A group of Democratic-led states sued the Education Department Thursday in an effort to regain access to hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic relief aid that the department abruptly cut off late last month.
In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, 16 Democratic attorneys general and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) argued the Education Department violated federal law by blocking access to the funds, which the department, under the Biden administration, previously said the states could access through March 2026.
The funding was approved by Congress and intended for schools to help their students in dealing with the long-term recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The plaintiffs stressed the importance of the funding, saying it provides “essential support for a wide range of critical education programs and services needed to address, among other things, the impact of lost instructional time;…
