said.
“Rhode Island students have been making significant strides in education progress, post-pandemic,” Infante-Green wrote in her statement. “Delays and cuts in federal funds put progress and momentum in every district in Rhode Island at risk. RIDE is working closely with education leaders across the state, and across the country, doing everything we can to protect our students and limit disruptions to their learning.“
Taking legal action against the Trump administration is now routine for Neronha’s office. His office’s website has tallied its salvoes against the Trump administration since March 13. Thus far, Neronha has co-led or joined 26 lawsuits against the Trump administration.
Asked by reporters about the likelihood of success in the present funding case, Neronha declined to predict an outcome.
“I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves and I don’t obviously want to speak for the court,” he said. “We have to make our points there as well. But based on the track record…we’ve seen this story before. We’ve been in the ring before with these sorts of cases and we’ve had great success because the violations of the law are so obvious.”
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Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com.
