The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island (LCRI), and the National Education Association (NEA) have filed a lawsuit on behalf of their members challenging the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) termination of millions of dollars in professional development grants for improving educational instruction for English learners.
In September 2025, the ED discontinued funding for 28 National Professional Development (NPD) grants. These multi-year grants supported evidence-based programs administered by colleges, universities, and public and private entities. Working in coordination with state and local educational agencies across the country, the programs trained both in-service and pre-service educators serving English learner students.
“The Department of Education’s unprecedented decision to abruptly terminate these active grants mid-stream is a direct attack on vital educator pipelines across the country,” said Michael Tafelski, SPLC’s interim co-chief legal officer. “This politically driven overreach fundamentally harms public classrooms and deprives English learner students of the qualified teachers they need to succeed.”
The lawsuit argues that the ED ignored its own performance-based regulations and previously established legal criteria for evaluating multi-year grants. Instead, it justified terminating the funding by selectively citing isolated references to diversity, equity, and inclusion language in grant applications that had previously been reviewed, accepted, and approved. In several cases, grant applicants included this language to comply with federal law mandating that grant recipients must explicitly outline steps to ensure equitable access to the funded activities.
The lawsuit requests the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island to declare the ED’s actions unlawful, vacate the 28 grant discontinuation notices, and order new grant-continuation decisions based on actual program performance rather than ideological screening.
“These grants exist for one reason: to make sure every student, regardless of the language spoken at home, has a real opportunity for academic success,” said NEA President Becky Pringle. When the federal government walks away from that commitment, real consequences follow. Students lose access to trained educators. Classrooms lose the support they need. And the promise of equitable, high-quality instruction becomes a mirage for the children who need it most.”
Southern Poverty Law Center (6/3/26)