Trump Cut Education Grants Over ‘DEI.’ It Will Worsen Teacher Shortages, Lawsuit Says

Update, March 11: On Monday, U.S. District Judge Myong J. Joun granted a 14-day temporary restraining order (PDF) blocking the Trump administration from terminating the TQP and SEED grants in California and the other plaintiff states while the states seek a preliminary injunction.

“Today’s decision is a crucial early victory to ensure these grant dollars continue to flow and our kids get the passionate, qualified, good teachers they deserve,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement.

Original story, March 6: California is suing the U.S. Department of Education over the termination of $600 million in grants used to train teachers and education nonprofits nationwide, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Thursday amid reports about President Trump’s efforts to unfurl the department.

Bonta and seven other state attorneys general are asking the District Court in Massachusetts to immediately halt the funding cuts and ensure that money already approved by Congress continues flowing to teacher training programs, including at eight California State and University of California campuses.

“These are grants that our state is counting on to train and prepare qualified educators,” Bonta said during a press conference on Thursday. “Funds that are critical to addressing our state and nation’s teacher shortage crisis. Funds that are critical to getting teachers into rural schools, into urban schools, and into hard-to-fill positions. … Funds that improve the quality of education for our children.”

Bonta said the Trump administration canceled Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) and Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) grants, which fund residency programs to train K–12 teachers in difficult-to-staff specialties and areas. The suit said the terminations have effectively eliminated the two programs, which are sorely needed as the country faces a teacher shortage.

The lawsuit alleges that the Education Department unlawfully terminated the grants without due process or a “transparent, internally consistent and reasonable explanation” and that it didn’t consider the impact that the cuts would have on teacher shortages, training programs and students. It follows another suit seeking to overturn the terminations filed Monday by three education nonprofits in the U.S District Court of Maryland.

A Department of Education spokesperson told KQED the department does not comment on pending litigation.

The eight states — California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin — would lose at least $250 million in grant funding, according to the lawsuit.

California’s terminated grants across universities and nonprofits total about $148 million. CSU and UC campuses awarded eight grants totaling about $56 million received termination letters in early February, according to the lawsuit. All of the letters included repetitive and “boilerplate” language related to diversity, equity and inclusion and “waste, fraud and abuse,” Bonta said.

Some of the funds have already been used, he said, and about $8 million is earmarked for programs between now and September to ensure that early-career teachers are prepared to enter the classroom next fall.

“The universities would have to look to layoffs, reduced hours for university staff and reduced or eliminated support and funding for aspiring teachers” without the money, Bonta said.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s Innovative Support and Preparation of Inclusive and Resilient Educators program was supposed to receive a five-year, $2.2 million grant from the Department of Education. The money would help the campus provide living-wage stipends for training teachers in its program who agree to three-year jobs in 32 high-need schools in the surrounding Central Coast area, focusing on K–12 bilingual and special education.

Other multimillion-dollar grants would have funded programs at Cal State Los Angeles and Chico State that target these specialties, along with hard-to-staff subjects like math and science, and encourage teachers to work in their home communities.

“Sadly, the people Trump’s hurting most of all [are] kids in rural areas, kids in urban areas, kids in high-poverty communities and high-need schools, kids who need and deserve extra support and additional resources,” Bonta said.

Shireen Pavri, the CSU’s assistant vice chancellor for educator and leadership programs, said 1 in 25 teachers across the country studies at a CSU, including 50% of California teachers. Ahead of the 2024–25 school year, California had about 25,000 teaching position vacancies.

“These grants have greatly assisted our CSU campuses in recruiting teacher candidates, in funding their schooling, and in graduating highly prepared teachers to serve all young people in the state, especially in areas of particular teacher shortage,” she said.

The lawsuit comes as multiple news outlets report that the Trump administration is gearing up to issue an executive order that would direct Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take steps to dismantle the agency — a part of Project 2025. Trump attempted to distance himself from the controversial Heritage Foundation playbook during his campaign, but he has followed it closely in many of the policies he’s implemented since taking office.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on social media on Wednesday that no executive order related to the Education Department was expected Thursday.

Still, fears are swirling around public schools across the country, as Trump has made repeated threats to school districts that support DEI initiatives and LGBTQ-identifying students, doubling down in his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night. Many are also already dealing with budget crises and staffing shortages as COVID-19 relief funds sunset and burnt-out teachers leave the field.

In San Francisco, Superintendent Maria Su said the school district would continue to support vulnerable student populations with the help of City Attorney David Chiu and other city partners.

“We are fighting back, we are stating that the federal government does not have the ability to say what our values are In San Francisco,” Su told KQED in February. “We believe firmly that all students have the right to an education, regardless of how they identify themselves, how they want to show up in the classrooms, and we also firmly believe that all of our teachers have the right to identify how they choose to be and teach history, teach real history for our students. And we won’t change that.”