Over one billion dollars in federal financial assistance at risk in New Jersey

TRENTON – New Jersey Attorney General Platkin announced today that he and a coalition of 18 other attorneys general have filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Education’s threat to withhold federal funding from state education agencies and local school districts that maintain lawful programs and policies that promote equal access to education in K-12 classrooms.

On April 3, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education informed state and local agencies that they must accept the Trump Administration’s new and legally incoherent interpretation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with respect to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts — or else risk immediate loss of federal education funds. New Jersey, like many other states, declined to certify its compliance with the Trump Administration’s unlawful demands, explaining that the state has already certified its compliance with federal law and that there is no lawful or practical way to comply with the Department’s vague, contradictory, and unsupported interpretation of Title VI.

In filing today’s lawsuit, Attorney General Platkin and the coalition seek to bar the Department from withholding any funding based on these unlawful conditions.

“Shame on President Trump for cruelly threatening to pull funding from our schools.  It’s outrageous to play political games with funding that is critical for our state’s students, and especially for students with special needs and our most vulnerable youth,” said Attorney General Platkin. “We won’t stand for this unlawful threat or for any action that will harm our best-in-the-nation education system. Make no mistake:  We will continue to stand up for our schools, our teachers, and our students—and we will continue to fight back against these dangerous, reckless, and illegal attempts to deny our students the education they deserve.”

“The New Jersey Department of Education and New Jersey local education agencies have already assured full compliance with Title VI,” said New Jersey Department of Education Commissioner Kevin Dehmer. “The lack of clarity of the U.S. Department of Education’s most recent request for certification combined with the threat to federal funding that it carried, disregard the most foundational principles of New Jersey and federal education law: that all students deserve every opportunity to achieve academic excellence.  Through today’s filing, we are protecting New Jersey’s districts’ ability to provide equitable access to educational opportunities and safe and supportive school environments.”

The U.S. Department of Education provides New Jersey with over $1 billion in congressionally mandated financial support each year for a wide variety of educational services and programs. This funding supports school initiatives and programming to ensure that students from low-income families have the same access to high-quality education as their peers.  It allows schools to provide special education services for students with special needs; to recruit and train highly skilled and dedicated teachers; to fund programming for Multilingual Learners to learn English, and to provide support to vulnerable children in foster care and without housing.

As a condition of receiving these funds, state and local education agencies already provide written assurances they will comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin, and New Jersey has consistently and regularly certified its compliance with Title VI and its implementing regulations.

However, on April 3, the U.S. Department of Education issued a letter that conditioned continued federal financial assistance on state and local education agencies certifying that they are complying with the Trump Administration’s view that efforts supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion are unlawful. The letter asked state educational agencies, including the New Jersey Department of Education, to certify compliance based on the Department’s ill-defined and ill-conceived views on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, curriculum, instruction, and policies. In response, New Jersey informed the Department that it continues to stand by its prior certifications of compliance with Title VI and its lawfully issued implementing regulations in the Department’s possession, but that New Jersey would not assent to the unlawfully issued certification.

In the lawsuit, Attorney General Platkin and the multistate coalition assert that the U.S. Department of Education’s attempt to terminate federal education funding based on its misinterpretation of Title VI violates the Spending Clause, the Appropriations Clause, the separation of powers, and the Administrative Procedure Act.

Attorney General Platkin joins the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

A copy of the complaint is available here.

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