North Carolina sues over withheld education funding
Jackson is joining attorneys general in more than a dozen states who are suing the Trump administration's decision to withhold more than $6 billion in education funding nationwide.
Why it matters: At a press conference, Jackson said the withheld funds will affect mental health services, after-school programs and English-learning programs across the state, and potentially cut 1,000 jobs.
These cuts affect rural school districts more on a per-pupil basis, Jackson added, specifically noting Graham, Ashe and Polk counties.
Zoom in: The withheld funds include money for programs for migrant children, English-language proficiency and some after-school programs, according to the Learning Policy Institute, which conducts research to improve education policies.
What they're saying: The Department of Education previously referred Axios' questions on the withheld funds to the Office of Management and Budget. An OMB spokesperson said no decisions have been made amid "an ongoing programmatic review of education funding."
The spokesperson pointed to initial findings that they said "show that many of these grant programs have been grossly misused to subsidize a radical leftwing agenda."
Jackson said in a statement that the Education Department was not following the Constitution.
"It's unlawful and unconstitutional for the Department of Education to withhold money that Congress has appropriated," he said. "I'm going to court to get this money for our students, our schools, and North Carolina families."
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump Seeks To Change How Census Collects Data And Wants To Exclude Immigrants In US Illegally
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has instructed the Commerce Department to change the way the U.S. Census Bureau collects data, seeking to exclude immigrants who are in the United States illegally, he said Thursday. The census' data collections will be based on 'modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024,' the Republican president said on his social media platform, an indication he might try to inject his politics into a head count that determines political power and how federal funding is distributed. Trump stressed that as part of the changes people in 'our Country illegally' will be excluded from census counts. Experts said it was unclear what exactly Trump was calling for, whether it was changes to the 2030 census or a mid-decade census, and, if so, whether it would be used for a mid-decade apportionment, which is the process of divvying up congressional seats among the states based on the population count. Any changes in the conduct of a national census, which is the biggest non-military undertaking by the federal government, would require alterations to the Census Act and approval from Congress, which has oversight responsibilities, and there likely would be a fierce fight. While the Census Act permits a mid-decade census for distributing federal funding, it can't be used for apportionment and must be done in a year ending in 5, said Terri Ann Lowenthal, a former congressional staffer who consults on census issues. 'He cannot unilaterally order a new census. The census is governed by law, not to mention the Constitution,' Lowenthal said. 'Logistically, it's a half-baked idea.' It would be almost logistically impossible to carry out a mid-decade census in such a short period of time, New York Law School professor Jeffrey Wice said. 'This isn't something that you can do overnight,' said Wice, a census and redistricting expert. 'To get all the pieces put together, it would be such a tremendous challenge, if not impossible.' Trump's Truth Social post fits into an overall pattern in which he has tried to reshape basic measures of how U.S. society is faring to his liking, a process that ranges from monthly jobs figures to how congressional districts are drawn going into the 2026 midterm elections. But there could be legal challenges if he were to reshape the census, which also guides the distribution of $2.8 trillion in federal funds to the states for roads, health care and other programs. In a 2019 decision, the Supreme Court effectively blocked Trump from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The 14th Amendment says that 'the whole number of persons in each state' should be counted for the numbers used for apportionment, the process of allocating congressional seats and Electoral College votes among the states based on population. The last time the census included a question about citizenship was in 1950, and the Census Bureau's own experts had predicted that millions of Hispanics and immigrants would go uncounted if the census asked everyone if he or she is an American citizen. Changes to the census could also play into the efforts by Trump to urge several Republican-led states, including Texas, to redraw their congressional maps ahead of schedule in ways that would favor GOP candidates. Redistricting typically occurs once every 10 years following the census, as states adjust district boundaries based on population changes, often gaining or losing seats in the process. Despite Texas having redrawn its maps just a few years ago, Trump is pressuring Republicans in the state to redistrict again, claiming they are 'entitled' to five additional Republican seats. Texas Republicans have cited population growth as justification for redrawing the congressional map. The state currently has 38 House seats, 25 held by Republicans. Trump's team is also engaged in similar redistricting discussions in other GOP-controlled states, including Missouri and Indiana. Last Friday, Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, after standard revisions to the monthly jobs report showed that employers added 258,000 fewer jobs than previously reported in May and June. The revisions suggested that hiring has severely weakened under Trump, undermining his claims of an economic boom. The White House insists that the problem was the size of the revisions and that it wants accurate numbers. After the citizenship question was stopped by the Supreme Court in 2019, Trump made another effort in 2020, announcing a plan to exclude people living in the country illegally from the apportionment figures. After states, cities and organizations sued, lower courts ruled the plan was illegal. By the time the Supreme Court weighed in, Trump had lost his reelection bid. The justices sidestepped a decision on the legality of Trump's plan, throwing out the case on technical procedural grounds. The court said in an unsigned opinion that spoke only for the six-justice conservative majority that 'we express no view on the merits of the constitutional and related statutory claims presented. We hold only that they are not suitable for adjudication at this time.' The three liberal justices dissented, saying the effort to exclude people in the country from the population for divvying up House seats is unlawful. 'I believe this Court should say so,' Justice Stephen Breyer wrote, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. ___ AP writer Mark Sherman in Washington contributed to this report. Schneider reported from Orlando, Fla. Related... U.S. Census Changes Race Categories To Include Middle Eastern, North African Options GOP Rep. Mocks Party's Hypocrisy Over Texas Gerrymandering Chaos Obama Slams Texas GOP's Gerrymandering Plot As 'Power Grab'
Axios
an hour ago
- Axios
Trump says he's ordering a new census. Here's what the Constitution says
President Trump on Thursday called for "a new and highly accurate" census that excludes undocumented immigrants, an unusual move that could set up another legal challenge of the U.S. Constitution. The big picture: Though it doesn't exactly spell out a methodology, the Constitution has a pretty clear vision for when the census should happen and how it should calculate population totals. Trump's push for a new census comes as the president urges red states to draw new congressional maps more favorable to Republicans. Driving the news: Trump said his new census would be "based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024." "People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS," he wrote in a TruthSocial post. It's unclear if Trump is trying to tweak the current plan for the 2030 census or start a new one altogether. The White House and the U.S. Census Bureau did not immediately respond to Axios' requests for comment. Reality check: The Constitution laid out the Founding Fathers' vision for the census and how populations were meant to be counted. What the Constitution text says about the census The Constitution's Article 1, Section 2 stipulated how the population would be counted, though it also featured the " three-fifths compromise." The Constitution says the census should happen "within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct." How it works: The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, requires the "whole number of persons in each state" to be counted in the census. "Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed," the amendment reads. The text gave the government a tool to help empower the people according to the United States Census Bureau. "The plan was to count every person living in the newly created United States of America, and to use that count to determine representation in the Congress," the bureau says on its website. Yes, but: There's debate about how the "actual enumeration" for the census is meant to happen. Some contend the language gives Congress a wide net for its methodology. Who is included in census population counts? Zoom in: The US Census Bureau says the resident population includes "all people (citizens and noncitizens) who are living in the United States at the time of the census." "People are counted at their usual residence, which is the place where they live and sleep most of the time," the bureau explains. The intrigue: Defenders of the census say the current process helps states represent and serve everyone in their state. But critics contend that the Constitution was written "before tens of millions of migrants resided in the country illegally," according to Benjamin Weingarten of RealClearInvestigations. Can Trump order a new census? It's unclear. Trump said in his TruthSocial post Thursday that he urged the Department of Commerce to start working on a new census without specifics. Preparing for the census count is an arduous process that can take several years of planning. The Census Bureau has already started preparing a test census for 2026 and a rehearsal in 2028. "This iterative approach will give the Census Bureau an evidence-based design for the 2030 Census," the bureau says. Flashback: Trump floated a similar idea during his first term. He tried to erase unauthorized immigrants from population counts, while also moved to add a citizenship question a citizenship question to the census. The latter act was blocked by the Supreme Court. says that questions about one's immigration status could lead to faulty self-reported data, which could mess with population totals. Trump also signed a memo in 2020 that aimed to omit undocumented immigrants from the census count. A lower court deemed the policy unlawful. The Supreme Court later dismissed a lawsuit that challenged the Trump administration's plans.
Politico
an hour ago
- Politico
Playbook PM: Come to your census
Presented by THE CATCH-UP TRUMP'S NEW TARGET: Amid a national furor over President Donald Trump's efforts to gerrymander Democrats out of more House seats mid-decade — and Dems' efforts to respond in kind — he raised the stakes again this morning with a call for a new census, per POLITICO's Nicole Markus. The demand: Trump said he'd ordered the Commerce Department to start a new census that would take the unprecedented step of excluding undocumented immigrants from its count — and that would be, 'importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024.' At stake is the federal government's allocation of billions of dollars in funding, as well as the apportionment that determines each state's number of House seats. (In 2020, though, Pew projected that removing undocumented people from the census would be a partisan wash in terms of redistribution of House seats.) Huge questions remain: It isn't clear yet whether Trump is demanding a new census now or changes for the 2030 count. Either way, his plans would face massive logistical, legal and political hurdles, AP's Josh Boak and colleagues report. The Constitution says the census must count 'whole persons,' and courts blocked Trump from adding a citizenship question in his first term. Under current law, a mid-decade census has to be done in a year ending in 5 — and only for funding, not apportionment, purposes. Planning for and pulling off one this year would be next to impossible. The Texas fight keeps escalating: Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) announced today that the FBI had said yes to helping find the Democratic state legislators who have blocked Republicans' gerrymander by fleeing the state, NYT's David Goodman and Julie Bosman report. But it's not clear yet what grounds the bureau would have to get involved or what crime has been committed. 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Indian PM Narendra Modi said he'll 'never compromise' on farmers, per Reuters. A Taiwanese official said they're still pressing hard for a deal. And the government of Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter, who failed to land an agreement or even meet with Trump in D.C. this week, said it's nonetheless 'firmly committed' to talks to lower the levies, per Bloomberg. But in Bern, some politicians across multiple parties — especially on the left — are urging the government to scrap a deal to buy F-35 fighter jets, Bloomberg's Levin Stamm and Bastian Benrath-Wright report. 6. TRAIL MIX: Both of the fall's gubernatorial races are heating up a bit. In Virginia, Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger is going up with her first big negative TV ad, NBC's Bridget Bowman scooped. It slams GOP Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears for trying to pivot away from a question about federal worker layoffs to 'real issues.' And in New Jersey — a typically bluer state that Dems worry could be closer than Virginia this year — the DNC is pushing an unusual $1.5 million investment into the party's coordinated campaign, per the New Jersey Globe's Zach Blackburn. Om Savargaonkar will be director of the coordinated campaign. 2026 watch: Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.) is facing new ads from the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund that criticize him for making lots of stock trades in office, Semafor's Eleanor Mueller scooped. First in Playbook: Slightly more than a day after launching his California congressional campaign, Democrat Jake Levine has pulled in more than $250,000. 7. FED UP: As Trump's team weighs potential replacements for Fed Chair Jerome Powell, central bank governor Christopher Waller is becoming a leading contender, Bloomberg's Saleha Mohsin reports. They like his 'willingness to move on policy based on forecasting, rather than current data, and his deep knowledge of the Fed system as a whole.' 8. FILLING THE SWAMP: 'Trump Delayed a Medicare Change After Health Companies' Donations,' by NYT's Ken Vogel and colleagues: '[O]ne of [Oliver] Burckhardt's biotech companies had donated $5 million to MAGA Inc. … About one month later, the Trump administration announced it would delay until next year the Biden administration plan to limit Medicare's coverage of the bandages, known as skin substitutes, saying that it was reviewing its policies. It was the culmination of an expensive influence campaign by Extremity Care that underscored Mr. Trump's willingness to grant access and preferential treatment to people and companies that fill the coffers of his political groups.' 9. 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PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — 'Inside one pastor's crusade for Christian domination in the age of Trump,' by CNN's Pamela Brown and Jeremy Herb: 'The inaugural service of Christ Church Washington DC, an extension of an Idaho-based Evangelical movement, took place in a building owned by the Conservative Partnership Institute … [Douglas] Wilson advocates for the idea that America should adopt a Christian theocracy and adhere to a biblical interpretation of society. The new church in Washington is part of that mission, he says. … Wilson's most prominent and public follower in the Trump administration is [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth.' AFTER DOGE — Katie Miller is launching 'The Katie Miller Podcast' with a focus on reaching conservative women, Axios' Mike Allen scooped. The former special government employee and Elon Musk adviser has stopped working for him full time to focus on entrepreneurship. Her first guests are VP JD Vance, Mike Tyson and Sage Steele. HOLLYWOODLAND — 'Skydance Takes Over Paramount, and a New Era Begins,' by NYT's John Koblin and Ben Mullin: 'The $8 billion merger of Paramount and the media company Skydance closed early Thursday morning, catapulting new power players to the top of Hollywood and ending a tortuous process that had lasted well over a year. Gone are the Redstones, whose family controlled CBS and Paramount Pictures for decades. In are the Ellisons.' TRANSITIONS — Laura Flores is now digital director for Colin Allred's Texas Senate campaign. She previously was digital comms director at Student Turnout Projects by Strategic Victory Fund and is a David Trone alum. … Thomas (Ted) Dunlap is now of counsel at Wilson Elser. He previously was at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and is a National Transportation Safety Board alum. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@ or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
