Author: BelieveAgain

The U.S. Department of Education is using the primary federal law governing student privacy to investigate two state education departments over policies concerning how schools disclose changes to students’ gender identities to their parents.It’s a fresh attempt by the Trump administration to threaten federal school funding for states and school districts that flout the president’s agenda concerning transgender students.And those two state agency investigations—of the California and Maine education departments—could just be the start, according to a letter Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent to district leaders on Friday.McMahon warned educators in the letter that the Trump administration would make a…

Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Friday told states that their time to spend COVID relief money had suddenly come to an end—canceling extensions the department had previously granted to states to allow schools more time to spend the money on previously planned projects and services.McMahon alerted state education chiefs in a letter dated Friday that the deadline to spend all remaining funds was that same day at 5 p.m. EST.She said the additional time “was not justified” and that states and school districts “have had ample time to liquidate obligations.” Because the department can reconsider its decisions, McMahon wrote in…

State education officials nationwide say the U.S. Department of Education is blocking access to tens of millions of dollars meant for K-12 schools—an issue exacerbated by the Trump administration’s aggressive recent efforts to slash the federal agency’s workforce.The problems have affected at least seven states. In court filings this week, education officials in California, New York, and Illinois said the federal government has failed to reimburse funds for school district expenses since early March—transactions that are typically routine. Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and Utah have experienced similar issues in recent weeks, representatives for their respective education agencies told Education Week.The money…

Dramatic cuts at the U.S. Department of Education have left a “skeletal staff” at offices that oversee research and troves of education data, putting efforts to improve schools at risk, a coalition of research organizations warned congressional leadership.A March 26 letter—signed by the leaders of 12 education research associations representing a combined 40,000 members—asked House and Senate leaders from both major parties to intervene after President Donald Trump’s administration cut more than 1,300 Education Department employees. Those cuts decimated offices that handle data and research: the office for civil rights, the Institute for Education Sciences, and the National Center for…

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday signaled it is unlikely to upend the federal E-rate program for school internet connections, even as some conservative justices showed sympathy for the legal doctrine that challengers are relying on to attack the E-rate’s funding structure as an unconstitutional tax.“I am quite concerned about the effects of a decision in your favor on the grounds that you have been pressing,” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. told the lawyer arguing for striking down the funding structure of the $9 billion Universal Service Fund. It includes the $4 billion E-rate program that subsidizes telephone service, internet,…

Oklahoma’s state superintendent of education is making a bold push to ask the U.S. Department of Education to give the state more flexibility over how it uses federal funds—including using public dollars to pay tuition for private and religious schools—under a request it submitted on Tuesday that experts warn exceeds what the federal agency can legally allow.The request from Ryan Walters is one of several already made—or in the works—that will test how much leeway Education Secretary Linda McMahon is inclined to give states under the department’s waiver authority. Iowa’s state education department made a request earlier this month to…

The nation’s two largest teachers’ unions have taken legal action to stop President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s push to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, arguing that the president’s recent executive order telling McMahon to facilitate its closure exceeds his authority.The separate legal challenges from the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association are the latest from the teachers’ unions as Trump has aggressively sought to whittle down the Education Department since taking office on Jan. 20.The federal agency, already the smallest Cabinet-level department by headcount, has shrunk from a staff of more than 4,000…

This summer, in a hotly watched Oklahoma case, the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on whether states can ban faith-based charter schools or whether such restrictions violate the First Amendment’s right to the free exercise of religion. The outcome of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond has big implications for charter schooling, of course, but some observers have argued it could also have wider implications for public education. To help make sense of what’s going on, I can think of few better than Nicole Stelle Garnett, the John P. Murphy Foundation professor of law at Notre Dame…

With a wholesale revamping of the U.S. Department of Education underway, some state leaders are now gearing up to test just how much leeway the agency is willing to grant through its waiver authority to change key rules about how federal funds are distributed and schools held accountable for progress. State education chiefs are already asking the agency to give them more latitude over federal requirements for accountability outlined in the Every Student Succeeds Act, legislation that has guided testing and data collection for nearly a decade.And though the department can’t change through a waiver how it allocates funds to…

The U.S. Supreme Court granted undocumented students the constitutional right to a free, public education in a landmark ruling in the 1982 Plyler v. Doe case.On the heels of President Donald Trump’s re-election and assertive immigration enforcement agenda, a new wave of political and policy momentum to prevent or limit access for such students is gaining traction at the state level.At least five states are proposing actions that would limit undocumented students’ access to a free, public education, according to an Education Week analysis.In the seminal case—one of the most important for education and civil rights—the justices ruled 5-4 that…