Department of Education News

The Daily Signal reports on Department of Education news with analysis and commentary on federal education mandates, school choice programs, DEI initiatives, student loan policies, and conservative responses to government overreach in local education.
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  • opinion

    Keep Dismantling the Department of Education
    Dismantling the U.S. Department of Education is one of the Trump administration’s best and boldest policies. With just a small percentage of staff coming to the office anymore, the agency is downsizing to a nearby building. Some senators are trying to stop much of this welcome reform, however, with a bill to cease implementation of…
    Adam Kissel
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  • news

    Moderate GOP Senators Try to Block Shutdown of Dept. of Ed
    Moderate Republicans in the Senate Committee on Health, Education and Pensions have introduced two bills that would prohibit outsourcing certain education programs from the U.S. Department of Education to other federal agencies, blocking a complete shutdown of the federal agency. Under bill S. 5046, sponsored by Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa…
    Pedro Rodriguez
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  • opinion

    What the Nation’s Report Card Teaches Us About Repairing the Human Soul 
    Stories bemoaning U.S. student test scores have become a bromide. But some reports on student achievement offer a glimpse into the reasons why achievement is so poor. So it is with the latest Long Term Trend report from the Nation’s Report Card, the National Assessment of Education Progress.   First, the results: Reading and math scores among 9-year-olds improved slightly over scores from 2022,…
    Jonathan Butcher
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  • news

    Gwen Graham, Possible Fl. Lt. Gov, Oversaw Transgender Bathroom, Pronouns and School Choice Policy
    Gwen Graham, a former one-term congresswoman who oversaw the implementation of transgender bathroom school policies and the dismantlement of school choice initiatives under President Joe Biden, has been announced as the running mate for Florida Democrat gubernatorial candidate David Jolly. Graham, who previously ran for Florida’s governor’s mansion in 2018 and served as assistant secretary…
    Pedro Rodriguez
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  • news

    Education Committee Vows to Shift Remaining Ed Dept. Tasks, Programs to HHS, DOJ
    A key House committee has rolled out plans to delegate some of the Department of Education’s remaining tasks to other federal agencies, and the measure could reach the chamber floor for a vote as soon as Wednesday. The 10 bills included in the legislative package, released last week by House Education and the Workforce Committee…
    Pedro Rodriguez
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  • news

    Ultimate Civics Showdown: Trump Meets Homeschooled Winner of Presidential 1776 Award Competition at the Oval Office
    President Donald Trump met with the three top scorers for the Presidential 1776 Award competition Wednesday in the Oval Office and gave them each a Presidential Challenge Coin. According to a U.S. Department of Education press release, the “Ultimate Civics Showdown” is a “nationwide civics challenge created to celebrate America’s top high school students and their knowledge of our nation’s founding…
    Joseph Buff
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  • opinion

    Education Department Announces New Measure to Encourage Student Loan Repayment
    America doesn’t just have a student debt problem—it has an accountability problem. If policymakers want an affordable higher education system, they must stop cycles of debt accumulation and forgiveness and require students to pay back the money they borrowed. Last week, the Department of Education announced a temporary 1% student loan interest rate reduction for…
    Ella Jackson | Madison Marino Doan
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  • breaking

    Ed Department Transfers More Key Responsibilities in Next Moves to Dismantle Agency
    The Department of Education is transferring two of its key responsibilities to other parts of the executive branch, marking the administration’s latest effort to wind down the agency’s operations. The agency is moving its Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services to the Department of Health and Human Services. OSER staff will work with HHS…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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  • exclusive

    Harris Sounds Alarm, Feds Launch Title IX Probe Into North Carolina Schools
    FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The Department of Education has launched an investigation into a North Carolina public school district as officials continue to allow biological men in women’s restrooms, violating presidential executive orders and Title IX. Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., called the violations “deeply disturbing” and thanked the secretary of the department for “quick action.”…
    Virginia Grace McKinnon
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  • news

    Florida Senate President in Hot Seat Over Pro-DEI College President Pick
    Florida Senate President Ben Albritton is attracting controversy after he allegedly greenlighted board appointments that paved the way for a candidate with a history of supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives to become the sole candidate for the University of Florida presidency. “You can thank @Sen_Albritton for green-lighting these board appointments right before a new…
    Pedro Rodriguez
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  • exclusive

    Law School Threatened Disciplinary Action Against Students Who Opted Out of DEI Training
    First on the Daily Signal—Defending Education uncovered that Simmons Law School at Southern Illinois University threatened students who did not attend a mandatory diversity, equity, and inclusion training with a “letter of reprimand,” which would be placed in a student’s permanent file and potentially shared with the bar. “Those who cannot attend in person typically…
    Pedro Rodriguez
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  • exclusive

    Trump Admin Slashes Burdensome Regulations for State Education Reform
    FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The Department of Education is slashing federal regulations that could hinder states from improving their schools, the administration’s latest move in its dismantling of the agency and its effort to return education policy to the states. The Education Department has approved Education Flexibility applications for the states of Florida and Illinois,…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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  • exclusive

    ‘HYPOCRITES’: Top Ed Official Slams Democrats for Opposing Rule to Lower College Costs
    Undersecretary of Education Nicholas Kent slammed congressional Democrats for attempting to block a rule that would lower higher education costs for Americans. “Democrats are hypocrites,” Kent told The Daily Signal in an exclusive interview. “For years, they have purported to care about student debt, but now they’ve reaffirmed what we’ve all been saying, which is,…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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  • news

    Did This Women’s College Violate Title IX by Admitting Men? Department of Education Is Investigating
    The Department of Education opened an investigation into Smith College, probing whether the women’s college discriminated on the basis of sex by admitting men who claim to identify as transgender women. “Smith College, while still portraying itself as a women’s-only institution, admits natal men who feel like women, and on nothing more than their say-so,”…
    Tyler O’Neil
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  • opinion

    President Trump Proposes Meaningful Cuts to the Education Budget
    President Donald Trump’s administration is closing the U.S. Department of Education, and his latest budget proposal is a step in that direction. This month, Trump released his fiscal year budget request for 2027, proposing approximately $76.5 billion in funding for the Education Department, a 3% cut from one year ago. Top-line funding levels do not…
    Madison Marino Doan
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  • opinion

    The End Is Nigh for the Department of Education
    Bad news: Tax Day is just one month away. But the U.S. Department of Treasury just announced a rare gift for taxpayers: A dose of sanity on college loans. Today, the U.S. Department of Education and the Treasury Department signed an agreement that helps wind down the education agency, moves more responsibilities over college loans…
    Madison Marino Doan | Jonathan Butcher
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  • opinion

    The Department of Education Can Still Give Taxpayers a Fair Deal
    Taxpayers may finally get a fair deal. A recent court ruling has created another path for the U.S. Department of Education to eliminate a costly student-loan repayment plan known as Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE. Doing so would relieve taxpayers who have increasingly been asked to shoulder the cost of student debt through expansive debt-cancellation schemes.  Despite the policy’s moniker, SAVE did anything but save money for taxpayers.   SAVE, created under the Biden…
    Madison Marino Doan
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  • news

    EXCLUSIVE: Senators Ask Education Department to Collaborate on Student Loan Fraud Probe
    FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—In a letter shared with The Daily Signal, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, unveiled their plans to uncover fraud, waste, and abuse in federal education funding and the Biden-era student loan “bailout agenda.” The senators’ announcement follows their appointment by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., chairman of the…
    Pedro Rodriguez
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  • news

    EXCLUSIVE: Congressman Introduces Amendment to Stop Democrats From Blocking Education Department Closure
    FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., has introduced an amendment to stop Democrats from blocking the closure of the Education Department. In the bill to fund the departments of Health, Labor, and Education, Democrats had inserted a provision to block funds previously appropriated to the Department of Education “for any activity relating to…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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  • opinion

    What the Education Department’s New Portal Means for Foreign Influence on University Campuses
    On Jan. 2, the Department of Education officially launched its new and improved portal for universities to report foreign funding. In an earlier update, the department noted, the “current reporting portal had not been meaningfully updated since the first Trump administration.” This new portal is intended to make it easier for higher ed institutions to…
    Madison Marino Doan
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