Tag Archives: education

The Hill reports: Harvard is facing a civil rights complaint over the school’s legacy admissions after the Supreme Court ruled against race-conscious admissions practices. “Each year, Harvard College grants special preference in its admissions process to hundreds of mostly white students — not because of anything they have accomplished, but rather solely because of who their relatives are,” according to …

ABC News reports: On Thursday, the Supreme Court set new limits on affirmative action programs in cases involving whether public and private colleges and universities can continue to use race as one factor among many in student admissions. A little more than half of Americans – 52% — approve of the U.S. Supreme Court decision on restricting the use of …

Politico reports: Former Vice President Mike Pence endorsed the Supreme Court’s decision to gut affirmative action programs at colleges and universities across the country, saying he does not believe there is racial inequality in America’s education system. “I really don’t believe there is,” Pence told CBS’s Margaret Brennan during an interview on “Face the Nation” broadcast Sunday. “I believe there …

NPR reports: At the heart of the question is the 2003 HEROES Act, which passed in the wake of 9/11 and gave the education secretary broad power to “modify or waive” provisions of student loan programs in times of emergency. The Biden administration argues that the COVID-19 pandemic constituted one such emergency. Conservative opponents of the plan, however, argue that …

The Hill reports: Ron DeSantis suggested that he would eliminate a number of government agencies during an interview on Wednesday. “Are you in favor of eliminating any agencies? I know conservatives in the past have talked about closing the Department of Education, would you do that?” Fox News’s Martha MacCallum asked. DeSantis responded with a list of federal departments he …

Florida Politics reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis is opening another legal battle against the federal government, this time over the power of private accreditation agencies over state universities. “In America you need to be accountable to somebody, and right now they’re accountable to nobody,” DeSantis said at a press conference in Tampa. “We believe we have a great chance of succeeding …

Chalkbeat reports: Candidates endorsed by a polarizing group that advocates for screened school admissions won the majority of seats on about half a dozen parent councils this year, according to election results released Friday by the New York City education department. Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, or PLACE, endorsed 147 candidates across the city for local district council …

The Hill reports: The College Board released a letter Thursday putting its foot down on further demands from Florida to change any of its Advanced Placement (AP) classes, the latest development in the ongoing feud between the company and the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). “[College Board] will not modify our courses to accommodate restrictions on teaching essential, college-level …

The Associated Press reports: The mother of a 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher in Virginia pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to using marijuana while possessing a firearm, which is illegal under U.S. law. The federal crime is facing increasing scrutiny as more states legalize the drug. But federal prosecutors in Virginia said Monday that such laws protect communities. …

The Los Angeles Times reports: Los Angeles school board President Jackie Goldberg pulled out an oversized children’s book titled “The Great Big Book of Families” and turned a public meeting into story time, her own not-so-subtle statement to critics of LGBTQ+ education. “In real life, families come in all sorts of shapes and sizes,” she read, as the text by …

Columbus’s NBC affiliate reports: Ohio lawmakers are advancing a bill allowing parents to opt their child of out school “sexuality” lessons, legislation opponents said is anti-LGBTQ+ and will force educators to out students. House Bill 8 — the “Parents’ Bill of Rights” — would require teachers to notify parents before teaching “sexuality content” and of any change in a student’s …

NBC News reports: A Texas school superintendent sent lewd photos to an undercover officer posing online as a 15-year-old girl he planned to meet with, authorities said. Michael Keith Stevens, 47, superintendent of the Itasca Independent School District, was arrested Thursday and accused of online solicitation of a minor, according to court records. “He sent pictures of his private parts …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: Seminole County Public Schools is offering to reprint this year’s Lyman High School yearbook and remove two pages for parents upset about LGBTQ+ content, prompting criticism that the district isn’t standing up to bigotry. The pages highlight the school’s LGBTQ+ community and provide definitions of terms such as genderfluid and pansexual. A few parents and students …

Salt Lake City’s ABC affiliate reports: Copies of the King James Bible are being removed from school library shelves at elementary and junior high facilities in Davis County, Utah, after a complaint that the scriptures feature material inappropriate for younger children. The complaint was filed by an unknown person in March after a statewide law passed in 2022 allowed residents …

The Associated Press reports: Federal courts have issued desegregation orders for 32 school districts in Mississippi, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division’s assistant attorney general said Thursday. The desegregation orders fit into a broader body of civil rights work launched in Mississippi that is examining jails, police departments and hate crimes in the state, according to Assistant Attorney …

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas lawmakers sent a sweeping school safety measure to Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday, including in their response to last year’s Uvalde massacre a requirement to post an armed security officer at every school and provide mental health training for certain district employees. The measure also gives the state more power to compel school districts to …

Popular Information reports: Last week, Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton [photo] announced that he had appointed Laurie Cardoza-Moore to serve on the Tennessee Standards Recommendation Committee to oversee “Social Studies materials being reviewed for use in classrooms statewide.” Cardoza-Moore, known for holding extremist views and promoting conspiracy theories, has called “U.S. history textbooks” currently used in classrooms the “greatest national …

The Texas Tribune reports: House Bill 900, which would set new standards for school libraries to keep sexually explicit content off bookshelves, is heading to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. Librarians, legal experts and some parents are concerned that the bill’s language is vague and broad enough to ensnare books that are not inappropriate. “House Bill 900 is simply another tool …

The New York Times reports: A push to inject religion into public schools across Texas faltered on Tuesday after the State House failed to pass a contentious bill that would have required the Ten Commandments to be displayed prominently in every classroom. The measure was part of an effort by conservative Republicans in the Legislature to expand the reach of …

The Texas Tribune reports: Speaking to state lawmakers last month, Rocky Malloy argued that putting unlicensed religious chaplains in schools could prevent youth violence, teen suicide and teacher burnout. And he rejected concerns that school chaplains might use their access to recruit kids to Christ. Chaplains “are not working to convert people to religion,” Malloy, the head of the National …