Chalkbeat

Memphis 2026 school board primary election: live updates

2026-05-06T04:56:39+00:00

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Incumbent Joyce Dorse Coleman is holding on to her District 9 seat on the Memphis-Shelby County school board by a lead of fewer than 30 votes, according to unofficial results from the Shelby County Election Commission posted Tuesday.

It’s the tightest race in the first Democratic primary election for the MSCS board. T.L. Harris, who was convicted of a felony drug conviction 20 years ago while employed as a Memphis cop, is poised to secure the District 6 Democratic nomination by fewer than 200 votes.

The unofficial election results still need to be certified. But both incumbent candidates are in the lead for their seat nominations, with Michelle McKissack holding over 65% of the District 1 votes and Dorse Coleman holding around 32% of the votes.

Longtime lawyer Tanya Frey holds the lead for District 8 with more than 60% of the vote.

The May 5 election pales in significance compared to previous years because of the Republican-led state takeover that will restrict the locally elected board’s power. Top GOP leaders will soon appoint a nine-member oversight board that will have final say on key budget and staffing decisions in MSCS, including hiring and firing the superintendent. The takeover measure still must be signed into law by Governor Bill Lee.

That state-appointed board must be appointed by July 1, before new local school board members assume office on Sept. 1. Harris and Frey each have to face an independent challenger in the Aug. 6 general election to earn their spots on the local board.

All but one candidate, Damon Curry Morris in District 9, said they opposed a takeover in a Chalkbeat survey. The majority of candidates said they would work collaboratively with the oversight board to prioritize student success.

There’s still a chance MSCS will file a lawsuit against the state takeover legislation — the board voted to hire a lawyer in early April and the county commission passed a resolution to fund that legal action Monday. That’s because the governor signed into law a bill that blocks the district from using public funds to pay for the lawsuit.

Republican lawmakers have long said they’re modeling MSCS’ takeover after a 2023 state intervention in Houston, where one of the first decisions made by state education leaders was to replace the superintendent. The new Houston leader overhauled district curriculum, cut 1,500 central office positions, and implemented a teacher pay model based on test scores.

District 1 board election: Here’s what you need to know

McKissack is running against two MSCS teachers, one with decades of experience and the other in her early career.

Dolores Missy Rivers served as a district teacher for 26 years, and spent the last year as the interim director of the Memphis-Shelby County Education Association. Hailey Marie Thomas started teaching in 2021 and now works as a literacy instructor at MSCS charter school Beacon College Preparatory.

McKissack has been on the board since 2018. She was one of three members to vote against firing former Superintendent Marie Feagins in January 2025.

Here are the unofficial election results, as of 11 p.m. Tuesday:

McKissack, 65.4%
Rivers, 17.9%
Thomas, 16.3%

District 6 board election: Here’s what you need to know

Five Democratic candidates are running to fill the MSCS board seat being vacated by former teacher union leader Keith Williams.

Marinda A-Williams is a former private school and Germantown teacher, while Juliette Eskridge taught in MSCS for 20 years. Stacey Kelly works as a college advisor for the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.

Harris, the current frontrunner, led a youth violence prevention program for three years. Contessa Humphrey, the final candidate, did not respond to Chalkbeat’s survey.

The primary winner will face independent challenger Frederick Dewayne Tappan in the Aug. 6 general election.

Here are the unofficial election results, as of 11 p.m. Tuesday:

A-Williams, 27.9%
Eskridge, 24.6%
Harris, 29%
Humphrey, 6.3%
Kelly, 11.7%

District 8 board election: Here’s what you need to know

Two Democratic candidates are vying to fill the District 8 seat being vacated by Amber Huett-Garcia. The winner will face MSCS school librarian Leigh Ann Scarbrough, an independent candidate, in the Aug. 6 general election.

Frey, the current frontrunner, worked as a Memphis-based lawyer for over 20 years and now runs Terra Firma Consulting, an organization that advises nonprofits on leadership decisions.

Ayleem Connolly taught high school Spanish in MSCS from 2015 through 2023 and chaired East High’s language department for two years.

Here are the unofficial election results, as of 11 p.m. Tuesday:

Connolly, 38.5%
Frey, 60.9%

District 9 board election: Here’s what you need to know

Dorse Coleman, a longtime MSCS board member, is facing four Democratic candidates for the District 9 seat.

Jonathan Carroll doesn’t have any business ties to MSCS, but he’s led local and state parent-teacher associations. Incumbent Dorse Coleman has been on the board since 2018 and served as the chair last year.

Tamara Jordan taught in local charter school networks for 15 years and served as the dean of Freedom Preparatory Academy. Curry Morris is the only 2026 candidate in favor of the state takeover of MSCS and worked closely with Nashville lawmakers to develop the bill.

Louis Morganfield III is the building engineer at Ida B. Wells Academy, a beloved MSCS school that will close at the end of this year.

Here are the unofficial election results, as of 11 p.m. Tuesday:

Carroll, 21.1%
Dorse Coleman, 32.3%
Jordan, 31.8%
Morganfield, 6.7%
Curry Morris, 7.5%

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana State Senate District 46 primary election: IPS board member Impink wins

2026-05-06T03:22:43+00:00

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Indianapolis Public Schools board member Allissa Impink is the unofficial winner of the Democratic primary for Indiana State Senate District 46, which could likely tee up a vacancy on the school board.

Unofficial election results with 100% of vote centers reporting showed that Impink had 68.46% of the vote, Sam Glynn had 12.02%, and Clif Marsiglio had 19.52% in the Democratic primary. Results are unofficial until May 15, after provisional and military ballots are counted. The Marion County Election Board will certify the results on May 18.

In a victory statement, Impink promised to focus on community voices, including “parents who are juggling their jobs, childcare, and paying their bills.”

“As I’ve said from the very beginning, the challenges we face are not separate issues. They are deeply connected,” she said. “And for far too long, families have been left to navigate systems that don’t work together.”

No Republican candidates ran in the primary election for the seat that includes downtown, the near eastside, and southern parts of Indianapolis. But it is still possible for a challenger to run against Impink in the November general election. If she wins that race, it would create an opening on the IPS school board. Impink’s current school board term ends in 2028. Board members would appoint a new member to finish her term, and the seat would be up for election in 2028.

Board members recently did the same process to fill the District 2 seat after Gayle Cosby announced her resignation in March. The board appointed Hasaan Rashid to fill the vacancy.

Impink, also a former IPS teacher, was elected to the school board in 2024 to represent District 4, the southwest part of the district. She previously told Chalkbeat that if elected in November, she “will be still carrying that baton of valuing public education.”

On her campaign website, Impink said she supports a moratorium on new charter schools and fully funding public schools, as well as supporting educators and making sure “every student has the opportunity to succeed.” She added that she wants to make sure that IPS is “fully reimbursed for transportation, facilities, and special education services provided to innovation schools.”

Transportation and facilities for district and charter schools are within the purview of the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation. The new body appointed by the mayor will provide state lawmakers with an update on plans for both in November before fully taking over management of transportation and buildings in the 2028-29 school year.

State Senate District 46 is currently represented by Andrea Hunley, a former IPS principal, who is running for Indianapolis mayor in 2027.

Four seats on the IPS school board are up for election in November: Hope Duke Star’s District 3 seat, Nicole Carey’s District 5 seat, Angelia Moore’s at-large seat, and the special election for District 2 represented by Rashid.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis school board sues over 2026 election reset

2025-12-16T23:11:08+00:00

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Memphis-Shelby County Schools board members are suing the Shelby County Election Commission over 2026 election changes that would cut short more than half of the board’s terms.

Those five members — chair Natalie McKinney, Stephanie Love, Towanna Murphy, Tamarques Porter, and Sable Otey — filed the lawsuit with Shelby County Chancery Court on Dec. 15. The district board as a whole is also listed as a plaintiff.

The lawsuit argues that abridging board members’ terms is unconstitutional and against state code. It also calls the changes “legislative punishment masquerading as election reform.” All but one of the affected board members — Porter — voted to oust former Superintendent Marie Feagins in January.

“Their terms have been legislatively shortened by two years, not because of any finding of misconduct, incompetence, or malfeasance, but solely because they exercised their statutory authority to terminate an employee for documented cause,” the lawsuit says.

MSCS board members are also seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the commission from holding the reset election, which is set to kick off with partisan primaries in May.

In an emailed statement Tuesday, Administrator of Elections Linda Phillips said she is “aware of and disappointed” that the school board is suing the Shelby County Election Commission.

“The Shelby County Election Commission works to ensure elections are properly administered, but does not decide which elections are placed on the ballot,” Phillips said.

But the board’s lawsuit alleges the election commission bears responsibility for placing all nine school board seats on the 2026 ballot, not the county commission that voted to reset election cycles under a new state law.

The state law allows local governing bodies to make the changes, but does not mandate it.

And after months of debating whether to restart the cycle in 2026 or 2030, the Shelby County Commission approved a final resolution in September that does not name a specific start year but does direct the changes to begin in the next election cycle.

Commissioner Michael Whaley, who sponsored the resolution, said then that he hoped vague language would prevent the commission from being sued.

Supporters of the reset argued aligning all board elections with other county elections could reduce administrative costs and boost voter turnout, which has historically been low for school board elections. But the state law and commission decision came amid ongoing calls for greater accountability for the MSCS board following the ouster of former Superintendent Marie Feagins.

MSCS officials and affected board members did not respond to requests for comment. But this fall, board members argued the 2026 reset was a retaliatory effort for the Feagins decision that essentially nullified local voters’ decisions. Monday’s lawsuit alleges the ouster was “no doubt” a targeted motivation for lawmakers.

Board members unanimously voted in November to hire a lawyer to determine the legality and constitutionality of putting all nine seats on the ballot in 2026. The lawsuit was filed just a week before school board candidates can formally pull petitions for 2026 candidacy ahead of the May party primaries.

This story has been updated to include information from the lawsuit.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

K-12 moving to Labor as Trump administration accelerates bid to dismantle Education Department

2025-11-19T00:16:29+00:00

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The U.S. Education Department is moving management of K-12 and higher education to the Department of Labor and parceling out other job duties to other federal agencies in the most sweeping effort so far to dismantle the agency.

The Education Department announced the changes Tuesday, describing them as fulfilling President Donald Trump’s promise to “return education to the states.”

Management of both the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Office of Postsecondary Education will be moved to the Department of Labor, which oversees workforce development programs and protects workers’ rights, among other responsibilities.

The Office of Elementary and Secondary Education oversees major federal funding streams such as Title I, which provides $18 billion a year for high-poverty schools, as well as teacher training programs, support for English learners, and competitive grants for charter schools, arts education, civics, and more.

“If we consider K-12 education as really preparation for adult life, preparation to enter the workforce, nowhere is it better housed than at the Department of Labor that thinks about this night and day,” a senior department official said. “We’re really confident that this will end up being something that provides better services, more streamlined services, reduces bureaucracy.”

These changes involve “necessarily narrowing the size and scope of this federal agency,” the official said. Once implemented, they could serve as “proof points” for further downsizing the department.

The moves accelerate a decades-long push by conservatives to eliminate the department that gained traction when Trump signed an executive order in March to start that process. The decisions also make clear the administration’s willingness to use legal workarounds to avoid seeking approval from Congress.

“This is significantly further than I thought they would be able to go without congressional action,” said Rick Hess, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. “I am surprised and impressed, as someone who has always been skeptical of the department’s role. I am open to the idea that it’s good to reduce the department’s footprint. I also think we’re a nation of laws, and it’s important to recognize congressional authority.”

Education advocacy groups widely condemned the changes. Denise Forte, president and CEO of the advocacy group EdTrust, said the administration was “selling the Department of Education for parts.”

“It’s about implementing a business model that transforms students into widgets instead of human beings who need support,” she said in a statement calling on Congress to act.

Karen Hawley Miles, whose father helped create the Education Department in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter, said the entire goal was to take functions that were spread across multiple departments and place them in one nimble agency that could prioritize education above all else.

“We’re going back to breaking these things all out,” said Miles, who is the CEO of Education Resource Strategies, which works on school improvement efforts. “The work that we do with school systems and states, when you silo programs and fragment them, you get fragmented results.”

Hess, for his part, predicted the changes would be “neither good nor bad” for students but said they represented an important symbolic step that will be difficult for future administrations to reverse.

Education Department restructuring sidesteps Congress

The restructuring comes on the heels of a lengthy government shutdown. The administration already has eliminated most of the office that supported English learners and slashed staff in the Office for Civil Rights. But workers who were laid off during the shutdown are back on the job for now.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon argued in an op-ed Sunday in USA Today that the shutdown showed “how unnecessary the federal education bureaucracy is.”

“Students kept going to class. Teachers continued to get paid. There were no disruptions in sports seasons or bus routes,” McMahon wrote. “The shutdown proved an argument that conservatives have been making for 45 years: The U.S. Department of Education is mostly a pass-through for funds that are best managed by the states.”

Only Congress can get rid of a federal department it created. McMahon repeatedly promised to work with Congress on any changes to the structure or duties of the Education Department. These changes were done administratively.

Senior officials said the Economy Act gives the Education Department the authority to contract with other federal departments for goods and services.

Project 2025, the conservative Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for the Trump administration, called for dispersing federal education functions that are required by law to other departments in its chapter on getting rid of the Education Department. The author of that chapter, Lindsey Burke, now works for the Education Department as the deputy chief of staff for policy and programs.

The Education Department is also moving educational services for Native Americans to the Department of Interior, child care for college students who are parents and accreditation of foreign medical schools to Health and Human Services, and international education to the Department of State.

The Washington Post first reported the outline of the agreements Tuesday.

These arrangements, which the department is calling partnerships, are modeled after one that moved career-technical education to the Department of Labor earlier this year. Policy and statutory oversight will stay with the Education Department, but grant management and other functions will be the responsibility of other federal departments. Education Department staff are expected to move to other agencies.

Funding for federal programs should not be affected, officials said.

For more than a month, rumors swirled that a similar interagency agreement would move oversight for special education to Health and Human Services, a change that disability advocates strongly oppose.

The changes announced Tuesday do not affect the Office for Civil Rights, the Office for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, or Federal Student Aid. However, those functions could move to other departments in the future.

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, did not respond to a question about what role Congress should play in restructuring the department.

“I agree with President Trump that education decisions should be in the hands of parents and local communities,” Cassidy said in a statement emailed by a spokesperson. “My hope is that these changes further that goal.”

U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican who introduced a bill last year to dismantle the department, said the administration’s approach aligns with his legislation.

“This is an excellent first step, and I look forward to working with President Trump and Secretary McMahon to pass my legislation and finish the job,” he said by email.

But U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, said in a statement that the administration was subverting the law, and Republicans should work with Democrats to stop it.

“This is an outright illegal effort to continue dismantling the Department of Education, and it is students and families who will suffer the consequences as key programs that help students learn to read or that strengthen ties between schools and families are spun off to agencies with little to no relevant expertise and are gravely weakened — or even completely broken — in the process,” she said.

The School Superintendents Association said in a blog post that its members have serious concerns about consistent provision of services and technical support and about state education agencies’ capacity to take on more work.

David Law, Minnetonka Public Schools superintendent and president of the superintendents association, said school administrators regularly need guidance about which uses of federal funds are allowed or which programs are supported by evidence. The Department of Labor may not have the expertise to help.

“If the Department of Labor is going to do a better job supporting students’ reading and math abilities, that would be a win,” he said. “It would certainly be a new job for them.”

This story has been updated throughout with additional information and comments.

Chalkbeat Senior Reporter Ann Schimke contributed.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Election 2025: Voters OK additional funding for CTE programs in Washtenaw County

2025-11-05T17:55:59+00:00

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Career and technical education programs in Washtenaw County will get a big boost after voters approved a tax increase to add a new funding stream for the programs.

The passage of the special tax proposal may be a good sign across Michigan, given that 41% of schools have limited CTE opportunities for students. The Michigan Department of Education describes these areas as CTE deserts, because data show participation in career tech programs is lower than expected. Tax measures like the one that passed Tuesday in Washtenaw County mean the career programs will have a steady stream of funding.

The proposal passed with 35,947 votes in favor and 29,676 opposed.The tax measure will last 10 years, at which voters would have to approve renewing it.

“This investment by our community will help shape a generation of hope,” said Ryan Rowe, the career and technical education director for the Washtenaw Intermediate School District.

“Our goal is for every student to cross the stage at graduation with an informed and inspired plan for what comes next, whether it’s college, an apprenticeship, the military, or a high-skill career,” Rowe said. “This funding allows us to build stronger pathways, connect learning to the real world, and help students see their future within reach.”

The outcome wasn’t as good for school districts that are part of the Cheboygan-Otsego-Presque Isle intermediate school district in northern Michigan. A similar career and technical education tax proposal failed, according to the Cheboygan Tribune. It would have allowed for the expansion of CTE programs and for funding to allow students to travel to and from school districts in the three counties to take CTE classes.

CTE is particularly limited in Washtenaw County. A report from the University of Michigan’s Youth Policy Lab said access in the county is inequitable, and that students from low-income homes and Black and Hispanic students “have less overall access to CTE programming compared” to more affluent and white students.

At Ypsilanti Community High School, Principal Chelsea Harris-Hugan told Chalkbeat last month that the school would add more CTE programs based on student interest if the measure passes.

“The millage is incredibly important to our students and to our community,” she said. “It provides a bigger pathway and a better opportunity for our students.”

Officials from the Washtenaw Intermediate School District, which will oversee the funding from the tax measure, told Chalkbeat recently that the additional money will allow the ISD to sustain current programs across the county, expand those with waitlists, and create new regional programs. Much of the initial efforts will expand access in Ypsilanti and Whitmore Lake school districts, because they have significantly fewer CTE opportunities than other districts.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Mary Sheffield is Detroit’s next mayor. Can she influence education?

2025-11-05T14:39:22+00:00

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Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield won the race for Detroit mayor by a wide margin Tuesday.

The vote totals were 88,229 for Sheffield and 25,725 for Solomon Kinloch, the pastor at Triumph Church.

Her big win was also historic, with Sheffield becoming the city’s first female mayor.

She referred to the historical significance of her victory during an acceptance speech late Tuesday, noting that in the city’s 324-year history, there have been 75 mayors and “not one of them has been a woman.”

“But tonight, Detroit, we know that changes. And you changed it Detroit,” Sheffield said.

Sheffield will be the city’s first new mayor in about a dozen years. Current Mayor Mike Duggan didn’t run for reelection and instead is running in next year’s governor’s race.

Now that Sheffield has been elected, the attention will turn to whether she’ll deliver on her campaign promises. And for those who care about education in the city, the big question is whether she will be effective in partnering with the city’s schools to improve student outcomes.

Kinloch and Sheffield both said they intended to play a key role in helping address the issues that make it difficult for children to show up for school and learn. Sheffield won the August primary and led polls since then.

Detroit mayoral candidate Solomon Kinloch, center, lost Tuesday's election to Mary Sheffield. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

The mayor of Detroit doesn’t have any control over the operation of schools in the city but can still have an influence.

Sheffield said Tuesday that her administration will be more involved in education in the city by creating coordinated transportation and investing in after-school programs and wraparound services. The goal, she said, is that every child can succeed.

“We know that when our youth rise, Detroit rises,” Sheffield said.

In interviews with Chalkbeat during the campaign, community leaders and education advocates offered these ideas for what the mayor could do:

Transportation: Many high school students take the city’s public buses to get to and from school. Many students say that the bus system isn’t reliable, buses are often late, and sometimes, buses pass them up. Students have also expressed concerns about safety while waiting at bus stops and on buses. The mayor can work with the Detroit Department of Transportation to improve reliability of bus service, including wait times, address safety concerns, and ensure bus stops are located in areas that are convenient for students.

Housing: Many Detroit families are struggling with housing insecurity, and the number of children experiencing homelessness is on the rise. Two Michigan State University political science professors wrote earlier this year that rising rents in the city are playing a role in housing challenges. About 59% of families with school-aged children are renters in Detroit, according to this fact sheet from Wayne State University researchers. The city has invested a lot in creating affordable housing, but concerns were raised during the campaign that the affordable housing isn’t affordable enough for the average Detroit resident. Meanwhile, evictions can create instability for children attending school.

What can the mayor do? Push for affordable housing that works for families with school-age children, while also ensuring that affordable housing is placed in areas that make it easier for parents to get their children to and from school.

Partnering with schools: The city’s mayor can create a more cohesive education system by bringing district and charter schools together and ensuring students who attend both have access to important resources such as after-school programming.

What Sheffield promised on education

Here’s what Sheffield told Chalkbeat this summer when asked what role the mayor could play:

“I understand my role to be a solutions-oriented advocate on behalf of parents, teachers, students and community members. In my opinion, it does very little good to point fingers or blame entries or people for current issues, especially when many times, whole systems need to be addressed to reach real solutions,” Sheffield said.

“Instead, I will establish deeper collaborative ties with DPSCD first and foremost, acknowledging that a strong school system means a strong Detroit. Everything from Detroit’s public safety to workforce to small business and entrepreneurship have direct ties to our educational system. So as a goal, we will understand the gaps and create solutions together. I am willing to commit significant resources towards improving the areas impacting education that the City of Detroit oversees: Infrastructure, quality of life for students and families, safety, and in some cases, funding advocacy. I will do this in collaboration with residents and with DPSCD partners.”

During an October debate, when confronted with a question about how the mayor can address low academic performance and high rates of chronic absenteeism, Sheffield replied:

“My administration will have a liaison working directly with our DPSCD and charter schools on a consistent basis. We will ensure that we have robust after school programming within a two mile radius of every school, focusing in on literacy. We will provide the wraparound service and address the social deterrents that prevent and impact our families and our students, like mental health and housing and having support in the schools and on the grounds to support our families and students. And lastly, as a mayor, I can ensure that we have safe routes to school and fixing the infrastructure around our schools and providing more coordinated transportation to reduce absenteeism and get our students back in school.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado Evergreen High School shooting: Live updates

2025-09-11T22:51:54+00:00

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At least seven vigils for the victims of the Evergreen High School shooting will take place Thursday evening, according to the Jefferson County government Facebook page. Locations include:

Aspen Ridge Church, 5 p.m., 27154 N Turkey Creek Road, Evergreen

United Methodist Church, 5:30 p.m., 3757 Ponderosa Dr., Evergreen

Community Gathering, 6 p.m., Buchanan Park, 32003 Ellingwood Trail, Evergreen

Grace Hills Church, 6:30 p.m., 23338 Isoleta Road, Indian Hills

Ascent Church, 7 p.m., 29823 Troutdale Scenic Dr., Evergreen

Bergen Park Church, 7 p.m., 31919 Rocky Village Dr., Evergreen

Flatirons Community Church, west campus, 7 p.m., 24887 Genesee Trail Road, Golden

The Jeffco school board announced it would cancel its Thursday evening meeting so board members and district employees could attend a vigil. The board will hold a short virtual meeting Friday at 1 p.m. to review time-sensitive contracts and administrative approvals, according to a letter sent to Jeffco families.

One of two shooting victims identified

One victim of the Evergreen High School shooting has been identified as Matthew Silverstone, 18, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

Silverstone’s name and photo, along with a statement from his family, were posted on X by the sheriff’s office Thursday afternoon.

Silverstone’s family said: “The family appreciates the community’s concern and support, but as we remain focused on our loved one’s recovery, we respectfully request privacy as we continue to heal and navigate the road ahead”

Matthew Silverstone, 18, has been identified as one of the Evergreen High shooting victims.

A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said the family of the second victim has declined to release the student’s name or photo or issue a statement.

Wednesday’s shooting left many Colorado students and community members on edge. Law enforcement officials in at least two districts — Boulder Valley and Douglas County — were alerted to potential threats on Thursday morning. In both cases, no credible threats were found.

In Boulder Valley, someone called police about a man they suspected of having a gun near Fairview High School. That school and Southern Hills Middle School were placed on lockdown and four other schools were placed on “secure” status.

The Boulder Police Department said on X, “The individual seen by the person who called to report the possible threat was confirmed to be wearing a weighted vest and holding his cell phone after going for a run.”

“Detectives interviewed him and he understood that this and the shooting in Jefferson County yesterday likely led to the report today.”

Fairview High School students were dismissed midday and after school sports and activities were cancelled, according to a district spokesperson. Southern Hills Middle resumed classes after the lockdown and students were dismissed at the regular time.

The potential threat in Douglas County was related to numerous tips to Colorado’s Safe2Tell tipline and a “concerning photo,” according to a post on X by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. It’s not clear what was pictured in the photo, but the sheriff’s office said it didn’t appear to be taken locally.

“Additionally, a Douglas County school was mistakenly identified as the impacted school,” the sheriff’s office X post said.

Shooting suspect may have been ‘radicalized’

The 16-year-old student who shot two students at Evergreen High School on Wednesday may have been radicalized by an extremist network, a spokesperson for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday morning.

The shooter, who was identified by the sheriff’s office as Desmond Holly, rode the bus to school on Wednesday and opened fire around 12:30 p.m., reloading his revolver many times.

Jacki Kelley, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, said, “He would fire and reload, fire and reload, fire and reload. This went on and on.”

She said some students fled to the nearby rec center and library and others into neighborhoods. One of the victims was shot on a street behind the school.

Many students and staff hid in locked classrooms.

“Lots of kids and teachers locked down in those rooms, did what they were supposed to do, and we know that it saved lives,” she said. “They’re heroes.”

Kelley said investigators don’t know what the shooter’s motive was and didn’t have additional information about the network that radicalized the teen. Investigators have search warrants for his home, locker, and phone and have been in contact with the shooter’s family, who are cooperating with law enforcement, she said.

Kelley said the full-time school resource officer normally assigned to Evergreen High is currently on medical leave and other resource officers have been rotating to the school on a part-time basis. One of those officers was on duty at the high school until about 10:45 a.m. on Wednesday, but then was called to deal with a nearby accident, she said. Kelley called it “horrible timing,” but said that officer did nothing wrong and is free to leave the school to attend to other duties.

The families of the two victims are expected to release photos of their children on Thursday along with statements about the shooting, Kelley said. The sheriff’s office released a photo of the shooter from his driver’s license on X Thursday morning.

Evergreen shooting victims in critical condition

One of the two students shot at Evergreen High School on Wednesday remains in critical condition at CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood and the other is in critical condition at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, according to spokespersons from each hospital.

The shooter, a male student, died Wednesday evening of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

The shooting, which took place around noon Wednesday, terrified the mountain community of Evergreen, located 29 miles southwest of Denver, and the state at large. Colorado has experienced several high-profile mass shootings in recent years, including at a Boulder grocery store, a Colorado Springs night club, and a Highlands Ranch charter school.

The shooter’s identity and motive are still unclear, as is the identity of the two shooting victims.

It’s also unclear why Evergreen High School’s school resource officer was not on campus during the shooting. Jeffco Public Schools officials said Wednesday the district has an officer assigned to the high school, but the sheriff’s office said the officer was not at the school at the time of the shooting.

On Thursday, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office set up a resource and information center at Bergen Meadows Elementary School and asked that witnesses who have not yet spoken to investigators come to the center to do so. The center, which is at a Jeffco school that closed permanently in 2024, will also have mental health professionals, victims advocates, victims compensation representatives, and school personnel on hand.

Evergreen High School students and staff can get information about retrieving personal items and vehicles from the school at the center. The center is at 1928 S Hiwan Dr. in Evergreen and will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday.

Evergreen High School, which has about 900 students, will be closed Thursday and Friday. In addition, nine other Jeffco schools in or near the town of Evergreen and the community of Conifer are closed on Thursday. They include Evergreen Middle, Conifer High, West Jefferson Middle, and Bergen, Wilmot, Parmalee, Elk Creek, Marshdale and West Jefferson Elementaries.

This story will be updated throughout the day.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Students shot at Evergreen High School in Jefferson County: What we know so far

2025-09-11T02:12:24+00:00

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We are continuing to cover this developing situation. Read the latest news on the school shooting at Evergreen High School in Jefferson County, Colorado, at this link.

A Jefferson County community is reeling after a shooting at Evergreen High School Wednesday left two students seriously injured and the suspected shooter, also a student, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Evergreen shooter radicalized by 'extremist network,' investigators say

“No child should ever face this kind of danger,” Jeffco Public Schools Superintendent Tracy Dorland said Wednesday evening. “And no community should be asked to absorb this kind of pain. As Jeffco superintendent, I am angry, and I am heartbroken.”

The first 911 call came from Evergreen High at 12:24 p.m., Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Jacki Kelley said. Law enforcement was on site within two minutes and made contact with the suspected shooter, a teen boy, within five minutes, she said.

All three students were transported to CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood. Late Wednesday evening, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said on X that the suspected shooter had died of his injuries.

Dr. Brian Blackwood, the head of trauma at St. Anthony hospital, had said earlier on Wednesday that one student had non-life threatening injuries and was in stable condition and two others were in critical condition.

Kelley said there was no school resource officer at the school. A school district spokesperson said Evergreen High does have an SRO.

Kelley described multiple crime scenes inside and outside the school building, and said it will take time to piece together what happened.

A large number of students saw or heard the shooting, and some students said they were shot at, she said. Law enforcement will be interviewing witnesses for some time.

“This is the scariest thing you could ever think that could happen,” Kelley said. “I know we always say ‘not again,’ and here we are.”

About 900 students attend Evergreen High, located 29 miles southwest of Denver. A reunification center to connect Evergreen High students with their parents was set up about 6 miles away at Bergen Meadow Elementary School.

The school district canceled all after-school activities Wednesday.

“In Jeffco, we will continue to advocate for every single tool available to keep our students safe,” Dorland said. “The nation is tired of statements filled with platitudes of thoughts and prayers. What we need is courage. What we need is the collective will of our entire community.

“Violence involving our young people should never be normalized and we must face the difficult truth that too often it is,” she said.

Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement that he was closely monitoring the situation.

“Students should be able to attend school safely and without fear across our state and nation,” Polis said. “We are all praying for the victims and the entire community.”

Colorado Senate Assistant Majority Leader Lisa Cutter, a Jefferson County Democrat, said in a statement that she’s heartbroken and angered.

“Schools need to be safe places, and this tragedy is yet another reminder that we must do better to protect our kids,” she said.

Jeffco Public Schools is also home to Columbine High School. The 1999 shooting there was one of the deadliest school attacks in U.S. history, though it has since been eclipsed by Uvalde, Sandy Hook, and Parkland. The district has taken on a national leadership role in school safety initiatives. Dorland said Wednesday’s shooting at Evergreen High “reopens old wounds.”

Colorado does not have more mass shootings than other states, but it has seen a large share of high-profile events, including the Aurora theater shooting and the Club Q massacre.

Colorado lawmakers adopted the Claire Davis Act in 2015, named after a student who was murdered at Arapahoe High School in Littleton. The law gives school officials a responsibility to respond to credible threats and exposes them to legal liability for failure to act.

In 2023, lawmakers expanded the state’s “red flag” law to include educators among those people who could ask a judge to temporarily remove someone’s guns because they presented a danger to themselves or others. However, the law has not resulted in a large increase in what are known as extreme risk protection orders.

That same year, the state created the Office of School Safety to consolidate grants and training and share information about best practices.

A study by the Colorado School of Health found that one in four Colorado teens have easy access to firearms, and of those, half said they could get a gun within 10 minutes.

This story has been updated throughout with additional information.

Chalkbeat National Editor Erica Meltzer and Higher Education Reporter Jason Gonzales contributed to this report.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Penny Schwinn out as nominee for Education Department’s No. 2 job after conservative pushback

2025-07-31T22:31:53+00:00

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Former Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn has withdrawn her nomination to serve in the No. 2 spot in the Trump Education Department after cultural conservatives mounted a campaign opposing her.

The U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday that Schwinn would serve instead as a senior adviser and chief strategist, roles that do not require Senate confirmation.

Schwinn enjoyed a good reputation among national conservative education advocates for her work in Tennessee to boost reading proficiency and target pandemic relief dollars toward academic recovery. Schwinn was the second name President Donald Trump announced to lead his Education Department, after Secretary Linda McMahon, even before he was sworn into office.

Despite support from Republicans like Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, increasingly influential conservative commentators in the state almost immediately came out in opposition to Schwinn. They pointed to her support for social and emotional learning and her support for reading curriculum they found objectionable. The right-wing advocacy group Tennessee Stands called Schwinn an “incredibly terrible” pick.

Their persistent opposition raised questions about Schwinn’s prospects for confirmation. Neither Sen. Marsha Blackburn nor Sen. Bill Hagerty, both Republicans from Tennessee, replied to multiple requests for comment through their offices regarding Schwinn’s nomination. But Blackburn in particular may be sensitive to concerns from the right flank of the party as she eyes a potentially crowded Tennessee gubernatorial primary in 2026.

In a press release, Schwinn said she had made the decision to withdraw “after thoughtful consideration about how I can best contribute at this moment in a way that supports progress for students and education.”

“I’m grateful to President Trump and Secretary McMahon, and remain committed to protecting kids, raising achievement, and expanding opportunity – my lifelong mission and north star,” Schwinn said.

Jim Blew, co-founder of the Defense of Freedom Institute, a conservative think tank, said he believes Schwinn could have been confirmed — but it might have been an ugly battle. That senators appear to have sided with conservative influencers over their own president raises serious concerns, he said.

“There was a time when senators could explain that they were going to disregard these fringe voices and say they were going to vote with the president,” said Blew, who served in the Education Department in the first Trump administration. “These senators allowed these influencers to shape their opinions in ways that are not good for the country and that are not good for students and that are not good for the administration.”

Asked why Schwinn withdrew and whether she had the votes to be confirmed in the Senate, Education Department spokesperson Madi Biedermann replied with a copy of the press release.

“I am grateful to Dr. Schwinn for her commitment to serving students, families, and educators across the nation,” McMahon said in a statement. “Penny is a brilliant education mind, and I look forward to continue working with her as my Chief Strategist to Make Education Great Again.”

Advocates hoped Schwinn’s education experience would complement McMahon’s background in business and administration. Her perspective as a former state schools chief would have been particularly valuable, they said, as Trump sought to “return education to the states.”

Schwinn’s critics feared she would undermine Trump’s agenda from inside the department. Less ideological critics also raised questions about Schwinn’s business dealings. Florida business filings indicated that she made plans to start an education consulting business with former Palm Beach County superintendent Donald Fennoy after she was nominated. The 74 reported that Schwinn and Fennoy filed paperwork to dissolve the company shortly before her confirmation hearing.

At her confirmation hearing in June, Schwinn pledged her alignment with Trump’s education agenda. The Senate education committee advanced her nomination in a party line vote later that month, but she never came up for a vote in the full Senate, where lawmakers have been consumed with divisive budget battles.

Many key leadership roles in the Education Department remain vacant as nominees await Senate confirmation even as McMahon tries to move forward with the legally complex task of reducing the department’s footprint.

“It’s lopsided to ask this secretary to do so much work and then not give her the team she needs,” Blew said.

Michael Petrilli, president of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute, said Schwinn’s withdrawal reflects poorly on the Republican Party.

“This is a big loss for the country and for the Department of Education,” he said. “Shame on the Republicans for refusing to show any spine.”

This story has been updated to include additional context and reaction.

Chalkbeat Tennessee Bureau Chief Melissa Brown contributed reporting.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Billions in federal education funding unfrozen by Trump administration

2025-07-25T22:32:23+00:00

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The Trump administration will release billions in frozen education funds after widespread outcry, including from Republican members of Congress, about the devastating impacts.

U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican, announced Friday on the social media platform X that the funds would be released. Education Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications Madi Biedermann confirmed the news.

The White House Office for Management and Budget has completed its review, Biedermann said in an email, and told the Education Department to release the money.

“The agency will begin dispersing funds to states next week,” she said.

The Trump administration notified states on June 30 that they would be holding back roughly $6.8 billion in education funds that were due to arrive July 1. That money includes funding for services related to English learners, migrant students, teacher training, and enrichment and afterschool programs, and adult education.

An OMB spokesperson said the money was under review for alignment with Trump administration priorities, and that some money had gone to support a left-wing agenda, a charge that districts and states denied.

Republican members of Congress signed onto a public letter calling for the money to be released. Democratic attorneys general and governors sued demanding that the money be restored.

On July 18, the administration announced that $1.3 billion in after-school funds would be released, but said nothing about the rest of the funds.

The School Superintendents Association had lobbied extensively for the return of the money. In a survey of 628 members released earlier this week, nearly three-quarters said they would have to cut academic programming and half said they expected to lay off teachers and other employees if funding was not restored soon. A similar share said they had to make critical decisions by Aug. 15 or even sooner.

In a statement, David Schuler, the executive director of the association, said he was “pleased” that the money would be released.

The news that the funds would be released comes after reporting earlier this week from multiple outlets that the White House Office of Management and Budget might seek to permanently claw back the money.

Trump’s 2026 budget proposal also calls for these funding streams to be eliminated and replaced by a single, much smaller block grant.

In a statement, Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova thanked Education Secretary Linda McMahon for helping secure the release of funds, as well as crediting advocacy by teachers, community groups, and local and state leaders.

“Federal dollars provide critical support for every child in Colorado — no matter where they live — to learn, grow, and thrive,“ she said.

National Parents Union President Keri Rodrigues attributed the restoration of funds to advocacy from parents, educators, and governors of both parties.

She said Congress failed to step up to demand that money allocated by lawmakers back in March be distributed as required by law.

“The fact that critical education funding could be arbitrarily frozen for weeks without swift intervention is an unacceptable failure,” Rodrigues said in a statement. “School districts in every corner of the country were thrown into turmoil at a time when they had intended to prepare for the new school year. Hiring plans were put on hold. Services for the most vulnerable students were threatened.”

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with additional reaction.

A translation of this story was provided by AMERICANO newspaper in partnership with Montclair State University’s Center for Cooperative Media and is supported financially by the NJ Civic Information Consortium.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Supreme Court gives green light to Education Department layoffs

2025-07-15T00:05:15+00:00

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Massive layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education can move forward, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, while a lawsuit challenging those layoffs plays out in the lower courts.

The 6-3 decision Monday overturns a U.S. District Court judge’s order that Education Department employees be brought back to work. A coalition of states, school districts, teachers unions, and education advocacy groups had argued that the layoffs were so extensive they prevented the Education Department from doing its job under the law.

The majority did not issue an opinion explaining their decision. Allowing the layoffs to move forward for now is consistent with other recent Supreme Court decisions allowing the Trump administration to remove federal employees.

The decision is a major blow to education leaders and advocates fighting to preserve a fully functioning federal department. In addition to allowing layoffs to proceed, the decision means the Education Department can resume efforts to move certain functions to different departments.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon previously described the layoffs as a first step toward President Donald Trump’s goal of eliminating the Department of Education, although only Congress can officially shut down the department.

“Today, the Supreme Court again confirmed the obvious: the President of the United States, as the head of the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organization, and day-to-day operations of federal agencies,” McMahon said in a press release. “While today’s ruling is a significant win for students and families, it is a shame that the highest court in the land had to step in to allow President Trump to advance the reforms Americans elected him to deliver using the authorities granted to him by the U.S. Constitution.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the decision “indefensible” in a dissent joined by her two liberal colleagues, Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

“When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it,” Sotomayor wrote.

McMahon laid off roughly 1,300 department employees in March, a week after she was confirmed by the Senate. Coupled with early retirements and buyouts, the move halved the size of the department. A few days later, Trump signed an executive order directing McMahon to do everything in her legal authority to shut down the department.

The Office for Civil Rights, Federal Student Aid, and the Institute of Education Sciences were particularly hard hit. Former department employees have expressed alarm at how many civil rights cases are being dismissed without investigation, while advocates say many cases appear stalled. Colleges, meanwhile, have reported problems with long call wait times and broader disruptions to financial aid, and the future of federal data collection is unclear.

Despite the previous court order, laid-off employees had remained on administrative leave. In a series of court filings, Education Department leaders said they were working through logistics about parking and desk space.

A separate injunction in a different lawsuit ordered the restoration of jobs in the civil rights division. That order remains in place for now, but the administration is expected to appeal based on today’s ruling.

McMahon said Monday the Education Department “will now deliver on its mandate to restore excellence in American education.” She said the department continues to fulfill its obligations under the law while reducing bureaucracy.

Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents Education Department employees, called the ruling a “disservice to the American people.” She said McMahon and the Trump administration have a choice in what happens next.

“The agency doesn’t have to move forward with this callous act of eliminating services and terminating dedicated workers,” she said in a statement. “We call on the agency to restore our positions and let us return to work, stand up for students, and ensure every child has the support they need to succeed and build a strong future.”

National Parents Union President Keri Rodrigues said the Education Department does important work, including protecting the rights of students with disabilities and making sure federal funds are properly spent. The Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to sidestep Congress as it moves toward getting rid of the department, she said in a statement.

“This is not just a policy disagreement,” she said. “It is a constitutional crisis.”

Conservatives had mixed reactions to the decision and what it means next for American schools.

“Challenge: The 1.4K Department of Education bureaucrats who just got canned should get a job actually teaching in a school,” Daniel Buck, director of the Conservative Education Reform Network, posted on the social media site X.

American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Robert Pondiscio seemed to downplay the impact.

“Well, good,” he wrote on X. “But there is no ‘get education back to the states.’ The states have always been in control of it.”

This story has been updated with additional reaction.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Head Start preschools to bar undocumented children under new Trump rule

2025-07-11T00:28:28+00:00

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Undocumented children will no longer qualify for federally funded preschool through the Head Start program under a major policy shift the Trump administration announced Thursday.

In a news release, the Department of Health and Human Services said it was rescinding a nearly 30-year-old interpretation of federal law issued under President Bill Clinton that allowed undocumented immigrants to access certain programs because they were not considered “federal public benefits.”

As President Donald Trump pursues his anti-immigrant agenda, this change may be the most direct and far-reaching effort to target children after his attempts to end birthright citizenship. His administration has also ramped up immigration enforcement and deportations, withheld funding for English learners, and threatened to punish states that offer in-state tuition to undocumented college students.

Administration officials have said they hope many immigrants will “self-deport” if the United States makes life here more uncomfortable. Health and Human Services leaders cast the change as a way to protect benefits for Americans.

“For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans’ tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a press release. “Today’s action changes that — it restores integrity to federal social programs, enforces the rule of law, and protects vital resources for the American people.”

Early childhood education advocates, meanwhile, condemned the change as violating both the spirit and the letter of the 1965 law that authorized Head Start. They also warned the change could scare away eligible families.

“This decision undermines the fundamental commitment that the country has made to children,” Yasmina Vinci, the executive director of the National Head Start Association, a nonprofit that represents Head Start staff and families, said in a written statement. “Head Start programs strive to make every child feel welcome, safe, and supported, and reject the characterization of any child as ‘illegal.’”

The change is also at odds with how the Supreme Court has treated K-12 education. In the landmark Plyler v. Doe decision from 1982, the justices ruled that children have a right to a free public education regardless of immigration status. However, the courts have upheld laws restricting immigrants’ access to welfare benefits.

Head Start provided preschool to over 544,000 children from low-income families, according to the latest federal data from the 2022-23 school year, while Early Head Start served more than 186,000 infants, toddlers, and expectant parents.

The program, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, has reached 40 million children but has recently faced a number of challenges, from federal staff layoffs to threats of eliminating the program.

Head Start will now be considered a public benefit, the Trump administration said, because it offers services that are similar to welfare. Officials said the change aligns with Trump’s executive orders, including a February order titled “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders.”

“While Head Start provides for school readiness, it also provides low-income children and their families with ‘health, educational, nutritional, and social and other services, that are determined based on family needs assessment,’” federal officials wrote in a notice announcing the change. “Further, it may serve as child care for parents of young children.”

Classifying Head Start as welfare, rather than education, could be a Trump administration strategy to avoid having to address whether the protections extended to undocumented children in Plyler apply here, said Nate Ela, an assistant professor of law at Temple University, in an email.

Reflecting Trump’s America First agenda, Health and Human Services officials said in their press release that Head Start will be “reserved for American citizens from now on.”

But a spokesperson for the Administration for Children and Families clarified that U.S. citizen children and “qualified” immigrant children would be eligible for Head Start. Under federal law, that includes legal permanent residents, children who’ve been granted asylum, refugees, and children with humanitarian parole.

In its statement, the National Head Start Association said providers were alarmed that programs would have to check the citizenship or immigration status of children before they could enroll. The law that governs Head Start has never required documentation of immigration status as a condition to enroll, the organization said, and “attempts to impose such a requirement threaten to create fear and confusion among all families.”

It is unclear exactly how the new rules will be enforced. Guidance based on the new legal interpretation is forthcoming, the Administration for Children and Families spokesperson said.

“Are they going to monitor us when they come out for their federal review?” asked Lauri Morrison-Frichtl, the executive director of the Illinois Head Start Association. “Will there be something attached to our grant that we have to certify?”

The latest version of the law governing who is eligible for Head Start says nothing about immigration status, but it does say that the program can use federal funds to train staff, counsel children, and provide other services that are “necessary to address the challenges of children from immigrant, refugee, and asylee families, homeless children, children in foster care, limited English proficient children, children of migrant or seasonal farmworker families, [and] children from families in crisis.”

The law says that children who are experiencing homelessness or whose families have incomes below the federal poverty line qualify. The Migrant Seasonal Head Start program also guarantees child care for the children of farm workers and seasonal workers.

This is not the first attempt to roll back educational rights for immigrant children and families. A number of Republican state legislators have backed bills that would limit enrollment for immigrant children or track their immigration status in ways that could intimidate families. So far, none has been successful. Meanwhile, the author of a brief from the conservative Heritage Foundation that called on states to charge undocumented children tuition to attend public school now works in the Education Department.

Restricting Head Start access could have ripple effects

Federal officials estimated that the Head Start change would free up $374 million a year for U.S. citizens and qualified immigrants to access Head Start, which represents about 3% of the program’s annual budget in recent years.

But keeping children out of Head Start could lead to more costs down the road for public schools, advocates warned. Kindergartners who don’t go to preschool may need more help with basics like learning their ABCs, colors, and how to work with classmates. They also may have missed out on health screenings.

“We’re really shortchanging our community by cutting them off from strong early childhood programs that are going to put them on the right path to be successful in K-12 schools where they have a guaranteed right to attend,” said Xilonin Cruz-Gonzalez, co-founder of the National Newcomer Network and deputy director of Californians Together, groups that advocate for immigrant rights in education.

There are typically many more children in poverty who qualify for Head Start than the program has funding to serve. A 2024 Government Accountability Office report found, for example, that for every 100 young children in poverty, there were typically 28 Head Start seats, with much larger gaps in some states.

Keeping out immigrant children wouldn’t necessarily close those gaps. The main factor limiting Head Start seats is a lack of trained teachers, said Diane Schilder, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a public policy think tank.

“A lot of programs are having challenges hiring teachers in preschool and infant-toddler classrooms who meet the requirements because the wages are not adequate,” Schilder said.

Low-income families are less likely to have documents proving their children are citizens, Schilder said, and anti-immigrant sentiment can scare away even eligible families from applying. Parents are less likely to work when they don’t have access to child care. The effects of these changes would be felt most strongly in urban areas and in communities with a large agricultural workforce.

Head Start providers worry that verifying children’s immigration status will create more administrative work and could make it harder for all families to enroll. Federal officials estimated the cost of assembling documents and reviewing paperwork would be an additional $21 million a year.

And there would be more transition costs to change Head Start protocols, the federal notice stated.

Federal officials said the change would take effect as soon as it is published in the Federal Register. It has not been published, but has been submitted, the Trump administration said. The public will have 30 days to submit comments.

For now, Heather Frenz, the executive director of the Colorado Head Start Association, said her organization is telling Head Start providers to wait for further instructions before un-enrolling any children.

Reconsidering the eligibility or enrollment of children who are already attending Head Start would be expensive and time-consuming, Frenz said. The process involves everything from measuring children’s height and weight to drawing up individual plans.

And if undocumented children miss out on preschool and other services Head Start provides, Frenz said it could “put a lot of strain” on other public entities when those children get older.

“They may not speak English or have never seen a dentist,” Frenz said. “That’s going to be a heavy load on the public school education system.”

Chalkbeat New York reporter Michael Elsen-Rooney, Chalkbeat Philadelphia bureau chief Carly Sitrin, Chalkbeat Chicago bureau chief Becky Vevea, and Colorado bureau chief Melanie Asmar contributed reporting.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Norah Rami is a Dow Jones education reporting intern on Chalkbeat’s national desk. Reach Norah atnrami@chalkbeat.org.

Trump signs orders to promote stricter school discipline, end analysis of racial disparities

2025-04-24T00:10:54+00:00

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President Donald Trump signed executive orders Wednesday that aim to promote stricter school discipline and discourage schools from considering whether discipline policies have a greater impact on students of color.

The executive orders target civil rights guidance from the Obama administration that Trump revoked during his first administration and Biden never formally restored. Some school leaders, teachers, and conservative education advocates blamed the Obama-era guidance for deteriorating safety conditions in schools, alleging that administrators let bad behavior slide rather than risk additional scrutiny.

The most recent federal data, from the 2021-22 school year, shows students report fewer assaults and less harassment and bullying than they did a decade ago. Still, a rise in school shootings along with viral videos of vicious assaults have fueled fears about school safety. Two-thirds of schools reported at least one violent incident on campus in the 2021-22 school year.

Under former President Barack Obama, the Education Department warned schools that policies that led to students of certain racial groups being suspended or expelled at much higher rates could be discriminatory. In particular, Black students tend to be suspended at higher rates than other students.

This approach to civil rights enforcement is an example of disparate impact analysis, which considers whether ostensibly race-neutral policies affect certain racial or ethnic groups differently.

The executive orders ban the use of disparate impact analysis in civil rights enforcement and threaten schools with consequences if they use “racial discrimination and preferencing” in school discipline.

They were two of seven education-related executive orders that Trump signed Wednesday afternoon. Other orders encourage schools to train students to use artificial intelligence, pledge to expand apprenticeships, promote historically Black colleges and universities, and target the university accreditation process.

During the ceremony, Trump said the school discipline executive order was especially important to Education Secretary Linda McMahon and handed her the signed copy to hold.

“Under the Biden-Harris Administration, schools were forced to consider equity and inclusion when imposing discipline,” McMahon said in a statement. “Their policies placed racial equity quotas over student safety — encouraging schools to turn a blind eye to poor or violent behavior in the name of inclusion.”

“Disciplinary decisions,” she wrote, “should be based solely on students’ behavior and actions.”

The school discipline order requires federal officials to issue new guidance to state education agencies and school districts. It also calls for federal officials to author a report analyzing “DEI-based school discipline and its consequences” with strategies for how the federal government can ensure its dollars do not support “racially preferential policies” such as model school discipline policies.

The report should include information about the status of “discriminatory-equity-ideology-based school discipline and behavior modification techniques in American public education,” the order says, as well as information about nonprofits promoting such approaches with support from federal grants.

The order does not call out particular practices, such as restorative justice, by name, and it is not clear what discipline practices federal officials might consider discriminatory.

Trump’s first education secretary, Betsy DeVos, rescinded the Obama-era guidance after much public debate and attempts to link less harsh school discipline to school shootings.

That guidance led students to be “disciplined differently depending on their race, and some students who should have been suspended or expelled for dangerous behavior remained in the classroom,” the Trump administration said in a fact sheet.

President Joe Biden promised to reinstate the Obama-era school discipline guidance on the campaign trail, but that never came to fruition. In 2022, his education secretary, Miguel Cardona, did call for reduced suspensions and expulsions for students with disabilities — and there is some overlap as Black children with disabilities are more likely to face harsher discipline at school — but his focus was less on race.

Still, the Trump administration said the Biden administration used Title VI, a civil rights law that prohibits racial discrimination in schools and other federally funded activities, “to promote a DEI approach to school discipline, which makes schools less safe.”

Trump was joined at the signing ceremony by Annette Albright, a North Carolina educator who suffered a concussion and other injuries in 2016 after she was assaulted by students who had recently returned to her school from an alternative school.

In the aftermath of the assault, Albright campaigned for stricter penalties and alternative educational settings for students with a record of behavioral problems. She said administrators sometimes cover up violent incidents to avoid making tough decisions or drawing scrutiny.

“This is very important and critical legislation that we have to keep our educators safe,” she said. “We have to keep our students safe, and public schools have to be safe environments.”

School discipline wasn’t a big issue for Trump on the campaign trail, though some Republican state lawmakers have pushed for stricter school discipline following the pandemic, sometimes with Democratic lawmakers’ support.

Many states and schools saw a dramatic drop in suspensions and expulsions when lots of students learned remotely or maintained physical distance from one another during the pandemic. But as students returned to in-person learning, often lacking social skills or with new trauma, some places saw an increase in students acting out.

The executive order banning disparate impact considerations would require U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to repeal or amend all civil rights regulations that take into account disparate impact. Where the law requires the consideration of disparate impact, agency heads should deprioritize enforcement.

A White House fact sheet says that looking at different impacts on different racial groups — rather than discriminatory intent — “violates the Constitution’s guarantee of equal treatment for all by requiring race-oriented policies and practices to rebalance outcomes along racial lines.”

This has been a major point of disagreement between progressives and conservatives when it comes to civil rights enforcement.

These orders come as the Trump administration is also pressuring schools to abandon policies related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The administration has demanded that states sign new certifications that they are complying with an interpretation of civil rights law that sees initiatives, such as trying to hire more teachers of color or offering mentorship to students of color as potentially discriminatory. Those that don’t sign risk their federal funding, administration officials have said.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

States must promise their schools don’t use DEI or lose federal money, Trump administration says

2025-04-03T23:02:24+00:00

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The U.S. Department of Education is giving state education agencies 10 days to certify that their schools do not engage in any practices that the administration believes illegally promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Those that do not sign a certification that they are in compliance with the administration’s controversial interpretations of civil rights law will not receive any federal funding, officials said. Federal funding represents about 10% of all K-12 funding nationwide but makes up a larger share of local budgets in high-poverty districts.

The Trump administration has pledged to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and return education oversight to the states. At the same time, the Education Department has made aggressive and unusual use of its civil rights authority to extract concessions from elite universities and pressure states to change their policies.

Some experts questioned the basis for the demand and said the administration could not legally withhold money from states that don’t sign. The threat comes as many school districts are preparing their budgets for the next school year amid significant economic uncertainty.

“Federal financial assistance is a privilege, not a right,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement. “When state education commissioners accept federal funds, they agree to abide by federal antidiscrimination requirements.

“Unfortunately, we have seen too many schools flout or outright violate these obligations, including by using DEI programs to discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another based on identity characteristics in clear violation of Title VI.”

Title VI is a provision of federal civil rights law that bars discrimination on the basis of race or shared ancestry. States regularly certify that they are in compliance with Title VI in order to receive federal funds.

Thursday’s demand goes further by requiring states to say they also are in compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. The case banned the use of race in college admissions decisions. The Trump administration interprets the ruling to mean many common diversity practices are illegal.

Seth Galanter, an attorney who served as principal deputy assistant secretary in the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights in the Biden administration, called the new certification “a baffling document that appears only to be trying to bully states and school districts.”

In signing, state education officials would be promising that all of their school districts are in compliance and acknowledging that they could be liable for fraud under the False Claims Act if they request federal funds and are later found to be in violation of the law.

The False Claims Act, a federal law, also allows private parties to sue for damages, Galanter said, and win higher penalties than in civil rights cases. By invoking the False Claims Act, Galanter said the administration appears to be threatening states and school districts with more serious financial risks if they want to defend their diversity policies.

Trump gave states 10 days to sign an anti-DEI policy. NY Education Department is refusing.

But states shouldn’t need to sign the new certification, Galanter said, when they have already certified compliance with civil rights law. The new certification also doesn’t appear to have followed federal laws related to creating new paperwork, he said, meaning states can’t be penalized for refusing to sign.

Nor is it reasonable to give state education agencies 10 days to make legally binding promises about the practices of the nation’s thousands of school districts, he said.

“That is not serious governance,” Galanter said. “It’s stagecraft.”

Demand based on new interpretation of Supreme Court case

Education Department officials said in a February Dear Colleague letter that the Students for Fair Admissions decision meant any consideration of race or of proxies for race in educational settings would violate civil rights law.

The Trump administration has said the ruling extends to considering race as a factor in school admissions, hiring or promoting staff, awarding students scholarships or prizes, providing students with administrative support, and deciding how students should be sanctioned or disciplined.

For example, dropping the use of test scores as an admissions criterion for a selective program with the hopes of increasing racial diversity, or holding a separate graduation ceremony to recognize students of a particular ethnic group, could violate the law.

The first investigation opened by the administration under this new interpretation began last month. It targeted colleges and universities that partnered with an organization that provided mentorship for graduate students of color.

Many legal experts believe the administration’s interpretation goes much further than the Supreme Court did and is not supported by the law.

The Dear Colleague letter generated significant confusion among school and district leaders and is being challenged in court. Conservative groups have adopted its argument to challenge initiatives that aim to address long-standing disparities, such as Chicago’s recently unveiled Black student success plan.

Eric Duncan, director of P-12 policy at EdTrust, an advocacy group, said the certification demand appears to be an effort to put states on notice that they could be investigated, similar to the way the administration has targeted Maine over transgender athletes.

States do have an obligation to ensure their programs don’t discriminate based on race, he said, but they also have an obligation to work to fix racial inequities. Federal law hasn’t changed, he said, and states could choose to defend their diversity programs based on their own understanding of the law.

“It’s really in states’ hands right now,” he said.

‘Diversity is a superpower’ says NYC chancellor

Several state education agencies told Chalkbeat they are reviewing the letter and consulting with their attorneys.

“Diversity is a superpower here in New York City, we are always going to honor that,” New York City Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said in response to questions at an unrelated event Thursday. “We are always going to make sure that we are serving every child and family in New York City.”

At a policy committee meeting, Philadelphia Board of Education member Joan Stern, reflecting on the likelihood that any funding threats will be challenged in court, said, “Anything that appears to be final is usually not final.”

‘We’re gonna sue’: Chicago mayor says Trump threat to cut funding over DEI is ‘unconstitutional’

Every presidential administration attempts to use its influence to shape local policy, Galanter said. The Trump administration is using that influence differently, though. Trump’s Office for Civil Rights has publicly opened investigations based on media reports rather than formal complaints, and has reached conclusions relatively quickly.

Historically, even when the federal Education Department found school districts to be in violation of civil rights law, the federal government has worked with them on resolution agreements rather than actually withhold funding.

But any school district or state education agency considering its options now will have to look at the example of Columbia University, where the Trump administration abruptly canceled $400 million in grants and contracts after finding that pro-Palestinian protests had created a hostile environment for Jewish students.

The Education Department presented the university with a list of demands that included ceding control of one academic department, and the university complied.

“There’s lots of ways to influence behavior that are perfectly legitimate, and they may put schools on the spot, but the schools still have real choices,” Galanter said. “What this administration is doing is trying to rule by edict. They say, ‘do it our way, or something bad may happen.’ And they tried to make it so that the threat seems credible.”

This story has been updated throughout with reaction and additional background information.

Carly Sitrin, Amy Zimmer, and Alex Zimmerman contributed reporting.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Schools must share child gender identity info with parents, Trump Education Department says

2025-03-29T18:54:26+00:00

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Schools cannot withhold documents that discuss a child’s gender identity from parents, the U.S. Department of Education said in a Dear Colleague letter to educators.

The Friday letter said many schools and states have misinterpreted federal student privacy laws in ways that prevent parents from knowing when their child is going by a different name or pronouns at school.

Advocates for LGBTQ youth say that most schools try to involve parents but not all parents are safe or supportive.

The letter said many school districts have formal or informal policies of treating “gender plans” — plans that support students who want to socially transition at school — as something other than educational records so that they do not have to share them with parents.

That practice violates the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which lays out students’ privacy rights in school and also gives parents access to students’ educational records, according to the letter from Frank Miller Jr., acting director for the Student Privacy Policy Office in the Education Department. All information that a school maintains about a student, with a few narrow exceptions, should be considered an educational record and shared with parents, Miller Jr. wrote.

The letter also addresses how schools should handle cases in which one student makes a serious threat against another.

The line between parental rights and students rights has been a fraught one in the debate over transgender rights at school. The letter comes as the U.S. Department of Education has opened investigations into California and Maine for alleged FERPA violations related to policies that call for schools to respect students’ chosen names and pronouns. President Donald Trump has also used executive orders to attack transgender rights on numerous fronts.

Dear Colleague letters are not equivalent to federal law or regulations, but do represent a presidential administration’s interpretation of the law.

In a cover letter, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said some schools, by using students’ preferred names and pronouns and generally respecting their new gender identity, have set children and teenagers on a path toward medical transitions that they later regret.

“The practice of encouraging children down a path with irreversible repercussions — and hiding it from parents — must end,” McMahon wrote. “Attempts by school officials to separate children from their parents, convince children to feel unsafe at home, or burden children with the weight of keeping secrets from their loved ones is a direct affront to the family unit. When such conduct violates the law the Department will take swift action.”

Written records related to a student’s gender identity, as well as school counseling records, would be considered educational records, said LeRoy Rooker, who oversaw FERPA administration at the U.S. Department of Education for 21 years and is now a senior fellow at the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. That means parents have the right to see those records at the K-12 level until a student turns 18.

That’s not a new interpretation of the law, Rooker said, though the issue is more prominent now than in the past. FERPA doesn’t require schools to notify parents about changes in a student’s gender identity or reveal information that isn’t part of a written record, but schools can’t withhold records that parents request.

California law prohibits school districts from requiring parental notification. Maine’s policies, which are guidelines and not requirements, state that schools should respect students’ gender identity, even if parents don’t agree. The guidelines don’t directly address parental notification or withholding information.

Sarah McDaniel, president of the Portland, Maine, chapter of PFLAG, an advocacy group for parents and allies of LGBTQ people, said it’s not true that schools are encouraging children to become transgender behind their parents’ backs.

Any policy on parental notification has to prioritize students’ safety, she said.

“Parents who are unsupportive can be extremely unsupportive, to the point that they kick their kid out of the house,” said McDaniel, who is the mother of a trans son who came out in high school. “A high schooler who is scared to tell their parents what their pronoun is, they know their parental situation and they should not be forcefully outed.”

The Education Department has also targeted Maine for policies that allow transgender athletes to compete on teams that align with their gender identity and threatened to withhold federal funding.

Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, executive director of GLSEN, a group that supports the legal rights of LGBTQ students, called the letter “the latest intimidation tactic” to suppress support for gay and trans youth in school.

“When Linda McMahon says ‘parents’ rights,’ she’s not talking about every parent,” she said in a statement. “LGBTQ+ students and their parents are wondering why what’s left of the Education Department is so focused on pushing a climate of exclusion instead of advancing a vision where every student is set up for success.”

Schools’ approaches to gender identity vary

Around the country, states and school districts have adopted a range of policies and laws about students’ requests to change their names and gender identity.

Indiana requires schools to notify parents of any student request to use a different name, pronoun or gender. Some school districts there won’t use a different name or pronoun without parental permission.

Colorado state law requires school districts to respect non-legal name changes. But school districts have a range of policies on parental notification. In some conservative communities there, school districts still require parental permission for a child to go by a different gender at school.

New York City policy says situations in which students don’t want parents to know about their gender identity should be handled with care on a case-by-case basis.

Michigan’s non-binding state guidance has a similar provision, noting that privacy considerations vary by age.

A number of parents have sued their school district, alleging that officials withheld critical information about their child. The courts have generally sided with the school districts, and in some cases, the situation has been more complicated than initially presented.

Trump used his joint address to Congress to highlight the case of January Littlejohn, a Florida parent who accused her school district of carrying out a “secret gender transition.”

According to Politifact and other media accounts, court records later revealed that Littlejohn informed her child’s teacher that the child identified as nonbinary and wanted to use they/them pronouns. In an email, Littlejohn said the child could take the lead at school, even though she and her husband would not change what they called the child at home.

The school initially denied Littlejohn access to a support plan that had been developed but eventually shared the document.

A federal judge dismissed Littlejohn’s lawsuit. The family is appealing.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case that involved a Wisconsin school district’s gender support polices because none of the plaintiffs had a child in the school district who had changed their gender identity without a parent’s knowledge. The case involved a theoretical harm, rather than an actual family.

Through executive orders, the Trump administration has attempted to ban transgender service members from the military, refused to issue identity documents with updated gender markers, and threatened hospitals that provide gender-affirming care. All of these orders have been challenged in court, with litigation ongoing.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated with information from LeRoy Rooker, an expert in FERPA.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee bill targeting undocumented students clears a hurdle in House

2025-03-27T00:25:35+00:00

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Tennessee lawmakers voted to advance a bill Wednesday that would allow public schools to check students’ immigration status and charge tuition to students who cannot provide proof that they are in the country legally.

The legislation aims to provoke a challenge to a 1982 Supreme Court decision that guarantees free public education for students regardless of immigration status. The lead House sponsor is Republican Rep. William Lamberth of Portland.

After a tense debate, the House Education Committee voted 11-7 to clear the bill, bringing it a step closer to a floor vote. The language of the bill also changed to align more with its companion bill in the Senate.

If passed, the legislation would give public schools and public charter schools the option to ask students for documents showing that they are U.S. citizens or legal residents, or are in the process of obtaining citizenship. If a student cannot provide this documentation, then the districts could charge the family tuition for enrollment, in addition to whatever taxes the family is paying to help fund public schools.

An earlier version of the bill would have allowed public schools to deny enrollment to students who are “unlawfully present” in the United States.

As Rep. Lamberth gave closing remarks ahead of the vote, he was interrupted by opponents of the bill seated in the hearing room, who began singing, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.” A young child walked up to lawmakers and began shouting, “You’re attacking my friends!”

The committee chair, Rep. Mark White of Memphis, yelled over the singing for lawmakers to cast their votes.

During the debate, several lawmakers spoke on the moral implications of the legislation.

“We should not put our children — the least of us, those that cannot do for themselves — in the middle of an adult battle,” Democratic Rep. Sam McKenzie of Knoxville said. “This is a bully bill.”

Rep. Lamberth said one purpose of the bill is to force a reconsideration of Plyler v. Doe, the 1982 Supreme Court decision that found states cannot prevent undocumented students from attending public school.

He also said that children who are “recent to the United States” cost more to educate.

“It is not fair to the rest of the families in that community that all do pay for that entire educational structure and that system to bear the brunt of those additional expenses,” Lamberth said.

Lawmakers opposing the bill pointed out that parents of undocumented children already contribute to the public coffers that help fund education. Undocumented immigrants in Tennessee contribute $314.2 million in federal, state, and local taxes, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

The fiscal impact of the bill is also uncertain, as it could put federal education funding on the line for Tennessee.

A Senate version of the bill is scheduled to be heard next in the Senate Finance, Means and Ways Committee, where more debate is expected.

Trump signs executive order that aims to close U.S. Department of Education

2025-03-20T21:43:36+00:00

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President Donald Trump has signed a much anticipated executive order that he said is designed to close the U.S. Department of Education.

The order Trump signed Thursday tells Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities” to the “maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.” At the same time, the order says McMahon should ensure “the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”

Despite polling to the contrary, Trump said in his speech Thursday that closing the department is a popular idea that would save money and help American students catch up to other countries. He also said his order would ensure that other federal agencies take over major programs now housed at the Education Department, like those for students from low-income backgrounds and students with disabilities.

“Beyond these core necessities, my administration will take all lawful steps to shut down the department,” Trump said. “We’re going to shut it down, and shut it down as quickly as possible. It’s doing us no good. We want to return our students to the states.”

President Donald Trump speaks during an event at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, when Trump signed an executive order intended to close the U.S. Department of Education.

The executive order represents a symbolic achievement for Trump, who for years has expressed a desire to close the department. Yet the president has already radically transformed the department without relying on such an order. McMahon announced massive layoffs and buyouts earlier this month that cut the department’s staff nearly in half.

Beyond the rhetoric, it’s unclear how exactly the order will impact the department’s work or existence.

By law, only Congress can eliminate a cabinet-level agency authorized by Congress; White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt seemed to acknowledge as much Thursday before Trump signed the order, when she said that the Education Department will become “much smaller.” And during his Thursday remarks, Trump expressed hopes that Democrats as well as Republicans would be “voting” for the department’s closure, although prominent Democratic lawmakers have blasted the idea.

The order does not directly change the department’s annual budget from Congress. And federal law dictates many of the Education Department’s main functions — changing those would require congressional approval that could be very hard to secure.

Still, Trump’s move to dramatically slash the department’s staff could impact its capacity and productivity, even if officially its functions remain in place.

At her confirmation hearing, McMahon promised to work with Congress on a reorganization plan. Project 2025, a prominent blueprint for conservative governance from the Heritage Foundation released before Trump’s second term, says that along with closing the Education Department, the federal government should move the department’s education civil rights enforcement to the Department of Justice, while the collection of education data should move to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In a statement on Thursday, McMahon said closing the Education Department does not mean cutting off funds from those who depend on them.

“We will continue to support K-12 students, students with special needs, college student borrowers, and others who rely on essential programs,” she wrote. “We’re going to follow the law and eliminate the bureaucracy responsibly by working with Congress and state leaders to ensure a lawful and orderly transition.”

The executive order could be challenged in court. Many of Trump’s efforts to remake the federal bureaucracy are already tied up in litigation, including the Education Department layoffs.

The executive order notes that the Education Department does not educate any students, and points to low test scores on an important national assessment as evidence that federal spending is not helping students.

“Closing the Department of Education would provide children and their families the opportunity to escape a system that is failing them,” the order says.

Trump order is triumph for department’s foes

The Republican governors of Florida, Texas, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Louisiana, Tennessee, Idaho, and Nebraska were present during the signing ceremony. Trump said they “badly” wanted the federal government to give their states more control over education.

“Probably the cost will be half, and the education will be maybe many, many times better,” Trump said. States that “run very, very well,” he said, could have education systems as good as those in Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway — countries that tend to outperform the United States on international reading and math tests.

The Education Department administers billions of dollars in federal assistance through programs such as Title I, which benefits high-poverty schools, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, which offsets the cost of special education services.

The department also administers financial aid for college students, shares information about best practices with states and school districts, and enforces civil rights laws. And it oversees the school accountability system, which identifies persistently low-performing schools to extra support.

States and school districts already make most education decisions, from teacher pay to curriculum choices.

Conservatives have wanted to get rid of the U.S. Department of Education since it was created by President Jimmy Carter and Congress in 1979, and Trump talked about doing so in his first administration. But those efforts never gained traction.

Conservatives say that for decades the department has failed to adequately address low academic performance. They also see the department as generally hostile to their political and ideological perspectives.

The executive order says that McMahon must ensure that “any program or activity receiving Federal assistance terminate illegal discrimination obscured under the label ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ or similar terms and programs promoting gender ideology,” a reference to policies intended to make schools more welcoming for students of color and LGBTQ students.

The department has moved to publicly target and root out diversity-focused practices in schools in recent weeks. And the department has already threatened to withhold federal funding from Maine for allowing trans athletes to compete on teams that match their gender identity.

Public education advocates say critical expertise will be lost and students’ civil rights won’t be protected if Trump further diminishes the department. They also fear that a department overhaul could endanger billions in federal funding that bolsters state and local education budgets.

They say they’re already seeing impacts from layoffs, which hit the Office for Civil Rights, Federal Student Aid, and the Institute of Education Sciences particularly hard.

Even before McMahon took office, the U.S. DOGE Service, the cost-cutting initiative run by billionaire Elon Musk, canceled hundreds of millions of dollars worth of research grants and contracts.

The Education Department already was one of the smallest cabinet-level departments, with around 4,100 employees, before the layoffs. With buyouts and layoffs, the department now employs just under 2,200 people.

Chalkbeat senior national reporter Kalyn Belsha contributed reporting.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Andrew Ujifusa is a story editor at Chalkbeat.

U.S. Department of Education slashes staff

2025-03-12T00:54:22+00:00

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The U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday that it’s cutting its workforce nearly in half — a move that Education Secretary Linda McMahon said is a first step toward eliminating the department.

Roughly a third of staff will lose their jobs through a “reduction in force,” the department said in a press release. Combined with voluntary buyouts, the Education Department will have just under 2,200 employees by the end of the month, compared with 4,133 when President Donald Trump took office with promises to shutter the department.

The layoffs represent a significant escalation of Trump’s efforts to reduce the department’s role in education, which is mostly run by states and school districts. Already, the administration has canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in grants and contracts that paid for education research, technical assistance to states and school districts, and teacher training programs.

Affected staff will be placed on administrative leave starting March 21, the department said. Ahead of the announcement, workers were told to leave the office by 6 p.m. Tuesday and that the office would remain closed until Thursday “for security reasons.” McMahon later said this was standard corporate process when layoffs occur.

“Today’s reduction in force reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers,” McMahon said in a press release. “I appreciate the work of the dedicated public servants and their contributions to the Department. This is a significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States education system.”

The Education Department administers major federal funding programs such as Title I, which provides extra money to high-poverty schools, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, which supports special education. It also investigates civil rights complaints and oversees an accountability system that pushes states to identify low-performing schools and provide them with additional resources.

Exactly how the layoffs will affect specific programs was not immediately clear. A former Education Department staffer, who spoke with Chalkbeat on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the information, said the entire Office for Civil Rights teams based in Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Cleveland, Boston and New York were let go. That represents half of regional civil rights offices.

The department said all divisions are affected but did not describe specific positions that were eliminated. In the press release, department officials said all functions required by law will continue.

Only Congress can eliminate the department, but such deep cuts could leave the department a shell of its former self.

Appearing on “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News shortly after the layoffs were announced, McMahon said Trump had given her a clear mandate to shutter the department. She said she would work with Congress to do that. Immediately cutting these positions would help the federal government send more money to the states, she said.

“I said ‘OK we have to identify where the bloat is, where the bureaucracy is, and we’re going to start there,’ McMahon said. “We need to make sure that that money does get to the states.”

Trump is expected to sign an executive order to start the process of eliminating the department, but has not yet done so. Conservatives say that for decades the department has failed to adequately address low academic performance and is a bloated bureaucracy.

On Fox, McMahon reassured viewers that programs such as IDEA would still be funded through congressional appropriations. Asked what IDEA stood for, McMahon responded, “I’m not sure I can tell you exactly what it stands for except that it’s programs for disabled needs. It’s my fifth day on the job, and I’m really trying to learn quickly.”

Conservative state school chiefs said in a letter to McMahon last month that they need more flexibility in how to use federal money, rather than following complex rules that ensure specific funding streams benefit certain student groups.

Public education advocates fear that if money flows unrestricted to states, there’s no guarantee it will help the most vulnerable students. Even without an executive order, they worry that administrative changes could affect the department’s ability to perform basic functions.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, condemned the layoffs.

“Denuding an agency so it cannot function effectively is the most cowardly way of dismantling it,” she said in a statement. “The massive reduction in force at the Education Department is an attack on opportunity that will gut the agency and its ability to support students, throwing federal education programs into chaos across the country.”

Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employee Local 252, which represents 2,800 Education Department employees, said the union will fight back against the layoffs and against what she called a misinformation campaign about the department’s work.

“We must ask our fellow Americans: do you want your and your children’s rights enforced in school? Do you want your children to have the ability to play sports in their school districts? Do you need financial aid for college? Are you a fellow civil servant that relies on student loan forgiveness? Does your school district offset property taxes with federal funding?” she said in a statement.

“If yes, then you rely on the Department of Education, and the services you rely on and the employees who support them are under attack.”

Shortly after she was confirmed, McMahon sent a message to Education Department staff describing a “final mission” that would affect staffing, budgets, and agency operations.

Department staff were given one-time offers of up to $25,000 to retire or resign in advance of a “very significant reduction in force.” More than 500 employees took some form of buy out.

Another 1,300 employees are losing their jobs through the reduction in force McMahon announced Tuesday.

Employees who are laid off will be paid through June 9.

This story has been updated to include comments from Linda McMahon on Fox News, reaction to the layoffs, and additional information about affected offices.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Linda McMahon is confirmed as education secretary. DOGE and a department overhaul await her.

2025-03-04T06:31:38+00:00

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Linda McMahon was confirmed Monday as education secretary to lead a department that President Donald Trump has said he wants to dismantle.

McMahon, a former professional wrestling executive and billionaire donor, promised during her confirmation hearing to maintain key education funding streams near current levels and to work with Congress on any reorganization plan for the department.

Many observers expect Trump to sign an executive order soon kicking off that process, though McMahon could develop an overhaul plan without one.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Nebraska Republican, said McMahon had the appropriate background to lead the department. The secretary of education is not some kind of national schools superintendent, he said. Rather, the job involves running a federal bureaucracy, something McMahon showed she could do when she ran the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first administration.

“I have no reason to believe that she cannot run the Department of Education,” Grassley said Monday. “I think she understands the difference between the state and federal role in education. I also expect that she understands the difference between the executive and legislative branches when it comes to the serious policy making of education.”

Several Democratic senators said they opposed McMahon’s nomination because she appeared ready to put herself out of a job, at Trump’s request.

“We can talk about Linda McMahon’s qualifications, or frankly lack thereof,” said Sen. Alex Padilla, a Democrat from California, who spoke Thursday wearing a T-shirt from the public high school he attended under his suit jacket. “President Trump isn’t looking for someone with the background or the commitment to strengthen education in America. He is looking for someone to destroy it.”

Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Democrat from Hawaii, noted that during her confirmation hearing McMahon couldn’t name a single requirement in the main federal education law or say whether teaching African American history would violate the president’s executive order seeking to root out “radical indoctrination” in K-12 schools.

McMahon was confirmed in a 51-45 party line vote.

In an emailed message to department staff, which was also posted to the department website, McMahon described a “final mission” for the agency that would “profoundly impact staff, budgets, and agency operations.”

“We must start thinking about our final mission at the department as an overhaul — a last chance to restore the culture of liberty and excellence that made American education great,“ McMahon said. ”Changing the status quo can be daunting. But every staff member of this Department should be enthusiastic about any change that will benefit students."

McMahon will be taking the helm of an Education Department that has already set a dramatically different tone on civil rights enforcement than under the previous administration.

Former President Joe Biden and former Education Secretary Miguel Cardona emphasized equity goals for students of color and immigrant children and tried to enshrine protections for transgender students in law. But under Trump the Office for Civil Rights has already opened several cases related to bathroom access and sports participation by transgender students and threatened Maine’s federal funding.

A Dear Colleague letter to school leaders from the top acting civil rights official warned school districts many common diversity practices could be discriminatory and gave them a two-week deadline to abandon them or risk losing federal funding. That guidance is being challenged in court by three groups, including the American Federation of Teachers.

The Trump administration’s approach raises questions about whether the administration will usher in a smaller role for the federal government or simply a different one. Trump has previously pledged to return control over education to the states.

Meanwhile, the U.S. DOGE Service, the cost-cutting initiative led by billionaire Elon Musk, has slashed education research contracts and grants and abruptly closed technical assistance centers that supported states in efforts to improve education. In press releases, the Education Department has linked the canceled programs to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, or said they were wasteful, but provided little information to back up those claims.

The Education Department has not answered questions about who made these decisions or why.

McMahon told senators that she would examine these cuts and might reverse some of them. A source close to McMahon told the Washington Post she was “frustrated” with Musk’s approach.

Trump taps experienced state officials at Education Department

Kendra Cornejo Muñoz, a lead youth organizer for Make the Road Action who was detained for protesting McMahon’s confirmation hearing, said the transgender and immigrant youth she works with in New York City are already terrified to go to school.

She doesn’t trust McMahon to look out for students or protect school funding, she said in an interview shortly after the hearing: “Entire communities are going to suffer.”

Tiffany Justice, co-founder of the conservative parent group Moms for Liberty, called McMahon competent, smart, and “very decisive.” Justice hopes McMahon’s business background will help her combat inefficiency in the federal bureaucracy. She’s also looking forward to the civil rights office combating diversity efforts and transgender rights.

“The Department of Education has been used to undermine our civil rights as parents, as Americans in so many different ways, and we need to right that ship,” she said.

Mike Petrilli, president of the Fordham Institute, a center-right education think tank, said he expects McMahon to be “an adult in the room” along with Penny Schwinn, a former Tennessee schools chief nominated to be deputy director, and North Dakota State Superintendent Kirsten Baesler, Trump’s nominee to lead elementary and secondary education.

While McMahon has very little education experience, Schwinn and Baesler both have extensive experience and reputations for focusing on students and rebuffing pressure from cultural conservatives.

“We have to believe that inside the Department of Education, between McMahon and the political appointees and DOGE, there will be some big fights,” Petrilli said. “We have to be rooting for McMahon and her colleagues to win.”

This story has been updated to add a statement from McMahon.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Denver Public Schools sues feds to stop immigration enforcement at schools, ‘sensitive locations’

2025-02-13T01:01:28+00:00

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Denver Public Schools is taking the Trump administration to court in an effort to keep immigration enforcement away from schools locally and across the country.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Denver Public Schools asked the court to void a Trump administration policy that clears the way for immigration enforcement to take place at “sensitive locations.”

The Denver school district’s move comes as immigration enforcement intensifies across the country, including high-profile raids last week of apartment complexes in Denver and Aurora.

“DPS is hindered in fulfilling its mission of providing education and life services to the students who are refraining from attending DPS schools for fear of immigration enforcement actions occurring on DPS school grounds,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit argues that the school district has been “forced to divert resources from its educational mission to prepare for immigration arrests on DPS school grounds.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

In an interview, Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero described terrified students and parents who see their schools as safe places — and anguished teachers who worry that the Trump administration’s actions could mean that’s no longer true.

“We can’t continue to function with this fear,” Marrero said. He said that immigration enforcement is going to happen, but “the fact that some folks feel that it’s going to happen in our schools is just going to really cripple the way we function.”

Denver is believed to be the first school district in the country to mount a legal challenge against the Trump administration’s abolishment of a decades-old federal policy that treated schools, child care centers, churches, and hospitals as sensitive or protected locations where immigration enforcement should only take place if there is immediate danger to the public.

An outside law firm is representing the district at no cost, district leaders said.

Denver Public Schools also filed a motion Wednesday seeking a temporary restraining order that would reinstate the sensitive locations policy.

“It is in the public interest for schools not to become hunting grounds for suspected undocumented immigrants,” that motion says.

District leaders acknowledged the legal filings could cause the federal government to target or retaliate against Denver Public Schools, which is already the subject of a federal civil rights probe of an all-gender school restroom. But they said it’s a risk worth taking.

“Scared children can’t learn,” Denver school board President Carrie Olson said.

Impacts of ICE raids felt in Denver schools, superintendent says

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents did not go to any Denver or Aurora schools last week, nor have there been any reports of ICE agents detaining anyone at or near schools across the country since Trump took office.

But other impacts have been felt. In Denver, five school buses were rerouted last Wednesday because of ICE activity at an apartment complex, a district spokesperson said. A teacher at a school near the complex said some students were absent because ICE blocked the buses from picking them up. Other students were picked up by their parents midday, the teacher said.

“A lot of kids, we haven’t seen,” teacher Matt Meyer said shortly after the raids. “What I’m worried about is it doesn’t help anyone to have kids not at school.”

Four students from one school and their families were detained in the community during the raids, Marrero said. Given one phone call, Marrero said the parents called the school to tell them.

At another school, Marrero said he spoke with a mother whose husband was handcuffed by ICE agents in the early hours of the morning on his way to work. Though the mother was able to produce documentation that led ICE agents to let him go, she was shaken.

The mother “walked in [to the school] just terrified and crying,” Marrero said.

Students were terrified too, Marrero said. When he went into classrooms wearing a suit and tie, he said he overheard some students ask in Spanish, “‘Is he one of them?’ The way I’m dressed is enough to scare them.”

When ICE agents showed up at a nearby apartment complex, Marrero said one student told the school leader that their mother had said, “Run! Run to the school!” The student showed up at the school huffing and out of breath, Marrero said.

“Mom sent the kids to the safe haven, which was the school,” Marrero said. “But right now, we don’t even know if that’s true.”

Religious groups across the country have already filed at least two lawsuits challenging the rescinding of the sensitive locations policy as it relates to churches. In response to one of the lawsuits, attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security called the religious groups’ fears that their churches would be the target of immigration enforcement “hypothetical.”

Marrero said the effects on Denver students, families, and staff are not hypothetical, even if ICE agents haven’t shown up at schools. He said it would be “foolish and negligent for us to wait for someone to come into our buildings to drag a kid out.”

“It’s absolutely absurd that we have to wait for something to happen when we should be taking measures to prevent it,” Marrero said.

Lawsuit says Trump policy causes ‘variety of costs and harms’

Denver Public Schools serves about 90,000 students, about 52% of whom are Latino. Starting in late 2022, the city of Denver saw an influx of migrants from Venezuela and other countries, and the school district ended last school year with about 4,000 new immigrant students enrolled. About 80% of those students were still enrolled this fall, according to district data.

The lawsuit argues that rescinding the sensitive locations policy has caused a “wide variety of costs and harms” to Denver Public Schools staff, students, and families, including “by chilling school attendance.” It says “attendance has decreased noticeably,” particularly in schools that serve new immigrant students and schools in areas where immigration raids have occurred.

Overall attendance in Denver’s public schools has been slightly lower since Trump took office on Jan. 20. Last school year, average attendance was 88%, according to the district.

Attendance on Jan. 30, the day it was rumored the raids would start, was 84.5%, according to district data. On Feb. 5, the day the raids took place, districtwide attendance was 86.9%.

But attendance at some schools in neighborhoods affected by the raids was as low as 66% that day, according to district data. In the days that followed, some classrooms that normally have 35 students or more were reduced to as few as seven students, the legal filings say.

In addition, attendance dipped when hundreds of Denver high school students left school on the day of the raids to join a downtown protest against Trump’s immigration policies.

Denver school board Vice President Marlene De La Rosa visited schools on the day of the ICE raids and said she heard of one student who hadn’t been in class for two weeks for fear of immigration enforcement. Other students were worried about their friends, she said.

“Secondhand trauma, it’s very real and it’s very impactful,” she said.

The lawsuit says the district has spent “significant time and resources” putting in place policies and training staff to respond to potential immigration enforcement on campus. The district has had to respond to false reports of ICE activity at schools and organize community outreach programs to ensure students and families feel safe coming to school, the lawsuit says.

Denver Public Schools, like several other districts in Colorado and nationwide, has issued guidance to staff and families on what to do if ICE agents show up on campus. Denver’s guidance says school staff should at first deny the agents entry and place the school on a secure perimeter, which means no one is allowed in or out.

School staff should ask the agents for their identification and whether they have a warrant or court order, the guidance says, and then call the school district’s lawyers. Federal agents would only be allowed inside if they had a proper warrant or court order, the guidance says.

“Although staff are expected to operate in accordance with these policies, staff will not physically impede, interfere with or obstruct a government official in performing their duties," said a Jan. 24 letter from Marrero to district staff.

Denver Public Schools has been advising families to update their children’s emergency contact information in the district’s data portal to include someone who is not a parent or guardian and who could pick a child up from school and care for them if a parent is detained.

The administration of Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has said the city is working on a plan to take custody of any children whose parents are detained or deported and placing the children with relatives or in foster care. Johnston had pledged to sue the Trump administration if it instructed ICE to detain Denver residents at schools or other sensitive locations.

Lawsuit also points to a lack of transparency

Other arguments in the school district’s lawsuit are more technical.

Denver Public Schools argues that a pair of January memos from Acting DHS Secretary Benjamine Huffman and Acting ICE Director Caleb Vitello have not been published or publicly released. The district says that lack of transparency makes the rescinding of the sensitive locations policy “a final agency action that occurred entirely behind closed doors.”

The school district also objects to the reasoning that the Department of Homeland Security gave in a press release that rescinding the sensitive locations policy allows ICE to catch “criminal aliens — including murders and rapists — who have illegally come into our country” and that “[c]riminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools or churches to avoid arrest.”

“The January 21 Press Release offers no factual support, analysis, or evidence for its assertion that there are ‘murders [sic] and rapists’ ‘hid[ing] in America’s schools,’” the lawsuit says.

Huffman’s memo instructs ICE agents to use discretion “and a healthy dose of common sense.” The memo says it’s not necessary “for the agency to create bright line rules regarding where our immigration laws are permitted to be enforced.”

But the lawsuit argues that the previous federal policy, versions of which date back to 1993, already allowed for immigration arrests at schools or other sensitive locations “under such exigent circumstances as a rapist or murderer hiding on school grounds.”

The lawsuit asks the court to void the Trump administration’s policy and block the government from enforcing it “on both a preliminary and permanent basis,” which would restore the previous guidelines. It also asks the court to make the Trump policy “available for public inspection.”

Some say having the previous guidelines in place is crucial because it creates consistency for how immigration law should be enforced in places where people seek essential services.

“You could have just wildly disparate enforcement practices in one location and another based upon what a particular field office might think, or even more so, based upon what a particular team in the field or an individual officer might think,” said Tom Jawetz, a senior fellow for immigration policy at the Center for American Progress who served in the Department of Homeland Security under President Biden.

Chalkbeat senior reporter Kalyn Belsha contributed reporting to this story.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Trump rescinds memo freezing federal grants, but spokesperson says freeze still in effect

2025-01-29T19:25:42+00:00

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The Trump administration on Wednesday rescinded a budget memo that would have frozen money flowing to grant programs, including those going to schools.

However, a White House spokeswoman said on X that withdrawing the memo does not mean that federal funding will be restored.

“This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze,” Karoline Leavitt posted. “It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo. Why? To end any confusion created by the court’s injunction. The President’s EO’s on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.”

Asked about the issue at a press conference Wednesday, Leavitt said the pause “means no more funding for illegal DEI programs. It means no more funding for the Green New Scam that has cost American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. It means no more funding for transgenderism and wokeness across our federal bureaucracy and agencies.”

That leaves significant confusion about how grants will be affected going forward. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed executive orders to withhold funding from all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, as well as those that acknowledge gender identity or transgender people. Those orders remain in effect.

The stated purpose of the budget memo, issued Monday by the Office of Management and Budget, was to stop money from going out while officials looked for evidence of programs that were not aligned with administration directives within existing grant programs. That would include programs that had elements of what the memo called “Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies.”

The order carried widespread implications for schools and child care providers, as well as education research and nonprofits whose work supports education and vulnerable children and families. Federal grants support everything from charter school startup costs to trainings for teachers and parents to emergency response programs.

The wording of the order also sparked widespread confusion about its scope. Multiple states reported that Head Start payment portals were frozen Tuesday morning, preventing preschool providers from accessing money they need for daily operations. Later in the day, the administration clarified that the order was not intended to include Head Start or large formula grant programs such as Title I, which sends billions of dollars to high-poverty schools.

Legal experts also said the order was illegal, violating laws that govern when and how presidents can decide not to spend money authorized by Congress.

Several states and organizations filed lawsuits against the order. A federal judge issued a temporary order late Tuesday blocking the freeze from going into effect.

The two-sentence memo rescinding the order instructs agency directors to consult with their general counsel if they have questions about implementing executive orders.

Other Trump executive orders remain in effect.

The memo rescinding the first budget memo was shared by Democracy Forward, the advocacy group whose lawsuit led to the temporary injunction. Democracy Forward brought the lawsuit on behalf of the National Council of Nonprofits, the American Public Health Association, Main Street Alliance, and SAGE, a group that advocates for LGBTQ elders.

“While we hope this will enable millions of people in communities across the country to breathe a sigh of relief, we condemn the Trump-Vance administration’s harmful and callous approach of unleashing chaos and harm on the American people,” Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman said in a statement.

A separate lawsuit was brought by a coalition of Democratic state attorneys general.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

New Jersey NAEP scores show reading, math remain stagnant, but gaps widen

2025-01-29T05:08:00+00:00

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Average math and reading scores on the “nation’s report card” for New Jersey’s fourth and eighth graders have remained stable since 2022, but a closer examination shows the gap between the state’s lowest- and highest-performing students continues to widen, according to newly released data.

Although not yet bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels, the average scores for New Jersey remained above the national average in math and reading for fourth and eighth graders, results from the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, also referred to as NAEP, showed.

The data, released Wednesday by the National Center for Education Statistics, are the latest evidence of how dire the effects of the pandemic and remote learning were for all students, especially those already falling behind their peers well before 2020.

“There’s a widening achievement gap in this country and it has worsened since the pandemic,” said Peggy Carr, the NCES commissioner, in a phone briefing with news outlets ahead of the release. “We all need to come together as partners to catch these students up and improve achievement.”

Nationally, student achievement has not returned to pre-pandemic performance levels, though in some states, such as Louisiana, students in the lowest- and highest-performing percentiles showed improvement, according to NCES.

Though New Jersey’s averages remained above national levels, the results also showed that a significant proportion of students scored below NAEP proficiency levels. For example, 62% of fourth graders scored below proficient in reading — a smaller proportion compared to the 70% of fourth graders who scored below proficiency nationally.

Trends from the New Jersey results mirror those seen in the state’s standardized test results from 2024, which the state education department released in December.

In the 2024 New Jersey Student Learning Assessments, average statewide scores improved incrementally over the prior year. Despite the minor upticks in average scores, that data also demonstrated persistent disparities between subgroups, such as Black students and white or Asian American students.

“It’s extremely frustrating to know that after all the investments, the number of programs over the years, this achievement gap is persistent and still remains significant,” state school board member Arcelio Aponte said at the time.

A representative sample of fourth and eighth graders across New Jersey took the national assessment between January and March of last year. The results for reading and math are reported on a scale of 0-500 and grouped by proficiency levels of basic, proficient, and advanced. The NCES is adamant that these levels of achievement do not align with states’ grade-level proficiency standards.

The NAEP scores are also grouped under lowest-performing students, who fall in the bottom 25th percentile of scores; middle-performing students in the average 50th percentile; and highest-performing students in the above-average 75th percentile.

Lowest-performing students did worse in reading than in 2022

New Jersey’s lowest-performing fourth graders scored two points lower than they did in 2022 in the reading exam, going from a score of 198 to 196. This was the lowest score this group has had in the last 20 years. In 2003, the lowest-performing fourth graders scored a 201 on the reading exam.

Meanwhile, the state’s highest-performing fourth graders scored a 252 in the 2024 reading exam, a point higher than 2022. Although an incremental increase for that group of students, the score represents a 56-point difference, the widest gap between highest- and lowest-performing fourth graders in reading in the last decade for New Jersey.

The gap was similar for eighth grade reading scores between these two groups, with a 55-point difference between lowest- and highest-performing students. That gap exceeded by 12 points the 43-point gap between these groups in 2013.

“NAEP has reported declines in reading achievement consistently since 2019, and the continued declines since the pandemic suggest we’re facing complex challenges that cannot be fully explained by the impact of COVID-19,” said Daniel McGrath, associate commissioner for NCES, in a press release.

A similar trend also followed in eighth grade math, but fourth grade math showed a minor improvement. The lowest performing students in fourth grade math scored an average of 217, one point higher than they did in 2022. Even so, the 48-point gap between the lowest- and highest-performing students in math also reached the widest it’s been in 10 years.

Some researchers in New Jersey are currently looking into the role of schools in positively and drastically improving scores for the state’s lowest-achieving students. The state’s Department of Education last year launched the “Promising Practices Project,” which will task researchers with investigating the best practices used in 52 schools statewide that have proven to help improve student achievement and learning.

Family and community impact can have a very significant impact on closing gaps between the state’s highest- and lowest-performing students, said Charles Payne, director of the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies, in an interview with Chalkbeat this week.

“But we have the most systematic evidence on schools,” Payne said. “When they’re operating at the highest levels, schools have enough power to overcome most of the disadvantages that are associated with race and class.”

Schools on the “highest levels” that positively impact student achievement have several key characteristics, Payne added. Those characteristics include a collaborative environment for teachers, the use of data to support instruction, setting high expectations for staff and students, and emphasizing social and emotional learning, Payne said.

Data from NAEP showed that some states have improved significantly already, even reaching 2019 scores, including Alabama in fourth-grade math and Louisiana in fourth-grade reading.

“These results, as sobering as they are, show that once you unpack them, there is hope,” said Carr, the NCES commissioner.

Catherine Carrera is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Newark. Contact Catherine at ccarrera@chalkbeat.org.

Philadelphia NAEP scores rise in fourth grade math but stay flat in other subjects

2025-01-29T05:07:00+00:00

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Philadelphia students’ fourth grade math scores are on the rise, according to newly released test results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as NAEP.

However, city students’ scores in math and reading are still well below their peers’ scores in Pennsylvania, below the average for all large cities, and below national averages.

In the other subjects that NAEP tests — fourth grade reading and eighth grade math and reading — Philly students scored about the same as they did in 2022. Black and Hispanic students in Philly continue to score far below their white and Asian American peers, highlighting the persistent equity gaps that exist for these students.

According to a Chalkbeat analysis, Philly students’ NAEP scores — and scores nationwide — were rising in both math and reading from 2009 to 2013. But since then, students’ scores have dropped precipitously, especially in eighth grade math.

Superintendent Tony Watlington told Chalkbeat the new scores “absolutely validate” that “there is some real progress occurring in this school district.” He added he was not surprised to see fourth grade math performance improve because he’s seeing similar trends in the district’s internal and state test data for third and fourth grade. Watlington said it’s all “part of the strategy to concentrate resources in those early grades.”

Watlington says he is particularly proud of Philly students’ post-pandemic performance. He frequently cites a Stanford University “recovery scorecard” that showed Philly students demonstrated the fastest 2022-23 post-pandemic recovery in math for grades 3-8, and the second-fastest recovery for reading in grades 3-8, among large urban school districts. (The study is based on a weighted comparison of student performance on state tests.) The district has also invested millions in updated curriculum and resources which Watlington says will only compound Philly’s gains in the years to come.

“We’re seeing some immediate improvement” due to the new math curriculum, Watlington said, which he thinks will also be the case for English Language Arts as classrooms continue to adopt new resources for that subject. “I fully expect, in two years, when we give the NAEP assessment again, to begin to see some movement in fourth grade reading,” he said.

NAEP is administered to a representative sample of fourth and eighth graders in reading and math, unlike the state PSSA test, which is given to all students. City students also show low proficiency rates on the PSSA compared to the rest of Pennsylvania. Because only some students take the exams, NAEP results come with some uncertainty in the form of a margin of error.

“One of the reasons why our city has underperformed the Commonwealth average is because our kids have significantly lower attendance in school,” Watlington said. At the same time he pointed to district data showing student attendance has been increasing in Philly recently and the number of students dropping out has been decreasing.

NAEP scores show Philly students gained in math

In fourth grade math, Philadelphia saw a seven-point increase in the average scores from 209 in 2022 to 216 in 2024, which is a higher rate of improvement than Pennsylvania overall. Average scores statewide held steady at 238 — the same as in 2022. NAEP results are reported as average scores on a 0-500 scale.

The percentage of Philadelphia students at or above NAEP proficiency also increased to 19% from 13% in 2022. Philly still falls well below the state however: In Pennsylvania, 41% of students scored at or above proficiency, about the same as in 2022.

In eighth grade math, Philly performed about on par with 2022, with 15% of Philly students at or above NAEP proficiency, compared to 13% in 2022. The average score in eighth grade math was 252 — the same as in 2022. Philly is still below Pennsylvania’s overall average score of 276, which rose from 274 in 2022.

In fourth-grade reading, Philadelphia students scored 195 on average — the same as in 2022. Pennsylvania students overall scored 216, a slight decrease from an average score of 219 in 2022 but not a change NAEP officials deemed statistically significant. In relation to their peers from all large cities, Philly students came up short. In 2024, 17% of students in Philly scored proficient or better, while 26% of their peers in large cities as a whole scored proficient or above. Nationwide, 30% of students scored proficient or better — down from 32% in 2022.

In eighth grade reading, Philly and Pennsylvania students maintained their scores from 2022. Philly students scored on average 242, the same as in 2022. Statewide, students scored on average 259, the same as two years ago. Philly students remain well below their statewide and national peers in the percent of students who scored proficient or better: In Philly, 18% of students scored proficient or better, compared with 31% of students in Pennsylvania, 26% in large cities, and 29% nationally.

Philadelphia, which has the highest poverty rate among all big cities, outperformed just a handful of urban districts. For instance, in fourth grade math, Philadelphia scored lower than 21 districts and higher than four districts — Cleveland, Milwaukee, Detroit and Baltimore City — among the 26 that are included in the Trial Urban District Assessment. In eighth grade math, it did a little better, performing lower than 17 districts, on a par with six, and higher than two, Cleveland and Detroit.

The last time the federal government released NAEP scores over two years ago, they were used as a barometer for how well students had recovered from the pandemic, a period marked by school closures. Philadelphia’s schools closed for in-person learning in March 2020 and did not reopen until the beginning of the 2021-22 school year.

Philadelphia’s 2022 NAEP scores were well below the national and Pennsylvania averages, but scores for city students did not decline as much as they did for students in some other big cities. Fourth grade math scores dropped, but the other scores — in fourth grade reading and eighth grade reading and math — were statistically unchanged.

Even so, Watlington saw hope in the 2022 results. “Given the many challenges that all school districts have experienced these past three years is encouraging news that we intend to build on going forward,” he said at the time.

Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.

Dale Mezzacappa is a senior writer for Chalkbeat Philadelphia, where she covers K-12 schools and early childhood education in Philadelphia. Contact Dale at dmezzacappa@chalkbeat.org.

NAEP scores: How did Indiana 4th and 8th graders do on ‘the nation’s report card’ in 2024?

2025-01-29T05:06:00+00:00

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Indiana students fared slightly better on “the nation’s report card” in 2024 compared to 2022 as the state continues to slowly recover from the effects of the pandemic.

But across the state and nation, scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress — or NAEP — remain below 2019 levels, raising alarm bells about students’ reading and math skills after the pandemic. Nationally, there is also a growing gap between the highest- and lowest-performing students on NAEP.

Scores released Wednesday show Indiana students’ performance in both math and reading ticked up by between 1 and 3 percentage points in 2024.

In reading, around 34% of fourth graders and 33% of eighth graders were proficient or better in reading in 2024, up from 33% and 31%, respectively, in 2022.

In math, around 43% of fourth graders and 31% of eighth graders scored proficient or better in 2024, compared with 40% and 30%, respectively, in 2022.

Indiana’s performance across both subjects is in line with most other states, which saw no statistically significant score improvements compared to 2022. Nationally, reading scores have continued to drop in a trend that began before the pandemic in 2019. In math, some states made notable improvements, but Indiana was not among them.

Still, Indiana’s average scores remain above national averages. And while national averages have declined in reading, Indiana students’ scores rose this year.

“Over the past three years, Indiana has taken an all-hands-on-deck approach to solving our literacy crisis, and today we see that without a doubt, this work is making a difference,” said Secretary of Education Katie Jenner in a statement Wednesday. “This new data is just one more piece of evidence that the time and resources invested in this effort are paying off for students. This should provide continued motivation for everyone to keep our foot on the gas pedal, whether that’s classroom teachers or parents reading to their child at home.”

Another difference between Indiana and national averages concerns the highest- and lowest-performing students. Indiana fourth graders in the bottom quartile of scores improved their performance over 2022. But nationally, fourth graders in the bottom quartile of reading scores declined the most from 2022.

However, the gap in eighth grade reading scores between Indiana’s lowest- and highest-performing students grew from 2022 to 2024.

Across demographic groups, one of the state’s most significant jumps in scores was for Black fourth grade students, whose reading scores rose from 194 in 2022 to 201 in 2024 — one point higher than their 2019 scores. Hispanic fourth grade students have also matched 2019 scores in reading for the demographic.

No other student group in Indiana matched its 2019 performance in either subject in 2024.

Nationwide, it was rare for any state to exceed its 2019 NAEP scores in either subject — just Alabama scored higher in fourth grade math, and only Louisiana scored higher in fourth grade reading.

“NAEP has reported declines in reading achievement consistently since 2019, and the continued declines since the pandemic suggest we’re facing complex challenges that cannot be fully explained by the impact of COVID-19,” said National Center for Education Statistics Associate Commissioner Daniel McGrath in a press release.

NAEP scores, learning affected by student absenteeism

NAEP scores don’t indicate the efficacy of any single policy or practice. But their release is likely to trigger debates about how states have responded to the academic effects of the pandemic.

Since 2022, Indiana has passed several laws aimed at aligning the state’s early literacy instruction with a set of practices known as the science of reading.

Schools and teacher training programs are now required to use material based on the science of reading. And beginning this year, students who don’t pass the the third grade reading test — the IREAD-3 — will be be required to repeat third grade, with only a few exceptions.

Now Indiana lawmakers may turn their attention to math. A bill under consideration in the 2025 legislative session would change teacher preparation programs in regards to math instruction, as well as require math proficiency screeners and interventions for younger students.

The state has also invested state and federal funds in tutoring and summer school programs, and will likely seek help from lawmakers writing the state budget to keep those initiatives funded after the expiration of federal aid.

Other initiatives from lawmakers include addressing student absenteeism, which has declined nationally since 2022 but remains higher than in 2019. In a media call Tuesday, Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics Peggy Carr pointed to absenteeism as a factor in students’ scores.

“If students aren’t in school, they can’t learn,” Carr said.

This story has been updated with a comment from Secretary of Education Katie Jenner.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

NAEP scores show disheartening trends for the lowest-performing students

2025-01-29T05:01:00+00:00

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Most American students are still performing below their pre-pandemic counterparts in reading and math, while the yawning gap between high-achieving and low-performing students got even wider, data from “the nation’s report card” shows.

Results released Wednesday from the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, paint a sobering picture of academic haves and have-nots. Scores are increasing for many students who already do well, while struggling students stagnated or fell even further behind their peers. That’s making a trend that began about a decade ago even more pronounced.

In some cases that divide was historic: Lower-performing fourth and eighth graders posted the worst reading scores in over 30 years. In eighth grade math, the gap between the highest- and lowest-performing students was the widest in the test’s history.

“The news is not good,” Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, told reporters on Tuesday. “Student achievement has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, reading scores continue to decline, and our lowest performing students are reading at historically low levels.”

Scores saw a dramatic decline in 2022 after students endured two disrupted pandemic school years marked by closures, quarantines, and remote learning. But in 2024, reading scores declined even more for both fourth and eighth graders.

“This is a major concern — a concern that can’t be blamed solely on the pandemic,” Carr said. “Our nation is facing complex challenges in reading.”

Fourth grade math was the lone bright spot, with average student scores ticking up two points on the 500-point scale. But much of that increase was driven by improvement among top performers.

Eighth grade math scores held steady, with gains among higher-performing students canceling out declines among lower-performers.

All of the children who took the NAEP last year had at least some of their education affected by the pandemic. The fourth graders were in kindergarten when schools closed in March 2020, while eighth graders were in fourth grade.

The results are sure to fuel ongoing debate about whether schools are doing enough to help struggling students, especially those who are the farthest behind, the role that school closures played in exacerbating learning gaps, and whether schools effectively spent the nearly $190 billion they received in federal COVID relief dollars.

The new NAEP scores have landed as conservatives push to expand private school choice, public schools grapple with budget cuts, culture war skirmishes persist, and chronic absenteeism remains at historically high levels. Students who performed the worst on the NAEP test were more likely to be frequently absent from school, Carr noted.

“We have a larger-than-in-recent-memory share of American students who are failing to demonstrate even partial mastery of the types of skills educators have defined as important,” said Martin West, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the vice chair of the NAEP Governing Board, which decides the test’s content and approves questions. “That doesn’t bode well for their futures or for our collective futures.”

The new data come from tests taken in early 2024 by nearly half a million students across thousands of U.S. schools.

Worrying decline in NAEP reading scores continues

On average, fourth and eighth grade students scored two points lower in reading than their counterparts in 2022 and five points lower than students in 2019. Only in Louisiana, where the state superintendent has put a major focus on reading, did fourth grade reading scores rise above 2019 levels.

The share of fourth graders who scored at the very bottom of the NAEP scale was at its highest point in 20 years. The share of eighth graders scoring at the lowest level was the highest ever. And in both grades, students who did not reach the NAEP Basic level — relatively low performers at the 25th percentile and under — had lower scores than in 1992, when the first NAEP test was given.

When a fourth grader can’t meet the NAEP Basic level, it doesn’t mean they cannot read. But it likely means they would struggle with easier skills, such as sequencing events in a story or stating an opinion using supporting evidence from a text. Eighth graders who fall below NAEP Basic would have trouble identifying basic literary elements, such as character motivation and the main idea.

NAEP results show how many students score below, at, or above two thresholds: NAEP Basic and NAEP Proficient. Proficient is considered a high bar, above what most states set as grade level expectations. Reaching the NAEP Basic threshold indicates students have achieved partial mastery of fundamental skills and knowledge for that grade level.

The rise in students who don’t meet that mark is of particular concern.

The dips in reading come as dozens of states overhaul their reading instruction with materials that better align with the science of reading. And while federal education officials are usually reticent to explain what caused a particular increase or decrease in scores, Carr cautioned that the near-universal dips in reading should not be taken as evidence that reading reforms have not worked.

She pointed to the example of Louisiana, where fourth graders are scoring better in reading than they did in 2019, bucking the national trend. That state has focused heavily on the science of reading “but they didn’t start yesterday,” Carr said.

“They were able to pull this off, and not only improve to pre-pandemic levels, but exceed them, and bring their lower-performers along,” she said. “I would not say that hope is lost.”

Still, Lesley Muldoon, the executive director of the NAEP Governing Board, said the growing share of children who cannot read at the NAEP Basic level, which generally corresponds with state proficiency standards, is concerning.

If a fourth grader can’t meet that in reading, “we’re saying that they’re unlikely to determine the meaning of a familiar word using context from the text,” Muldoon said. “That is a crucial skill that students really need for entering middle school.”

NAEP math scores show recovery — but also stagnation

In fourth grade math, average scores increased two points from 2022 but were still three points lower than pre-pandemic levels. Only in Alabama did fourth graders have higher scores than their 2019 counterparts. The average score was lifted by high-performing students who saw greater gains, while lower-performing students did about the same as in 2022.

Fifteen states and 14 urban districts saw improvements compared with 2022. District of Columbia Public Schools posted 10-point gains, well above the national average. D.C. schools also showed improvements for both low- and high-performing students, as did schools in Atlanta, Baltimore, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami-Dade County, and Guilford County, North Carolina.

Eighth grade math was a different story. There was no change in average scores because while high performers did better than their counterparts in 2022, low performers did worse.

Middle school math has been a problem area in the pandemic’s wake. Some students struggled to learn key concepts virtually, such as how to divide fractions or graph a line. That lack of knowledge followed them. Others may have had content repeated often because their classmates were absent a lot, which put them behind in their lessons.

West, the NAEP Governing Board member, said it appeared the pandemic accelerated the decline among low-performing eighth graders in math, but it was even more striking that “the bottom continued to fall out” from 2022 to 2024.

“The main takeaway is that: What we’ve done as a nation, including the federal recovery dollars, has been insufficient,” he said.

Students who struggle in middle school often end up locked out of more advanced math in high school that can open doors to higher-paid careers in STEM fields.

Mark Miller, who teaches eighth grade math in Colorado’s Cheyenne Mountain School District, said declining student motivation and “stick-to-it-ness” might be contributing. In recent years, struggling students in his classroom have needed a bigger nudge to dig in on difficult problems than when he started teaching nearly two decades ago.

“The coach in me has had to reach into my coaching motivational speeches in my classroom just as much as I have had to on the court or on the field,” said Miller, who is also a former NAEP Governing Board member. Many students think: “If I want to know something, I can look it up in two seconds, why do I need to persevere through learning how to solve systems of equations or learning how to solve a word problem?”

One thing his school is trying: Keeping kids who did not meet certain math standards in the same classes as their peers while providing extra support, instead of moving them to remedial math. The hope is that teachers can fill in gaps with mini lessons along the way, and that struggling students will feel more confident in their math abilities if they’re learning alongside their peers.

NAEP score gaps have consequences for ‘equitable society’

While the pandemic surely has had a lasting impact on students, the gap between high- and low-performers appears to have started growing about a decade ago. Similar gaps have appeared on international tests and are more stark for American students than for those in other countries that also experienced pandemic disruptions.

Theories abound: The federal government eased up on school accountability measures, and school leaders took their eyes off the lowest performers. The Great Recession, with its economic traumas followed by deep spending cuts, left a lasting scar on American education. Phones are sapping our attention span and cognitive abilities.

Nat Malkus, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, highlighted the trend in an analysis posted last week in advance of the NAEP release. He noted that the growing divide between high and low performers even shows up on a recent skills test for adults who haven’t been in school in years, complicating the idea that something school-related is the main driver.

The trends defy easy explanations and likely have multiple causes, he said.

Tests such as NAEP can’t answer the why. But Malkus hopes that researchers with access to student-level data can start digging in more. Are low-performing students concentrated at certain schools? Do they share certain characteristics? Or are they enrolled in schools with both high and low test scores?

He also hopes that superintendents and principals seek out this data about their own schools and find ways to support low-performing students even when average test scores look good.

“What this means for the story for an equitable society is enormous,” he said.

Yet there doesn’t seem to be enough urgency to get to the bottom of the problem, said Dan Goldhaber, who directs the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research at the American Institutes for Research.

While his research and others found that federal pandemic aid helped academic recovery, Goldhaber said it’s reasonable to ask if it could have done more. In the rush to get money out the door, a real opportunity was missed to collect data that would have shown which interventions really move the needle for struggling students, he said.

“I think we will look back in 25 years, and we will see all these kids have these outcomes in life that were predicted by this major decline,” he said. “The message is everywhere, but I don’t see much appetite to address it.”

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Trump education department investigating Denver Public Schools over all-gender restroom at East High

2025-01-29T00:22:12+00:00

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The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights announced Tuesday that it is investigating Denver Public Schools for recently converting a girls' restroom at Denver’s East High School into an all-gender restroom.

“The alarming report that the Denver Public Schools District denied female students a restroom comparable with their male counterparts appears to directly violate the civil rights of the District’s female students,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a press release.

“Let me be clear: it is a new day in America, and under President Trump, OCR will not tolerate discrimination of any kind,” Trainor, among a wave of new additions to the department, said in the release. “I have directed OCR’s Denver regional office to investigate this matter fully.”

A Denver Public Schools spokesperson said Tuesday afternoon that the district had “not formally received the notice of investigation” from the Office for Civil Rights.

In a follow-up statement Tuesday evening, the district said it was “unprecedented for the Office for Civil Rights to admittedly initiate its own investigation, into a single bathroom, as a result of local media coverage rather than in response to a filed complaint requesting their involvement.

“DPS is committed to educational equity, and we will continue to honor the needs of our students,” the district’s statement said.

On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to get rid of the U.S. Department of Education. But the announcement of the investigation into Denver Public Schools shows the Trump administration now intends to use departmental power to advance another centerpiece of his successful candidacy: opposing transgender rights and inclusion of transgender people in public life.

In his first week in office, Trump rescinded Biden-era guidance about supporting LGBTQ students in schools and used his executive power to roll back protections for transgender people. That included issuing an executive order that says that the United States only recognizes two sexes: male and female.

In announcing the East High investigation, the education department released a letter from Trainor addressed to Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero and dated Tuesday that cites a January news story on the all-gender bathroom from local TV station 9News.

The 9News story says students at East High, Denver’s largest high school, requested the all-gender restroom, but that at least one East High parent had raised concerns at a Denver school board meeting.

Denver Public Schools spokesperson Scott Pribble told 9News that adding the all-gender restroom was a matter of convenience for students and that “there’s no agenda to it.”

“It was becoming a problem for kids that were trying to go to the bathroom during passing period,” Pribble told 9News. “They were running out of time, being late to the next class because the one or two single stall bathrooms that they had to accommodate this just wasn’t enough for the need that was out there.”

Pribble told 9News that it was easier to convert a girls’ restroom to an all-gender restroom because girls’ restrooms already have toilets that everyone can use.

East High posted an announcement about its new all-gender restroom on its website in early January. It notes that the “stalls are designed for privacy, with 12-foot-tall partitions to ensure comfort and security,” and says the school has “developed a plan to supervise, monitor, and maintain cleanliness, just as we do with all restrooms.”

Denver Public Schools said in its statement Tuesday evening that the all-gender restroom “was added as the result of a student-led process that reflects our commitment to inclusivity and student voice, leadership, and empowerment, providing a welcoming space for all.

“This restroom serves all students, including those who may feel uncomfortable in gender-specific facilities and aligns with our values of supporting every student,” the district said.

The statement notes that East High has designated restrooms for female and male students in addition to the all-gender restroom.

Other Denver schools have all-gender restrooms, too. The Denver school board passed a resolution in 2020 mandating that each school in Denver have at least one all-gender restroom.

But when the board switched to a new form of governance in 2021 that necessitated converting previous resolutions into new policies, the all-gender restroom resolution appears to have been left out. There is currently no Denver Public Schools policy mandating all-gender restrooms, though a district spokesperson said the district does still convert and install them.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Trump freezes federal grants. What does it mean for schools?

2025-01-28T22:31:13+00:00

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Update: The Trump administration on Wednesday rescinded the memo freezing federal grant programs. Read more.

A Trump administration order freezing all federal grants is fueling widespread confusion among schools, nonprofits, and state governments even as the White House scrambles to clarify that the freeze shouldn’t affect key programs such as Head Start preschool and Title I funding for high poverty schools.

A federal judge temporarily blocked the order from going into effect Tuesday evening amid multiple legal challenges, including a lawsuit filed by a coalition of Democratic attorneys general.

“There is no question this policy is reckless, dangerous, illegal, and unconstitutional,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said at a press conference announcing the states’ lawsuit.

She described funding freezes impacting Head Start in Michigan, child development block grants in Maryland, and Medicaid reimbursement systems in 20 states including New York — even though the Trump administration clarified later in the day that none of those systems should be affected by the pause. “When Congress dedicates funding for a program, the president cannot pull that funding on a whim,” James said.

The stated purpose of the freeze is to find grants that could run counter to Trump administration priorities of ending diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, as well as those that recognize the existence of transgender people and offer them support. Until just a few weeks ago, many federal grants required recipients to incorporate equity measures.

Experts said the order is illegal and violates federal laws that describe how and when a president can block spending authorized by Congress. Federal officials say the pause is temporary and doesn’t trigger requirements to notify Congress or get approval.

Tuesday’s developments were the latest example of President Donald Trump following through on his campaign pledge to use executive authority to dramatically remake the federal government. Many of the executive orders issued from the White House in the past week have generated confusion and fear about their impact, as well as legal pushback.

A memo signed Monday by the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget orders a temporary pause on all grants, loans, and federal assistance, other than spending that goes to individuals, such as Social Security checks. The pause is necessary, Matthew Vaeth wrote, to ensure that money does not go to programs that aren’t aligned with the priorities and values of President Donald Trump.

“The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” the memo states.

Education organizations, Democratic leaders, and others condemned the move.

“Virtually any organization, school, state, police office, county, town or community depends on federal grant money to run its day-to-day operations, and are all now in danger,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a press conference Tuesday. “The blast radius of this terrible decision is virtually limitless.”

Education, child care leaders criticize Trump funding freeze

Federal grants fund everything from charter school start-up costs to teacher training to emergency response. The school superintendents association said in a blog post that the school lunch program, which depends on ongoing payments, could be affected.

On Tuesday morning, it was unclear whether the pause could hit major programs like Head Start or IDEA, which funds special education. The only exception carved out in the original memo was for payments to individuals, such as Social Security checks. A education department spokesperson said the allowance for individual payments included financial aid for college students, such as Pell grants, but did not elaborate further on the potential impact.

By Tuesday afternoon, additional guidance from the Office of Management and Budget said the freeze on federal funds was never intended to be an “across-the-board” freeze and that pauses on funding could be as brief as a day. The pause does not affect Head Start and SNAP, the memo said. An Education Department spokesperson said grant programs will be reviewed by leadership “for alignment with Trump Administration priorities,” adding that the temporary pause won’t impact Title I, IDEA, and other programs.

The pause on targeted programs was supposed to go into effect at 5 p.m. Tuesday. The memo calls for agencies to submit detailed information about affected programs to the Office of Management and Budget by Feb. 10. The memo also describes a new oversight process in which political appointees will have more control over grant spending.

Those changes aim to ensure money doesn’t go to programs that are found to violate other executive orders. It’s not clear how broadly those mandates might be interpreted or whether they will withstand separate legal challenges.

Rick Hess, director of education policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said the Trump administration likely believes the pause is necessary because former President Joe Biden used executive orders to attach additional requirements to many spending programs, such as requiring equity plans and prioritizing communities based on race or gender.

“If one administration is going to use executive authority to condition distribution of funds on politically fraught criteria, we’re seeing this administration say we want to figure out how to strip some of that out,” he said.

How big of a deal the freeze actually is will depend on how long it lasts, how many programs are affected, and what changes the administration requires to resume funding, he said. Until that is known, “the furor and the panic seems to be a bit overwrought.”

But to Rachel Perera, a fellow at the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, the order violates federal law that dictates when and how a president can decide not to spend money.

“It’s a brazen power grab,” she said. “There is no possible justification because the president doesn’t have the authority to impound funds authorized by Congress.”

Perera said the order amounts to impoundment, a legal process that requires notification to Congress, which hasn’t happened in this case. Congress passed the Impoundment Control Act in 1974 to address overreaches by the Nixon administration that were eventually found to be unconstitutional.

The National Head Start Association said child care providers, who already operate on tight budgets, could not draw down funds Tuesday morning.

“It’s been a scary day,” said Nora Moran, the policy and advocacy director for United Neighborhood Houses, an organization that represents social service providers running afterschool and child care programs in New York City.

Moran said she fielded panicked calls and emails all day from multiple operators of federally funded Head Start child care programs who said they couldn’t access their payment portals, though one later said the portal was open. Roughly 19,000 students across the city attend Head Start programs, according to a December report from the city comptroller. Another $500 million in federal child care block grant money is slated to help fund some 80,000 extended day childcare seats this fiscal year, according to the report.

“Everybody’s now doing calculations about … what this means for their cash flow,” Moran said. Depending on when they were last paid and what other sources of funding are coming in, a two week pause in payments could “absolutely” be enough to shutter a program, she added.

Even if funding is restored quickly, she said, “everyone is just going to be questioning, every day, is this the day this program is turned off.”

William Browning, president and CEO of Denver’s Clayton Early Learning, said he’s not panicking even though he receives $10 million from Head Start, 45% of his annual budget. The Colorado Department of Early Childhood said that the Head Start payment management portal was shut down and no one could pull money until early afternoon. But Clayton recently drew down his monthly allocation and has enough money to continue programming for about two months.

Before he learned that Head Start funding would continue uninterrupted, Browning said he wasn’t worried about additional requirements.

“We’ll happily comply,” he said, “because we … feel like we’re a good steward of the resources.”

SchoolHouse Connections, which helps schools support homeless students, said funding for homeless students under the McKinney-Vento Act likely is not affected, but many programs that serve homeless youth and vulnerable families expected to lose funding. In addition to funds that go to schools, many nonprofit service agencies that support children outside of school rely on federal funding.

State education departments said they are working to understand the potential impacts.

“We are aware of the OMB memo and are communicating with the federal government to gather further guidance,” said Brian Blackley, a spokesman for Tennessee Department of Education. “The Lee administration is committed to serving Tennesseans and working with federal agencies to ensure essential services continue.”

Republican Gov. Bill Lee has welcomed the Trump administration’s approach to education issues in hopes there would be fewer strings attached to federal funding.

Wisconsin State Superintendent Jill Underly, a Democrat, had stronger words.

“Federal grants and funding are essential to giving Wisconsin students the support they need to succeed,” she said in a written statement. “For too long, our public schools have been underfunded by the state, and many rely on federal resources to fill the gap — funding critical areas like special education, school nutrition, programs that support our most underserved learners, technology, and more.”

Chalkbeat journalists Ann Schimke, Michael Elsen-Rooney, Marta Aldrich, Kalyn Belsha, and Samantha Smylie contributed reporting.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Trump executive orders on immigrants, transgender rights could echo in American schools

2025-01-21T03:10:26+00:00

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As President Donald Trump took office for a second time, he almost immediately used his executive power to roll back rights for transgender people and immigrants — actions likely to reverberate in American schools.

Trump’s 29-minute inaugural address described a nation in decline, where “the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete disrepair.” He said his administration would reverse course and declared: “The golden age of America begins right now.”

That description of a faltering America extended to the nation’s schools.

“We have an education system that teaches our children to be ashamed of themselves in many cases, to hate our country despite the love that we try so desperately to provide to them,” Trump said. “All of this will change starting today, and it will change very quickly.”

Trump has pledged to rapidly reshape the federal government using executive orders. At a post-inauguration rally at the Capital One Arena, Trump signed nine executive orders — the first rescinding dozens of Biden-era executive orders that protected LGBTQ Americans and promoted opportunity for people of color. Trump tossed the pens he used to sign the orders to his cheering supporters before leaving the arena for the White House.

Back at the Oval Office, he signed additional orders changing the meaning of birthright citizenship to exclude the children of undocumented women, defining sex as “an individual’s immutable biological classification,” suspending enforcement of the TikTok ban, and pardoning his supporters who tried to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump signed a total of 41 executive orders Monday evening.

The impact of those executive orders will depend in part on how the federal government enforces them and in part on how state and local leaders and advocates respond. Executive orders must have some basis in law, and past orders have been challenged successfully in court. Vague orders can prove difficult to enforce.

What teachers want Donald Trump to know about their schools and their jobs

Trump used his inaugural address to say the federal government would recognize just two genders, male and female, as defined by a person’s biological sex assigned at birth. An executive order issued later Monday was titled, “Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government.” It defines sex as describing unchanging physical characteristics and states that federal documents cannot use gender as a synonym for sex.

Under the order, laws that extend protections on the basis of sex cannot be interpreted in ways that include transgender people, and federal agencies must remove all documents that “promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology.” Civil rights law will be interpreted to “ensure the freedom to express the binary nature of sex.”

The order also withholds federal funding from programs that recognize the existence of transgender people. It’s not clear how broadly such an order would be applied and how it might affect schools that respect transgender and non-binary students’ gender identities or use inclusive curriculums.

Trump made opposition to transgender rights and inclusion in public life a centerpiece of his campaign, alongside anti-immigrant rhetoric.

The move to define sex in ways hostile to transgender rights comes just after a federal judge blocked the Biden administration’s rewrite of Title IX rules, which had made protections for transgender students more explicit. Changing the federal definition of sex could make it harder for transgender students to defend their rights or pursue civil rights complaints.

Trump also wants to end birthright citizenship, a right enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution and repeatedly found by the courts to apply to all people born in the United States, with the exception of children born to foreign diplomats, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

Trump did not mention this plan in his inaugural address, but one of the executive orders he signed Monday evening declares that the children born to undocumented mothers and to mothers with certain temporary immigration status will not be considered citizens of the United States unless their father is a citizen or legal resident. The order also directs officials to not issue documents such as passports or Social Security numbers to those children, starting 30 days from the time of the order.

This order is almost certain to be challenged in court.

Such an executive order would not, on its own, prevent children with immigrant parents and those who are themselves undocumented from attending public school. The 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision Plyler v. Doe requires schools to educate all students in their communities, regardless of immigration status.

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank closely tied to Trump, has called on states to challenge that decision. Earlier this month, Oklahoma ordered schools to start collecting information on the immigration status of families with children enrolled in public school, but a number of school districts immediately said they would not comply.

Executive orders touch on federal workforce, free speech, immigration

The first executive orders Trump signed rescinded 78 presidential actions by his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, prevented issuing new federal regulations, and froze all federal hiring, with exceptions for the military, “until full control of the government is achieved.”

U.S. President Donald Trump concludes his inaugural address after being sworn in at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. Trump pledged to use executive authority to take drastic actions to stop immigration at the southern border and roll back transgender rights.

Among the Biden executive orders rescinded in Trump’s first official act Monday were orders guaranteeing LGBTQ students the right to an educational environment free of discrimination and an initiative to help colleges and universities that serve a large share of Hispanic students make better use of existing federal programs. The executive order also directs the heads of all federal agencies to root out programs that support diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI.

He also ordered the federal workforce to work full time in the office, starting immediately, a move that could prove disruptive for employees who need to make changes to child care or elder care; withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords, and ordered the restoration of free speech.

The free speech executive order appears aimed at stopping federal efforts to get social media companies to combat misinformation. It bars the use of federal resources to facilitate restrictions on speech. Conservatives have argued that federal protections for transgender students limit the free speech rights of teachers and classmates who don’t accept those students’ identities.

It was not immediately clear what implications the free speech order would have in a country divided over removing books from public school libraries and appropriate limits to on-campus protests.

In his inaugural address, Trump said he would declare a national emergency at the southern border and reinstate the Remain in Mexico policy that prevents asylum seekers from entering the United States to have their claims heard. Within minutes of the speech, migrants who had pending appointments at the border got messages that those appointments had been canceled.

Many executive orders are expected to facilitate enhanced immigration enforcement. Around the country, schools are sharing messages of support with families who could be caught up in enforcement actions and encouraging parents to make sure their children’s emergency contacts are up to date in case caregivers are detained. Some school systems are also clarifying how they will respond if immigration agents seek entrance to their buildings, with many saying they will consult their attorneys and only allow agents with signed judicial warrants to enter their schools.

Current policy limits immigration enforcement near schools, but media reports in December suggested Trump may rescind the “sensitive locations” policy.

Many teachers won’t teach the inauguration. That’s a loss for students, this ‘civics nerd’ says.

The president also promised to “end the chronic disease epidemic and keep our children safe, healthy and disease-free.”

On the campaign trail, Trump promised to withhold funds from schools that require students to be vaccinated, something that it’s not clear he has the authority to do. His nominee to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is a noted vaccine skeptic who tried to block the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine at the height of the pandemic.

Trump also redesignated career employees in “policy-influencing positions” as political appointees, who are easier to hire and fire at the president’s discretion. This move could have major implications for the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. In the first Trump administration, the president and his allies contended that career bureaucrats who make up the core of the federal workforce undermined many of their initiatives.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez takes legal action seeking to block potential firing

2024-12-20T21:04:59+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez launched a final-hour legal bid Friday to block his potential firing, alleging that board members about to consider his fate were appointed “to do the bidding” of a mayor and teachers union that have “scapegoated” Martinez.

Martinez’s attorneys made those claims in circuit court filings seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to halt his ouster.

The move came shortly before a specially called 5:45 p.m. board meeting in which members were scheduled to consider terminating Martinez. It was not immediately clear whether a judge would consider the motion and, if so, whether it would happen ahead of any potential vote.

Earlier Friday, Martinez’s legal team wrote a letter to the school board urging members to hold off on firing the CEO, who has clashed with the mayor and weathered months of speculation on his fate. Firing Martinez, the letter says, would not only breach his contract “but also the relevant Illinois law governing the Board’s actions.”

“Tonight’s purported vote is the culmination of a months-long campaign orchestrated by the Chicago Teachers Union (“CTU”) and its ally, Mayor Brandon Johnson, to improperly and unlawfully terminate Mr. Martinez based on wholly pretextual reasons,” wrote William Quinlan, Martinez’s lawyer, in the letter.

Neither the teachers union nor the mayor’s office immediately returned a request for comment.

The court filings allege that Johnson and the CTU are improperly seeking Martinez’s ouster because the CEO opposed the administration’s push, first reported by Chalkbeat, for the district to take out a short-term loan to pay for pension obligations and labor contracts, including that of CTU.

The legal filings connect efforts to fire Martinez with ongoing contract negotiations between CTU and the school district — suggesting a good outcome for the union is a motivating factor.

The attempt to fire Martinez, the filings argue, is also fueled by the looming arrival of new board members elected to join mayoral appointees on a hybrid board. The new arrivals are a mixed group, having run as CTU-backed, school choice-oriented, and independent candidates.

The board may fire Martinez with or without cause. Terminating his contract without cause would allow Martinez to stay for an additional six months and then pay him severance of about $130,000 - the equivalent of 20 weeks of his annual base pay of $340,000.

The court filings allege that the school board either intends to fire Martinez for cause based on “manufactured allegations,” or effectively fire him “by altering his job status or diminishing his responsibilities.”

Crain’s Chicago Business first reported that Johnson is considering a “co-CEO” option and has newly appointed board president Sean Harden in mind. Harden worked as deputy CEO of community affairs under former CEO Ron Huberman between 2009 and 2011, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The letter from Martinez’s lawyer to the board said the school board sent Martinez his performance evaluation for the 2023-2024 school year on Monday. The evaluation, which Quinlan described as “less than a page,” gave Martinez an overall “needs improvement” rating.

That rating stated Martinez “made no efforts” to meet one-on-one with the new board members — who Johnson appointed in early October after the entire previous board resigned en masse — and that the district’s new five-year strategic plan “did not really come from [Mr. Martinez’s] office.”

“The various alleged deficiencies identified in the letter were meritless — Mr. Martinez did meet with almost all of the new Board members and his office did ‘really’ lead the creation of the Five Year Strategic Plan,” Quinlan, the lawyer, wrote.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis school board delays vote on firing Superintendent Marie Feagins

2024-12-18T03:30:19+00:00

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An effort to oust Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Marie Feagins was put on hold Tuesday night when a divided school board voted to push the debate to next month.

In a 5-4 vote, the board referred a resolution to oust Feagins over allegations of “professional misconduct” to a committee meeting in January.

Feagins forcefully denied the allegations near the end of a heated board meeting that was repeatedly disrupted, describing what she had heard as “meritless and baseless.”

The resolution to terminate Feagins’ contract — brought by board Chair Joyce Dorse-Coleman — claims she violated the terms and must be removed immediately. The resolution alleges that Feagins:

Misled the board and did not present evidence of her statement, made in a work session, that district employees were paid $1 million in overtime for time not worked.
Accepted a more than $45,000 donation without board approval, then misrepresented what happened in violation of board policy.
Was dishonest with the board and public about a federal grant and a missed deadline.

Board members dissatisfied with Feagins’ performance have aired those concerns previously, a clear signal that the relationship between the superintendent and board had eroded. But the effort to oust her Tuesday fell short after a meeting in which Feagins supporters voiced their anger at the prospect of her being terminated less than nine months after she took the job.

When given the microphone, Feagins said she had yet to see the resolution and heard about the effort to end her contract from the media after the meeting was announced Monday.

“I’ve said time and time again, if I’m ever the barrier I will leave,” Feagins said. “What I’ve heard is meritless and baseless. I have been transparent about it and can refute everything that’s been stated.”

She added: “My desire to be transparent has been weaponized against me.” She also referenced working with an attorney depending on how things proceeded.

Dorse-Coleman said in introducing the resolution: “The board believes that Dr. Feagins has engaged in conduct detrimental to the district and the families it serves.”

Board members Michelle McKissack, Amber Huett-Garcia, and Tamarques Porter spoke out against the resolution and fought efforts to push through a vote on it Tuesday night.

“Let’s not get distracted. This is a distraction,” McKissack said.

“This is foolish,” Huett-Garcia said. “We’re not perfect here, but if we do this tonight, we are saying to the public we are not willing to do the hard work.”

Other board members, however, were resolute in wanting to end Feagins’ tenure. Board member Sable Otey said there have been complaints about how MSCS is run since August.

Board members McKissack, Huett-Garcia, Porter, Dorse-Coleman, and Keith Williams voted to move the discussion to committee in January.

Dorse-Coleman was the deciding vote and said to reporters after the meeting she wanted to “keep it fair” by giving the district time to look over the facts.

“There’s a disconnect and it’s a very strong disconnect that our superintendent has created,” she said.

When asked if any of these concerns were brought to Feagins during an evaluation, Dorse-Coleman said the evaluation was not completed because “when people were trying to talk to her, they didn’t get a chance to.”

More than a hundred Memphians attended Tuesday’s meeting, many of them cheering Feagins as she walked into the auditorium and booing board members.

Dorse-Coleman said at the meeting that 57 people were signed up for the public comment portion; the board reduced the time limit from three minutes for each speaker to one minute. Nearly all public comments were in support of the superintendent. Some speakers asked the board to postpone the vote.

The drama around Feagins comes as the district faces serious academic and financial challenges — and just as it was seeking to restore community trust after previous leadership turnover and a protracted 18-month process to find a replacement.

The board hired Feagins in February and agreed to a four-year contract that paid her $325,000 a year, starting April 1. If the board fired her without cause, she’d be due a severance payment of about $500,000.

Feagins previously held a leadership position at the Detroit Public Schools Community District. She was chosen from a field of three finalists to be the first outside leader of Memphis-Shelby County Schools since the district was created through a merger a decade ago.

During the interview process, Feagins explained how she used data to help get more Detroit students on track to graduate, spoke of empowering teachers, and described efforts to increase parent engagement by translating education jargon into understandable terms.

The board and Feagins clashed early, however, over her elimination of about 1,100 positions over the summer, her allegations of overtime abuse by district employees, her response to school air conditioning problems, and her plans to close or consolidate schools under a broader facilities overhaul.

While Feagins gave board members detailed, data-heavy reports during their meetings, several suggested she was not transparent or collaborative enough about the big decisions and shifts she made.

At the same time, many community members were glad to see Feagins taking steps to shake up a district they viewed as top-heavy and in need of significant reforms. Speakers on Tuesday night praised Feagins as a visionary and connector, while threatening to recall board members.

Earlier Tuesday, McKissack released a statement asking her colleagues to delay the vote, citing community support for Feagins.

“I believe we should give Dr. Feagins the opportunity to address any concerns directly and collaboratively,” McKissack said in the statement. “This moment calls for patience and dialogue in the best interest of our students and families.”

Dorse-Coleman said after the meeting that community support for Feagins did not influence her tie-breaking vote.

“What I brought tonight, I still feel that way,” Dorse-Coleman said, referring to the resolution. “She has not properly communicated a lot of things with us.”

The district has been beset by leadership turmoil going back to at least August 2022, when then-Superintendent Joris Ray resigned amid an investigation into allegations that he abused his power and violated district policies. The board agreed to pay him a severance of nearly $500,000 and ended the investigation.

District administrator Toni Williams took over as interim superintendent, pledged she wouldn’t seek the job on a permanent basis, changed her mind and applied for the role, then backed out of the process. The district restarted its national search in June 2023, after the board agreed on a fresh set of job qualifications and criteria.

The school board has a different look than it did when Feagins was hired: November’s election resulted in four of its nine members being replaced.

The latest turmoil could reignite efforts by state leaders and lawmakers to seize some control of the Memphis district. Earlier this year, a Memphis lawmaker floated a proposal to expand the school board with additional members appointed by state officials.

Trump picks Linda McMahon to lead, and possibly dismantle, Education Department

2024-11-20T04:27:24+00:00

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Former professional wrestling executive and billionaire Linda McMahon is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Education, an agency Trump has pledged to dismantle.

McMahon would come to the post with sparse education experience. She led the Small Business Administration in Trump’s first administration and also led a pro-Trump spending group and think tank before serving as transition team co-chair. McMahon reportedly was in the running for commerce secretary but was passed over for Cantor Fitzgerald Chief Executive Howard Lutnick.

McMahon is the co-founder and former CEO of the WWE professional wrestling franchise with her husband Vince McMahon.

Trump announced the selection Tuesday evening on Truth Social after multiple news outlets reported it. He cited McMahon’s business and administrative experience and called her a “fierce advocate” for parents’ rights and school choice.

And he seemed to reference a much reduced role for the Education Department, if not its actual elimination.

“Linda will use her decades of Leadership experience, and deep understanding of both Education and Business, to empower the next Generation of American Students and Workers, and make America Number One in Education in the World,” Trump wrote. “We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort.”

In a podcast interview this fall, McMahon said her entry into politics began after she read about how students in the Greenwich, Connecticut, school district were falling short of expectations spelled out in No Child Left Behind. That 2002 federal law, championed by President George W. Bush, held schools accountable for student performance through test scores and other measures. Many Republicans have since moved away from that type of federal oversight.

“I’m sitting there thinking, ‘How could that be possible in Greenwich, Connecticut?’” McMahon said. “It’s a very wealthy community. We pay a great deal of our taxes toward education. How can that happen?”

She described a period of visiting charter, public, and private schools before Gov. Jodi Rell, a friend, invited her in 2009 to fill a vacancy on the Connecticut State Board of Education.

“I said, ‘Look … I’m certainly not in the world of education,” McMahon said on the podcast. “I don’t know if this is what you’re looking for. And she said, ‘I’m looking for exactly who you are: somebody from the outside who could come in, and I want feedback from that.’”

When McMahon was nominated, she told Connecticut lawmakers she had originally aspired to be a teacher and said interest in education had been “a significant constant” in her life. She pointed to her involvement in her own children’s education. And she spotlighted several WWE programs, including one that sent wrestlers into schools to deliver positive messages and another, the WrestleMania Reading Challenge, which featured posters of wrestlers encouraging students to read.

McMahon left the State Board after a year in office to pursue an unsuccessful Senate bid.

She also served twice on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University, a private Roman Catholic university in Connecticut.

Trump has made a series of startling choices for his initial cabinet picks, often favoring loyalists with little experience or advocates whose goals are opposed to the agencies he wants them to lead.

In choosing McMahon, Trump passed over experienced Republican state superintendents like Cade Brumley of Louisiana and dedicated culture warriors like Tiffany Justice, the co-founder of Moms for Liberty whose name was floated as a potential education secretary.

Trump campaigned on getting rid of the U.S. Department of Education, expanding school choice, rolling back Biden-era Title IX changes that expanded legal protections for transgender students, and punishing “woke” schools.

McMahon echoed concerns about “woke” thinking in the podcast interview this fall while also saying diversity is important.

“There’s too much of our woke environment,” she said. “There’s too much emphasis on DEI. Now, diversity, equity, and inclusion is important. I believe everybody should have the same opportunity, everybody should be treated equally. There is no room in our society for prejudices, like we are seeing now with anti-Semitism or … the racial inequality we’ve seen over the years. But I think we’ve continued to make strides.”

Getting rid of the U.S. Education Department would require congressional action and careful administration to determine which programs to end and which to move to other departments. Most observers expect that to be a substantial task that would divide Republicans and require significant political will to carry out. The idea has been proposed before and never gotten much traction.

On the other hand, some of Trump’s other ideas, like using federal funding to pressure schools to adopt more patriotic curriculum or end diversity initiatives, would require a bureaucracy — like that provided by the U.S. Department of Education — to carry out.

Ending the U.S. Department of Education: What it would mean and why Trump and Project 2025 want it

The Republican Party platform, which Trump shaped, also called for better connecting education to work opportunities, an issue that could be a rare point of bipartisan cooperation on education policy. In a September op-ed published in The Hill, McMahon supported a bipartisan bill to expand access to Pell grants for short-term credential programs.

The early reaction to Trump’s selection was mixed and fell along some expected ideological lines.

Justice, of Moms for Liberty, praised the pick, posting on the social media site X that McMahon “understands the assignment.” Rick Hess, director of education policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said he looked forward to learning more about her but otherwise withheld judgment.

In an emailed statement, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten also said she wants to know more about McMahon and hopes Trump is serious about improving career and technical education and expanding apprenticeships, even as she urged him not to get rid of the Education Department.

National Education Association President Becky Pringle took a different tack, decrying McMahon as “grossly unqualified.”

“By selecting Linda McMahon, Donald Trump is showing that he could not care less about our students’ futures,” she said in a statement.

If nominated and confirmed, McMahon would replace Miguel Cardona, President Joe Biden’s education secretary. Cardona oversaw pandemic recovery efforts, a beleaguered student loan forgiveness initiative, and the bungled revamp of the federal financial aid process.

During his first term, Trump chose Betsy DeVos, a staunch supporter of private schools and school choice, as his education secretary. She had some impact on K-12 education policy, most notably by scaling back civil rights investigations, rescinding guidance that spelled out protections for transgender students, and installing new rules about how schools should handle allegations of sexual assault.

But she failed to achieve her major policy goals, including offering federal tax credits to help families pay for private school tuition and shrinking the size of the federal education budget. She lacked congressional support for both proposals — a barrier the next education secretary may not face.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Trump plan to ax the Education Department might affect kids with disabilities a lot — or a little

Trump has won a second term. Here’s what that means for schools.

Denver Public Schools bond election results: 4A passes

2024-11-12T23:27:45+00:00

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Denver voters approved a $975 million bond to benefit Denver Public Schools, continuing a long trend of Denver voters pledging tax revenue to support the local schools.

Measure 4A passed 75% to 25%, according to unofficial election results released at 4 p.m. Tuesday, a week after Election Day, when officials finished counting ballots.

Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero released a statement last Wednesday morning thanking the city’s voters for passing the bond measure.

“We are grateful for the foresight of our community to help us ensure that our students will be provided a safe and welcoming environment in which to learn and grow,” Marrero said in the statement. “Denver Public Schools is dedicated to making sure that every student thrives.”

The $975 million bond measure was the Denver school district’s largest-ever ask.

Measure 4A will not increase property taxes because of how the school district has scheduled previous debt to come off its books. Denver voters approved bonds in 2020, 2016, 2012, and 2008 to benefit the district, which serves about 90,000 students.

The $975 million includes:

$240 million to install air conditioning at the 29 Denver schools without it.
$28 million for safety upgrades, including weapons detection and crisis communications systems and adding secure vestibules to 17 schools.
$43 million for middle and high school stage upgrades, theater seating, and more.
$33 million for athletic facilities upgrades, including installing artificial turf, updating high school weight rooms, replacing scoreboards, and adding lighting to athletic fields.
$51 million for career and technical education classrooms and STEAM spaces. STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and math.
$124 million for new school buses and new school construction, including building a new elementary school in the far northeast Gateway neighborhood and expanding another new campus near the airport to add middle school grades.
$100 million for upgrades to existing school buildings, including to school-based health clinics, restrooms, cafeterias, and outdoor classrooms.
$55 million for technology, including new Chromebooks and internet hotspots.
$301 million for critical maintenance at 154 buildings, including mechanical, electrical, and plumbing upgrades, as well as general renovations.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Adams 14 tax request election results: Late results show 4A and 4B pulling ahead

2024-11-11T17:01:21+00:00

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Final unofficial election results show Adams 14 voters ultimately passed both measures. Read a more updated story here.

The latest election results posted by Adams County over the weekend showed that two tax measures for the Adams 14 school district have pulled ahead, despite earlier results showing both measures failing.

The votes for and against 4A and 4B had narrowed Friday to nearly a dead heat when more than 30,000 ballots were left to be counted, according to unofficial election results and Adams County officials.

A $10 million mill levy override to raise teacher pay was failing by a single vote. And a $113.9 million bond question to build a new school was failing by 124 votes.

By Saturday night’s last update, the mill levy override was ahead by 225 votes and the bond was ahead by 90.

On Wednesday, when the vote spread was wider, the district had released a statement saying leaders were disappointed in the outcome but found solace because the measures were only about 300 votes short of passing.

“While we were hopeful for the passage of these measures to support facility improvements and teacher salaries, we respect the outcome and will continue to seek ways to address the district’s critical needs,” said Superintendent Karla Loria in the released statement. “The fact that we were just shy of 300 votes on both measures shows that the community is beginning to rebuild trust in the District. This is a clear sign that we’re moving in the right direction and working toward uniting our community for the benefit of our students.”

The district has previously struggled to increase local funding. Voters haven’t approved a tax measure in more than 10 years. For about as long, Adams 14 has struggled to increase student achievement on state tests but did successfully rally against state orders for reorganization which could have dissolved the district. Still, Adams 14 has one of the highest rates of students choosing to enroll in other school districts. It is also home to many low-income families that may be more wary of raising taxes.

Voter guide: Adams 14 district wants voters to approve new funding for schools

If approved, Adams County’s 4A and 4B ballot questions would cost Adams 14 homeowners approximately $6.52 a month per $100,000 of home value. For a home valued at $400,000, that would be about $26.08 per month.

Measure 4A is the district’s request for a mill levy override to produce about $10 million per year to help pay for salary increases for teachers and classified staff.

Measure 4B is the district’s bond request to raise $113.9 million that the district wants to use to build a new middle school to house seventh and eighth graders from Kearney Middle School and Adams City Middle school. The district is planning to merge the schools but would like to build a new building instead of having to make costly repairs on one of the schools.

The district estimates it will take $77 million out of the $113.9 million bond request to build the new school building. That’s nearly as much as this year’s total general fund budget for the district, which is just over $99 million.

If approved, the rest of the bond money would help pay for security upgrades, HVAC system upgrades, and other maintenance as well as new furniture for classrooms.

The last time the district asked voters for a tax measure was in 2014 and 2013, and the measures failed both years.

The district enrolled about 5,484 students last school year. A majority of students come from low-income families, and about half of students are learning English as a new language.

Adams 14 has been the focus of state accountability measures for several years as it has struggled to raise student achievement enough to earn higher state ratings. But State Board members have stopped escalating state orders and are putting more trust in the district’s plans for improvement.

We’ll continue to update this story with election results.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado State Board of Education election results: Republicans hold lead over Democrats

2024-11-08T18:52:38+00:00

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Republicans are poised to net another seat on the Colorado State Board of Education after last week’s election.

State elections returns on Monday show Republicans are leading the three contested races, including in the highly competitive Congressional District 8. In that race, the Republican candidate widened her lead, with conservative education group Ready Colorado already declaring victory. And a Democrat won in a fourth uncontested race.

The election won’t flip the majority, but if the results hold, Democratic Party members would hold a slimmer 5-to-4 majority on the board that helps set education standards and oversees accountability for the state’s education system.

More members on the board would also be friendlier to school choice, which would impact charter school appeals from the board. Conservatives would also have more say on upcoming health and science standards reviews.

Results show in Congressional District 8 that Republican Yazmin Navarro has a growing lead over Democratic incumbent Rhonda Solis. The two were separated by about 4,000 votes for most of Tuesday night and into Wednesday. Navarro has steadily run away from her opponent with a 16,000 vote lead.

In Congressional District 3, Republican Sherri Wright has a formidable lead that will likely propel her to a win over Democrat Ellen Angeles. Wright was recently appointed to fill the District 3 seat until January after former member Stephen Varela resigned last month.

Kristi Burton Brown, also a Republican, has a large lead and will likely beat Democrat Krista Holtzmann to represent Congressional District 4. Burton Brown will replace outgoing Republican board member Debora Scheffel.

And Democrat Kathy Gebhardt won election to represent District 2 over Libertarian Ethan Augreen, who mounted a write-in bid for the seat. Gebhardt will replace Democrat Angelika Schroeder.

Voter guide 2024: We asked Colorado State Board of Education candidates 9 questions

State board members are elected for six-year terms and do not earn a salary.

The State Board of Education holds schools and school districts accountable for student test scores, hears appeals when school districts reject charter school applications, and sets standards for what students should learn and what schools should teach, among other duties.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

Amendment 80 election results: School choice ballot measure fails

2024-11-07T17:26:15+00:00

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A ballot measure that would enshrine school choice in Colorado’s constitution has been defeated, according to unofficial election returns.

Amendment 80 remained at about 7 percentage points below the 55% approval rate needed for passage when the Associated Press officially called the race Thursday morning.

Kevin Vick, president of the Colorado Education Association, which opposed the amendment, said Tuesday when initial results were reported that he was encouraged the measure appeared headed for defeat.

“I think the voters of Colorado saw this for what it really was, which is … a backdoor way of bringing private school vouchers into Colorado,” he said. “I just think this is a reaffirmation that the people of Colorado really appreciate their public schools.”

Voters in Kentucky and Nebraska also defeated school choice measures Tuesday.

Some experts predicted that passing Amendment 80 would most likely lead to a court dispute and a judge deciding how it would be interpreted.

Amendment 80 would have established “the right to school choice” for K-12 students. It defined school choice to include neighborhood schools, charter schools, private schools, home schools, open enrollment options, and “future innovations in education.”

The language said that “parents have the right to direct the education of their children” and that “all children have the right to equal opportunity to access a quality education.”

School choice is already guaranteed under Colorado law, but supporters have said passing Amendment 80 would protect that right from future attacks by state lawmakers.

Advance Colorado, the conservative group that proposed Amendment 80, suggested as the measure appeared headed to defeat that it may make another attempt.

“‘It is a certainty that we will see the same groups that spent millions against Amendment 80 back at the Capitol in a few weeks to renew their legislative assaults on charter schools and other forms of school choice,” Michael Fields, the group’s president, said in a statement Tuesday.

“When those rights are attacked, we will be prepared to bring Amendment 80 back before voters in the future,” he said. “Tonight marks just another round in the fight to protect school choice in Colorado.”

Besides Advance Colorado, Amendment 80 was supported by the Colorado Association of Private Schools, the Colorado Catholic Conference, the Independence Institute, Ready Colorado, and the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University.

Opponents included the ACLU of Colorado, the Colorado Democratic Party, the Colorado PTA, the Colorado Association of School Executives, a slew of individual school districts, including Denver Public Schools, the Christian Home Educators of Colorado, and several other organizations.

Voucher programs in other states, such as Arizona, have proven to be expensive.

Officials from Advance Colorado denied that Amendment 80 was about private school vouchers. The group initially proposed another amendment that was about vouchers but decided not to pursue collecting signatures to get it on the ballot.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Teachers toss their lesson plans, give students the floor to grapple with Trump win

2024-11-06T23:11:40+00:00

In collaboration with the Headway Election Challenge from The New York Times, we’re asking: What should future students of American democracy know about the 2024 election?

“Doomed.” “Baffled.” “Scared.” “Happy.” “I don’t care.” “We are so cooked.”

Those were the reactions to the presidential election result that students scrawled on a white board Wednesday morning inside Joshua Ferguson’s 11th grade government class at Ypsilanti Community High School in Michigan.

Before he knew that former President Donald Trump had won a second term, Ferguson thought he would do a lesson on disinformation in politics. Instead, he gave students room to talk. The most important piece of this lesson, he said, was for his students to feel safe and heard.

“I think that’s my job as a teacher,” he said.

Teacher Joshua Ferguson turned his classroom at Michigan's Ypsilanti Community High School over to his students the day after the 2024 election.

Educators across the country awakened Wednesday to the news of a second Trump presidency, then headed into school buildings where students were feeling everything from elation to shock to despair. Some had carefully scripted lesson plans at the ready. Others, like Ferguson, scrapped what they prepared and simply listened.

For civics and social studies teachers who had been monitoring the 2024 presidential election, Wednesday presented both a pedagogical challenge – and opportunity. Chalkbeat reporters fanned out to schools across the country to see how teachers approached this monumental day.

This story was reported by Caroline Bauman, Gabrielle Birkner, Hannah Dellinger, Jessie Gomez, Dale Mezzacappa, Amelia Pak-Harvey, Carly Sitrin, and Alex Zimmerman.

‘Why do people keep voting for Trump?’

Ahead of his 7:30 a.m. social studies class Wednesday, teacher John Winters had prepared a worksheet to spur conversation.

“As you know, [fill in the blank] has been elected as the next U.S. President,” the sheet read. “Please share your thoughts, feelings, concerns, questions, etc.”

His students at Philadelphia’s Murrell Dobbins Career & Technical Education High School didn’t need much prompting.

“He IS a convicted felon and should’ve never been allowed to run ever again,” wrote one student.

People “don’t want to see a girl/woman be the president,” wrote another.

“Why do people keep voting for Trump? Especially people that he doesn’t even like and is racist towards?” still another wrote.

John Winters teaches his American history class at Murrell Dobbins Career & Technical Education High School in Philadelphia the day after the 2024 presidential election.

The responses conveyed dismay and fear among some at the 800-student technical school, which is 89% Black and located in the city’s lowest income ZIP code.

At the end of the class, one junior held back to talk to Winters. Anxiety, even fear, was written all over his face as he struggled for words.

He asked a series of questions, like how many bills a president could pass and how an impeached president could be elected again. Winters answered but sensed there was something larger the boy wanted to know.

“I was born here, but I’m scared for my parents,” he said. “They’re from Haiti. It’s bad there right now.”

Winters reminded him that strongly Democratic Philadelphia has been a sanctuary city, meaning it doesn’t always cooperate with the federal government in enforcing immigration law. He told the young man to clarify with his parents their status. But then, reluctantly, he added: “I can’t lie, it’s a concerning situation.”

The boy put his head down, and slowly walked to his next class.

A rightward shift, especially among boys

At The Global Learning Collaborative, a high school situated in the deep-blue Upper West Side of Manhattan, students reacted to Trump’s victory with a mix of fear, ambivalence — and support.

More than 70% of the school’s students are Latino, and many expressed alarm over Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. But there was still a sizable number of students who supported the Republican candidate during a mock election held during a Wednesday morning assembly: 136 students voted for Vice President Kamala Harris, while 70 supported Trump.

Junior Alix Torres said she has undocumented relatives and worries about his promise to ramp up deportations.

“I woke up kind of angry this morning,” Torres said, noting that she helped persuade some family members to vote for Harris. “I hope he hears the public and chooses to not go through with that. We built this country.”

Others at The Global Learning Collaborative said they supported Trump or didn’t have a firm opinion of him; nearly all were under 10 years old during his first presidency.

Senior Sara Otero is a devout Christian who cast a ballot for Trump.

Senior Sara Otero, who is 18, voted for the first time on Tuesday, casting a ballot for the former president. A devout Christian, Otero said she believed Trump would preserve religious liberty, though she hadn’t followed the election closely.

“I wasn’t as educated as I wish I was on the whole thing,” she said.

Harris decisively won New York City, but by a much smaller margin than Biden did in 2020. Civics teacher Martin Gloster said he has seen a rightward shift in political attitudes in his classroom.

“I think teenage boys are really attracted to that strongman presence,” he said.

Gloster said he has struggled with teaching contemporary politics, including the presidential debate in which Trump falsely suggested Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs. In a class that discussed the debate, one student had faced an arduous journey emigrating from Guatemala, while others were more sympathetic to Trump.

“It’s difficult because obviously I play it down the middle — Trump is just a different thing,” Gloster said. “I’m learning on the fly. I don’t have all the answers.”

Taking lessons from Gore’s 2000 concession speech

When Reid Stuart arrived for his first class on Wednesday, he had three goals for students: Give space to process this huge political moment, impart tools to combat misinformation online – and watch Al Gore’s concession speech from 2000.

“It’s an incredible speech, by a Tennessean, after a tense moment that calls for unity,” said Stuart, who teaches at Crosstown High School, a diverse public charter school in Memphis, Tennessee. “It feels relevant.”

His students in AP Human Geography settled into class, some joking with each other about the election and others speaking somberly.

Reid Stuart and his students discuss Al Gore's 2000 presidential concession speech Wednesday at Crosstown High School in Memphis, Tennessee.

Before watching Gore’s 2000 concession speech, Stuart asked: What did his students expect from a conceding presidential candidate?

“To show respect to the other candidate.” “To show respect for the system.” “To actually concede,” students chimed in.

Stuart then asked, “If you are Al Gore, how are you feeling?”

“Cheated.” “Mad.” “Unaccepting of loss.” “Bitter.”

Gore, a Democrat, gave his speech more than a month after the 2000 Election Day and after a historic U.S. Supreme Court ruling paved the path to victory for Republican George W. Bush amidst public confusion and outcry.

Stuart asked his students what they thought of Gore’s delivery and message.

“I think he was being sarcastic,” said one student. “Like you could tell he didn’t really believe what he was saying, and felt like he should have won, but he still called for unity and respect.”

As other students in the room nodded in agreement, Stuart said: “This is a hallmark of a free and fair election, that the person who lost, can get up there and offer a unifying message, even if he is bitter. Right?”

He noted that Harris was expected to give her concession speech later Wednesday. “I encourage you to watch it,” he told students. “See if she has the same message of unification and moving forward, even though you can guarantee she is feeling deeply about the loss.”

An election that turned on grocery prices and utility bills

Philadelphia social studies teacher Charlie McGeehan prepared for every election outcome – but, he admitted to his students Wednesday morning, “this is not what I expected.”

When he went to bed Tuesday night before midnight, McGeehan had anticipated explaining to the juniors and seniors in his classes about how long vote counting can take. About how we might not know the outcome of the election for several days. About the role deep-blue Philadelphia would play in deciding the election.

Students comb through election results Wednesday at Academy at Palumbo in South Philadelphia.

By the time he woke on Wednesday, that plan was moot. So, he figured, let’s just give the students — many of whom had spent long hours working the polls the day prior — space to decompress.

Together, they combed through the election results guided by students’ questions like “How was the polling yesterday so surprising?” “Which state did the race ultimately come down to?” and “Does Kamala Harris have any path to winning at all?”

To that last question, McGeehan was straightforward: “No, she doesn’t.”

Many of McGeehan’s students at the Academy at Palumbo are first- or second-generation Americans or immigrants. On notecards, students laid out their more personal fears, ones they didn’t necessarily want to share with the class.

“As a woman and a child of an immigrant, I’m honestly scared” read one. “I saw a post saying how Trump pledged to launch mass deportation… which makes me feel like not researching more because of how much more sick stuff I might read,” said another.

One said “I feel great because Trump’s [positions] align with what I want. Especially with the issues of censorship, grocery prices, and utility bills.”

Students at Academy at Palumbo wrote their thoughts and questions on sticky notes.

‘Kind of a very depressing day’

Nehemiah Legrand tried to eat dinner Tuesday but couldn’t finish. She was glued to her phone. She was up until 3 a.m.

The 13-year-old student at Enlace Academy, a pre-K-8 school in the International Marketplace area of Indianapolis, is an American citizen by birth whose parents are legally living in the country. The family fled Haiti after her older brother was kidnapped in 2020 amid the country’s political turmoil.

Still, Trump’s campaign rhetoric around immigration scared Nehemiah – and made her fear that her family would be deported.

“I just feel like today — it doesn’t feel normal,” she said, sitting in the school’s hallway on Wednesday, looking out the window at the rain. “People are not talkative or none of that. It’s very, very strange. It’s kind of a very depressing day. Because everyone just doesn’t know what’s going to happen next, and you can tell everyone is stressed.”

The presidential election has loomed large over her and her classmates at the school, where many students come from Latin America and Haiti. At this school, students have to grow up fast. Many carry trauma from their immigration to the United States, said lead social worker Hailey Butchart.

Now, students like Nehemiah are preparing for what the next four years with Trump — whose platform includes deploying “the largest deportation operation in American history” — will mean for them.

“A lot of the students I speak with have had a family member that has been deported, and they live with that fear as well,” Butchart said.

The power of social media in elections

On the morning after Election Day, Zy’Asia Weathers rolled over in bed to grab her phone on a nearby nightstand and scrolled through TikTok.

But instead of seeing videos of makeup reviews or the latest trends, Zy’Asia’s feed was filled with women and girls crying about the outcome of Tuesday’s election and the potential impact on female reproductive rights.

Yanibel Feliz, the advisor of the Student Government Association at KIPP Newark Collegiate Academy, walks her students through a post-election discussion.

“People were even saying, like, very vague things, like, just thinking the worst of the worst,” added Zy’Asia, 17, a senior at KIPP Newark Collegiate Academy.

Throughout the school day Wednesday, Zy’Asia and her peers talked about other videos they saw, like people celebrating former president Donald Trump’s reelection and others questioning what his victory would mean for the nation.

Zy’Asia is also the president of her school’s Student Government Association, and on Wednesday, the group met to discuss the presidential outcomes. Yanibel Feliz, the advisor of the group, walked students through an exercise to discuss the election process, the outcome, and the effect of social media.

Some students said they were shocked about Trump’s victory because they had seen much support for Harris on social media.

“Sometimes, social media might paint a picture of how elections will go,” said Trinity Douglas, a junior at the school, during class. “But it has a big effect on our generation.”

‘I’m afraid what will happen to my family’

The icebreaker in Joel Snyder’s government classes on Wednesday was to respond to the prompt: “I am feeling … because …”

The responses were wide-ranging and included students who were enthusiastic about the election outcome and those who were disappointed the U.S. would not, after all, elect a woman as president.

In the few minutes they were given, students took pencil to paper and wrote that they were “shocked” to hear how well Trump did with Latinos, “furious” at what they saw as sexism in the results, and “concerned” that America had once again elected a man whose flaws and felony convictions are, by now, well known.

Some answers hit closer to home. “I am feeling uneasy,” one student wrote, “because I’m afraid what will happen to my family who are undocumented.”

Joel Snyder holds up the book "You Call This Democracy?" by Elizabeth Rusch. Each student in Snyder's AP U.S. Government and Politics class received their own copy on Wednesday.

Standing at the front of his class at Ánimo Pat Brown Charter High School in the Florence-Firestone neighborhood of South Los Angeles, the teacher reminded his students that whether or not they are U.S. citizens, they have “the duty to be the protectors of democracy and of each other.” Snyder teaches about 140 students across five government classes, including one AP course. Of the roughly 600 students enrolled at Ánimo Pat Brown, almost all of them are Hispanic — their families hailing from Mexico, Guatemala, and elsewhere in Latin America.

Snyder also asked his students to write down one issue that they care about and how they think Trump’s election might impact it. The students chose abortion rights, the economy, constitutional norms, and, again and again, immigration. They shared their fears of mass deportations and stories of family members who had waited years for green cards they may never get.

“My main concern is how, even despite being a citizen, I still won’t be protected because my parents are immigrants,” Natalie, 17, a student in Snyder’s AP U.S. Government and Politics class, told Chalkbeat.

Detroit school board election results: Incumbent and two others win seats

2024-11-06T20:36:46+00:00

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Incumbent Sherry Gay-Dagnogo has won a second term on the Detroit school board with a decisive lead over the next two vote-getters in Tuesday’s election.

With all precincts reporting, Gay-Dagnogo had 57,399 votes, or about 13% of the vote totals. Gay-Dagnogo, a former state lawmaker and district teacher, was first elected in 2020 and was running for reelection.

Gay-Dagnogo was followed by Monique Bryant, a parent and nonprofit director, who had 43,006 votes, or 9.5%. Ida Simmons Short, who previously served on the board for Detroit Public Schools, had 41,378 votes, or 9.1%. Short is a community college educator.

Three seats were up for grabs in the Detroit Public Schools Community District in what could end up being a pivotal election election for the district.

It was one of several crucial education-related elections Chalkbeat covered in Michigan. The others are a citywide school millage, a countywide school millage, and the State Board of Education race.

There is a lot at stake in each of these elections. For the Detroit school board, new faces on the board — depending on who gets elected — could affect the district’s turnaround efforts and Superintendent Nikolai Vitti’s vision.

The district, the state’s largest, has seen improvements in attendance and academic achievement, but its challenges are immense. Even with the gains, student performance on state exams is extremely low and well below state averages. Meanwhile, nearly 66% of district students were chronically absent during the last school year, meaning they missed 18 or more days.

By 11 a.m., about 180 people had voted at the precinct at Mark Twain School for Scholars in Southwest Detroit, according to an election worker.

One of those voters was Martel Peguese. The 56-year-old Detroiter voted for Kamala Harris, saying she is the right fit for president due to her law background. But he found it hard to choose DPSCD board candidates due to the broad field.

He said some of the topics the school board should focus on when the new candidates are in office are school safety, funding and having new school facilities.

“Kids shouldn’t be afraid to go to school or go to school hungry,” Peguese said. “They (the board) gotta paint kids a brighter future.”

Sherice Ward, 59, a Detroit social worker , also had a “very tough” time choosing DPSCD school board candidates.

“A lot of them probably can bring a lot to the table,” Ward said.

She believes the current board is doing a good job, but would like to see improved services for students with disabilities. She said schools are behind in evaluating students with disabilities for services “truly needed for them to further their education, to grow and to become great citizens.”

She said that DPSCD needs more funding and services, and that the district is understaffed when it comes to dealing with the behavioral issues affecting many schools.

“It’s really a wait and see what happens,” she said. “It’s hard when a parent can’t get their kid in school because there’s not enough programs or efficient staffing, it’s very difficult.”

One Detroiter left the DPSCD portion of the ballot blank. Sinatra Thomas, 62, said he didn’t see or hear anything about the candidates.

However, Thomas did vote in favor of Proposal S, which would allow Detroit Public Schools — which exists solely to collect tax revenue and pay off debt — to levy the full 18 mills on non-homestead property.

“I’m for supporting our school system even if I don’t support the board,” he said.

Vitti has had strong support from the board since he was hired in 2017. Earlier this year, the board extended Vitti’s contract until 2028, which would make him one of the longest serving superintendents in the district — a rare tenure for an urban district.

He told Chalkbeat in July that the ability to “sustain and accelerate the improvement the District has experienced over the past seven years rests heavily” with the school board and future school board elections.

The board will have two new faces because Sonya Mays and Misha Stallworth opted not to join Sherry Gay-Dagnogo in running for re-election.

BridgeDetroit reporters Micah Walker and Jena Brooker contributed to this report.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Trump has won a second term. Here’s what that means for schools.

2024-11-06T19:21:00+00:00

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On the campaign trail, Donald Trump pledged to get rid of the U.S. Department of Education, expand school choice, roll back new protections for LGBTQ students, and deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

Now that the former Republican president is headed to a second term, the question becomes how likely Trump is to act on those ideas and others — and what effects students, teachers, and parents might see in the classroom.

There is significant uncertainty. Trump has not laid out detailed education policy proposals, and some key ideas were floated but not enacted in his first term.

At the same time, Trump’s decisive victory — he won the popular vote, picked up nearly every swing state, and made gains among young voters and voters of color — could create new political openings.

TELL CHALKBEAT: Trump will be the next president. What do you want him to know about your school community?

Chalkbeat spoke to advocates, experts, and former education department officials about what to expect from the next administration. They widely agreed that President Joe Biden’s Title IX rewrite, which extended new protections for transgender students and is currently tied up in the courts, will be repealed, that civil rights enforcement will look very different, and that future education budgets will be more austere.

But they disagreed on how likely it is that Trump would actually do away with the U.S. Department of Education and how much progress he might make toward federal support for school choice.

Many said they do not expect to see federal policy focused on improving education, even as students are still struggling to recover from the wide-ranging effects of pandemic school closures, chronic absenteeism remains high, and many students graduate poorly prepared for college or skilled jobs.

“We are getting ourselves into a position where we are seriously under-educating large, large numbers of students,” said Thomas Toch, the founding director of FutureEd, a think tank based at Georgetown University. “It’s almost at a crisis point.” But Toch doesn’t expect leadership from a Trump administration.

What does happen will depend on who controls Congress. Republicans have regained the Senate, but control of the House remains unclear and may not be known for days. A trifecta could clear the way for a broader Trump agenda. Trump’s pick for education secretary — whether he opts for an experienced administrator or a dedicated culture warrior — will matter, too.

For now, conservative parents’ rights groups and school choice advocates hailed Trump’s victory as a win for their perspective.

“Time to put parents back in the driver’s seat when it comes to their children’s education!,” Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice, who campaigned alongside Trump, wrote on the social media platform X.

Calls to abolish the Department of Education have new momentum

Arguably this has been Trump’s most consistent promise on education policy, but also the one that seems most far-fetched to some political observers. Conservatives have talked about getting rid of the department for almost as long as it’s existed, and Trump didn’t make any moves to dismantle it in his first administration.

Fully dismantling the department would require an act of Congress. But Trump could limit its reach in other ways, such as eliminating or moving programs, removing career bureaucrats, and proposing much tighter budgets.

But Jim Blew, who served in Trump’s education department in his first administration and went on to found the Defense of Freedom Institute, said Trump has been adamant that he wants to get rid of the department, and that alone gives the idea more “heft.” Blew also believes public support for a federal role in education is changing. Many people don’t think the federal investment in COVID recovery yielded much, he said. At the same time, people see the Biden administration’s approach to Title IX changes and student loan forgiveness as examples of federal overreach.

Why ending the U.S. Department of Education is so alluring to the GOP — and so difficult

It would take months to take the department apart, Blew said, because every function mandated by Congress would need a new home. But that could be done, he said. Civil rights enforcement could move to the U.S. Department of Justice, for example, and Title I funding for high-poverty schools could become a block grant administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Trump has been clear that his priorities are economic recovery, immigration, and national defense, Blew said, but that doesn’t mean he won’t follow through on education promises.

“It doesn’t need a lot of attention,” Blew said. “It needs political capital. And he can expend that while remaining focused on other priorities.”

Immigration enforcement could ripple through school communities

Trump made demonization of immigrants the centerpiece of his campaign, highlighting at every turn examples of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants or asylum seekers and the impact of immigration on American communities and schools.

Trump has promised to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history. Some experts on immigration policy have said such an effort would be legally and logistically challenging, as well as very expensive. Nonetheless, most observers expect to see an increase in enforcement.

Previous workplace raids have had widespread impacts on students whose parents were arrested, as well as on the broader community. An estimated 4.4 million American children have at least one undocumented parent, and some former Trump immigration officials have suggested that families be deported together.

Mike Petrilli, president of the conservative education advocacy organization The Fordham Institute, believes Trump’s education policies won’t make much difference in American classrooms, but his immigration policy may be felt in dramatic ways.

“It’s what he’s campaigned on, it’s what he’s promised to do, and he’d have a pretty free hand to do it,” said Petrilli, who has argued that American schools have a moral obligation as well as a legal one to educate all children who live here.

“The chances that it’s a humanitarian disaster are quite high,” Petrilli said. “Is he going to put people in camps? Will that include families? Are there going to be schools in these camps? I don’t see any reason we should believe they won’t give that a try.”

Trump’s deportation plan could separate millions of families, leaving schools to pick up the pieces

Even if enforcement is spotty, changes to federal policy have the potential to sow confusion and chaos in local communities, said Janelle Scott, a professor at University of California Berkeley. Some families may keep children home from school out of fear, she said. The messages that local law enforcement and school district officials send to families in this situation could make a difference.

Transgender students could lose new protections as civil rights enforcement changes

When the Biden administration issued new Title IX rules that clarified and strengthened protections for transgender students, Republican states and conservative groups, including Blew’s Defense of Freedom Institute, quickly filed lawsuits that led to the rules being blocked in a majority of states.

Conservatives argued that the new rules eroded protections for cisgender girls because they might have to share bathrooms and locker rooms with transgender classmates and affected the free speech rights of teachers who might be forced to use pronouns and names they disagreed with. They also argued the Biden administration overstepped by defining discrimination on the basis of gender identity as a form of sex discrimination.

Trump is expected to rescind the Biden rules, a move that would still require a lengthy bureaucratic process. But some observers have larger fears for a Trump administration. He has repeatedly accused schools of performing gender surgeries without parental permission — a false and baseless claim — and attacked the idea of gender-affirming care for youth, as well as participation in sports by transgender athletes.

“There have been fantastical claims, but undergirding that is a deep hostility to queer kids as well as allegations that schools are engaging in child abuse if they protect the rights of queer kids,” said Scott, the UC Berkeley professor.

Trump’s first administration also revoked Obama-era guidance on school discipline that aimed to reduce suspensions and expulsions for students of color and emphasized quick resolution of complaints. Some conservative groups have also used civil rights complaints to go after programs that aim to support Black student excellence or mentor teachers of color.

“Civil rights enforcement is one of those things that does change quite a bit as you move between Democratic and Republican administrations,” said Jon Valant, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution.

Rick Hess, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said a Trump education or justice department could make high-profile examples of a few school districts’ diversity initiatives and bring about more widespread change, similar to how the Obama administration targeted districts over school discipline.

Valant said he expects Trump to continue to lean into culture war issues, though exactly what that would look like is unclear.

The Republican platform calls for defunding “woke” schools, something many observers said even Republicans might balk at as stepping on local control. Nonetheless, the federal government frequently uses funding as leverage, and teachers already report self-censoring when it comes to divisive political issues.

A Trump administration might also elevate examples of what it deems patriotic education, Valant said.

School choice gets a modest momentum boost

Expanding taxpayer funding for private schools and home-schooling have topped the conservative education agenda in recent years. A proposed federal tax credit scholarship program backed by Trump’s first education secretary, Betsy DeVos, failed to get any traction. But during Biden’s presidency, Republican-led states have expanded or started private school choice programs, some of which offer money to nearly all interested families.

On Fox News, Trump promised to sign school choice legislation that passed a House committee, and at a barbershop in the Bronx, he talked about the importance of school choice.

Blew expects Trump to push for a tax credit scholarship proposal similar to the one drafted during his first presidency.

Petrilli isn’t convinced that Trump cares that much. “It’s a stretch to say that he’s made it a priority on the campaign trail,” he said. “He has to be reminded to talk about it.”

Petrilli is also not convinced there would be enough support even in a Republican-controlled Congress to send a bill to Trump’s desk. Some rural Republicans, whose constituents have few private school options, are skeptical. So are small government conservatives who don’t want to expand federal programs.

Voters in three states — including two that Trump won by large margins — rejected school choice at the ballot on Tuesday, indicating that even many conservatives have qualms about spending public money on private schools. At the same time, Republican governors in Tennessee and Texas are pushing ahead after growing their legislative support.

But Congress will have to reauthorize Trump’s tax cuts, and a tax credit that allows businesses and individuals to write off donations to private school scholarships could be included there. Observers also expect to see a push to allow families to use money in tax-favored 529 accounts to pay for homeschooling expenses, tutoring, and other educational needs. That money already can be used for private school tuition.

Clarification: This article has been updated to more accurately describe policies that many conservatives see as federal overreach.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

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Education elections we’re watching

2024-11-06T16:30:14+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

The decisions voters made Tuesday will set the course of education policy for the next four years and perhaps for far longer.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for president, has won a second term. He has pledged to get rid of the U.S. Department of Education, cut funding for “woke” schools, roll back new protections for LGBTQ students, and expand school choice. Trump also has pledged to carry out a massive deportation operation that could have significant impacts on schools serving large immigrant communities.

TELL CHALKBEAT: Trump will be the next president. What do you want him to know about your school community?

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, cast herself as the defender of public education. One of her first stops after she announced her candidacy was at the convention of the American Federation of Teachers. She selected a former teacher, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as her running mate.

She focused her campaign on policies such as affordable child care and an expanded child tax credit that could help alleviate child poverty and take some of the burden off K-12 schools. She also promised to expand apprenticeships and make college more affordable.

Political observers have said either candidate’s education agenda — including who ends up serving as education secretary — would be shaped by who controls Congress. Republicans are projected to take control of the U.S. Senate, while control of the House has not been settled.

Trump has won a second term. Here's what it means for education.

As always, state and local elections could have a more immediate impact on K-12 education. Voters also chose school board members in hundreds of districts, including in Chicago as part of a transition away from mayoral control. They also weighed in on state superintendents of education, school choice ballot measures, and the meaning of a high school diploma.

We’ll have much more on what Trump’s election means for schools and children. For now, here are some of the education races we have been watching around the country.

An extremist Republican loses bid for top education post in North Carolina

In the high-profile contest for North Carolina’s superintendent of public instruction, Democrat Mo Green beat Republican Michele Morrow.

Morrow’s many controversial statements attracted national attention to the race. She participated in the march on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and accused some teachers of being “groomers.” She homeschooled her children for part of their education and referred to public schools as “indoctrination centers” on the campaign trail. Morrow also called for the execution of prominent Democrats, including former President Barack Obama — she later called it a joke.

Green is the former superintendent of Guilford County Schools, one of the largest districts in North Carolina, who also held leadership roles in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. He described the race as a fight for the “soul of public education,” and said Morrow’s extremist rhetoric shouldn’t be normalized.

In North Dakota, incumbent state superintendent Kirsten Baesler handily beat Jason Heitkamp, a former state senator, to secure a fourth term. The race is nonpartisan, but both candidates are Republicans.

Notably, Baesler did not win the support of her state’s Republican party in the primary. The party instead backed a home schooling proponent who wanted to put the Ten Commandments in public schools, but that candidate ultimately didn’t get enough votes to advance.

Baesler has said the state’s Republican delegation is out of touch on education and overly focused on ideological issues that don’t have much effect on classroom instruction.

In Montana, Republican Susie Hedalen will succeed outgoing Superintendent Elsie Arntzen, who’s hit her eight-year term limit. She bested Democrat Shannon O’Brien, a state senator who advised former Gov. Steve Bullock on education policy

Hedalen is the vice chair of the state’s board of education and heads Montana’s Townsend School District. She formerly served as a deputy under Arntzen, who faced criticism for how her office oversaw spending and implemented education laws.

In Florida, school board elections remain non-partisan

A proposal to require school board elections to become partisan did not meet the 60% threshold it needed to amend Florida’s constitution, despite getting the support of 55% of voters. The proposed amendment would have mandated school board candidates to have their political party listed by their name on the general election ballot.

According to Ballotpedia, more than 90% of school boards are elected without any party labels attached to candidates. In recent years, however, more states and school districts have discussed moving to a partisan election system. Supporters argue that the new system will provide more transparency regarding the candidates’ political positions, while those opposed to it say it could bring about more polarization and political conflict.

Florida held partisan school board elections before a major electoral reform in 2000.

Voters reject school choice at the ballot

Vouchers and educational savings accounts have gained momentum in legislatures across the country, but voters in three states appear wary of spending public dollars on private schools.

Voters in Colorado were rejecting an effort to enshrine the right to school choice in the state constitution. The ballot measure would not have created or funded a voucher program. Still, opponents feared it would open the door to vouchers in this Democratic-dominated state.

Colorado has a robust charter sector, but Democratic legislators have blocked efforts to introduce private school choice or give public money to home schooling families. In unofficial returns, more than half of voters said no. The constitutional amendment would have needed at least 55% of the vote to pass.

In Kentucky, voters soundly rejected a proposed amendment to the state’s constitution that would have allowed public funding for students in non-public institutions. The proposed amendment proposal was placed on the ballot by Republican lawmakers to clear the way for a voucher program. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and the state teachers union opposed the amendment.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate and a supporter of school choice measures, won the state by a large margin, showing that a large number of Republican voters rejected one of his main education policy proposals.

In Nebraska, voters repealed a new law that would have directed $10 million of public money toward private school vouchers. The law established a partnership between the state and the nonprofit Opportunity Scholarships of Nebraska, directing public money to fund scholarships provided by the organization to low-income students.

The state legislature approved the law in April, with strong support from conservative politicians. Teachers unions opposed the scholarship program and pushed for a repeal to appear on the ballot. Their main argument is that the program would take away funding from public institutions.

The voucher repeal passed by a wide margin. Voucher proponents vowed to keep fighting.

Massachusetts votes to get rid of high school exit exam requirement

In yet another sign of the changing attitudes around what it should take to graduate from high school, Massachusetts residents voted solidly in favor of ditching the state’s required exit exam.

Right now, Massachusetts students have to pass a 10th grade math, science, and English test to get their diploma. Going forward, students will instead have to show they’ve mastered state standards in those subjects by completing certain coursework. School districts will make that call, likely with the state board of education weighing in on what it takes to demonstrate mastery.

The state’s largest teachers union led the campaign to repeal the exit exam requirement, arguing it disadvantages students with disabilities, students learning English, and students from low-income families. Graduation exams generally don’t increase academic achievement, research has found, and they can increase high school dropout rates.

Massachusetts’ governor and secretary of education both opposed getting rid of the test as a graduation requirement, saying the exams help set a uniform and high standard.

Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, who lives in Massachusetts, said getting rid of the test would be a “disaster” and lead to some districts setting a low bar with the excuse that children who grow up in poverty just can’t do well in school.

“We don’t like the story that the data tells us,” she said, “that we’re not doing an adequate job preparing our children for adulthood.”

As of last school year, Massachusetts was one of only eight states that still required high schoolers to pass an exit exam to graduate. Several states have ditched the requirement in recent years, and others are moving in that direction. New York officials, for example, also proposed getting rid of the requirement that students pass the state’s Regents exams to graduate as part of a broader diploma overhaul.

Chicago elects first school board members

Chicago voters appear likely to elect a politically mixed school board as the nation’s fourth-largest school district begins a transition away from mayoral control. Unofficial results showed four teachers union-backed candidates, three pro-school choice candidates, and three independent candidates either winning or holding leads.

The elected board members will serve alongside mayoral appointees until 2026, when all members will be chosen by the voters.

The election comes at a time of political turmoil, as Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former teachers union organizer, has tried to assert his authority and stave off cuts to schools with a controversial plan to use loans to cover pension obligations.

Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez (third from left) and Mayor Brandon Johnson (far right) ring bells with students at Chalmers Elementary School on the first day of the 2024-2025 school year. Johnson has pressured Martinez to resign, and the next school board could decide whether he continues to lead the district.

The appointed members of the board recently resigned en masse, and some of their replacements may be replaced again once the election results are clear. That means that an entirely new board with no experienced members will be charged with tackling major challenges, including a looming budget deficit, negotiations for a new teachers contract, the future of school choice, and the district’s relationship with the city.

Both the Chicago Teachers Union and pro-school choice groups have spent heavily in the race in an effort to influence the outcome.

Union-backed candidates leading in Los Angeles

Supporters of charter schools had hoped to pick up at least one seat on the Los Angeles Unified School District board as that body faces a major leadership transition. But in early returns, candidates backed by the teachers union were ahead, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Long-serving members of the board President Jackie Goldberg and George McKenna are retiring. Members backed by the teachers union took control in 2022. Since then, charter schools have faced less favorable policies while grappling with problems like declining enrollment.

Los Angeles is the nation’s second-largest school district and the largest governed by an elected school board. Technically there are four open seats on the seven-member board, but one of the races was decided in March when incumbent Tanya Ortiz Franklin, a supporter of charter schools, won her primary with more than 50% of the vote.

The most watched race is in District 3, where Dan Chang, a teacher and charter supporter, tried to unseat incumbent Scott Schmerelson, who had the backing of the teachers union.

Schmerelson, who has served two terms on the school board, was favored to win the race and was ahead in initial returns. Schmerelson has been a reliable vote for more charter oversight.

Chang had said that if he were successful, he would repeal a controversial policy that limits charter schools’ ability to use district buildings. Sharing space has been critical to charter school growth not only in Los Angeles but in other cities as well.

In another race, a candidate backed by the teachers union had a strong lead over one backed by the support staff union. In the final open seat, Sherlett Hendy Newbill could bring a more independent voice. The teachers union had backed her primary opponent before antisemitic social media posts effectively ended his candidacy, and she received very little financial support from the union.

Elsewhere in California, candidates backed by conservative parents’ rights groups and teachers unions are battling for control of school boards in elections that focus more on control over curriculum and the erosion of policies to protect racial equity and LGBTQ rights.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Wellington Soares is Chalkbeat’s national education reporting intern based in New York City. Contact Wellington at wsoares@chalkbeat.org.

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2024 election results: Indiana voters elect Republican Mike Braun for governor

2024-11-06T14:31:48+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Republican Mike Braun has won the Indiana governor’s election, with the Associated Press calling the race after the polls closed at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Braun faced Democrat Jennifer McCormick, the former state superintendent of public instruction, as well as Libertarian software engineer Donald Rainwater.

With 93% of Indiana precincts reporting, unofficial results Wednesday afternoon showed Braun with 54.2% of the vote to McCormick’s 41.2% and Rainwater’s 4.6%.

Braun, a businessman and U.S. senator since 2019, previously served in the Indiana House of Representatives from 2014 to 2017.

With Braun leading the state, the Republican supermajority in the General Assembly likely has a clear path to expanding Indiana’s voucher program to all families by removing the final qualification — the income limit. The program is already nearly universal.

On Wednesday morning, Braun announced his transition team would include Betsy Wiley, president and CEO of the Institute for Quality Education, a school choice advocacy organization, as well as prominent conservative attorney Jim Bopp known for his anti-abortion model legislation.

The team is led by transition chair Victor Smith, who served as Indiana secretary of commerce under former Gov. Mike Pence, as well as transition director Joshua Kelley, Braun’s chief of staff in the U.S. Senate.

“Now is the time when the real work begins, where we can show Hoosiers the type of stewards we will be with all the trust placed in us. I am honored to have assembled such an exceptional team of individuals who bring a wealth of experience, expertise, and a shared commitment to serving the people of Indiana,” Braun said in a statement.

Teacher pay, recruitment in Braun’s education plan

Braun’s education platform also includes raising pay for teachers, but does not provide a target average dollar figure. He also champions cutting “red tape for out-of-state teachers” to become licensed in Indiana, as well as using targeted recruitment efforts to improve staffing shortages at Indiana schools.

The other points of his platform are largely in line with laws that lawmakers have passed in recent years, including limiting cell phone use in class and notifying parents if a student requests a name or pronoun change.

In culture war issues, lawmakers may have another ally in Lieutenant Governor-elect Micah Beckwith.

A pastor and small business owner from Hamilton County, Beckwith was instrumental in passing a controversial policy that moved books from the teen section to the adult section at the Hamilton East Public Library in 2022.

Beckwith was not Braun’s pick for lieutenant governor, but beat out Julie McGuire at the Republican convention, where delegates chose him over McGuire.

McCormick conceded the race around 10 p.m. Tuesday night, writing in a statement that though she was “disappointed” in the outcome, she was also “confident that Hoosier hospitality and ingenuity will ensure that Indiana’s best days remain ahead of us.”

In a statement, the Indiana School Boards Association congratulated Braun on his victory, noting that he is the first former school board member to be elected Indiana governor since Samuel Ralston in 1912. Braun was elected to the Greater Jasper school board in 2004.

“We are committed to working with the new administration and the Indiana General Assembly to achieve our common goals on improving education and student success,” the statement from ISBA said.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Election 2024: Here’s who won Chicago’s first school board elections

2024-11-06T07:05:59+00:00

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Chicago voters delivered a mixed message in the city’s historic first school board elections Tuesday, backing a set of candidates representing different, sometimes clashing views.

Unofficial results showed four teachers union-backed candidates, three pro-school choice candidates, and three independent candidates either winning or holding leads.

Ten seats representing 10 districts across the city were contested in the election. The winners will join 11 other members appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former teacher and Chicago Teachers Union organizer. In 2026, all 21 school board seats will be on the ballot.

Tuesday’s election will end 30 years of mayoral control in the nation’s fourth largest school district. It comes at a contentious time: CPS is in a period of leadership turmoil marked by divisions over how to cover costs at a time of expiring COVID aid and enrollment decline.

The makeup of the new board will help shape how the district answers thorny questions about money and its future direction.

Early Wednesday, The Associated Press had yet to declare winners in three races: in Districts 1, 9, and 10.

Based on preliminary results, the board will likely include 15 members either appointed by Johnson or endorsed by the CTU, a close ally of the mayor’s. That means Johnson will likely have a solid bloc of support for policies he and the union support, including avoiding school closures and pumping more money into neighborhood schools.

The other six seats will likely be filled by school choice, charter-aligned, or more independent candidates, who could press for different priorities or challenge Johnson’s agenda.

Some observers and critics of the teachers union have characterized Tuesday’s results as a blow to Johnson and the CTU, given that they spent nearly $2 million to help their endorsed candidates win in three of 10 races.

But others, especially CTU president Stacy Davis Gates, framed the election as a success. At a union election watch party Tuesday night, she led the crowd in a chant of “Whose Schools? Our schools!”

“You all created an expansion of democracy in an entire society that’s toying with the idea of fascism,” Davis Gates said.

She decried an influx of large checks, including some from out-of-state billionaires, in support of pro-school choice candidates.

Chicago Democrats For Education, a political organization that backed candidates who weren’t endorsed by the union, claimed victories in at least three races: Districts 3, 4 and 8.

“I am incredibly proud of the campaigns all our candidates ran,” Hugo Jacobo, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement. “These candidates had to fight through desperate lies and misinformation spread about them. This is a clear signal against CTU’s agenda—and just the beginning of a transformation in Chicago’s educational opportunities for students and not self interested union bosses.”

Earlier in the day, Chicago Board of Elections spokesperson Max Bever said voters in a few precincts were given ballots with the wrong school board district candidates. The mixups occurred because the new electoral districts don’t follow ward and precinct lines.

“It looks like this issue was raised fairly immediately, and proper ballots were located,” Bever said, adding that he did not know how many voters were impacted.

Unofficial results showed 63% of all registered voters had voted, according to the city’s Board of Elections.

A total of 47 people filed to run for school board, but just 31 made it on the ballot. Candidates staked out positions on school choice, taxes, and district leadership. The campaign was distinguished by big spending and sharp words over the role the teachers union and education reform advocates have played in the race.

District 1: Far Northwest Side, Irving Park

Jennifer Custer, a candidate for the Chicago Board of Elections in the 1st District, poses for a portrait in Union Park on Sept. 19, 2024.

Jennifer Custer, a former teacher and CPS mom, appeared to clinch a narrow victory against Michelle N. Pierre in the race to represent families and residents on Chicago’s Northwest Side in District 1.

“We worked really hard and knocked on a lot of doors and talked to a lot of voters,” Custer said when reached by phone late Tuesday night. She said it felt “surreal” to be part of the historic first school board elections in Chicago.

Moving forward, Custer said she wants to start building relationships with other new school board members.

“All of us have to work as a team,” she said. “We have a common vision and a common goal, and I think that’s the students of CPS and making sure we can do the best for them.”

Both candidates raised more than $100,000 in their bids to secure a seat on the board. Custer brought in significant amounts from labor unions, including the Chicago Teachers Union, which endorsed her candidacy. Pierre received backing from pro-school choice groups and benefited from spending by two super PACs supporting school choice candidates.

At an election night party downtown, Pierre said she was on “pins and needles,” unsure how the race would shake out.

Pierre said every moment of Election Day was stressful. But she said she felt hopeful when she met a voter at a poll who said she came to vote specifically for presidential candidate and vice president Kamala Harris — and Michelle Pierre.

“I know that my message resonated with a lot of people,” Pierre said.

In all, 43 schools in District 1 serve 32,410 students, most of whom are Hispanic and white. There is one charter school and one alternative school.

District 2: Rogers Park, Edgewater, Lincoln Square, Albany Park

Ebony DeBerry, a candidate for the Chicago Board of Elections in the 2nd District, poses for a portrait in Oz Park on Sept. 11, 2024.

Ebony DeBerry, a former teacher and the CTU-backed candidate, won a four-way race to represent District 2, which spans the city’s far north lakefront, according to unofficial results.

She’s one of three CTU-backed candidates to win in the 10 contests for school board seats.

At a CTU election watch party, DeBerry’s voice broke as she spoke about backing from educator volunteers and others for her campaign.

“This has not been easy and it hasn’t been short,” she said. “I am ready to brawl and fall for you guys.”

DeBerry portrayed herself as a true product of public schools and the confidence teachers instilled in her and vowed to be an advocate for students and teachers. She said she will push for expanded staffing, including for counselors, social workers and librarians, and more sports, arts and other programs.

She edged out Bruce Leon, a retired human resource entrepreneur who self-funded his campaign and argued for a fiscally prudent approach to running the school district. DeBerry also beat Kate Doyle, a former teacher and nonprofit cofounder who tried to position herself as an independent-minded progressive candidate, and CPS mom Maggie Cullerton Hooper, the daughter of former Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, who ran on a progressive platform.

District 2 serves 27,637 students in 37 schools, including three magnets and three charters.

District 3: Logan Square, Humboldt Park, Hermosa

Carlos Rivas Jr., a candidate for the Chicago Board of Elections in the 3rd District, poses for a portrait in Oz Park on Sept. 11, 2024.

Carlos Rivas Jr. notched a victory over Jason Dónes in the predominantly Latino District 3, according to unofficial results from the Chicago Board of Elections.

District 3 includes 55 schools serving 31,598 students, many of whom are bilingual or English language learners.

The two candidates have similar backstories: Both grew up in Humboldt Park, graduated from coveted selective enrollment high schools, and went on to work as educators through the Teach for America program.

But the two diverged on school choice. Rivas formerly worked at the Noble Network of Charter Schools and has said he will be an independent board member devoted to preserving the variety of schools that exist today, including charter, magnet, and selective schools. He drew financial support from the Illinois Network of Charter Schools and another pro-school choice group and has received a slew of small-dollar donations.

Dónes raised more than $300,000, largely from the teachers union and its allies, while Rivas brought in just over $75,000. However, super PACs, which are not allowed to coordinate with candidates, spent more than $280,000 in support of Rivas.

At an election night party, Rivas said the amount of attack ads against him were hurtful, especially mailers that stuck his face next to Donald Trump. He said he proudly voted for Kamala Harris today.

Rivas, who has run on a platform that’s critical of the mayor, said he hopes to work to build consensus with the board. A majority of the board will still be made up of mayoral appointments.

“It’s gonna be really difficult with 21 members, but we have to be able to do that for the good of our city, for the good of our students and our families,” he said.

Dónes is backed by the CTU and other unions as well as some local elected officials. He ran on a progressive platform focused on expanding school staffing and ensuring curriculums are culturally relevant.

District 4: Lakeview, Lincoln Park

Ellen Rosenfeld, a candidate for the Chicago Board of Elections in the 4th District, poses for a portrait in Oz Park on Sept. 11, 2024.

Ellen Rosenfeld, a former CPS teacher who currently works for the district doing family engagement, won a competitive race to represent neighborhoods along Chicago’s north lakefront.

The area includes 36 schools with diverse student bodies. Just over a third of students attending District 4 CPS schools are white, roughly one third are Hispanic, just under 16% are Black, and 8.5% are Asian American. There are no charters and about a dozen selective enrollment and magnet schools.

Rosenfeld said Wednesday that the win feels like a vindication after facing an onslaught of negative messaging that she argued aimed to mislead voters. She said she feels district residents gravitated toward a long-time neighbor, parent and educator — and, as turmoil in CPS leadership grew, increasingly spoke of wanting a counterweight to the mayor and the teachers union.

“I think that CTU and the mayor underestimated how smart the constituents are when they sent the ads that said I was the Trump puppet in Project 2025,” she said, noting it was easy for voters to confirm she is a lifelong Democrat. “Arguably it worked in my favor.”

“I know the ecosystem that is Chicago public schools, and I’m ready to do the work on day one,” she added.

Karen Zaccor, a retired CPS teacher and longtime community organizer who advocated for an elected school board, was behind Rosenfeld. Zaccor is backed by the Chicago Teachers Union and raised almost $236,000, the most of any District 4 candidate.

Zaccor said the CTU-backed candidates who did not win will remain active in school advocacy.

“No matter the outcome of the election, we’ll all continue in this fight,” she said.

Zaccor lives on the opposite side of the district from Rosenfeld, meaning she could be a potential choice for the mayor as part of his 11 appointments for the board.

That’s because of the way state law established representation on the new board. Each district will be split into two districts for the 2026 election. Tuesday’s winners become incumbents in the subdistrict in which they live, while Johnson must appoint people by Dec. 16 to represent the other subdistrict.

Other candidates who were vying to represent District 4 on the school board were Kimberly Brown, a marketing professional and adjunct professor at two colleges; Andrew A. Davis, a former owner of a brokerage firm and former head of a state agency focused on higher education who now heads up an education-related nonprofit; Thomas Day, a veteran who is an adjunct professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy; and Carmen Gioiosa, a former CPS teacher and central office staffer who now teaches early childhood education at National Louis University. Every candidate has children who are CPS students or graduates.

Rosenfeld, who has been endorsed by a slew of state and local elected officials, has raised nearly $187,000. After Rosenfeld and Zaccor, the rest of the candidates raised nearly $25,000 or less.

District 5: West Side, West Loop, Near West Side

Aaron "Jitu" Brown will represent the 5th District on the Chicago Board of Education.

Aaron “Jitu” Brown will represent District 5, which spans from the West Loop to Austin and includes 105 schools — the most of any school board district.

Brown is a longtime community organizer who has fought school closures and advocated for an elected school board. He was endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union and ran uncontested after Michillia Blaise withdrew from the race in early September. Blaise has since been appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson to serve on the school board.

In District 5’s public schools, 62% of students are Black, 5% white, almost 28% Hispanic, and nearly 3% Asian American. A quarter of these schools in District 5 are charters.

District 6: Downtown, Bronzeville, Near South Side

Jessica Biggs, a candidate for the Chicago Board of Elections in the 6th District, poses for a portrait in Washington Park on Sept. 12, 2024.

Former CPS principal Jessica Biggs won election to represent District 6, which features a diverse school population serving several South Side neighborhoods..

Biggs ran on a platform of being an independent voice. A CTU-backed candidate, policy advocate Anusha Thotakura, finished second while Andre Smith, a finance manager, finished third. Danielle Wallace, a nonprofit leader, ran as a write-in candidate.

Biggs expressed surprise at the outcome given the large disparity in spending. Biggs raised the least of the three candidates on the ballot — about $42,600 as of the most recent filings – while Thotakura’s campaign had brought in more than $360,000.

“You never really know the impact that that money is going to have,” Biggs said. “I knew … talking with voters, talking with people at forums that our message was resonating with voters across the district. I knew people wanted an independent voice on the board.”

District 6 covers neighborhoods on the city’s South Side, such as Englewood, Greater Grand Crossing, Woodlawn and Hyde Park and neighborhoods on the city’s north side such as Streeterville and River North.

The district has over 50 schools with 21,000 students enrolled. The district’s population is majority white, but Black students are the majority of schools. About 70% of students enrolled in the district’s schools come from low-income families and 15% of students have Individualized Education Programs.

Thotakura lives on the opposite side of District 6 from Biggs, so Mayor Johnson could still choose to appoint her to the school board.

District 7: Pilsen, Little Village, Bridgeport, Brighton Park

Yesenia Lopez is a candidate to represent District 7 on the Chicago Board of Education.

Yesenia Lopez won in a three-way contest to represent District 7, which covers parts of the city’s South and Southwest sides.

The district has 79 schools with nearly 45,000 students — the most student enrollment of any school board district.

Lopez, a CPS graduate, is an executive assistant for the Illinois Secretary of State and has worked in multiple state and federal campaigns. She was endorsed by the CTU and Congressman Jesus “Chuy” Garcia. According to recent vote counts from the Board of Elections, she is ahead of Eva A. Villalobos, also a CPS graduate and a former accountant and mother of four children who attend private schools, and Raquel Don, a CPS graduate and parent, former accountant, and current member of the Jones College Prep Local School Council.

At the union election watch party, Lopez said her victory was a collaborative effort, with unions, elected officials, and fellow Southwest Side residents backing her campaign.

“It was not Yesenia on the ballot,” she said. “It was a community on the ballot.”

She said she would be a champion of working class families, advocating specifically for more afterschool programs and special education services.

“We still have many challenges ahead,” she said. “We saw out-of-state billionaires trying to buy our education system.”

Villalobos also noted that a lot of money was spent in the District 7 school board race.

“I’d like to think I made them sweat,” she said with a laugh.

Of the three candidates, Lopez has raised nearly $167,000. Villalobos has raised nearly $37,000, including from Urban Center PAC, led by former CPS CEO and mayoral candidate Paul Vallas. Don has collected nearly $3,000.

She said her advice to Lopez, which she has previously shared with her, is that she wants her to make her decisions independently without considering the agenda of political or private interests.

“I wanna make sure whatever decision she makes comes from her and not from the union and another bigger group,” Villalobos said. “We are being elected in this position because we are supposed to represent our students. We are supposed to speak on behalf of our parents. And overall make sure we increase and better our schools.”

District 8: Far Southwest Side, Back of the Yards

Angel Gutierrez is a candidate to represent District 8 on the Chicago Board of Education.

Angel Gutierrez, a nonprofit consultant, will represent voters in District 8. Unofficial results from the city’s board of elections show that Gutierrez beat his opponent Felix Ponce, a CPS music teacher and CTU-backed candidate, in a landslide.

At an election night party Tuesday, Gutierrez said his immediate priority in office will be to do a “forensic analysis” of the district’s expenses and understand how to solve CPS’s budget challenges and get the “maximum dollars into the classroom.”

One of the lessons that he said he’ll bring with him from the campaign trail is to always “elevate” the students who are the most vulnerable, such as those with disabilities.

“These are elected positions. I am beholden to the people who elected me and even the people who didn’t vote for me — I’m representing them,” he said. “That means listening to parents, listening to students, listening to teachers, listening to elected people.”

Gutierrez and Ponce were the only two candidates vying to represent families and school communities on Chicago’s Southwest Side and a smaller sliver of the Loop. District 8 includes neighborhoods like West Lawn, Marquette Park, Ashburn, McKinley Park, and Bridgeport.

Ponce raised around $295,000, while Gutierrez brought in about $86,000. A majority of Ponce’s campaign funds came from the CTU and other contributions from state and local officials. Gutierrez received money from the Illinois Network of Charter Schools. Two super PACs supporting pro-school choice candidates also spent at least $270,000 on direct mail and ads in support of Gutierrez.

CTU-backed Ponce lives on the opposite side of District 8 as Gutierrez and could be considered by Mayor Johnson for an appointment to the school board.

District 9: Englewood, Roseland, Beverly, Morgan Park

Therese Boyle is on the ballot for Chicago's District 9 school board race.

Therese Boyle looks to have secured a seat on Chicago’s Board of Education to represent District 9. According to unofficial results from the city’s board of elections, Boyle won an overwhelming majority of votes cast in Tuesday’s race. The AP had not called the race as of early Wednesday.

Boyle was in a four-way race with Lanetta Thomas, who was endorsed by the CTU, La’Mont Raymond Williams, and Miquel Lewis, who received financial support from pro-school choice PACs.

Boyle, a former longtime Chicago teacher, ran against Stacy Davis Gates for CTU president in 2019; Lewis served on the school board for a brief time under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and is the acting director of Cook County Juvenile Probation and Court Services. Thomas is a U.S. Army veteran and community organizer in Roseland and Willians is chief of staff and general counsel to a Cook County commissioner.

District 9 covers the city’s south side in neighborhoods such as Morgan Park, Roseland, Pullman, Beverly, Auburn-Greshman, and Englewood.

Candidates raised a combined $108,000 for their campaigns, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of most recent campaign finance disclosures. Boyle raised the most, with over $55,000 coming from her own pockets, small donations, and loans. Lewis’ campaign raised the second highest amount, over $27,000. Two pro-school choice super PACs also spent more than $300,000 in support of Lewis, though by law they are not allowed to coordinate with candidates.

District 10: Hyde Park, South Shore, Woodlawn, Southeast Side

Che “Rhymefest” Smith, a candidate for the Chicago Board of Elections in the 10th District, poses for a portrait in Union Park on Sept. 19, 2024.

Rapper Che “Rhymefest” Smith appears to have beat all three of his opponents to represent District 10. Early Wednesday, Smith held a narrow lead over Karin Norington-Reaves, who also captured a large number of voters in District 10 according to unofficial results.

In one of the city’s most spread-out and socioeconomically diverse districts, four candidates were vying for the school board seat.

The Rev. Robert Jones, one of the hunger strikers who opposed the closure of Dyett High School in 2015, received a significant financial and in-kind boost from the CTU. Nonprofit CEO Norington-Reaves, the mother of a CPS student with a disability, got the backing of pro-school choice super PACs and what she described as an “anti-CTU coalition” concerned about the union’s growing influence.

Education consultant and former CPS principal Adam Parrott-Sheffer billed himself as an independent-minded candidate and the only one with both experience as a CPS educator and children attending the district. And rapper Smith, who garnered endorsements from some high-profile elected officials, said he would be a creative change agent on the board.

Meanwhile, a former CPS educator and teachers union official, Rosita Chatonda, ran as a write-in candidate after petition challenges knocked her off the ballot.

There are roughly 90 CPS schools in District 10 serving 34,700 students. With both popular specialized programs and campuses that have struggled with rapidly shrinking enrollment, the district captures the uneven student experiences in CPS.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

IPS board unofficial election results: Thompson, Thomas, and Cosby poised to win

2024-11-06T04:58:29+00:00

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Deandra Thompson, Ashley Thomas, and Gayle Cosby appeared to secure three competitive seats on the Indianapolis Public Schools board in a crowded election field that featured hefty donations from political action groups.

The unofficial election results bring two candidates — Thompson and Thomas — to the board with the help of charter-friendly political action committees that funded mailers, canvassing, and other outreach efforts. The two were among the slate of candidates endorsed by Stand for Children Indiana and RISE Indy, two nonprofits supportive of charter schools.

But the election also reinstalls Cosby to the board. Cosby, once an outspoken critic on the board, has called for a closer examination of the district’s partnership with charter schools.

Allissa Impink won her uncontested seat for District 4, which represents the southern and southwestern parts of the school district.

The new board could bring differing perspectives as members navigate the district through a cash-strapped future — particularly as IPS begins sharing property tax dollars with charter schools as dictated by a new state law.

The board will also lead the district as it continues on its Rebuilding Stronger reorganization meant to expand academic offerings to more students of color while responding to ongoing enrollment drops.

Spending from political action committees, most of which come from charter-friendly groups, surged in this election since the last relatively sleepy election cycle in 2022.

Thompson, who runs a STEM-based pre-kindergarten, unseated incumbent Kenneth Allen in the race for the at-large seat. She did not immediately return a request for comment.

But she identified the district’s literacy crisis as its most pressing issue in Chalkbeat’s voter guide.

With backing from the teachers union, Cosby raised a competitive amount of money against Hasaan Rashid, who earned the endorsement of groups supportive of charter schools. She will represent the east side of the district, including parts of Martindale-Brightwood and the Far Eastside.

Cosby said she expects to bring her outspoken nature back to the school board.

“I’m going to do everything I can to bring that same level of transparency that I had previously, including blogging,” she said.

“I’m back,” she added. “So that same spirit is coming back with me.”

Thomas, who will represent the eastern and near southeastern parts of the district, thanked the voters and her opponent. She said she’s most looking forward to the upcoming legislative session, during which time the state will draft its budget for public schools.

“We’ve got to be able to know where the money is at and making sure that our public school district is walking away feeling really strong,” she said.

In an Instagram post, Impink — the sole uncontested candidate for the southern and southwestern parts of the district — thanked sitting District 4 commissioner Diane Arnold, whose seat she will fill.

“Thank you for passing the torch,” Impink wrote. “This victory belongs to all of us who believe in the potential of our students, the strength of our teachers, and the importance of community in shaping our schools.”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org

Elections 2024: Voting results for school boards in Marion County

2024-11-06T04:17:24+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Incumbent school board candidates in Marion County are largely poised to return to their roles, per unofficial results on Tuesday.

This election, there were 40 school board candidates on ballots throughout the county for 33 seats on 10 district boards. Overall, roughly half the school board candidates in Marion County are incumbents, and a majority face at least one opponent.

Only two incumbent candidates, Kenneth Allen, current Indianapolis Public Schools board member, and Matthew Hopp, current school board member for Metropolitan School District of Pike Township, were poised to lose their seats, per unofficial results.

Elsewhere in Marion County, the difference between joining the school board for Metropolitan School District of Warren Township or not was roughly 200 votes. And in Perry Township, only two candidates were on the ballot for four open seats, but there were roughly 500 write-in votes that could impact who joins the board.

In Lawrence Township, where board disagreements about administrator pay and academic achievement spilled into the election, incumbent Crystal Puckett had the lead with 65% of the vote in the school district’s only contested race.

Voter guides: 2024 school board elections in Marion County

The role of the school board is not day-to-day operations but rather district oversight, creating and enforcing policy such as the student handbook, making sure bills are paid, approving the budget, and hiring a superintendent. School board elections are non-partisan.

The number of board members in total and up for election, as well as whether members are at-large or represent a specific district, varies by school district.

Winning candidates will start four-year terms in January.

With 100% of vote centers reporting, here are the unofficial results: (Results are not final until provisional and military ballots are counted by Nov. 15.) See IPS school board unofficial results here.

Speedway Schools is not included because the school board is appointed by the town board, not elected.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

NYC school calendar update: Monday, Dec. 23 will now be a day off

2024-10-30T17:20:53+00:00

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New York City’s holiday gift to public school families and educators: Monday, Dec. 23 will now be a day off.

The shift comes after mounting pressure from school communities warning that a one-day week before winter break would be sparsely attended. Brooklyn eighth grader Isaac Regnier last year petitioned the city to strike the day from the calendar, garnering nearly 23,000 signatures.

At a celebratory announcement at the headquarters of the United Federation of Teachers, Mayor Eric Adams, pointed to the 13-year-old as a catalyst for the change.

“He was able to get this victory,” Adams said. “Young people are going to know that their voices matter.” The mayor also showed a video of a call he placed to Isaac during the school day at I.S. 96 in Bensonhurst. The mayor said he was following through on the student’s request to cancel class on Dec. 23.

Isaac Regnier (center) lobbied the city to cancel class on Dec. 23. At a press conference on Wednesday, Mayor Eric Adams and United of Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew pointed to Isaac as a catalyst for the extra day off.

“I feel so proud of myself for all that hard work I did,” said Isaac, whose effort was first reported by Chalkbeat.

Although an initial letter he sent to former schools Chancellor David Banks didn’t yield a response, “I still made it successful,” he said.

The claim that Isaac prompted the change generated some raised eyebrows, as pushback over a one-day school week before winter break drew similar backlash five years ago. A group of teachers in 2019 petitioned to get it canceled and ultimately were successful. The teachers behind that effort found old school calendars showing that schools were closed on at least four other occasions when Dec. 23 fell on a Monday.

Leonie Haimson, a longtime education advocate, wrote on X that it was “amazing” that the mayor held a high-profile press conference announcing the change, “drawing attention to a mistake that should never have happened in the first place.”

Under state law, New York City schools must be in session for at least 180 days or risk losing state funding — and there is now considerably less wiggle room in the calendar. Last school year, the Education Department added four days after the calendar had been published in response to complaints about missing certain religious holidays. The city has added days off for Eid, Lunar New Year, and Diwali, which is Friday.

One result of the extra days off is that the city now turns to remote learning during inclement weather instead of canceling school.

The city is not planning to add an additional school day to make up for canceling class on Dec. 23, though Education Department officials insisted that they will still meet the 180-day rule, noting that they are allowed to use some teacher training days to count toward it.

Michael Mulgrew, the teachers union president, pointed to recent changes in the calendar in explaining why the decision to cancel class on Dec. 23 was announced in the middle of the year.

“We’re in New York City. We have the greatest diversity in the world, and we recognize all sorts of cultures’ holidays,” he said. “It’s a 12-month-a year process, to say the least, on the calendar right now.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Mergers ahead: NYC is combining more tiny schools to combat enrollment drops

With 52 students, P.S. 25 is the smallest school in NYC. Officials are trying to close it. Again.

Illinois’ 2024 report card is out: SAT scores are down, but high school grad rates are up

2024-10-30T14:01:00+00:00

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New data released today show Illinois students continue to rebound from pandemic-era academic setbacks in most metrics, but SAT scores continue to drop.

Declining SAT scores mirror a national trend but come as more Illinois students are graduating from public high schools, raising red flags for top state education officials.

The Illinois State Board of Education’s latest report card data show the four-year high school graduation rate at 87.7% at the end of the 2023-24 school year, compared to 87.6% the previous year, and it has been steadily climbing over the past decade. However, graduation rates for Black and Latino students are still low compared with white and Asian American students.

About 31.1% of high school juniors who took the SAT this past spring were considered proficient in reading, while 26.1% met or exceeded state standards in math. That’s a drop from 2018-19 when 36.2% were proficient in reading and 34.4% were proficient in math.

Average SAT composite scores stood at 950.3 this spring, down from 960.9 last year and 994.5 in the 2018-19 school year.

State Superintendent Tony Sanders noted that Illinois’ accountability system put more weight on graduation rates starting last year.

“Schools have really focused on improving graduation rates for all students, and that has yielded some significant results,” he said. “How can we have these amazing gains in the graduation rate with simultaneously declining proficiency rates in high school?

Sanders, along with state education officials, said in a press conference last week that the state is working on an indicator of individual growth for students between ninth to 11th grade. The indicator won’t be a part of the state’s accountability system for school districts and schools, but it will be provided to high schools to help them understand where students are each year.

The report card provides insight into how Illinois’ 850-plus school districts are performing. The massive data set includes information on hundreds of metrics such as test scores, enrollment data, chronic absenteeism, high school graduation rates, student participation in career and technical education programs, enrollment in advanced classes, and teacher retention rates.

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact students’ academic progress across the state, there are signs that show Illinois students have regained ground in some metrics. Third through eighth grade students are making progress on state standardized tests in reading and math, more students are taking advanced classes in high school, participation in career and technical education courses has increased, and the number of educators in the state has increased since the school year 2017-18.

Post-pandemic, Illinois schools spent almost $7 billion dollars on high-impact tutoring and staffing increases. Those funds dried up at the end of September.

Here are some more 2024 report card highlights.

Elementary students see pre-pandemic numbers in reading, but not math

Students in third to eighth grade who took the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, also known as the IAR, in the spring of 2024 saw improvements in reading and math overall. In reading, 41.2% of students met or exceeded the standards. That is 5.8 percentage points higher than in spring 2023 and 3.4 percentage points higher than in 2019.

Sanders attributed the improvement in reading to best practices for instruction, curriculum, and teacher professional development. He also mentioned the state’s comprehensive literacy plan.

Students are struggling to reach pre-pandemic levels in math, however. About 28.4% of students were proficient in math in 2024, about 3.4 percentage points lower than in 2019 and only 1.4 percentage points up from 2023.

Sanders said the state is working on a statewide math and numeracy plan to support students and increase proficiency.

Racial disparities continue to persist. White and Asian American students continue to have higher math and reading proficiency rates on the IAR when compared to other student groups. About 52.2% of white students were proficient in reading and 38.7% in math, while Asian American students were 68.2% proficient in reading and 61.3% in math.

Black and Latino students have seen a slight uptick in scores since the school year 2018-19, but scores on the IAR still lag behind white and Asian American students, and often students are scoring lower than the state’s average. About 28.6% of Latino students and 21.8% of Black students were proficient in reading, while 15.6% of Latino students and 9.1% of Black students were proficient in math.

Earlier this month, Chicago Public Schools reported that about 30.5% of third through eighth graders were proficient in reading on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness 2024 spring exam, and 18.3% met or exceeded the standard in math.

English learners enrollment continues to climb

About 1.8 million students were enrolled in Illinois public schools during the 2023-24 school year, the same as school year 2022-23. In a call with news reporters, Sanders said that overall declines in enrollment started in 2015 and match the country’s declining birth rate.

However, Illinois continues to see an increase in English learners. In school year 2023-24, English learners made up 16.4% of total enrollment, a 1.8 percentage point increase compared to the school year 2022-23, when enrollment was at 14.6%. Sanders attributed the rise in newcomer students to families escaping conflicts around the globe.

Overall student demographics are shifting too, with increasing enrollment among Asian American, Latino, and multiracial students and declines in the number of white and Black students enrolling in public schools

Absenteeism is down but higher among kindergarteners and high school students

When students miss 10% of the school year — about 18-20 school days — with or without an excuse, they are considered chronically absent. The percentage of students who missed this much school spiked during the COVID pandemic.

But the numbers have come back down. About 26.3% of all students were chronically absent during the school year 2023-24, down from the 28.3% from last year. Illinois saw its highest chronic absenteeism rate of 29.9% in 2021-22, when more students were required to go back to school in person.

This year, the Illinois State Board of Education decided to look at the intersection between chronic absenteeism and grade levels and found kindergarten and high school students were the most likely to be chronically absent.