| | | | |  | | By Rebecca Carballo | |  Two multibillion pandemic era programs that provided funding and resources for schools are coming to an end in quick succession. | Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images | COMING TO AN END: Federal programs that poured billions of dollars into post-pandemic academic recovery are getting ready to sunset, leaving educators and experts with an uncomfortable question: If spending in U.S. public education flattens, will the scores too? “It’s going to depend on the states,” said Marguerite Roza, a research professor and director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown. “Obviously there is a lot riding on this. Test scores are not the only measures, but they do connect to what opportunities kids may have later in life.” In several states, the funds paid off. An Edunomics analysis of federal data found that the increase in spending in places like Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, corresponded with a stronger recovery in both fourth grade reading and eighth grade math. But now two multibillion-dollar programs are closing up in quick succession. The Emergency Connectivity Fund, a $7.171 billion program providing schools and libraries with laptops, tablets and other devices, is sunsetting on June 30. Then three months later — while some extensions are possible — money disbursed through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, a $190 billion Covid program, must largely be obligated. The effects of the dwindling funds have already created a level of uncertainty for school districts across the country. Sixty school district leaders in Connecticut were surveyed from January to March, and 95 percent of them said the loss of ESSER funding will at least have some impact on students in their district. Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles said his district had previously used ESSER money for recurring costs and to offset declining student enrollment. Now, the district has to make up a $528 million shortfall. To avoid a fiscal cliff the district will have to make cuts, which likely be office positions, contractors and vendors, he said. “We kept cuts away from the classroom to the extent that we can,” Miles said at a press conference in mid-May. “You can’t find a gap $500 million and say its not going to affect anything in the schools. ” Still, Georgetown’s analysis also showed that some states saw few gains despite an increase in funding, Roza said. It’s hard to say why certain states had stronger outcomes than others, but places that had legislatures or other state leadership with a stronger focus on education reforms seemed to do better, Roza said. IT’S MONDAY, JUNE 10. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. WHAT SHOULD WE BE LOOKING OUT FOR THIS WEEK? Drop me a line at rcarballo@politico.com. Send tips to my colleagues Bianca Quilantan at bquilantan@politico.com, Mackenzie Wilkes at mwilkes@politico.com and Juan Perez Jr. at jperez@politico.com. And follow us: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro.
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| | SAVE PLAN CHALLENGES: A federal judge ruled Friday that three Republican states out of 11 listed on a lawsuit could continue their challenge against SAVE, a Biden administration student loan repayment plan, Bianca reports. The next hearing will be on Tuesday. The SAVE plan launched in August to replace other existing income-based repayment plans offered by the federal government. Judge Daniel Crabtree, an Obama appointee in the federal District Court of Kansas, said Alaska, South Carolina and Texas could proceed with the lawsuit against a new plan, known as SAVE, but dismissed claims from Kansas, Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska and Utah. Crabtree ruled those states could not prove they would be harmed by the new income-driven repayment plan. The states argued that the new plan would reduce tax revenue and hurt their ability to recruit and retain state public service employees, among other claims. The Biden administration countered that the SAVE plan didn't cause them any direct harm. Crabtree said the three states' claims of "harm to their public instrumentalities" — independent agencies that provide public services — was successful because of the Supreme Court case Biden v. Nebraska, “but just barely,” he added.
| | Antisemitism Investigation | | POSSIBLE SUBPOENA: House Education and the Workforce Committee Chair Virginia Foxx is threatening to subpoena Northwestern, alleging that the university obstructed an antisemitism investigation. Foxx is asking the university to provide documents by June 17. Some of what she is asking for includes communications between the university’s top officials, board of trustees, individuals associated with the encampment and law enforcement. “In addition to President Schill refusing to provide responsive information in much of his hearing testimony, Northwestern has obstructed the Committee’s oversight by failing to comply with its document requests,” Foxx wrote in the letter sent Friday. During his testimony in May, university President Michael Schill got into several scuffles with lawmakers, and told them he would not engage in hypothetical scenarios or discuss specific faculty and students. He repeatedly defended his decision to negotiate with students while outlining why he decided against allowing the encampments to stay. “By engaging our students with dialogue instead of force, we modeled the behavior we want them to learn from and apply going forward,” Schill said in May, adding the commitments the school made “are consistent with our values.” “Importantly, I rejected the main student demand for divestment,” he said in May. “And will not ever recommend that Northwestern use its resources for political purposes.” He also acknowledged the encampment was making his Jewish students feel unsafe. However, Foxx was not satisfied with his testimony. “In his May 23 testimony, President Schill repeatedly refused to answer questions voluntarily and made multiple statements that were misleading at best and raised questions about the candor and veracity of his testimony. His conduct obstructed the Committee and its efforts to examine the explosion of antisemitism at Northwestern,” she wrote in the letter. Northwestern said they were still reviewing the letter and did not provide comment.
| | | NDAA: American Council on Education and other higher education associations, penned a letter to the House Rules and Armed Services committees raising concerns about adding the Bipartisan Workforce Pell Act and the DETERRENT Act to the National Defense Authorization Act. This comes as the House Rules Committee is expected to meet on Tuesday regarding the NDAA. Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the House education committee, offered an amendment to include their Bipartisan Workforce Pell Act in the NDAA. It would allow students to use Pell Grants to pay for job training programs as short as eight weeks long. The short-term Pell bill cleared the House education committee in a 37-8 bipartisan vote, but the House scrapped a floor vote on it earlier this year. “While we appreciate the objectives of the amendment to expand Pell Grant eligibility for high-quality, short-term training programs, we do not believe that it is appropriate to include this higher education bill as part of the National Defense Authorization Act and should therefore be ruled out of order,” Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education wrote in the letter. The DETERRENT Act from Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.) was created to crack down on foreign gifts and contracts on college campuses. It passed the House in late December in a 246-170 bipartisan vote, but it has since stalled. The letter expresses concern that the DETERRENT Act may impact the privacy of research faculty and threaten international collaborations. “The complicated and expansive bill should not be attached to the National Defense Authorization Act, but rather should move deliberately through additional hearings and consideration by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee to ensure appropriate consideration of the merits and to allow for improvements,” Mitchell wrote.
| | | | JOIN US ON 6/13 FOR A TALK ON THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE: As Congress and the White House work to strengthen health care affordability and access, innovative technologies and treatments are increasingly important for patient health and lower costs. What barriers are appearing as new tech emerges? Is the Medicare payment process keeping up with new technologies and procedures? Join us on June 13 as POLITICO convenes a panel of lawmakers, officials and experts to discuss what policy solutions could expand access to innovative therapies and tech. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | | At pro-Palestinian demonstrations, students have broken codes of conduct and, in some cases, the law. Now universities grapple with how to approach disciplinary actions: The New York Times An Illinois state appeals court ruled that the Chicago Board of Education was within its rights to revoke the charter of a school: Chalkbeat Colleges across the country are eliminating dozens of positions to reduce operating college costs: Inside Higher Ed | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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