Author: BelieveAgain

Twenty-seven states and counting are on track to participate in the first federal program that will direct funds to families so their children can enroll in private schools and cover other expenses outside the public school system.In four of those states, the new federal program will be the first full-fledged, taxpayer-funded private school choice program.More state decisions on opting into the newly created federal tax-credit scholarship program are rolling in this month after the IRS formally started letting states enroll in the school choice expansion included in President Donald Trump’s One, Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed Congress last summer.So…

A recent report from the EdWeek Research Center examines the degree to which K-12 educators are split along partisan lines on two hot-button issues: immigration and the role of the federal government in education. Based on a summer 2025 survey of more than 500 teachers, school leaders, and district leaders fielded with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the report also explores perspectives on civics education—which can be viewed as an opportunity for students to learn about the factors that can stir political divisions. To understand the extent of political polarization at the K-12 level, the analysis identified…

U.S. Department of Education • American History and Civics For initiatives that expand history and civics instruction in K-12 classrooms.Grants discontinued: 19 (out of close to 30 ongoing grants)Amount discontinued: $36,807,694Affected recipients include initiatives in 13 states, including three where the majority of voters supported Trump in the 2024 election. Canceled funds were awarded instead to new civics grantees.Past coverage: Trump Admin. Cancels Dozens More Grants, Hitting Civics, Arts, and Higher Ed. • Assistance in Arts Education For initiatives that expand arts instruction in K-12 classrooms.Grants discontinued: 9, including one that was later restored (out of roughly 23 ongoing grants)Amount discontinued: $6,900,578…

Three of the world’s biggest tech companies face a landmark trial in Los Angeles starting this week over claims that their platforms—Meta’s Instagram, ByteDance’s TikTok, and Google’s YouTube—deliberately addict and harm children.Jury selection starts this week in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. It’s the first time the companies will argue their case before a jury, and the outcome could have profound effects on their businesses and how they will handle children using their platforms. The selection process is expected to take at least a few days, with 75 potential jurors questioned each day through at least Thursday. A fourth…

Parts of the federal government—including the U.S. Department of Education—could shut down again starting this weekend.Since Congress ended the previous, longest-ever shutdown in November, lawmakers have approved and President Donald Trump has signed half of the annual slate of federal funding bills for the fiscal year that’s already close to one-third of the way over. As recently as Friday, the House had approved fiscal 2026 funding bills for the remaining eight agencies, including the Education Department. The Senate appeared on track to do the same this week.But that all changed on Saturday morning, when ongoing protests intensified after federal Homeland…

The Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative was one of more than 200 federal grant recipients that received surprise notices from the Trump administration last April telling them that funding for their five-year initiatives to expand in-school mental health services would end years early.Today, 138 grantees that received those notices still have their funding, at least for now, and there’s a chance they’ll keep it longer. But the Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative, which used the federal money to hire school counselors for nine rural and suburban school districts in north-central Kentucky, isn’t among them.The reason? Kentucky didn’t sign onto a 16-state legal…

A federal appeals court appeared receptive to allowing Louisiana and Texas laws requiring displays of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms to take effect, signaling a potentially significant shift in how courts view long-standing precedents governing the presence of religion in schools.The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, in New Orleans, heard more than 90 minutes of arguments on Jan. 20 over the two similar laws that federal district judges in Louisiana and Texas have blocked at least as to some districts as likely violations of the First Amendment’s prohibition against government establishment of religion.A three-judge…

The Trump administration is dropping its appeal of a federal court ruling that blocked a campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion threatening federal funding to the nation’s schools and colleges.The Education Department, in a court filing Wednesday, moved to dismiss its appeal. It leaves in place a federal judge’s August decision finding that the anti-DEI effort violated the First Amendment and federal procedural rules.The dispute centered on federal guidance telling schools and colleges they would lose federal money if they kept a wide range of practices that the Republican administration labeled as diversity, equity, and inclusion.The department did not immediately…

Before President Donald Trump’s administration started dismantling the Education Department, the agency served as a powerful enforcer in cases of sexual violence at schools and universities. It brought the weight of the government against schools that mishandled sexual assault complaints involving students.That work is quickly fading away.The department’s office for civil rights was gutted in Trump’s mass layoffs last year, leaving half as many lawyers to investigate complaints of discrimination based on race, sex or disability in schools. Those who remain face a backlog of more than 25,000 cases.Investigations have dwindled. Before the layoffs last March, the office opened dozens…

Federal lawmakers from both parties are moving toward approving a new spending plan that maintains the U.S. Department of Education and rejects the Trump administration’s proposal to slash billions of dollars in education investments. Even so, Congress appears to be leaving the door open for the Trump administration to continue some of the unilateral funding and agency staffing maneuvers it implemented in the last year.Budget writers from both chambers of Congress on Jan. 20—the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump’s second inauguration—released what they’re calling a “bicameral, bipartisan” bill covering federal spending for education and several other agencies for fiscal…