Author: BelieveAgain

The Trump administration took significant steps this week, on the heels of the government shutdown, toward eliminating the U.S. Department of Education. The department announced six interagency agreements to move many of its core functions to four different federal agencies. Meanwhile, Congress has yet to approve a budget setting education funding levels for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1.Here’s what that means for schools—and what we still don’t know. 2025-11-21 19:35:10 Source link

Moving key federal grants that help districts educate disadvantaged children, English learners, and rural students from the U.S. Department of Education to the Department of Labor is almost certainly going to be a major administrative adjustment for Washington. But what will the move announced Nov. 18 mean in classrooms and district central offices around the country? One way to begin answering that question: Examine educators’ initial responses to a similar bureaucratic shift that began several months ago.This summer, the Trump administration began moving workforce-connected programs—including the $1.4 billion Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education grant program—from the Education Department…

A majority of the U.S. Department of Education’s funding for K-12 schools—more than $20 billion a year—will be administered instead by the U.S. Department of Labor under an interagency agreement the two agencies have signed, the Trump administration announced Tuesday in one of its broadest efforts yet to downsize a Cabinet-level agency the president has pledged to eliminate.It’s one of several moves the Education Department is taking to offload its vast portfolio and adhere to President Donald Trump’s March executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “facilitate” the closure of her own department. And all of the interagency moves…

As the U.S. Department of Education this week prepared to move swathes of its responsibilities to other agencies, among its flurry of calls was to the nation’s state education chiefs—whose experience working with the federal government was about to change dramatically.In some ways, it wasn’t exactly a surprise. Debbie Critchfield, Idaho’s state superintendent, said her team has been talking about and anticipating major changes for months as President Donald Trump directed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to facilitate the closure of her agency, as the pair publicly floated where the agency’s portfolio could end up, and as the department shed…

The data systems states use to track students’ progress over time from pre-K to career have taken on new importance as educators and lawmakers try to keep up with rapidly shifting workforce needs. But state leaders fear an unstable future for those efforts as they confront declining funding and shifts in state priorities, finds a new report from the Education Commission of the States, a nonpartisan research organization.The rapid growth of artificial intelligence, the popularization of alternative career pathways like apprenticeships, and a changing global economy have fueled urgency for states and schools to dig into data and identify policies…

Schools should be designed as welcoming spaces, tailor-made for each student, so they feel a sense of belonging and excitement for the day ahead.Instead, many kids feel like guests in someone else’s space. Students are expected to show up, do the work, and figure out how to fit in.Some kids can acclimate to the system. Unfortunately, many don’t.But if we changed every child’s experience? What if they walked into school each morning and thought, “This place feels like me.”As superintendent of the Eastern Hancock schools in Indiana, I do a lot of talking to students. I hear the same story…

The U.S. Department of Education said Tuesday it’s developed six agreements to send many of its key functions to other federal agencies.A majority of the Education Department’s funding for K-12 schools—more than $20 billion a year—will be administered instead by the U.S. Department of Labor, for example. The Labor Department will also assume management of many programs overseen by the office of postsecondary education. Other education programs will end up at the departments of Health and Human Services, the Interior, and State. See the chart below for a guide on where the agreements send many of the agency’s programs. 2025-11-18…

The U.S. Department of Education appears poised to move much of its portfolio to other federal agencies, according to several people invited to a flurry of meetings with department and White House officials and told about some of the changes Tuesday.As many as seven key agency offices—including divisions that oversee services and funding for students with disabilities, school safety programs, grants for the education of Native American students, and some of the agency’s core funding streams for elementary and secondary education—could be dispersed to other departments, advocates for potentially affected programs said.A spokesperson for the agency didn’t immediately respond to…

The longest federal government shutdown in American history came to an end earlier this week—but education will be feeling its effects for months and years to come.K-12 schools, which derive most of their funding from state and local revenue sources, were largely able to carry on as usual during the shutdown. But the congressional standoff did disrupt some education funding, and could lead to further disruption because of work that didn’t happen during the lapse in funding. At the federal level, the reopening of the government after 43 days means a tentative return to some degree of normalcy for hundreds…

The reopening of the federal government promises to return hundreds of laid-off U.S. Department of Education staff to work—but employees fear that’s no guarantee they’ll return to business as usual.The sprawling bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday and signed by President Donald Trump concludes the longest government shutdown in history and funds the federal government through Jan. 30. It also contains a provision reversing the early October layoffs of thousands of federal workers across numerous agencies, and preventing further federal layoffs until the bill’s expiration.At the Education Department, that means 465 staff members given reduction-in-force notices…