Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell is helping lead a 22-state coalition fighting federal cuts to education programs. The group is challenging the U.S. Department of Education’s decision to reduce funding for TRIO programs, which help students from low-income backgrounds with mentoring, tutoring, and test prep. Campbell says every student deserves fair access to higher education, and the cuts threaten programs that make that possible, according to the Office of the Attorney General.
Last year, these federal TRIO programs were a catalyst for nearly 900,000 students across the nation, injecting a significant $1.2 billion into efforts to elevate college readiness and enrollment, with Massachusetts alone seeing a substantial $22 million propelling 60 programs that touched the lives of over 20,000 students, this lifeline is now in jeopardy, prompting the legal pushback detailed in the amicus briefs filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, as the state coalition aims to thwart the DOE's termination of TRIO grants and the denial of new Student Support Services (SSS) grants under the banner of freshly minted policies widely criticized for restricting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives, as reported by the Office of the Attorney General.
The legal strife has its roots in a contested DOE decision, which saw the department cease dozens of TRIO grants that were originally set to extend through 2026, while turning down new SSS grant applications by retroactively enforcing new rules that stifled DEIA endeavors, the lawsuits point to this as a stark violation of the U.S. Constitution, the Administrative Procedure Act, and Congress's historical support for the TRIO programs dating back six decades, with the legal argument bolstered by the collective assertion of the AGs that the abrupt defunding could decimate student opportunities, destabilize educational institutions, and deliver a blow to state economies far and wide, as detailed by the Office of the Attorney General.
AG Campbell, alongside her counterparts from Nevada, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin—all united in filing the amicus brief, present a formidable front against the DOE's contentious funding pivot, a move that's already forced the shutdown of longstanding programs and stripped students of resources they depended on, a plight echoed in statements obtained by the Office of the Attorney General.
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