Attorney General Ford Applauds Decision in TRIO Funding Lawsuit

Attorney General Ford co-led a group of 22 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief to support access to education for low-income students

Carson City, NV — Today, Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford announced that on Friday, Jan. 16, the District Court for the District of Columbia granted a motion for preliminary injunction in two consolidated lawsuits filed by the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE) against the Department of Education for the department’s unlawful cancellation of over 100 federal TRIO Program (TRIO) grants.

Attorney General Ford, along with Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, led a coalition of 22 states in filing an amicus brief in support of COE’s two lawsuits on the matter.

“The decision in these cases is a win for Nevada’s children and for the future of our state,” said Attorney General Ford. “I know firsthand what TRIO funds can do because I benefitted from one of these programs when I was a child and my family was struggling to make ends meet. Upward Bound, the TRIO program I participated in, saved my life. I want other children in these situations to have the same support that I did. I am thrilled the court has issued a preliminary injunction in this case so children will not lose this opportunity.”

In its decision, the district court directly cited the amicus brief that Attorney General Ford co-led, writing that the “the State Amici have identified several critical services that TRIO-funded programs provide to their citizens and economies as well as the harms they will face in the absence of injunctive relief, including the abrupt cessation of essential avenues for educating state workforces.”

At UNR, TRIO’s Upward Bound and Upward Bound Math-Science programs help hundreds of first-generation and low-income students annually — 100% of whom were accepted into postsecondary education last year. At UNLV, more than 80% of Upward Bound participants enroll in college after graduation.

The cuts ended CSN’s TRIO program, which had served more than 3,000 students since 2000, a number that includes over 200 students annually in recent years.

In supporting the amicus briefs, Attorney General Ford is joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

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