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Millions in Funding at Stake for Maryland Programs That Address State’s Ongoing Teacher Shortage
BALTIMORE, MD (March 6, 2025) – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today joined a coalition in filing a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts challenging the Trump administration’s unlawful termination of grant funding for K-12 teacher preparation programs. Beginning on February 7, Maryland institutions received letters purporting to terminate millions of dollars in critical funding that had been awarded to address the state’s ongoing teacher shortage through teacher preparation programs.
These programs are designed to create a pipeline for teachers serving rural and urban communities and teaching harder-to-fill positions like math and science. These programs have been shown to increase teacher retention rates and ensure that educators remain in the profession beyond the crucial first five years. The attorneys general argue that the terminations, which were impacting institutions across the nation and were issued without warning and with immediate effect, violate the Administrative Procedure Act. The attorneys general are seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent disruptions to these programs, which would immediately reduce the number of teachers and teacher trainees serving in schools.
“A highly-qualified teacher can change a student’s life and foster a lifelong love of learning, offering them opportunities they might otherwise have never had,” said Attorney General Brown. “Eliminating this funding will further strain already under-resourced classrooms in urban and rural communities, hurting our State’s most vulnerable children and compromising Maryland schools’ efforts to recruit and retain skilled teachers who are so critical to our students’ future.”
In 2024, more than 400,000 teaching positions in the U.S.—representing about one in eight of all teaching positions nationwide—were vacant or filled by uncertified teachers. When schools are unable to find qualified teachers, students suffer. Teacher shortages can result in larger class sizes, cancelled courses, or classes staffed with teachers less able to teach a subject.
To address the nationwide teacher shortage, especially for hard-to-fill subject areas, like math, science, and special education, and in hard-to-staff school districts in rural and urban areas, Congress established and allocated funding pursuant to the Teacher Quality Partnership and Supporting Effective Educator Development grant programs to train teachers, create a new teacher pipeline, and improve teacher quality. The U.S. Department of Education subsequently awarded and obligated funds to states’ public universities and associated nonprofits grants under these programs to do exactly what Congress mandated—provide teacher training, placement, retention, and new teacher pipeline development in the states.
Beginning on February 7, 2025, the Department of Education terminated, with immediate effect, grants awarded to K-12 teacher preparation programs in Maryland and nationwide. Hundreds of millions of dollars in grants have been terminated. In Maryland alone, the Department provided notice of termination of millions of dollars in funding across a number of grants. These terminations would be felt immediately across Maryland schools which rely on these programs to bring teachers into their classrooms. The terminations would also cause layoffs or reductions in hours for university staff, and result in reduced or eliminated support and funding for new aspiring teachers.
Attorney General Brown joins the attorneys general of California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, New York, and Wisconsin in filing the lawsuit.
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