| | | | |  | | By Bianca Quilantan | Presented by Sallie Mae® | TITLE IX WATCH — The Education Department is expected to drop its Title IX rule this month after delaying the release of its highly anticipated proposal that's expected to overhaul the Trump-era rule that mandates how schools must respond to sexual misconduct on campus. — The Title IX final rule that took effect in August 2020 is one of the key legacies of Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' tenure. She has said the rule officially codifies protections to hold schools accountable by ensuring sexual assault survivors aren't brushed aside and no accused student's guilt is predetermined. While lauded by groups that say the prescriptive rule protects due process for accused students, it was met with lawsuits that largely failed and pushback from victims' advocacy groups that argued it weakened protections for survivors. — But the Biden administration's overhaul, led by Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, could include much more in the rule than just sexual misconduct policies, some Title IX experts and groups say. It is also expected to codify protections for LGBTQ students for the first time by adding that Title IX, the federal education law that prohibits sex-based discrimination, also prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
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Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. | Susan Walsh, Pool/AP | — On the sexual misconduct process, Brett Sokolow, president of the Association of Title IX Administrators, said he's looking to see where the Biden administration will find middle ground between the Obama-era guidance on Title IX and the Trump final rule. "I have a feeling we're gonna throw the baby out with the bathwater," Sokolow said. "We just feel so punch-drunk in the field because, every few years, they turn around and change the rules again, and it's very hard to get good at something when that something is a moving target." — Sokolow said "uniformity" is one of the most valuable aspects of Title IX despite several issues administrators run into every day while implementing the rule. "Prior to 2020, we used to be working in an environment where thousands of different schools would have thousands of different approaches to how they would resolve Title IX complaints," he said. — "One of the big challenges for the Department of Education in writing new rules will be the question of whether they maintain this very prescriptive approach to telling schools what to do and exactly how to do it," he said. "Or whether we return to more of the Obama-era approach of discretion for administrators, where the regs offered guardrails, but the school is filling in the details in between those. "Right now, the regs not only tell you what the guardrails are, they tell you exactly how to pave the road and how to drive down the road," he added. IT'S MONDAY, MAY 2. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. HAVE WE MET YET? Let's grab coffee — and happy Teacher Appreciation Week! Ping me at bquilantan@politico.com to chat. Send tips to my colleagues Jessica Calefati at jcalefati@politico.com, Juan Perez Jr. at jperez@politico.com and Michael Stratford at mstratford@politico.com. And follow us on Twitter: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro. CARDONA'S PARTY CITY WEEKEND — Cardona was spotted around town this weekend at some of the many events celebrating the White House Correspondents Dinner. Some of his appearances, according to POLITICO Playbook, included: — Talking to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin at the Hilton, where the dinner took place … attending NBCUniversal's after-party at The Reach at the Kennedy Center … and celebrating April Ryan's 25 years covering Washington at theGrio's "A Seat at the Table" event at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
| | A message from Sallie Mae®: How is Sallie Mae a responsible private student lender? We recommend students maximize scholarships, grants, and federal financial aid before considering additional financing. Unlike the federal student loan program, we assess a student's ability to afford a loan before we approve it. As a result, just 2% of our loans defaulted last year. For these reasons and more, Sallie Mae makes sense for many students and families. | | | | | | CARDONA HEADS TO RICHMOND — The Education secretary and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) are scheduled to tour the career and technical education program at Reynolds Community College in Richmond, Va., today at 10:15 a.m., where they will meet with students and administrators to discuss job training. At 11:45 a.m, they'll head to Armstrong High School to learn more about the Richmond Teacher Residency program. — Cardona and Kaine's CTE tour comes as the House and Senate negotiate their jobs and competitiveness bills. The House-passed America COMPETES Act, H.R. 4521 , includes language similar to Kaine's JOBS Act, which would allow students enrolled in career training programs as short as eight weeks long to be eligible for Pell Grants. — Last week, in a conversation with formerly incarcerated individuals on the Second Chance Pell grant program, Cardona said the Education Department was looking at short-term Pell programs and "how to navigate that space where programs are evolving to be shorter, skill-based." — "I'm excited about short-term Pell," Cardona said in response to a POLITICO follow-up question on whether he was supportive of the provision in the House bill. Kaine, in a statement, said he was "grateful for Secretary Cardona's support" and "look[s] forward to partnering with Secretary Cardona to move it across the finish line." ALSO IN VIRGINIA — House Education and Labor Chair Bobby Scott (D-Va.) is also on the move today, traveling to Newport News with Labor Department Secretary Marty Walsh "to discuss the value of workforce training in strengthening the nation's economy." Scott is one of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's picks to conference with the Senate over the competitiveness bills. — Scott and Walsh will visit Thomas Nelson Community College's Workforce Development Center for a tour and a roundtable discussion. The visit builds on the Labor Department's Good Jobs Initiative "to improve job quality nationwide with the implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law," according to a press release.
| | | AFT TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK SIX-FIGURE AD BUY — The American Federation of Teachers, one of the nation's largest teachers unions, partnered with more than 200 parent groups, civil rights groups, student groups and unions to purchase ads in 16 major newspapers across the country for Teacher Appreciation Week, which kicks off today. The ads will run on Tuesday morning. — "Despite political interference, disrespect for your professionalism and a seemingly endless struggle for resources, you rise to the occasion to help prepare every child for whatever comes next, and you do it with incredible humanity and grace," the ad addressed to "America's educators" reads.
| | | | A message from Sallie Mae®:   | | | | | | DOJ CHALLENGES ALABAMA TRANSGENDER HEALTH CARE LAW — The Justice Department on Friday challenged an Alabama law that criminalizes health care for transgender children. DOJ's filing says the law violates the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause because it discriminates on the basis of sex and "discriminates against transgender minors by unjustifiably denying them access to certain forms of medically necessary care." — The department is asking the court to prevent the law from going into effect through an injunction. Alabama's law, S.B. 184 , makes it a felony for anyone to "engage in" medical care for transgender minors, DOJ wrote, and penalties for violating the law include up to 10 years of imprisonment and a fine of up to $15,000. — Key context: In March, DOJ sent a letter to state attorneys general, urging them to abide by laws that protect transgender youth against discrimination, including gender-affirming care.
| | | WHITE HOUSE CONSIDERING INCOME CAPS — "The White House is considering income caps for eligibility for student loan relief that would exclude higher-earning Americans,"Jeff Stein of The Washington Post reports. President Joe Biden last week said he is considering canceling "some" federal student loan debt, and a decision on what he'll do on student loans is expected in a few weeks, Michael reported. — White House advisers have said they've been weighing the possibility of using executive action to cancel debt, but Biden said he is not considering $50,000 in debt relief per borrower. — Student loan debt could be limited based on earnings, Stein reported, though no final decisions have been made. "Senior Biden aides have examined limiting the relief to people who earned less than either $125,000 or $150,000 as individual filers the previous year," and the plan "would set the threshold at around $250,000 or $300,000 for couples who file their taxes jointly," Stein wrote. WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEK — The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee will hold a hearing Thursday at 10 a.m. on "Examining Student Loan Servicers and Their Impact on Workers." Witnesses include Student Borrower Protection Center Executive Director Mike Pierce, Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom Director Neal McCluskey and Jalil Mustaffa Bishop, co-founder of the Equity Research Cooperative and assistant professor at Villanova University.
| | | NEW FROM IHEP — The Institute for Higher Education Policy released its final report on its Degrees When Due initiative that was launched in 2018 to identify barriers to college completion and reengage former students that had some college and no degree. — Nearly 1 in 10 students who received a degree audit through the initiative had already met the requirements for an associate's or bachelor's degree, but the degree was never conferred, the report found. And, for many students, barriers to a degree were "incomplete paperwork or holds on their accounts."
| | | | INTRODUCING DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED: Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | — Biden's $1.75 trillion student-debt problem by the numbers: Bloomberg —As nationwide teacher shortage worsens, some say inadequate pay is to blame: Chicago Tribune — Mental health resources for student-athletes becoming priority at colleges: USA Today — The education culture war is raging. But for most parents, it's background noise: NPR | | A message from Sallie Mae®: Sallie Mae offers a variety of resources to help families make informed decisions about planning and paying college. Families can use our free tools to calculate college costs, and evaluate financial aid packages, plus discover and apply for scholarships. In fact, in 2020 alone, more than 24,000 students received a scholarship through our free resource, covering more than $67 million in college costs. And when scholarships, grants, and federal financial aid are not enough, we provide responsible private student loans, but only approve them after assessing a student's ability to afford them. As a result, just 2% of our loans defaulted last year. That's why Sallie Mae makes sense for students and families. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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