An official update from the US Department of Education.

A federal judge ruled that the First Amendment rights of U.S. Department of Education employees were violated by the Trump administration when their out-of-office emails were replaced with partisan messages. LEARN MORE: buff.ly/WO2A2Oy

DC could do this with its equitable access lottery preference but most schools choose not to: reserve up to 15% open seats for SNAP/TANF eligible.

We’ve set up school choice as a zero sum game, making it even harder for public schools to survive. It doesn’t have to be this way.

When you actually want to be on the jury... wtop.com/local/2025/1...

This was the right decision.

This is really bad.

BREAKING: A Department of Homeland Security officer shot at an unarmed black man during a traffic stop in DC, and the DC police officer said he was told by superiors not to mention the shooting in his incident report. 1/ www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

To be clear, #project2025 seeks to eliminate income restrictions for vouchers.

This is death from a thousand paper cuts. It would be too easy to say everything has a cost so we can’t implement anything differently.

A key point in this article is whether OMB will allow agencies to have funds and whether legislation by Congress will be respected. www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

I would like to think that Democrats have learned their lesson that writing stern letters about mass layoffs isn’t going to cut it.

For my practitioner friends, people who managed Title I funds (among others) were laid off today.

Another 466 employees being laid off from the Department of Education. Remember this was the plan all along: Traumatize the federal workforce. Dismantle ED. Break the institutions.

More RIFs including a lot at ED. I want to reiterate: layoffs could happen at any time under this Administration. There is no guarantee that caving on the budget will get us anything other than loss of healthcare for many people.

This is a great expose on segregation academies in my home state and an explanation of how vouchers are likely to increase inequity.

DCPS reneged on its promise to help hundreds of international teachers secure a green card. Many may now be forced to leave the country. Read the full story from @maustermuhle.bsky.social 51st.news/dc-green-car...

NEW! Dept of Education workers say their OOO replies were forcibly changed to blame Democrats for shutdown. When employees changed their responses back to the more neutral language, it changed yet again to the partisan response. @wired.com @leahfeiger.bsky.social www.wired.com/story/govern...

NEW—US Department of Education sent out standard Out of Office language to employees on Wednesday in light of shutdown. Later yesterday, workers tell me they found someone had updated their auto-responses without consent to a new one blaming Democrats. Version of original on left, updated on right:

And, for some agencies, the Administration changed employee away messages and replaced them with a partisan message unbeknownst to the employees.

Trump's FCC yesterday voted to kill a program that provided free Wi-Fi to rural school kids at no cost to taxpayers, falsely claiming the program was "illegal" and was being used to "censor Conservative ideology."

Mississippi has suspended data collection for Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (Prams), a national database that has been integral to policymaking on maternal and infant health for nearly four decades www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The JNC ensures DC has judges who are vetted and qualified for the President to select. A new House bill would eliminate it and let President Trump handpick our judges without any say from DC residents. That’s not accountability: It’s control. Hear more from CM Allen:

This paper examined the effects of identifying the lowest 5% of performing schools in Ohio per ESSA. They found *negative* effects on attendance, graduation, and test scores. Why? More staff attrition, unclear how to improve, and did not come with more resources. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

This was a hard but really great watch, especially the social commentary of episode 3 which is so relevant for DC leaders today. www.netflix.com/title/81676595

From @cmcharlesallen.bsky.social's update: Due to the presence of the National Guard in DC, sales down 50% compared to last year; restaurants and hotels are seeing many cancellations; 12,000 fewer people coming downtown each day according to data from downtown BID.

Peggy Carr is very well liked and respected, and her abrupt and humiliating firing was wrong.

Truly fascinating graphs about Americans' (inaccurate) perceptions of their fellow citizens. today.yougov.com/politics/art...

This is a real photograph of Washington, DC this week, where the United States president has ordered military occupation in peacetime, and ordered the display of colossal portraits of himself. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Metro offers discounted rates for low-income residents, but few riders are using the program. Here’s who is eligible and how to enroll. 51st.news/metro-offers...

DC state test scores from last school year were released today. At first glance, it looks like improvement across the board, but this is the graph. Will take a closer look later.

Fascinating work by Deven Carlson, @t-h-a-d.bsky.social, James Carter, @rachelmarisa.bsky.social, Vitali Radsky, and Andrew McEachin on both the potential of school choice for the purpose of desegregation and the disappointing reality that most school choice systems tend to exacerbate segregation

New Sold a Story podcast on the history of and recent cuts to education research, and I am HERE FOR IT. www.apmreports.org/episode/2025...

"It’s not like I’m losing my job," @betsyjwolf.bsky.social said. "It’s like I’m losing my field, my entire career pathway." Excellent, though harrowing, article on how the field of education research has been hit:

I appreciated the opportunity to speak with the WSJ about how dire the federal cuts have been to the field of education research.

Can you even imagine the responses? Were federal workers sufficiently “traumatized” and treated like “villains”? Of course they canceled it.

A useful WaPo map of where Trump Storm Troops are actually operating in DC. www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202... If you know DC, what this map tell you is: They're making the gaudy show of strength in areas where it matters least and will do least good. Except for sheer spectacle.

Urging folks to stop thinking so hard about why the regime has occupied D.C. badfaithtimes.com/stop-trying-...

Lots to say on the admissions EO to expand the data collection done through IPEDS. Let's start with WHO is going to do the additional work being called for here? Almost everyone who worked at NCES was laid off. There were at most 3 people working there recently. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/u... A new Senate report released today by Sen. Blumenthal finds that the "DOGE" initiative cost taxpayers at least $21.7 billion.

Ryan Walters, the Oklahoma schools chief who wants bibles in the classroom and Christianity taught to kids, just got caught watching adult content. On his work computer. During a Board of Education meeting. Read that again. www.friendlyatheist.com/p/ryan-walte...

The Council Budget Office's analysis of the RFK Stadium deal is out & it's even more expensive than first reported. Total DC Taxpayer Subsidy: $4.4 billion‼️ We need a better deal. That’s a huge price to pay with not enough coming back to DC taxpayers. There's still time to get it right.

Education Dept. Lifts Freeze on Remaining Federal Funds www.the74million.org/article/educ...

‘Back to the Dark Ages’: Education Research Staggered by Trump Cuts With contracts severed and grants rescinded, experts say Washington’s hit to K–12 research will set back the field for years. @the74.bsky.social www.the74million.org/article/back...

There’s not enough reporting, IMHO, on the targeted attacks on research and science across multiple fields: education, health, medicine, environment. Presumably, if they are killing the reporting and accountability mechanisms, they know what they’re doing will have negative consequences.

This is sickening.

As we watch the dismantling of the U.S. Dept of Ed, which will be felt somewhat in funding reductions to states and local districts, it will be felt even more so in a) oversight and enforcement of rights for vulnerable populations and b) access to high quality data & research.

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