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By Andrew Chung
(Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to allow it to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for teacher training as part of his sweeping crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives - a policy challenged by eight Democratic-led states.
The Justice Department filed a request asking the court to lift Boston-based U.S. District Judge Myong Joun's March 10 order requiring the Department of Education to restore grants awarded in those states through two federal programs to train educators and develop their skills.
The Supreme Court directed the states to respond to the administration's request by Friday.
The request marked the latest instance of the administration seeking intervention by the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, after a series of lower court decisions impeding Trump's policies. Also pending before the nation's highest judicial body are Trump's bids to curb birthright citizenship and fire thousands of probationary federal workers.
States including California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Wisconsin accused the Department of Education of illegally slashing grants that Congress had established as a solution to critical teacher shortages, especially in rural and underserved communities. The cuts effectively ended the Teacher Quality Partnership and Supporting Effective Educator Development grant programs, the states said.
On February 17, the Department of Education announced that it had cut $600 million in teacher training funds that were promoting what it called "divisive ideologies" including DEI.
Grant recipients received a standardized letter notifying them that the department does not support programs or organizations that promote DEI "or any other initiatives that unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin or another protected characteristic."
In Wednesday's filing, the Justice Department said that in this case and others, federal judges are impermissibly micromanaging the government's spending decisions.
These judges, the department said, are "exceeding their jurisdiction by ordering the Executive Branch to restore lawfully terminated grants across the government, keep paying for programs that the Executive Branch views as inconsistent with the interests of the United States, and send out the door taxpayer money that may never be clawed back."
Joun, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden, said the administration's cuts likely violated a U.S. law governing federal agency actions given that the department abruptly terminated all funding without providing individualized analysis of any of the programs.
Without an order to restore the funding, "dozens of programs upon which public schools, public universities, students, teachers and faculty rely will be gutted," Joun wrote in the temporary restraining order, which the judge extended on Monday.
Civil rights groups and equality advocates have said DEI programs can help correct discrimination in a country where women and Black people did not achieve legal equality until the 20th century and continue to lag behind their white male counterparts in pay and opportunity.
Opponents of DEI have argued that such programs seek to remedy discrimination against minorities such as Black and Hispanic people by disadvantaging other groups, particularly white people.
Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk have moved to dismantle the Education Department as part of their plan to slash the federal workforce and reshape the government. Trump on March 20 signed an executive order as a first step "to eliminate" the department, making good on a longstanding campaign promise to conservatives. Completely abolishing the department would require an act of Congress, and Trump currently lacks the votes for that.
His order was designed to dismantle the department and leave education policy almost entirely in the hands of states and local school boards, a prospect that alarms liberal education advocates. Trump's education secretary is former professional wrestling executive Linda McMahon.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)
