Dive Brief:
- Three teacher preparation groups on Monday filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the Trump administration’s cuts to teacher training grant programs, arguing that the U.S. Department of Education “failed to follow statute and Federal regulations in terminating the grants.”
- In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, National Center for Teacher Residencies and Maryland Association of Colleges for Teacher Education are seeking reinstatement of the teacher training grant awards.
- The more than 100 educator prep grants terminated are funded under three congressionally appropriated programs: the Supporting Effective Educator Development Grant Program, the Teacher Quality Partnership Program and the Teacher and School Leader Incentive Program.
Dive Insight:
The lawsuit joins a growing list of legal challenges to a slew of Trump administration K-12 directives, which range from a ban on transgender girls participating in sports aligned with their gender identity to the Education Department’s recent anti-DEI guidance for schools.
Days before filing the lawsuit, AACTE and NCTR signed a letter with more than 100 other organizations calling for Congress to order then-Acting Education Secretary Denise Carter to reinstate the canceled grants. The cuts to the grant programs followed an Education Department announcement on Feb. 17 that the agency had slashed $600 million in federal funding for “divisive” teacher training grants.
The groups’ letter to Congress noted that some states’ educator pipeline programs are already feeling the brunt of the teacher training grant cuts.
The lawsuit states that due to “the Department’s improper early terminations, the Grant Recipients have been and will continue to be deprived of essential funding required to continue their teacher preparation programs and the continuation of the Department’s unlawful terminations will irreparably harm Plaintiffs and their members.”
According to the lawsuit, NCTR will lose nearly $1.2 million due to the department’s cut to its SEED grant — impacting 128 teacher residents enrolled in 13 of NCTR’s programs, some of which will be forced to close. The department’s move also stifles NCTR’s ability to enroll an additional 190 teacher residents starting this summer, the lawsuit said.
“Our SEED-funded programs and those of our members cannot continue to support teachers in 15 states without these critical funds,” Kathlene Campbell, CEO of NCTR, said in a statement “The unlawful immediate termination of our grants will be felt nationwide in fewer highly prepared teachers for our schools and for our students.”
A preliminary injunction issued on Feb. 21 over Trump’s executive order on “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” prohibits the Education Department from terminating grants, the lawsuit said. The department’s announcement to cut the teacher training grants cited that same executive order, according to the plaintiffs.
