Author: BelieveAgain
Texas is poised to further test the church-state divide in public education now that lawmakers there have passed a bill that would allow schools to set aside daily time for prayer and reading the Bible or other religious texts.The bill, which awaits Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s signature, would require all districts to vote on such a policy within six months after it is enacted. If schools have approved time for prayer and religious study, parents would have to consent for their children to participate by signing a form that waives their right to sue under the establishment clause of the…
An effort led by Oklahoma’s state superintendent to require parents to provide proof of citizenship when enrolling their children in school failed in the state legislature this month.The administrative rule change, approved by the state’s board of education back in January, marked one of the earliest state-level actions taken to undermine the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Plyler v. Doe case since President Donald Trump’s election win. The landmark decision, which established undocumented students’ constitutional right to a free, public education, remains binding federal law.Education Week has tracked at least six state efforts in recent months to undermine…
Over the sharp dissent of two justices, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear the case of a student who was barred by his Massachusetts middle school from wearing a T-shirt with the message, “There Are Only Two Genders.”The court’s refusal to take up the issue offers schools no additional clarity for now on student speech that many school administrators perceive as harmful to LGBTQ+ students or other vulnerable populations.Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., in a dissent from the denial of review that was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, said, “This case presents an issue of great importance…
The federal government’s ongoing effort to cancel more than a billion dollars of pandemic-relief funds for schools is on hold in some states for the second time in less than a month, following a May 20 court order from a federal judge.Lawyers for the U.S. Department of Education must file papers by May 29 explaining why a court shouldn’t stop the agency’s effort to end pandemic-relief funding programs early and then later defend that position at a hearing in early June, Judge Edgardo Ramos of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York wrote. In the meantime,…
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the U.S. Department of Education to reinstate the hundreds of employees it has terminated in recent months as part of a Trump administration effort to downsize the federal agency. In his order, the judge also halted enforcement of the president’s March 20 executive order seeking to abolish the department altogether.Judge Myong Joun’s order seeks to undo all the department actions taken since Donald Trump’s inauguration to reduce the footprint of the 45-year-old agency, which has cut its staff from more than 4,000 to fewer than 2,200 since late January. The reduction in force, the…
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a swift and somewhat surprising resolution of the term’s most closely watched education case, on Thursday announced a 4-4 deadlock in a case challenging Oklahoma’s unprecedented approval of a religious charter school.“The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided court,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. announced from the bench this morning, referring to the 2024 decision by the Oklahoma Supreme Court that such a charter would violate the state and federal constitutions.Because the state high court had ruled that a charter run by two Catholic dioceses in the state would violate the state and…
The U.S. Department of Education has announced or confirmed at least 100 investigations into school districts, colleges and universities, and other entities as it emerges as a prime enforcer of President Donald Trump’s social agenda, according to an Education Week analysis. Through these probes, the department is using its investigative power and threats to withhold funding to crack down on transgender athletes’ participation in girls’ sports; diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; and antisemitism.The repeated threats to cancel federal funding as a way to carry out presidential directives mark a major departure from how the Education Department has traditionally enforced the…
Congress on Wednesday took a major and unprecedented step toward creating a federal private school choice program, as House lawmakers narrowly approved a sweeping legislative package with $5 billion in annual tax credits that fuel scholarships and related expenses at K-12 private schools.The federal subsidies would come in the form of dollar-for-dollar tax credits for individuals and corporations that donate to largely unregulated state-level organizations that give out scholarship funds for parents to spend on private educational options of their choosing.Any student—even in states that have resisted expanding private school choice—from a family earning less than 300 percent of the…
When the Trump administration urged states to use a little-known provision in federal education law to boost school choice, the congressman who helped author the language 24 years ago had an immediate reaction. “It’s about time,” said former Congressman Bob Schaffer.In a May 7 letter, Acting Assistant Education Secretary Hayley B. Sanon urged states to ease their criteria for labeling schools as “persistently dangerous”— a designation that legally comes with an obligation to offer families an option to transfer to another public school. “The number of persistently dangerous schools reported nationwide appears low particularly given the number of violent offenses…
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon offered few specifics on how the Department of Education would consolidate funding streams and cut billions of dollars from its bottom line but repeatedly reassured lawmakers during a budget hearing Wednesday that vital dollars would remain even as she seeks to close the agency.The hearing before a House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee followed the release of President Donald Trump’s “skinny budget” earlier this month, which lays out broad proposals with details yet to be filled in. The early budget stops short of executing Trump’s campaign promise to eliminate the department and move its vast…