US judge vacates Department of Education policy on training and diversity grants

A US federal judge on Thursday has vacated a US Department of Education (DOE) internal policy directive to cancel grants that supported educator training and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) programs. Under the directive, “Eliminating Discrimination and Fraud in Department Grant Awards,” the DOE canceled 104 of 109 grants in the Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) and Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) programs. The canceled grants totaled about $600 million. Judge Angel Kelley, US District Court District of Massachusetts, granted a permanent injunction against the policy, writing that it was, “arbitrary and capricious and not in accordance with law,” including the Administrative Procedure Act. She noted the government’s uncertainty about the definition of DEI, writing: It is difficult to see how topics can be “anti-racis[t]” yet simultaneously fall within the Directive’s category of “discriminatory” activities. The record likewise shows that the Directive swept in topics as broad and amorphous as “Family and Community in the Classroom” and “social-emotional learning.” These topics do not, on their face, have any apparent connection to discrimination. Then-acting DOE Secretary Denise Carter issued the directive in response to two executive orders from President Trump. Executive Order No. 14173, titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” which was issued on January 21, 2015, required the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, to “excise references to DEI and DEIA principles” and terminate DEI grants. Executive Order No. 14190, titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” which was issued on January 29, 2025, required the Secretary of Education and others to develop, within 90 days, a plan to eliminate “Federal funding or support for illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools.” Judge Kelley cited examples of the programs that were harmed by the canceled grants. In California, TQP and SEED grants funded programs to train thousands of teachers for high-need rural and urban school districts and to retain educators. According to Judge Kelley, “The number of people completing traditional teacher preparation programs has dropped by 35% in the last decade and nearly 300,000 teachers leave the teaching profession each year.” In Maryland, Frostburg State University received a five-year $3.2 million TQP grant for its Rural Educators for Appalachian Children program. In Massachusetts, the University of Massachusetts Amherst received a TQP grant in 2023 for approximately $2.3 million to create a program to train paraeducators to become licensed early childhood educators in two high-need districts. On March 6, 2025, a coalition of eight states, led by New York, sought a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to block the new DOE policy. On March 10, 2025, US Judge Myong J. Joun granted a TRO, effective until March 24, 2026, enjoining DOE from terminating any previously awarded TQP or SEED grants for recipients in the plaintiff states. The Trump administration appealed the TRO, asking for a stay. On March 13, Judge Joun denied a stay. The Administration appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which denied a stay on March 21. New York Attorney General Letitia James responded, saying on X, “Kids in rural and underserved communities deserve access to qualified teachers and a quality education.”