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Time of India
an hour ago
- Business
- Time of India
Detroit schools at risk of losing over $16 million as US federal education funds are withheld
Detroit schools at risk of losing over $16 million in US federal funding freeze. Detroit Public Schools, already grappling with some of the highest poverty rates in the country, are facing a major financial setback as more than $16 million in federal education funding is being withheld. The White House has paused the release of $6.2 billion in education funds across the country, impacting hundreds of school districts. But Detroit ranks among the hardest hit, raising urgent questions about how schools will prepare for the upcoming academic year without the support they were legally promised. Although the funds were approved by Congress and signed into law under the Trump administration, the delay in distribution is now threatening key programs that support teacher development, after-school learning, mental health services, and English learners. What programs are being affected The withheld funding covers five major federal education programs: Educator development (Title II) Student enrichment and support (Title IV) Migrant education Support for English language learners 21st Century Community Learning Centers While full data for migrant education is not available, the other four programs account for a projected $81.6 million loss in Michigan. This equals about $65 per student statewide, according to data compiled by the education policy group New America. Detroit alone stands to lose more than $16 million, with some of the steepest losses nationally in programs aimed at supporting low-income and vulnerable students. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Elevate Business Writing With This Desktop App Grammarly Learn More Undo Detroit's poverty rate and high dependency on federal aid Detroit Public Schools serve one of the most economically disadvantaged student populations in the country. The district has the highest school-age poverty rate (46.9 percent) among 46 states. These schools heavily rely on federal programs to fund after-school services, academic enrichment, teacher training, and student wellness initiatives. Because many of these programs are tied to poverty-related formulas, Detroit is more dependent on them than wealthier districts. A pause in this funding puts not only programs but student learning and staff planning at immediate risk. Democratic districts bearing the brunt in Michigan In Michigan, the funding freeze is hitting school districts represented by Democrats harder than those represented by Republicans. Democratic districts are projected to lose $45 million, compared to $36.6 million for Republican districts. Average loss per district in Democratic areas: $7.5 million Average loss in Republican areas: $5.2 million On a per-student basis, Democratic-led districts are expected to lose $84 per student, while Republican-led ones would lose $51 per student. This pattern is a sharp contrast to the national trend, where Republican-led districts are seeing larger per-student cuts. The unique situation in Michigan is partly due to Detroit's heavy dependence on federal aid and its inclusion among the top ten districts at highest risk. The hardest-hit districts: Detroit takes centre stage The congressional district represented by Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Detroit) is facing the highest per-student funding loss in the country: $210 per student. Rep. Rashida Tlaib's district, also in Detroit, is next in line, with a projected loss of $87 per student. These losses are especially concerning given that these districts already contend with widespread poverty, staffing shortages, and limited local funding alternatives. The funding freeze comes at a time of added financial instability. The Republican-controlled Michigan House of Representatives failed to pass the state's education budget by the July 1 deadline, compounding the uncertainty. With federal and state budgets unresolved, school districts are unable to plan effectively. Even if they attempt to temporarily cover program costs using local or reserve funds, federal regulations may prevent them from reallocating those funds later when and if the federal money is finally released. What this means for students and educators The loss of funding could lead to scaled-back after-school programs, reduced access to mental health services, delays in curriculum development, and less training for teachers. These setbacks may be most deeply felt in Detroit's most vulnerable communities, where such support is essential. Beyond the financial impact, there is also a symbolic cost. The delay sends a discouraging message to students and families in already underserved areas, especially as they prepare to return to school in just a few weeks. A school year clouded by uncertainty With over $16 million at stake and the school year fast approaching, Detroit Public Schools are caught in a storm of political delay and financial ambiguity. For students already navigating the challenges of poverty and educational inequity, the funding freeze could not come at a worse time. Unless urgent action is taken at both the federal and state levels, Detroit's students and educators may find themselves starting the academic year with fewer resources, reduced support, and more uncertainty than ever. Ready to navigate global policies? Secure your overseas future. Get expert guidance now!
New York Times
2 hours ago
- Business
- New York Times
Trump Administration Live Updates: President to Host Qatar's Prime Minister Amid Gaza Talks
Many Republicans initially balked at slashing $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds more than 1,500 public television and radio stations across the country, including NPR and PBS stations. The Senate on Tuesday voted to take up legislation to claw back $9 billion for foreign aid and public broadcasting, signaling that the Republican-led Congress is poised to acquiesce to President Trump in a simmering battle with the White House over spending powers. The 51-to-50 vote came after Republican leaders agreed to a handful of concessions to win the votes of holdouts who were uneasy with the proposed rescissions. G.O.P. leaders said on Tuesday they would strip out a $400 million cut that Mr. Trump requested to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, a move that the White House signaled it would not contest. Even then, some Republican senators refused to support a move that they said would relinquish their constitutional power over federal spending, forcing their leaders to summon Vice President JD Vance to the Capitol to break a tie and ram the legislation through a pair of procedural votes. 'We're lawmakers; we should be legislating,' Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said in a speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday night announcing her opposition to the package. 'What we're getting now is a direction from the White House and being told, 'This is the priority. We want you to execute on it. We'll be back with you with another round.' I don't accept that.' She was joined by two other Republicans in siding with Democrats in opposition to advancing the measure: Senators Susan Collins of Maine, the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Senate Republicans are hoping to approve the package as early as Wednesday. That would send it back to the House, which passed the bill last month but would still need to give it final approval by Friday for the cuts to be enacted. The push to rescind $9 billion in federal funding is part of a broader fight playing out between the White House and Congress as top Trump administration officials, led by Russell T. Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, are moving aggressively and unilaterally to expand the executive branch's control over federal spending, a power the Constitution gives to the legislative branch. In this case, the administration went through a formal process by submitting what is known as a rescissions bill, requesting that Congress go along with its efforts to cancel funds. Such measures are rare and rarely succeed, given how tightly Congress has historically guarded its power over federal spending; the last time one did was more than 25 years ago under President Bill Clinton. But Republicans have shown extraordinary deference to Mr. Trump since he took office in January, and the bill's momentum reflects their willingness to bow to his wishes even when it comes to programs that have historically drawn broad support. The measure would codify moves the administration has in some cases already taken unilaterally to slash federal spending and rein in the size of the government. The bulk of the funds targeted — about $8 billion — is for foreign assistance programs. The remaining $1.1 billion is for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS. The request has infuriated Democrats, who have accused Republicans of reneging on the bipartisan spending deal they wrote and approved. 'If there's a discrete pot of funding that is not being spent well, if there are cuts that makes sense to include, if there are things that need to be updated, things that need to be reformed, let's have a conversation about what makes sense to rescind and improve as we write those bills in committee,' said Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. A number of Republicans were also plainly unhappy with the request. It moved forward over the objections of Ms. Collins, who voted on Tuesday against moving it out of her own committee. She had pressed Mr. Vought for details on the measure at a hearing this month, arguing that the request his office submitted to Congress was overly broad. 'The rescissions package has a big problem — nobody really knows what program reductions are in it,' Ms. Collins said in a statement on Tuesday. 'That isn't because we haven't had time to review the bill. Instead, the problem is that O.M.B. has never provided the details that would normally be part of this process.' She said she recognized 'the need to reduce excessive spending' and had backed rescissions initiated by Congress. 'But to carry out our constitutional responsibility, we should know exactly what programs are affected and the consequences of rescissions,' Ms. Collins said. And even some Republicans who voted to advance the package said they were not thrilled with the precedent they were setting. 'It concerns me as perhaps approaching a disregard for the constitutional responsibilities of the legislative branch under Article 1,' Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said. 'This Congress will not be allowed to choose those specific cuts. That will be done by somebody in the Office of Management and Budget in the White House and in this situation, it will amount to the House and Senate basically saying, 'We cede that decision voluntarily to the executive branch.'' Still, Senate Republicans on Tuesday appeared ready to fulfill the rest of the White House's rollback request, which has largely already been enacted by executive order and the Department of Government Efficiency. The bill requires only a simple majority vote to pass. Many Republicans initially balked at slashing $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds more than 1,500 public television and radio stations across the country, including NPR and PBS stations. If the package is enacted, the federal funding for public media will dry up beginning in October. NPR and PBS would survive — they get a small percentage of their funding from the federal government — but the cuts would force many local stations to sharply reduce their programming and operations. Many public broadcasters receive more than 50 percent of their budgets from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 'I'm a supporter of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,' Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, said last month, adding that she was going to try to make sure the funding continued to flow. 'It's a lifeline for many of my small, rural communities.' But last week, Mr. Trump urged lawmakers to support the cuts, and threatened to withhold his support for any Republican who opposed the proposal. White House officials, including Mr. Vought, have made clear that they intend to send Congress additional requests to rescind funds. Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota, who had previously expressed deep qualms with the request, said he would support the package after being assured by top Trump administration officials that they would steer unspent funds 'to continue grants to tribal radio stations without interruption' for next year. 'Some of them are 80 to 85 percent funded by this program,' Mr. Rounds said. 'They wouldn't have survived without this. But they provide emergency services information for some of the most rural parts of our country in some of the poorest counties in the United States.' Benjamin Mullin and Megan Mineiro contributed reporting.
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Biden denies White House aides granted clemency without his knowledge
Joe Biden has denied claims that his circle of aides acted without his knowledge when he granted a slew of pardons and commutations in the final days and hours of his presidency. 'I made every single one of those,' the former president told the New York Times in an interview published on Sunday when asked about claims that he was incapacitated and unaware of clemency decisions. Biden called the people making those claims 'liars', adding, 'They know it.' Donald Trump's successor and predecessor in the Oval Office issued three sets of clemency during his final days, including reducing sentences of hundreds of non-violent drug offenders and commuting the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates to life without parole. He pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, of convictions on federal gun and tax charges, too. And he also granted pre-emptive pardons to other members of his immediate family, along with the former top public health adviser Dr Anthony Fauci and ex-joint chiefs of staff chair Gen Mark Milley. Related: Trump makes unsupported claim Biden pardons are 'void' as he used autopen Conservatives have alleged that the commutations and pardons, along with executive orders passed during his term, are not binding because they were signed using an autopen printer to reproduce a signature and could therefore not be verified as being directly authorized by Biden himself. In Sunday's interview, Biden hit back at that suggestion, telling the Times he hadn't personally signed the orders simply 'because there were a lot of them'. 'The autopen … is legal,' Biden said. 'As you know, other presidents used it, including Trump. But the point is that … we're talking about a whole lot of people.' Trump was asked about Biden's interview comments on Monday, and he called them 'a tremendous scandal'. 'I guarantee he knew nothing about what he was signing – I guarantee it,' Trump added, without offering evidence supporting his assertion. He went on to repeat his previously stated view that the autopen should be used for responding to thousands of letters from young people that write in. Biden's remarks come days after Kevin O'Connor, his White House doctor, declined to answer questions from a Republican-led congressional committee looking into the former president's mental acuity while in office – and whether he was aware of documents signed with his 'autopen' signature. The House oversight committee chair, James Comer, slammed O'Connor's refusal to answer questions and assertion of his constitutional rights against self-incrimination, saying: 'It's clear there was a conspiracy to cover up President Biden's cognitive decline.' Trump has claimed that Biden's autopen pardons issued to lawmakers and staff on the congressional committee that investigated the Capitol attack on 6 January 2021 have no force because they were not signed by hand. 'In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them!' Trump wrote on his social media site in March. Two months before that post, Trump began his second presidency by issuing 1,500 unconditional pardons or commutations to supporters of his who carried out the Capitol attack after he lost the 2020 election to Biden. Trump, who signs orders with Sharpie, often before media cameras, has also used the autopen. But Trump has claimed he does that 'only for very unimportant papers' or signing return letters that come from 'letters of support for young people, from people that aren't feeling well, etc. 'But to sign pardons and all of the things that he signed with an autopen is disgraceful,' Trump has said. Related: Trump is stretching his pardon power – to the delight of his Maga acolytes No law governs a president's use of an autopen. In 2005, an opinion from the US justice department said an autopen could be used to sign legislation, and Barack Obama became the first president to do so in 2011. Biden has previously pushed back on Republican claims he was unaware of what was being issued in his name. 'Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency,' he said in June. 'I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn't is ridiculous and false.' In his most recent remarks, to the Times, Biden accused Republicans of using the autopen issue as diversion. 'They've lied so consistently about almost everything they're doing,' he said. 'The best thing they can do is try to change the focus and focus on something else. And … I think that's what this is about.'
Time of India
a day ago
- Politics
- Time of India
What happened at CUNY, Georgetown and UC Berkeley that alarmed Congress?
CUNY, Georgetown and UC Berkeley face US Congress over campus antisemitism. (AI Image) Three major US universities—City University of New York (CUNY), Georgetown University, and the University of California, Berkeley—will testify before Congress over allegations of campus antisemitism. The upcoming hearing before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce follows months of increased scrutiny into how universities handle protests and the safety of Jewish students. The three institutions are the latest to face questions from the Republican-led committee, which previously summoned leaders from Ivy League schools. The focus of this hearing is on 'the role of faculty, funding and ideology' in enabling antisemitism, as reported by The New York Times. Congressional scrutiny widens beyond Ivy League At CUNY, which serves nearly 240,000 students across 26 colleges, federal investigations found that the university mishandled complaints of antisemitism and other bias incidents dating back to 2019. In 2024, pro-Palestinian protests across multiple CUNY campuses resulted in mass arrests. The Education Department's Office for Civil Rights concluded that a number of cases had not been properly addressed. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Kayseri: Yeni İşitme Cihazları Emeklileri Hayrete Düşürdü Best Hearing Aids Undo CUNY Law School, in particular, has drawn attention due to outspoken pro-Palestinian activism by several graduates. In response to rising concerns, CUNY has taken measures including centralising its bias reporting procedures, deploying more safety officers, and increasing anti-hate training, according to The New York Times . Protests and federal pressure at Georgetown and Berkeley At Georgetown University, tensions escalated after the US Attorney for the District of Columbia threatened to ban graduates from federal employment due to the university's diversity programming. The Georgetown Law School dean described the move as 'unconstitutional' in an official statement, as reported by The New York Times . A postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown, Badar Khan Suri, was arrested by US authorities for allegedly promoting antisemitism and 'spreading Hamas propaganda' on social media. He was detained for two months before a federal judge ordered his release, citing violations of the First Amendment. The judge stated that the arrest had been made 'for punitive reasons,' according to The New York Times . At the University of California, Berkeley, student activists erected tent encampments in 2024 and disrupted an event featuring an Israeli speaker. Protesters reportedly smashed doors, prompting the chancellor at the time to label the incident as 'an attack on the fundamental values of the university.' The House committee later demanded documentation of Berkeley's response to such incidents. Berkeley is also known as the birthplace of the student group Students for Justice in Palestine, which was founded in the early 1990s. Background to the hearings These hearings began after the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023, which led to Israel's ongoing invasion of Gaza. Republicans expanded their investigations beyond Ivy League institutions following widespread campus protests. President Trump has endorsed punitive action against universities, including the withdrawal of federal funds, as reported by The New York Times . TOI Education is on WhatsApp now. Follow us here . Ready to navigate global policies? Secure your overseas future. Get expert guidance now!
eNCA
a day ago
- Business
- eNCA
US House set to vote on landmark crypto bills this week
WASHINGTON - US lawmakers are on the verge of passing landmark legislation that will give the much-maligned crypto world much-wanted legitimacy, riding on President Donald Trump's recent embrace of the industry. The US House of Representatives is set to vote on three pieces of legislation this week, including one on the use of stablecoins -- cryptocurrencies pegged to safe assets like the dollar -- that, if passed, would immediately go to Trump for his signature. The raft of legislation comes after years of suspicion against the crypto industry amid the belief in the Biden administration that the sector, born out of the success of bitcoin, should be kept on a tight leash and away from mainstream investors. But after crypto investors poured millions of dollars into his presidential campaign last year, Trump reversed his own doubts about the industry, even launching a Trump meme coin and other ventures as he prepared for his return to the White House. According to federal financial disclosure forms released last month, Trump pocketed more than $57-million from the crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, that he launched with his sons last year. Trump has, among other moves, appointed crypto advocate Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He has also established a federal "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" aimed at auditing the government's bitcoin holdings, which were mainly accumulated by law enforcement from judicial seizures. And thanks to his backing, Trump could soon be signing the stablecoin bill -- dubbed the GENIUS Act -- that the US Senate passed last month and that sets rules such as requiring issuers to have reserves of assets equal in value to that of their outstanding cryptocurrency. The Republican-led House is also considering a bill it calls the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act that aims to block the issuance of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) – a digital dollar issued by the US Federal Reserve. Republicans argue that a CBDC could enable the federal government to monitor, track, and potentially control the financial transactions of private citizens, undermining privacy and civil liberties. It would also require passage in the Senate before going to Trump for his signature.
