Author: BelieveAgain

Parts of the federal government—including the U.S. Department of Education—could shut down again starting this weekend.Since Congress ended the previous, longest-ever shutdown in November, lawmakers have approved and President Donald Trump has signed half of the annual slate of federal funding bills for the fiscal year that’s already close to one-third of the way over. As recently as Friday, the House had approved fiscal 2026 funding bills for the remaining eight agencies, including the Education Department. The Senate appeared on track to do the same this week.But that all changed on Saturday morning, when ongoing protests intensified after federal Homeland…

The Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative was one of more than 200 federal grant recipients that received surprise notices from the Trump administration last April telling them that funding for their five-year initiatives to expand in-school mental health services would end years early.Today, 138 grantees that received those notices still have their funding, at least for now, and there’s a chance they’ll keep it longer. But the Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative, which used the federal money to hire school counselors for nine rural and suburban school districts in north-central Kentucky, isn’t among them.The reason? Kentucky didn’t sign onto a 16-state legal…

A federal appeals court appeared receptive to allowing Louisiana and Texas laws requiring displays of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms to take effect, signaling a potentially significant shift in how courts view long-standing precedents governing the presence of religion in schools.The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, in New Orleans, heard more than 90 minutes of arguments on Jan. 20 over the two similar laws that federal district judges in Louisiana and Texas have blocked at least as to some districts as likely violations of the First Amendment’s prohibition against government establishment of religion.A three-judge…

The Trump administration is dropping its appeal of a federal court ruling that blocked a campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion threatening federal funding to the nation’s schools and colleges.The Education Department, in a court filing Wednesday, moved to dismiss its appeal. It leaves in place a federal judge’s August decision finding that the anti-DEI effort violated the First Amendment and federal procedural rules.The dispute centered on federal guidance telling schools and colleges they would lose federal money if they kept a wide range of practices that the Republican administration labeled as diversity, equity, and inclusion.The department did not immediately…

Before President Donald Trump’s administration started dismantling the Education Department, the agency served as a powerful enforcer in cases of sexual violence at schools and universities. It brought the weight of the government against schools that mishandled sexual assault complaints involving students.That work is quickly fading away.The department’s office for civil rights was gutted in Trump’s mass layoffs last year, leaving half as many lawyers to investigate complaints of discrimination based on race, sex or disability in schools. Those who remain face a backlog of more than 25,000 cases.Investigations have dwindled. Before the layoffs last March, the office opened dozens…

Federal lawmakers from both parties are moving toward approving a new spending plan that maintains the U.S. Department of Education and rejects the Trump administration’s proposal to slash billions of dollars in education investments. Even so, Congress appears to be leaving the door open for the Trump administration to continue some of the unilateral funding and agency staffing maneuvers it implemented in the last year.Budget writers from both chambers of Congress on Jan. 20—the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump’s second inauguration—released what they’re calling a “bicameral, bipartisan” bill covering federal spending for education and several other agencies for fiscal…

2025 was a disruptive year for school funding, here’s what we’re anticipating in the year ahead. 2026-01-06 15:29:10 Source link

Hundreds of public school employees have lost their jobs, with many more fearing they’ll be next, as a flurry of legal challenges and political backlash to the Trump administration’s latest round of abrupt grant cancellations continues to develop.As of early December, the U.S. Department of Education had more than 70 active grant awards through the Full-Service Community Schools program, which helps schools network with local organizations and expand on-site social services for students and families. On Dec. 12, the department notified recipients of 19 of those grants, across 11 states and the District of Columbia, that they would not be…

The constitutional principle known as “the power of the purse” has been a fixture of American history classrooms for generations. Federal law explicitly prohibits the executive branch from overriding Congress’ spending decisions.But with a cascade of unilateral federal funding changes in the last year, President Donald Trump has challenged those principles more directly and aggressively than any leader in the nation’s 250-year history—and the education field felt the effects early and often.Education Week has spent the last year building a running—and increasingly sprawling—tabulation of the individual grant cancellations and broader funding disruptions affecting education as they’ve happened. During the first…

Whole milk is heading back to school cafeterias across the country after President Donald Trump signed a bill Wednesday overturning Obama-era limits on higher-fat milk options.Nondairy drinks such as fortified soy milk may also be on the menu in the coming months following adoption of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which cleared Congress in the fall.The action allows schools participating in the National School Lunch Program to serve whole and 2% fat milk along with the skim and low-fat products required since 2012.“Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, whole milk is a great thing,” Trump said at…