PHOENIX – Attorney General Kris Mayes today joined a coalition of 23 states in suing the Trump Administration over its unconstitutional, unlawful, and arbitrary decision to freeze $132,302,753 for Arizona students and approximately $6.8 billion nationwide in funding administered by the U.S. Department of Education just weeks before the school year starts.
“By freezing $132 million in funds owed to Arizona’s students, President Trump and his administration are increasing costs for Arizona’s schools, cities, and families,” said Attorney General Mayes. “It’s unlawful for President Trump to hold up this education funding and wreak havoc on Arizona’s students and families—and it’s having an immediate and devastating impact.”
Without this funding from six longstanding programs, many educational programs in Arizona 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 for declaratory and injunctive relief.
For decades, Arizona and other states have used funding under these programs to carry out a broad range of programs and services, including educational programs for migratory children 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.
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.
“This is essential education funding that Trump is trying to slash. It will keep the lights on in our schools. It pays for supplies, and teachers, and school safety officers. The Trump administration is trying to take it for no reason,” said Attorney General Mayes. “Arizona’s communities and families will have to scramble because the President is trying to rewrite the law. This will not stand. And I will continue to fight until we secure this funding for our students.”
But 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 Mayes 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.
Attorney General Mayes joins the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Caroline, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and Washington, D.C., and the Governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania, in filing the lawsuit.
A copy of the lawsuit is available here and here.