Author: BelieveAgain

Democrats will retake Congress in January after winning key battleground races across the country—and with it, the reins on federal K-12 policymaking and oversight. With their new power, Democratic lawmakers have pledged to try to reverse the Trump administration’s moves to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, gut education research and grants, and enlist federal civil rights agencies in conservative culture wars.Still, President Donald Trump will remain in the White House for two more years. That means K-12 legislation will likely need at least some bipartisan support to make it across the finish line.In the upper chamber, Sen. Bernie Sanders,…

A majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared inclined to require Colorado to allow Catholic preschools to participate in the state’s universal prekindergarten program without signing an anti-discrimination pledge that covers sexual orientation and gender identity.The case of St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy holds implications well beyond preschool. The court seems likely to continue a line of recent decisions that have allowed religious schools to participate in school choice programs. It will also answer whether private religious schools participating in such programs must allow families with same-sex parents or gay or transgender children. And a decision for…

The American Federation of Teachers and nine student loan borrowers filed a lawsuit on Friday against the U.S. Department of Education and Secretary Linda McMahon. They allege the agency is delaying Public Service Loan Forgiveness decisions and removing credit that borrowers earned toward debt cancellation.The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, says the department is withholding or delaying PSLF “Buyback” determinations, failing to credit time worked in public service and clawing back time it had already credited. AFT President Randi Weingarten is a lead plaintiff in her official capacity. The complaint says it is the…

This piece first appeared in our subscriber-only Politics K-12 newsletter. Want to receive education policy news first? Become an EdWeek subscriber.Voters are making decisions with major implications for the nation’s schools as they finish casting their ballots Tuesday.Education Week reviewed what’s on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and we’re focused on a handful of school-related themes as we prepare to watch election returns trickle in. (Check out our election guide here for highlights on the statewide races and ballot initiatives of greatest consequence to schools nationwide.)This is what we’re keeping an eye on. Who…

Beginning next year, public school districts in at least 31 states could begin receiving tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer donations that would fuel scholarships for students to access expanded district services.But, unlike with state and federal formula dollars that flow directly to schools, this money will take a more circuitous path—and require more legwork on districts’ part to take advantage of it.That includes partnering with a scholarship-granting organization—a local, regional, or national nonprofit certified by the state to accept donations that make taxpayers eligible for dollar-for-dollar credits up to $1,700 per year and $3,400 for married couples.Big-city districts…

The federal government is launching a first-of-its-kind national school choice program. But unlike most federal education programs that dispense grants to states and school districts, this one works through the tax code, incentivizing taxpayers to donate money to scholarships for K-12 students.By 2030, the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit program is projected to reel in more money than Title I (which targets disadvantaged students and is the U.S. Department of Education’s largest funding stream) translating into billions of education dollars for private and public school students.But how will the program work? Will it actually deliver money to public schools and their…

For the 12 years Joshua Stafford has served as superintendent of the rural Vienna High School district in Illinois, he’s been dealing with insufficient resources.Ever since state lawmakers established a formula determining whether each of its 850 school districts’ annual funding levels meet baseline “adequacy,” Stafford’s district has hovered between 52% and 70% of the adequacy baseline, which now sits at close to $17,000 per student.As a result, he’s constantly looking for new revenue sources. He thinks he may have found one with the new federal scholarship tax-credit program. If hundreds of families potentially donate to a new local nonprofit…

As voters nationwide head to the polls for next week’s midterm elections, they’ll be confronted with a wide range of dilemmas over where school funding should come from, how much schools should spend, and which priorities should be the focus of schools’ investments.Many of those questions appear in the form of state-level ballot measures. Some mention schools directly, while some have significant implications for schools even though they’re not mentioned in the ballot language.The questions touch on some of the biggest overarching issues school finance experts and practitioners have been thinking about in recent years. Politicians—particularly Republicans—are responding to a…

How much time students spend in school each year depends on where they live.While American students spend, on average, 1,231 hours in school annually, there is no national policy dictating how many days or hours students must attend classes each year. Instead, those decisions fall to state lawmakers and school boards, leading to significant variation across the country.Since late 2024, several states have passed legislation adjusting mandatory classroom time.Oklahoma, for example, increased required instructional days from 166 to 173, beginning in the 2027-28 school year. South Carolina added a minimum of 1,080 instructional hours, so state law now includes a…

Jeanne Allen is the founder and CEO of the Center for Education Reform. In 2021, she launched the Yass Prize, which has awarded more than $84 million to education entrepreneurs. She’s long been deeply invested in the worlds of parental activism and educational choice. And she’s out with a new book, The Education Avengers: How and Why a New Class of Heroes Is Fighting America’s Biggest Battle, which carries an enthusiastic endorsement from the directors of “Avengers: Endgame.” I was curious to hear more about the heroes, the battle, and what Jeanne sees on the ground. Here’s what she had…