A U.S. district judge on Friday issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration’s cancellation and discontinuation of more than 100 TRIO grants during the fiscal year 2025 cycle.
Over last summer and fall, several community colleges were among higher education institutions receiving notices that their TRIO grants would not be continued. The Education Department (ED) informed the colleges that their grants “reflect the prior administration’s priorities and policy preferences” and “violate the letter or purpose of Federal civil rights law; conflict with the Department’s policy of prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in education; undermine the well-being of the students these programs are intended to help; or constitute an inappropriate use of federal funds.”
Following this action, the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE), which advocates for TRIO programs, sued ED, arguing that colleges had submitted applications and had those applications denied before the agency’s new priorities took effect. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan agreed, stating that COE “demonstrated a likelihood of success on its claims that the Department’s decisions to discontinue members’ TRIO grants were arbitrary, capricious, and otherwise not in accordance with the law.”
The injunction is currently in effect for COE member colleges. While ED has not yet issued a formal response, litigation is expected to continue.
“This ruling is a positive and necessary first step,” COE Executive Vice President, Aaron Brown said in a new release following the ruling. “We remain committed to seeing this case through and to defending the Federal TRIO Programs that have opened the doors of opportunity for millions of low-income, first-generation students.”
