Author: BelieveAgain

Vice President Kamala Harris holds a lead among educators nationally, according to a recent EdWeek Research Center survey, but third-party candidates appear to hold some appeal with this voting bloc. Former President Donald Trump, however, holds an edge with younger educators.Fifty percent of educators said they would vote for Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in the 2024 election, compared with 39 percent who said they would support Trump and running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance, according to the nationally representative survey, which was conducted online Sept. 26-Oct. 8 and included responses from 1,135 educators—236 district leaders,…

The legal activist behind the successful U.S. Supreme Court challenge to affirmative action in college admissions is now taking on an Illinois minority scholarship program for aspiring teachers.Edward Blum’s group, the American Alliance for Equal Rights, has sued Illinois officials over the 32-year-old Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship Program, which awards as much as $7,500 per year to qualified minority applicants.Applicants must be American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, or Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. Blum’s group asserts that such a race-based qualification violates the 14th Amendment’s equal-protection clause.“Such blatant race-based discrimination…

The new U.S. Supreme Court term could be a big one for transgender issues, the E-rate program, and other education topics.The court, for the term opening Oct. 7, has already agreed to hear a major case about whether states may bar medical treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy if they are meant to help transgender minors transition to a gender identity that is inconsistent with their sex assigned at birth.That case by itself has huge implications for the thousands of transgender young people in the 24 states that have similar laws. And the Supreme Court outcome in the…

Most of the biggest recent developments in the world of private school choice have centered around education savings accounts, a twist on the private school voucher that parents can spend on tuition, fees, and a wide range of other costs tied to their students’ learning outside the traditional public school system.But close to two dozen states also operate smaller-scale private school choice programs that rarely draw attention on the same scale. These programs, known broadly as “tax-credit scholarships,” typically target smaller populations of students and offer fewer dollars per child than vouchers and ESAs.“They seek to accomplish the same thing…

Lindsey Burke is the lead author on the education section in Project 2025, the controversial agenda issued earlier this year by the Heritage Foundation. Given the attention it has drawn, the questions it’s raised, and the fact that it seems likely to be an object of interest through the election (and potentially beyond), I thought I’d reach out to Burke to get her take on what she wrote, the reaction to Project 2025, and what it all means. Burke is the director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy and a member of the board of visitors for George…

Vice presidential candidates Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sparred over school shootings and migrant students in their 2024 election debate. Education actually made an appearance in the Oct. 1 debate, which CBS aired from New York City, unlike last month’s debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, which didn’t include any questions related to K-12 schools. But education remained far less prevalent than other issues, like the economy, abortion rights, and foreign policy. The most substantive, education-related back-and-forth happened during a discussion about gun violence, and, specifically, what could be done to prevent…

The Biden administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule a lower court and reinstate the funding mechanism for the Universal Service Fund, which distributes some $2 billion annually under the E-rate program for connecting schools and libraries to the internet.A federal appeals court in July ruled that the USF’s funding mechanism was unconstitutional. It said that Congress’ delegation of its taxing power to the Federal Communications Commission, and the FCC’s “subdelegation” of that power to the Universal Service Administrative Company, the private, nonprofit corporation that manages the USF and recommends the contribution amounts charged to telecommunications carriers, violated…

After an unprecedented federal investment in K-12 education, school districts and states are racing to finalize plans for optimizing the final round of pandemic aid, even as they plunge into a future without that support.Congress in March 2021 approved the third and largest round of pandemic relief for K-12 schools, totaling $122 billion and colloquially known as ESSER III. The funds came with two calendar requirements: “obligate” the money, or commit dollars to particular expenses, by Sept. 30, 2024; and “liquidate,” or transfer funds to their intended recipient, by Jan. 30, 2025.Districts have spent the last three years pouring those…

Governor Voters in Delaware, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia have gubernatorial elections.Whoever wins will have the ability to enact or veto laws that could alter school funding formulas, raise teacher pay, restrict classroom discussions on divisive topics, or implement school choice. Governors in Delaware, Indiana, New Hampshire, and Vermont will have the power to appoint a state superintendent of education.Among the gubernatorial candidates are former teachers, school board members, and a former state superintendent.While education hasn’t been the primary focus for most candidates, Republicans in key races generally have called…

The stakes are high for the upcoming election—not only because of the hotly contested presidential race, but because schools are asking voters to approve billions of dollars in spending.The state of California is pushing for $10 billion to fund school infrastructure after failing to secure support for $15 billion four years ago. The nation’s eighth-largest district is seeking voter support for a $4.4 billion bond for improving existing school facilities and building new ones. And dozens of smaller individual districts hope residents trust them to make big investments and pay back debts on time and in full.Districts have two distinct…