Author: BelieveAgain

Linda McMahon on Monday easily secured the votes in the U.S. Senate needed to serve as secretary of education, allowing her to take the helm of an agency President Donald Trump is already trying to significantly downsize and hopes to abolish.The Senate approved McMahon to lead the U.S. Department of Education in a 51-45 party-line vote. Though the Trump administration’s early moves to shrink the department and force schools to drop diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts have sparked strident objections from Democrats, McMahon passed with relative ease compared to her predecessor in Trump’s first term, Betsy DeVos, who made history…

More than the usual transitions from one political party to the other, the arrival of the Trump administration requires critical strategic readjustments by education leaders who serve on the front lines. Among the extreme changes proposed by the administration are closing the U.S. Department of Education and sending federal education funds directly to the states.Many of these attacks on 50 years of education policy—from civil rights enforcement in schools to evidence-based research grants to universities to teacher professional development to teaching about systemic racism and human sexuality—are already underway though significant funding cuts or policy changes. The moment to take…

Public schools in the United States don’t track the number of undocumented students enrolled due to a U.S. Supreme Court decision granting these students the constitutional right to free, public education.Nevertheless, there have been efforts over the years by state and school district leaders to change that and to bar undocumented students’ access to public schools. Most recently, Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s elected superintendent of public instruction, pushed forward a proposed rule requiring parents to provide proof of citizenship upon enrolling children in public schools.But Walters’ effort hit a snag when a fellow Republican, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, denounced the move…

The U.S. Department of Education is asking the public to report practices of diversity, equity, and inclusion in public schools, the Trump administration’s latest move to go after schools for what it calls “divisive ideologies” and “indoctrination.”The agency on Thursday launched a public portal—EndDEI.Ed.Gov—for parents, students, teachers, and the broader community to report practices of discrimination based on race or sex in publicly-funded K-12 schools.This new effort comes just before the Feb. 28 deadline that the Trump administration set for K-12 schools and universities to end DEI practices or risk losing federal funding.The portal webpage, titled “Students should be focused…

When Vianey secured a full ride to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to pursue her dream of becoming a teacher, it felt like a door had opened to her: full financial support so she could do something for her community, and become the teacher she had always wanted in school.But midway through her freshman year, she and 15 other students found out the federal grant funding Project RAÍCES, their teacher-training program, was among those terminated by the U.S. Department of Education in recent weeks, propelled by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.With no federal right to education in the U.S.…

The federal official who oversees a key measure of the nation’s educational progress was abruptly placed on administrative leave by the Trump administration Monday, a move that follows the sudden cancellation of millions of dollars of projects at the U.S. Department of Education’s research arm.Former President Joe Biden appointed Peggy Carr, a career employee at the National Center for Education Statistics for more than 30 years, to a six-year term as commissioner of the agency in 2021. The Education Department’s press office confirmed that Carr was placed on leave, but did not respond to a request for further comment Tuesday.NCES…

A new federal lawsuit in Maryland is challenging a Trump administration memo giving the nation’s schools and universities two weeks to eliminate “race-based” practices of any kind or risk losing their federal money.The lawsuit, filed Tuesday by the American Federation of Teachers union and the American Sociological Association, says the Education Department’s Feb. 14 memo violates the First and Fifth amendments. Forcing schools to teach only the views supported by the federal government amounts to a violation of free speech, the organizations say, and the directive is so vague that schools don’t know what practices cross the line.“This letter radically…

The federal government often falls short of solving our most challenging problems because our most challenging problems are more complex and nuanced than a one-size-fits-all approach can offer.   State policymakers grapple with ideas that start in Washington and trickle down to the local level with layers of bureaucratic strings attached.  It drove me crazy when I was governor of Florida.  The Trump administration has a chance to shift the power dynamic back to the states, where policymakers are uniquely equipped to understand and address the diverse needs of their students, schools, and communities.  As we enter this new chapter, it is…

The federal official who oversees a key measure of the nation’s educational progress was abruptly placed on administrative leave by the Trump administration Monday, a move that follows the sudden cancellation of millions of dollars of projects at the U.S. Department of Education’s research arm.Former President Joe Biden appointed Peggy Carr, a career employee at the National Center for Education Statistics for more than 30 years, to a six-year term as commissioner of the agency in 2021. The Education Department’s press office that Carr was placed on leave, butadid not respond to a request for further comment Tuesday.NCES collects and…

Sudden cuts to federal education funds occurred with little transparency and have wasted federal money by terminating projects that were well underway, Democratic lawmakers say in a Feb. 21 letter to the U.S. Department of Education.The lawmakers—including Democrats from the Senate and House of Representatives—demand the agency answer a list of 27 questions to explain about $900 million in recently terminated contracts associated with the the Institute of Education Sciences, the agency’s research arm. They also call for explanation of $350 million in cuts for federal equity-assistance centers, which advise schools on meeting obligations under civil rights laws; and regional…