Attorney General Tong Sues Trump Administration Over Unlawful Conditions on Funding for K-12 Schools

Press Releases

04/25/2025

Attorney General Tong Sues Trump Administration Over Unlawful Conditions on Funding for K-12 Schools

(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong today, as part of a coalition of 19 attorneys general, filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Education’s threat to withhold federal funding from state and local agencies that refuse to abandon lawful programs and policies that promote equal access to education in K-12 classrooms across the nation. On April 3, 2025, the Department of Education informed state and local agencies that they must accept the Trump Administration’s new and legally incoherent interpretation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with respect to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts — or else risk immediate and catastrophic loss of federal education funds. Connecticut, like many other states, refused to certify its compliance with these new requirements, explaining that there is no lawful or practical way to do so given the Department’s vague, contradictory, and unsupported interpretation of Title VI. In filing today’s lawsuit, Attorney General Tong and the coalition seek to bar the Department from withholding any funding based on these unlawful conditions.

Connecticut responded to the U.S. Department of Education on April 16, affirming that Connecticut “already does and will continue to comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”

“There is just no question that Connecticut schools have and will continue to comply with federal civil rights laws. From the start, this has been about Trump and Linda McMahon trying to force their MAGA ideology on Connecticut students and teachers by unlawfully withholding our taxpayer dollars. This is illegal and deeply destructive, and we’re not going to let Trump and McMahon rob from our schools and imperil our children’s futures,” said Attorney General Tong.

The U.S. Department of Education provides Connecticut with nearly $400 million in congressionally mandated financial support each year for a wide variety of needs and services related to children and education. This funding includes financial support to ensure that students from low-income families have the same access to high-quality education as their peers, provide special education services, recruit and train highly skilled and dedicated teachers, fund programming for non-native speakers to learn English, and provide support to vulnerable children in foster care and without housing. As a condition of receiving these funds, state and local education agencies provide written assurances they will comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin, and Connecticut has consistently and regularly certified its compliance with Title VI and its implementing regulations.

However, on April 3, the Department of Education issued a letter that conditioned continued federal financial assistance on state and local education agencies certifying that they are not operating programs inconsistent with the Trump Administration’s view that efforts supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion are unlawful. The letter forced state and local agencies to choose between two untenable options: (1) refuse to certify compliance based on the Department’s un-defined viewpoint on what constitutes unlawful diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, curriculum, instruction, and policies, and place federal funding in peril or (2) certify compliance, attempt to identify and eliminate lawful diversity, equity, and inclusion to the detriment of students, and still face liability for failing to fully comply with the Department’s vague and ill-defined order. Faced with this choice, Connecticut informed the Department that it continues to stand by its prior certifications of compliance with Title VI and its lawfully issued implementing regulations in the Department’s possession but would not assent to the unlawfully issued certification.

In the lawsuit, Attorney General Tong and the multistate coalition assert that the Department of Education’s attempt to terminate federal education funding based on its misinterpretation of Title VI violates the Spending Clause, the Appropriations Clause, the separation of powers, and the Administrative Procedures Act.

Attorney General Tong joins the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Washington in filing the lawsuit.

A copy of the complaint is available here.

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Media Contact:

Elizabeth Benton
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