(COLORADO) — Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is helping lead a new lawsuit against the Trump Administration, along with over 20 other states.
The lawsuit alleges the administration unlawfully froze $6.8 billion in education funding just weeks before the school year starts. Those joining Weiser in the suit claim congress appropriated these funds, and Trump does not have the power to withhold them.
“I’m here in disbelief. It was a couple of weeks ago on July 3, when I was talking in the Western part of our state to a school superintendent who said, ‘They’ve never done this before to me. I can’t believe they’re doing it. Our budget is now in a tenuous, untenable position, because of this arbitrary, unfair, inexplicable action,'” said Weiser.
Weiser said Colorado students are at risk of losing $80 million in federal funding. He said this money is for programs promoting effective instruction, improving school conditions and technology in the classroom, educational programs for English learners, and more.
“We all know what a setback the pandemic was to education. Our kids have this learning loss that we still haven’t made up for, and yet here we are talking about promised funding being withheld,” said Weiser.
Earlier this year, Education Secretary Linda McMahon defended the administration’s requests to make cuts to the department.
“We have spent $3 trillion since 1980 on education in our country when this department was set up, and our scores have continued to go down. We are not doing something right,” said McMahon.
McMahon also previously said education funding that goes directly to schools and students would not get cut, and President Trump is making these changes to help children. Weiser disagrees, and argued the decision has thrown our schools into chaos as they determine which services, educators, and programming will need to go.
“I don’t want Colorado educational leaders scrambling the way that’s happening right now… This is another case where we’re going to force this administration to follow the law, and to make sure that Colorado gets the money that was promised to it,” said Weiser.
The Trump Administration previously said it froze funds to investigate if what was spent matched up with the president’s priorities and the department’s responsibilities.
