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Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Big Tax Bill Passes Senate With Less ‘Beautiful' Plan for National School Choice
The Senate on Tuesday passed the nation's first federal tax credit scholarship program as part of a massive tax and spending bill President Donald Trump wants to sign by July 4. But the provision is significantly watered down from the one school choice advocates have been working toward since the first Trump administration. As it currently stands, states may opt in, meaning many Democratic-majority states probably won't participate. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Jim Blew, co-founder of the Defense of Freedom Institute, a conservative think tank, called the Senate passage 'an important step toward making sure every family and teacher in our country enjoys education freedom.' But the restrictions, he said, will 'make it very, very hard to put funds into the hands of families who just want to get their children in a better school.' House staff began deliberations over the bill immediately, with a vote expected Wednesday. But it's unclear how members will greet the revamped choice plan. The plan grants donors to scholarship organizations a tax credit for the same amount they contribute. Those nonprofits then award funds to families for private school tuition and other educational expenses. But unlike the more expansive plan the House passed in late May, the Senate gives states a say over which groups can participate and strikes language that would have prohibited any control over private schools. That could be a major sticking point for House members, said Joshua Cowen, an education professor at Michigan State University and a vocal voucher opponent. 'Maybe they'll just hold their nose and pass it,' he said. But that would come at the cost of 'the most wide-ranging federal regulations we'd ever see on private and religious K-12 schools.' Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a longtime sponsor of the Educational Choice for Children Act, didn't mention the revisions when he addressed the chamber during the early morning hours Tuesday after members worked on Trump's 'one big beautiful bill' through the night. 'This tax credit provision will unleash billions of dollars every single year for scholarships for kids to attend the K-through-12 school of their choice,' he said, calling school choice 'the civil rights issue of the 21st century.' The new program is just a small part of a legislative package that continues Trump's 2017 tax cuts and could add at least $3 trillion to the national debt by 2034. With a trifecta in Congress and the White House, Republicans passed the bill in a party-line vote. But Vice President J.D. Vance still had to break a 50-50 tie in the Senate after opposition from Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine. The legislation includes other child-related provisions, including the extension of an existing $2,000 child tax credit. The House version boosts it to $2,500, while the Senate version increases the credit to $2,200. 'Trump accounts,' a new feature, would provide a $1,000 investment fund for children that they could later use for education or a house. Among the most controversial changes are cuts and work requirements for Medicaid and food assistance programs for low-income families. The $1 trillion proposed cut to Medicaid could especially impact children in rural areas who are more likely to depend on the program for health care. On the Senate floor Monday morning, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the 'reforms' make the program more efficient by targeting 'people who are supposed to benefit from Medicaid.' But Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, ranking member of the finance committee, warned: 'Kids with disabilities will lose health care.' Those provisions have generated far more debate among GOP members than the school choice provision. But Republicans made significant changes to that portion after a Senate official ruled Thursday that it didn't meet the standards for reconciliation and would require 60 votes to pass. In addition to allowing government oversight, Republicans dropped the total amount a donor can contribute from 10% of their annual income to $1,700. 'To raise $1.7 million for scholarships, [organizations]need to identify 1,000 donors, which is a lot harder to do,' Blew said. 'That wasn't done to help students or families.' Multiple questions remain over which families stand to benefit the most from the program. Some existing scholarship groups target funds to low-income students, but the federal program lacks such a requirement. The bill sets eligibility at 300% of median income, meaning that in higher-income areas, families earning nearly half a million dollars could use the scholarships. Preference for the scholarships would also go to students who received them the previous year or to their siblings, contributing to concerns that families who already have their children in private schools would be more likely to receive a voucher. 'You can be a very wealthy family in a very wealthy area and still be eligible for [these] funds,' said Jon Valant, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the left-leaning Brookings Institution. 'Who knows exactly how this is going to play out.' Supporters say the program will bring private school choice to students nationwide at a time of increasing demand. Tennessee's newly expanded voucher program, for example, received roughly 33,000 applications in the first few hours it was open on May 15, creating technical glitches Opponents argue the program allows donors to avoid taxes and would fund tuition at schools that discriminate against students. Related The House version, Cowan said, 'rams' vouchers into states like Michigan that have rejected them since 2000. Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos, who promoted a similar federal plan as education secretary during Trump's first term, failed to get a voucher initiative on the ballot in 2023. Kentucky and Colorado said no to private school choice initiatives last November, and Nebraska voters repealed a program lawmakers passed in that state in 2024. In other states — Ohio, South Carolina and Utah — judges have ruled that voucher programs violate the law. On Tuesday, DeVos sounded a triumphant note, calling the Senate passage 'a major win for students and families' on X. Cowan said the vote would not give the former secretary 'her long-sought after goal of forcing vouchers into the states using the tax code' and gives 'substantial authority to state governors and perhaps [education] agencies to say 'no.' ' Education Secretary Linda McMahon welcomed a provision that limits student loans for college, but had nothing to say about the school choice aspect of the bill. Related Critics frequently cite the scarcity of private schools in rural areas as the reason they oppose vouchers. A data analysis from the Urban Institute shows that over 60% of students in urban areas live within two miles of a private school, compared with just a quarter of students in rural areas. Participation in the new program depends on how many families apply and the size of scholarships. Historically, take up rates have been relatively low with new voucher programs, said Colyn Ritter, a senior research associate at EdChoice, an advocacy organization. If scholarships are large enough to cover the full ride to some private schools, which averages about $12,000 nationwide, more families might seek a scholarship, Ritter said. But that amount wouldn't be enough to afford more expensive schools in the Northeast. If scholarship awards are as low as $2,500, that might offer a cut on tuition for families who can make up the difference, but it wouldn't be enough to make private school an option for a family in poverty, he said. Families could use the scholarships for homeschooling costs, like tutoring, curriculum and educational therapies. But Ritter called homeschoolers a 'hard-to-predict' group. The population has grown more diverse racially and politically. Some, he said, could be 'early adopters' of the new funds, but many homeschoolers are still leery of government-run programs. 'We just want to make sure that there are no strings attached and that we won't end up in some government database that can track us and tell us what to do in the future,' said Faith Howe, president of Texans for Homeschool Freedom. Related The Children's Scholarship Fund in New York is one of the nonprofits that would likely participate in the program. The group has affiliates in 23 states, including several blue states, that are closely watching negotiations over the final wording, said spokeswoman Elizabeth Toomey. Her organization has a small homeschool pilot program and might take advantage of the new legislation to expand it. Forty families currently receive $1,000 to spend on approved expenses through the ClassWallet platform, the same way many state education savings accounts operate. But the group's core mission, Toomey said, is awarding roughly 7,000 scholarships each year to students from low-income families across New York City. Recipients receive, on average, about $2,500 toward tuition, but Toomey said the new federal program would allow the organization to increase the award and serve more families. She acknowledged that a scholarship might not help the 'poorest of the poor,' but has helped push many families 'into a position where they can afford private school.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ed Committee Advances Schwinn, Richey Nominations to Full Senate
Penny Schwinn, Tennessee's former education chief, is one step closer to joining the U.S. Department of Education as deputy secretary after the Senate education committee on Thursday advanced her nomination to the full chamber. The committee also voted to move the nomination of Kimberly Richey to lead the Office for Civil Rights. A conservative civil rights lawyer, Richey served in the second Bush and first Trump administrations. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter The votes for both nominees fell along strict party lines, 12 to 11. 'These nominees are crucial to enacting President Trump's pro-America agenda,' Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, who chairs the committee, said in a statement. With the Senate focused on passing President Donald Trump's tax bill and roughly 200 nominations awaiting a vote, it could be several weeks before both are confirmed. Schwinn would oversee K-12 policy. During a June confirmation hearing, she expressed support for a more hands-off approach from Washington while also strengthening reading instruction based on science. A week after the hearing, she participated in an event at a Nashville charter school with Education Secretary Linda McMahon to promote one of the Trump administration's top priorities — school choice. The visit came as the department has increased funding for charters while proposing over $4 billion in cuts to other programs. If confirmed, Richey would take over a civil rights office with a much leaner staff following mass firings in March and recommendations from McMahon for further reductions. She vowed to continue the department's actions against schools that permit antisemitic demonstrations and allow trans students to use facilities or compete in sports consistent with their gender identity. Those views have drawn opposition to her nomination from civil rights groups that advocate for LGBTQ students. In advance of Thursday's vote, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, along with 45 other organizations, sent senators a letter saying Richey 'has not demonstrated a willingness and ability to enforce civil rights law and protect all students in our country from discrimination.' Some hope she'll prioritize disability complaints. As acting assistant secretary for civil rights during the pandemic, she launched investigations into districts that failed to provide students with disabilities services written into their individual education programs. 'She was responsive during the first Trump term and pushed through the COVID complaints,' said Callie Oettinger, a special education advocate in Fairfax County, Virginia. Related While Richey's track record fits squarely within the Trump administration's ultra-conservative agenda, many education insiders view Schwinn as a moderate who largely avoided culture war clashes while holding schools and students accountable for progress in reading. Unlike McMahon, Schwinn has always worked in education. The California native founded a charter school in Sacramento in 2011 and held top positions in Delaware and Texas before Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee appointed her commissioner in 2019. Related 'Penny has the strongest literacy chops of any state supe I've known, and she has Linda McMahon's ear and trust,' said Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. But controversy tends to follow her. Under her leadership in Tennessee, staff turnover was higher than normal. Conservatives who signed letters calling on senators not to confirm Schwinn argue that she holds progressive views on educational equity and proposed an unpopular effort to conduct 'well-being' checks on students during the pandemic. Others question her judgement, pointing to incidents in which Texas and Tennessee directed no-bid contracts to companies where Schwinn had personal connections, including her husband, Paul Schwinn. Related But those complaints didn't sway Republicans on the committee, and Pondiscio dismissed the backlash to Schwinn as 'B.S.' In a February commentary, he suggested that her 'conservative critics want a culture warrior, not an administrator focused on competent governance and delivering results.' He's among those who hope her confirmation brings more attention to core education issues.'If you see the secretary spending her time on curriculum and instruction,' he said, 'that will be Penny's thumbprint.'
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Looming California Budget Changes Threaten Black Students, Study Says
Looming funding cuts threaten the academic progress of Black students in districts across California, according to a report by researchers at the University of Southern California. 'The Cost of Equity: Exploring Recent K-12 Federal and State Funding Shifts and Their Impact on Black Students,' examines how changes in legislative and policy could impact California's school systems, which enroll more than 287,000 Black students. Now, important programs covering a gamut of services used by Black students, ranging from tutoring to transportation to counseling, could be cut, the report says. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter The 45-page meta-analysis, which was edited by USC Rossier School of Education Professor Kendrick Davis and published by Rossier's freshly formed Critical Policy Institute, lands at a critical time for budgeting decisions in California and elsewhere. Shifts in federal, state and local funding and policy are prompting changes in districts across the state, Davis said in a recent interview. Those developments could exacerbate long-standing inequities — especially for Black students in low income, he said. 'It feels like so many reasons why education should be, and currently is, front and center in a lot of the local, statewide and national conversation,' said Davis. 'But when there's drastic changes happening … information and perspective can get lost.' Here are some key takeaways from Davis's study, which was written with graduate researchers from Rossier's Black Student Collective and is the first in a series of three reports to be published by the Critical Policy Institute. Federal funding cuts, including the expiration of pandemic relief, have combined with dropping enrollments and shrinking tax bases to cut budgets for local school districts across California, with districts in other states across the country facing similar headwinds. School systems such as Los Angeles Unified have already begun making tough choices about what to prioritize in the face of looming cuts, and how those choices play out could have an outsize impact on Black kids, said Davis. California currently allocates state funding for local districts based on average daily attendance, giving school districts their share of per-pupil funding based on how many students on average showed up at class. That money typically accounts for more than a third of a local district's budget. The state is now researching a change to the way that funding is shared, so that money will be allocated based on how many kids are enrolled in each district, instead of how many attended class. It'll cost the state more to fund schools this way, Davis said, but more of the money will go to districts with schools serving vulnerable populations, like Black kids, who have higher rates of chronic absenteeism and lower graduation rates. Even before President Donald Trump Took office, ushering in a slew of new changes, programs for Black students were already under scrutiny in districts across California after LAUSD overhauled its signature effort for those students in response to new federal guidance. Now, new policies at the federal level, including threats to cut funding to districts that do not end diversity, equity and inclusion programs, present fresh legal and regulatory challenges for efforts to reach Black kids with effective services, said Davis. 'It makes an already precarious situation worse,' he said.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Yahoo
From English to Automotive Class, Teachers Assign Projects to Combat AI Cheating
This article was originally published in EdSurge. Kids aren't as sneaky as they think they are. They do try, as Holly Distefano has seen in her middle school English language arts classes. When she poses a question to her seventh graders over her school's learning platform and watches the live responses roll in, there are times when too many are suspiciously similar. That's when she knows students are using an artificial intelligence tool to write an answer. 'I really think that they have become so accustomed to it, they lack confidence in their own writing,' Distefano, who teaches in Texas, says. 'In addition to just so much pressure on them to be successful, to get good grades, really a lot is expected of them.' Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Distefano is sympathetic — but still expects better from her students. 'I've shown them examples of what AI is — it's not real,' she says. 'It's like margarine to me.' Educators have been trying to curb the use of AI-assisted cheating since ChatGPT exploded onto the scene. It's a formidable challenge. For instance, there's a corner of TikTok reserved for tech influencers who rack up thousands of views and likes teaching students how to most effectively use AI programs to generate their essays, including step-by-step instructions on bypassing AI detectors. And the search term for software that purports to 'humanize' AI-generated content spiked in the fall, according to Google Trends data, only to fall sharply before hitting the peak of its popularity around the end of April. While the overall proportion of students who say they've cheated hasn't fluctuated by much in recent years, students also say generative AI is making academic dishonesty easier. But there may be a solution on the horizon, one that will help ensure students have to put more effort into their schoolwork than entering a prompt into a large language model. Teachers are transitioning away from question-and-answer assignments or straightforward essays — in favor of projects. It's not especially high-tech or even particularly ingenious. Yet proponents say it's a strategy that pushes students to focus on problem-solving while instructing them on how to use AI ethically. Related During this past school year, Distefano says her students' use of AI to cheat on their assignments has reached new heights. She's spent more time coming up with ways to stop or slow their ability to plug questions and assignments into an AI generator, including by giving out hard copy work. It used to mainly be a problem with take-home assignments, but Distefano has increasingly seen students use AI during class. Kids have long been astute at getting around whatever firewalls schools put on computers, and their desire to circumvent AI blockers is no different. Between schoolwork, sports, clubs and everything else middle schoolers are juggling, Distefano can see why they're tempted by the allure of a shortcut. But she worries about what her students are missing out on when they avoid the struggle that comes with learning to write. 'To get a student to write is challenging, but the more we do it, the better we get.' she says. 'But if we're bypassing that step, we're never going to get that confidence. The downfall is they're not getting that experience, not getting that feeling of, 'This is something I did.'' Distefano is not alone in trying to beat back the onslaught of AI cheating. Blue books, which college students use to complete exams by hand, have had a resurgence as professors try to eliminate the risk of AI intervention, reports The Wall Street Journal. Richard Savage, the superintendent of California Online Public Schools, says AI cheating is not a major issue among his district's students. But Savage says it's a simple matter for teachers to identify when students do turn to AI to complete their homework. If a student does well in class but fails their thrice-yearly 'diagnostic exams,' that's a clear sign of cheating. It would also be tough for students to fake their way through live, biweekly progress meetings with their teachers, he adds. Savage says educators in his district will spend the summer working on making their lesson plans 'AI-proof.' 'AI is always changing, so we're always going to have to modify what we do,' he says. 'We're all learning this together. The key for me is not to be AI-averse, not to think of AI as the enemy, but think of it as a tool.' Related Doing that requires teachers to work a little differently. Leslie Eaves, program director for project-based learning at the Southern Regional Education Board, has been devising solutions for educators like Distefano and Savage. Eaves authored the board's guidelines for AI use in K-12 education, released earlier this year. Rather than exile AI, the report recommends that teachers use AI to enhance classroom activities that challenge students to think more deeply and critically about the problems they're presented with. It also outlines what students need to become what Eaves calls 'ethical and effective users' of artificial intelligence. 'The way that happens is through creating more cognitively demanding assignments, constantly thinking in our own practice, 'In what way am I encouraging students to think?'' she says. 'We do have to be more creative in our practice, to try and do some new things to incorporate more student discourse, collaborative hands-on assignments, peer review and editing, as a way to trick them into learning because they have to read someone else's work.' In an English class lesson on 'The Odyssey,' Eaves offers as an example, students could focus on reading and discussion, use pen and paper to sketch out the plot structure, and use AI to create an outline for an essay based on their work, before moving on to peer-editing their papers. Eaves says that the teachers she's working with to take a project-based approach to their lesson plans aren't panicking about AI but rather seem excited about the possibilities. And it's not only English teachers who are looking to shift their instruction so that AI is less a tool for cheating and more a tool that helps students solve problems. She recounts that an automotive teacher realized he had to change his teaching strategy because when his students adopted AI, they 'stopped thinking.' 'So he had to reshuffle his plan so kids were re-designing an engine for use in racing, [figuring out] how to upscale an engine in a race car,' Eaves says. 'AI gave you a starting point — now what can we do with it?' When it comes to getting through to students on AI ethics, Savage says the messaging should be a combination of digital citizenship and the practical ways that using AI to cheat will stunt students' opportunities. Students with an eye on college, for example, give up the opportunity to demonstrate their skills and hurt their competitiveness for college admissions and scholarships when they turn over their homework to AI. Making the shift to more project-based classrooms will be a heavy lift for educators, he says, but districts will have to change, because generative AI is here to stay. 'The important thing is we don't have the answers. I'm not going to pretend I do,' Savage says. 'I know what we can do, when we can get there, and then it'll probably change. The answer is having an open mind and being willing to think about the issue and change and adapt.'
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Opinion: Reading Reform Will Fail Without Families
Across the country, a wave of new reading legislation aims to fix literacy crises, yet there's little direct support for families to help carry the reforms forward. At a recent meeting in my community, one fact hit hard: Our reading pipeline is broken. Instead of the expected 80% of students succeeding with general instruction, only 11% of Milwaukee students are on track. A staggering 65% need frequent, in-depth, individualized support — far more than the system was ever built to provide. When a speaker cited these numbers, the crowd nodded at the urgency and applauded calls to retrain more than 1,000 teachers in evidence-based reading instruction practices. I applauded, too — schools have the greatest opportunity and obligation to provide high-quality reading instruction at scale. But I couldn't shake the feeling that teacher training alone clearly wouldn't be enough. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter In classrooms crowded with kids who have extraordinary needs, even the best teachers can only do so much. Better prepared teachers would be able to gradually increase the share of kids who are on track with reading and prevent more students from falling behind. But many kids would still need targeted small-group support, one-on-one tutoring, and, crucially, support from home. Teachers, no matter how well prepared, build on the foundations kids have. The odds of reading success are largely shaped beyond the classroom. Longitudinal studies consistently confirm the essential role that families play in kids' reading achievement. The early language experiences and alphabet knowledge students bring to school profoundly shape their literacy trajectories. Once kids enter school, parents' influence remains powerful but increasingly overlooked. Too often, schools unintentionally sideline parents, treating them more as homework helpers than true partners. Related Parents facing economic hardship or lingering distrust from their own schooling may not immediately see the value in engaging. Even motivated families struggle to prioritize vague school requests amid a myriad of real-life demands. Rather than grow cynical, school staff must actively earn families' engagement. They need to clearly, specifically, and respectfully show families how their involvement benefits their children's development. This is Marketing 101: speak to what matters. Frame requests in ways that align with parents' hopes and addresses their real concerns. If parents don't understand how a request helps their child, schools have to connect those dots. Research from the Harvard Family Research Project shows that families make a measurable difference when they actively attend conferences, visit the classroom, and volunteer. Other studies document the value of parents engaging in literacy-specific activities like teaching letters, sharing books, and fostering reading at home. Schools can motivate parents by showing them that their efforts directly affect their kids' reading gains. Nearly 40 states have passed legislation to spur reading improvements and sprinkled amid the new curriculum and professional development requirements they've mandated are some directives for parents, too. Wisconsin's Act 20, for example, rightly emphasizes parents' critical roles: sharing family learning histories, monitoring learning disabilities, implementing literacy strategies, tracking reading plans, and even filing complaints when necessary. Yet, the law provides little tangible guidance or support. Ask a Milwaukee parent how to help their child meet reading expectations and you may get a shrug — not from indifference, but from genuine confusion. Schools must translate mandates into meaningful guidance. When staff get strategic about what they ask families to do, they create space for real partnership. Generic advice like 'read aloud every night' can evolve into more specific grade-level guidance like 'Read this book to practice the 'oo' sound your child is learning in class.' Related I recently observed a work session between school staff and local nonprofit tutoring groups. The educators invested months designing targeted, straightforward home literacy activities that were aligned closely with common student needs in the district. Next, they planned to test the tools with real families, revise the instructions based on feedback, and then film demonstration videos, so parents could clearly see what success looks like. Tips are helpful — but seeing another parent do it builds belief. Once complete, these tools will provide teachers with a library of targeted activities to share with families based on specific student needs. The anticipated result? Fewer, clearer asks for families and greater impact. Across the country, different family engagement models are emerging. In New York, the NYC Reads Family Ambassador program held 10-week online sessions to teach families the science of reading. The sessions aimed to strengthen home literacy routines, as well as inform participants who could then share effective strategies with other families. The Indiana Learning Lab hosts virtual workshops that are accessible to parents anytime, enabling them to tune in at their convenience. Both these programs acknowledge that families want to help, but need accessible, credible resources and consistent encouragement. Raising our nation's reading achievement is an all-hands-on-deck effort — inside and outside of school. Teachers, instructional coaches, literacy specialists, staff, administrators and community volunteers can all support families. But for these partnerships to flourish, we've got to get honest about who teaches kids: all of us. Ultimately, the strongest readers aren't shaped in classrooms alone. They're nurtured at home: word by word, story by story, conversation by conversation. To help reading reforms succeed, we need to do more than retrain teachers and revise curricula. We must support the first, most constant teachers all children have: their families.
