NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The New York City Department of Education is suing the Trump administration over its "unlawful attempt to siphon federal pandemic relief funds" from "economically disadvantaged" public school students, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday.
The department will join a lawsuit that has already been filed against the U.S. Department of Education and Education Secretary Betsy Devos, de Blasio said in a release.
The suit claims a new federal rule "unlawfully diverts and limits" funding allocated to schools through the CARES (Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security) Act, according to release. Public schools in New York City could lose at least $53 million as a result, the release said.
"President Trump has already botched his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and now he is threatening to take millions of dollars in aid away from vulnerable students in our public schools," de Blasio said in a statement Friday.
The Trump administration is attempting to "turn (funds) over to private educational institutions already flush with other federal pandemic aid," the city's Corporation Counsel James Johnson said in his own statement.
California and Michigan's attorney generals filed the original suit, the release said.
