On the 14th, governments of more than 20 US states filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Rhode Island, demanding that the Trump administration unfreeze about $6.8 billion in education funds.
According to Xinhua News Agency, the coalition of plaintiffs led by the state of California stated in the indictment that the federal education funds frozen by the Trump administration are used for after-school programs, summer camps, English proficiency improvement, teacher recruitment and training, as well as education for farm workers and their children. The federal government should have disbursed these funds to the states before July 1, but the Department of Education notified the states on June 30 that it would not be able to make the payments on time.
The lawsuit says that the Trump administration froze the funds without providing a reasonable explanation, causing chaos in many schools, with some summer classes and after-school programs forced to be canceled.
White House officials previously said that these education grants are being reviewed, and a preliminary investigation found that some of the funds have been used for a "radical leftist agenda."
Supreme Court Gives Trump Green Light to Dismantle Department of Education
Meanwhile, on the 14th, the US Supreme Court overturned an injunction issued by a federal district judge, giving the Trump administration the green light to move forward with its plan to dismantle the Department of Education.
Of the Supreme Court's nine justices, three liberal justices dissented. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in her legal opinion expressing her dissent, wrote: "When the executive branch openly announces its intention to break the law and puts that intention into action, the judiciary's duty is to stop, not hasten, such unlawful behavior."
On May 22 of this year, a federal district judge in Boston, Massachusetts, issued an injunction ordering the Trump administration to stop carrying out a plan to lay off about 1,300 employees from the Department of Education and not to transfer the department’s functions to other agencies. On June 4, the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston rejected the Trump administration's request to pause that injunction. The Trump administration then filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court, arguing that the federal district judge "has no authority to interfere in administrative decisions."
On March 11, the US Department of Education began implementing a large-scale layoff plan, with about 1,300 of its 4,000 employees expected to be laid off. On March 20 of the same month, Trump signed an executive order at the White House directing Secretary of Education McMahon to take all necessary measures to push for the closure of the department and return education governance to the states. Senate Minority Leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, said that the attempt to dissolve the Department of Education is one of Trump’s "most destructive" and "most devastating" actions.