Author: BelieveAgain

The U.S. Department of Education has given Congress official notice that it plans to dissolve its office that oversees federal programs for the nation’s more than 5 million English learners, according to a letter obtained by Education Week.The shuttering of the office of English language acquisition, or OELA, follows a year in which the Trump administration has contracted the Education Department, dismissed virtually all of OELA’s staff, and tried to scale back federally funded services for English learners. OELA has overseen the $890 million Title III grant program that helps schools pay for services for English learners, professional development grants…

Attorneys for two Minnesota school districts and the state’s main teachers union asked a federal judge this week to block a Trump administration change in policy that gave immigration authorities a freer hand to conduct enforcement actions in and near schools.The Department of Homeland Security last year rescinded longstanding nationwide restrictions on immigration enforcement in or near “sensitive locations” such as schools and school bus stops, churches, and hospitals that effectively made them off limits except in rare circumstances.The Fridley and Duluth school districts, and the Education Minnesota union, sued to block the new policy in February, at a time…

Conservative legislators in at least eight states want to require schools to teach students that earning at least a high school diploma, securing a full-time job, and getting married before having children—in that order—will help them avoid poverty as adults. “I think from an anti-poverty standpoint, this might be the single most important thing we could be teaching,” Indiana state Sen. Spencer Deery, a Republican, said at a Jan. 21 education committee hearing.The concept is known as the “success sequence.” Sociologists have debated it—and whether schools should teach it—for the last two decades. But the push has seen renewed interest…

Biblical stories like Jonah and the whale would be required reading for Texas public schools students under proposals that are putting the state at the center of another contentious wrangling over the role of religion in classrooms.Religious leaders, teachers, parents and students spent hours Tuesday before the state education board arguing about the reading list for the state’s 5.4 million kindergartners to 12th graders. The debate is part of widening efforts in the U.S. to incorporate religion in schools, mostly in Republican-led states, driving legislation and legal action.Nationally, President Donald Trump has pledged to protect and expand religious expression in…

When President Donald Trump signed an executive order against transgender athletes last year, he took a moment to thank Tina Descovich, co-founder and CEO of Moms for Liberty.Descovich was back at the White House a few months later, seated alongside CEOs of Google and IBM to weigh in on artificial intelligence and education policy.Last month, when first lady Melania Trump hosted a global technology summit in Washington, Descovich was there, too.Her presence at the White House underscores the meteoric rise of a group that made its name in local politics, fighting to win school board seats and end “wokeness” in…

President Donald Trump is once again proposing to slash more than $8 billion from federal programs for K-12 education.But that doesn’t mean schools should immediately brace for cuts of that magnitude. Congress still has until Sept. 30 to approve a budget for the upcoming fiscal year. If recent history repeats itself, it might take many months after that for lawmakers to reach an agreement—and that agreement could bear little resemblance to Trump’s proposal.In the meantime, Trump’s budget provides a window into how the current administration is thinking about education funding as midterm elections loom. It also provides another opportunity to…

The new Federal Scholarship Tax Credit and the explosive growth of educational choice have raised big questions about how to provide parents with flexibility while minimizing concerns about waste and fraud. Jamie Rosenberg has a lot of thoughts on the subject. Rosenberg is the founder of ClassWallet, a financial technology platform that helps government agencies distribute public funds directly to parents and teachers. Before ClassWallet, Rosenberg founded AdoptAClassroom.org, one of the country’s largest education philanthropy platforms. A lawyer by training, Rosenberg has been featured in Time, Parade, and on CBS. I reached out to talk dollars, cents, and choice. Here’s…

The U.S. Department of Education said Monday it has terminated agreements that previous administrations reached with five school districts and a college aimed at upholding rights and protections for transgender students.The decision means the department will no longer play a role in enforcing those agreements, which called for schools to take steps to comply with federal civil rights law. The districts affected are Cape Henlopen School District in Delaware; Fife School District in Washington state; Delaware Valley School District in Pennsylvania; and La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, Sacramento City Unified, and Taft College in California.Under the Biden and Obama administrations,…

Just two months after Congress maintained steady year-over-year federal funding for most education programs, the second Trump administration is asking lawmakers to once again consider major cuts that would take effect for the 2027-28 school year.The White House budget released Friday likely won’t resemble the spending package Congress eventually approves. Instead, President Donald Trump’s administration is using the budget proposal process as presidents typically do—to signal its political priorities.For the second year in a row, Trump is proposing to zero out longstanding federal education programs that support educators’ professional development (currently $2.2 billion a year), services for English learners ($890…

The Trump administration is shifting large swaths of the U.S. Department of Education’s congressionally mandated portfolio to other agencies, as part of its ongoing campaign to shutter the Education Department altogether. As of April 1, 2026, the Education Department has struck 10 interagency agreements with five separate Cabinet-level agencies to transfer at least 119 K-12 and higher education programs, according to an Education Week analysis.    The Trump administration is also transferring some Education Department staff to those agencies using “detail” agreements, which are typically temporary but can be renewed indefinitely.Congress hasn’t yet approved proposals to eliminate the department. Education Secretary Linda…