Attorney General Keith Ellison announced Monday that Minnesota has joined a coalition of 23 attorneys general and two states in suing the Trump administration over alleged frozen funding administered by the U.S. Department of Education.

Over $70 million in education funding for Minnesota is “believed to be” frozen by President Donald Trump’s administration, and $6.8 billion total across the country, according to a news release from Ellison’s office on Monday. The attorneys general argue that the funding freezes violate the Antideficiency Act, the Impoundment Control Act, the constitutional separation of powers doctrine and the Presentment Clause and ask for the release of the education funds.

“Donald Trump’s Department of Education is pulling the rug out from under Minnesota students by cutting school funding without warning and right before the start of the school year, and they are violating the law by doing so,” Ellison said in the Monday press release.

Minnesota currently has $156 million total federal funds “at risk” and has had $59 million in federal funding “permanently canceled” since Trump took office in January, according to Minnesota Management and Budget’s daily report.

Ellison is joined by attorneys general of California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as the states of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

“We have repeatedly asked our federal partners for timely delivery of appropriated investments on which Minnesota students rely,” Willie Jett, Minnesota Department of Education commissioner, said in a press release. “Career and technical education, after-school programs, English language courses, and teacher training that strengthen our schools, workforce, and communities are now at risk in every corner of our state.”

Ellison and the attorneys general from 22 states who signed onto the lawsuit, along with the governors of Pennsylvania and Kentucky are all Democrats.

‘Radical left-wing agenda’

The Department of Education notified state education agencies June 30 that it was holding the money back while it conducted a review. The administration has sought to slash federal spending and align the budget with the president’s priorities.

A spokesperson for the White House Office of Management and Budget said that an initial review found instances of federal education money being “grossly misused to subsidize a radical left-wing agenda.” Among the examples he cited was a seminar on “queer resistance in the arts.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit.

The White House has not said when the money might be released. It has proposed eliminating dedicated funding for the programs in its 2026 budget, ending some of the programs outright and collapsing others into a smaller pot of education funding for states.

Trump and his team have said they believe the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional and have argued that the president should have a greater say over spending in many areas of government.

Trump has said he also wants to eliminate the Department of Education, arguing that education should be more fully controlled by the states; even though only Congress can abolish a Cabinet-level agency, a U.S. Supreme court decision Monday made it possible for Trump to bypass Congress.

Bipartisan dissent

The withholding of $6.8 billion for education has been sharply criticized by a growing chorus of Democrats as well as by some Republicans.

Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican who represents suburban New York City, urged Trump to release $1.3 billion of the money to be used for after-school and other programs that keep children occupied outside of school hours.

He argued in a statement that the programs fulfill Trump’s goal of giving power over education to the states, because state education agencies manage the money and choose which organizations receive it.

Around the country

Nationwide, the withheld federal money funds after-school and other services for an estimated 1.4 million children, or nearly 20% of all students who participate in after-school programs, according to the Afterschool Alliance, an advocacy group. Most of the students in the programs come from lower-income households, and through after-school, they typically receive academic help, enrichment and a free snack or meal.

“Work doesn’t end at 3 o’clock,” said Christy Gleason, executive director of the Save the Children Action Network, which runs after-school programs at 41 schools, mainly in rural areas.

In many rural areas, the federally funded after-school programs are the only option. Cutting them would leave working parents there with few alternatives for child care, she said.

The withheld money includes $2.1 billion to help train, mentor and retain effective teachers, with a focus on low-income school districts. It also includes $1.4 billion in flexible funding for schools to spend on art, music, mental health services, physical education and technology. Smaller amounts go toward helping children learning English; adult literacy and education; and support for children of migrant farmworkers.

This report contains information from the New York Times.