Two separate court hearings was held 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 who filed a lawsuit made their plea to a judge Thursday morning in Washington, D.C. At the defense was the U.S. Department of Education.

A hearing was also held on a separate lawsuit in U. S. District Court in Chicago. As of the midday hours, the hearing was on a lengthy recess so a judge could review arguments from plaintiffs' attorneys.

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.

Lawyers for the Illinois education advocates want to put a freeze on the cuts so they have more time to argue the cuts were unlawful. Attorneys for the federal government said the Department of Education already decided it is using the money for other grantees.

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."

Advocates in Illinois said the Department of Education's rationale is ridiculous.

"These funds are going into communities that for generations have been denied access and opportunities because of racism," said Monique Redeaux-Smith of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, "so the history teacher in me becomes really disgusted at the use of civil rights language to try to justify these kinds of cuts to Black and brown communities, particularly."

The DOE denied appeals by grant administrators in Illinois, which is why the fight is now in 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 hearings Wednesday morning were a 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.