Author: BelieveAgain

Congress’ passage of the first federal school voucher program means every state will have to decide in the coming years whether to participate—including those that already have expansive private school choice programs and others that have resisted the push to set aside public funds for private schools.Education Week reached out to the governors’ offices in all 50 states, plus the mayor’s office in the District of Columbia, to ask about their plans for opting in to the new program. Most that responded said governors are still reviewing the program before formally deciding, with Republicans more enthusiastic about the prospect. Only…

Even as the Trump administration boosts federal funding for charter schools, three states are unlikely to seek the money. Why?The answer is simple: The three states—Nebraska, South Dakota, and Vermont—do not allow charter schools. That is the case even though charter schools have continued to expand across the country, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. In 2023, Montana joined the District of Columbia and 45 other states in the charter school ranks. This April, North Dakota became the 47th state to pass a charter authorization law. Even with these developments, experts are unsure if charters will take off…

Yesterday, Penny Schwinn, the former Tennessee schools chief, withdrew her nomination to be Linda McMahon’s number two at the U.S. Department of Education. The news was a shock, given that Schwinn had earned the Senate education committee’s nod in June, got an enthusiastic endorsement from President Trump back in January, and has been active in the department’s business while awaiting confirmation. Yet, facing a coordinated MAGA pressure campaign that threatened her confirmation, she finally hung it up. (She will still serve as a salaried strategic adviser to McMahon).Many have asked what’s going on. They wonder why a Republican Senate that’s…

It’s the middle of a hot summer, both in temperature and political intensity. Many high school students are happy to take a break from their studies. But for several hundred students visiting the nation’s capital in July, few things feel more urgent than learning to fight for civil rights and push back against President Donald Trump’s conservative agenda.The students were attending one of three separate sessions this month of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Advocacy Institute, a weeklong immersion into discussions of presidential power, immigration, racial justice, and transgender rights, among other issues.“I’m here because I see that we’re…

Penny Schwinn is withdrawing from consideration to serve in the No. 2 position at the U.S. Department of Education.The decision, announced in a Thursday webinar on education funding and policy, comes as the former Tennessee education commissioner’s nomination has stalled after a U.S. Senate committee sent it to the full chamber for approval in late June. There was concern that she would not clear the necessary votes in the Senate, after her record and past comments on battles regarding gender and race in classrooms alienated some conservative lawmakers.“It’s been her choice. She secured the votes that would have been necessary…

Key U.S. senators from both parties on Thursday decisively rejected virtually all the Trump administration’s proposals to slash K-12 education investments—and pushed back against its efforts to shrink the Department of Education and move its functions to other agencies.Fourteen Republicans and twelve Democrats voted on July 31 to advance a federal budget bill for education, labor, and health to a full floor vote, tentatively slated for September. Two Democrats and one Republican voted against the measure.The bill and its accompanying Senate committee report spell out modest increases over current funding levels for key education programs like Title I for low-income…

An Oklahoma sheriff’s office Monday opened an investigation over reports that images of nude women were displayed on the state school superintendent’s office television during a meeting with education board members.Top Oklahoma lawmakers have sought answers over accounts given by two State Board of Education members, who said they saw the images during a meeting in Ryan Walters‘s office Thursday. Another board member, Chris Van Denhende, said he was not in a position to see the television but that “something was on the screen that should not have been,” based on Walters’ reaction.The investigation is in the early stages, said…

Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Edward Markey, D-Mass., have reintroduced education bills that would increase minimum salaries for teachers to $60,000 and the minimum wage for support staff to $45,000 or $30 per hour. “You are the champions of the students of our nation. It’s now time for us to be the champions for you,” said Markey, during a town hall held July 24.Sanders, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, or HELP, committee, first introduced the Pay Teachers Act in 2023, which would outline the new minimum salaries, allocate approximately $1,000 per teacher for classroom supplies, and…

The Trump administration will temporarily pause enforcement of a new policy that prohibits undocumented children from attending Head Start and keeps undocumented high schoolers out of dual enrollment and early college programs after 21 Democratic attorneys general sued over the new rules.In an agreement filed in federal court in Rhode Island on Friday, four federal agencies agreed not to enforce the policy through Sept. 3 as the lawsuit plays out. The pause will apply in 20 states and the District of Columbia, which jointly filed the lawsuit. The four agencies are the U.S. departments of Education, Health and Human Services,…

The Trump administration next week will unfreeze billions of K-12 education dollars it has withheld from states since July 1, the Education Department told states Friday afternoon.Roughly $5 billion will flow beginning the week of July 28 to states through four K-12 education grant programs, according to a July 25 Department of Education letter obtained by Education Week.The affected grant programs, according to the letter, are Title I-C for migrant education ($375 million); Title II-A for professional development and teacher training ($2.2 billion); Title III-A for English-learner services ($890 million); and Title IV-A for academic enrichment ($1.3 billion).The administration last…