Author: BelieveAgain

This winter brought a wave of legal battles that could reshape public education.The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear cases on religious charter schools and LGBTQ+ lesson opt-outs, while lower courts weighed in on hot-button issues like parental rights in gender identity policies, desegregation oversight, and teachers’ use of students’ pronouns.Here’s a look at some education-related court cases from this winter. These cases span from late December through mid-March. After 50 years, this school district is no longer segregated, court says A federal appeals court declared that the Tucson, Ariz., school district has reached the point where it’s considered legally…

In October 2021, the Campaign for our Shared Future was launched by two education advocates who recognized that politicians were waging war on public education and public educators for political gain. The campaign was designed as a nonpartisan, time-bound effort to defend and promote high-quality public education addressing the needs of all children and promising an accurate telling of United States history.As the campaign’s director, I led a small team of staff alongside our founders from July 2022 through the presidential election of 2024. We believed that if we challenged misinformation and created more common ground to address problems facing…

A federal appeals court has declined to block an Idaho law requiring public school students to use only the restroom and changing facilities corresponding to their “biological sex,” ruling that it likely does not violate the 14th Amendment’s equal-protection clause or Title IX.The decision is the latest development in a high-stakes national debate over the rights of transgender students and a reminder that the courts are weighing in even as the Trump administration has sought through executive orders and public statements to assert that there are only two sexes and that schools should not assist students’ gender transitions. At least…

President Donald Trump, just one day after detailing his administration’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, announced plans to shift federal programs supporting students with disabilities and school meals to the Department of Health and Human Services—prompting yet another round of confusion and anxiety among education advocates over policy actions that flout the law and decades of precedent.Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump said HHS, overseen by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., would handle “special needs and all of the nutrition programs and everything else.”The Education Department’s office of special education programs for nearly…

The Lawrence, Kan., school district, like many around the nation, has become reliant on the federal E-rate program for connecting schools to the internet. Two years ago, the federal program funded 80 percent of the $2.5 million cost of a new fiber network.“If the E-rate went away, it would be very difficult for a school district like ours to keep students connected” as older technology wore out, said Larry Englebrick, the deputy superintendent of the 10,000-student district. “We rely on it.”The future of E-rate funding for projects like those in Lawrence is under an existential threat in a case the…

Education Secretary Linda McMahon will be tasked with preparing to shut down an already diminished U.S. Department of Education, under a long-awaited executive order President Donald Trump signed Thursday in a White House ceremony.The executive order directs the secretary to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education” while ensuring its programs and services are carried out “uninterrupted.” The president and McMahon have acknowledged that actually eliminating the agency would require an act of Congress. The executive order allows Trump to put his signature on a plan for shutting down the agency he has repeatedly…

Maine must take steps to prohibit transgender athletes from playing on girls’ sports teams in the next 10 days or it will risk losing millions of dollars in federal education funds, according to a letter the U.S. Department of Education sent to state education leaders on Wednesday.The Education Department’s office for civil rights said on Wednesday that, after a roughly monthlong investigation, it had found Maine’s education department in violation of Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination at schools, by allowing transgender girls to play on girls’ sports teams and use girls’ locker rooms. The civil rights…

In an executive order last week, the Trump administration mandated the reduction of seven agencies, including one that funds libraries around the country: the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).The executive order gave the agencies seven days to eliminate to the “maximum extent” non-statutory components and functions and to provide a report to the director of the Office of Management and Budget confirming compliance and outlining which aspects of the agency are necessary to keep.More than a dozen organizations, including the American Library Association (ALA), EveryLibrary, and the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies have released statements rejecting the…

To the Editor:In his February 25 essay, “Jeb Bush: Here’s How the Trump Administration Should Handle Ed. Policy,” the former Florida governor asserts that the Trump administration can limit the role of the federal government and shift power back to the states. He claims state and local policymakers can better understand and address the diverse needs of their students, schools, and communities. I disagree.At the P-12 level, the federal government needs to take more responsibility for education, not less. The federal government currently provides less than 14 percent of total U.S. education funding, and the amount varies by state.Beyond funding,…

The U.S. Department of Education’s office of educational technology has been eliminated as part of the federal agency’s massive reduction in force, according to sources familiar with the layoffs and an email notice reviewed by Education Week.The office, also called OET, was tasked with setting a national education technology plan and assisting states and districts in implementing technology in schools. Practically speaking, the OET has helped states and districts navigate whatever new and emerging technology is affecting schools—from cellphones and social media to artificial intelligence and cybersecurity—by providing policy guidance and evidence-based strategies.The OET staffers are among the hundreds of…