Weekly Update 1/6/25

President and Administration

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to get rid of the Education Department, and, while efforts to do so face big political and policy hurdles, the new Department of Government Efficiency (a proposed Presidential advisory committee) will likely play a key role in recommending any cuts to or restructuring of the federal agency…

President Biden on Sunday (1/5) signed legislation expanding Social Security benefits for millions of retired Americans, including firefighters, police officers and teachers…

The Biden administration approved nearly $2 billion in state and federal funds that California will use to support its behavioral health workforce as states rush to get Medicaid programs accepted before Donald Trump takes over…

President-elect Donald Trump’s health agency nominees have promised to reorganize their departments, dismiss staff, and overhaul regulatory processes…

The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) is hosting a Listening Session to discuss the upcoming 2024-25 CDBG NOFA and Application…

California

Governor Newsom is expected to release his initial budget proposal Friday (1/10) in a speech that will also serve as his State of the State address…

There are more homeless people in California today than there were last year, but the increase is well below the national average…

California lawmakers are proposing steps to protect K-12 students and families from mass deportations — although the real value of those proposals may be symbolic…

Education

American parents are far more bullish about the quality of learning in schools than their kids, according to a new report from the Brookings Institution…

Weekly Update 12/16/24

President and Administration

President Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and is pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes…

The Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) collects episode-level data on clients aged 12 and older receiving substance use treatment services from facilities that are licensed or certified by their respective single state agencies (SSAs)…

President-elect Donald Trump has proposed a 10-to-20-percent increase in tariffs on imports from all countries, and up to 60 percent on imports from China…

Congress

Two dozen House Democrats will endorse Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) to be ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee in a show of support as the Californian looks to head off an expected challenge from New Mexico Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM)…

Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY) is poised to be the next chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which will have significant power to shape health care policy in a Republican-controlled Washington…

The House approved compromise water resources legislation on Tuesday (12/10), moving the bill just one step away from President Biden's desk as lawmakers hurry to wrap up end-of-year business…

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Tuesday (12/10) evening named newly sworn-in Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Andy Kim (D-NJ) to the Senate Banking ahead of a committee vote on President Biden's nominees to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC)…

House Democrats formally approved their party’s picks Wednesday (12/11) for several leaders, including the ranking members of the so-called exclusive committees….

House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) announced a handful of new GOP appropriators on Friday (12/13)…

The House Republican Steering Committee on Thursday (12/12) recommended Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) to lead the Committee on Education and the Workforce in the next Congress…

California

San Jose announced a partnership with Nvidia on Thursday (12/12) to help train city workers in artificial intelligence (AI) and use the technology to reach environmental goals in the heart of Silicon Valley…

Negotiators locked in a showdown over how to share the ever-shrinking Colorado River are offering little optimism for reaching an agreement anytime soon…

Education

A report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) highlighted that 85 percent of charter schools participated in the National School Lunch Program in 2022-23, up from 64 percent in 2018-19…

This article discusses a teacher residency program in Los Angeles aimed at training bilingual teachers to address a shortage in dual-language instruction…

A new Louisiana law requires public schools and universities to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, sparking legal challenges over its alignment with the Establishment Clause…

Will immigration agents arrest and raid schools? Wednesday (12/11) news reported that Trump plans to rescind a longstanding policy discouraging immigration agents from enforcement activities in places considered “protected areas"…

President Donald Trump might not be able to fulfill his oft-repeated campaign promise to obliterate the U.S. Department of Education…

Weekly Update 12/9/24

President and Administration

Cases of pertussis, more commonly known as whooping cough, have surpassed pre-pandemic levels and are nearly five times as high as they were at the same time last year…

President-elect Donald Trump’s policy decisions, nominations, and priorities are generating significant discussion, with varying potential impacts on daily life…

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Tuesday (12/3) urged states and school districts to develop policies overseeing the use of cellphones in schools…

For the first time since 2000, the people of Puerto Rico have elected a resident commissioner (non-voting delegate) to Congress who opposes statehood for Puerto Rico and thinks we should focus on different priorities…

Congress

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are weighing attaching a health care package to a stopgap end-of-year government funding bill…

Democrats in the House and Senate, along with debt forgiveness advocates, are pressuring the Education Department to quickly forgive the remaining student loan debt of borrowers who were defrauded by predatory for-profit colleges…

California

California Attorney General Rob Bonta and state lawmakers are prioritizing reproductive health care this year, introducing new bills to bolster abortion rights…

Democrat Adam Gray has flipped one of his party’s highest-priority seats in California’s Central Valley, booting Republican Rep. John Duarte from office in the last House race in the country to be called…

California Governor Gavin Newsom criticized President-elect Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs on Mexico and Canada, calling it a "betrayal" of both American consumers and the USMCA trade agreement…

Democratic state lawmakers are proposing a constitutional amendment that would ask voters to double the cap on California’s main reserve account, an attempt to blunt the impact of future budget shortfalls months after officials addressed one of the largest deficits in state history…

Education

International testing data released Wednesday (12/4) offered the latest evidence of U.S. learning loss since the pandemic…

U.S. 8th graders’ digital literacy skills declined between 2018 and 2023 on the International Computer and Information Literacy Study, a global assessment of students’ preparedness for the digital world…

Educators around the country are bracing for upheaval, whether or not the president-elect follows through on his pledge to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally…

Weekly Update 12/2/24

Trump-Vance Administration Nominees

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University physician and economist known for his controversial views during the COVID-19 pandemic…

President and Administration

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released abortion tracking data from 2022 on Wednesday (11/27), the first numbers from the agency after Roe v. Wade fell in June of that year…

The Division of Grant Review (DGR) at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is seeking qualified reviewers with academic credentials who meet the requirements outlined in the 21st Century CURES Act…

President Biden announced yesterday (12/2) that he has pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who faced sentencing this month for federal tax and gun convictions, marking a reversal as he prepares to leave office…

Congress

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) announced he will not pursue retaining his position as the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee…

Rep. Michelle Steel (R-CA-45) lost her re-election bid to Democrat Derek Tran…

California

California state lawmakers plan to establish a working group focused on affordability in an effort to prioritize…

Republicans are headed into 2025 in control of the presidency, the Senate, and the House of Representatives…

Education

The momentum to abolish the U.S. Department of Education following the election of Donald Trump, who campaigned on such an effort…

Conflicts over religion in public schools are not a new phenomenon…

A federal judge in Massachusetts has rejected a request by the parents of a Boston-area high school senior who wanted to raise a key grade this fall after teachers accused him of cheating for using artificial intelligence on a class project…

President-elect Donald Trump is poised to pull the plug on President Biden’s yearslong push to cancel student debt for tens of millions of people as Republicans sweep into power in the coming months…

Weekly Update 11/25/24

Appropriations

House GOP leaders are outlining an ambitious agenda for the coming year, with five key reconciliation priorities: extending expiring tax cuts, boosting domestic energy production, funding the border wall alongside increased immigration enforcement…

Trump-Vance Administration Nominees

President-elect Donald Trump tapped Republican Sean Duffy, a former Wisconsin representative in the House, to head the Transportation Department…

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Mehmet Oz, the celebrity physician and TV personality known as Dr. Oz, to be administrator of CMS…

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to tap Brooke Rollins as his Agriculture secretary…

President-elect Donald Trump has tapped former Florida Rep. Dave Weldon to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…

President-elect Donald Trump said Friday (11/22) he has chosen Dr. Janette Nesheiwat to serve as surgeon general in his new administration…

Linda McMahon, the co-chair of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team who spent much of her career as a pro-wrestling executive, is the incoming president’s choice to serve as secretary of education…

President-elect Donald Trump nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead the Justice Department…

President and Administration

On Tuesday (11/19), U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy released Eliminating Tobacco-Related Disease and Death: Addressing Disparities, A Report of the Surgeon General…

The Senate unanimously passed a bill in the early hours of Thursday morning (11/21) that would mandate an October 1 launch of the federal student aid form…

California

California's once-record budget deficit has shrunk to $2 billion but there's "no capacity" for expanding programs and future shortfalls loom…

The defeat of an initiative to raise the minimum wage to $18 an hour makes California the first state to reject a statewide minimum-wage increase at the ballot in almost 30 years…

California Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry will introduce another proposal to guarantee paid pregnancy leave to school staff during the upcoming legislative session…

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a plan today to Trump-proof — and maybe even Tesla-proof — California’s nation-leading electric vehicle market…

Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price conceded her recall in a news conference Monday (11/18)…

California is bracing for a prolonged war with the Trump administration come January…

Education

President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal to dismantle the federal Department of Education — and the impact it would have on the nation’s special education teacher shortage…

Students who started school as English learners but later shed that designation by becoming proficient in the language are more likely than their classmates to graduate from high school…

Students with disabilities and their families could experience significant ripple effects from the incoming Trump administration’s pledges to dramatically scale back the federal government’s role in education policy…

The majority of states, 26, saw declines in high school graduation rates following the pandemic, new research shows…

In the article "So You Want To Make Education Great Again? 3 Executive Orders For Trump On Day 1," Jeanne Allen outlines three executive actions President-elect Donald Trump could implement to reform the U.S. education system…