Editorial: Marin right to fight for education funding

Marin public schools have challenged the Trump administration – and won.

For now.

With $8 million in multi-year federal funding for school mental health programs on the line, the Marin County Office of Education’s grants were among those suspended in the Trump administration’s sweeping attacks on educational programs aimed at promoting cultural diversity and equity. In this case, the funding promotes the hiring of mental health staff from diverse backgrounds or from communities served by funded districts.

The $1 billion grant program  – approved by Congress and signed by then-President Joe Biden – was prompted by the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where an 18-year-old entered an elementary school and shot and killed 18 children and two teachers and injured 17 others.

The horror and heartbreak prompted Congress to take action.

But just three years later, the Trump administration’s Department of Education is putting a stop on checks promised for the coming year, seeking to end the funding on Dec. 31.

It was among the funding cuts the department sought after adopting a stance that diversity programs are “divisive” and not in line with the administration’s priority of “merit, fairness and excellence in education.”

The county was among funded school jurisdictions across 16 Democrat-led states that are challenging the department’s action.

Marin County schools superintendent John Carroll said the federal court ruling “will help clear the way” for restoration of $12.5 million needed for counselors, campus wellness center staff and mental health interns at Marin schools. Most of the money is used for those services in San Rafael and Novato schools.

“Those resources can literally save students’ lives,” Carroll said.

The ruling, the state Attorney General’s Office – which represented Marin and other districts –  says, will guarantee funding while litigation continues in federal court. The department plans to appeal the ruling.

Attorney General Rob Bonta says the lawsuit is calling for the Department of Education to follow the law that Congress passed.

The Oct. 27 preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Court Judge Kymberly Evanson in Seattle concluded that the department did not inform grantees why their specific programs no longer met its criteria and those grants were being ended short of their promised multi-year period.

Usually, grants are terminated due to misconduct.

That’s not the case.

Grantees are following the rules set forth by law.

This is just about a political agenda, one that is being imposed on local school districts by cutting off promised funding for school mental health programs aimed at helping students. It is hoped that such help could possibly save lives by preventing suicide or another school shooting.

Providing that help is more important than imposing a political agenda that is attacking diversity and equity programs.

Last month, before Evanson’s ruling, the Department of Education announced it was going to relaunch the school mental health grant program, excluding diversity goals and making universities ineligible for the funding. The program had funding provided for a training partnership with universities and school systems to interns for counseling and social work services. Grantees who were losing their funding could reapply under the new rules and reduced funding.

For Marin and other school systems, they have launched school programs based on a promise of multi-year funding.

Washington should keep its promise.

The objective of the funding – to keep students and their schools safer – has not changed.

The idea of joining a lawsuit against the federal government is a huge step and one Carroll was willing to take, signing a declaration of support for the suit.

The fight is not over, but the latest ruling, at least, requires the department to fulfill the promise it made when it awarded the multi-year grants.