Education

AUSTIN, Texas — A federal judge overturned Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's executive order banning mask mandates in public schools on Wednesday, freeing local officials to set their own masking orders once again. U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel ruled Texas... Read More

Tumbling COVID-19 case counts have some schools around the U.S. considering relaxing their mask rules, but deaths nationally have been ticking up over the past few weeks, some rural hospitals are showing signs of strain, and cold weather is setting... Read More

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City teachers and other school staff members were all supposed to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when the bell rang Monday morning in one of the first school district mandates in the country requiring employees... Read More

WASHINGTON -- Biden administration officials tried to assure a Senate panel Thursday that the nation’s schools are following the right strategy to remain open while minimizing the risk of spreading COVID-19. The new school year is barely a month old... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Democrats push ahead with President Joe Biden's $3.5 trillion rebuilding plan, they're promising historic investments across the arc of an education — from early childhood to college and beyond — in what advocates describe as the... Read More

The Federal Communications Commission is allocating over $1.2 billion in the first round of funding of the $7.17 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund Program with the aim of connecting more than 3.6 million students across the U.S., according to a release... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jill Biden is going back to her whiteboard. After months of teaching writing and English to community college students in boxes on a computer screen, the first lady resumes teaching in person Tuesday from a classroom at... Read More

RICHMOND, Va. -- The Virginia Supreme Court ruled this week that a public school teacher must be reinstated after he was suspended for refusing to use transgender students’ preferred names and pronouns. The teacher, physical education instructor Tanner Cross, cited... Read More

MEQUON, Wis. (AP) — A loose network of conservative groups with ties to major Republican donors and party-aligned think tanks is quietly lending firepower to local activists engaged in culture war fights in schools across the country. While they are... Read More

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Just over half of Florida's 2.8 million public school students now face mandates to wear masks in classrooms as a courtroom battle continues over efforts by Gov. Ron DeSantis to leave such decisions up to... Read More

DENVER (AP) — Anxiety in the United States over COVID-19 is at its highest level since winter, a new poll shows, as the delta variant rages, more states and school districts adopt mask and vaccination requirements and the nation's hospitals... Read More

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Millions of students in Florida, Texas and Arizona are now required to wear masks in class as school boards in mostly Democratic areas have defied their Republican governors and made face coverings mandatory. The three... Read More

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Education will invoke its civil rights enforcement authority to prevent states from imposing universal bans on wearing face masks in classrooms, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said on Wednesday. The decision represents a dramatic escalation of... Read More

RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed an emergency order last Thursday requiring that face masks be worn in all indoor settings in the state's K-12 schools. The move comes after a handful of school districts in recent days... Read More

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Education published a notice in the Federal Register Monday establishing a negotiated rulemaking committee that will meet virtually beginning in October to rewrite regulations for Public Service Loan forgiveness, income-contingent repayment plans, and borrower... Read More

Retaining staff on Capitol Hill has never been easy, but it’s likely never been harder than it is today against a backdrop of often divisive and toxic politics, the spiralling costs of living in the region, and in the wake... Read More

WASHINGTON -- In a ruling with implications for the upcoming fall semester, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. last week refused to dismiss lawsuits by college students seeking tuition refunds. The students want at least part of their tuition and... Read More

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday that it will make temporary changes to the Federal Aid Verification Process for the 2021-2022 award year.   According to the Department, more than 3 million potential Pell Grant recipients are selected... Read More

LANSING. Mich.— Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer joined students and staff on Wednesday at Ojibwa Elementary in Macomb county to sign a bill that appropriates $4.4 billion in federal COVID relief funding to schools.  According to a release, House Bill 4421... Read More

Experts say environmental education needs greater investment if future generations are to be able to fully respond to the climate emergency.   According to an article in Environmental Education Research, co-authored by Alan Reid, editor, and Justin Dillion, Jo-Anne Ferreira and... Read More

WASHINGTON-The U.S. Department of Education released more than $3 billion in American Rescue Plan funds to states on Thursday to support infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities.  The funding will help aid around 7.9 million infants and students under... Read More

The Public Policy Institute of California released the first in a series of posts examining how educational opportunities and outcomes are different across California.   According to the post, only a third of California’s 9th graders make it to and then... Read More

WASHINGTON- The Senate Appropriations subcommittee met Wednesday to examine President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2022 budget request for the Department of Education. The $102.8 billion budget for the Department’s programs and activities is a $29.8 billion increase from the 2021 fiscal... Read More

Amanda Schermerhorn recently majored in political science at Minnesota State Community and Technical College. During the pandemic, she often had to use her Detroit Lakes campus free wi-fi from her car in the parking lot, along with other students, just... Read More

President Joe Biden has met his goal of having most elementary and middle schools open for full, in-person learning in his first 100 days, according to new survey data, but the share of students choosing to return has continued to... Read More

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The president of Harvard University is urging the White House to untangle barriers put in place by the Trump administration and make it easier for international students to engage in low residency or hybrid educational programs. In... Read More

Tara Roberts, a single mother of eight, was committed but “in tears” as she opened her first classroom door at Portland Community College, said Mark Mitsui, president of PCC. She now holds a doctorate in nursing, is a health care... Read More

With at least 4 million long-term unemployed American workers more than a year into the pandemic, witnesses before a US Senate hearing Tuesday called for the expansion of a post-secondary education grant to cover short-term, high quality programs.  Throughout the... Read More

WASHINGTON — Online education had been on the rise for several years prior to COVID-19, but the pandemic fast-tracked a sudden pivot to emergency remote instruction. Over the past year, more students and faculty experienced and gained confidence in online... Read More

This week, the Hunt Institute, a non-profit that brings together people and resources to inform elected officials and policymakers about key issues in education, hosted a webinar discussing how students with disabilities could be better served during and after the... Read More