Charter advocates were partially successful three months ago in getting the U.S. Department of Education to ease what they saw as onerous new rules for a program that provides start-up funds to new schools. But that compromise hasn’t stopped advocates in two states and members of Congress from trying to remove the remaining changes to the $440...

With state data projecting at least 10% drops in student enrollment over the next decade in some California counties, superintendents are worried. “Some of them are scratching their heads, saying ‘This is something we didn’t expect, and it is hard to know if this is our new enrollment trend,’” said Suzanne Speck, executive vice president of Sacramento-based...

The federal government will forgive $10,000 in debt for college loan borrowers earning under $125,000, President Joe Biden said in a long-awaited announcement Wednesday. Pell grant recipients are eligible to see $20,000 of their debt wiped out. Biden, who made student debt relief part of his presidential campaign, also extended a COVID-related pause on student loan payments through the...

The historically positive views toward public schools took a hit during the pandemic, according to poll results released earlier this month. In 2019, 60% of Americans graded their schools an A or a B. But after more than two years of disruption, 52% give those marks in the latest Education Next survey, which has measured...

A year ago, Miriam Calderón was leading the U.S. Department of Education’s work in early-childhood, a time when $400 billion in new federal funding for programs serving young children still seemed within reach. Now she’s working on the outside, hoping Congress passes a bill with a small fraction of that amount. While the Senate once...

The nation’s students showed small signs of academic recovery during the 2021-22 school year, but high absenteeism, quarantines and short-term closures “thwarted hopes of a strong comeback,” new data shows. Overall, the findings — from 8.3 million students in 25,000 schools — “point to a long road to recovery still ahead,” wrote researchers from nonprofit...

Recognizing a growing movement for parent rights in education, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Tuesday announced the creation of a new “Parents and Families Engagement Council.” The council will include representatives from 14 organizations that advocate for giving parents a voice in their children’s education — including families involved in charters, homeschooling and private schools....

Dominic Blackwell was one of the first friends Mia Tretta made when she moved to the Santa Clarita Valley, near Los Angeles, in 2018. “He had this infectious laugh,” she said. The two were walking through the quad at Saugus High School on the morning of Nov. 14, 2019 — Tretta remembers being nervous about...

When Los Angeles Unified announced last December that Alberto Carvalho would be its next superintendent, Ana Ponce was skeptical. The executive director of Great Public Schools Now, an advocacy organization, hoped the district would pick someone from the community, not an outsider from 2,700 miles away. But so far, the charismatic educator who led Miami-Dade for 14...

Miah Cerrillo was one of the first children Dr. Roy Guerrero saw when he entered the emergency room at Uvalde Memorial Hospital on May 24. A pediatrician, he’s known the fourth grader since she was a baby and underwent the liver surgeries that saved her life. Both testified Wednesday before a House Oversight Committee addressing...