WASHINGTON — Proposed mass layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education have raised alarm among disability advocates and Democratic lawmakers over the potential impact on millions of students with disabilities.

Advocates warn that the department cannot carry out its legally mandated functions for special education services and support at the staffing levels put forward by President Donald Trump’s proposed reduction in force, or RIF.

The agency is also reportedly weighing a transfer of special education programs to a different department.

“If we’ve learned anything this year, it’s that the fight is just beginning,” Rachel Gittleman, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents Education Department workers, told States Newsroom. “And we’re going to do everything we can to fight these illegal firings and the dismantling of the department, but it is just beginning.”

Trump’s administration took another axe to the department earlier this month amid the ongoing government shutdown, effectively gutting key units that serve students with disabilities. The affected offices administer $15 billion in formula and discretionary grant programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, provide guidance and support to families and states and investigate disability-based discrimination complaints, among other responsibilities.

Though a federal judge has temporarily blocked the administration from carrying out the layoffs, the ruling provides only short-term relief as legal proceedings unfold.

The administration moved to lay off 465 department employees, including 121 at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, or OSERS, 132 in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, or OESE, and 137 in the Office for Civil Rights, or OCR.

The layoffs also hit the Office of the Secretary, Office of Communications and Office of Postsecondary Education.

“You can’t look at any of this in a silo,” Gittleman said. “When you’re thinking about special education specifically, you also have to think about the fact that OESE, the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, also saw an almost full RIF as well.”

Gittleman called the civil rights office “the place that ensures families have a place to go for help when students are denied access for education based on their disability.”

“That was also almost entirely gutted,” she said. “So you’re debilitating these programs in multiple ways because … kids with disabilities benefit from OESE programs, OCR assistance and OSERS programs.”

Those three units had already been hit with a separate set of department layoffs earlier this year.

Parents as advocates

Katy Neas, CEO of The Arc of the United States, an advocacy group for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, said that while IDEA has not been changed and the rights of children with disabilities continue, the government’s ability to enforce and implement those rights has deteriorated.

OSERS is responsible for managing and supporting IDEA, which guarantees a free public education for students with disabilities and is in its 50th year. The umbrella unit OSERS includes the Office of the Assistant Secretary, Office of Special Education Programs and the Rehabilitation Services Administration.

“You take away the knowledge of the folks at the U.S. Department of Education at the Office of Special Education Programs — the law is complex, the combination of the federal law with state laws is complex — you need that trusted source of accurate information, and so, I think it’s going to make the implementation of this law that much more difficult,” Neas told States Newsroom.

During the 2022-2023 school year, 7.5 million students in the United States received services through IDEA, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, a federal agency.

Neas encouraged parents to “know your rights” and “understand what the law does and does not do for your child, and don’t take no for an answer.”

She said parents “really have to be well-versed in what the law requires schools to provide to their child,” and “have to be the ones that insist that the law is implemented with fidelity, because they’re the ones that are going to be on the front lines trying to make that happen.”

‘Flabbergasted’

Jacqueline Rodriguez, CEO at the National Center for Learning Disabilities, said the RIFs would make it “impossible” for the Office of Special Education Programs to “carry out its statutory requirements.”

Rodriguez, whose organization advocates for people with learning and attention issues, said “we had hundreds of staff doing this type of work — the statutory requirements are monitoring, compliance, guidance, support — it’s not just pressing a button and issuing funding.”

She also noted that advocacy groups, including hers, are “flabbergasted” regarding the sweeping layoffs of special education staff because of the contrast with previous assurances Education Secretary Linda McMahon has made to both Rodriguez and Congress about supporting students with disabilities.

“I am not stunned that the administration would try to dismantle something that was legally required in place,” she said. “But I am flabbergasted that the secretary would sit and give congressional testimony at her confirmation hearing. She did it at the oversight hearing. She sat in front of me and said, ‘No, Jackie, this administration supports kids with special needs. We will always be good advocates. You don’t have to worry.’”

Just days after the layoff notices were sent out, McMahon took to social media to downplay the consequences of the shutdown on her department.

Two weeks into the shutdown, “millions of American students are still going to school, teachers are getting paid, and schools are operating as normal,” McMahon wrote.

The secretary added that “it confirms what the President has said: the federal Department of Education is unnecessary, and we should return education to the states.”

McMahon also specified that “no education funding is impacted by the RIF, including funding for special education.”

Rodriguez said McMahon’s post indicates the secretary believes the “status quo is perfectly reasonable — when we know that’s not the case — and she dismantles every opportunity for a kid with a disability to actually have his or her legally-entitled education.”

“I am beyond being polite and providing professional deference because there has been no consideration or deference to kids with disabilities for the last 10 months,” she added.

The groups that advocate for students with disabilities are united in their opposition, Rodriguez continued.

“Disability organizations across the country are united, we are all talking to one another,” she said. “We all work collaboratively, and we are in concert, lock and step.”

Congressional Dems fiercely oppose cuts

Meanwhile, a slew of Democratic lawmakers expressed outrage and concern over the department RIFs in two separate letters to the administration this month.

Reps. Lucy McBath of Georgia, Mark DeSaulnier and Lateefah Simon of California, led dozens of fellow House Democrats in an Oct. 17 letter voicing to McMahon and White House budget director Russ Vought their “deep opposition” to the layoffs and urging them to “immediately reverse course and rescind the termination notices that were sent to these workers.”

In another letter to McMahon, 31 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus wrote Monday that “punitive, reckless actions like these latest firings demonstrate how President Trump and …Vought are relishing the government shutdown they caused — and are treating students as political pawns,” adding: “That is outrageous — and flatly unacceptable.”

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, led the letter, along with: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York; Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; and Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, ranking member of the Appropriations subcommittee overseeing Education Department funding.

This story was published in partnership with Creative Commons. Read the original story here.

WASHINGTON — Congress’ failure to pass a short-term government funding bill before midnight Tuesday will lead to the first shutdown in nearly seven years and give President Donald Trump broad authority to determine what federal operations keep running — which will have a huge impact on the government, its employees, states, and Americans.

A funding lapse this year would have a considerably wider effect than the 35-day one that took place during Trump’s first term and could last longer, given heightened political tensions.

The last shutdown didn’t affect the departments of Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Labor, and Veterans Affairs, since Congress had approved those agencies’ full-year funding bills.

Lawmakers had also enacted the Legislative Branch appropriations bill, exempting Capitol Hill from any repercussions.

That isn’t the case this time around since none of the dozen government spending bills have become law. That means nearly every corner of the federal government will feel the pain in some way if a compromise isn’t reached by the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1.

States Newsroom’s Washington, D.C. Bureau offers you a quick guide to what could happen if Republicans and Democrats don’t broker an agreement in time.

How does the White House budget office determine what government operations are essential during a shutdown?

Generally, federal programs that include the preservation of life or property as well as those addressing national security, continue during a shutdown, while all other activities are supposed to cease until a funding bill becomes law.

But the president holds expansive power to determine what activities within the executive branch are essential and which aren’t, making the effects of a shutdown hard to pinpoint unless the Trump administration shares that information publicly.

Presidential administrations have traditionally posted contingency plans on the White House budget office’s website, detailing how each agency would shut down — explaining which employees are exempt and need to keep working, and which are furloughed.

That appears to have changed this year. The web page that would normally host dozens of contingency plans remained blank until late September, when the White House budget office posted that a 940-page document released in August calls for the plans to be “hosted solely on each agency’s website.”

Only a few departments had plans from this year posted on their websites as of Friday afternoon.

The White House budget office expects agencies to develop Reduction in Force plans as part of their shutdown preparation, signaling a prolonged funding lapse will include mass firings and layoffs.

While the two-page memo doesn’t detail which agencies would be most affected, it says layoffs will apply to programs, projects, or activities that are “not consistent with the President’s priorities.”

Trump will be paid during a shutdown since Article II, Section 1, Clause 7 of the Constitution prevents the president’s salary from being increased or decreased during the current term.

No one else in the executive branch — including Cabinet secretaries, more than 2 million civilian employees and over 1 million active duty military personnel — will receive their paycheck until after the shutdown ends.

Are federal courts exempt from a shutdown since they’re a separate branch of government?

The Supreme Court will continue to conduct normal operations in the event of a shutdown, according to its Public Information Office.

The office said the court “will rely on permanent funds not subject to annual approval, as it has in the past, to maintain operations through the duration of short-term lapses of annual appropriations,” in a statement shared with States Newsroom.

As for any impact on lower federal courts, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said the federal judiciary was still assessing the fiscal 2026 outlook and had no comment.

The office serves as the central support arm of the federal judiciary.

During the last government shutdown from late 2018 into early 2019, federal courts remained open using court fee balances and “no-year” funds, which are available for an indefinite period.

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has said that if those funds run out, they would operate under the terms of the Anti-Deficiency Act, which “allows work to continue during a lapse in appropriations if it is necessary to support the exercise of Article III judicial powers.”

Supreme Court justices and appointed federal judges continue to get paid during a government shutdown, as Article III of the Constitution says the judges’ compensation “shall not be diminished” during their term.

What happens to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid?

The three programs exist largely outside of the annual appropriations process, since lawmakers categorized them as “mandatory spending.”

This means Social Security checks, as well as reimbursements to health care providers for Medicare and Medicaid services, should continue as normal.

One possible hitch is that the salaries for people who run those programs are covered by annual appropriations bills, so there could be some staffing problems for the Social Security Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, depending on their contingency plans.

The first Trump administration’s shutdown guidance for the Social Security Administration showed 54,000 of 63,000 employees at that agency would have kept working. The CMS plan from 2020 shows that it intended to keep about 50% of its employees working in the event of a shutdown. Neither had a current plan as of Friday.

Will the Department of Veterans Affairs be able to keep providing health care and benefits?

Veterans can expect health care to continue uninterrupted at VA medical centers and outpatient clinics in the event of a shutdown. Vets would also continue to receive benefits, including compensation, pension, education, and housing, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs contingency planning for a funding lapse that is currently published on the department’s website. It’s unclear if the plan will be the one the Trump administration puts into action.

But a shutdown would affect other VA services. For example, the GI Bill hotline would close, and all in-person and virtual career counseling and transition assistance services would be unavailable.

Additionally, all regional VA benefits offices would shutter until Congress agreed to fund the government. The closures would include the Manila Regional Office in the Philippines that serves veterans in the Pacific region.

All department public outreach to veterans would also cease.

Will Hubbard, spokesperson for Veterans Education Success, said his advocacy organization is bracing for increased phone calls and emails from veterans who would normally call the GI Bill hotline.

“Questions are going to come up, veterans are going to be looking for answers, and they’re not going to be able to call like they would be able to normally, that’s going to be a big problem,” Hubbard said.

“Most of the benefits that people are going to be most concerned about will not be affected, but the ones that do get affected, for the people that that hits, I mean, it’s going to matter a lot to them. It’s going to change the direction of their planning, and potentially the direction of their life,” Hubbard said.

The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Office of Management and Budget did not respond to a request for current VA shutdown guidance.

What happens to immigration enforcement and immigration courts?

As the Trump administration continues with its aggressive immigration tactics in cities with high immigrant populations, that enforcement is likely to continue during a government shutdown, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s March guidance for operating in a government shutdown.

Immigration-related fees will continue, such as for processing visas and applications from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

And DHS expects nearly all of its U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees to be exempt — 17,500 out of 20,500 — and continue working without pay amid a government shutdown.

That means that ICE officers will continue to arrest, detain, and remove from the country immigrants without legal status. DHS is currently concentrating immigration enforcement efforts in Chicago, known as “Operation Midway Blitz.”

Other employees within DHS, such as those in the Transportation Security Administration, will also be retained during a government shutdown. There are about 58,000 TSA employees who would be exempt and continue to work without pay in airports across the country.

DHS did not respond to States Newsroom’s request for a contingency plan if there is a government shutdown.

Separately, a shutdown would also burden the overwhelmed immigration court system that is housed within the Department of Justice. It would lead to canceling or rescheduling court cases, when there is already a backlog of 3.4 million cases.

The only exceptions are immigration courts that are located within Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, detention centers, but most cases would need to be rescheduled. The partial government shutdown that began in December 2018 caused nearly 43,000 court cases to be canceled, according to a report by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC.

And 28 states have an immigration court, requiring some immigrants to travel hundreds or thousands of miles for their appointment.

States that do not have an immigration court include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Will people be able to visit national parks or use public lands during a shutdown?

Probably, but that may be bad for parks’ long-term health.

During the 2018-2019 shutdown, the first Trump administration kept parks open, with skeleton staffs across the country struggling to maintain National Park Service facilities.

Theresa Pierno, the president and CEO of the advocacy group National Parks Conservation Association, said in a Sept. 23 statement that the last shutdown devastated areas of some parks.

“Americans watched helplessly as Joshua Trees were cut down, park buildings were vandalized, prehistoric petroglyphs were defaced, trash overflowed leading to wildlife impacts, and human waste piled up,” she wrote. “Visitor safety and irreplaceable natural and cultural resources were put at serious risk. We cannot allow this to happen again.”

The National Park Service’s latest contingency plan was published in March 2024, during President Joe Biden’s administration. It calls for at least some closures during a shutdown, though the document says the response will differ from park to park.

Restricting access to parks is difficult due to their physical characteristics, the document said, adding that staffing would generally be maintained at a minimum to allow visitors. However, some areas that are regularly closed could be locked up for the duration of a shutdown.

But that contingency plan is likely to change before Tuesday, spokespeople for the Park Service and the Interior Department, which oversees NPS, said Sept. 25.

“The lapse in funding plans on our website is from 2024,” an email from the NPS office of public affairs said. “They are currently being reviewed and updated.”

Hunters and others seeking to use public lands maintained by Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will likely be able to continue to do so, though they may have to make alternative plans if they’d planned to use facilities such as campgrounds.

Land Tawney, the co-chair of the advocacy group American Hunters and Anglers, said campgrounds, toilets, and facilities that require staffing would be inaccessible, but most public lands would remain available.

“Those lands are kind of open and they’re just unmanned, I would say, and that’s not really gonna change much,” he said. “If you’re staying in a campground, you’ve got to figure something else out.”

As with national parks, access to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refuges and other hunting and fishing sites will differ from site to site, Tawney said. The Fish and Wildlife Service doesn’t require permits for hunting on its lands, but access to some refuges is determined by a staff-run lottery drawing. If those drawings can’t be held, access to those sites will be limited, Tawney said.

What happens to the Internal Revenue Service?

How the Internal Revenue Service would operate during a government shutdown remains unclear.

When Congress teetered on letting funding run out in March, the nation’s revenue collection agency released a contingency plan to continue full operations during the height of tax filing season.

The IRS planned to use funds allocated in the 2022 budget reconciliation law to keep its roughly 95,000 employees processing returns and refunds, answering the phones, and pursuing audits.

Ultimately, Congress agreed on a stopgap funding bill to avoid a March shutdown, but much has changed since then.

The new tax and spending law, signed by Trump on July 4 and often referred to as the “one big beautiful bill,” made major changes to the U.S. tax code.

Additionally, the agency, which processes roughly 180 million income tax returns per year, has lost about a quarter of its workforce since January. Top leadership has also turned over six times in 2025.

Rachel Snyderman, of the Bipartisan Policy Center, said workforce reductions combined with a string of leadership changes could factor into how the agency would operate during a funding lapse.

“It’s really difficult to understand both what the status of the agency would be if the government were to shut down in less than a week, and also the impacts that a prolonged shutdown could have on taxpayer services and taxpayers at large,” said Snyderman, the think tank’s managing director of economic policy.

Do federal employees get back pay after a shutdown ends?

According to the Office of Personnel Management — the executive branch’s chief human resources agency — “after the lapse in appropriations has ended, employees who were furloughed as a result of the lapse will receive retroactive pay for those furlough periods.”

The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 requires furloughed government employees to receive back pay as a result of a government shutdown.

That law does not apply to federal contractors, who face uncertainty in getting paid during a shutdown.

What role does Congress have during a shutdown?

The House and Senate must approve a stopgap spending bill or all twelve full-year appropriations bills to end a shutdown, a feat that requires the support of at least some Democrats to get past the upper chamber’s 60-vote legislative filibuster.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., control their respective chambers’ calendars as well as the floor schedule, so they could keep holding votes on the stopgap bill Democrats have already rejected or try to pass individual bills to alleviate the impacts on certain agencies.

Neither Johnson nor Thune has yet to suggest bipartisan negotiations with Democratic leaders about funding the government. And while they are open to discussions about extending the enhanced tax credits for people who buy their health insurance from the Affordable Care Act Marketplace, they don’t want that decision connected to the funding debate.

Democratic leaders have said repeatedly that Republicans shouldn’t expect them to vote for legislation they had no say in drafting, especially with a health care cliff for millions of Americans coming at the end of the year.

Members of Congress will receive their paychecks regardless of how long a shutdown lasts, but the people who work for them would only receive their salaries after it ends.

Lawmakers must be paid under language in Article I, Section 6, Clause 1 of the Constitution as well as the 27th Amendment, which bars members of Congress from changing their salaries during the current session.

Lawmakers have discretion to decide which of their staff members continue working during a shutdown and which are furloughed.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Capitol Police, which is tasked with protecting members amid a sharp rise in political violence, said a shutdown “would not affect the security of the Capitol Complex.”

“Our officers, and the professional staff who perform or support emergency functions, would still report to work,” the spokesperson said. “Employees who are not required for emergency functions would be furloughed until funding is available.”

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com.

WASHINGTON — Republican members of the U.S. Senate called on Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought in a letter Wednesday to release the $6.8 billion in funds for K-12 schools that the Trump administration is withholding.

The letter marked a major friction point between President Donald Trump and influential lawmakers in his own party as his administration tests the limits of the executive branch’s authority in clawing back federal dollars Congress has already appropriated. Every state has millions in school funding held up as a result of the freeze.

Wednesday’s letter came after the Supreme Court temporarily cleared the way earlier this week for the administration to carry out mass layoffs and a plan to dramatically downsize the Department of Education that Trump ordered earlier this year.

Just a day ahead of the July 1 date when these funds are typically disbursed as educators plan for the coming school year, the Education Department informed states that it would be withholding funding for several programs, including before- and after-school programs, migrant education and English-language learning, among other initiatives.

“Withholding these funds will harm students, families, and local economies,” wrote the 10 GOP senators, many of them members of committees that make decisions on spending. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Republican and chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, led the letter.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, chair of the broader Senate Appropriations Committee, also signed onto the letter, along with: Sens. Katie Britt of Alabama, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, John Boozman of Arkansas, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Deb Fischer of Nebraska, John Hoeven of North Dakota, Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Jim Justice of West Virginia.

“The decision to withhold this funding is contrary to President Trump’s goal of returning K-12 education to the states,” the senators wrote. “This funding goes directly to states and local school districts, where local leaders decide how this funding is spent, because as we know, local communities know how to best serve students and families.”

States Newsroom has asked the Office of Management and Budget for comment on the letter.

Meanwhile, a slew of congressional Democrats and one independent — 32 senators and 150 House Democrats — urged Vought and Education Secretary Linda McMahon in two letters sent last week to immediately release the funds they say are being withheld “illegally.”

Democratic attorneys general and governors also pushed back on these withheld funds when a coalition of 24 states and the District of Columbia sued the administration earlier this week.

Trump administration tells states it’s freezing $6.8 billion for K-12 school programs

by Shauneen Miranda, Daily Montanan
July 1, 2025

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has put on hold $6.8 billion in federal funds for K-12 schools, according to an Education Department notice obtained by States Newsroom.

The agency informed states on Monday that it would be withholding funding for several programs, including before- and after-school programs, migrant education and English-language learning, among other initiatives.

But the agency notified states just a day ahead of July 1 — the date these funds are typically sent out as educators plan for the coming school year.

“The Department remains committed to ensuring taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the President’s priorities and the Department’s statutory responsibilities,” the Education Department wrote to states.

The notice, which did not provide any timeline, said the funds are under review and “decisions have not yet been made concerning submissions and awards for this upcoming academic year.”

The affected programs, according to the Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee, include:

• Title I-C, on migrant education
• Title II-A, on improving the effectiveness of teachers and school leaders
• Title III-A, on English language acquisition
• Title IV-A, on STEM education, college and career counseling and other activities
• Title IV-B, on before- and after-school programs and summer school programs
• Grants geared toward adult education and literacy programs

States have been on the lookout for these funds. For instance, just last week, Oklahoma’s Department of Education reported that it had yet to get money from the federal government for migrant education, English language acquisition and other programs, according to Oklahoma Voice.

‘Winding down’ the department

Adding fuel to the fire, Trump is looking to eliminate all these programs as part of his fiscal 2026 budget request. That wish list, according to a department summary, calls for $12 billion in total spending cuts at the agency.

That proposed $12 billion cut “reflects an agency that is responsibly winding down,” the document notes.

Meanwhile, a coalition of 16 states is also suing the Trump administration over the cancellation earlier this year of roughly $1 billion in school mental health grants — a different piece of school funding — to try to restore that money.

The lawsuit was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle. The states include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin.

Uncertainty created

In a Tuesday statement, Washington state U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate spending panel, urged the Trump administration to immediately release the frozen funds.

“President Trump himself signed this funding into law — but that isn’t stopping him from choking off resources to support before and after school programs, help students learn, support teachers in the classroom, and a lot more,” Murray said. “The uncertainty he has created has already forced districts to delay hiring and other initiatives to help students. The only question left now is how much more damage this administration wants to inflict on our public schools.”

“Local school districts can’t afford to wait out lengthy court proceedings to get the federal funding they’re owed — nor can they make up the shortfall, especially not at the drop of a pin,” Murray added.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, blasted the administration’s actions, saying this is “another illegal usurpation of the authority of the Congress” and “directly harms the children in our nation.”

“K-12 public school leaders across the country who should have been able to start planning months ago for the summer and the upcoming school year are instead left mired in financial uncertainty,” added Weingarten, who leads one of the largest teachers unions in the country.

Approved by Congress

Carissa Moffat Miller, CEO of the Council of Chief State School Officers, said “the administration must make the full extent of title funding available in a timely manner,” in a statement shared with States Newsroom on Tuesday.

“These funds were approved by Congress and signed into law by President Trump in March,” Miller said. “Schools need these funds to hire key staff and educate students this summer and in the upcoming school year.”

In response to a request for comment on the frozen funds, the Education Department referred States Newsroom to the Office of Management and Budget, which is responsible for administering the federal budget and overseeing the performance of departments throughout the federal government.

OMB did not immediately respond to States Newsroom’s inquiry.

Daily Montanan is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republican leaders expressed confidence Tuesday they’ll be able to tamp down opposition to various elements of the party’s “big, beautiful bill” in time to approve the measure before the Fourth of July, though they acknowledged there’s considerable work left to do.

GOP senators from across the political spectrum have debated the broad strokes of the tax and spending cut legislation for weeks, but raised fresh concerns after the influential Finance Committee released its portion of the package, which addresses taxes and Medicaid. Some GOP senators objected to a change in Medicaid policy they said could harm rural hospitals.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said during a press conference that reducing the Medicaid provider tax rate that states can charge from the current 6% to 3.5% by 2031 represented “important reforms.”

“We think they rebalance the program in a way that provides the right incentives to cover the people who are supposed to be covered by Medicaid,” Thune said. “But we continue to hear from our members specifically on components or pieces of the bill that they would like to see modified or changed or have concerns about. And we’re working through that.”

While the complex provision is deep in the weeds of Medicaid policy, several GOP senators expressed concern during interviews Tuesday that changing the provider tax rate in states that expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act would be a problem for rural hospitals.

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said he opposes that provision and wants to see GOP leaders put back in the House language that would freeze the Medicaid provider tax rate at 6%.

“We have to do something,” Hawley said. “If we pass this as it is, there’s going to be a lot of rural hospitals in Missouri that close. So that’s a big problem.”

West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice said he had “all kinds of concerns” about provisions in the Finance Committee’s portion of the “big, beautiful bill,” which the panel released Monday.

“The House side on the provider tax and everything said, freeze it,” Justice said. “Now there’s a whole lot (of) different gyrations going on with that and everything. And there’s other things that we just need to — just give us some time. We need to work our way through it.”

Justice said he didn’t plan to be a “rubber stamp” on anything and appeared to discourage GOP leaders from bringing the package to the floor next week ahead of their self-imposed Fourth of July deadline.

“I would love to get it done, like the president wants to get it done, by the Fourth of July. I would love for us to be able to do that and everything,” Justice said. “But I think, way more importantly than anything, we got to get it right.”

Other Medicaid issues

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski declined to weigh in on the changes to the Medicaid provider tax rate since her state doesn’t use it the way many others do.

“I don’t have a dog in that fight, because we don’t have provider taxes in Alaska,” Murkowski said. “We’re the only state that’s actually maybe playing by the rules.”

But Murkowski told reporters she does have issues with other ways the legislation would change Medicaid, the state-federal health program for lower income people, and expects the bill will undergo revisions before a final floor vote.

“I don’t think it’s going to stay in this form, let’s just put it that way,” Murkowski said.

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson said he’d vote against the package if leaders bring it to the floor next week as planned and said he expects that if they rush floor consideration, the entire bill will fail to pass.

“I hope not because my guess is it’ll fail and I don’t want to see it fail. I want this thing to succeed,” Johnson said. “Again, the ball has been in the Senate court for two weeks — two weeks. But now we’re seeing language. Now we’re finally seriously considering some of these ideas, let’s have time to seriously consider it and hopefully get them incorporated in the bill.”

The House voted mostly along party lines to approve its version of the package in late May, but Senate Republicans have been reworking the bill in the weeks since.

Among the changes in the Senate, Republicans plan to raise the country’s debt limit by $5 trillion, a full $1 trillion more than House GOP lawmakers proposed in their version.

Possible recess delay

Arkansas Sen. John Boozman said that if the Senate doesn’t vote to approve the package the week of June 23, they’ll likely stay in town the following week to debate the bill, instead of heading home for the Fourth of July week break.

But he cautioned that “the longer it hangs out, the more difficult it is” to pass.

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley declined to answer questions about whether he supports or wants to change his chamber’s newly unveiled Medicaid provisions.

“Ask me that question in a couple days because there’s still discussion going on about it,” he said.

Sen. James Lankford praised aspects of the bill, including, “long-term tax policy that’s actually permanent,” which he said is “important for individuals and for small businesses.”

“We’re doing the full expensing, making that permanent — that doesn’t change a dollar as far as the income coming into the Treasury, but very significant for our economy,” the Oklahoma Republican said.

Lankford said he also likes “the R&D tax credit piece to make sure we’re competing with China on it,” “modernization of the air traffic control system,” as well as “some dollars that are going to border security, which has been very important to me, which they have been asking for for a long time and trying to get into structural things to the border that are needed there.”

Trump signs education orders, including overhaul of college accreditations

by Shauneen Miranda, Iowa Capital Dispatch
April 23, 2025

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed a series of education-focused orders Wednesday related to accreditation in higher education, school discipline policies, historically Black colleges and universities, artificial intelligence in education and workforce development.

The executive orders are the latest in a slew of efforts from Trump to dramatically reshape the federal role in education. Last month, Trump called on U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure” of her own agency.

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In one executive order, Trump aims to “overhaul” college accreditation, setting up more of a clash between his administration and higher education as they look to reform the system responsible for ensuring institutions meet quality standards.

The order directs McMahon to hold accreditors accountable by “denial, monitoring, suspension, or termination of accreditation recognition, for accreditors’ poor performance or violations of federal civil rights law,” according to a White House fact sheet.

The order also directs McMahon and Attorney General Pam Bondi to “investigate and take action to terminate unlawful discrimination by American higher education institutions, including law schools and medical schools.”

During his presidential campaign, Trump pledged to fire “radical Left accreditors,” claiming they “have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist Maniacs and lunatics.”

AI in education

Trump also signed an executive order aimed at advancing artificial intelligence in education. The order calls for a White House task force on AI education that will help agencies implement a “Presidential AI Challenge” and establish public-private partnerships to provide resources for AI education in K-12 schools.

The order also directs McMahon to “prioritize the use of AI in discretionary grant programs for teacher training and directs the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to prioritize research on the use of AI in education,” according to a White House fact sheet.

The order also calls for Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, by collaborating with the director of the National Science Foundation, to “work with State and local workforce organizations and training providers to identify and promote high-quality AI skills education coursework and certifications across the country.”

Job training

Another order directs McMahon, Chavez-DeRemer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to “modernize American workforce programs to prepare citizens for the high-paying skilled trade jobs of the future,” according to a White House fact sheet.

The order asks the Cabinet members to review federal workforce programs and refocus programs to train workers in industrial manufacturing.

Trump and Lutnick framed the order as part of the administration’s moves this month to place tariffs on every trading partner, with particularly high levies on goods from China.

“All those factories that you’re bringing in because of your trade policy, we’re going to train people” to work in them, Lutnick said.

Following the signings, Trump took several questions on his tariffs policy, acknowledging the rate on China was “high” but saying that was by design to hurt Chinese manufacturers.

“It basically means China is not doing any business with us, essentially, because it’s a very high number,” he said. “So when you add that to the price of a product, you know, a lot of those products aren’t going to sell, but China is not doing any business.”

Other orders

Other education-related executive orders signed Wednesday include:

An order that makes school discipline policies centered on “objective behavior;”an order mandating “full and timely disclosure of foreign funding by higher education institutions;”an order establishing a White House initiative on historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, and a “President’s Board of Advisors on HBCUs” within the Education Department.

Iowa Capital Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com.

Maryland senator denied visitation with wrongly deported man in El Salvador

by Shauneen Miranda, Daily Montanan
April 16, 2025

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen Chris Van Hollen said Wednesday he was denied a meeting with Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an El Salvador-born Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported to a mega-prison in his home country notorious for human rights abuses.

The Maryland Democrat met with El Salvador Vice President Félix Ulloa in the Central American country in an effort to help bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States. Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador, but a U.S. immigration judge issued a protective order in 2019 finding that sending him back to his home country would put him in grave danger.

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After meeting with Ulloa, Van Hollen briefed reporters on the visit and said the Salvadoran vice president rebuffed his requests for contact with Abrego Garcia.

“I asked the vice president if I could meet with Mr. Abrego Garcia and he said, ‘Well, you need to make earlier provisions to go visit CECOT (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo),’” Van Hollen told reporters in El Salvador, referring to the mega-prison.

“I said, ‘I’m not interested, at this moment, in taking a tour of CECOT, I just want to meet with Mr. Abrego Garcia,’” Van Hollen said.

“He said he was not able to make that happen. He said he’d need a little more time. I asked him if I came back next week, whether I’d be able to see Mr. Abrego Garcia. He said he couldn’t promise that either,” the senator added.

Van Hollen said he was also denied a phone or video call with Abrego Garcia to ask how he was doing and report that information to his family.

The senator said he would contact the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador and request they ask the government of El Salvador to connect the two of them via phone, following a suggestion from Ulloa.

Van Hollen’s visit came a day after a federal judge in Maryland ordered the Trump administration to offer evidence on how it has sought to help with Abrego Garcia’s release from CECOT.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that the Trump administration must “facilitate” — but did not require — his return to the United States. El Salvador President Nayib Bukele also said Monday that he would not bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States.

The Trump administration has acknowledged in court that Abrego Garcia was deported due to an “administrative error.”

The administration accused him of being a member of the gang MS-13. He has not been charged or convicted of any criminal offenses, including gang-related crimes.

Van Hollen, noting that the Trump administration “illegally abducted” Abrego Garcia, said he “won’t stop trying” to get the wrongly deported man out of the prison and back to Maryland and predicted others would follow.

“I can assure the president, the vice president that I may be the first United States senator to visit El Salvador on this issue, but there will be more, and there will be more members of Congress coming,” he said.

Administration responds

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security posted on social media Wednesday a copy of a restraining order Abrego Garcia’s wife sought against him in 2021 “claiming he punched, scratched, and ripped off her shirt, among other harm.”

In response, Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, told Newsweek she had a disagreement with him, but that things did not escalate and she did not continue with the civil court process.

Late Wednesday afternoon, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made a statement on the case, displaying the restraining order, repeating the accusation Abrego Garcia is a gang member and objecting to media references to him as a “Maryland father.”

“There is no Maryland father,” she said.

Patty Morin, the mother of a Maryland woman slain by a Salvadoran immigrant in the country without legal status, also appeared at the briefing and spoke in favor of the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation actions.

Daily Montanan is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com.

WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump takes drastic steps to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, disability advocates are worried about whether the agency can carry out its responsibilities to serve students with disabilities.

Representatives of several disability advocacy groups cited “chaos,” “fear” and “uncertainty” in describing the situation to States Newsroom. They said there’s a lack of clarity about both proposed changes within the realm of special education services and the impact overall of sweeping shifts at the agency, calling into question whether the department can deliver on its congressionally mandated guarantees for students with disabilities.

“It’s only been a few weeks since these things started happening, so I don’t think we’re seeing any of the effects trickle down right now, but we do have parents reaching out to us, calling and feeling really scared,” said Robyn Linscott, director of education and family policy at The Arc of the United States, an advocacy group for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Among the department’s chief responsibilities is guaranteeing a free public education for students with disabilities through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, and enforcing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, part of which bars programs and activities receiving federal funding from discrimination on the basis of disability.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was enacted in 1975 under a different title and later renamed in 1990.

IDEA “governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention, special education, and related services” to students with disabilities, per the department.

The department notes that before the 1975 law, “many children were denied access to education and opportunities to learn” and in 1970, “U.S. schools educated only one in five children with disabilities.”

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 15% of all public school students in the country received services through IDEA during the 2022-2023 school year.

In fiscal year 2024, $15.4 billion was appropriated for IDEA.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 states that: “No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States … shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

Closing the department

Trump signed an executive order in March that called on Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure” of the agency to the maximum extent she’s permitted to by law.

The department also announced earlier that month that it would be slashing more than 1,300 positions through a “reduction in force,” or RIF effort, sparking widespread concerns about how the department could deliver on its core functions.

Molly Cronin, a special education teacher in Virginia, holds a sign that reads: “Linda has no I.D.E.A.” — referencing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, at a rally outside the department on March 14, 2025. During an interview on Fox News, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon could not answer what the acronym stood for when asked. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)

For special education services, advocates question significant cuts to units like the Office for Civil Rights, which is tasked with investigating discrimination complaints, including those that are disability-based.

Linscott said parents are asking questions such as: “‘What does this mean? Is my child still going to be able to have an (Individualized Education Program)? Is the state going to be required to uphold the IDEA? Or, I have a pending complaint with (the Office for Civil Rights), what does this mean for how long it’s going to take to settle this case or to investigate this claim?’”

Heather Eckner, director of statewide education at the Autism Alliance of Michigan, said it’s been “all-consuming” trying to keep up with what she calls a “chaos factory,” noting that it’s a lot of work for advocacy groups and policy analysts “to try to sort through and figure out what’s real, what’s actually happening, what might happen, and where the impact might be.”

“Ultimately, this is just having a significant destabilizing effect,” said Eckner, whose statewide organization focuses on expanding opportunities for people with autism.

Moving special education services to HHS

That uncertainty also stems from Trump’s announcement in March that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “will be handling special needs.”

The proposal sparked concern and confusion among disability advocates, both for what that transfer would look like and the legality of the proposed move.

The president offered little detail into the proposal, but HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on social media that the agency is “fully prepared” to take on that responsibility.

Meanwhile, HHS is witnessing its own drastic changes and restructuring, including beginning to lay off 10,000 workers — further calling into question how that agency could take on the Education Department’s special education services.

In response to a request for comment, HHS directed States Newsroom to Kennedy’s social media post regarding the proposed transfer but did not provide any further details.

“We have a lot of concerns over both the legality of that, but also just what that means for kind of how we view the education of students with disabilities in general, and how do we view disability in this country, and then what those actual implications on students are,” Linscott said.

Jennifer Coco, interim executive director at the Center for Learner Equity, told States Newsroom that any move to separate the education of students with disabilities from the education of all students “further pathologizes disability and is treating 15% of all the children in our public school buildings like they’re medical issues — they’re not.”

“They are students who learn differently, a vast majority of whom could learn at the same grade level as their peers if they were provided appropriate instruction,” said Coco, whose national nonprofit focuses on ensuring students with disabilities have access to quality educational opportunities, including public school choice.

Any transfer of responsibility for these federal laws, such as IDEA, would require an act of Congress — a significant undertaking given that at least 60 votes are needed to break through the Senate’s filibuster and Republicans, with their narrow majority, hold just 53 seats.

The Education Department told States Newsroom that no action has been taken to move federally mandated programs out of the agency at this time.

“As President Trump and Secretary McMahon have made clear, sunsetting the Department of Education will be done in partnership with Congress and national and state leaders to ensure all statutorily required programs are managed responsibly and where they best serve students and families,” Madi Biedermann, a spokesperson for the department, said in a statement shared with States Newsroom.

U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman, who issued the preliminary injunction, wrote in her opinion that “no matter how important or urgent the President’s DOGE agenda may be, federal agencies must execute it in accordance with the law” and “that likely did not happen in this case.”

The Maryland federal judge had earlier issued a temporary restraining order in the case, though she declined to include the Treasury Department in that due to a federal judge in New York granting a preliminary injunction that blocked DOGE from accessing that department’s payment systems.

DOGE access

The American Federation of Teachers, as well as a group of labor unions, membership organizations and several U.S. military veterans, filed a lawsuit in February over allegations that the three government entities gave the Department of Government Efficiency access to systems with sensitive and private data, in violation of the Privacy Act.

According to the Justice Department, the 1974 law “establishes a code of fair information practices that governs the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of information about individuals that is maintained in systems of records by federal agencies.”

The Department of Government Efficiency — which is not an actual department — has sought to drastically reduce federal government spending and go after what its staffers see as waste.

“The plaintiffs have shown that Education, OPM, and Treasury likely violated the APA by granting DOGE affiliates sweeping access to their sensitive personal information in defiance of the Privacy Act,” Boardman wrote in her opinion.

She asked both parties to submit a joint status report by close of business on March 31 after meeting to discuss “whether the government intends to file a notice of appeal or whether the Court should enter a scheduling order.”

‘Running roughshod’

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said “Musk’s operatives have been running roughshod over Americans’ privacy, and today the court correctly decided to uphold the firewall between their activities and the personal data of tens of millions of people” in a Monday statement.

Weingarten, who leads one of the country’s largest teachers unions, added that “Musk and DOGE must be held to account, and this preliminary injunction is a significant and important step forward.”

Meanwhile, the Education Department continues to see drastic changes.

Last week, President Donald Trump directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure” of the department to the maximum extent that is legally permissible.

The agency also announced that it would be cutting more than 1,300 employees through a “reduction in force” process.

“Waste, fraud, and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long. It takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it,” Harrison Fields, White House principal deputy press secretary, said in a statement to States Newsroom.

“DOGE will continue to shine a light on the fraud they uncover as the American people deserve to know what their government has been spending their hard earned tax dollars on,” Fields said.

by Shauneen Miranda, Daily Montanan

March 21, 2025

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. Small Business Administration would handle the student loan portfolio for the slated-for-elimination Education Department, and that the Department of Health and Human Services would handle special education services and nutrition programs.

The announcement — which raises myriad questions over the logistics to carry out these transfers of authority — came a day after Trump signed a sweeping executive order that directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure” of the department to the extent she is permitted to by law.

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“I do want to say that I’ve decided that the SBA, the Small Business Administration, headed by Kelly Loeffler — terrific person — will handle all of the student loan portfolio,” Trump said Friday morning.

The White House did not provide advance notice of the announcement, which Trump made at the opening of an Oval Office appearance with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The Education Department manages student loans for millions of Americans, with a portfolio of more than $1.6 trillion, according to the White House.

In his executive order, Trump said the federal student aid program is “roughly the size of one of the Nation’s largest banks, Wells Fargo,” adding that “although Wells Fargo has more than 200,000 employees, the Department of Education has fewer than 1,500 in its Office of Federal Student Aid.”

‘Everything else’ to HHS

Meanwhile, Trump also said that the Department of Health and Human Services “will be handling special needs and all of the nutrition programs and everything else.”

It is unclear what nutrition programs Trump was referencing, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture manages school meal and other major nutrition programs.

One of the Education Department’s core functions includes supporting students with special needs. The department is also tasked with carrying out the federal guarantee of a free public education for children with disabilities Congress approved in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA.

Trump added that the transfers will “work out very well.”

“Those two elements will be taken out of the Department of Education,” he said Friday. “And then all we have to do is get the students to get guidance from the people that love them and cherish them, including their parents, by the way, who will be totally involved in their education, along with the boards and the governors and the states.”

Trump’s Thursday order also directs McMahon to “return authority over education to the States and local communities while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”

SBA, HHS heads welcome extra programs

Asked for clarification on the announcement, a White House spokesperson on Friday referred States Newsroom to comments from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and heads of the Small Business Administration and Health and Human Services Department.

Leavitt noted the move was consistent with Trump’s promise to return education policy decisions to states.

“President Trump is doing everything within his executive authority to dismantle the Department of Education and return education back to the states while safeguarding critical functions for students and families such as student loans, special needs programs, and nutrition programs,” Leavitt said. “The President has always said Congress has a role to play in this effort, and we expect them to help the President deliver.”

Loeffler and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said their agencies were prepared to take on the Education Department programs.

“As the government’s largest guarantor of business loans, the SBA stands ready to deploy its resources and expertise on behalf of America’s taxpayers and students,” Loeffler said.

Kennedy, on the social media platform X, said his department was “fully prepared to take on the responsibility of supporting individuals with special needs and overseeing nutrition programs that were run by @usedgov.”

The Education Department directed States Newsroom to McMahon’s remarks on Fox News on Friday, where she said the department was discussing with other federal agencies where its programs may end up, noting she had a “good conversation” with Loeffler and that the two are “going to work on the strategic plan together.”

Last updated 3:28 p.m., Mar. 21, 2025

Daily Montanan is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats on Thursday blasted Russ Vought, President Donald Trump’s nominee to again lead the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, over his involvement in Project 2025 and called on their colleagues to reject his nomination.

Vought wrote the chapter on the executive office of the president in the Heritage Foundation’s nearly 900-page conservative blueprint, which seeks to dramatically reshape the federal government and drew much attention throughout Trump’s presidential campaign as Democrats sought to tie the document to him.

Though Trump has repeatedly disavowed Project 2025, he asked several people who were part of the conservative agenda to serve in his second administration.

Vought was the OMB director during Trump’s first administration after serving as deputy director and acting director of the office responsible for administering the federal budget and overseeing the performance of departments throughout the federal government.

During a Thursday press conference, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Vought is “at the levers of power to implement these dangerous, dangerous proposals” outlined in Project 2025, dubbing the nominee its “chief cook and bottle washer.”

The New York Democrat said that while a “good number” of Trump’s Cabinet nominees are “very, very troubling,” Vought is “probably at the very top of the list in terms of how dangerous he is to working people and to America.”

Schumer highlighted how the OMB director “holds one of the most critical positions in the federal government,” adding that “it affects every federal agency, every local economy, every town, city, every American family — so someone in this position has to understand what working families in America need.”

Programs ‘on the chopping block’

Multiple Democrats on the Senate Committee on the Budget — including ranking member Jeff Merkley of Oregon as well as Sens. Patty Murray of Washington, Tim Kaine of Virginia and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico — also lambasted Vought and his involvement in Project 2025.

Murray, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, said Vought “has made very clear that as Trump’s budget director, he will put everything … on the chopping block, from programs that people rely on, to the checks and balances that our democracy is actually founded on.”

“Given his extremism and his clear disdain for the rule of law, we should not hand Vought power that he has made clear he will abuse to help billionaires get ahead at working people’s expense,” she added.

Impoundment belief

Vought sat Wednesday for a confirmation hearing in the Senate Budget Committee.

Last week, he appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs to be vetted for the post.

During that hearing, Vought expressed his and Trump’s beliefs that the president has the sole authority to withhold funding Congress has approved through impoundment.

Impoundment refers to when the president withholds funds Congress has already approved. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the president “has no unilateral authority to impound funds.”

In a November announcement of the nomination, Trump said that during his first White House term, Vought “did an excellent job” serving as the OMB director.

He described Vought as an “aggressive cost cutter and deregulator who will help us implement our America First Agenda across all Agencies.”

WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers railed against what they called “woke” curriculum in schools during a Wednesday hearing in a U.S. House education panel, the latest example of culture wars rocking public education policy.

The hearing brought “critical race theory” to the forefront. The academic framework focuses on the social construction of race and has drawn strong Republican opposition in states across the country.

Though critical race theory is used in college and graduate-level programs, GOP members on the U.S. House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education said the framework is also being taught in K-12 schools.

The federal government has no role in K-12 curriculum, which is set by states and districts across the country, leaving the House panel without any authority to legislate the matter.

Subcommittee Chairman Aaron Bean pointed to negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on educational outcomes and asked why schools “taught race-inspired ideology” instead of focusing on bouncing back from the pandemic-era setbacks.

The Florida Republican added that critical race theory is “now reshaping how young people interpret their identity, and it’s changing how they see themselves, each other, in our country.”

Rep. Jahana Hayes, a Democrat who was a public school history teacher for 15 years, said there was never any reference to critical race theory during all of her training and studies in education.

“I never had any professional development that separated me by race and taught this because it is just not taught or discussed at the K-12 level, so not really sure why it’s a part of this hearing today — it is a legal theory taught in law school,” the Connecticut Democrat said.

Ian Rowe, a senior fellow at the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute, pointed to “specific practices undergirded by the ideology driving critical race theory.”

Rowe, who is also a senior visiting fellow at the nonprofit Woodson Center, offered examples, such as learning exercises where children are in a line and a teacher says: “Take two steps forward if you’re white, take three steps backward if you’re Black.”

He did not specify where this occurred.

Civics knowledge lacking

Bean brought in panelists from organizations and initiatives he said were built to “emphasize the importance of civics, understanding America’s founding principles and promoting a free exchange of ideas.”

Civics has become a hot-button issue within education culture wars, and the 2024 Republican Party platform called for promoting “love of country” through “authentic civics education.”

Jed Atkins, who serves as dean and director of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Civic Life and Leadership, said civic knowledge “is lacking among our college students, the majority of whom lack elementary knowledge of our democratic institutions.”

Atkins said the school “ensures that the serious work of educating citizens to live and thrive in our pluralistic democracy will get done.”

Funding bigger concern, Dems say

Ranking member Suzanne Bonamici, who echoed Hayes in saying critical race theory is not a K-12 issue, directed the focus of the hearing to school infrastructure.

The Oregon Democrat touted legislation introduced last year by Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, ranking Democrat of the full House education panel, and New Jersey Democratic Rep. Donald Norcross, that would spend billions of dollars on schools’ physical and digital infrastructure.

Bonamici said school infrastructure “is not just about walls and ceilings of school buildings” but also “the entire environment in which our children learn.”

“Right now, far too many of these environments are unsafe, outdated and desperately in need of repair,” she said.

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to get rid of the U.S. Department of Education will be far easier said than done.

As Trumpseeks to redefine U.S. education policy, the complex logistics, bipartisan congressional approval and redirection of federal programs required make dismantling the department a challenging — not impossible — feat.

It’s an effort that experts say is unlikely to gain traction in Congress and, if enacted, would create roadblocks for how Trump seeks to implement the rest of his wide-ranging education agenda.

“I struggle to wrap my mind around how you get such a bill through Congress that sort of defunds the agency or eliminates the agency,” Derek Black, an education law and policy expert and law professor at the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law, told States Newsroom.

“What you can see more easily is that maybe you give the agency less money, maybe you shrink its footprint, maybe we’ve got an (Office for Civil Rights) that still enforces all these laws, but instead of however many employees they have now, they have fewer employees,” Black, who directs the school’s Constitutional Law Center, added.

What does the department do?

Education is decentralized in the United States, and the federal Education Department has no say in the curriculum of public schools. Much of the funding and oversight of schools occurs at the state and local levels.

Still, the department has leverage through funding a variety of programs, such as for low-income school districts and special education, as well as administering federal student aid.

Axing the department would require those programs be unwound or assigned to other federal agencies to administer, according to Rachel Perera, a fellow in Governance Studies in the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution.

Perera, who studies inequality in K-12 education, expressed concern over whether other departments would get additional resources and staffing to take on significantly more portfolios of work if current Education Department programs were transferred to them.

Sen. Mike Rounds introduced a bill last week that seeks to abolish the department and transfer existing programs to other federal agencies.

In a statement, the South Dakota Republican said “the federal Department of Education has never educated a single student, and it’s long past time to end this bureaucratic Department that causes more harm than good.”

The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 proposed a detailed plan on how the department could be dismantled through the reorganization of existing programs to other agencies and the elimination of the programs the project deems “ineffective or duplicative.”

Though Trump has repeatedly disavowed the conservative blueprint, some former members of his administration helped write it.

The agenda also calls for restoring state and local control over education funding, and notes that “as Washington begins to downsize its intervention in education, existing funding should be sent to states as grants over which they have full control, enabling states to put federal funding toward any lawful education purpose under state law.”

Title I, one of the major funding programs the department administers, provides billions of dollars to school districts with high percentages of students who come from low-income families.

Black pointed to an entire “regulatory regime” that’s built around these funds.

“That regime can’t just disappear unless Title I money also disappears, which could happen, but if you think about Title I money — our rural states, our red states — depend on that money just as much, if not more, than the other states,” he said. “The idea that we would take that money away from those schools — I don’t think there’s any actual political appetite for that.”

‘Inherent logical inconsistencies’

Trump recently tapped Linda McMahon — a co-chair of his transition team, Small Business Administration head during his first term and former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO — as his nominee for Education secretary.

If confirmed, she will play a crucial role in carrying out his education plans, which include promoting universal school choice and parental rights, moving education “back to the states” and ending “wokeness” in education.

Trump is threatening to cut federal funding for schools that teach “critical race theory,” “gender ideology” or “other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children,” according to his plan.

On the flip side, he wants to boost funding for states and school districts that adhere to certain policy directives.

That list includes districts that: adopt a “Parental Bill of Rights that includes complete curriculum transparency, and a form of universal school choice;” get rid of “teacher tenure” for grades K-12 and adopt “merit pay;” have parents hold the direct elections of school principals; and drastically reduce the number of school administrators.

But basing funding decisions on district-level policy choices would require the kind of federal involvement in education that Trump is pushing against.

Perera described seeing “inherent logical inconsistencies” in Trump’s education plan.

While he is talking about dismantling the department and sending education “back to the states,” he’s “also talking about leveraging the powers of the department to punish school districts for ‘political indoctrination,’” she said.

“He can’t do that if you are unwinding the federal role in K-12 schools,” she said.

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump said Thursday night that if he loses the election in November to Vice President Kamala Harris, Jewish voters “would really have a lot to do with that.”

As the first anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel nears and the war in Gaza continues, the GOP presidential nominee spoke at back-to-back events in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, where he promised Jewish Americans that with their vote, he would be their protector, defender and “the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House.”

He and Harris, the Democratic candidate, are vying for the Oval Office in a close race that is just 46 days away and in which early in-person voting has already kicked off in multiple states.

“The current polling has me with Jewish citizens, Jewish people — people that are supposed to love Israel — after having done all that, having been the best president, the greatest president by far … a poll just came out, I’m at 40%,” Trump said at an event with Republican megadonor Miriam Adelson on combating antisemitism in America.

“That means you got 60% voting for somebody that hates Israel, and I say it — it’s gonna happen,” he said. “It’s only because of the Democrat hold, or curse, on you.”

During the presidential debate earlier this month, Harris echoed her commitment to giving Israel the right to defend itself and said “we must chart a course for a two-state solution, and in that solution, there must be security for the Israeli people and Israel and an equal measure for the Palestinians.”

She called for an immediate end to the war, saying “the way it will end is we need a cease-fire deal, and we need the hostages out.”

Trump also addressed the Israeli-American Council National Summit, where he said Israel would face “total annihilation” if Harris is elected. At the earlier event, he said any Jewish person who votes for Harris or any Democrat, “should have their head examined.”

Trump also committed to combating antisemitism at universities across the country, saying that if reelected, during his first week in office his administration would inform every college president that if they don’t “end antisemitic propaganda,” they will lose their accreditation and all federal support.

Harris ad ties Trump to N.C.’s Robinson

Trump made no mention Thursday of North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the state’s Republican gubernatorial nominee. The Trump ally vowed to stay in the race following a scathing CNN investigation published Thursday.

Part of the bombshell CNN report included Robinson referring to himself as a “black NAZI” and writing that “slavery is not bad” in messages posted on pornographic forums in 2010.

The North Carolina Republican, who has a history of making controversial remarks, has become an issue in the presidential race in the crucial swing state.

Trump is set to speak at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Saturday.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday regarding the CNN investigation.

Meanwhile, the Harris campaign launched a TV ad in North Carolina on Friday that seeks to tie the former president to Robinson. Part of the 30-second ad includes Trump saying Robinson has been an “unbelievable lieutenant governor” and that he’s “gotten to know him” and “(Robinson) is outstanding.”

Per the Harris campaign, the ad also seeks to highlight Robinson’s “extreme anti-abortion views.”

Harris addresses reproductive rights

The ad announcement came ahead of Harris’ Friday remarks in Georgia, where she repeated her commitment to reproductive freedom in response to a recent ProPublica investigation linking the state’s restrictive abortion law to the deaths of two Georgia women — Amber Thurman and Candi Miller.

Harris also highlighted the repercussions of “Trump abortion bans” following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 reversal of Roe v. Wade, which ended the constitutional right to abortion after nearly half a century. Trump appointed three of the five U.S. Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe.

“Now we know that at least two women — and those are only the stories we know — here in the state of Georgia, died because of a Trump abortion ban,” Harris said.

The mother and sisters of Thurman attended a livestreamed event Thursday night in Michigan, where Harris joined Oprah Winfrey.

Harris also made headlines at Thursday’s event when, reiterating she is a gun owner, said that if somebody were to break into her house, “they’re getting shot.” Laughing, the vice president said she “probably should not have said that” and her staff will “deal with that later.”

The Democratic presidential nominee said Thursday she’s in favor of the Second Amendment, but also supported assault weapons bans, universal background checks and red flag laws, calling them “just common sense.”

Harris is also set to speak at a campaign rally Friday night in Madison, Wisconsin.

Trump to attend Alabama-Georgia game

Trump plans to attend the Alabama-Georgia football game in Tuscaloosa on Sept. 28, the University of Alabama confirmed to States Newsroom.

Security for the former president has been under intense scrutiny, especially after what’s being investigated as the second assassination attempt against Trump in recent weeks.

The university said “the safety of our campus is and will remain our top priority, and UAPD will work closely with the U.S. Secret Service and other law enforcement partners to coordinate security.”

The Secret Service acknowledged Friday that it failed to protect the former president during a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, which was the site of the first assassination attempt.

Control of Congress

As the presidential race remains a tight contest, so do races that will determine control of each chamber of Congress.

The Senate map favors Republicans, with several seats now held by Democrats in play. Democrats would likely need to sweep the elections in Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — and win the presidential race — to keep control of the chamber.

Elections forecasters consider the House more of a toss-up, with nearly 40 races likely to determine which party controls the chamber.

Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and X.

WASHINGTON — A GOP measure barring accrediting organizations from requiring colleges and universities to adopt diversity, equity, and inclusion policies as a condition of accreditation passed the U.S. House Thursday, although its fate appears dim.

The End Woke Higher Education Act — which succeeded, 213-201 — marks one of several so-called anti-woke initiatives and messaging bills from Republican lawmakers to hit the House floor this week.

The higher education measure, which drew fierce opposition from the Biden administration and major associations of colleges and universities, came amid a looming government shutdown deadline and in the heat of the 2024 campaign.

Four House Democrats voted in favor of the GOP measure, including Reps. Don Davis of North Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine, Mary Peltola of Alaska, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington.

Baked into the legislation are two bills introduced by Republican members of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce — the Accreditation for College Excellence Act and the Respecting the First Amendment on Campus Act.

Utah Rep. Burgess Owens, chairman of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development, introduced the Accreditation for College Excellence Act in May 2023, while New York Rep. Brandon Williams brought forth the Respecting the First Amendment on Campus Act in March.

In a statement to States Newsroom, Owens said, “House Republicans passed the End Woke Higher Education Act to stand up for academic freedom, defend students’ constitutional rights, and ensure that colleges and universities aren’t forced to bend the knee to activist accreditors pushing political agendas as a condition for federal funding.”

The Utah Republican said the “Biden-Harris administration has injected its far-left ideology — Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Critical Race Theory — into every part of American life, including our higher education system.”

Owens’ bill says accreditation standards must not require, encourage or coerce institutions to support or oppose “a specific partisan, political, or ideological viewpoint or belief” or “set of viewpoints or beliefs on social, cultural, or political issues” or support “the disparate treatment of any individual or group of individuals.”

Meanwhile, Williams’ Respecting the First Amendment on Campus Act forces schools to disclose policies regarding free speech to students and faculty as a condition of receiving any Title IV funds.

Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 includes federal student financial aid programs.

Strong opposition

But the legislation is highly unlikely to be passed in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The Biden administration also strongly opposes the measure, saying in a statement this week that the legislation would “micromanage both public and private institutions, undermining their ability to recognize and promote diversity.”

The legislation “would go beyond Congress’s traditional role in higher education with a wide range of confusing and unprecedented new mandates,” the administration added.

Rep. Bobby Scott — ranking member of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce — called the measure a “baseless attempt to inject culture wars into an ever-important accreditation process” during the floor debate Thursday.

The Virginia Democrat said the legislation “attempts to circumvent the First Amendment to establish a whole new scheme to regulate speech and association rights on campus outside of established precedents and practices.”

The GOP measure also drew the ire of leading associations of colleges and universities, which opposed the legislation both individually and collectively.

In a joint letter this week to House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, six major associations led by the American Council on Education took aim at Williams’ portion of the legislation, saying it “would undermine efforts to protect free speech on campus and provide safe learning environments free from discrimination.”

Voting members of Florida’s Republican delegation voted aye — Neal Dunn did not vote. All eight Democrats voted nay.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and X.