Summary: Maryland is involved in two lawsuits against the Trump administration’s attempts to claw back federal funding to the state Department of Education. Federal judges have kept the funding intact for now, but that could change.
Question 1: Viewers may have seen the headlines of the Trump administration stopping the funds and then the judge reversing that. Where does the case stand now?
A: States received a March 28 letter from Education Secretary Linda McMahon abruptly announcing that the administration had moved up the due date for spending pandemic relief funds.
16 states and Washington D.C. sued, saying the agency can’t rescind money that Congress allocated.
A federal judge ruled earlier this month that the states were correct, the Education Department didn’t give enough notice before cancelling funds. It’s on pause for now, and there’s a hearing in early June in New York for a court to determine what happens next.
Separately, a group of 19 states is suing over an April 3 letter from the Department of Education to pull almost $14 billion in funding for public schools the administration says is used for DEI programs. Maryland and the other states are saying that violates the Civil Rights Act.
Question 2: How much funding is at risk for Maryland schools?
The Maryland State Department of Education received $287 million in federal funding this year. Almost 70% of the agency’s total funding. It’s unclear how much of that could be cut under the DEI order - the directive is vague, which is part of the reason states are suing.
Washington is also trying to claw back $232 million of Covid-19 relief funds, about half of the $418 million the state dept. of education received. Maryland already spent $305 million of that on tutoring, summer learning, and construction projects like heating and cooling systems in schools, more. The rest is already committed to specific projects.
The money was sent in 2021, and Maryland was told this February they had until March 2026 to spend the money. That was the second extension they received - some other states have gotten up to 7 extensions.
But now McMahon says the states “have had ample time to liquidate obligations” and wants to move up the deadline.
Question 3: How are other states reacting to these changes?
It’s split pretty evenly.
As of April 30, 21 states and Washington D.C. publicly said they would sign a certification promising they were not spending education funds on DEI. 25 states publicly said they would not. Most of the NorthEast said they won’t sign. Other nearby states like Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina will sign.
(Baltimore schools: director of equity, a senior director of equity, five educational specialists of equity, and a director for equity-centered principal development.)
For the Covid funds, for now the government can’t rescind funds from the 16 states that are suing the dept. of education. Again those are mostly Northeast states like Pennsylvania, Delaware, NY, NJ. But for the rest of the states, their money has been frozen since the end of March. They can submit appeals directly to the department of education to get funding back for specific programs, but most appeals have been denied.