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Press Release:

Attor­ney Gen­er­al Tong Sues Trump Admin­is­tra­tion over Frozen Funds for Con­necti­cut Schools

Preceding Event:

On June 30, 2025, state agen­cies received notice that the Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion would not be “oblig­at­ing funds” for six pro­grams nor­mal­ly fund­ed. This mon­ey, appro­pri­at­ed by Con­gress, was set to be award­ed to states for many K‑12 and adult edu­ca­tion pro­grams. Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump, Lin­da McMa­hon and the Office of Man­age­ment of Bud­get decid­ed to freeze this fund­ing.

“Pur­suant to fed­er­al statu­to­ry and reg­u­la­to­ry require­ments, each year the Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion makes around 25 per­cent 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 law­suit said “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”.

General Overview:

Attor­ney Gen­er­al William Tong joined a coali­tion of 25 states in suing the Trump admin­is­tra­tion over its deci­sion to freeze $6.8 bil­lion in fund­ing for six long­stand­ing pro­grams, includ­ing over $53 mil­lion for Con­necti­cut schools. Tong and the oth­er plain­tiffs asked the court to declare the freeze unlaw­ful.

“Con­gress designed each of the Impact­ed Pro­grams as a for­mu­la grant, mean­ing Defen­dants are ‘oblig­ed to dis­trib­ute fund­ing to the Plain­tiff States pur­suant to a statu­to­ry for­mu­la’ set by Con­gress so long as the States sat­is­fy the con­di­tions set forth under the law,” the law­suit said. There is no indi­ca­tion any of the states have not sat­is­fied the con­di­tions set for­ward in order to receive the fund­ing.

Connecticut Nexus:

Accord­ing to the press release from July 14, 2025, “We are talk­ing about over $53 mil­lion already built into local school bud­gets in near­ly every dis­trict in Con­necti­cut for com­put­ers and tech­nol­o­gy, after­school enrich­ment and field trips, social work­ers, Eng­lish lan­guage instruc­tion, teacher train­ing, adult edu­ca­tion and more.” Both Lin­da McMa­hon and Rus­sell Vought, the direc­tor of the Office of Man­age­ment and Bud­get, are Con­necti­cut natives.

Date of filing:

July 14, 2025

Case #:

1:25-cv-00329

Case title:

State of Cal­i­for­nia et al v. McMa­hon et al

Plaintiffs: 24 States and D.C.

• STATE OF CALIFORNIA;
• STATE OF COLORADO;
• COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS;
• STATE OF RHODE ISLAND;
• STATE OF ARIZONA;
• STATE OF CONNECTICUT;
• STATE OF DELAWARE;
• THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA;
• STATE OF HAWAI’I;
• STATE OF ILLINOIS;
• OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR ex rel. Andy Beshear, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty as Gov­er­nor of the Com­mon­wealth of Ken­tucky;
• STATE OF MAINE;
• STATE OF MARYLAND;
• STATE OF MICHIGAN;
• STATE OF MINNESOTA;
• STATE OF NEVADA;
• STATE OF NEW JERSEY;
• STATE OF NEW MEXICO;
• STATE OF NEW YORK;
• STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA;
• STATE OF OREGON;
• OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR ex rel. Josh Shapiro, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty as Gov­er­nor of the Com­mon­wealth of Penn­syl­va­nia;
• STATE OF VERMONT;
• STATE OF WASHINGTON;
• STATE OF WISCONSIN

Defendants:

• LINDA MCMAHON, in her offi­cial capac­i­ty as Sec­re­tary of Edu­ca­tion;
• U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION;
• RUSSELL VOUGHT, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty as Direc­tor of the U.S. Office of Man­age­ment and Bud­get;
• U.S. OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET;
• DONALD J. TRUMP, in his offi­cial capac­i­ty as Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States;
• and the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Court:

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF RHODE ISLAND

Status as of Dec. 1, 2025:

CLOSED — Ter­mi­nat­ed on Sept. 9, 2025
Joint motion to dis­miss com­plaint is grant­ed and case is ter­mi­nat­ed

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