A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Education Department to restore some federal grants that were terminated as part of the Trump administration’s purge of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Judge Julie R. Rubin of the Federal District Court for the District of Maryland said in an opinion that the department had acted arbitrarily and illegally when it slashed $600 million in grants that helped place teachers in underserved schools. The judge also ordered the administration to cease future cuts to those grants.
The grants fund programs that train and certify teachers to work in struggling districts that otherwise have trouble attracting talent. The programs cited goals that included training a diverse educational work force, and provided training in special education, among other areas.
The department, led by Education Secretary Linda McMahon, argued that the grants trained teachers in “social justice activism” and other “divisive ideologies” and should be eliminated.
A coalition of educator organizations sued to stop the Education Department from terminating the grants. The coalition included groups, such as the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and the National Center for Teacher Residencies, whose members depend on the grants at issue.
The judge found that the loss of the federal dollars would harm students and schools with the fewest resources.
“The harms plaintiffs identify also implicate grave effect on the public: fewer teachers for students in high-need neighborhoods, early childhood education and special education programs,” she wrote. “Moreover, even to the extent defendants assert such an interest in ending D.E.I.-based programs, they have sought to effect change by means the court finds likely violate the law.”
In early February, schools involved in the programs received a letter from the Education Department notifying them that the grants had been canceled as part of the agency’s initiative to “eliminate discrimination in all forms of education throughout the United States.”
The grants, made through the Supporting Effective Educator Development, or SEED, program and the Teacher Quality Partnership Program, among others, are competitive for the states and school districts seeking the assistance. The grants also help states set up specialized college programs to train educators with the goal of placing them in schools where literacy rates or performance gaps are deemed key issues.
For example, last year, Miami-Dade County received a nearly $10 million grant to set up a partnership between Miami Dade College and Miami-Dade County Public Schools through which the college would help train 180 teachers to “break the cycle of teacher shortages” and help prepare future educators for work in high-need schools over five years.
In another case last year, Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, where Ms. McMahon previously served on the board of trustees, received nearly $3.5 million to enroll around 20 teaching residents per year, who would team up with mentors and help staff local schools facing teacher shortages. The grant noted a focus on “emphasizing outreach to recruit teachers of color.”
The preliminary injunction issued on Tuesday also covered the Teacher and School Leader Incentive Program, which provided performance-based financial incentives for teachers and principles who were able to close achievement gaps in high-need schools. It stopped short of a nationwide injunction, but required the department to reinstate the funding that was previously awarded to any members of the groups behind the lawsuit.
Taken together, Congress had appropriated well over $200 million to fund the three programs in past years. The continuing resolution, passed last week, provides less clarity than a full budget on specific grant programs, giving the Education Department more discretion in how to spend congressionally appropriated funds.
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