President Donald Trump’s Education Department could stall years of progress in Baltimore City schools after the federal government withheld over $6 billion in funding from state education agencies across the nation, according to a 25-state lawsuit Maryland joined Monday.

Organizations serving the state’s neediest kids have been scrambling to figure out how to keep summer and after-school programs running following the funding freeze earlier this month, which includes over $110 million in Maryland.

“This reckless funding freeze,” Attorney General Anthony G. Brown said, “has jeopardized teacher training, thrown essential special needs services into chaos, and left families scrambling to find childcare before the start of a new school year.”

School districts still don’t know when, or even if, money they’ve already budgeted will be restored. Some districts, like Baltimore City, haven’t felt immediate impacts.

Still, without federal dollars, the school system will face challenges getting staff and materials ready for the coming school year, said City Schools Executive Director of Data Monitoring and Compliance Kimberly Hoffman.

Based on last year’s distributions, Baltimore City Public Schools is down more than $11 million across three title programs for the upcoming school year, which includes 29 full-time staff positions that are already filled. That money was earmarked to improve teacher and principal quality, including through development for early career educators and a teacher pipeline; supplementing essential English instruction for multilingual kids; and expanding access to advanced academics, including international baccalaureate and advanced placement classes.

Hoffman filed a declaration in a lawsuit by half the country’s states and joined by Brown to sue the Trump administration “over its unconstitutional, unlawful, and arbitrary decision to freeze funding for six longstanding programs administered by the U.S. Department of Education just weeks before the school year is set to start.”

In a news release, Brown said he, 22 other attorneys general and two governors are asking for the funding freeze to be declared unlawful and blocked. The lawsuit argues the freeze violates federal funding statutes and the separation of powers doctrine under the U.S. Constitution.

Brown further argues that the withheld funds are supposed to be formulaically distributed to states and that “the Constitution does not afford the Executive Branch power to unilaterally refuse to spend this money based on an unspecified difference in ‘priorities.’”

“Yet that is exactly what the Trump administration is attempting to do here,” said Brown, adding that “Maryland’s students are not pawns in political games over government spending.”

The U.S. Department of Education and the White House’s Office of Management and Budget did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier this month, the latter said no funding decisions had been made, but that initial findings showed some grant programs were used for a “radical leftwing agenda,” though the office did not provide specific evidence for that statement.

Over the years, the funding in question has helped Baltimore schools increase the percentage of multilingual learners showing growth in their English language skills even as student enrollment among that group has more than doubled over the last decade, Hoffman said. The system has also significantly increased the number of kids both taking and passing AP exams.

Funding insufficiencies and uncertainties could endanger that growth.

The school system is still trying to figure out which programs or services it may cut if federal funding isn’t restored, said City Schools Executive Director for Strategic Resourcing Sandi Jacobs. In an interview, Hoffman added that they’re working on a contingency plan for the next three months and assessing how to leverage carryover funds to at least temporarily avoid disruptions for students and staff, though she added that, ultimately, they wouldn’t be able to absorb the cuts if they become permanent.

The school system hasn’t felt any immediate impacts yet because it budgets for the summer a year in advance, meaning this summer’s programs, including educator training, are being paid for with last year’s money, Hoffman said. But the hits will start coming this fall.

Hoffman said in her 26 years working with Baltimore’s schools, she’s never experienced anything like this. Jacobs said decisions like these have introduced a level of uncertainty for school systems that’s hard to plan for, leaving her wondering if education officials can rely on all the federal dollars they’re typically promised. The school system developed its operating budget for the upcoming school year based on the “reasonable belief” they would be able to access funding the same way they have for decades.

“It’s not like we were counting any chickens before they were hatched,” Jacobs said. “These chickens had hatched.”

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.