Biden-appointed judge blocks education department from terminating DEI teacher grants

A Biden-appointed judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Department of Education’s (DOE) attempt to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars worth of teacher training programs that promoted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

The lawsuit was filed by the states of California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Wisconsin on Mar. 6 against the DOE and Education Secretary Linda McMahon for canceling the grants, which had an estimated cost of $600 million. The states claim the grants are “critical” to “recruiting and training highly qualified and diverse teachers.”

“I see no reasoned explanation articulated for the Department’s action here,” Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Myong Joun wrote in the decision. “First, the Termination Letter lists several theoretical bases for the grant terminations—stating the grants fund programs that, for example, ‘promote or take part in DEI initiatives’ or ‘are not free from fraud, abuse, or duplication’ or ‘otherwise fail to serve the best interests of the United States’ — but fails to identify which of these bases applies here. This does not reach the level of a reasoned explanation; indeed it amounts to no explanation at all.”

Joun said the department’s letter it sent notifying the programs of the termination was “arbitrary and capricious,” according to court documents.

The Department of Education previously announced on Feb. 17 that it was cutting the grants, calling the training they funded “divisive” and “inappropriate and unnecessary.” The trainings were geared toward teachers and “education agencies” and contained topics such as critical race theory (CRT), “social justice activism,” and “anti-racism.” Several of the grants also went toward recruitment strategies for teachers and staff based on race.

Several legal challenges have already been brought against the Trump administration, including by the Democratic National Committee. Several education groups and teachers’ unions are already joining forces to defy the administration over cuts to DEI and other unnecessary spending, urging schools not to comply with the directives.

The Department of Education did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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