Education

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.

The Education Department is canceling $1 billion in federal grants for school mental health services over reports that the contracts included diversity, equity, and inclusion mandates. 

The 8:15 a.m. scene in front of the school that sits on a dusty, sun-soaked residential street in Brownsville, Texas, just across the border with Mexico, looks much like any other elementary or middle school in that chaotic period before the morning bell. Groups of tousled boys and girls get off the bus or otherwise trickle, saunter and dawdle into a nondescript building where they will spent the next few hours, in theory, learning. These kids, though, seem more jubilant than might be expected for a Tuesday morning in April.

The Supreme Court is being asked to decide if a Catholic school in Oklahoma can be the first to be funded by taxpayers.

Oral arguments will be heard Wednesday if the school can become the first religious charter school in the United States, or if the First Amendment, which separates church and state, means only nonsectarian schools can qualify as charter schools that are publicly funded.