The Trump administration said Friday that it plans to release $5.5 billion in frozen funding for public school districts across the nation.
The move came amid growing bipartisan pressure from lawmakers on Capitol Hill who were concerned about its impact as the start of a new school year draws ever closer, The New York Times reported Friday.
The money was part of a pot of $7 billion in K-12 funding that previously had been approved by Congress and was set to be distributed to states starting July 1.
The U.S. Department of Education said it plans to start sending the money to the states next week, The Times reported.
That tranche included $108 million in funding for public schools in the Bay State.
In a statement, Gov. Maura Healey said that the money would be headed for Massachusetts. But, the Democratic governor added, the damage already had been done.
“President Trump’s decision to withhold $108 million from Massachusetts schools for weeks has already caused major disruptions for our schools. We have been notified by the U.S. Department of Education that they will be releasing these funds starting on Monday,” Healey said.
“We will continue to monitor to ensure this funding is received as promised and work to get it out the door to schools as soon as possible. I’m grateful to Attorney General [Andrea] Campbell and her colleagues for fighting this in court,” Healey continued.
Earlier this month, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, joined by fellow Democratic attorneys general, and the Democratic governors of two states, sued the White House over its decision to freeze the funding.
In a statement, Campbell called the White House’s gambit “unconstitutional, unlawful, and arbitrary.”
The agency initiated the freeze in June, announcing that it was conducting a review of the funding to see if the programs it paid for aligned with the administration’s priorities, MassLive previously reported.
Last week, the White House announced that it would release $1.3 billion that had been withheld for after-school programs, The Times reported.
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