Author: BelieveAgain

A federal judge this week threw out the U.S. Justice Department’s lawsuit challenging California policies that allow transgender athletes to compete on school sports teams that match their gender identity.The Justice Department alleged that the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation were in violation of Title IX, a 1972 federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity that receives federal funding. It argued the law requires that sports eligibility and facilities access be based on biological sex, not gender identity.But U.S. District Judge Cynthia Valenzuela found that Title IX does no such thing—and…

The U.S. Department of Education’s research arm has nearly a quarter of its annual budget left to spend with only a month before those funds expire, the department revealed in a court filing last week.Congress each year gives the Institute of Education Sciences an annual round of funds that must be spent by the end of the following fiscal year—essentially, a two-year period. Out of $768 million lawmakers approved in 2025 for IES, the agency had spent $587 million as of Aug. 26, according to IES Acting Director Matthew Soldner. That leaves roughly $180 million for the agency to spend…

Congress on Tuesday approved a plan to extend ongoing federal budget negotiations and delay implementation of controversial grant rule changes from Oct. 1 until Dec. 11, after the midterm elections.House lawmakers voted 370-48 on Sept. 1 in favor of a continuing resolution, already approved last month by the Senate, that carries over current fiscal 2026 federal funding levels into the first two months of fiscal 2027. The measure now awaits the signature of President Donald Trump, who already indicated his support earlier this month.Education advocates will now have to wait until at least mid-December to find out what funding will…

The U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas have formally filed suit against the Kansas City, Kan., public schools over the school district’s guidelines pertaining to its transgender students, the department announced in a Tuesday news release.The lawsuit comes after several months of back and forth between Wyandotte County’s largest school district and the federal government. The government has long maintained that the school district’s staff are facilitating “secret ‘gender transitions’ for children at school,” without telling parents about it.KCKPS, meanwhile, has defended itself, claiming that it is not breaking any laws in this situation.…

This summer, the Trump administration announced plans to overhaul the $12 billion federal Head Start program. The plan has sparked fierce debate, with fiery critiques from Democrats and early-childhood advocates. What is the Trump administration seeking to do? What motivated this effort? Is this ultimately about trying to abolish the program? For the administration’s take, I talked to Alex Adams, the guy steering this effort. Adams is the assistant secretary for family support at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He came to this role after more than a decade in Idaho state government, including as budget director…

The Trump administration is proposing to give itself greater authority to cut off education grants and reduce the size of multiyear awards after its efforts to end in-progress grants have repeatedly run into legal trouble.The U.S. Department of Education issued a new set of proposed regulations for grantmaking this week that would codify tactics it’s used over the past year and a half to terminate more than $2 billion in multiyear competitive grants and enforce presidential executive orders on grant recipients.The new rules would also cut off some avenues for grantees to appeal the loss of their funding and end…

The nation’s education data agency needs major changes to meet rapidly changing information needs, but years of staff and budget cuts have left the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics too unstable to adapt on its own.That’s the conclusion of the American Statistical Association in a new framework it released Tuesday, which calls for a full overhaul of the way districts, states, and even private groups work with the federal agency to collect and use everything from student demographics and academic progress to school financial reports and career outcomes. “NCES is doing a valiant effort to keep…

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from implementing new requirements for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program grantees to focus on abstinence-only curricula—but did not reverse earlier decisions to cancel funding in that area.The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in June abruptly canceled funding for more than 50 separate programs that teach children and teenagers how to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. At the same time, HHS revamped the grant with new requirements that align with conservative priorities like emphasizing abstinence and fertility.A coalition of affected grantees—Planned Parenthood of the Heartland; the Sexuality Information and Education…

The unemployment rate for 22- to 27-year-olds with higher education degrees is above the national average. Is artificial intelligence to blame? Transcript AILSA CHANG, HOST: Recent college graduates are struggling to land entry-level jobs. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the unemployment rate for young adults with new degrees is higher than the rate for all workers, and a lot of young people blame artificial intelligence. So reporter Lee Gaines decided to fact-checking their concerns.LEE GAINES, BYLINE: Irene Chang studied engineering at Georgia Tech because she likes solving problems. She also wanted to major in something she…

Decades of research show that students who speak a language other than English develop English-language proficiency best by also building on their home language.That is why researchers look to dual-language immersion programs—where instruction happens in both English and another world language—as the best learning model for English learners. It’s also why, for years, early childhood Head Start programs have encouraged bilingualism in instruction.But a proposed rule change to Head Start would mandate English-only instruction and services. The proposal says the current rule requiring programs to support bilingual instruction is at odds with President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring English the…