AmeriCorps cuts are ‘devastating' for nonprofit Native American school in South Dakota, lawsuit says
Pine Ridge is located in southwestern South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The town has a population just under 3,000 and is the headquarters of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
The Trump administration's decision to abruptly cut AmeriCorps funding has had a 'devastating impact' on a nonprofit school for Native American children in South Dakota, according to a lawsuit.
Red Cloud Indian School Inc., which operates schools under the Lakota name Mahpiya Luta, is one of more than a dozen plaintiffs that jointly filed a lawsuit this week challenging the funding cut.
'Red Cloud schools, their programs, and the prospects of their students and of Lakota youth who participate in AmeriCorps are at serious risk,' the lawsuit says.
AmeriCorps is a federal agency dedicated to community service and volunteerism, which works in close partnership with states. It's the latest victim of President Donald Trump's campaign to dismantle programs and slash the federal workforce.
As Trump slashes AmeriCorps, states lose a federal partner in community service
The agency abruptly cut $400 million, or 41% of its budget, and placed 85% of its staff on administrative leave last month, according to court records. AmeriCorps had provided $960 million to fund 3,100 projects across the United States each year, according to general undated figures available on the agency's website.
Red Cloud Indian School Inc. operates two elementary schools, one middle school, a high school and a Lakota language immersion program on the Pine Ridge Reservation in southwest South Dakota. For 26 years, according to the lawsuit, the nonprofit has received AmeriCorps awards. The awards have enabled the training of over 400 Lakota AmeriCorps participants as teaching assistants and paraprofessional educators, offering career and job training opportunities in one of the nation's poorest regions.
AmeriCorps told Red Cloud via email on April 25 that its grant was terminated, that all grant activities should cease, and that the action was not administratively appealable, the lawsuit says.
In the past three years, the nonprofit received approximately $400,000 a year in AmeriCorps funding. The money enabled Red Cloud to recruit local Lakota AmeriCorps participants to serve as teaching assistants for a duration of one to three years. The participants joined in groups of four to five to assist a staff teacher with classes of approximately 20 students.
The participants provided students with individualized support in math, literacy and social-emotional development, while also gaining teaching skills. Students benefited from one-on-one attention with participants they viewed as role models.
Many AmeriCorps participants pursued college degrees concurrently. Ten of Red Cloud's current teachers began as AmeriCorps participants.
'The program's success is evident in its improved student outcomes and strengthened community empowerment through a career pipeline into education,' the lawsuit says.
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As of last month, Red Cloud had 11 AmeriCorps participants serving in its teaching assistant program. The organization felt a moral obligation to retain the participants through the end of the school year on May 16, the lawsuit says, which has 'placed an unexpected financial strain' on the nonprofit. The school is not in a position to retain the participants through July 31, when the AmeriCorps grant was set to expire, the lawsuit says.
Fourteen organizations, the union representing AmeriCorps staffers and three individual plaintiffs who were AmeriCorps members filed the lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.
Besides Red Cloud in South Dakota, the other nonprofits bringing the lawsuit are based in California, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
On April 29, attorneys general from nearly two dozen states and the District of Columbia also sued alleging the cuts were illegal. South Dakota's attorney general is not included in that group.
In a statement provided Thursday to States Newsroom, the White House defended the cuts.
'AmeriCorps has failed eight consecutive audits and identified over $45 million in unaccounted for payments in 2024 alone. President Trump is restoring accountability to the entire Executive Branch,' said spokesperson Anna Kelly.
States Newsroom's D.C. Bureau contributed to this report.
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