Attorney General Keith Ellison announced Monday that Minnesota has joined a coalition of 23 attorneys general and two states in suing the Trump administration over alleged frozen funding administered by the U.S. Department of Education.
Over $70 million in education funding for Minnesota is “believed to be” frozen by President Donald Trump’s administration, and $6.8 billion total across the country, according to a press release from Ellison’s office on Monday. The attorneys general argue that the funding freezes violate the Antideficiency Act, the Impoundment Control Act, the constitutional separation of powers doctrine and the Presentment Clause and ask for the release of the education funds.
“Donald Trump’s Department of Education is pulling the rug out from under Minnesota students by cutting school funding without warning and right before the start of the school year, and they are violating the law by doing so,” Ellison said in the Monday press release.
Minnesota currently has $156 million total federal funds “at risk” and has had $59 million in federal funding “permanently cancelled” since Trump took office in January, according to Minnesota Management and Budget’s daily report.
Ellison is joined by attorneys general of California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as the states of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
“We have repeatedly asked our federal partners for timely delivery of appropriated investments on which Minnesota students rely,” Willie Jett, Minnesota Department of Education commissioner, said in a press release. “Career and technical education, after-school programs, English language courses, and teacher training that strengthen our schools, workforce, and communities are now at risk in every corner of our state.”
