A Sign on Franklin Street, Portland, from President Trump’s First Administration.
Early last week Attorney General Frey joined a coalition of 16 state attorneys general filing a lawsuit against the US Department of Education (DOE) for illegally cutting congressionally approved funding for mental health programs in K-12 schools according to a press release issued by his office on July 1, 2025.
“I cannot think of a more worthy priority than ensuring children receive mental health services they need,” said AG Frey. “These funds were congressionally designated, with bipartisan support for this critical service in the wake of the Uvalde tragedy. Withholding these funds is not only cruel, it is illegal.”
The AG filed the lawsuit in US District Court for the western District of Washngton. The Complaint alleges that the DOE’s funding cuts violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the US Constitution. The AGs are asking a federal judge to rule that the funding cuts are illegal and seek an injunction rescinding the non-continuation decision. The other states in this coalition include: California, Colorado, Connectcut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin.
This lawsuit is in response to a notification from the Trump administration last Monday via email that the funds, nearly $7 billion, that would pay for numerous school services would not be released. Some of the other programs include teacher training, and support for students learning English. According to a report in “The New York Times” last week, “the administration offered little explanation, saying only that the funds were under review. It gave no timeline for when, or if, the money would be released, saying instead that it was committed to ensureing taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the president’s priorities.”
“This is lawless,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. The same “Times” article on Thursday, July 3rd said: “The administration has taken an aggresive approach to cutting back the federal government’s role in education, including plans to eliminate the Education Department entirely. Though only Congress can abolish the department, the Trump admnistation has taken an ax to education staffing and funding more broadly as it seeks to whittle down the department.”
“Why do you suppose this blogger quotes “The New York Times” often and the local daily never? Maybe it’s because the latter is a superficial effort to report news,” offers this blogger.
The East End Community School on Munjoy Hill has a high percentage of English learning students in its student body. According to the school’s web page: “Our students come from a wide variety of culturally rich backgrounds. We believe in learning in diverse groups.”