Author: BelieveAgain

The Trump administration’s abruptly announced decision to withhold $6.8 billion in federal education funds approved four months ago by Congress touched off a frenzy of chaos, confusion, and cost-cutting for schools across the country on Tuesday, with immediate and far-reaching implications for K-12 students, staff, and administrators.Some districts and education service providers are already moving to shut down programs and rejigger budgets. Many more are looking to state leaders to help them make sense of the rapidly evolving situation—even as policymakers and advocates struggle for clarity and contemplate legal action against the federal government. The U.S. Department of Education told…

In the early months of President Donald Trump’s second term, nearly every strike of the president’s executive authority has been met with litigation that has, in some cases, paused his actions nationwide. But on Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to the lower courts, restricting federal judges’ ability to issue early, temporary rulings that apply across the country.The decision could change the course of education-related cases that have been trickling through the courts since Trump returned to office in January—and affect how legal challenges are brought against the administration in the years to come. It’s also part of…

The Trump administration is holding back nearly $6.8 billion in federal funding for K-12 schools it was scheduled to dole out July 1, Education Department staff told state education agencies on Monday afternoon—the day before the funding, by law, was required to start flowing.Thousands of school districts and dozens of states that had banked on those funds to cover staff salaries, vendor contracts, curriculum materials, technology tools, and other priorities will now have to consider slashing student services—including some mandated by federal law—or tapping other funding sources if the federal money doesn’t show up on time or at all. Each…

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected on Friday to issue its last merits opinions of the 2024-25 term, with two major education cases among those still out: one on whether parents with religious objections have the right to excuse their children from public school curriculum with LGBTQ+ themes and another challenging the constitutionality of the funding structure for the $4 billion federal E-rate program that provides internet connections in schools.Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Thursday announced from the bench that the court would “announce all remaining opinions ready during this term of the court.” That phrasing is standard,…

The nominations of two top U.S. Department of Education officials are headed to the U.S. Senate floor for final approval, after the education committee this week greenlit President Donald Trump’s picks for agency leadership.Lawmakers on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee on Thursday voted 12-11 on party lines to approve Penny Schwinn, the department’s presumptive No. 2 appointed to serve as the deputy secretary under U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon, and Kimberly Richey, selected as the assistant secretary overseeing the Education Department’s office for civil rights.The affirmative vote brings the women closer to joining a vastly different Education Department…

Less than three months after the U.S. Education Department abruptly froze the several billion dollars in pandemic relief funds schools and states had a year left to spend, the agency has restored the original spending deadline, effectively unfreezing the funds nationwide.As of Thursday, all state education agencies and school districts have until March 2026 to spend remaining pandemic relief dollars—the same deadline they had before the Trump administration changed the policy. Before this announcement, a judge had ordered that states suing the department could continue spending their funds, while those that didn’t sue were restricted. Education Secretary Linda McMahon informed…

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled that parents have a religious free exercise right to have their children excused from the use of LGBTQ+-themed storybooks in schools.The 6-3 decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor is significant for schools across the nation as it will allow parents with religious concerns to remove their children or possibly raise other objections to a range of curricular decisions. The court said the school board’s refusal to allow opt-outs unconstitutionally burdened the parents’ right to direct their children’s religious upbringing.Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. emphasized that the Constitution protects parents’ rights…

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to largely enforce the president’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for children born to undocumented immigrant parents, an issue closely watched by educators and policymakers.The 6-3 decision in Trump v. CASA emphasized that it was not ruling on the merits of the birthright citizenship question, but was instead limiting the use of universal injunctions, in which a single federal district judge blocks a policy nationwide.That alone has implications for education, as multiple courts have issued universal injunctions to block executive orders of President Donald Trump and U.S. Education Department policies…

The path to a nationwide private school choice program got steeper on Friday morning after a technicality forced Republican lawmakers to strike the proposal—for now—from a massive legislative package Congress is racing to finish as soon as next week.As part of ongoing negotiations over the sweeping package of tax cuts and budget changes pushed by President Donald Trump, lawmakers on Capitol Hill in recent weeks have been advancing proposals to annually invest either $4 billion or $5 billion in full federal tax-credit refunds for individual and corporate donors to organizations that pay for K-12 students to attend private schools.The legislation…

In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday spared the federal E-rate program for school internet connections from dismantling or major disruption by ruling against a lawsuit that challenged its funding structure.In Federal Communications Commission v. Consumers’ Research, the high court considered the constitutionality of the funding mechanism for the $9 billion Universal Service Fund, which distributes as much as $4 billion annually under the E-rate program to connect schools and libraries to the internet.“Under our nondelegation precedents, Congress sufficiently guided and constrained the discretion that it lodged with the FCC to implement the universal-service contribution scheme,” Justice…