Tag Archives: Education Department

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration plans to release more than $5 billion in funding to public schools that it has withheld for nearly a month, a senior administration official said Friday, ending weeks of anxiety and uncertainty for school leaders who had said the freeze jeopardized programs and staffing for the upcoming academic year. The government placed nearly …

Politico reports: The Education Department will reject nearly a half-million applications from people seeking to make lower payments on their student loans, according to internal documents obtained by POLITICO. The agency will deny 460,000 federal student loan borrowers who selected the lowest monthly option for a payment plan based on their income. They make up about 31 percent of a …

USA Today reports: An ideologically divided Supreme Court on July 14 allowed the Trump administration to fire hundreds of workers from the Education Department and continue other efforts to dismantle the agency. The court’s three liberal justices opposed the order, the latest win for President Donald Trump at the high court. Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the majority handed Trump the …

Courthouse News reports: President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court for help dismantling the Department of Education on Friday, pushing the justices to keep nearly 1,400 employees off the government’s payroll despite an unresolved legal dispute. Trump slashed the department’s staff by half in March, spurring a lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James and 20 other states’ attorneys …

The Associated Press reports: A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order to shut down the Education Department and ordered the agency to reinstate employees who were fired in mass layoffs. U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston granted a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration from carrying out two plans announced in March that sought to …

NBC News reports: The U.S. Department of Education on Monday said it’s restarting “involuntary” repayment of federal student loans that are in default. The payments were paused during the first term of President Donald Trump in 2020 as a response to the Covid pandemic. “Beginning May 5, the department will begin involuntary collection through the Treasury Department’s offset program, which …

The Cornell Daily Sun reports: The University joined litigation against the U.S. Department of Energy and DOE Secretary Chris Wright, according to a Monday email from President Michael Kotlikoff and Provost Kavita Bala. The plaintiffs of the case are alleging that proposed immediate cuts to indirect costs for University research grants are unlawful by violating federal regulations. The lawsuit was …

NBC News reports: The NAACP and the National Education Association, along with other groups, announced this morning that they are suing the Trump administration over its efforts to dismantle the Department of Education. “Eliminating or effectively shuttering the Department puts at risk the millions of vulnerable students, including those from low-income families, English learners, homeless students, rural students and others …

ProPublica reports: Saying the Trump administration is sabotaging civil rights enforcement by the Department of Education, a federal lawsuit filed Friday morning seeks to stop the president and Secretary Linda McMahon from carrying out the mass firing of civil rights investigators and lawyers. Two parents and the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, a national disability rights group, jointly filed …

The Associated Press reports: More than 50 universities are being investigated for alleged racial discrimination as part of President Donald Trump’s campaign to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs that his officials say exclude white and Asian American students. The Education Department announced the new investigations Friday, one month after warning America’s schools and colleges that they could lose federal money …

Reuters reports: A group of Democratic state attorneys general on Thursday filed a lawsuit seeking to block Republican U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration from dismantling the U.S. Department of Education and halt it from laying off nearly half of its staff. Democratic attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia filed the lawsuit in federal court in Boston …

Fox News reports: Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said her agency took the first steps Tuesday to eliminate “bureaucratic bloat” at the federal level and bring more power to the states during an interview Tuesday on “The Ingraham Angle.” The Department of Education announced it will cut nearly half of its workforce as President Donald Trump moves to eliminate the …

CNN reports: The US Education Department will start sweeping layoffs beginning Tuesday evening, three sources familiar with the plan told CNN, as President Donald Trump has proposed eliminating the agency altogether. The department is expected cut about 50% of its workforce with notices starting to go out Tuesday evening, the sources said. The department employs around 4,400 workers. Tuesday’s expected …

ABC News reports: President Donald Trump is expected to take the extraordinary step this week of directing his secretary of education to dissolve the U.S. Department of Education by executive order, according to sources familiar with a draft. A draft of the executive order calls on Education Secretary Linda McMahon to facilitate a department closure by taking all necessary steps …

From just-confirmed Education Sec. Linda McMahon: As you are all aware, President Trump nominated me to take the lead on one of his most momentous campaign promises to families. My vision is aligned with the President’s: to send education back to the states and empower all parents to choose an excellent education for their children. As a mother and grandmother, …

Politico reports: A federal judge has barred the Education Department and the Office of Personnel Management — the government’s massive HR department — from sharing sensitive information with Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” saying the decision to grant DOGE access appears to breach federal privacy laws. “The continuing, unauthorized disclosure of plaintiffs’ sensitive personal information to DOGE affiliates is …

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports: Late Friday night, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) put colleges on notice: stamp out all race-conscious policies and programming immediately or risk losing federal funding. In a Dear Colleague letter, Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, wrote that “institutions’ embrace of pervasive and repugnant race-based preferences and …