Colorado, seven other states sue Trump administration after abrupt end to teacher training grants

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and attorneys general from seven other states are suing the U.S. Department of Education following the department’s abrupt decision to no longer fund grant programs that support teacher training programs.

Weiser and the other attorneys general filed a lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts against the department and against Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Denise Carter, former acting secretary of education and current acting chief operating officer of federal student aid. They are seeking a temporary restraining order that would allow grant dollars to keep flowing to teacher training programs.

The lawsuit alleges the immediate halt of funding for two programs that dole out grants to higher education institutions and nonprofits for teacher training is unlawful. Weiser and the other plaintiffs say federal officials gave higher education institutions and organizations that benefit from the funding no advance notice nor any reasons for shuttering the grants, violating the Administrative Procedure Act.

The federal law prevents the federal government from making decisions “willy-nilly,” mandating that agencies notify people about their decisions and reasons for it and also consider feedback from the public, Weiser told The Colorado Sun.

The law “ensures fair treatment and prevents arbitrary and unfair actions,” Weiser said. “This is the definition to me of an arbitrary and unfair action. By cutting it so quickly, it’s going to have really disruptive and harmful effects.”

The Department of Education ended $600 million in grant funding Feb. 7 “with immediate effect” for the Teacher Quality Partnership and the Supporting Effective Educator Development grant programs, according to a media release from Weiser’s office. Both grant programs were designed to help train educators, build up a teacher pipeline and enhance teacher quality.

The University of Colorado Denver has used a $6.5 million grant through the Teacher Quality Partnership for its Next Generation of Teacher Preparation program, or NxtGEN, to prepare educators in rural communities. The university has not yet spent about $2.8 million of that grant and could lose that funding.

“That money funds what is a proven program supporting a pipeline of teachers for rural communities,” Weiser said. “As attorney general, I focus intensively on how do we support rural communities, how do we work with community colleges effectively and how do we make sure everyone across Colorado has the opportunity to build a bright future?”

Weiser has signed onto five other lawsuits against the federal government this year — all of which led to preliminary injunctions intended to halt the actions Weiser is fighting. He added that he worries that the loss of grant funding will lead to more teacher shortages, districts offering fewer classes and teachers ending up less qualified.

“That’s going to hurt our kids in Colorado,” he said. “I don’t understand why this program is being dismantled, why these commitments are being broken, and that’s why we’re going to court.”

CU Denver’s NxtGEN Program works with four community colleges in rural Colorado — Otero College, Trinidad State College, Northeastern Junior College and Lamar Community College — and assists 57 rural school districts. The program helps find, recruit and train teachers who live in rural areas so they can earn their licenses and teach in their own community. 

By partnering with community colleges in remote parts of the state, the program provides students already in those communities an option to pursue a bachelor’s degree and a one-year teaching residency in a school. It has also set up high schoolers with a jump-start on a teaching career by giving them access to college classes.

Through the program, 19 teachers have graduated and landed in rural classrooms. Nearly 80 students are currently enrolled and on their way to becoming licensed teachers, according to the media release.

Losing grant funding would eliminate or reduce 21 positions within NxtGEN and schools the program partners with and threatens to derail at least 50 new teachers aiming to work in rural schools. 

A spokesperson for CU Denver declined to make a NxtGEN staff member available for an interview. A statement from the university said CU officials received a termination notice from the Department of Education on Feb. 12 for the grant.

“Our mission is to serve our students with an excellent education,” the statement said. “For those aspiring to be teachers, that means providing them with the tools they need to serve students anywhere. These are our future teachers who will instruct school children in reading, writing and arithmetic in cities and rural communities. With the national teacher shortage, it is more important than ever to ensure every child has access to a qualified teacher, which is why the termination of one of our programs that does just that was so surprising.”

One of the dozens of rural districts that has rounded out its teaching staff with a NxtGEN student is Campo School District RE-6 in southeastern Colorado. Superintendent Nikki Johnson, who has led the district for 23 years, said it’s “nearly impossible” to recruit teachers because of how remote the district is and the competitive salaries in other districts.

“We’re so far from anywhere,” said Johnson, who also serves as the district’s special education teacher. “We are 20 miles from a grocery store. We’re 70 miles from Walmart. Those are things people look at quickly and say, ‘That’s some distance that will be challenging.’”

The district of 54 students and 10 full-time teachers has had more success in retaining teachers, Johnson noted, adding, “it’s just getting them here to begin with.”

A special education aid working under Johnson is enrolled in the NxtGEN program, taking online classes through Lamar Community College while she works toward a license as a special education teacher. Johnson hopes to get another paraprofessional in the district, who she said holds a lot of promise as a future teacher, enrolled in the same program.

The teacher residency program has become key in helping the district identify and train teacher candidates in a flexible way that jibes with their schedules, jobs, families and other demands, Johnson said.

“The end result is we know we’re going to get someone who’s going to be a good teacher for us,” she said.

The idea of losing the teacher training programs adds one more complication to what Johnson describes as “the already incredible challenges” facing her district, which include a tough budget forecast and mounting expenses for insurance and other necessities.

Weiser said he will continue “fighting for rural Colorado.”

“When I go to rural districts, what I hear is how strapped they are for resources, how hard it is for them to recruit teachers,” he said. “This program meets that critical need. It’s a body blow to rural Colorado to stop this program and to prevent this pipeline from accomplishing a critical purpose. I’m going to fight for this program.”

Other states whose attorneys general are suing the U.S. Department of Education are California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin.