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Colorado joins multi-state lawsuit to recover nearly $80 million in frozen K-12 education funds

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The school buses for the Aspen School District.
Madison Osberger-Low/The Aspen Times

During a July 9 roundtable with Colorado education leaders discussing the impacts of the Trump administration’s most recent grant funding freeze, Gov. Jared Polis said the state was investigating possible avenues to take the issue to the courts. Less than a week later, Colorado is now part of another legal battle with the Trump Administration.

Colorado has joined a coalition of 24 other states in filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education for withholding $6.8 billion in funds from K-12 schools nationwide.

For Colorado schools, the impact would be close to $80 million, according to figures from the Colorado Department of Education. On top of stripping resources from before- and after-school programs, English-learning programs and aid to improve the attainment and graduation rates of immigrant children, education leaders say educators could lose their jobs if the once-budgeted funds are not accounted for by the time districts start preparing for the start of the school year.



Districts found out funds would be withheld on June 30, just hours before they were set to release and months after they were approved by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump. Many school districts had already finalized their budgets by then and now face a tight timeline before they begin alerting parents that the services they’ve relied on for years may no longer be available.

The multistate lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island on July 14 and requires that the Trump Administration disburse funds that were due to 50 states on July 1. The suit argues that the act of freezing the funds was illegal.




“It is absolutely absurd that the United States Department of Education is attempting to freeze education funding, obligated by Congress, to our state. This is devastating for educators, students, and families across Colorado who rely on these critical services such as after-school care and language courses to make it through day-to-day life,” Polis said in a written statement. “Colorado schools and families face enormous uncertainty as the Trump Administration continues to play politics, violate the law, and refuse to prioritize the needs of Americans and what is best for families.”

The frozen funding accounts for approximately 13% of Colorado’s K-12 funding from the U.S. Department of Education, according to a report by the Learning Policy Institute. 

The following list ranks how much funding select districts on the Western Slope are expected to lose next year if the freeze becomes permanent, based on data from the Colorado Department of Education

  • Mesa County Valley: $2,079,645
  • Lake County: $474,900
  • East Grand: $337,901
  • Eagle County: $336,044
  • Roaring Fork: $320,444
  • Garfield: $296,280 
  • Moffat County: $114,741
  • Steamboat Springs: $73,819
  • Aspen: $35,132
  • South Routt: $19,433

Colorado districts, especially those in rural communities, already face a strain on their services due to year-round educator shortages and lower-than-average per-pupil funding. According to the Colorado Education Association, Colorado ranks 49th in the country for educator salaries.

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