Democratic lawmakers in Congress did not hold back in expressing their opposition to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s guidance about federal COVID-19 relief for K-12 schools, calling it “way out of bounds” and urging her to abandon it. In a letter sent to DeVos,...
Eanes Independent School District in the greater Austin area has received the Best Communities for Music Education designation from the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation for the sixth year in a row. “The recognition is awarded to districts demonstrating outstanding achievement in efforts to...
Last week, the U.S. Department of Education announced a new, $3 million grant program that “gives districts flexibility to combine federal, state and local funding streams to educate disadvantaged students.” The grants are authorized by the Every Student Succeeds Act and are aimed at supporting...
Legislation introduced by House Democrats “would provide nearly $60 billion to K-12 school districts to help them address the coronavirus pandemic,” according to Education Week. The total “falls short of public demands from education advocacy groups,” yet will likely not make it past the Republican-controlled...
Recently, “dozens of groups sent a new request to Congress” that calls for “at least $250 billion in new federal aid for K-12 schools and higher education as part of a broader push to shore up state and local government funding.” The request also urges Congress to...
In Virginia, Superintendent of Public Instruction James Lane recently announced that public schools in the Old Dominion will soon be able to access $238.6 million in federal funding under the recently passed CARES Act. “Ninety percent of the funding, totaling more than $214.7 million, will pass...
A recent blog post outlines the information that states and districts receiving emergency coronavirus relief funding must report. Within 60 days of receiving funding, state education departments must “tell the U.S. Department of Education their budgets for their ‘reserve’ of the money,” including “dollar-by-dollar details...
A “sleeper provision” in ESSA “requiring states to publish annually on their report cards the per-student spending data for every public school in their borders” is “finally bearing fruit,” according to an article in Education Next. “As of March 2020, more than half of the...
Last week, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced the release of “$3 billion in aid for the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund,” which was included in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Governors are now able to apply for aid to...
The U.S. Department of Education granted preliminary approval to “Virginia’s request for waivers from provisions of the Every Student Succeeds Act and the General Education Provisions Act that govern how and when federal education funds must be spent by states and local school districts.” Without...
