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 U.S. Department of Education isn’t keeping a close eye on how states are tracking chronic absenteeism, suggesting a pattern of lax oversight that may put billions in federal funds at risk of waste, fraud, and abuse, according to a report released Sept. 23 by the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm.The problem appears tied at least in part to the Education Department’s decision this year to suspend its regular, comprehensive examinations of how states are implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act, the nation’s main federal K-12 law through which the federal government disburses billions of dollars for schools, the…

The school choice explosion has lent new urgency to the question of what information parents need when choosing schools. Well, GreatSchools has been working on that challenge for more than a quarter century. The site offers in-depth profiles of over 150,000 public and private schools, and it offers more than a million parent and community school ratings. Earlier this year, GreatSchools partnered with Oklahoma to launch the state’s new School Choice Hub, an AI-powered platform that can help parents explore school options and financial resources. I recently had a chance to chat with CEO Jon Deane about GreatSchools’ work. Here’s…

Collage by Laura Baker/Education Week with Getty + Evan Vucci/AP The second Trump administration’s education agenda suffered two setbacks in federal court on Thursday, as judges ruled in separate cases that the U.S. Department of Education unlawfully canceled teacher-preparation grants and imposed new funding conditions for education research.The rulings add to a growing pile of legal verdicts reversing or neutralizing the Trump administration’s efforts to assert unprecedented executive authority over federal spending, including for education.They also come as the administration advances a slew of regulatory efforts that would give it more power to direct federal spending—and halt it—according to the…

The Trump administration is ramping up pressure on states and school districts over their policies concerning transgender students, turning to two federal student privacy statutes to threaten to withhold funding or sue over local policies it finds objectionable.The U.S. Department of Education on Thursday announced an investigation of two Massachusetts school districts for allegedly facilitating a student’s gender transition without the knowledge of the child’s parents.The department said it was seeking to determine whether the Northborough-Southborough regional school district, which serves about 1,200 high school students, violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) or the Protection of Pupil…

In 2024, as it faced growing competition for students from private schools, nearby public school districts, and the pull of home school, the Wichita public schools in Kansas decided to try something new.The district reached out to families that indicated they planned to leave and asked if they would be interested in trying its newest school, called Creative Minds, a microschool where students from multiple grade levels would work with a single teacher and focus on project-based learning.Interest was strong and it’s remained so. Today, Creative Minds has grown to four classrooms on two campuses serving about 40 students combined…

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a sweeping package of laws Thursday aimed at protecting children from the risks of technology, including social media and AI chatbots.The laws will penalize large social media companies up to $1 million per child if they are found negligent of harming children through their platforms, ban tech businesses from offering addictive feeds to anyone under 16, require operators of AI chatbots to perform risk assessments before rolling them out, and allow families to opt out of receiving school-issued laptops.Newsom joined his wife and state lawmakers at a children’s museum near San Francisco to stress the…

In a split ruling Wednesday, a federal appeals court dissolved a temporary injunction issued in 2024 that blocked implementation of portions of a 2021 Oklahoma law designed to limit classroom discussions of subjects related to race and gender.The 10th U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver, by a 2-1 vote, said in a published ruling that a lower court judge abused his discretion when he issued the temporary injunction for K-12 classes based on portions of the law known as “subsection B” being vague.The appellate court also upheld the lower court’s rulings granting judgment to the state of Oklahoma on the…

The Trump administration has framed its education agenda as one of “returning education to the states,” as it’s outsourced the U.S. Department of Education’s responsibilities to other agencies and waived certain federal requirements for states.Now, a grant program focused on training teachers to work with English learners offers a glimpse into how that priority is playing out as the Education Department disburses competitive grant money.In May, the department opened applications for a new round of funding under the National Professional Development program. When it put out the notice inviting applications, the agency encouraged applicants to submit letters of support from…

The federal school choice program that’s launching next year could become one of the nation’s largest sources of K-12 funding, even if just a slice of taxpayers eligible for the federal tax credits the program provides decide to use them.The American Federation for Children, a school choice advocacy group, estimates that if the program incentivizes 1 of every 5 eligible taxpayers to contribute to groups that give out scholarships to K-12 students, it would raise $37.6 billion. That sum rivals the combined funding of Title I—targeting disadvantaged students—and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the U.S. Department of Education’s two…