Author: BelieveAgain

The federal government in 2022 awarded almost $9 million to the rural Cuba City school district in Wisconsin. District leaders planned to use the grant to outfit a new gymnasium building with a safe room where students and community members could shelter during a tornado outbreak.More than four years later, the district still hasn’t seen a cent of that money, and the plan to build a safe room is still on hold.First, the district needed to get its project plans approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which awarded the grant through its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program.…

A Democratic governor who had been on the fence about participating in the new federal school choice program said Friday her state won’t participate, following the Trump administration’s release of a preview of how the program will operate.Gov. Tina Kotek of Oregon said in a statement that the Trump administration’s information release “indicates states like Oregon will not have the flexibility they need to participate in alignment with our values.“At this point, I simply cannot trust that any education policy coming from Trump’s White House is in the best interest of Oregon’s kids and our public education system,” she said.Kotek…

Last summer, when the Trump administration abruptly withheld nearly $7 billion in formula funding for K-12 schools nationwide, school district leaders in Gwinnett County, Ga., were concerned but not panicked.The 183,000-student district—Georgia’s largest—had enough cash on hand to weather at least three to four months of federal delays. Ultimately, the White House bowed to bipartisan backlash and released the withheld funds within a month of their original due date.Even so, memories of that chaotic period haven’t faded. Masana Mailliard, the Gwinnett district’s chief financial officer, recently helped identify $18 million worth of district-level administrative programs and vacant positions that could…

Federal officials have not yet released precise rules for how a new education tax credit will work. But that’s not stopping school leaders in Gwinnett County, Ga., from preparing to participate.The Gwinnett County Public Schools Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, already gives out dozens of student scholarships each year. It also partners with local organizations to supply classroom materials and necessities like food and clothing to students and staff.Now, the district hopes to boost investment in its 183,000 students by pitching the dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit launching next year as an incentive for donating to the foundation.“I’m already getting emails from…

A federal judge on Monday struck down the Trump administration’s $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, contradicting an earlier federal court ruling upholding the fee hike.The administration announced the much-higher fee as a way of preventing foreign workers from taking American jobs.But U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston sided with 20 states and struck down the visa policy, concluding that the executive branch exceeded its authority and violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies develop and issue regulations.“The Court finds that the Policy imposes a tax on H-1B petitions without the requisite delegation by Congress,”…

In education circles, we pay a lot of attention to key U.S. Supreme Court decisions. But most education law plays out in state courts, where even major rulings can go overlooked. To help make sense of what’s been happening in state courts over the past year on issues ranging from school choice to school spending, I reached out to Derek Black. Derek is the Ernest F. Hollings Chair in Constitutional Law at the University of South Carolina, where he directs the Constitutional Law Center. While we frequently disagree on policy, I find him to be a thoughtful, informed, and incisive…

One of the nation’s largest states will place a major property-tax relief measure before voters this fall. But after a significant change by Florida lawmakers to a proposal from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, school districts have been protected from a reduction to one of their major revenue sources.Backlash to a national surge in property-tax bills has spurred proposals in a number of states alongside Florida in recent years to diminish or outright eliminate the local taxes that account for about a third of public school spending nationwide.But the Florida legislature’s decision to limit the scope underscores that bringing about fundamental…

Congress has kicked off negotiations over the federal budget, and lawmakers are poised to clash over whether and how much to cut education investments for the 2027-28 school year.The House appropriations subcommittee focused on education and labor issues on Friday morning advanced its fiscal 2027 budget bill on a party line vote of 11-7. The bill cuts $1.6 billion from annual Title I grants for low-income students, eliminates billions of dollars in formula and competitive grants for schools and colleges, and slashes investment in education research.During the markup, Republican lawmakers praised the bill as a prudent effort to balance investment…

Texas’ State Board of Education is expected to vote this month on a pair of proposals that would add to the growing presence of Christianity in classrooms across the state.It’s an effort conservative leaders have championed, saying the state’s education system needs to return to foundational American values. Critics say the push for more Christian teaching would give students an incomplete picture of the nation’s history and leaves out other religious traditions.The board is expected to take a final vote at a meeting this month on the state’s revised Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for social studies. The standards dictate…

House Republicans on Thursday unveiled a federal budget proposal that once again proposes billions of dollars in education funding cuts, and aims to impose new restrictions for schools that support transgender students.The fiscal 2027 appropriations bill, released Thursday morning in advance of a subcommittee markup on Friday, marks the opening salvo for what will likely be months of negotiations on Capitol Hill. Congress has until Sept. 30 to approve either a full spending bill or temporarily extend current fiscal 2026 funding levels.House appropriators have revived several of their key proposals from last year’s budget bill, even though Congress as a…