News
Opponents Ready to Fight Trump’s Plan to Repeal Obama’s ‘Rethink’ of School Discipline
by Joe Davidson
04.10.18 Educators, civil rights activists and politicians favoring the Obama administration's progressive school discipline policies have a tough fight to protect that effort against the Trump administration's expected repeal. President Trump's marching orders to a commission led by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos make it clear that he doesn't think much of President Barack Obama's "rethinking discipline" approach to student behavior. That guidance urged educators to consider how certain practices can … Continue Reading
War at the NLRB
by Ian Kullgren and Andrew Hanna
04.10.18 An obscure federal agency is coming apart at the seams as political appointees, career bureaucrats and its inspector general engage in something close to civil war. The agency is the National Labor Relations Board, created in 1935 to promote collective bargaining and adjudicate disputes between businesses and workers. An independent agency insulated - in theory - from partisan politics, the NLRB under President Donald Trump is consumed to the point of paralysis by fights over personnel policies… Continue Reading
Government Watchdog Finds School Discipline Hits Hardest at Black Students
by Benjamin Wermund
04.04.18 Black students, boys and students with disabilities are all disproportionately disciplined in the nation's public schools, according to a new report Wednesday by the GAO - released as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos mulls a repeal of Obama-era discipline guidance aimed at curbing such disparities. Black students by far bear the brunt of every type of discipline - from in-school suspensions to expulsions and school-related arrests - according to the government watchdog report, which analyzes civ… Continue Reading
Government Watchdog Finds Racial Bias in School Discipline
by Erica L. Green
04.04.18 WASHINGTON - Black students continue to be disciplined at school more often and more harshly than their white peers, often for similar infractions, according to a new report by Congress's nonpartisan watchdog agency, which counters claims fueling the Trump administration's efforts to re-examine discipline policies of the Obama administration. The report, issued by the Government Accountability Office on Wednesday, is the first national governmental analysis of discipline policies since the Obam… Continue Reading
Veterans Blast GOP Bill As Giveaway To For-Profits
by Andrew Kreighbaum
03.21.18 Late last summer, President Trump signed into law a long-awaited update to the GI Bill -- a rare moment of bipartisanship in the first year of the Trump administration and a major victory for veterans' groups. Just half a year later, though, the same organizations are lining up to oppose House legislation to reauthorize the law governing federal student aid, college accountability and many other aspects of higher ed. The bill, they argue, is a giveaway to predatory programs. These groups said t… Continue Reading
Why Are Black Students Punished So Often? Minnesota Confronts a National Quandary
by Erica L. Green
03.18.18 MINNEAPOLIS - When Erin Rathke, the principal at Justice Page Middle School, is called to extract a student from class, she hears the same plea over and over again, most often, she has to admit, from black children: "The teacher only sees me." The plea weighs heavily at Justice Page, where African-American students are 338 percent more likely to be suspended than their white peers. "It's painful sometimes, but I have to say, 'Yes, that's probably true," Ms. Rathke said. It is a reality that di… Continue Reading
Trump School Safety Package Targets Obama School Discipline Policy
by Caitlin Emma
03.13.18 Republicans want to overhaul an Obama-era directive to address racial disparities in school discipline, linking it to the failure to stop 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz before he killed 17 people at his Florida high school last month. The problem is there's no evidence to suggest that those policies had anything to do with the massacre at at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Still, Republicans like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) are calling into question former President Barack Ob… Continue Reading
Trump Finds Unlikely Culprit in School Shootings: Obama Discipline Policies
by Erica L. Green
03.13.18 After a gunman marauded through Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last month, conservative commentators - looking for a culprit - seized on an unlikely target: an Obama-era guidance document that sought to rein in the suspensions and expulsions of minority students. Black students have never been the perpetrators of the mass shootings that have shocked the nation's conscience nor have minority schools been the targets. But the argument went that any relaxation of disciplinary efforts could l… Continue Reading
Educators Blast Trump Plan to Help Arm School Staff
by Caitlin Emma
03.12.18 The Trump administration pushed Monday to sell a school safety plan that includes the potential of armed school staff, but it was met with intense criticism from school principals and teachers unions who said it didn't go far enough and could prove harmful. Nonetheless, state legislators in places like Mississippi and Alabama who are trying to pass laws that would ease restrictions on guns on K-12 campuses say their efforts have seen a boost in recent weeks as President Donald Trump has repeate… Continue Reading
Small Employer Health Plan Proposal Ripe for Fraud, Groups Say
by Madison Alder
03.09.18 The Labor Department's proposed expansion of health plans for employer groups would invite scammers back into the insurance market, several groups said in comment letters. Employment lawyers, former DOL officials, insurers, and advocacy groups are among those to voice concerns about past fraud and insolvency problems with similar multiple employer health plans. The groups said consumers will be at risk for the same type of abuse if protections like giving states oversight of the plans and requi… Continue Reading
Scott: DeVos Dropped the Ball on ESSA Guidance
by Caitlin Emma
03.06.18 Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' agency has done little to help states understand the Every Student Succeeds Act and their responsibilities under the law, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) said this morning. That's despite her concerns over what she said on Monday is a lack of ambition in state plans developed under the law, Scott, the top Democrat on the House education committee, noted. States "haven't been given adequate guidance from the Education Department," Scott told the National Association of… Continue Reading
Education Inspector General Raises Concerns Over GOP Higher Ed Plan
by Danielle Douglas-Gabriel
03.06.18 The U.S. Department of Education's inspector general is cautioning Congress against provisions in the House Republican higher education bill that would repeal regulations holding colleges and universities accountable for the use of federal student aid. "Eliminating various accountability provisions without a proven substitute would increase the risks to students and taxpayers," the inspector general said, in a report released Monday. It "could result in higher costs to offer credit through loan… Continue Reading
Safety Researchers Won’t Enter Fray Over Beryllium Abrasives
by Sam Pearson
03.05.18 Federal researchers are unlikely to step in to resolve a dispute over the beryllium content of glass and coal slag abrasives, a top official with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health said. Abrasives are used by shipbuilders and other manufacturers to prepare surfaces for painting or applying coatings, among other functions. Those derived from coal slag contain beryllium, a toxic metal regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to limit airborne exposure t… Continue Reading
Special-Education Rule Issued by Obama Administration Is Delayed
by Michelle Hackman
02.27.18 WASHINGTON-The Trump administration is delaying the implementation of an Obama-era rule that seeks to address the high proportion of black and Hispanic children in special-education programs. The rule, which the Education Department is reviewing as part of a larger rollback of Obama administration social policy, was set to take effect on July 1. It was designed to ensure that states use a uniform approach to identify school districts with disproportionately high numbers of minority students enr… Continue Reading
School Shooting Leads House Chair to Call for Grant Funding
by Emily Wilkins
02.27.18 The top Republican on the House education committee plans to ask appropriators to fund a federal grant program to bolster school safety, although the Education Department has proposed eliminating the program. The grant, known as Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants, was created under the 2015 K-12 education law (Pub. L. 114-95) to allow schools to cover a wide range of expenses, including costs for improving school conditions. While the program is authorized for up to $1.6 billion ann… Continue Reading
NLRB Throws Out Ruling in Conflict-of-Interest Controversy
by Josh Eidelson
02.26.18 The National Labor Relations Board threw out its most important ruling of 2017-a 3-2 victory for major U.S. corporations-following an internal agency report that found that a potential conflict-of-interest had tainted the vote. The December ruling, called Hy-Brand, had reversed a controversial Obama-era "joint employer" decision empowering workers to pursue claims against, or seek collective bargaining with, major corporations that don't sign their paychecks, such as franchisors or clients of c… Continue Reading
Shelley Cadamy: Taking Away Health Coverage is No Way to Strengthen Oklahoma’s Workforce
by Shelley Cadamy
02.25.18 The Trump administration recently announced it would allow states to impose work requirements on adults who get their health care through Medicaid. Work requirements can seem like a good idea on the surface - a handful of Oklahoma lawmakers have already filed legislation to put them in motion. However, work requirements for SoonerCare are too simplistic to address the very complicated problem of getting every able Oklahoman into the workforce. I'm a workforce development director, and when … Continue Reading
Conflict Cited in NLRB Joint-Employer Case Draws Hearing Request
by Josh Eidelson
02.23.18 A top House Democrat wants Congress to review whether a Trump labor-board appointee should have recused himself before casting the deciding vote to overturn a hot-button ruling making it easier for employees of contractors and franchises to pursue claims against big corporations. In a report issued Feb. 9 and shared with members of Congress Feb. 15, the National Labor Relations Board's Inspector General David Berry flagged what he called "a serious and flagrant problem and/or deficiency" in the… Continue Reading
Rep. Rochester: It's Time for Congress to Act on School Shootings
by Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester
02.22.18 "We're children. You guys are the adults. You need to take some action and play a role," Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Senior David Hogg told CNN in an interview about the school shooting he had just survived. Those words have been replaying in my head over and over. A high school senior sharing his story of children trying to get an education and prepare for their future, instead of desperately trying to avoid being hit by bullets flying through classrooms, is telling lawmakers that it… Continue Reading
Black Lung Disease Comes Storming Back in Coal Country
by Nadja Popovich
02.22.18 Federal investigators this month identified the largest cluster of advanced black lung cases ever officially recorded. More than 400 coal miners frequenting three clinics in southwestern Virginia between 2013 and 2017 were found to have complicated black lung disease, an extreme form characterized by dense masses of scar tissue in the lungs. The cluster, identified following an investigation by National Public Radio, adds to a growing body of evidence that a new black lung epidemic is emerging… Continue Reading