Latest news with #MadiBiedermann
Newsweek
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Newsweek
America's Children Are 'Ready To Learn' With PBS KIDS. Will the Trump Administration Listen?
For the past 30 years and with broad bipartisan support in Congress, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has funded competitive Ready to Learn (RTL) grants, authorized under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. RTL includes all kids in maximizing the benefits of publicly funded children's media, with proven evidence-based educational impact from PBS KIDS shows like Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow, and Clifford the Big Red Dog. On the evening of Friday, May 2, the DOE abruptly terminated the 2020-2025 RTL grants, and a 2026 budget proposal eliminates the program altogether. I am extremely proud of having served as an advisor for a decade on RTL grants to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds PBS KIDS programming, digital games, and community outreach. RTL provides a safety net for U.S. children who are traditionally underserved educationally. The current federal administration just slashed those nets. The 1-2-3 Sesame Street float heads down the parade route during The 97th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, on Nov. 23, 2023. The 1-2-3 Sesame Street float heads down the parade route during The 97th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, on Nov. 23, a statement, Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communication at the DOE, explained the Trump administration's rationale: We "cancelled 'Ready to Learn' grants to PBS that were funding racial justice educational programming for 5-8 year-old children. This is not aligned with Administration priorities. The Trump Department of Education will prioritize funding that supports meaningful learning and improving student outcomes, not divisive ideologies and woke propaganda." In my capacity as a professor at Northeastern University, I teach an undergraduate course on youth and communication technology, in which students learn about the developmental psychology behind how children learn from media and the impact of technology on their lives. The semester is over, but if we were still in class, I'd ask students to break down the DOE statement above based on what we've discussed and what they've read during the course. In class, we study how history (including political, social, and economic factors) shapes the youth media landscape. RTL grants have traditionally been announced every 5 years and reflect federal priorities. In 2020 (during the first Trump administration), the DOE's RTL solicitation included a call for "literacy content [that goes] beyond vocabulary and basic reading skills" and programming exposing children to future career options. RTL-funded PBS KIDS shows like Work it Out Wombats! and Lyla in the Loop have equipped young learners with functional literacy and collaboration skills for a rapidly evolving global economy. RTL ensures that underserved kids—such as those living in rural areas, young people from low-income households, and students with disabilities—have access to media that meets the highest standards of both education and entertainment. In our class on disabled young people and their media use, we learn how inaccessible digital experiences and disability stereotypes on TV can negatively impact their cognitive and emotional development. Many RTL-funded programs such as Hero Elementary feature and portray children with disabilities in a positive manner, and PBS KIDS digital games incorporate universal design principles that support learners of all abilities. For our session on culture, race, and ethnicity in children's media, we discuss Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory, which in part explains how children learn better when they can identify with characters on screen, with racial and ethnic identity potentially being one aspect depending on the child. Not all kids get the equal chance, though, to identify with characters in that respect. PBS KIDS series funded by RTL, like Molly of Denali, allow more children to learn in a meaningful and authentic manner. On our day on educational media, we learn about the origins of Sesame Street, as well as its reception at the time of its debut in 1969. Despite the show being an instant hit, the public TV station in Mississippi refused to air the show because it depicted a racially integrated neighborhood. Letters from parents in Mississippi poured into the station, not wanting their kids to miss out on the Muppets. Maligning RTL programming as "woke propaganda" suggests a desire to turn back the clock on diverse representation. And over the course of the semester, students in my course put together print guides for parents to help them support their children's learning from high-quality children's media, using PBS KIDS RTL outreach materials for caregivers, teachers, and community groups as models. In selecting a TV show to evaluate, students think critically about the evidence behind media's claims to be "educational." Most content created by random YouTubers and app developers cannot compare. Students frequently end up choosing to focus on RTL-funded shows like Super WHY! because PBS KIDS is the gold standard for promoting "meaningful learning" and "improving student outcomes" that the administration claims it is newly prioritizing. In short, this decision from the DOE is purely punitive. Considering RTL's robust backing by both Republican and Democrat administrations, the only "divisive ideologies" being put forth seem to be coming from the DOE itself. While it is likely that the RTL termination will be challenged, the impact of dismantling important human and material infrastructure that helps to run RTL is already profound. American's children stand at the ready to learn, but is the current Trump administration and Department of Education willing to listen to the desires of kids and parents, as well as decades of research? Meryl Alper is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Northeastern University. She studies and teaches about the social, cultural, and health implications of media and technology for youth with disabilities. Her most recent book is Kids Across the Spectrums: Growing Up Autistic in the Digital Age (MIT Press, 2023). The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
As part of $1 billion in school mental health cuts, Wisconsin loses roughly $8 million
When the Biden-Harris Administration awarded the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction $10 million over a five-year period to improve youth mental health services in December, it was the largest-ever expansion of K-12 mental health programs in the state to date. And it wasn't just Wisconsin. The investment was poised to help train and hire an additional 4,000 mental health professionals to schools nationally at a time when increasing mental health concerns among students compounded ongoing shortages of school-based mental health professionals. But May 2, it was learned that less than a year into the grant cycle, the federal Department of Education abruptly terminated the grant earlier in the week. Wisconsin DPI received an email titled "Notice of Non-Continuation of Grant Award" informing the state agency that the Trump administration had determined "not to continue your federal award … in its entirety, effective at the end of your current grant budget period." Nationally, the Trump administration discontinued $1 billion in grants that supported school-based mental health programs. The grants were funded through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a landmark gun safety law passed in the wake of a massacre three years ago in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 elementary school students and two teachers dead. Specifically, the Trump administration took issue with programs that educated mental health professionals about systemic racism and trained therapists to focus on race-related stress and trauma, among other things, said Madi Biedermann, a spokesperson for the Education Department, according to USA Today. So far, $2.2 million of the Wisconsin grant had gone toward expanding online certification pathways, developing 'grow your own' university programs for future school-based mental health providers, and offering statewide training and professional development to improve retention rates of mental health professionals. The remaining roughly $8 million will not be awarded. The 2024 grant was built off the success of a 2020 pilot grant from the federal government, which had put an additional 348 new mental health professionals into local education agencies across Wisconsin since the 2021-2022 school year. Wisconsin was one of a handful of states involved in the pilot program. In hiring more mental health professionals, the state also shrunk its troublingly high ratio of students to school-based mental health professionals by 14% at school districts selected for the pilot program. The pilot program was considered so successful that Wisconsin became one of 22 states to be awarded a five-year grant. Nevertheless, the Trump administration says the grant "no longer effectuates the best interest of the federal government.' DPI Superintendent Jill Underly called the decision to eliminate the grant indefensible at a time when communities have been pleading for help serving student mental health needs. 'These funds ― which Wisconsin used to make meaningful change for our schools ― were helping districts and our higher education partners develop new mental health professionals, providing a career opportunity for our current high schoolers," Underly said. "This action takes resources away from Wisconsin and disrupts the success efforts we've made to ensure qualified individuals are serving our kids." Now, DPI hopes that its historic proposal to invest more than $300 million in school mental health programs over the 2025-27 biennium makes its way through the Republican-controlled Legislature. The provision would invest in the now-stymied school-based mental health services program, expand aid for mental health care costs, invest in alcohol and drug abuse programs, add more mental health training across school staff, and extend peer-to-peer suicide prevention programs to middle schools. Success, however, is considered unlikely based on previous years. DPI had requested $278 million over the 2023-25 biennium, but received about $74 million in mental health services across K-12 Wisconsin schools. The 2021-23 biennial budget allocated less than half that amount ― $44 million ― into youth mental health services. 'Kids don't get a chance to do-over their school experience while the federal government recalibrates its political agenda,' Underly said. 'Federal funds are a critical part of our infrastructure, and these disruptions need to stop.' This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Trump cuts funds for mental health professionals in Wisconsin schools
Boston Globe
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Trump administration cancels $1 billion in grants for student mental health
Advertisement The department did not specify a civil rights law or provide the grant recipients with any evidence of violations, according to the notice reviewed by The New York Times. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up An Education Department spokesperson confirmed that the grants had been discontinued because of a particular focus on increasing the diversity of psychologists, counselors, and other mental health workers. 'Under the deeply flawed priorities of the Biden administration, grant recipients used the funding to implement race-based actions like recruiting quotas in ways that have nothing to do with mental health and could hurt the very students the grants are supposed to help,' said Madi Biedermann, the department's deputy assistant secretary for communications. 'We owe it to American families to ensure that taxpayer dollars are supporting evidence-based practices that are truly focused on improving students' mental health.' Advertisement Biedermann declined to provide applications that the department viewed as discriminatory, citing privacy laws. Instead, she offered examples of specific provisions pulled from lengthy applications. A provision in one application set a 'diversity goal' of hiring eight nonwhite counselors out of a total of 24. A line in an additional application included training for mental health professionals that included helping counselors 'recognize and challenge systemic injustices, antiracism and the pervasiveness of white supremacy to ethically support diverse communities.' Another highlighted the importance of handling 'racial stress and trauma' of students. One applicant's training included understanding 'the influences of racism and white privilege in education practice.' The grant cancellations were reported earlier by The Associated Press. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn, who helped negotiate the legislation, said it was illegal for any president to halt funding approved by Congress and called on Republican supporters to stand up for the law. Three Republican senators, John Cornyn of Texas, Susan Collins of Maine and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who wrote a column in support of the law three years ago did not return calls seeking comment. 'I'm raw about this because I sat in the room for a long time negotiating a really delicate compromise on a really tough issue,' Murphy said in an interview. 'What's the point of being in Congress and writing laws if the president can just ignore them? So, I'm angry that my Republican partners are not out there raising objections to what the president is doing.' Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who has spearheaded the assault on critical race theory and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, posted screenshots on social media this week of some grant applications, which he said were proof that the program was 'being used to advance left-wing racialism and discrimination.' Advertisement 'No more slush fund for activists under the guise of mental health,' Rufo wrote. But Mary Wall, a former deputy assistant secretary for education involved in setting up the process to solicit bids for the program under the Biden administration, said it was a 'gross overstep' to equate mental health services with the radicalization of children. The application process favored programs that reflected the communities they served, she said. Programs aimed at training mental health professionals for predominantly minority communities, for example, received extra consideration if they could show how the training would be aimed at professionals with similar backgrounds. Wall said this was 'a common-sense practice' with proven results. 'One of the first questions after every single school shooting is whether the student had access to mental health support and services,' Wall said. 'It is no stretch to say that taking away this support introduces the risk of harm to school communities and students.' This article originally appeared in .
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration cutting $1B in school mental health funding over DEI
The Department of Education will not renew $1 billion in mental health funding for schools, citing concerns about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts in the contracts. The funding came from a bipartisan gun violence bill signed by former President Biden that gave schools the money to hire mental health workers and counselors for students. 'These grants are intended to improve American students' mental health by funding additional mental health professionals in schools and on campuses. Instead, under the deeply flawed priorities of the Biden Administration, grant recipients used the funding to implement race-based actions like recruiting quotas in ways that have nothing to do with mental health and could hurt the very students the grants are supposed to help,' said Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the Education Department. 'We owe it to American families to ensure that tax-payer dollars are supporting evidence-based practices that are truly focused on improving students' mental health,' she added. The news was first reported by Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist, on the social platform X, including excerpts of the grant documents, which list goals to hire a certain number of minority and diverse counselors for schools. Rufo alleged the grants 'were being used to advance left-wing racialism and discrimination. No more slush fund for activists under the guise of mental health.' In a notice to members of Congress obtained by The Associated Press, the Department of Education said it would support the mental health of students in other ways. 'The Department plans to re-envision and re-compete its mental health program funds to more effectively support students' behavioral health needs,' the notice said. The move comes as the Education Department has cut millions in education research funding over alleged DEI efforts. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court sided with the federal agency in allowing millions of dollars of grants to be blocked to teacher preparation programs that the Education Department said included certain DEI efforts. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
30-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Trump administration cutting $1B in school mental health funding over DEI
The Department of Education will not renew $1 billion in mental health funding for schools, citing concerns about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts in the contracts. The funding came from a bipartisan gun violence bill signed by former President Biden that gave schools the money to hire mental health workers and counselors for students. 'These grants are intended to improve American students' mental health by funding additional mental health professionals in schools and on campuses. Instead, under the deeply flawed priorities of the Biden Administration, grant recipients used the funding to implement race-based actions like recruiting quotas in ways that have nothing to do with mental health and could hurt the very students the grants are supposed to help,' said Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the Education Department. 'We owe it to American families to ensure that tax-payer dollars are supporting evidence-based practices that are truly focused on improving students' mental health,' she added. The news was first reported by Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist, on social media platform X, including excerpts of the grant documents, which list goals to hire a certain number of minority and diverse counselors for schools. Rufo alleged the grants 'were being used to advance left-wing racialism and discrimination. No more slush fund for activists under the guise of mental health.' In a notice to members of Congress obtained by The Associated Press, the Department of Education said it would support the mental health of students in other ways. 'The Department plans to re-envision and re-compete its mental health program funds to more effectively support students' behavioral health needs,' the notice said. The move comes as the Education Department has cut millions in education research funding over alleged DEI efforts. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court sided with the federal agency in allowing millions of dollars of grants to be blocked to teacher preparation programs the Education Department deemed was inculcated with DEI efforts.
