Chairs seen stacked on top of desks in a hallway at the Providence, Rhode Island, Career & Technical Academy. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
The federal government has struck an agreement with Maryland, 23 states and the District of Columbia, to release the remainder of $6.8 billion in education funds frozen earlier this summer.
The U.S. Department of Education agreed to release any remaining funds between Oct. 1 and Oct. 3 to resolve a lawsuit co-led by Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha and his counterparts in California, Colorado, and Massachusetts. The suit was filed July 14 in U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island.
Rhode Island stood to lose around $29 million under the freeze, funds that were supposed to cover programs like after school and summer offerings, teachers’ professional development, English language acquisition, and adult education.
Neronha praised the multistate coalition’s success in a Tuesday statement.
“Because of our lawsuit and immense public pressure, billions in critical education funding will rightfully be restored to fund a wide range of important educational programs, without which the growth and enrichment of our young people would be stifled,” Neronha said. “That said, our victory in this case must be put into context: this funding was not the President’s to withhold in the first place.”
Maryland could have lost up to $110 million, according to Attorney General Anthony Brown.
“This victory ensures that Maryland’s K–12 schools and adult education programs will receive every dollar of the $110 million in federal education funding they were promised — resources they depend on to prepare our students for a brighter tomorrow,” Brown said in a statement released by his office Monday.
The joint agreement appears to conclude a saga that began on June 30, when federal officials notified state-level school departments nationwide that the funds were being clawed back.
On July 13, the day before the lawsuit’s filing, the feds relented slightly and released about $1.3 billion tied to Title IV-B grants, the only federal funding source for afterschool and summer learning programs.
The feds promised to release the remainder of the funds by July 25, with disbursements expected to arrive sometime over the week of July 28. The new joint agreement notes that the “first tranche” of funds did arrive the week of July 28, and it ensures that any remaining funds, which it labels the “second tranche” of subsidies, will arrive by the dates specified in October.
But, the agreement text makes it clear the feds and the states do not see eye to eye on the original withholding’s legality.
“Defendants do not concede that any of Plaintiffs’ claims are meritorious, but nevertheless intend to make the Second Tranche of funds available on or about October 1, 2025, but no later than October 3, 2025,” the agreement reads.
The Rhode Island Council on Elementary and Secondary Education — the governing body which oversees the Rhode Island Department of Education, effectively regulating all public K-12 education in the state — is set to discuss the lawsuit’s outcome in executive session at its Tuesday night meeting.
This was Neronha’s 26th lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration. The most recent, and Neronha’s 33rd overall, saw the Rhode Island AG join 20 other states in an Aug. 18 filing against new federal stipulations Victims of Crime Act grants.
“We have built the biggest and best law firm in the country, and we go to work every day for one client: the American people,” Neronha said.
– A Maryland Matters editor contributed to this report in Maryland. This story first appeared in the Rhode Island Current, which 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.
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