Supreme Court allows Trump administration to cut teacher-training money, for now

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Supreme Court allows Trump administration to cut teacher-training money, for now

2025-04-05 07:09 Last Updated At：07:10

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday granted the Trump administration’s plea to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in teacher-training money as part of its anti-DEI efforts, while a lawsuit continues.

The justices split 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the three liberal justices in dissent.

The emergency appeal is among several the high court is considering in which the Justice Department argues that lower-court judges have improperly obstructed President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Friday’s order was the first time, in three attempts, that the nation’s highest court gave the administration what it wanted on an emergency basis.

The Supreme Court previously sided against the administration in another lawsuit over nearly $2 billion in foreign aid cuts in another divided 5-4 ruling, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett in the majority in both cases.

It remains to be seen whether Friday's decision marks a narrow win or a broader shift in Trump's favor.

The Trump administration is facing some 150 lawsuits in lower courts challenging his flurry of executive orders. That includes about two dozen over federal funding cuts, some totaling billions of dollars.

The teaching training case deals with cuts to more than 100 programs. They had been temporarily blocked by a federal judge in Boston, who found that they were already affecting training programs aimed at addressing a nationwide teacher shortage.

U.S. District Judge Myong Joun issued a temporary restraining order sought by eight Democratic-led states that argued the cuts were likely driven by efforts from Trump’s administration to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

The federal appeals court in Boston turned away an appeal from the administration to allow them to resume.

The Republican president also has signed an executive order calling for the dismantling of the Education Department, and his administration has already started overhauling much of its work, including cutting dozens of contracts it dismissed as “woke” and wasteful.

The two programs at issue — the Teacher Quality Partnership and Supporting Effective Educator Development — provide more than $600 million in grants for teacher preparation programs, often in subject areas such as math, science and special education, the states have argued. They said data has shown the programs had led to increased teacher retention rates and ensured that educators remain in the profession beyond five years.

Despite Joun's finding that the programs already were being affected, the high court's conservative majority wrote that the states can keep the programs running with their own money for now. By contrast, the majority said in an unsigned opinion, the federal government probably wouldn’t be able to recover the cash if it ultimately wins the lawsuit.

Justice Elena Kagan wrote in dissent that there was no reason for the court's emergency intervention.

“Nowhere in its papers does the Government defend the legality of canceling the education grants at issue here,” Kagan wrote.

In a separate opinion, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote, “It is beyond puzzling that a majority of Justices conceive of the government’s application as an emergency.”

Roberts joined neither dissent, noting only that he would have denied the appeal.

The administration halted the programs without notice in February. Joun, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, found that the cancellations probably violated a federal law that requires a clear explanation.

The appellate panel that rejected the administration’s request for a stay also was made up of judges appointed by Democrats.

Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated the ruling as a “significant victory for President Trump and the rule of law.”

California is leading the ongoing lawsuit, joined by Massachusetts, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin.

Boston Public Schools have already had to fire several full-time employees due to the loss of grant funding, and the College of New Jersey has also canceled the rest of its teacher-residency program. California State University has ended support for two dozen students in a similar program, and eliminated financial assistance for 50 incoming students.

Swollen rivers flood towns in US South after dayslong deluge of rain

2025-04-07 21:40 Last Updated At：21:51

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Days of unrelenting heavy rain and storms that killed at least 18 people worsened flooding as some rivers rose to near-record levels and inundated towns across an already saturated U.S. South and parts of the Midwest.

Cities ordered evacuations and rescue crews in inflatable boats checked on residents in Kentucky and Tennessee, while utilities shut off power and gas in a region stretching from Texas to Ohio.

“I think everybody was shocked at how quick (the river) actually did come up,” said salon owner Jessica Tuggle, who was watching Monday as murky brown water approached her business in Frankfort, Kentucky, the state capital along the swollen Kentucky River.

She said that as each new wave of rain arrived over the weekend, anxious residents hoped for a reprieve so they could just figure out how bad things would get and how to prepare. She and friends packed up everything she could haul out of her salon, including styling chairs, hair products and electronics, and they took it all to a nearby tap house up the hill.

“Everybody was just ‘stop raining, stop raining’ so we could get an idea of what the worst situation would be,” she said.

Officials diverted traffic and turned off utilities to businesses in the city as the river was expected to approach a record crest on Monday.

For many, there was a sense of dread that the worst was still to come.

“As long as I’ve been alive — and I’m 52 — this is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said Wendy Quire, the general manager at the Brown Barrel restaurant downtown.

“The rain just won’t stop,” Quire said Sunday. “It’s been nonstop for days and days.”

The 18 reported deaths since the storms began on Wednesday included 10 in Tennessee. A 9-year-old boy in Kentucky was caught up in floodwaters while walking to catch his school bus. A 5-year-old boy in Arkansas died after a tree fell on his family’s home, police said. A 16-year-old volunteer Missouri firefighter died in a crash while seeking to rescue people caught in the storm.

The National Weather Service warned Sunday that dozens of locations in multiple states were expected to reach a “major flood stage,” with extensive flooding of structures, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure possible.

In north-central Kentucky, emergency officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for Falmouth and Butler, towns near the bend of the rising Licking River. Thirty years ago, the river reached a record 50 feet (15 meters), resulting in five deaths and 1,000 homes destroyed.

The storms come after the Trump administration cut jobs at NWS forecast offices, leaving half of them with vacancy rates of about 20%, or double the level of a decade ago.

Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong winds and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf.

The NWS said 5.06 inches (nearly 13 centimeters) of rain fell Saturday in Jonesboro, Arkansas — making it the wettest day ever recorded in April in the city. Memphis, Tennessee, received 14 inches (35 centimeters) of rain from Wednesday to Sunday, the NWS said.

Rives, a northwestern Tennessee town of about 200 people, was almost entirely underwater after the Obion River overflowed.

Domanic Scott went to check on his father in Rives after not hearing from him in a house where water reached the doorstep.

“It’s the first house we’ve ever paid off. The insurance companies around here won’t give flood insurance to anyone who lives in Rives because we’re too close to the river and the levees. So if we lose it, we’re kind of screwed without a house,” Scott said.

In Dyersburg, Tennessee, dozens of people arrived over the weekend at a storm shelter near a public school clutching blankets, pillows and other necessities. Just days earlier the city was hit by a tornado that caused millions of dollars in damage.

For some, grabbing the essentials also meant taking a closer look at the liquor cabinet.

In Frankfort, with water rising up to his window sills, resident Bill Jones fled his home in a boat, which he loaded with several boxes of bottles of bourbon.

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in New York; Kimberlee Kruesi, in Nashville; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Adrian Sainz in Memphis; Tennessee; Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Obed Lamy in Rives, Tennessee; and Sophia Tareen in Chicago.