Education

United States President Donald Trump’s administration has announced that Harvard University will no longer receive public funding for research in a sharp escalation of its dispute with the elite institution.

In a letter to Harvard on Monday, US Education Department Secretary Linda McMahon said the elite university had made a “mockery” of higher education and should no longer seek federal grants, “since no will be provided”.

Gov. Greg Abbott has signed the $1 billion controversial school choice bill into law, allowing for taxpayer money to be used to help qualifying students pay for private school tuition. 

"Today is the culmination of a movement that has swept across the state and our country," Abbott said Saturday.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Saturday signed a law making more than 5 million students eligible to use state funds for private schools, a watershed moment in the conservative campaign to remake public education in America.

Texas is allocating $1 billion for the first two years of the program to offer parents vouchers to pay for school. It is the 16th state to make all students eligible to receive public funds for private education.

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Skyler Sikes is a former Texas public-school teacher and administrator — but he knew a private Christian school was the best choice for his own three children.

In order to make it happen, Sikes, who also works at the children’s school, has had to make numerous sacrifices in order to afford the tuition.

“We have a tighter budget, with the way that we eat and our groceries and stuff like that,” he said, noting the family has foregone both luxuries and necessities in order to do what they believe is best for their children’s education.

As if the federal bureaucracy didn’t have enough to do, Donald Trump says that in a second term he’d create a new tuition-free online university to “compete directly” for college students. It would award bachelor’s degree equivalents “that the U.S. government and all federal contractors will henceforth recognize.” Step right up to enroll in Trump University 2.0.

A federal judge on Thursday blocked Trump administration directives that threatened to cut federal funding for public schools with diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by the National Education Association and the American Civil Liberties Union, which accused the Republican administration of giving “unconstitutionally vague” guidance and violating teachers’ First Amendment rights...

In his first visit to Iowa since announcing a 2024 presidential bid, former President Donald Trump laid out what he wants for American schools should he win: universal school choice, changes in school curriculum, elected school principals and to "break up" the U.S. Department of Education. 

Former President Donald Trump is unveiling a 2024 education policy plan, one focusing heavily on the culture war components that have animated conservatives.

Former President Donald Trump predictably hailed the Supreme Court’s decision prohibiting colleges’ and universities’ from considering race in their admissions, calling the ruling an “amazing” result that will “keep [the U.S.] competitive with the rest of the world.”

Key Facts

On April 21, the Department of Education announced that it would resume collections on defaulted federal student loans, making a clear break from student loan policy under President Joe Biden, who consistently worked to forgive or pause federal student loan payments even as he faced legal defeat.