Category: Education – Policy

North Carolina launches comprehensive strategic plan to become nation’s best public schools by 2030, affecting 1.5M students with measurable goals including 92% graduation rate, ACT score 20, and NAEP leadership. NC College Connect now provides direct college admission to 62,000+ seniors with 2.8+ GPA. $25M Golden LEAF investment transforms rural math instruction. Quarterly accountability reports will track progress transparently.

Pennsylvania stands alone among all 50 states as the only one unable to pass a 2025-26 budget, now more than 100 days overdue. School districts have missed $3.76 billion in state payments, forcing them to exhaust reserves and borrow at 4.5% interest rates while preparing for service cuts. Lancaster borrowed $35 million, River Valley $5 million. The typical district keeps only 87 days of expenses in reserve—the impasse exceeded that critical threshold on September 25, meaning many schools are now operating on borrowed funds or cutting programs affecting 1.7 million students.

Austin ISD must close 13 schools despite generating adequate local revenue—because it sends $715.5 million annually to the state through recapture. Board President: ‘Public education is under attack and underfunded by the state.’ Nearly $7 billion paid to Texas since 2001.

New York City’s ambitious $327 million Chromebook initiative aims to bridge the digital divide by providing 350,000 students with LTE/5G-connected devices during the 2025-2026 school year. While the investment addresses critical device access gaps—especially in the Bronx where 31% of households lack computers—education experts caution that hardware distribution is just one piece of true digital equity. Questions remain about data adequacy, digital literacy training, ongoing technical support, and accountability for the city’s previous $360 million device investment.

Twenty California teachers face investigations after social media posts celebrating Charlie Kirk’s assassination raised concerns about educator moral character. While unions claim First Amendment violations, parents emphasize the real issue: whether individuals who celebrate political violence and call for harm against public figures possess the character required to be trusted with children’s education. The controversy highlights fundamental questions about professional standards and community trust in education.

The Department of Education releases a groundbreaking $500 million for charter schools, marking the largest investment ever in the program. The funding supports 147 new schools through Charter Management Organizations while providing unprecedented facilities and development support across six program categories, representing the Trump Administration’s commitment to expanding educational choice and innovative school models nationwide.

Ohio lawmakers have scrapped the bipartisan Fair School Funding Plan, leaving public schools $2.75 billion underfunded while expanding private school vouchers by $432 million. The policy shift abandons evidence-based funding for unpredictable “residual budgeting,” threatening educational equity for over 1.6 million students across 611 districts.

Illinois’ promise to adequately fund all schools by 2027 has collapsed into a 2034 timeline, leaving three-quarters of the state’s children in underfunded districts. A Vandalia kindergartener has already been deprived of $21,500 in five years and will be 28 before their school reaches adequate funding. The evidence-based formula works—but only if lawmakers fund it.