North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced Monday he is joining 22 other state attorneys general and two governors in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education.
On July 1, the Department of Education notified states that they would not be receiving certain K-12 federal funds that are typically disbursed each July. That effectively froze $165 million in funding for North Carolina public schools.
"The Department of Education does not have the authority to withhold those funds, certainly not the night before they were set to arrive," Jackson said at the press conference. "We are taking them to court, and I am confident that we are going to prevail, because I think the legal argument here is very straightforward."
The brief memo the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction received on June 30 said that the funds would not be released "until further review" to ensure "taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the President’s priorities."
The funding is used to support teacher professional development; before and after-school programs; services for English language learners; and programs for migrant students.
Congress appropriated the total funds for each of these Title programs in March at the same funding level as last year, but did not provide line item appropriations for these specific sub-programs. President Donald Trump had also singled out these sub-programs for possible funding cuts in his proposed budget.
Jackson said the complaint is asking for a preliminary injunction.
"We're asking the court to treat this as an emergency," Jackson said. "We are hopeful that we get an outcome before the school year begins. We need this to be resolved within a matter of weeks, not months."
Meanwhile, schools are getting ready to open in August, without about 10 percent of their federal funding.
"These funds serve, directly and indirectly, hundreds of thousands of our students, including some of the most vulnerable," said State Superintendent Maurice "Mo" Green.
Green added that filing a lawsuit against the U.S. government is not an action to take without considerable deliberation.
"The impact to North Carolina's public schools cannot be overstated," Green said. "Now hundreds of public school employees' positions are at risk, and thousands of students are faced with the reality that they may not be able to access the very funds they need to succeed."
Green says he's hearing from schools that this is especially tough since they've already been hiring for the fall.
"What I'm also hearing is, 'Mo do we get to keep the staff that we've hired?'" Green said.
Green said schools may have a few months of stop gap funding leftover from last year to hold them over, but that the amount of available funding varies by district.
More on the U.S. Department of Education's announcement of pause in funding
How much funding was frozen to NC school districts and charter schools?
The amount of funding on pause to each school district and charter school depends on the size and economic demographics of their student population and whether the school provides special services for migrant students. Other federal funding, including Title I funds for low-income students and IDEA funds for students with disabilities - which make up the bulk of federal funds schools receive - are not affected.
For a full breakdown of the impact by program, see this summary by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
