Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown has joined a multistate lawsuit seeking to block the U.S. Department of Education from cutting funding for Full Service Community School programs, arguing the reductions are unlawful and threaten critical support for students and families.
Brown, along with the attorneys general of North Carolina and the District of Columbia, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The suit challenges the Education Department’s recent decision to discontinue funding for several Full Service Community School, or FSCS, grants that had been approved by Congress.
FSCS programs are designed to provide additional academic, health and social services at high-need elementary and secondary schools. Grants are typically awarded for five-year periods, with annual funding decisions required to be based solely on a program’s performance, according to federal regulations.
The lawsuit alleges that in mid-December the Education Department sent standardized notices to multiple grant recipients, informing them that their funding would be terminated because the programs allegedly conflicted with the Trump administration’s priorities. The attorneys general contend that the department did not base the decisions on grantee performance, as required by law, and instead made abrupt, policy-driven cuts.
“The Department of Education’s unlawful decision to abruptly cut funding for FSCS programs will strip hundreds of Maryland students and families of essential support,” Brown said in a statement, citing services such as food assistance, housing support and educational resources.
One of the programs affected is a University of Maryland, Baltimore initiative launched in 2022 with a planned five-year grant of about $1.9 million. The program supports two Baltimore City public high schools—Renaissance Academy and the Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts—and has helped improve attendance while providing hundreds of students with food distribution, housing assistance and help with utility costs.
According to the lawsuit, the Education Department notified the university just weeks before the holidays that the grant would end at the close of the month. The department cited two references to “anti-racism” in the program’s original application as the reason for the termination. The cancellation is expected to eliminate roughly $800,000 in funding over the next two years.
The attorneys general argue that the funding cuts violate the Administrative Procedure Act and are seeking a court order declaring the discontinuations unlawful and reinstating the grants.
If the cuts stand, Brown said, students in Maryland and across the country could lose access to programs that provide vital academic, financial and community support.
