Civil Rights Groups to Congress: Betsy DeVos is Approving Plans That Violate ESSA

Civil Rights Groups to Congress: Betsy DeVos is Approving Plans That Violate ESSA

Education Week logoU.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is approving plans that fly in the face of the Every Student Succeeds Act’s protections for vulnerable children, according to more than a dozen civil rights groups, including the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

The groups sent a letter Tuesday to Democratic and Republican leaders on the House and Senate education committees asking them to tell DeVos to stop approving “unlawful” plans.

“We call on you to fulfill your role in ESSA’s implementation and to correct the Department of Education’s flawed approval of state plans that do not comply core equity provisions of the law,” the groups wrote to Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., as well as Reps. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., and Bobby Scott, D-Va.

This is far from the first time that the civil rights community—and Democratic lawmakers—have questioned DeVos’ approach to plan approval. The Alliance for Excellent Education, one of the 17 groups that signed off on the letter, put together a legal brief questioning whether some of the plans that DeVos has approved meet ESSA’s requirements. And both Murray and Scott have written letters to DeVos saying she is flouting the law.

The four leaders plan to meet with DeVos at some point to discuss Democrats’ concerns with plan approval.

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OPINION: The HBCU Community Needs Bipartisan Support

OPINION: The HBCU Community Needs Bipartisan Support

By Dr. Harry L. Williams, (President and CEO, Thurgood Marshall College Fund)

Dr. Harry L. Williams, the president and CEO of TMCF, says that engagement with Republicans and the Trump Administration is working for the HBCU community.

Dr. Harry L. Williams, the president and CEO of TMCF, says that engagement with Republicans and the Trump Administration is working for the HBCU community.

A few months ago, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) was proud to welcome the presidents and chancellors from 30 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs) to Washington, D.C. for the second annual HBCU Fly-In held in conjunction with the leadership of Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Representative Mark Walker (R-N.C.), who are both members of the very important, bipartisan HBCU Caucus.

My experience as a former HBCU president and now leader of TMCF, working on behalf of our 47 publicly-supported HBCUs, gives me a broad perspective on the federal government’s partnership with HBCUs, as delivered through this event’s multiple listening sessions and direct engagement opportunities with members of Congress and senior leadership within the Trump Administration.

Thanks to the commitment of dozens of our HBCU presidents and chancellors who attended our inaugural convening and this year’s fly-in, we’re beginning to see major developments from several federal agencies looking to increase support for HBCUs and to create more opportunities for our scholars.

Thanks to our collective advocacy, several HBCUs that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 received total forgiveness of outstanding loans awarded for the restoration of their campuses in the hurricane’s aftermath. Southern University at New Orleans, Dillard University, Xavier University, and Tougaloo College are free of their repayment obligations on more than $300 million in federal loans, because of direct engagement with and action from this administration and congressional leadership on issues of critical importance to our HBCU’s, like this one.

Perhaps the most significant indicator of our growing partnership has been the achievement of level funding in the President’s FY’ 2019 budget proposal and within the recent Omnibus Appropriations Bills. For example, the FY’ 2018 Omnibus Appropriations bill had major wins for HBCUs:

Pell Grant Maximum Award

  • FY’17 Funding Level: $5,920 (per student)
  • FY’18 Funding Level: $6,095 (+$175/increase of 2.96 percent)

Title III, Part B and F, Strengthening HBCUs Undergraduate Programs

  • FY’17 Funding Level: $244.6 million
  • FY’18 Funding Level: $279.6 million (+$34 million/increase of 14.3 percent)

Title III, Part B, Strengthening HBCUs Graduate Programs

  • FY’17 Funding Level: $63.2 million
  • FY’18 Funding Level: $72.3 million (+$9 million/increase of 14.3 percent)

Title III, Part A, Strengthening PBI Program

  • FY’17 Funding Level: $9.9 million
  • FY’18 Funding Level: $11.3 million (+$1.4 million/increase of 14.3 percent)

Title VII, Master’s Degree Program at HBCUs and PBIs

  • FY’17 Funding Level: $7.5 million
  • FY’18 Funding Level: $8.5million (+$1 million/increase of 14.3 percent)

We are cognizant that many lawmakers in the majority in Congress favor fiscal austerity to address budgetary issues, but in a legislative environment dominated by talks of budget cuts, critical HBCU funding lines were increased, which is a demonstrable return on our collective investment in bipartisan engagement.

Indeed, TMCF’s decision not to resist, but instead engage in a strategic way and bipartisan fashion on behalf of our nearly 300,000 HBCU students who need a voice in Congress and with the Trump Administration has borne fruit at many levels. I am optimistic that many of our presidents and chancellors departed the nation’s capital with a clearer sense of the propriety of this strategy given our mutual goals, and now having the benefit to witness the rewards of this advocacy effort. TMCF will not stop engaging with all of our federal partners, because bipartisan advocacy with the Congress and engagement with the Trump Administration is paying dividends for our nation’s HBCUs.

Dr. Harry L. Williams is the president & CEO of Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), the largest organization exclusively representing the Black College Community. Prior to joining TMCF, he spent eight years as president of Delaware State University. Follow him on Twitter at @DrHLWilliams.

Betsy DeVos Is About to Defend Her Budget. Keep These Three Things in Mind

Betsy DeVos Is About to Defend Her Budget. Keep These Three Things in Mind

Education Week logo

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is headed back to the Hill.

On Tuesday morning, DeVos will pitch the Trump administration’s fiscal 2019 budget plan for the Department of Education to the House appropriations subcommittee that oversees federal money for K-12. It’s a safe bet that DeVos’ public appearance before lawmakers will draw a crowd, given the hub-bub over her “60 Minutes” interview a week ago.

So what else can we expect besides the hot glare of the spotlight? Be sure to watch these three elements of the hearing:

1) Cuts Have Come Back

What’s changed between last year’s Trump budget request for education and this year’s? Aside from the total amount desired for the Education Department, not a ton. A lot was made last year about the Trump administration’s fiscal 2018 request to cut over $9 billion from the department, or about 13.5 percent. This year, the Trump team wants to cut 5 percent from DeVos’ department.

Like last year, the budget plan also proposes expanding school choice. This time around, there’s a $1 billion pot pitched for public and private school choice, although the divisions between those two aren’t as clear as they were in the fiscal 2018 budget. Like last year, DeVos also wants to eliminate both Title II, which covers professional development for educators, as well as Title IV, which covers a variety of programs like ed-tech, counseling services, and Advanced Placement course fees. Right now Title II gets about $2 billion, and Title IV gets $400 million…

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Sen. Lamar Alexander Backs Changes to ESSA to Improve School Safety

Sen. Lamar Alexander Backs Changes to ESSA to Improve School Safety

Education Week logoThe chairman of the Senate education committee wants to change the main federal education law to allow schools to hire more counselors, make infrastructure improvements, and fund violence-prevention programs.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., announced Tuesday that he would introduce the School Safety and Mental Health Service Improvement Act at some point this week. Among other things, it would change Title IV, which gets $400 billion in the fiscal 2018 federal budget, in order to let schools pay for new safety technology, “physical security,” and training school personnel to help them recognize and defuse threats of violence. And his proposal would also change Title II to make it easier for the $2 billion program for educator professional development to fund school counselors. Both Title II and Title IV are part of the Every Student Succeeds Act—Title IV was created when ESSA became law in 2015.

School safety has been a prominent topic in Congress since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., last month that left 17 students and school staff members dead. There are already several bills in Congress designed to enhanced school safety, although it’s unclear what their prospects are on Capitol Hill…

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School security upgrades would be funded in bipartisan Senate bill

School security upgrades would be funded in bipartisan Senate bill

Spurred by the tragic school shootings in recent years that now include Parkland, Fla., a bipartisan group of U.S. senators Monday (March 5) introduced legislation to fund school security improvements as well as early intervention and prevention programs to stop school violence before it happens.

The Students, Teachers, and Officers Preventing School Violence Act, also known as the STOP School Violence Act, would authorize the U.S. Department of Justice to make grants for the purposes of training students, school personnel, and law enforcement to identify signs of violence and intervene to prevent people from hurting themselves or others, according to a news release. Senators stated the STOP School Violence Act would reauthorize and amend the Secure Our Schools Act of 2001-2009.

The legislation would fund “evidence-based technology and equipment,” including “the development of anonymous reporting systems and commonsense security infrastructure improvements,” to improve school security and prevent school violence. It would authorize $75 million for 2018, and $100 million annually for the next 10 years, which may be partially offset from a Justice Department research program called the Comprehensive School Safety Initiative.

Read the full article here.

Trump Seeks to Cut Education Budget by 5 Percent, Expand School Choice Push

Trump Seeks to Cut Education Budget by 5 Percent, Expand School Choice Push

Education Week logoPresident Donald Trump is seeking a roughly 5 percent cut to the U.S. Department of Education’s budget for fiscal 2019 in a proposal that also mirrors his spending plan from last year by seeking to eliminate a major teacher-focused grant and to expand school choice.

Trump’s proposed budget, released Monday, would provide the Education Department with $63.2 billion in discretionary aid, a $3.6 billion cut—or 5.3 percent— from current spending levels, for the budget year starting Oct. 1. That’s actually less of a cut than what the president sought for fiscal 2018, when he proposed slashing $9.2 billion—or 13.5 percent—from the department.

In order to achieve those proposed spending cuts, the president copied two major education cuts he proposed last year: the elimination of Title II teacher grants and the 21st Century Community Learning Centers. Those two cuts combined would come to about $3.1 billion from current levels. Overall, 39 discretionary programs would be cut, eliminated, or “streamlined.”

“Decades of investments and billions of dollars in spending have shown that an increase in funding does not guarantee high-quality education,” the Office of Management and Budget states in the budget document. “While the budget reduces the overall federal role in education, the budget makes strategic investments to support and empower families and improve access to postsecondary education, ensuring a future of prosperity for all Americans.”

On the other side of the ledger, Trump is seeking $1 billion for new private and public school choice programs called Opportunity Grants. This new funding could also help schools that go for the weighted-funding pilot. He also wants $500 million in federal charter school funding, an increase of roughly 50 percent from current spending levels, which is also the same as his first budget blueprint.

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The Bureau of Indian Education Is Broken – Education Week

The Bureau of Indian Education Is Broken – Education Week

Education Week logoCommentary, By Denise Juneau

The Bureau of Indian Education recently wrapped up its tribal consultation process on its latest proposed strategic plan “to guide its work and service delivery to [Native] students, schools, and tribes.” While the BIE creates plan after plan intended to restructure, realign, reform, redesign, revise, and redo their education system, in actuality these plans are rarely carried out. The necessary changes to schooling simply remain words written on paper. Meanwhile, tribes, schools, educators, parents, and students continue to wait for the federal government to meet its legal trust responsibility to provide a quality education to American Indian students.

For over a century, the federal government has proven that attempting to control and oversee a nationwide network of schools leads to an ineffective and disheartening system of education that fails to address the cultural, linguistic, and overall learning needs of American Indian children. If the BIE’s record of failure reflected on any other group of students, there would be a national outcry.

Read the full article here: May require an Education Week subscription.

 

Trump Is Speaking to Heritage; Four Things to Know About Its K-12 Record

Trump Is Speaking to Heritage; Four Things to Know About Its K-12 Record

Set your DVR: President Donald Trump will be speaking at the Heritage Foundation’s “President’s Club” meeting Tuesday night. There’s no way to know whether, €”or how much, education will play in the speech. Supposedly, taxes are the big focus.

Presidents don’t address think tanks often, though, so this speech is a signal of Heritage’s influence in Trump’s Washington. And that matters for education because Heritage’s lobbying arm—the Heritage Action Fund—has been an active player on K-12 policy in recent years.

Generally, the think tank has pushed for a much a smaller role for the feds in schools. Heritage has even opposed some Republican ideas for expanding school choice—like a federal tax credit scholarship program—because they’re worried about growing the federal footprint on K-12…

Read the full article here. May require an Education Week subscription.

Will Trump Get His K-12 Budget Cuts? Washington Edu-Insiders Say No.

Will Trump Get His K-12 Budget Cuts? Washington Edu-Insiders Say No.

President Donald Trump alarmed a lot of the education community when he proposed slashing the U.S. Department of Education’s nearly $70 billion budget by $9 billion. So will those cuts become a reality?

Probably not, say a couple dozen inside-the-beltway education experts surveyed by Whiteboard Advisors. In fact 79 percent of them don’t think Congress will follow through on the proposals.

Here’s a handy graphic breaking this down:

whiteboard snip.PNG

Most of those surveyed expected to see Title II, a $2.05 billion program aimed at improving teacher quality, stick around too, although it might be reduced…

Read the full article here. May require an Education Week subscription.

 

Nominee for Top Education Dept. Attorney: I’d Tell Officials to Follow ESSA

Nominee for Top Education Dept. Attorney: I’d Tell Officials to Follow ESSA

Education Week — The nominee to be the U.S. Department of Education’s lead attorney, under questioning from the top Democrat for education in the Senate, said he would tell states and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to follow the Every Student Succeeds Act.

His statement follows comments from DeVos that states should push to get as much flexibility as possible under the law.

In his Tuesday confirmation hearing before the Senate education committee, Carlos Muñiz, an attorney in private practice who formerly worked for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, gave a narrow answer about ESSA oversight, telling Sen. Patty Murray of Washington that, “My advice to states would be to follow the law. … My job would be to advise her as to what the law requires, advise her as to what her discretion might be.”

During our exclusive Q&A with DeVos last week, the secretary said that under ESSA, “I’m encouraging states to do so and not to err on the side of caution, but to really push and go up to the line, test how far it takes to go over it.”

He took a similar line with Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who asked Muñiz if DeVos should follow ESSA’s clear prohibitions on the secretary’s role in issues such as state’s long-term academic goals. Muñiz responded that he would be “scrupulous” in advising officials to follow the law.

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., meanwhile, raised the issue of the Trump administration’s decision to scrap Obama-era guidance on transgender student rights in schools.

After Muñiz said he agreed with Franken that LGBT students deserve to go to school in a safe and respectful environment, the senator asked him if Trump met the expectations of LGBT students and their families when he scrapped that guidance.

Muñiz responded it was his understanding that the move was intended “to give the new administration the opportunity to study the law and study those issues.”

“The department has been clear that all students have a right to be free of sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funds,” Muñiz said.

During her own testimony to Congress, DeVos came under fire for how she described the responsibilities of private schools with respect to racial and sexual discrimination.

Few Nominees So Far

In prepared remarks before the committee, Muñiz said his previous work in Florida “have taught me the importance of the rule of law.”

And Muñiz also stressed that he would use his independent legal judgment at the department, telling senators, “My ultimate duty will be to the law, not to any individual or objective.”

Muñiz is just the second nominee for the Education Department to come before the Senate committee, following DeVos herself. Peter Oppenheim, a former aide to committee chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., was confirmed as the department’s liaison to Congress earlier this year. Several key positions for K-12 at the department still do not have Senate-confimed appointees.