Author: BelieveAgain

K-12 schools are on the ballot in a big way this fall, both directly and indirectly.Amid a dominant focus on affordability and economic issues in a pitched battle for control of Congress, voters will also make decisions with major implications for the nation’s schools.Education Week reviewed what is on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and assembled this guide to highlight the statewide races and ballot initiatives of greatest consequence to schools. (Local school board elections, bond issues, and property tax levies will also have a big impact, but are excluded from this guide.)Voters in…

The new Federal Scholarship Tax Credit, or FSTC, will take effect in January 2027. The program, written into law by Congress in 2025, has been described as the nation’s largest school choice program. It’s also created lots of confusion about what it involves and how it will work. This week, the U.S. Treasury finally issued two sets of rules—one set of rules will govern the program in 2027, and a longer set of proposed rules will be the subject of a public hearing in December (wonky as hell, I know). With so much still in flux, I reached out to…

A new bipartisan bill would create an incentive for states to restrict student cellphone use during the school day, the latest attempt by federal lawmakers to address growing screen-time concerns.The bill—titled “UNPLUGGED Schools Grant Act” and sponsored by U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark.—would establish a federal grant program for states that adopt policies prohibiting students from possessing and using their personal electronic devices during the school day.If the bill succeeds, states would be able to use the money to implement cellphone restrictions, including paying for secure storage options.“Getting phones out of classrooms will mean fewer distractions…

Does posting the Ten Commandments on classroom walls constitute religious instruction that is part of a state-mandated curriculum?That is one of the key questions in a debate percolating in state legislatures, schools, and courts. Five states now have laws requiring or authorizing Ten Commandments displays in public school classrooms, and more than 20 states have considered such measures. The U.S. Supreme Court could take up the issue in its new term that begins Oct. 5, but other courts are still grappling with challenges to the laws.“Schools use their limited classroom walls to teach,” Jonathan K. Youngwood, the lawyer representing families…

The Trump administration expects at least 2 million K-12 students nationwide to receive scholarships through its new national school choice program, which it projects will grow to $26 billion annually by 2030, an amount that dwarfs what’s now spent on school meals or Title I aid. The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Thursday released long-awaited proposed rules outlining how the new Federal Tax Credit Scholarship program will work when it launches next year.The projections included in the proposal shows that the administration expects the program to grow into one of the largest federal education funding streams. An annual investment…

The U.S. Department of the Treasury this morning released long-anticipated rules for the first-of-its-kind federal school choice program it’s launching this January—offering fresh details and raising new questions about student eligibility, public school participation, and protections against fraud and abuse.Three months from the program’s start date, education experts and advocates of all stripes have had major unanswered questions about how the program will work, such as how much control states will have over how it operates, the extent to which home-school students will be able to benefit, and whether married couples will be able to claim larger tax credits.Through the…

Earlier this year, educators nationwide breathed a sigh of relief as the U.S. Department of Education began launching new competitions for grant programs the Trump administration had previously targeted with cuts and cancellations in 2025.Competition announcements said the agency expected to award, among others, 25-35 new Innovative Approaches to Literacy grants (school libraries and books for low-income students); 30 new Supporting Effective Educator Development grants (educator preparation and training); and nine new HEP and CAMP grants, which support migratory students pursuing high-school and college credentials.But in recent weeks, the department has announced it’s awarding only four new literacy grants and…

Under pressure from a federal court, the U.S. Department of Education’s research office this week narrowly finished spending more than $170 million, for now allaying concerns that the funds would revert to the U.S. Treasury after Sept. 30. But the office’s future remains uncertain, as the White House continues to withhold nearly half a billion additional dollars in fiscal 2026 funding Congress approved for it earlier this year.Congress approved more than $760 million in fiscal 2025 funds for the Institute of Education Sciences during President Donald Trump’s first months in office last year. That money was set to remain available,…

The U.S. Department of Education on Monday formally rescinded the 2024 Title IX regulations of President Joe Biden’s administration that had interpreted the statute’s protections to prohibit discrimination based on students’ sexual orientation and gender identity.In their place, the department formally reinstated 2020 regulations from President Donald Trump’s first administration, which will appear in the Sept. 29 Federal Register and take immediate effect without a notice-and-comment period.As a practical matter, the status quo is not changing. The second Trump administration in January 2025 informally returned to enforcing the 2020 rules after the Biden regulations, which were briefly in effect for…

Beginning in January, a new federal scholarship tax credit is projected to generate billions of dollars to expand educational opportunities for students across the country. Roughly 9 out of 10 American students—including the overwhelming majority of those attending public schools—will be eligible to benefit from those dollars.Last summer, when one of us (Deborah Gist) first heard about the new law, her reaction was similar to that of many public school leaders. It looked like another private school voucher initiative that offered little to the public school students she had spent her career serving. But when she read the statute itself,…