| | | | |  | | By Juan Perez Jr. | With help from Michael Stratford
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Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. | Carlos Osorio/AP Photo | CARDONA SPEAKS — President Joe Biden’s education secretary is stepping up his rhetoric against school-centered partisanship, as nearly 30,000 school board seats are on the ballot this year and White House allies plan a counteroffensive to conservative political momentum. — “When we talk about politicization, when we talk about book banning, when we talk about Black history curriculum being picked apart — I think there are deliberate attempts to make sure that our public schools are not functional so that the private option sounds better,” Miguel Cardona told POLITICO. — “It just seems like it’s a constant attack on what I know as a dad, and what I know as an educator, is happening in our schools.” Cardona said. “Education being used to divide communities is the challenge that we face now as leaders.” — Cardona’s newly public exasperation with the conservative political furor around education comes as the Republican-controlled House approved sweeping “Parents Bill of Rights” legislation and a growing wave of school choice expansion laws takes hold in Republican-led states, including a measure now primed for the signature of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. — “There are efforts to take dollars, the limited dollars that exist for public education, and provide vouchers to private institutions — weakening the local public school,” Cardona said of recent school choice expansion initiatives. — “I'm not against choice, I went to a technical high school that wasn't my local neighborhood high school. … But I don't want privatization at the expense of the local school. The neighborhood school should be fully funded; it should have great resources so that students who go there have a top-tier education.” IT’S MONDAY, MARCH 27. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. There's a sharp-elbowed progressive atop the Senate budget committee, with big ideas about corporate greed, the environment and shaking up Washington. It isn’t Bernie Sanders. Reach out with tips to today’s host at jperez@politico.com and also my colleagues Michael Stratford (mstratford@politico.com), Bianca Quilantan (bquilantan@politico.com) and Mackenzie Wilkes (mwilkes@politico.com). And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro
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Sen. Bill Cassidy. | Mariam Zuhaib/AP Photo | SENATE GOP UNVEILS RESOLUTION TO STOP DEBT RELIEF — Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) today are unveiling their legislation to overturn Biden’s student debt cancellation plan and end the pause on federal student loan payments and interest, Michael reports. — Republicans are mounting their fresh attack on Biden’s student debt relief policies after the Government Accountability Office ruled earlier this month that the Education Department debt relief program is subject to the Congressional Review Act, a fast-track tool for lawmakers to nullify recently enacted rules. — The Senate GOP resolution being introduced today has 38 total co-cosponsors, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. That’s more than the 30 senators who are needed to force a vote on the measure under the CRA. — In the House, Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) is planning to introduce companion legislation, which he provided to the Daily Caller last week. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), the chair of the House education committee, is expected to co-sponsor the legislation.
| | | THE OTHER MENTAL HEALTH CHALLENGE — State education leaders are frustrated with Cardona’s recent criticism of “unacceptable” early spending rates on federally-funded student mental health initiatives. — The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act included $1 billion in funding for state-administered local school safety grant competitions. The Education Department distributed that money to states in September. Cardona wants it used by schools, pronto. — But it’s one thing for Congress to approve spending. Getting federal money out the door and on the ground is another matter. — The “vast majority” of U.S. school systems are waiting on state legislatures or local bureaucratic and legal procedures to greenlight the use of BSCA’s school safety funds, said Kirsten Baesler, North Dakota’s elected school superintendent and board president of the Council of Chief State School Officers. — “That is the hold up,” Baesler told Weekly Education. “It isn't because state superintendents don't want to get this money out the door, or they don't see the compelling urgency of the need to get this money into the hands of our school districts.” — Daniel French, Vermont’s departing secretary of education, said he was “mystified” by Cardona’s comments. — “We wouldn't blame the U.S. Department of Education for its delay in creating rules or regulations or FAQs on these programs. That's just part of the complexity of what we're managing,” French told Weekly Education. “And it's not necessarily helpful to be thrown under the bus, so to speak, particularly if it's blaming state procurement processes.” — In Vermont’s case, French said the state needed answers to technical questions over how the grant funds should be shared with private schools. Vermont’s grant competition process is now slated to begin this week, he said. — “This is not happening in a vacuum,” French said. “This is happening at a time when people are managing a lot of programs, a lot of grants and dealing with some really complex, integrative, unprecedented needs on the ground — so we all need to exercise patience.” — Cardona said he plans to talk with national associations for state legislators, governors and mayors about the issue. — “I commend the state chiefs, the superintendents who are clearly under attack in so many places in this country, and I want to provide support,” Cardona told your host. “So as I'm pushing, I also want them to know that we're going to be allies.” — “The last thing they need is the secretary of education telling them how to use the dollars,” Cardona said. “The local communities know best what they need to support their safety plans but also to create a positive school environment and to provide the mental health support that our students need.”
| | | NOTES ON PUNISHMENT — The Education Department and more than 100 organizations are urging states in nearly half the country to eliminate the use of spanking, paddling or other physical punishment on students. — Corporal punishment in schools is either expressly allowed — or not expressly prohibited — in 23 states, according to department estimates. — Yet nearly all instances of physical discipline occur in ten of the nearly two dozen states where the practice is permitted, The Education Trust, National Women’s Law Center and allied groups noted in a message to policymakers last week. — “Unfortunately, some schools continue to put the mental and physical well-being of students at risk by implementing the practice of corporal punishment,” Cardona wrote in a separate Friday letter to state and school leaders. “If the use of corporal punishment is permitted or practiced in schools and educational settings within your state or district, I urge you to move swiftly toward condemning and eliminating it.” — The number of public school students subjected to corporal punishment declined between the 2013-14 to the 2017-18 school years, according to department civil rights data. Still, opponents described the ongoing practice in classrooms as “a colossal failure of leadership.” — The department also issued a series of “guiding principles” on school disciplinary practices. — Former President Donald Trump’s administration in 2018 rescinded Obama-era guidance aimed at ending racial disparities in school discipline. Schools await formal, updated school discipline guidance from the government while confronting an array of student behavioral concerns and threats amid campus shootings.
| | | ONE FOR THE HISTORY BOOKS — The Italian museum that’s home to Michelangelo’s masterpiece David sculpture invited parents and students from a Florida charter school to visit, after complaints about a lesson featuring the nude statue forced the principal to resign, The Associated Press reports. — The board of the Tallahassee Classical School pressured Principal Hope Carrasquilla to resign last week after an image of the David was shown to a sixth-grade art class, the Tallahassee Democrat reported. The school has a policy requiring parents to be notified in advance about “controversial” topics being taught. — The Italian response highlighted how the U.S. culture wars are often perceived in Europe. Sunday’s front page of the Italian daily Corriere della Sera featured a cartoon by its leading satirist depicting David with his genitals covered by an image of Uncle Sam and the word “Shame.” — “To think that David could be pornographic means truly not understanding the contents of the Bible, not understanding Western culture and not understanding Renaissance art,” said Cecilie Hollberg, director of the museum where the sculpture resides.
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