Trump Administration to Release Billions in School Funds (1)

The Trump Administration announced Friday that it will release billions of dollars in education funds sought by school districts in a recently filed federal suit.

The Office of Budget Management has completed its review of several categories of Elementary and Secondary Education Act funds, as well as adult education and family literacy Work Innovation and Opportunity Act funds, and it “has directed the Department to release all formula funds,” said Madi Biedermann, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications for the US Department of Education. “The agency will begin dispersing funds to states next week,” Biedermann said.

Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward Foundation, said the news is “a major victory for public education and the communities it serves,” according to a Friday press release from the organization. “This news following our legal challenge is a direct result of collective action by educators, families, and advocates across the country,” Perryman said.

The refusal to release the funds “threatened immediate harm to schools, especially those serving low-income students, English learners, and under-resourced communities,” the release said.

School districts, unions, and associations from several states sued July 21, alleging that the Trump administration unlawfully withheld about $7 billion in educational funds.

The Trump Administration had said it wouldn’t disburse funds required by the ESEA until it ensures that schools aren’t using funds to promote a “left-wing agenda,” according to the groups’ complaint. This policy violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the US Constitution’s separation of powers, it said.

The Trump administration lacks the authority to impose conditions on the education funds that Congress didn’t require, including conditions intended to advance President Trump’s “unrelated policy goals,” the complaint said.

DeLuca, Weizenbaum, Barry & Revens Ltd., Democracy Forward Foundation, and Jacobson Lawyers Group PLLC represent the plaintiffs.

The case is Anchorage School Dist. v. US Dep’t of Educ., Spec. D.R.I., No. 1:25-cv-00347, 7/25/25.