States sue to block Trump freezing school funding over DEI

Malathi Nayak, Bloomberg News on Apr 25, 2025

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A group of 19 states sued to block the Trump administration from freezing federal funds for states that refuse to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs in K-12 public schools, intensifying a legal battle over billions of dollars in assistance.

The lawsuit filed Friday in Boston federal court follows a warning this month from the U.S. Department of Education to state officials that they’re in jeopardy of losing financing if they don’t remove DEI programs. The complaint says $13.8 billion in funding is at risk.

“The federal government seeks to create a Hobson’s choice of either immediately stepping back from their legal efforts to support and provide for diversity, equity, and inclusion of all students regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, gender, and disability in schools or face the loss of essential federal funding,” according to the complaint by state attorneys general, including New York’s Letitia James and California’s Rob Bonta.

Representatives of the U.S. Department of Education and the White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump has invoked Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin, to assert that DEI amounts to illegal discrimination. Trump has issued a handful of orders over DEI since taking office in January and called for an end to “illegal and immoral discrimination programs, going by the name ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’” in federal government.

Colleges have been pulling back diversity efforts after the administration threatened to withhold funds from institutions that don’t comply with executive orders. Harvard University sued the U.S. government this week for freezing $2.2 billion in research grants in a dispute that is partly over DEI.

The states that filed Friday’s suit, including Illinois, Massachusetts and Minnesota, seek a court order declaring a school funding freeze illegal and blocking it from taking effect.

“Let me be clear: the federal Department of Education is not trying to ‘combat’ discrimination with this latest order,” Bonta said in a statement. “Instead it is using our nation’s foundational civil rights law as a pretext to coerce states into abandoning efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion through lawful programs and policies.”

In fiscal year 2022, the federal government accounted for approximately 13.6% of total funding for public elementary and secondary schools, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

California gets $7.9 billion “in congressionally mandated financial support” yearly from the Department of Education, according to a statement from Bonta’s office.

The case is State of New York v. Department of Education, 25-cv-11116, US District Court, District of Massachusetts.