Author: BelieveAgain

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the U.S. Department of Education to reinstate the hundreds of employees it has terminated in recent months as part of a Trump administration effort to downsize the federal agency. In his order, the judge also halted enforcement of the president’s March 20 executive order seeking to abolish the department altogether.Judge Myong Joun’s order seeks to undo all the department actions taken since Donald Trump’s inauguration to reduce the footprint of the 45-year-old agency, which has cut its staff from more than 4,000 to fewer than 2,200 since late January. The reduction in force, the…

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a swift and somewhat surprising resolution of the term’s most closely watched education case, on Thursday announced a 4-4 deadlock in a case challenging Oklahoma’s unprecedented approval of a religious charter school.“The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided court,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. announced from the bench this morning, referring to the 2024 decision by the Oklahoma Supreme Court that such a charter would violate the state and federal constitutions.Because the state high court had ruled that a charter run by two Catholic dioceses in the state would violate the state and…

The U.S. Department of Education has announced or confirmed at least 100 investigations into school districts, colleges and universities, and other entities as it emerges as a prime enforcer of President Donald Trump’s social agenda, according to an Education Week analysis. Through these probes, the department is using its investigative power and threats to withhold funding to crack down on transgender athletes’ participation in girls’ sports; diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; and antisemitism.The repeated threats to cancel federal funding as a way to carry out presidential directives mark a major departure from how the Education Department has traditionally enforced the…

Congress on Wednesday took a major and unprecedented step toward creating a federal private school choice program, as House lawmakers narrowly approved a sweeping legislative package with $5 billion in annual tax credits that fuel scholarships and related expenses at K-12 private schools.The federal subsidies would come in the form of dollar-for-dollar tax credits for individuals and corporations that donate to largely unregulated state-level organizations that give out scholarship funds for parents to spend on private educational options of their choosing.Any student—even in states that have resisted expanding private school choice—from a family earning less than 300 percent of the…

When the Trump administration urged states to use a little-known provision in federal education law to boost school choice, the congressman who helped author the language 24 years ago had an immediate reaction. “It’s about time,” said former Congressman Bob Schaffer.In a May 7 letter, Acting Assistant Education Secretary Hayley B. Sanon urged states to ease their criteria for labeling schools as “persistently dangerous”— a designation that legally comes with an obligation to offer families an option to transfer to another public school. “The number of persistently dangerous schools reported nationwide appears low particularly given the number of violent offenses…

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon offered few specifics on how the Department of Education would consolidate funding streams and cut billions of dollars from its bottom line but repeatedly reassured lawmakers during a budget hearing Wednesday that vital dollars would remain even as she seeks to close the agency.The hearing before a House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee followed the release of President Donald Trump’s “skinny budget” earlier this month, which lays out broad proposals with details yet to be filled in. The early budget stops short of executing Trump’s campaign promise to eliminate the department and move its vast…

The U.S. Department of Education will prioritize sending grant funding to initiatives that expand school choice, put more onus on states to oversee education, and focus on literacy, the agency announced Tuesday.The priorities home in on President Donald Trump’s focus for education since taking office, particularly expanding school choice and dismantling the Education Department.The Trump administration also aims to replace priorities from President Joe Biden’s administration, which, among other things, prioritized diversifying the teaching pool, promoting equity in students’ educational opportunities, and social-emotional learning as it evaluated applications for competitive grants.The Trump administration has taken an aggressive stance to stamp…

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday granted emergency relief restoring voting privileges to a Maine state legislator who was censured for her social media post critical of a transgender female student’s victory in a state high school track and field championship event.The Feb. 17 Facebook post by state Rep. Laurel D. Libby led to other posts and media appearances in which the Republican lawmaker criticized Maine officials for allowing transgender students to participate in girls’ athletics. It also helped lead to President Donald Trump’s Feb. 21 confrontation with Maine Gov. Janet T. Mills, a Democrat, at a White House event.The…

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could profoundly reshape parents’ rights and curriculum decisions in public schools. Legally, Mahmoud v. Taylor asks whether public schools burden parents’ First Amendment right to religious freedoms by introducing students to content with which their parents disagree.Attempting to resolve these types of issues through constitutional adjudication risks bypassing the intimate, local, relational, and pedagogically rich contexts in which public education operates and thrives. The court’s ruling, which is expected next month, will likely favor one side over the other—and therefore may silence the very conversations that help schools…

The U.S. Department of Education is immediately increasing funding for a charter school grant program after it gained extra leeway through the budget process to allocate funds for the rest of this fiscal year and as the Trump administration looks to expand school choice. The department will free up $60 million immediately, it announced Friday, increasing funding for the Charter School Programs grant to $500 million for the budget year that lasts until Sept. 30. The grant funds the creation of new charter schools, pays for construction and maintenance for existing schools, and supports the scaling up of successful programs.The…