Teaching, Leading, and Social Justice

Trump’s budget calls for a 15% funding cut to the Education Department [Audio]

Cory Turner, NPR Education

The Trump administration has released new details of its vision to wind down the U.S. Department of Education. The budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 calls for a 15% funding cut to the department and a handful of changes to key K-12 and higher education programs. Here are five things to know: 1. The document renews President Trump’s commitment to close the department.  Last month, a federal judge blocked Trump from carrying out his executive order calling for the education secretary to close the Education Department. Nonetheless, the proposed budget summary begins with a quote from Trump on the day he signed that executive action: “We’re going to be returning education very simply back to the states where it belongs.”

Trump Education Secretary Gets Embarrassing Math Lesson in Hearing

Malcolm Ferguson, The New Republic

The U.S. secretary of education is having issues with basic math. Linda McMahon testified on Trump’s 2026 budget before the Senate on Tuesday. While discussing spending on federal grants programs for disadvantaged students—TRIO and the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, or GEAR UP—she made a massive math error.  “We spend $1.58 billion a year on TRIO?” Republican Senator John Kennedy asked McMahon. “Yes,” she replied.

“That’s one thousand five hundred and eighty million dollars a year? Is my math right?” Kennedy said, spelling out $1.58 billion.  “I think that’s right, sir.”

Trends in Early Childhood Educator Depression: Longitudinal Evidence Before and During COVID-19

Mark Murphy and Tingting Reid, Educational Researcher

We present novel evidence on the enduring and far-reaching impact of the pandemic on educator psychological well-being. Using longitudinal data from the National Survey of Early Care and Education, we examine depression prevalence for approximately 2,500 center-based early childhood educators first observed in 2019 (i.e., prepandemic) and again more than 1.5 years into the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., October 2021 or later). Overall depression prevalence for these educators rose from 8.6% to 27.9%. Furthermore, depression at least doubled for all subgroups examined. Making under $30,000 annually, being under 40, or being between 40 and 59 years old were significant predictors of depression.

Language, Culture, and Power

“We Call Them International Students”: The Consequences of the Newcomer and International Student Labels for Immigrant Students in Public Schools

Sophia L. Ángeles, Kyle Halle-Erby, Anthropology & Education Quarterly

We call them international students,” a specialist at the Department of Multilingual Learners in a school district in Los Angeles County interjected to correct Sophia. It was fall and she was meeting with district administrators to discuss research on college preparation among recently arrived immigrant students. The sharpness with which this correction was issued focused Sophia’s attention on the fact that the district was actively renaming recently arrived immigrant students. From that point on, she paid attention to what students were called, by whom, and for what purpose. That fall, when she began volunteering at Esperanza High School, the school counselor designated for recently arrived students was referred to as the “EL (English learner) Counselor.” The following year, in 2020, the position was renamed “International Counselor.”

In rebuke of Trump, NYC files legal brief in support of Bronx student detained by ICE

Michael Elsen-Rooney, Chalkbeat

In a rare rebuke from Mayor Eric Adams of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy, New York City’s Law Department filed a legal brief Monday in support of a Bronx high school student detained by immigration authorities. It was also a remarkable shift from the mayor’s previous efforts to distance himself from the case, as other local politicians condemned the arrest of 20-year-old Dylan Lopez Contreras, a native of Venezuela who was detained after attending a routine immigration court date. In a 17-page filing submitted to federal court in Western Pennsylvania, New York City’s Corporation Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant decried Dylan’s arrest as a “trap” that undermines faith in the court system. Dylan, who attended ELLIS Prep, a Bronx High School that caters to older newly arrived immigrants, is the first known case of a city public school student detained by immigration authorities during Trump’s second term.

Massachusetts high school volleyball team rallies around teammate detained by immigration agents

Holly Ramer and Leah Willingham, AP News

Crowds wearing white packed the stands of a Massachusetts high school gymnasium Tuesday to support an 18-year-old volleyball player detained by federal immigration authorities. “Our game on June 3rd will be played in honor of Marcelo. We will continue to pray and fight for our brother,” the Milford High School boys volleyball team said in an Instagram post, hours before the game. Marcelo Gomes da Silva, a junior born in Brazil, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Saturday on his way to volleyball practice. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said Monday that agents were looking for the teenager’s father, who owns the car Gomes da Silva was driving at the time. “Like any local law enforcement officer, if you encounter someone that has a warrant or … he’s here illegally, we will take action on it,” he said when reporters asked about the teen.

Whole Children and Strong Communities

Rate of Gaza children suffering acute malnutrition nearly triples, survey shows

Reuters

The rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition in Gaza has nearly tripled since a ceasefire earlier this year when aid flowed more freely, according to data collected by humanitarian groups and released by the U.N. on Thursday. The report was issued at a time when aid distribution in the Palestinian enclave is under intense scrutiny because of deadly shootings close to the operations of a new U.S.-backed system. After the two-month ceasefire broke down in March, Israel blockaded aid supplies into Gaza for 11 weeks, prompting a famine warning from a global hunger monitor. Israel, which has only partially lifted the blockade since, vets all aid into Gaza and accuses Hamas of stealing some of it – something the militant group denies.

Around 5.8% out of nearly 50,000 children under five who were screened in the second half of May were diagnosed with acute malnutrition, an analysis by a group of U.N. and other aid agencies known as the nutrition cluster showed.

“These Could be Our Children:” Israeli Women Opposing the War, an Interview

Ibrahim Quraishi, Counterpunch

Not only abroad, but also within his own country, Israels’ Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu is finally facing growing and substantial protests against his war in Gaza. After he broke the ceasefire on March 18 and launched a new attack on Gaza, a number of women took the initiative to set up ‘Action for the Children’. “We woke up to the horrifying news that over 100 children had been killed in Gaza that very night. The four of us—myself, Amit, Alma, and Danielle—were devastated. We couldn’t stop crying. We felt we had to do something. We, Israeli Jews are also against this terror and this oppression. This matters. The memory of Shoah is alive for us and Never Again also means Never Again for the Palestinians as well” says Neora Shem.

Trump violating right to life with anti-environment orders, youth lawsuit says

Dharna Noor, The Guardian

Twenty-two young Americans have filed a new lawsuit against the Trump administration over its anti-environment executive orders. By intentionally boosting oil and gas production and stymying carbon-free energy, federal officials are violating their constitutional rights to life and liberty, alleges the lawsuit, filed on Thursday. The federal government is engaging in unlawful executive overreach by breaching congressional mandates to protect ecosystems and public health, argue the plaintiffs, who are between the ages of seven and 25 and hail from the heavily climate-impacted states of Montana, Hawaii, Oregon, California and Florida. They also say officials’ emissions-increasing and science-suppressing orders have violated the state-created danger doctrine, a legal principle meant to prevent government actors from inflicting injury upon their citizens.

Access, Assessment, Advancement

The Student Loan Repayment Restart Will Deepen Economic Inequality

Aisha Nyandoro, Forbes

A federal student loan repayments resumed at the beginning of the month after a prolonged pause due to the pandemic, millions of Americans face a daunting financial reckoning. According to the Department of Education, nearly 43 million borrowers owe more than $1.6 billion in loan debt. A majority of borrowers are not current on their payments, and it’s estimated that 10 million borrowers, representing a quarter of the federal student loan debt portfolio, will be delinquent within a few months. The Office of Federal Student Aid’s plans to address this include garnishing the wages of those who are unable to make payments.

Universities face ‘witch hunt’ over DEI changes, expert says

Ruth Serven Smith, AL.com

A former leader of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights said she’s “frustrated” with schools that are changing DEI policies in an effort to keep federal funding. Catherine Lhamon, who led the federal office during the Biden administration, said universities should stop responding to President Donald Trump’s request to end DEI programming unless he can put the force of Congress behind his words. “We’ve put ourselves as a nation in the position where there’s a witch hunt about a set of activities that are perfectly lawful, that are actually public goods, that are actually consistent with our highest national aspirations,” Lhamon said on a panel in St. Louis at the Education Writers Association conference.

Trump Wants to Cut Tribal College Funding by Nearly 90%, Putting Them at Risk of Closing

Matt Krupnick, ProPublica

The Trump administration has proposed cutting funding for tribal colleges and universities by nearly 90%, a move that would likely shut down most or all of the institutions created to serve students disadvantaged by the nation’s historic mistreatment of Indigenous communities. The proposal is included in the budget request from the Department of the Interior to Congress, which was released publicly on Monday. The document mentions only the two federally controlled tribal colleges — Haskell Indian Nations University and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute — but notes the request for postsecondary programs will drop from more than $182 million this year to just over $22 million for 2026.

Inequality, Poverty, Segregation

“But Money Makes It Real!”: Problematizing Capitalist Logic in Project-Based Learning

Sarah M. Fine, AERA Open

In an effort to boost engagement while also nurturing 21st century skills such as collaboration and critical thinking, a growing number of U.S. public schools have expanded opportunities for students to engage in applied learning experiences via projects. This conceptual article explores the under-examined relationship between such experiences and the logic of neoliberal capitalism. The author explores how project-based learning, despite its potential as a lever for equity, sometimes takes up neoliberal capitalist tropes such as individualism, competition, profit maximization, the commodification of learner-made artifacts, and market-based solutions to social problems. The article suggests that until the field embraces approaches to project-based learning which include a Freirian emphasis on criticality and praxis, capitalist logic will persist as a mechanism by which “real world” learning can perpetuate all-too-real systems of oppression.

Common Good Organizing with Elizabeth Todd-Breland

Bill Ayres, Under the Tree: A Seminar on Freedom

The Caucus of Rank and File Educators led by Karen Lewis, a charismatic high school chemistry teacher, was elected to lead the Chicago Teachers Union in 2010.  Lewis was a brilliant, transformational labor leader, and CORE developed a forceful form of social justice union organizing they called “organizing for the common good.” They foregrounded the best interests of the child, and they insisted on raising issues beyond wages and benefits, standing up for the arts, libraries, and nurses in every school as well as for the rights of families and the broader community. Among CORE’s early initiatives were starting a research department, and moving staff away from exclusively servicing the contract toward ongoing organizing of parents, community members, and teachers together. We’re joined by Elizabeth Todd-Breland, an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of both the award winning A Political Education: Black Politics and EducationReform in Chicago Since the 1960s and the recently released memoir, I Didn’t Come Here to Lie,  written with the late Karen Lewis and published by Haymarket Press.

Debunking DEI Myths

Shaun Harper, NEPC Newsletter

It was an interesting day. A representative from Missouri misrepresented the views of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Communism was conflated with DEI. And the director of something called the “American Civil Rights Project” described anti-discrimination practices as dis-Criminatory. So proceeded a recent hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Workforce, entitled “Restoring Excellence: The Case Against DEI” (diversity, equity, and inclusion). For the most part, that case was based on conjecture and opinions dished out with a large side of revised history. Shaun Harper tried to push back. “As a citizen and scholar, I highly value and insist on evidence,” he told the lawmakers. An NEPC Fellow and professor at the University of Southern California who founded the school’s Race and Equity Center, Harper was the lone voice using data to debunk some of the many misconceptions flying around the hearing room. Here’s what he had to say about five DEI falsehoods.

Democracy and the Public Interest

My Kindergarten Class Taught Me What’s Really at Stake in Mahmoud v. Taylor

George Theoharis, The Nation

Twenty-five years ago, I was teaching kindergarten in Wisconsin. It was time for the annual unit on families. As any good early-childhood teacher knows, when you teach a family unit, you need picture books that resonate with the young kids in your room—each and every kid needs to see their family in the books. Decades of research has shown the power of children’s books to act as both mirrors and windows. Mirrors let kids see themselves in the world, while windows allow kids a vantage into worlds beyond their immediate life. That year was particularly memorable: My last year teaching kindergarten before becoming a principal and then an education professor. But it was even more memorable because of the unit on families.

Texas Pushes LGBTQ+ School Club Ban as Pride Month Kicks Off

Jasmine Laws, Newsweek

Texas lawmakers have advanced legislation that bans public K-12 schools from sponsoring student clubs based on sexual orientation or gender identity, drawing sharp criticism from Democratic legislators and LGBTQ+ advocates. Senate Bill 12, sponsored by Senator Brandon Creighton, passed its final hurdle in the Texas House on Saturday and is now poised for the governor’s signature. The bill’s passage marks a significant escalation in Texas’ ongoing campaign against what conservatives describe as ideological indoctrination in education, however critics argue the ban endangers children and strips them of their dignity.

https://www.newsweek.com/texas-pushes-lgbtq-school-club-ban-2079451

I crisscrossed America to talk to people whose views I disagreed with. I now have one certainty

Anand Pandian, The Guardian

The residential community was lodged near a national forest on the outskirts of Scottsdale, Arizona. Forbidding gates and sentry posts restricted access to the exclusive development and its elegant homes. But security here went much further. Each cul-de-sac in the colony had its own individual railway gate, and many of the homeowners had installed gates across their own driveways as well. Anyone coming in or out of those houses would have to clear three checkpoints that set them apart from the wider world beyond. I was astonished. But the security director at the gated community saw nothing unusual in such arrangements. “People shouldn’t be able to just walk into where you live. You should be able to defend yourself against the rest of the world.” Immigration officers were doing exactly the same thing along the country’s border, he added: defending us.I couldn’t help but think about what I had seen in the company of migrant aid volunteers earlier that week in southern Arizona, all the tattered clothes and humble belongings caught in the brush of a desert trail, attesting to the desperation of those who had fled through that harsh terrain.

Other News of Note

Defending Pride:  L.A. school board president denounces anti-LGBTQ protester, June 6, 2023 [Video]

Los Angeles School Board President Jackie Goldberg gave an impassioned speech June 6 addressing the anti-LGBTQ protest outside Saticoy Elementary School.