Public Schools

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.

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...

The proposal was the most audacious Robert Franklin had seen during his four decades in education: The Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City wanted to create the nation’s first religious, taxpayer-funded public charter school.

As the Supreme Court prepares to rule in Mahmoud v. Taylor, the national conversation is charged. Some see the case as an attack on inclusive education. Others view it as a necessary defense of religious liberty in the public school system. But the truth, as is often the case, lies somewhere in the middle. If the justices are careful, they can craft a decision that affirms constitutional protections without unleashing the chaos that some fear.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared likely to rule for parents in Maryland who objected on religious grounds to books made available in a school district's elementary schools that feature stories about gay and transgender characters.

Members of the 6-3 conservative majority, which often backs religious rights, seemed sympathetic during the lively 2½-hour oral argument toward the parents’ claims that the Montgomery County Board of Education violated their religious rights by failing to provide an opt-out for their children.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) says it has nixed more than $1 billion in funding for local food banks and schools by terminating two programs that aid state, tribal and territorial government food purchases.

The buy-local programs support the purchase and distribution of goods produced within the state or within 400 miles of the delivery destination.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reportedly has cut more than $1 billion in federal spending by ending two Biden executive-ordered programs by which schools and food banks bought food from local farms and ranchers.

Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program (LFS) and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) are the two programs affected, Politico reported.

It’s been 10 days, do you know where your children are?

More than one-third of New York City public schoolkids — or some 300,000 students — were “chronically absent” last year, according to a blockbuster study out Thursday.

The bombshell findings come as New York students’ test scores in math and reading remain mediocre, despite the state funneling more money into education than any other in the nation.