Teaching, Leading, and Social Justice

‘See you in court’: Executive order to eliminate Education Department faces swift legal challenges

Annie Ma, AP News

The Trump administration’s effort to abolish the Education Department through an executive order Thursday was quickly met by promises of legal challenges. Skye Perryman, president of the advocacy group Democracy Forward, promised to sue. “We will use every legal tool to ensure that the rights of students, teachers, and families are fully protected,” Perryman said.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, made a similar pledge even before the order was signed. “See you in court,” Weingarten said in a statement Wednesday evening.

Big cuts at the Education Department’s civil rights office will affect vulnerable students for years to come

Erica Frankenberg and Maithreyi Gopalan, The Conversation

The U.S. Department of Education cut its workforce by nearly 50% on March 11, 2025, when it laid off about 1,315 employees. The move follows several recent directives targeting the Cabinet-level agency. Within the department, the Office for Civil Rights – which already experienced layoffs in February – was especially hard hit by cuts. The details remain unclear, but reports suggest that staffs at six of the 12 regional OCR offices were laid off. Because of the office’s role in enforcing civil rights laws in schools and universities, the cuts will affect students across the country. As education policy scholars who study how laws and policies shape educational inequities, we believe the Office for Civil Rights has played an important role in facilitating equitable education for all students. 

How Oklahoma’s Right-Wing Superintendent Set Off a Holy War in Classrooms

Linda K. Wertheimer, Vanity Fair

ometimes, Jakob Topper teaches his Christian faith to his six-year-old daughter using children’s Bible stories illustrated with teddy bears. Other days, he might use her kid-friendly Bible featuring Precious Moments figures as characters. One thing he knows for sure: The King James version is not on the reading list, given some of its adult themes of sexual assault and incest.

As a parent and a Baptist pastor, Topper opposes Oklahoma’s state superintendent of public instruction’s mandate to put a King James Version Bible in every grade 5–12 classroom. The father of three is also not keen on the state’s newly proposed social studies standards that would require biblical lessons starting in first grade. “I want the Bible taught to my daughter, and I want to be the one who chooses how that’s done,” said Topper, who also has a one-year-old and a three-year-old and is pastor of NorthHaven Church in Norman, a university town. “If we’re talking about parental choice, that’s my choice. I don’t want it to be farmed out to anyone else.” 

Language, Culture, and Power

As Immigration Raids Stoke Anxiety, What Are the Implications for How Children Learn?

Nadia Tamez-Robledo, EdSurge

Panicked calls from parents. More empty desks in classrooms. Higher anxiety. Those are some of the effects school officials from around the country say their communities have been experiencing in the weeks since the Trump administration rolled back a federal policy that restricted Immigrations and Customs Enforcement from conducting raids on school grounds.

No ICE arrests at schools have been reported, yet, but the fear caused by raids doesn’t show any signs of letting up as the president looks for new ways to deliver on his campaign promise of mass deportations. A judge denied an attempt to ban ICE from entering K-12 campuses in Denver Public Schools, where the superintendent says fear of deportation arrests has driven up the rate of absences.

Which States Are Challenging Undocumented Students’ Right to Free Education?

Ileana Najarro & Daniela Franco Brown, Education Week

The U.S. Supreme Court granted undocumented students the constitutional right to a free, public education in a landmark ruling in the 1982 Plyler v. Doe case. On the heels of President Donald Trump’s re-election and assertive immigration enforcement agenda, a new wave of political and policy momentum to prevent or limit access for such students is gaining traction at the state level. In the seminal case—one of the most important for education and civil rights—the justices ruled 5-4 that Texas violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause by withholding funds from school districts for the education of undocumented children. The high court’s ruling is why public schools don’t request or collect immigration status information upon enrollment. 

California wants more kids in bilingual classes — but won’t spend enough to expand them

Tara García Mathewson, CalMatters

As California gets closer to its 2030 goal of having 1,600 dual language immersion programs in the state’s public schools and advocates call for a more ambitious vision, legislators have pumped the brakes on funding. In 2021, the Legislature created a $10 million grant program to help schools expand dual language programs over the last three years, but now that money is gone. The only bill before the Legislature this session would have the state spend just half that over the next three years, with that $5 million going to buy or create books and other teaching materials in languages other than English. 

Whole Children and Strong Communities

Citizens as cultivars: democratic values in paddy fields and universities [Audio]

Mukulika Banerjee and David Wengrow, LSE Lectures and Public Events

A cultivar is a plant that people have selected for desired traits and which retains those when propagated. This inaugural lecture by Mukulika Banerjee draws on long-term fieldwork among paddy farmers in Bengal to explore the ways in which cultivation – of crops, neighbourly relations, and selves – can help democracy and truthful politics to flourish. It also considers how the university, through its own cultivation of knowledge and debate, is another vital site for nurturing active citizens and a better future.

How Trump is disrupting efforts by schools and colleges to combat climate change

Caroline Preston, Hechinger Report

LeeAnn Kittle helps oversee the Denver public school district’s work to reduce carbon emissions by 90 percent by 2050. In January, her job got a lot tougher.  Denver expected to receive tax credits via the Inflation Reduction Act for an additional 25 electric school buses. President Donald Trump attempted to freeze clean energy funds through the IRA in his first days in office. Kittle, the district’s executive director of sustainability, also considered applying for tax credit-like payments for energy-efficient heat pumps for the district’s older buildings that lack air conditioning. And she’d intended to apply this spring for a nearly $12 million grant through Renew America’s Schools, a Department of Energy program to help schools become more energy efficient. Staff working on that program have left and its future is uncertain. 

Empathy, Dignity, and Courageous Action in Schools [Audio]

Tim Shriver and Stephanie Jones, Harvard EdCast

How we see the world and interact with each other, especially whether we create welcoming environments of acceptance, does not always come naturally. Tim Shriver, chair of the Special Olympics, and Stephanie Jones, a Harvard professor whose research focuses on social emotional development, say that it’s something we can teach, and fostering an inclusive and accepting mindset in schools and communities matters.  “This is not stuff that we’re necessarily born with. It all grows and emerges through experiences and all kinds of things that happen in the world. So, they are malleable skills — they can be taught,” Jones says. “And I would go further and say that the decades of work in schools focused on things like social, emotional, and behavioral development have given us some ideas about the essentials of teaching and supporting these kinds of skills.”

Access, Assessment, Advancement

San Francisco Public Schools See Surge of Applications, Thanks to Transitional Kindergarten Demand

Daisy Nguyen, KQED

San Francisco public schools received the largest number of applications in more than a decade thanks to a statewide initiative to offer a free year of prekindergarten to all 4-year-olds this fall.

The district announced Monday first-round school assignments for the 2025–26 school year for nearly 15,500 applicants, a 10% increase in applications compared to last year, said Lauren Koehler, executive director of San Francisco Unified School District’s enrollment center. It’s a bit of good news for a district facing a major budget shortfall, partly caused by declining enrollment trends.

Undocumented Students’ Uneven Access to Financial Aid Resources: How Existing Resources Reinforce Deservingness

Daysi Ximena Diaz-Strong and Dennise G. Moreno, EPAA

Federal policy excludes undocumented students from federal aid for postsecondary education, creating tremendous barriers to their ability to cover tuition costs. Starting with fewer need-based funding options for college elevates the importance of accessing scholarships for undocumented students. The existing literature has established the crucial role of school-based institutional agents, or school agents, in assisting students to locate and apply for scholarships. School agents, accordingly, are knowledgeable about the trends and barriers in undocumented students’access to scholarships. Drawing on a case study in the Chicago metropolitan area, this paper examines the patterns in access to scholarships and the challenges school agents encounter in assisting undocumented students in locating scholarships.

Trump and the Universities: Submission and Resistance [Audio]

Jon Weiner, David Cole, David Myers, Start Making Sense

A key source of opposition to authoritarian regimes in recent history has come from universities and colleges. Trump has been attacking the independence of American universities, demanding they submit to his requirements and using massive funding cuts as his weapon. David Cole, formerly national legal director of the ACLU, has our analysis. Also on this episode: Mahmoud Khalil is the Palestinian student activist at Columbia arrested and jailed by ICE. The Trump administration intends to revoke his status as a permanent resident, a green-card holder, and deport him—they say, to protect Jewish students on campus. That’s clearly a violation of freedom of speech. But is deporting Palestinian student activists a good way to protect Jewish students on campus? For comment we turn to David Myers—he teaches Jewish history at UCLA. 

Inequality, Poverty, Segregation

A Time to ‘Be Vocal’ About the Education Rights of Students with Disabilities

Eleanor J. Bader, The Progressive

For teachers, parents, and advocates of students with disabilities, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s confirmation hearing—during which she failed to demonstrate any understanding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), or even remember what IDEA stands for—has raised newfound concerns about how such students will fare under the Trump Administration. What’s more, a push by Republican lawmakers in Congress to enact a nationwide, federally administered school voucher program threatens the rights granted to students with disabilities by IDEA, further marginalizing them.  Soyoung Park, director of online early childhood and childhood special education programs at the Bank Street Graduate School of Education, wants the country’s 7.5 million students who receive special education services—many of them Black, Indigenous, and Latinx—to be integrated rather than segregated and isolated from their peers.

Experimental Effects of “Opportunity Gap” and “Achievement Gap” Frames

David Quinn, Sociology of Education

Racial equity in education is often framed around “closing the achievement gap,” but many scholars argue this frame perpetuates deficit mindsets. The “opportunity gap” (OG)  frame has been offered as an alternative to focus attention on structural injustices. In a preregistered survey experiment, I estimate the effects of framing racial equity in education around “achievement gaps” (AGs) versus OGs. I find U.S. adult respondents on MTurk gave higher priority to “closing the racial opportunity gap” versus “closing the racial achievement gap” (effect size = 0.11 SD). When randomly assigned to read an OG frame before being asked to explain the Black/White “achievement gap,” respondents were less likely to endorse cultural or individual-level explanations compared with respondents only shown AG statistics (effect size = –0.10 SD). I find no evidence the OG frame affected respondents’ racial stereotypes or policy preferences.

UNHCR Education Report 2024 – Refugee education: Five years on from the launch of the 2030 refugee education strategy

Cirenia Chavez Villegas and Kate Bond, UNHCR

Five years ago, following a global  collaboration with stakeholders across  UNHCR and partners, the 2030 Refugee  Education Strategy detailed a bold new  vision – one that laid the foundations for a future that would enable refugee children and youth to learn, thrive and  develop their potential. This vision, which united international organizations, governments, the private sector, refugee communities, education  networks and United Nations agencies, paved a way forward that would ensure the inclusion of refugee children and youth in equitable quality education, contributing to their resilience and preparing them for participation in cohesive societies. In doing all of this, its authors strived to apply the fundamental principles of solidarity and responsibility-sharing, and to translate the goals of the Global Compact on Refugees into coherent action.

Democracy and the Public Interest

Beyond the Ballot: The State of Civic Education in Kentucky

Kentucky Student Voice Team

The Kentucky Student Voice Team’s (KSVT) report highlights the state of K-12 civic education in Kentucky, emphasizing its critical role in fostering informed and engaged citizens. Against a backdrop of national and state challenges, including hyper-polarization, digital information proliferation and curriculum censorship, the report outlines the limitations and inequities in current civic education practices. Through a year-long mixed-methods study, KSVT has identified gaps, inequities and opportunities to strengthen civic learning.

‘You are now historic’: NJ officials encourage Newark students to vote in school board election

Jessie Gómez, Chalkbeat

The voter registration drive at Newark’s School of Data Science and Information Technology had pizza, a DJ blasting music throughout the school’s gym, and a surprise appearance by award-winning rapper and recording artist A Boogie With da Hoodie. It also included elected officials – from New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka – encouraging the city’s 16- and 17-year-olds to register to vote and students excited about participating in a school board election for the time. What the Tuesday event didn’t have was information about the 11 candidates running for a spot on the Newark Board of Education. 

How Texas Conservatives Use At-Large School Board Elections to Influence What Students Learn

Jeremy Schwartz and Dan Keemahill, ProPublica

In 2019, the Keller Independent School District in North Texas looked a lot like its counterpart just 30 miles to the east in the Dallas suburb of Richardson. Each served about 35,000 children and had experienced sharp increases in the racial diversity of students in recent decades. Each was run by a school board that was almost entirely white. In the five years since, the districts have followed strikingly divergent paths as culture war battles over how to teach race and gender exploded across the state. In Keller, candidates backed by groups seeking to limit the teaching of race and gender took control of the school board and immediately passed sweeping policies that gave outsized power to any individual who wanted to prevent the purchase of books they believed to be unsuitable for children.

Other News of Note

My Name is Mahmoud Khalil and I Am a Political Prisoner

Mahmoud Khalil, In These Times

My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner. I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law.

Who has the right to have rights? It is certainly not the humans crowded into the cells here. It isn’t the Senegalese man I met who has been deprived of his liberty for a year, his legal situation in limbo and his family an ocean away. It isn’t the 21-year-old detainee I met, who stepped foot in this country at age nine, only to be deported without so much as a hearing. Justice escapes the contours of this nation’s immigration facilities.

What Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest means for international students … and everyone [Audio]

Gene Demby, B.A. Parker, Xavier Lopez, Courtney Stein, Jess Kung, Christina Cala, Dalia Mortada, and Veralyn Williams, NPR’s Code Switch

Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident and Columbia alum, was detained by ICE for his role in leading pro-Palestinian protests at his former university last year. As Khalil’s case has captured the nation’s attention, free speech advocates see it as a test of the First Amendment. Meanwhile, the Trump administration argues they have the right to deport Khalil without charging him with a crime. On this episode, why Khalil’s arrest should worry all of us.

Learning From the Courage of the Civil Rights Movement

Jeanne Theoharis, Jacobin

It was very difficult to keep going when all our efforts seemed in vain,” Rosa Parks described her work in the 1940s and early ’50s. Getting her political start with the Scottsboro Boys case in the early 1930s, Rosa Parks was part of a small band of activists in the 1940s that sought to transform Montgomery’s NAACP into a more activist chapter. With union organizer E. D. Nixon, they worked for the next dozen years on voter registration and criminal justice (or the lack thereof) for black people: trying to prevent the legal lynching of black men and seeking justice under the law for black victims of white brutality, particularly black women who had been raped. Over and over, they tried to find justice — and over and over, there was no justice.  People got scared and refused to provide testimony. And when they did stand up, the cases went nowhere. Killers and rapists went free. Black men were executed for crimes they did not commit. Parks and her comrades filed affidavit after affidavit to the Justice Department, and the DOJ turned the other way.