Author: BelieveAgain

State education agency leaders whose work focuses on English learners have increasingly found themselves balancing the need to uphold these students’ federal civil rights while also navigating anti-DEI policies and politics. That tension is reshaping how states design, describe, and defend programs serving the nation’s more than 5 million multilingual learners.That’s one of the key findings from a new research study published in early June in the American Educational Research Journal. The qualitative study is based on interviews and observational data collected over the last five years within a national research-practice partnership focused on English learners, or multilingual learners. Its…

Changes to federal student loans expected to affect millions of borrowers took effect at the start of July. A part of President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” these changes mean the end of some payment plans and new limits for graduate loans. Along with the end of the Biden-era SAVE plan, the changes are expected to raise the cost of payments for millions of borrowers. “The main concern is the affordability of monthly payments. I think a lot of people are simply going to see their payment increase significantly and they’re either going to have to stretch pretty significantly to…

Federal agencies should support display of the Ten Commandments in public schools, issue guidance on parents’ rights to opt their children out of lessons that conflict with their religious beliefs, and promote the rights of students and school employees to express their religious views on campus, a federal religious liberty commission said in new recommendations.The sprawling 220-page draft report includes recommendations for federal agencies involved in healthcare, K-12 and higher education, the military, and employment law. It broadly calls for an “originalist” interpretation of religious freedom in the Constitution, viewing that freedom as a “bridge” between personal belief and public…

The U.S. Supreme Court decision this week allowing states to exclude transgender girls and women from female sports settles one major issue, but leaves school leaders navigating major gray areas.The decision in West Virginia v. B.P.J., which was 6-3 on one key issue and unanimous on another, upholds policies now in place in 27 states but stops short of creating a nationwide rule. Instead, the court left open whether states may adopt policies that protect transgender girls’ participation consistent with their gender identity.“Nothing in this opinion is intended to decide that question,” Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh said in a footnote…

The just-approved California state budget strips authority from the elected state superintendent of public instruction, transferring power in January to an appointee of the governor, dramatically changing the oversight and management of a public school system serving more than 6 million students from preschool through 12th grade.The change was pushed through by Gov. Gavin Newsom at the urging of academics and education reformers who have long criticized how the state’s $149 billion public education system is governed.In essence, the change consolidates increased power within the governor’s office—streamlining and largely replacing a diffuse system in which the state superintendent has significant…

A pair of federal judges struck down a Trump administration overhaul to a public service forgiveness program for student loans, ruling Tuesday in separate cases in favor of advocates who said the program risked becoming a tool for political retribution.U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Massachusetts vacated the U.S. Education Department’s changes, saying they overstepped the agency’s power and threatened to violate First Amendment protections for free speech. The ruling came in response to a pair of lawsuits filed by more than 20 states along with a coalition of nonprofit groups and cities.In Washington, D.C., District Judge Amir Ali in…

The Trump administration has expanded its list of graduate degrees it considers “professional” for federal student-loan purposes in response to a court order issued last week. But the list still lacks graduate-level teaching and education leadership degrees, meaning students pursuing them will still be subject to lower borrowing caps.In addition, the administration warns that the list, issued weeks before the start of the fall semester, may not be final.The updated list of 29 “professional” graduate degrees the U.S. Department of Education released late Monday—up from the 11 included on its original list—marks the latest twist in the Trump administration’s implementation…

The onslaught of federal grant cancellations that hit K-12 education last year has slowed—but schools and students affected by the cuts are still feeling the direct effects of lost funding.Schools across Illinois are preparing to lay off staffers this week after a federal judge last Friday narrowed the path to reinstatement of canceled grants for community schools programming. The Trump administration recently redoubled its efforts to disrupt funding for school-based mental health supports. And on Tuesday, K-12 advocates filed a new lawsuit arguing that the White House has illegally withheld congressionally appropriated funds for education research and data collection.These developments…

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld state laws barring transgender girls and women from playing on school athletic teams, in another setback for transgender people.The court’s conservative majority, which has repeatedly ruled against transgender Americans in the past year, ruled that state bans in Idaho and West Virginia don’t violate the Constitution or the federal law known as Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education.More than two dozen other Republican-led states have adopted bans on female transgender athletes, and the decision seems certain to extend to them as well. Left unresolved by the outcome are lawsuits challenging state laws…

Last week, the Trump administration issued controversial new interagency agreements moving the office for civil rights and the office overseeing special education out of the Department of Education. There’ve been a lot of questions about what this all means in practice. Well, few are better positioned to answer them than Lindsay Fryer, president of Lodestone DC, who’s worked on both the House and Senate education committees and was the Senate’s lead negotiator on the Every Student Succeeds Act. I reached out to get Lindsay’s take on what to make of these changes. Here’s what she had to say.—Rick Rick: Lindsay,…