News
The pandemic could widen the achievement gap. A generation of students is at risk.
by Maya King and Nicole Gaudiano
09.23.20 In New York City, the nation's largest school district, teachers and students of color say they don't feel safe returning to school. Many of their schools lack windows that open, an ample supply of soap, masks or working ventilation systems - making it nearly impossible to navigate live classes in the middle of a pandemic. An hour's drive from the U.S. Capitol, about 27,000 Baltimore city school children - 1 in 3 students - do not have computers vital for virtual school. Thousands lack reliable… Continue Reading
New Trump administration rule could make it harder for gig and contract workers to have rights as employees
by Eli Rosenberg
09.22.20 The Department of Labor released a rule proposal on Tuesday that could make it more difficult for those engaged with contract work to be classified as employees, in what labor advocates described as a potential blow to protections for workers. Labor advocates say the proposal would raise the threshold for contract workers, which includes gig workers, to be considered employees, a category that comes with significantly more protections. The proposed rule is the first of a multistep process wit… Continue Reading
DeVos Loses Latest Fight Over Rerouting Aid To Private School Students
by Cory Turner
09.11.20 A controversial rule backed by U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and meant to reroute millions of dollars in coronavirus aid to K-12 private school students, has been shut down, at least temporarily. The U.S. Education Department announced Wednesday that the rule is no longer in effect, after a federal judge determined that the department had not only "acted beyond its authority" but misinterpreted the will of Congress. At the center of this months-long fight between DeVos and public schoo… Continue Reading
DeVos Borrower Defense Rule Under Investigation by Inspector General
by Lauren Camera
09.10.20 The inspector general is probing the Trump administration's plan for how it will process more than 210,000 loan-forgiveness claims from borrowers defrauded by for-profit colleges. THE EDUCATION Department's Office of Inspector General is investigating the new formula established by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos that's used to decide how much federal student loan debt relief that borrowers who have been defrauded by colleges can receive. According to sources familiar with the inspector gener… Continue Reading
'Children Are Going Hungry': Why Schools Are Struggling To Feed Students
by Cory Turner
09.08.20 Six months into schools' pandemic-driven experiment in distance learning, much has been said (and debated) about whether children are learning. But the more urgent question, for the more than 30 million kids who depend on U.S. schools for free or reduced-price meals, is this: Are they eating? The answer, based on recent data and interviews with school nutrition leaders and anti-hunger advocates across the country, is alarming. Among low-income households with children who qualify for free or … Continue Reading
Federal Government Relaxes Rules on Feeding Low-Income Students
by Kate Taylor
09.05.20 The Agriculture Department, under pressure from Congress and officials in school districts across the country, said on Monday that it would allow schools to provide free breakfast and lunch to any child or teenager through the end of 2020, provided funding lasts. Advocates for the poor hailed the announcement as an important step to ensure that more needy children are fed during the coronavirus pandemic. It was a partial reversal by the department. Previously, the agency had said that when scho… Continue Reading
DeVos to enforce school testing mandates amid pandemic
by Michael Stratford
09.03.20 The Trump administration plans to enforce federal standardized testing requirements for K-12 schools despite the pandemic, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced to state leaders on Thursday. DeVos told state school chiefs in a letter that they should not expect the Education Department to again waive federal testing requirements as it did this spring amid sudden school closures. The decision to suspend testing requirements in March and April was the "right call" then, DeVos wrote, "given … Continue Reading
USDA Rebuffs Waivers It Sees As Path to ‘Universal School Meals’
by Megan U. Boyanton
08.21.20 Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, under bipartisan congressional pressure to maintain expanded food options for children during the coronavirus pandemic, rejected a move he said would amount to "a universal school meals program." With the fall semester kicking off both virtually and in-person, lawmakers want all options on the table if classrooms are forced to lock their doors once more-a fear turned reality over the past few weeks for schools from Michigan to Mississippi. House Education an… Continue Reading
Trump is doing nothing to prevent another Beirut in Texas. We want to know why.
by The Editorial Board
08.20.20 Beirut's deadly Aug. 4 blast has prompted a U.S. House committee to urge the Trump administration to revive dormant efforts to toughen safety standards for dangerous chemicals - including one that has killed hundreds and injured thousands of Texans through the years. That's most welcome news - even though it's not likely by itself to have any meaningful impact so long as the Trump administration remains uniformly hostile to regulations that impose costs on businesses, no matter how urgent the s… Continue Reading
Funding for school facility improvements a requirement for safe reopening
by Elizabeth Beardsley, Scott Brown, Mary Filardo and David Terry
08.13.20 Before the pandemic, the U.S. Government Accountability Office estimated a stunning 41% of America's school districts needed to replace or update heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in at least half of their schools - representing 36,000 schools nationwide. During the coronavirus pandemic, these building systems have become essential in helping to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission, yet the focus has been on masks, cleaning, spacing of desks and other steps. School facilitie… Continue Reading
Betsy DeVos publicly absent as critical decisions are made on public school reopenings
by Heidi Przybyla
08.12.20 DETROIT - As public schools grapple with the challenge of reopening during a pandemic, public education advocates are criticizing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for working remotely from Michigan, where she owns a sprawling waterfront estate with a round-the-clock security detail paid for by taxpayers. And while keeping herself largely physically distanced as the coronavirus continues to spread, DeVos has been a forceful advocate for President Donald Trump's demand that schools reopen in full … Continue Reading
Many workers don’t get new paid sick leave, because of ‘broad’ exemption for providers, report finds
by Eli Rosenberg
08.11.20 A government watchdog said in a report out Tuesday that the Labor Department "significantly broadened" an exemption allowing millions of health-care workers to be denied paid sick leave as part of the law Congress passed in March to help workers during the coronavirus pandemic. Congress passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act in March to ensure workers at small- and medium-size companies were able to take paid leave if they or a family member became sick with the coronavirus. The… Continue Reading
Watchdog: Labor Department Falling Down On Enforcing COVID-19 Sick Leave Law
by Emily Peck
08.11.20 At a time when workers around the country are increasingly desperate to hang on to their jobs, the Department of Labor, led by Eugene Scalia, is failing to enforce the benefits and protections they're entitled to at work. The Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division has not done enough to raise awareness of ? or enforce ? a new paid sick leave law passed to deal with COVID-19, according to a report from the department's Office of the Inspector General released publicly Tuesday. The wa… Continue Reading
Why Black Workers Will Hurt the Most if Congress Doesn’t Extend Jobless Benefits
by Emily Badger, Alicia Parlapiano and Quoctrung Bui
08.07.20 When Congress expanded unemployment insurance this year to meet the staggering economic toll of the pandemic, it had one less-noticed effect: It made America's fractured jobless benefits system more fair. Starting in April, the federal government provided $600 weekly payments to unemployed workers in addition to state jobless benefits, smoothing sharp differences between more and less generous states. It also broadly expanded who qualified, removing barriers for lower-wage, seasonal and gig wor… Continue Reading
Democratic Lawmakers Decry NLRB’s Reorganization Plan
by Robert Iafolla
08.06.20 The National Labor Relations Board's top lawyer plans to reorganize case handling in seven Western regional offices later this month, a move that would take authority away from more experienced leadership, according to senior Democratic lawmakers who are among those who oversee the agency. The reorganization will "undermine the NLRB's ability to fairly and effectively protect workers' rights under the National Labor Relations Act," the lawmakers said in a statement announcing letters of protest… Continue Reading
Why we must expand the child tax credit
by Ritchie Torres, Benard P. Dreyer
07.31.20 Child poverty is a choice, not an inevitability, in the wealthiest nation in the world. The United States has the means to eradicate poverty among children. What has been lacking, for far too long, is the political will--what Dr. King famously called 'the fierce urgency of now.' The COVID-19 pandemic has created a time of fierce urgency for children, who are spiraling into ever-deepening poverty with no clear end in sight. A reform of the Child Tax Credit would lift millions of children ou… Continue Reading
The House Just Passed A Massive Child Care Rescue
by Emily Peck
07.29.20 The House on Wednesday passed a massive child care bailout in the form of two bills that would provide billions of dollars for an industry that has been long neglected. All the Democrats in the House, along with 18 Republicans, voted in favor of the Child Care Is Essential Act, which provides $50 billion in immediate funding to child care centers. (Libertarian Justin Amash and 162 Republicans voted against the bill.) These in-home and center-based programs look after infants and preschool chi… Continue Reading
DeVos aide played role in helping failing for-profit colleges, texts and emails show
by Danielle Douglas-Gabriel
07.28.20 For the past year, the Education Department has denied that a top official went out of her way to help Dream Center Education Holdings, owner of the Art Institutes, South University and Argosy University, as the company spiraled into insolvency. But a batch of text messages, emails and letters shed new light on Dream Center's relationship with Diane Auer Jones, the head of higher education policy at the department, and her efforts to help the company regain accreditation at two of its schools.… Continue Reading
Virginia adopts nation’s first coronavirus workplace safety rules after labor groups decry federal inaction
by Eli Rosenberg
07.15.20 The state of Virginia adopted the first set of coronavirus-related workplace safety mandates in the country, after a board approved the emergency regulation Wednesday - a move the state took after months of inaction from a federal agency tasked with nationwide enforcement. The state's safety and health codes board voted 9-2 to adopt what is called an "emergency temporary standard," which will require businesses to implement safety measures to protect people from being infected with the coro… Continue Reading
The federal agency that’s supposed to protect workers is toothless on Covid-19
by Nicole Narea
07.13.20 When Nevada's casino workers went back to work for the first time since March, many found that their employers weren't doing enough to protect them from the coronavirus. Casinos, including the MGM Grand and the Bellagio, didn't immediately inform employees if a new case was detected or shut down their work areas. And they didn't even require their guests to wear face masks for weeks after reopening, and until the state made it mandatory. "It's wrong that they didn't prepare for handling this,"… Continue Reading