Attorney General Ellison sues Trump Administration for freezing $6.8 billion in education investments just weeks before school year start
AG Ellison fighting to unfreeze over $70 million for Minnesota schools
July 14, 2025 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison today joined a coalition of 23 attorneys general and 2 states in suing the Trump Administration over its unconstitutional, unlawful, and arbitrary decision to freeze funding for six longstanding programs administered by the U.S. Department of Education less than two months before the school year in many parts of Minnesota is set to start. Over $70 million in funding for Minnesota is believed to be frozen by the Trump Administration. Without this funding, many educational programs will shutter – already, ongoing summer learning programs have been left unfunded.
The attorneys general argue that the funding freeze violates the federal funding statutes and regulations authorizing these critical programs and appropriating funds for them, violates federal statutes governing the federal budgeting process, including the Antideficiency Act and Impoundment Control Act, and violates the constitutional separation of powers doctrine and the Presentment Clause. They ask the court to order the release of these critical 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,” said Attorney General Keith Ellison. “Minnesotans pay our taxes to the federal government. In fact, unlike many states, Minnesota typically sends more money to Washington than it gets back. In 2023, for example, Minnesota sent $45 billion more than it got back. We expect our tax dollars to come back to our state and be spent on things that build a better future for all of us, like our schools. Minnesota pays more than its fair share to Washington, and I will not allow Donald Trump and his cronies to illegally slash education grants, shortchange our students, and starve our public schools, all to fund Trump’s tax breaks for billionaires, so I’m taking them to court.”
“We have repeatedly asked our federal partners for timely delivery of appropriated investments on which Minnesota students rely,” said Minnesota Department of Education Commissioner Willie Jett, referencing his June 26 letter to Secretary Linda McMahon. “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.”
It is Congress, not the Executive Branch, that possesses the power of the purse. The Constitution does not afford the Executive Branch power to unilaterally refuse to spend appropriations that were passed by both houses of Congress and were signed into law. Yet that is exactly what the Trump Administration is attempting to do here. In today’s lawsuit, Attorney General Ellison and a coalition argue that the Trump Administration’s actions violate federal funding statutes and Appropriations Act, Apportionment, the Administrative Procedures Act and U.S. Constitution, including the separation of powers doctrine, equitable ultra vires, and the Presentment Clause. They asked the Court to declare the funding freeze unlawful – as courts have repeatedly done in other multistate cases – and block any attempts to withhold or delay this funding.
Pursuant to federal statutory and regulatory requirements, each year the Department of Education makes around 25% of the funds for these programs available to states on or about July 1 in order to permit state and local educational agencies to plan their budgets for the academic year ahead. The States have complied with the funding conditions set forth under the law and have State plans that the Department of Education has already approved. The States have received these funds, without incident, for decades, including as recently as last year. However, this year, on June 30, state agencies across the country received a notification announcing that the Department of Education would not be “obligating funds for” six formula funding programs on July 1.
This funding freeze has immediately thrown into chaos plans for the upcoming academic year. Local education agencies have approved budgets, developed staffing plans, and signed contracts to provide vital educational services under these grants. Now, as a result of the Trump Administration’s actions, States find themselves without sufficient funding for these commitments, just weeks before the start of the 2025-2026 school year. Essential summer school and afterschool programs, which provide childcare to working parents of school age children, are already being impacted. The abrupt freeze is also wreaking havoc on key teacher training programs as well as programs that make school more accessible to children with special learning needs, such as English learners.
For decades, Minnesota and other states have used funding under these programs to carry out a broad range of programs and services, including educational programs for children of mobile fishing and farming families and English learners; programs that promote effective classroom instruction, improve school conditions and the use of technology in the classroom; community learning centers that offer students a broad range of opportunities for academic and extracurricular enrichment; and adult education and workforce development efforts.
Attorney General Ellison is joined in filing the lawsuit by the 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.
