Author: BelieveAgain
The U.S. Department of Education is immediately increasing funding for a charter school grant program after it gained extra leeway through the budget process to allocate funds for the rest of this fiscal year and as the Trump administration looks to expand school choice. The department will free up $60 million immediately, it announced Friday, increasing funding for the Charter School Programs grant to $500 million for the budget year that lasts until Sept. 30. The grant funds the creation of new charter schools, pays for construction and maintenance for existing schools, and supports the scaling up of successful programs.The…
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday told Congress the Trump administration would not cut funding for Head Start, after layoffs at the agency and funding freezes raised fears the six-decade-old program would be radically downsized.In an appearance before a Senate subcommittee, Kennedy said the administration would “emphasize healthy eating in Head Start, and ensure the program continues to serve its 750,000 children and parents effectively.”The early education program, which serves children from low-income and homeless families around the country, grapples with staffing shortages and many centers operate in a perpetual state of financial precarity.While the…
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday heard arguments in a case involving President Donald Trump’s executive order that could revoke birthright citizenship from children of some undocumented immigrant parents, an issue being watched closely by educators and policymakers.The unusual May argument—two weeks after the court’s regular arguments ended for the 2024-25 term—was largely focused on the legal question the administration brought to the court in an emergency application: whether federal district judges have the power to issue nationwide injunctions blocking federal policies they believe are unlawful. Three such judges have blocked Trump’s Jan. 20 order, ruling that it is likely…
House Republicans want to set aside up to $5 billion a year for scholarships to help families send their children to private and religious schools, an unprecedented effort to use public money to pay for private education.The proposal, part of a budget reconciliation bill released Monday, would advance President Donald Trump’s agenda of establishing “universal school choice” by providing families nationwide the option to give their children an education different from the one offered in their local public school. Nearly all households would qualify except those making more than three times the local median income.Supporters of private school choice say…
When Herriman High School in Utah published a poster online for Inclusion Week earlier this year, encouraging students to dress up differently each day of the week, a former state school board member attacked the event on social media and called it a “way of giving the finger to anyone who says they are not allowed to do DEI”—including President Donald Trump. She called on people to report the school to the U.S. Department of Education.But the effort—calling on students to dress for pajama day, sports day, beach day, crazy sock day, and Herriman pride day—wasn’t the type of race-based…
More than a month after the U.S. Department of Education abruptly told states and districts they had to unexpectedly stop spending several billion dollars of remaining federal pandemic relief funds, chaos and confusion continue to reign supreme.Sixteen states that sued the department over what they called an illegal effort to withhold money now have until May 24 to cancel investments and terminate contracts, or seek a federal reprieve from that updated deadline, a department official announced Sunday in a letter to those states. A judge ruled last week that the department’s initial changes were illegal but left open the possibility…
School superintendents have for the most part worked hard to remain nonpartisan in the legislative arena. True, we have worked with our local, state, and federal representatives to help them understand our students’ needs but try to steer clear of divisive politics.Unfortunately, we no longer have the luxury of remaining apolitical in our positions—not when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement threatens to show up on our campuses, our schools are accused of radical indoctrination, and the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education puts our most vulnerable students at risk.As the superintendent of the Denver public schools, where a majority…
Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter, a staunch defender of racial equity and the constitutional separation of church and state in education, died Thursday at home in New Hampshire, the court announced on Friday. He was 85.Souter was appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1990 to succeed liberal stalwart Justice William J. Brennan Jr. Over the next 19 years, he became a reliably liberal vote in several areas of school law before being succeeded by Justice Sonia Sotomayor in 2009.He wrote a dissent to a 1995 decision that struck down a broad remedial desegregation plan for the…
A Washington insider discusses the immediate—and long-term—implications of the administration’s education goals. 2025-05-06 10:00:00 Source link
A federal judge on Tuesday halted the Trump administration’s decision to effectively cancel more than $1 billion in K-12 education funding for more than a dozen states—but left the door open for the U.S. Department of Education to again terminate the funding after giving states advance notice.Judge Edgardo Ramos said in the May 6 order that the 16 Democratic state officials that sued along with the District of Columbia had shown sufficient reason to halt a March 28 letter from Education Secretary Linda McMahon abruptly announcing that the administration had moved up the due date for spending remaining pandemic relief…