The Trump administration must restore, at least temporarily, millions of dollars in grant funds it cut last month from three key programs supporting teacher-preparation programs nationwide, a federal judge ordered Monday.
The order for a preliminary injunction against the grant terminations, from District Judge Julie Rubin, warns of a “grave effect on the public” if the grant funds remained frozen. The Trump administration must reinstate the affected grants within five business days, the order says.
Rubin wrote that the U.S. Department of Education’s efforts to terminate the grants were “unreasonable, not reasonably explained, based on factors Congress had not intended the Department to consider (i.e., not agency priorities), and otherwise not in accordance with law.”
The order to reinstate the grants is responding to a lawsuit from groups that represent teacher-preparation programs: the National Center for Teacher Residencies and the Association of American Colleges for Teacher Education, along with its Maryland affiliate. Rubin is an appointee of former President Joe Biden.
Last week, a separate court order from a different judge ordered the restoration of recently terminated teacher-prep grant funds in eight states. The Trump administration unsuccessfully asked the judge in that case to pause that order. Meanwhile, some grantees in those states still haven’t seen their funding.
Trump administration failed to follow legally required procedures, judge says
The affected federal money was awarded in recent years to colleges and universities, school districts, and nonprofit organizations across the country through three grant programs: Seeking Effective Educator Development (SEED), Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP), and Teacher and School Leader (TSL) Development.
All three grant programs are enshrined in federal law, which only Congress can amend, and Congress has appropriated money for each one. The executive branch has some authority to rework grant priorities and cancel contracts but only if it follows specific processes laid out in the Administrative Procedure Act.
The Trump administration likely violated that law when it sent brief letters of termination to dozens of grant recipients in mid-February, Rubin wrote in the court order.
Grant recipients received letters from the Education Department in early and mid-February notifying them the government had terminated their contracts, effective immediately, saying the grant awards were “inconsistent with, and no longer effectuate, Department priorities.”
Those letters were inappropriately vague and offered too few specific details for recipients to appeal the termination, she wrote.
“How does one draft a ‘brief statement’ of a ‘disputed’ fact when one has no earthly idea what has been asserted, if anything?” Rubin wrote.
The Trump administration said last month that it was terminating those grants as part of its sweeping effort to slash federal spending, particularly related to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
In addition to the process concerns, plaintiffs in the lawsuit from the groups representing teacher-prep programs also argued that the terminations should be halted because of a prior court order halting implementation of Trump’s DEI executive order. Rubin denied that portion of the lawsuit, arguing the termination letters were too vague for recipients to be able to assert that they were tied to any particular administration policy.
Programs funded by the terminated grants have moved in recent weeks to scale back programming, lay off staff, and even contemplate shutting down altogether.
The grant terminations prompted two lawsuits: one from the three groups that represent teacher-preparation programs and one from eight Democratic state attorneys general.
