A coalition led by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island, the National Education Association, and education researchers filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Education’s discontinuation of 28 multilingual teacher-training grants. The plaintiffs say the department terminated multiyear National Professional Development grants for English learners despite longstanding evaluation criteria. The filing alleges the department used “ideological screening” tied to diversity, equity, and inclusion language rather than program performance when issuing September 2025 termination notices. Plaintiffs also point to earlier program disruptions tied to Education Department layoffs and a restructuring that moved the program after OELA was disbanded in May 2026. The case, filed June 3 in U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, seeks vacatur of the termination notices and new grant-continuation decisions grounded in performance. The dispute matters for institutions that rely on federal grant partnerships to run teacher preparation, certification pathways, and research-to-practice pipelines serving multilingual student populations.