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The future of AmeriCorps’ support for tutors and teachers remains uncertain, despite court orders directing the Trump administration to restore some funding and rehire employees who are critical to making sure money gets where it’s needed.
U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Maddox issued a preliminary injunction on July 7 that would restore unionized AmeriCorps staff. The judge’s order came in response to a lawsuit challenging the funding cuts by AmeriCorps-funded nonprofits, education advocacy groups, and the AmeriCorps employees’ union.
But the groups failed to secure a nationwide injunction that would have restored funding in all 50 states. And it’s not clear how many AmeriCorps employees will return to work or whether managerial positions that aren’t part of the union will remain vacant.
AmeriCorps has moved forward with selecting grantees for next year. However, the Trump administration has yet to release all of the appropriated funds for the next school year. Some $196 million in funding is in limbo, affecting over 40 AmeriCorps-supported programs, some of which were due to start as early as July 1.
During a status conference on Monday as part of a separate lawsuit about AmeriCorps funding, government lawyers refused to answer questions about why and whether the White House Office of Management and Budget would release that money anytime soon.
AmeriCorps supports local tutoring programs and national initiatives like CityYear and Teach For America and helps provide a pipeline of educators, particularly in rural communities, in addition to other community service work. The program has been a target of the U.S. DOGE Service’s cost-cutting efforts.
The July 7 injunction came a little over a month after a federal judge ordered the reinstatement of AmeriCorps funds for 24 states and the District of Columbia whose officials had challenged the cuts. Monday’s hearing was related to that separate legal challenge.
Maddox’s injunction will reinstate AmeriCorps staff who were part of AFSCME Local 2027. Nearly 85% of the agency’s staff has been dismissed since April 15, severely limiting administrative ability and complicating reinstatement orders.
“It’s great that the agency is going to have more staff capacity,” said Kaira Esgate, president of America’s Service Commission that oversees the state service commissions to distribute AmeriCorps grants, in response to the July 7 injunction. “We just don’t have a sense of who’s being brought back and what their skill set is.”
Many staff members may have already moved on, Esgate said. Moreover, many managerial roles were filled by staff members who were not part of the union, leaving numerous holes in the agency’s workforce and operational capacities. AmeriCorps has told the court that they are working to bring their staff back by July 22.
Of the 14 AmeriCorps-supported organizations impacted by the July 7 injunction, only three were located in states that were not part of the separate lawsuit from the 24 states and D.C. The other 11 were already in the process of reinstatement due to the first injunction issued roughly a month ago.
Maȟpíya Lúta, a school in South Dakota, is one of those three non-profits. Typically, the school would have recruited AmeriCorps staff by the end of the summer in order to start programming by Aug. 1. But less than a month out from their typical start date, the school is only now beginning their recruitment process, with no returning AmeriCorps members.
“We are happy to be back up and running, but the uncertainty that this has all generated and the massive disruption are still very serious issues,” Chris Giorlando, a grant manager at Mahpiya Luta, wrote in an email.
Norah Rami is a Dow Jones education reporting intern on Chalkbeat’s national desk. Reach Norah at nrami@chalkbeat.org.
