包括阿拉斯加最大学区在内的学区联盟和倡导团体起诉唐纳德·特朗普总统的政府冻结了国会拨款的60亿美元教育项目资金。
就在几天前，九名共和党参议员和阿拉斯加州参议员莉萨·穆尔科斯基对唐纳德·特朗普总统的教育政策进行了罕见的指责，敦促OMB管理和预算办公室主任鲁斯·沃特撤销对英语语言习得、教师发展和学生支持等关键项目的援助决定。
OMB在一份声明中告诉美国广播公司新闻，许多项目“严重滥用”政府资金，以促进“激进的左翼议程”然而，共和党参议员的信中说，暂停这笔资金的决定“违背了特朗普总统让K-12教育回归各州的目标”，他们不相信他们的州正在实施任何左翼议程项目。
在48小时内，特朗普政府解冻了超过10亿美元一位高级政府官员告诉ABC新闻，全国范围内的课后和暑期教育计划至关重要。
穆尔科斯基庆祝最初的资金释放，但指出这还不够。
穆尔科斯基在给美国广播公司新闻的一份声明中写道:“这些基金的暂停引起了全国家庭的极大关注，我很欣慰地知道，我们的年轻人将有丰富的机会在课堂之外保持参与。”“虽然这个消息是受欢迎的，但令人沮丧的是，阿拉斯加学区依赖的来自教育部的许多额外资金仍然悬而未决，”她说。
美国广播公司新闻频道(ABC News)已联系特朗普政府，寻求更多评论。
总计60亿美元的拨款在7月1日暂停，这一天通常是联邦政府每年为学校拨款的时候。然而，根据美国广播公司新闻频道(ABC News)获得的教育部发给国会的一份备忘录，各州在6月30日得到通知，将对教育资金进行持续的纲领性审查。学区和项目一直担心，如果资金得不到恢复，项目和工作人员可能会被取消。
这个案件，安克雷奇学区等诉教育部等，是由多个阿拉斯加学区和美国教师联合会的附属机构领导的。原告认为政府最近的行为违反了《行政程序法》、《扣押控制法》和宪法规定的分权。
根据美国政府问责局(u . s . Government account ability Office)的说法，1974年的《扣押控制法案》(Control Act)规定，国会必须考虑和审查行政部门对预算权力的扣留。美国政府问责局的网站说,《行政诉讼法》规定了行政机关在行政诉讼中必须遵循的最低程序步骤。
学区的诉讼是在美国罗德岛地区法院提起的。此前，24名州检察长和民主党州长以同样的理由起诉政府扣留教育资金。
“这违反了宪法，”北卡罗来纳州总检察长杰夫·杰克逊告诉ABC新闻，他是参与诉讼的总检察长之一。“这是违反扣押法的。从法律角度来看，这不是一个棘手的案件，”他补充说。
此前，兰迪·温加滕总统称这一冻结是试图通过政府过度扩张来“非法”削减教育经费。
“这不仅在道德上令人反感:政府缺乏在意识形态祭坛上牺牲孩子未来的合法权利，”温加滕在给美国广播公司新闻的一份声明中写道。
“教育部扣押着美国社区的数十亿美元，”代表原告的公共教育倡导非营利组织“民主前进”的总裁兼首席执行官斯凯·佩里曼说。
“这是违宪和非法的夺权，将极端议程置于学生的福祉之上，并剥夺了社区获得国会希望他们获得的教育资源，”佩里曼在美国广播公司新闻的一份声明中补充道。
本月早些时候，安克雷奇学区在给社区的一封信中宣布，在受到暂停影响的4600万美元之后，该学区已经开始解雇一些工作人员。根据负责人Jharrett Bryantt的说法，该地区获得了该州大约三分之一的联邦教育基金。
几位接受ABC新闻采访的州教育领导人表示，随着学年的临近，他们正在努力防止对学生的直接伤害。OMB还没有给出其他教育项目的评估何时完成的时间表。
与此同时，罗德岛州教育部专员安格莉卡·因方特·格林(Angélica Infante-Green)对共和党扭转资金暂停的努力表示赞赏，强调这不是一个政治问题。
“我们是一个美利坚合众国，”因方特-格林告诉美国广播公司新闻。“这些钱对每个州的每个学生都很重要。这是我们需要的，”她说。
“我们需要人们畅所欲言。我们需要人们勇敢起来，为我们的孩子进行对话和宣传，把政治放在一边，把它作为他们的首要问题之一。”
School districts sue Trump administration over $6 billion funding freeze
A coalition of school districts -- including Alaska's largest school district -- and advocacy groups has sued President Donald Trump's administration over the $6 billion funding freeze to congressionally appropriated education programs.
The news comes just days after nine Republican senators and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski conducted a rare rebuke of President Donald Trump's education policies, urging the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought to reverse the decision to withhold aid for key programs, such as English language acquisition, teacher development and student support.
OMB told ABC News in a statement that many of the programs "grossly misused" government funds to promote a "radical leftwing agenda." However, the GOP senators' letter said the decision to pause this funding was "contrary to President Trump's goal of returning K-12 education to the states," and they didn't believe any leftwing agenda programs were being administered in their states.
Within 48 hours, the Trump administration hadunfrozen more than a billion dollarsfor critical after-school and summer education programming nationwide, a senior administration official told ABC News.
Murkowski celebrated the initial funding release but noted it doesn't go far enough.
"The pause of these funds caused great concern for families across the nation, and I am relieved to know that our young people will have enriching opportunities to stay engaged outside of the classroom," Murkowski wrote in a statement to ABC News. "While this news is welcome, it is frustrating that many additional funds Alaska school districts are relying on from the Department of Education remain in limbo," she said.
ABC News has reached out to the Trump administration for additional comment.
A pause on the total $6 billion funding happened on July 1, when federal aid for schools is typically allocated each year. However, states were notified on June 30 that an ongoing programmatic review of education funding would occur, according to a Department of Education memo sent to Congress, obtained by ABC News. School districts and programs have been concerned that programs and staff could be eliminated if funding isn't restored.
The case, Anchorage School District et al. v. Department of Education et al., is led by multiple Alaska school districts and affiliates of the American Federation of Teachers. In it, the plaintiffs argue that the administration's recent actions violate the Administrative Procedure Act, the Impoundment Control Act, and the constitutional separation of powers.
The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 says Congress must consider and review executive branch withholdings of budget authority, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The GAO website says the Administrative Procedure Act prescribes the minimum procedural steps an agency must follow in its administrative proceedings.
The school districts' suit was filed in the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island. It comes in the wake of two dozen state attorneys general and Democratic governors suing the administration for withholding education funding using the same claims.
"It's against the Constitution," North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, one of the AGs involved in the suit, told ABC News. "It's against the Impoundment Act. From a legal standpoint, this is not a hard case," he added.
AFT President Randi Weingarten called the freeze an attempt to "lawlessly" defund education through rampant government overreach.
"It's not only morally repugnant: the administration lacks the legal right to sacrifice kids' futures at the altar of ideology," Weingarten wrote in a statement to ABC News.
"The Department of Education is holding hostage billions of dollars from American communities," according to Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward -- a public education advocacy nonprofit representing the plaintiffs.
"This is an unconstitutional and unlawful power grab that puts extreme agendas over the well-being of students and denies communities the educational resources that Congress intended them to have," Perryman added in a statement to ABC News.
Earlier this month, the Anchorage School District announced in a letter to the community that the district had already begun laying off some staff members after $46 million was impacted by the pause. The district receives about a third of the state's federal education funds, according to Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt.
Several state education leaders who've spoken to ABC News say that they're scrambling to prevent immediate harm to students as the school year approaches. OMB has not given a timeline for when the programmatic review for the other education programs will be completed.
Meanwhile, Rhode Island Department of Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green applauded the Republican efforts to reverse the funding pause, stressing this is not a political issue.
"We are one United States of America," Infante-Green told ABC News. "These dollars are important to every single student in every single state. This is what we need," she said.
"We need people to speak up. We need people to be brave, to have the conversation and advocate for our kids, to put politics aside and make this one of their number one issues."
