Author: BelieveAgain
Federally funded education research is in a state of flux, and that’s certainly an understatement as the U.S. Department of Education has canceled nearly a billion dollars worth of research contracts.What does this mean for schools, and how should researchers respond? Don’t ‘Surrender’ Morgan Polikoff, Ph.D., is a professor at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education and a director of the USC EdPolicy Hub:“What’s the resistance strategy? How do we shut it down? I’m just so at a loss.”This was a message I received from a friend—an assistant professor at another institution who’s suddenly lost access to…
President Donald Trump has tapped North Dakota’s Kirsten Baesler—a former school leader and technology integration coach and the nation’s longest-serving state superintendent, with a record of working across the political aisle—to a key post overseeing K-12 policy at the U.S. Department of Education.If confirmed by the U.S. Senate as assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education, Baesler would be one of two nationally respected officials from the state chief ranks to serve in the department during Trump’s second term. She would join Penny Schwinn, who led schools in Tennessee and has been nominated to the post of deputy secretary.Baesler’s would-be…
Sitting before lawmakers on Thursday for her confirmation hearing, the presumptive Secretary of Education Linda McMahon repeatedly assured them the U.S. Department of Education would enforce federal law, using the agency’s office for civil rights to pursue cases alleging antisemitism or sexual harassment at the nation’s K-12 schools and college campuses. “We will make sure the law is enforced,” she told Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., when he asked how the department would uphold Title IX, the law prohibiting sex discrimination at federally funded schools. But at the same hearing, McMahon also repeatedly discussed dismantling the Education Department, and suggested that…
As President Donald Trump’s pick for education secretary made her pitch on Capitol Hill to lead the U.S. Department of Education, the agency continued to be the subject of aggressive downsizing efforts from the Trump administration through billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team.Linda McMahon appeared before U.S. senators on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee on Thursday. She hasn’t taken office, but she already had to answer for the turbulence that has enveloped the Education Department since Trump took office, with Musk’s team probing the agency’s spending, gaining access to sensitive data, canceling scores of contracts worth…
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in Thursday as President Donald Trump’s health secretary after a close Senate vote, putting the prominent vaccine skeptic in control of $1.7 trillion in federal spending, vaccine recommendations, and food safety, as well as health insurance programs for roughly half the country.Nearly all Republicans fell in line behind Trump despite hesitancy over Kennedy’s views on vaccines, voting 52-48 to elevate the scion of one of America’s most storied political—and Democratic—families to secretary of the Health and Human Services Department. Democrats unanimously opposed Kennedy.Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who had polio as a child, was the…
Linda McMahon made her case to lead the U.S. Department of Education on Thursday amid upheaval that has left staffing diminished, funding in question, and the agency’s very future up for grabs.For more than two hours, the former business mogul who served in President Donald Trump’s first administration by overseeing the Small Business Administration had to answer for the already charged environment she’d be stepping into if confirmed by the Senate.McMahon has faced pushback from the nation’s largest teachers’ unions, and protestors disrupted her hearing. Democratic senators who questioned McMahon were concerned with the changes already underway at the department,…
The nation’s second-largest teachers’ union, along with three other labor unions, this week sued three federal agencies, alleging that they improperly disclosed Americans’ sensitive information to billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.The complaint accuses the Education Department, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Treasury Department of violating federal privacy laws by granting Musk’s employees access to the agencies’ data systems, which includes the Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, and the dates and places of birth of millions of Americans. The lawsuit is asking the court to block DOGE’s access to these data systems.The lawsuit was…
Linda McMahon will take the hot seat before U.S. senators Thursday at 10 a.m., as scrutiny grows over how President Donald Trump’s administration has aggressively moved to downsize the department she’s been nominated to lead.McMahon, Trump’s nominee to serve as secretary of education, will appear before the U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Thursday morning as the U.S. Department of Education has already seen robust staffing and priority changes under the new administration, even in the absence of permanent leadership.More than 75 staff members are on administrative leave due to mostly tenuous connections to diversity, equity, and inclusion…
A tool that helps educators sift through dense curriculum research. Surveys on school crime. Long-term studies examining outcomes for high schoolers after graduation. All those services and more came to a sudden standstill this week as the Trump administration abruptly revoked nearly $900 million in contracts funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team late Monday touted the termination of 89 education department contracts. Though at least a handful touch on diversity, equity, and inclusion, most seem to stem from the agency’s research arm, the Institute of Education Sciences.IES is best known for…
The Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education, appears to be the latest agency in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency office.Dozens of researchers and contractors received notices Feb. 10, directing them to immediately stop work on research projects and program evaluations financed by IES, a federal agency with a roughly $800 million budget, sources say.It was not immediately clear which—or how many—of IES’ hundreds of contracts are affected. A statement from the American Education Research Association and the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics…