Author: BelieveAgain

President Donald Trump last fall promised new legal guidance from the U.S. Department of Education that would ensure “total protection” for the right to pray in public schools.That guidance is now out, and it makes clear that students and teachers can pray in school as long as it’s not disruptive to other students and school activities and that no one is coerced into praying. The guidance also says teachers and school staff can pray at school as long as they’re not doing so in their professional capacity and requiring students to participate—though it’s OK to pray with willing students.In addition,…

As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it’s an especially good time to reflect on the civic mission of democratic schooling. Today, Ashley Berner, the director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, and I discuss what the erosion of civil society means for students, educators, and school leaders—and what we can do about it.—RickAshley: I’ve been thinking a lot about civil society’s role in sustaining democracy and what that means for schools. Democratic theorists talk about the twin threats of an overbearing state and the isolated individual; in other words, extreme collectivism and extreme…

New efforts to establish religious charter schools are accelerating in several states, as advocates hope to return to the U.S. Supreme Court and finally get an answer about whether such schools pass constitutional muster.Last year, the justices deadlocked 4-4 in a case over the proposed St. Isidore of Seville Catholic virtual charter school in Oklahoma, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused. That outcome affirmed, without setting a nationwide precedent, a state supreme court decision that religious charter schools are barred in Oklahoma by the First Amendment’s prohibition against government establishment of religion.Advocates for religious charter schools have regarded the lack…

All but one of the nation’s 26 Republican governors are signing their states up for the first federal program that will fund private school scholarships through tax credits.Their Democratic counterparts, meanwhile, have been much more hesitant. A handful have already said no. Some who have shown interest have said they’d like public school students to benefit.In opting in last week, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis touted the federal tax-credit scholarship program as a chance to raise funds for “everything from meaningful summer school to tutoring to after-school activities to scholarships to schools.”And in North Carolina, Gov. Josh Stein said last August,…

After more than a year of uncertainty over how a Republican-controlled Congress under President Donald Trump would change federal education funding, lawmakers on Tuesday approved a fiscal 2026 budget that maintains level funding for virtually every existing K-12 program.The House voted 217-214 on Feb. 3 to approve a package of five spending bills the Senate had already voted to support, including for the U.S. departments of Education and Health and Human Services. Trump signed the budget bill into law shortly afterward.The latest House vote came after Democratic senators refused last week to support a previously agreed-upon version of the budget…

Two Minnesota school districts and the state’s teachers’ union filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to stop immigration agents from carrying out enforcement activity at or near schools.The suit challenges the Trump administration’s decision to revoke a long-standing policy that generally prohibited Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents from making immigration arrests and carrying out raids at schools and other “sensitive locations,” including places of worship and hospitals, without permission from agency headquarters.In Minnesota—the recent focus of a broad, intense immigration crackdown—Department of Homeland Security agents have detained people and staged immigration enforcement actions at or near schools, school…

Enrollment in private school choice programs have exploded in recent years, with Republican-led states collectively investing billions of dollars in subsidies for families to spend on private educational options of their choosing. Vouchers go toward private school tuition. Education savings accounts, or ESAs, cover a broader range of expenses, including tuition, fees, equipment and material costs, transportation, and more. Tax-credit scholarship programs reward donors who give to organizations that in turn issue scholarships to help cover students’ private education costs. And direct tax credits offer a more direct form of monetary relief for families’ private educational expenses.The list of state-level…

The U.S. Department of Education spent up to $38 million last year paying staffers from its office for civil rights to remain on administrative leave while the Trump administration’s efforts to lay them off were stymied by courts, according to a report from Congress’ investigative arm.The Government Accountability Office reached its cost estimate—a range of $28 million to $38 million—by ballparking the salaries and benefits for the staffers, who were removed from their jobs last March as part of the Trump administration’s push to dismantle the Education Department. In the civil rights office, that reduction in force—or RIF—affected 299 staffers,…

Twenty-seven states and counting are on track to participate in the first federal program that will direct funds to families so their children can enroll in private schools and cover other expenses outside the public school system.In four of those states, the new federal program will be the first full-fledged, taxpayer-funded private school choice program.More state decisions on opting into the newly created federal tax-credit scholarship program are rolling in this month after the IRS formally started letting states enroll in the school choice expansion included in President Donald Trump’s One, Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed Congress last summer.So…

A recent report from the EdWeek Research Center examines the degree to which K-12 educators are split along partisan lines on two hot-button issues: immigration and the role of the federal government in education. Based on a summer 2025 survey of more than 500 teachers, school leaders, and district leaders fielded with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the report also explores perspectives on civics education—which can be viewed as an opportunity for students to learn about the factors that can stir political divisions. To understand the extent of political polarization at the K-12 level, the analysis identified…