Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford said Tuesday a court has ordered the Trump administration to restore states’ access to Department of Education programs that support low-income and unhoused students.
The order concerned funding for services addressing the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on K-12 students, Ford said in a news release.
On April 10, Ford joined a coalition of 15 other attorneys general and the Governor of Pennsylvania in suing the Trump administration for ending access to more than $1 billion in grants from the American Rescue Plan Act. The DOE previously determined the states could access this ARPA funding through March 2026.
The preliminary injunction issued Tuesday by Judge Edgardo Ramos of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York orders the DOE to immediately restore states’ access to the funds.
“The unlawful cuts the Trump administration has tried to impose on the DOE would be devastating to Nevada’s children,” Ford said in the release.
To combat the long-term effects of the pandemic, ARPA funded education-related programs to support schools and direct more resources to the most vulnerable students.
The coalition asserted the DOE’s termination of access to these funds caused a massive, unexpected budget gap that would hurt students and teachers.
The preliminary injunction prevents the DOE from enforcing a March 28 letter from Education Secretary Linda McMahon rescinding states’ ability to access their awarded ARPA funding.
Attorneys general of Arizona, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and the District of Columbia, and the Pennsylvania governor joined the lawsuit.