AG Torrez joins lawsuit over federal education funds
New Mexico AG Raúl Torrez on April 11, 2025 announced the state had joined another lawsuit against the Trump administration, this time over the U.S. Department of Education's revocation of funds.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez on Friday announced the state has joined a coalition of 15 other AGs, along with Pennsylvania Gov. Democrat Josh Shapiro in a lawsuit over a recent U.S. Department of Education cancellation of funds for three programs funded through the American Rescue Act to help vulnerable school children recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic: the Homeless Children and Youth; Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund; and Emergency Assistance to Nonpublic Schools programs.
'Cutting critical funding that students and schools are counting on is unacceptable and reckless,' Torrez said in a statement. 'These cuts will have a detrimental effect on our children, stunting their ability to learn in the classroom by rendering schools unable to provide essential resources like food, classroom supplies, special education for teachers and more.'
The lawsuit notes that the U.S. Department of Education in late 2023 and early 2024, 'long after the federal government had declared that the COVID-19 pandemic was over,' had given the plaintiff states extensions to use the money they had been awarded to combat the pandemic's impact on vulnerable student populations.
On March 28, 'with no advance notice or warning,' U.S Education Secretary Linda McMahon rescinded that extension, effective the end of the day.
'ED's drastic and abrupt change in position triggered chaos for state education departments…and local school districts,' the complaint says. 'If the rescission action is not vacated and the approved extensions are not reinstated, key programs and services that address ongoing and emerging education needs of Plaintiffs' students and local school districts to combat the long term effects of the pandemic will have to be dissolved or disbanded.'
The suit asks for the court to find that the federal education department's rescission of funds violates the American Rescue Act, and to restate the original extension date of March 28, 2026.
New Mexico, as of the date the federal education department cancelled the extension of the funds, still had about $778,000 unliquidated funds of the $6.4 million it received under HYC; $12.3 million of the $979.7 million it received under ESSER; and approximately $4.79 million of the $17.4 million it received under EANS.
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