Author: BelieveAgain

President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday revealed the full details of his administration’s sweeping proposal to slash federal education spending, eliminate grant programs worth billions of dollars, and rewrite special education law in unprecedented ways.The annual White House budget proposal, released with little fanfare just minutes before 5 p.m. on May 30, fleshes out the “skinny budget” documents the administration published earlier in May. These documents are merely proposals and do not have the force of law, and will likely look different from the budget Congress eventually approves for the fiscal year starting this October.The administration’s core priorities were already…

A federal appeals court ruling will make it more difficult for library patrons to challenge book removal decisions, with the decision involving a public library in Texas but likely applying to school libraries as well.In its 10-7 decision on May 23, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, in New Orleans, ruled that a library’s decision to remove books may not be challenged under the First Amendment based on library users’ right to receive information.The decision would appear to apply equally to public libraries and school libraries in the three states in the 5th Circuit—Louisiana, Mississippi, and…

Penny Schwinn, the former Tennessee state schools chief tapped in January to serve in a top role at the U.S. Department of Education, will appear before U.S. senators next week for her confirmation hearing after promising earlier this month she would resign from a variety of business positions to avoid ethics concerns.Schwinn, who has been appointed deputy secretary under Education Secretary Linda McMahon, will appear alongside Kimberly Richey, whom President Donald Trump has selected as the assistant secretary overseeing the Education Department’s office for civil rights. They’ll appear with two U.S. Department of Labor nominees at the hearing, which is…

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…