Author: BelieveAgain

Big changes and fierce debates over school funding are poised to continue playing out nationwide as the new school year begins.Congress is still far from finished negotiating the federal budget for the 2027-28 school year. High-stakes midterm elections could reshape the balance of power on Capitol Hill and in statehouses across the country. Less than two months later, a new federal tax credit for K-12 scholarships will begin rolling out.All the while, school districts will continue the perennial work of balancing their budgets, and strategizing their investments. Here’s a deeper look at five takeaways from my recent reporting on the…

The U.S. Department of Education last year let more than $75 million in congressionally appropriated funds expire without spending it—an amount without recent precedent that the agency appears on track to repeat this fall, a first-of-its-kind Education Week analysis of federal spending data shows.Education Week reviewed the Education Department’s “SF-133” spending reports, published monthly by the White House Office of Management and Budget, for the full federal fiscal years 2015-2025, as well as for the current fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, for which data are available through the end of June.A clear pattern emerged: During President Donald Trump’s second…

President Donald Trump’s administration is planning a dramatic overhaul of Head Start that would gut its quality standards, upending the hallmarks of the early education program for impoverished children, two people familiar with the deliberations said.Head Start, established in the 1960s to help fight poverty, has long been considered by experts to be a gold standard early learning program. Its regulations, which stretch more than 100 pages, outline requirements on everything from child-to-teacher ratios and child health screenings to family engagement. Trump’s Republican administration would replace those regulations with around a dozen pages of rules, leaving most of the specifics…

The federal government supplies roughly $1 of every $10 that pays for America’s public K-12 schools each year. That’s been true for much of the 21st century, and it’s still true today.Even so, for many school district leaders, recent experiences with federal money, no matter how small a share of their overall budget, have been tumultuous.That’s because the second Trump administration has moved aggressively to implement its policy agenda, at times apparently defying the law and the Constitution in the process. In less than half of President Donald Trump’s second four-year term, the administration has canceled hundreds of grants and…

A Wisconsin appeals court on Wednesday restored a 2011 anti-union law that abolished collective bargaining rights, in a setback for unions and public workers. Unions are expected to appeal, sending the case to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which is controlled by liberal justices.The 2024 ruling striking down the law as unconstitutional had been on hold pending appeal, so Wednesday’s reversal does not change the status quo. The law remains in effect, as it has been the past 15 years, as the legal fight continues.Enactment of a 2011 anti-union state law, championed by Republicans, sparked weeks of protests and made Wisconsin…

It was after 10 p.m. on Feb. 10, 2025, when Stephanie Lee Behm Cross opened an email notifying her that the U.S. Department of Education had terminated her federal teacher-training grant, effective immediately. Going to sleep was no longer an option.Cross, a professor of education at Georgia State University here, first had to call 23 university employees whose salaries were funded entirely by the grant to tell them she could only guarantee them pay for one more day.Since 2015, across several multimillion-dollar federal grants, Cross and her team established a teacher-residency program at Georgia State, recruiting dozens of new teachers…

The vast majority of the nation’s students could qualify for scholarship awards under the new federal school choice tax credit program launching next year—with almost 92% of the nation’s K-12 students potentially eligible.That’s according to a new analysis from a school choice advocacy group that shows how expansive the federal tax credit scholarship program could be. But the number of children ultimately eligible for the awards and who ultimately receive them will depend on how several factors play out as this new program—the federal government’s first major foray into school choice—evolves. Those factors include how many states sign up, how…

A Senate committee on Thursday advanced a bill that would block the U.S. Department of Education from transferring special education and most K-12 programs to other Cabinet agencies as the Trump administration works to dismantle the 46-year-old department.Members of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee voted 13-9 to advance the bill, S. 5046, to the full Senate for consideration. Two Republicans on the committee, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, cosponsored the measure led by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.The bill would prohibit the transfer of programs under four Education Department offices—the offices of special…

The Children’s Aid’s teen pregnancy prevention program was more than just about talking to young people about the risks associated with teen pregnancy.The New York City nonprofit provides comprehensive services for K-12 students living in poverty in schools, at after-school programs, and in other community-based and foster-care settings. Its teen pregnancy prevention program provided young people with connections to trusted adults and referrals to health resources.It also helped them build healthy relationships and strengthen their communication and decision-making skills by hiring some for paid positions as peer educators, said Rhonda Braxton, the organization’s vice president of health and wellness. Some…

As interest in four-day school weeks grows, more states are enacting laws or considering other measures that limit when schools can shift to the abbreviated schedule.Most recently, an Indiana law that took effect July 1 requires schools to meet new criteria before they can apply and be approved for a four-day week waiver. Among those conditions: Schools must maintain an A rating with the state education department, provide enrichment and remediation opportunities for students when classes aren’t in session, and meet the state’s minimum teacher salary of $45,000 per year. Schools that use four-day schedules must prove they meet these…