Author: BelieveAgain

A divided federal appeals court in Ohio ruled against the state’s fourth largest school district in a case that pitted its gender pronoun policies against the rights of students who believe there are only two genders.The full Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Nov. 6 that the suburban Olentangy Local School District, in the Columbus area, cannot prohibit students from using gender-related language deemed offensive by others, siding with Parents Defending Education, which had argued the policies were unconstitutional.The national membership organization first filed suit against Olentangy in 2023, saying the district’s policies requiring the use of peers’ “preferred…

The U.S. Department of Education violated employees’ freedom of speech rights when it inserted language to their out-of-office emails blaming “Democrat Senators” for the federal government shutdown, a judge in Washington decided Friday.Calling the Trump administration’s conduct a “multifront campaign to assign blame for the government shutdown,” U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper sided with the union representing furloughed Education Department staff in his late Friday opinion, which sued in early October over the partisan language.“Nonpartisanship is the bedrock of the federal civil service; it ensures that career government employees serve the public, not the politicians. But by commandeering its employees’…

Although education wasn’t the main focus of high-profile races that dominated ballots Tuesday in New Jersey, New York City, and Virginia, the outcomes of those contests will have implications for schools—and for how much resistance President Donald Trump’s education policies encounter as his second term continues.Elsewhere, voters selected school board candidates, directly shaping the course for their local schools.Here are four education-related takeaways from the election. 1. There could be one more state joining multistate coalitions challenging Trump’s education policies. Democrats will take two key offices in Virginia from Republicans, with voters electing Abigail Spanberger as governor and Jay Jones…

A jury in Virginia on Thursday awarded $10 million to a former teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old student and later accused an ex-administrator in a lawsuit of ignoring repeated warnings that the child had a gun.The jury returned its decision against Ebony Parker, a former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Va.Abby Zwerner was shot in January 2023 as she sat at a reading table in her 1st grade classroom. She had sought $40 million against Parker in the lawsuit.Zwerner spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, underwent six surgeries, and does not have the…

A majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices voiced skepticism on Wednesday about the legality of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, which are being challenged by two educational toy companies and others who say the measures will raise costs for school districts.During more than two hours of arguments in Learning Resources Inc. v. Trump, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the tariffs were an “imposition of taxes on Americans, and that has always been the core power of Congress.”Justice Neil M. Gorsuch warned of “a one-way ratchet toward the gradual but continual accretion of power in the executive branch and…

Dick Cheney, the hard-charging conservative who became one of the most powerful and polarizing vice presidents in U.S. history and a leading advocate for the invasion of Iraq, has died at 84.Cheney died Monday due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease, his family said Tuesday in a statement.The quietly forceful Cheney served father and son presidents, leading the armed forces as defense chief during the Persian Gulf War under President George H.W. Bush before returning to public life as vice president under Bush’s son George W. Bush.Cheney was, in effect, the chief operating officer of the younger…

When state education chiefs have met at conferences or talked on the phone in recent months, the National Blue Ribbon Schools program has been a common topic of conversation.The 43-year-old federal program recognized hundreds of schools each year for academic excellence or narrowing gaps in student performance. But the Trump administration ended its role in it over the summer, “in the spirit of returning education to the states.”In the months since, a number of states have rolled out their own Blue Ribbon programs. At least 18 have created their own recognition programs, and at least four have honored the schools…

A federal appeals court has reversed the discipline of a New York state high school student over an off-campus social media post that mocked the 2020 death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police officers.While the student’s post was “ill-advised” and “offensive,” schools “cannot—and should not—protect the school community from hearing viewpoints with which they disagree or engaging in discourse with those who have offended them,” said a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, in New York City, that was unanimous in its bottom-line judgment.The decision in Leroy v. Livingston Manor Central…

More than two dozen student leaders from across the country fanned out across Capitol Hill on Oct. 28 to advocate for maintaining federal investments in K-12 education that the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers are looking to cut.The 28 student leaders—representing 21 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico—were part of the National Student Council, a flagship program of the National Association of Secondary School Principals.The students were advocating for the continuation of long-standing federal programs designed to give them equal opportunities to high-quality education, during a period when the federal government is looking to offload education responsibility…

Texas officials are making progress toward creating a new bilingual special education teacher certification, which advocates hope will set a national example for states serving students dually identified as English learners and students with disabilities.In 2021, the Texas legislature passed House Bill 2256, mandating the creation of a bilingual special education teacher certificate. After years of development, the state board of education formally adopted the standards for the new certification in September 2025. The exam for the certification is expected to be in practice in 2028.“I think the certification represents a very historic shift in how we prepare teachers to…