A court hearing was set for Wednesday to try to stop the sudden loss of $60 million in funding for Illinois after-school programs.

The federal cuts are supposed to go into effect on Thursday, Jan. 1. They will decimate extracurricular activities for thousands of students when those students return from winter break.

Education advocates will make their plea to a judge at 10 a.m. Eastern time, 9 a.m. Central, in Washington, D.C. At the defense table will be the U.S. Department of Education.

At issue is grant funding for 32 Illinois schools, including Marie Sklodowska Curie Metropolitan High School at 4959 S. Archer Ave., where money helps pay for STEM and robotics classes, civic leadership and development programs, and financial literacy education, among other programs.

With the funding cuts from the DOE, many of those activities will be canceled in the middle of the academic year, with layoffs likely for some staff members involved.

The DOE informed Illinois organizations on Dec. 12 that their annual grants totaling $18.5 million will not be coming for 2026, 2027, or 2028 as had been previously planned.

A federal spokesperson said diversity and equity concerns are behind the discontinuation of funding. Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the DOE, wrote, "Many of these [programs] use overt race preferences or perpetuate divisive concepts and stereotypes, which no student should be exposed to."

The DOE denied appeals by grant administrators in Illinois, which is why the fight is now headed to court. Two lawsuits were filed this week.

One of the lawsuits was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., by the American Federation of Teachers and the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council. The other was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Chicago by Afterschool for Children and Teens Now (ACT Now) and Metropolitan Family Services.

"There's a process to do it. they refuse to follow any process because they think they can just change the rules whenever they want," said Brighton Park Neighborhood Council executive director Patrick Brosnan. "That's now how it works in a democracy. That's not how it works. This is congressionally appropriated funds."

The court hearing Wednesday morning is more or less a do-or-die situation. If federal cuts are not immediately blocked, many school leaders will need to make a decision right away about canceling programs.

The timing for all of this is tricky because it is in the middle of the school year, and budgets are already set.