Author: BelieveAgain

Kirsten Baesler, the longtime North Dakota state education chief, cleared a U.S. Senate vote Tuesday to serve in a top leadership role at the U.S. Department of Education.Baesler will join the department as assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education under Education Secretary Linda McMahon, amid turbulent changes to the federal agency that has seen rapid downsizing during the Trump administration. President Donald Trump tapped Baesler for the post in February.The division Baesler will lead, the office of elementary and secondary education, oversees some of the federal government’s core K-12 functions, including distribution of Title I funds to states and…

Education savings accounts, tax-credit scholarships, vouchers, charter schools, home schooling, tutoring, course choice, dual degrees, and microschools are transforming K–12. In “Talking Choice,” Ashley Berner and I try to make sense of the shifting landscape. Ashley directs Johns Hopkins’ Institute for Education Policy and is a leading authority on “educational pluralism.” Whatever your take on educational choice, we seek to foster a more constructive conversation about what it means for students, families, and educators. Today, we focus on the federal tuition tax credit that President Donald Trump signed into law this summer. —RickRick: Ashley, I’ve been getting a lot of…

The union representing U.S. Department of Education staff has sued the federal agency, arguing that altered out-of-office emails blaming Democratic lawmakers for the government shutdown violate employees’ First Amendment rights.The lawsuit, filed by the American Federation of Government Employees in federal court late last week, challenges an automatic email from furloughed staff that blames U.S. Senate Democrats for the first government shutdown in nearly seven years after federal lawmakers failed to come to an agreement to extend funding beyond the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year. Staff say the partisan messages were placed without their knowledge or consent.“Employees are…

Staff furloughed from the U.S. Department of Education say their out-of-office emails blaming Democratic senators for the federal government shutdown were set up without their permission—and they raise concerns about violations of the federal law that prohibits government employees from using their positions for political activities.The department’s actions also coincide with several federal agencies—though not the Education Department—promoting partisan messages on their websites that have blamed Democrats and the “radical left” for the first government shutdown in nearly seven years, after lawmakers couldn’t come to an agreement to extend funding beyond the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year.Shortly before…

For the first time in close to seven years, Congress failed to reach a budget agreement in time for the new fiscal year. As a result, the federal government has shut down, causing nationwide ripple effects with short- and long-term implications for schools.Congress has struggled in recent years to meet self-imposed appropriations deadlines. The negotiations were particularly contentious this year in the wake of the Trump administration’s unprecedented push to unilaterally adjust federal spending decisions to align them with the president’s policy preferences.House Republicans are pushing to extend current federal spending levels for a few weeks or months while Congress…

The last U.S. Supreme Court term was among the most consequential in recent years for K-12 education, with the justices issuing major rulings on special education, the federal E-rate program for school internet connections, and parental rights to exclude their children from LGBTQ+-themed lessons.The court also deadlocked in a case on religious charter schools, leaving for another day the question of whether states may directly provide public funding to religiously affiliated schools.“I’ve long maintained that the public school is the most significant site of constitutional interpretation and legal conflict in our nation’s history,” said Justin Driver, a Yale University law…

The U.S. Department of Education can proceed with firing nearly half its civil rights enforcement staff as part of its broader downsizing effort, a federal appeals court decided this week, in a move that overturns the last court order still in effect that had directed the Trump administration to reinstate laid-off agency employees.The decision from a three-judge panel of the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, issued Monday, comes as the department had, under that lower-court order, slowly begun bringing back the 264 office for civil rights employees it had planned to let go in a seismic layoff earlier…

The federal government is on the brink of shutting down later this week—and schools could struggle as a result, especially if the shutdown lasts more than a few days.Potential consequences include delayed funding and services for education nationwide; layoffs of federal staff beyond those implemented earlier this year; and an acceleration of the Trump administration’s stated goal of reducing the federal government’s role in supporting education.Federal lawmakers appear far apart on an agreement to extend federal government funding beyond the Sept. 30 end of the current fiscal year. House Republicans have moved to extend funding into November, but Senate Democrats—whose…

Ryan Walters announced Wednesday night that he is resigning as Oklahoma’s state superintendent after nearly three years of near-constant controversy.On a Fox News program around 10:45 p.m., Walters announced that he is becoming the CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance.The Teacher Freedom Alliance’s stated mission is to “assist educators in their mission to develop free, moral and upright American citizens,” and the nonprofit organization’s website states that it currently has 2,617 teachers enrolled as members. He did not say whether he is still considering a gubernatorial run in 2026.Among the group’s goals is to get teachers to drop membership in…

Republican leaders at the state and national levels are propelling Turning Point USA, the conservative advocacy group co-founded by Charlie Kirk, further into K-12 schools following the activist’s assassination earlier this month.The organization, which is known for its presence on college campuses, says it already has more than 1,000 chapters in high schools across the country and 48 representatives on staff meant to help students organize. Since the 31-year-old’s death, Kirk’s allies have pledged to expand the group’s reach and impact, and the organization has reported a surge in new interest. It received 54,000 inquiries about starting new chapters within…