Author: BelieveAgain

Lindsey Burke is the lead author on the education section in Project 2025, the controversial agenda issued earlier this year by the Heritage Foundation. Given the attention it has drawn, the questions it’s raised, and the fact that it seems likely to be an object of interest through the election (and potentially beyond), I thought I’d reach out to Burke to get her take on what she wrote, the reaction to Project 2025, and what it all means. Burke is the director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy and a member of the board of visitors for George…

Vice presidential candidates Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sparred over school shootings and migrant students in their 2024 election debate. Education actually made an appearance in the Oct. 1 debate, which CBS aired from New York City, unlike last month’s debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, which didn’t include any questions related to K-12 schools. But education remained far less prevalent than other issues, like the economy, abortion rights, and foreign policy. The most substantive, education-related back-and-forth happened during a discussion about gun violence, and, specifically, what could be done to prevent…

The Biden administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule a lower court and reinstate the funding mechanism for the Universal Service Fund, which distributes some $2 billion annually under the E-rate program for connecting schools and libraries to the internet.A federal appeals court in July ruled that the USF’s funding mechanism was unconstitutional. It said that Congress’ delegation of its taxing power to the Federal Communications Commission, and the FCC’s “subdelegation” of that power to the Universal Service Administrative Company, the private, nonprofit corporation that manages the USF and recommends the contribution amounts charged to telecommunications carriers, violated…

After an unprecedented federal investment in K-12 education, school districts and states are racing to finalize plans for optimizing the final round of pandemic aid, even as they plunge into a future without that support.Congress in March 2021 approved the third and largest round of pandemic relief for K-12 schools, totaling $122 billion and colloquially known as ESSER III. The funds came with two calendar requirements: “obligate” the money, or commit dollars to particular expenses, by Sept. 30, 2024; and “liquidate,” or transfer funds to their intended recipient, by Jan. 30, 2025.Districts have spent the last three years pouring those…

Governor Voters in Delaware, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia have gubernatorial elections.Whoever wins will have the ability to enact or veto laws that could alter school funding formulas, raise teacher pay, restrict classroom discussions on divisive topics, or implement school choice. Governors in Delaware, Indiana, New Hampshire, and Vermont will have the power to appoint a state superintendent of education.Among the gubernatorial candidates are former teachers, school board members, and a former state superintendent.While education hasn’t been the primary focus for most candidates, Republicans in key races generally have called…

The stakes are high for the upcoming election—not only because of the hotly contested presidential race, but because schools are asking voters to approve billions of dollars in spending.The state of California is pushing for $10 billion to fund school infrastructure after failing to secure support for $15 billion four years ago. The nation’s eighth-largest district is seeking voter support for a $4.4 billion bond for improving existing school facilities and building new ones. And dozens of smaller individual districts hope residents trust them to make big investments and pay back debts on time and in full.Districts have two distinct…

The main mechanism under federal law to support school improvement often fails to do its job, according to a new report from EdTrust, a nonprofit advocacy group focused on equity in education. The report examines how state accountability systems have evolved in the near decade since Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act. The law provided more flexibility than its predecessor, the No Child Left Behind Act, in how states could design their accountability systems and help low-performing schools improve. No Child Left Behind required states to identify schools for improvement with the goal of getting every student to proficiency…

Tiffany Justice, the co-founder of Moms for Liberty, is interested in serving as former President Donald Trump’s education secretary—or in another key position—should he win a second term.“I would be honored to serve,” Justice said in an interview with Education Week. “I’m open to serving in whatever capacity the president wants me to serve, whether that’s more broadly domestic policy, or if it’s focused on education.”She added, “I think there’s a cultural revolution happening in America, and I think our schools are being used as one of the major battlefields. And so, I’m willing to serve in the next administration,…

In the wake of the recent school shooting at the Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., where two students and two teachers were killed, Frank DeAngelis, the former principal of Columbine High School, made an emotional appeal to members of Congress: Schools need more financial and legislative support to prevent mass gun violence. DeAngelis was on Columbine’s campus in 1999 at when 12 students and one teacher were killed in a horrific shooting, which has since shaped the national discourse on gun control measures, student mental health, and how to secure schools against violence. Recalling the names of the 13…

Asian American high school students may get a chance to prove that a key New York City admissions process discriminated against them after a federal appeals court revived their legal case. The case is one of several over selective admissions at the K-12 level that have drawn greater attention in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision largely curtailing the consideration of race in college admissions.The case involves the Discovery Program, a middle school pathway for admissions to the city’s nine selective high schools, which include such nationally known schools as Stuyvesant High School and Bronx High School…