How Washington is stressing out American schools

Washington Post

a day ago

Public schools have had a tough run — pandemic closures and culture wars, falling test scores and rising absenteeism.
Now they're facing a host of new pressures, this time from state and federal policies including proposals for private-school vouchers, funding cuts, and scrutiny of their approaches to gender and race.
Many of the issues are under consideration, either in Congress or at the Supreme Court. Some proposals may be modified, and in some cases, the court may side with the schools' point of view.
Nonetheless, taken together, public education today faces a landscape skeptical of, if not outright hostile to, its policies and priorities. The shifts could put new strains on schools' budgets and change how they handle controversial topics. That's particularly true for school districts in liberal states and communities, whose policies on race and gender are being challenged. But many of the threats and changes affect conservative communities, too.
Some of the policies are economic, and some are cultural. Some are narrow, and others are broad. Some are proposals, and some are already in place. But put it all together, and public school advocates say they feel like they are constantly on the defensive.
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'The attacks on public education are coming from everywhere — from the judicial branch, the executive branch, the legislative branch,' said Sasha Pudelski, director of advocacy for AASA, the School Superintendents Association. 'They're coming fast and furious.'
Republicans control the White House, Congress and more than half the statehouses, and conservative justices make up a supermajority on the Supreme Court. Not all the pressures are ideological, but many are.
This is certainly not the first time public education has felt pressure from Washington. Under President George W. Bush, the No Child Left Behind law imposed sweeping new accountability standards and requirements on schools with high-stakes consequences, including potential loss of federal funding. But that effort was bipartisan and came after a deliberative debate in Congress. This time, the pressure is coming from multiple directions, sometimes without warning or congressional action.
Take a journey through our schoolhouse to see some of the headwinds facing K-12 education in America today. Federal funding
The federal Education Department has worked to cancel billions of dollars' worth of K-12 grants and contracts that support teacher training, mental health, and education research and testing. The Trump administration said the teacher training and mental health grants wrongly funded diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. It said the education research was not a priority. And its budget proposal for next year would cut deeper: replacing $6.5 billion in programs for K-12 schools with a new $2 billion fund.
The administration also is trying to cancel more than $2 billion worth of pandemic-relief funding that school districts have been counting on, a move that is being litigated. The Biden administration had given districts extra time to spend their allocated funding, a decision the Trump administration abruptly canceled. School WiFi
The Supreme Court is considering a challenge to the federal E-Rate program that helps pay for school telephone and internet connectivity and represents the fifth-largest tranche of federal funding supporting K-12 schools. It is funded through the Universal Service Fund, whose funding structure is being challenged as an unconstitutional tax. School meals
Congressional Republicans are considering significant cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, by increasing requirements for participation. The changes could put millions of people at risk of losing benefits, which would affect schools because many students are considered automatically eligible for free school meals based on their family's SNAP eligibility. The Urban Institute, a think tank, estimated that 832,000 students might need to prove their eligibility in another way if the changes take effect.
In addition, the Agriculture Department cut a $660 million program that helped schools buy fresh food and meat from local farmers, ranchers and fishers. Medicaid cuts
Medicaid is the state-federal health-care program for low-income Americans, but it also helps public education by reimbursing costs of care delivered in school. Republicans are planning significant cuts to Medicaid as part of their large tax and spending bill, stripping health coverage from millions of Americans. That could reduce reimbursements to the schools. It also could put new budget pressure on states, where education and health care compete for funding. Race and gender
The Trump administration has threatened to pull federal funding from any school district that considers race in virtually any way for any reason, saying this is a violation of federal civil rights law. The administration had demanded that every district sign a letter affirming it is in compliance with the administration's interpretation of civil rights law, though the directive has been blocked for now by the courts. And the Education Department has launched multiple investigations of school systems that have diversity, equity and inclusion policies the administration does not like.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court may allow parents who object to lessons with LGBTQ+ themes on religious grounds to opt their children out. Schools say this would be logistically complicated, among other objections. Transgender athletes
The Trump administration has said schools that recognize transgender students are advancing 'radical gender ideology' in violation of Title IX, which bars discrimination based on sex. The Trump administration has sued Maine because the state allows transgender athletes to compete in school sports, and it threatened to sue California after a 16-year-old transgender athlete placed first in two events at the state track-and-field championship. The Education Department also is investigating California and Maine for limits they put on what school districts can be required to tell parents about the names and pronouns students use at school. Students with disabilities
The Supreme Court is considering a case that could make it easier for children with disabilities to win court cases in which they are challenging the accommodations offered by school districts. To win a certain type of case, families now must satisfy a high standard and show that the district, in denying the request for accommodations, acted with 'bad faith or gross misjudgment.' The challenge seeks to change the standard, which would make it easier for families to win cases against districts. Voucher programs
Many states now offer parents tax dollars to pay for private schools or home schooling. A dozen states have programs that benefit all or almost all families, regardless of family income, though some are being phased in. The programs give families more choices but also provide an incentive for them to leave public schools. They also eat into state tax dollars that might have been spent on public education.
A national voucher program is also under consideration at the federal level. The plan would allow federal taxpayers to donate money to state-based scholarship-granting organizations and then get their money back through a dollar-for-dollar, 100 percent tax credit. The scholarship organizations would hand out the vouchers, which could be used to pay for private school or home-school expenses. The vouchers could be offered in liberal states as well as conservative ones.
Some of the Trump administration's actions may be blocked by the courts. Some of the Supreme Court cases might favor public schools. Some of the provisions in the GOP tax bill might be softened. But all in all, people on both sides of the debate agree that this is a moment of intense pressure.
As a result, school officials have been forced to pay close attention to action in policy and politics, said Pudelski, of the superintendents' group. 'The message is that if you ignore what's happening in Washington, you do so at your own peril.'