| | | | |  | | By Juan Perez Jr. | Presented by Sallie Mae® | | 
The setting sun illuminates the Supreme Court building on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 10, 2023. | Patrick Semansky/AP Photo | CHARTER CHATTER — A fight over skirts has hemmed in some of the country's biggest charter school supporters. — The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year struck down a North Carolina charter's dress code that required girls to wear skirts. Religious liberty groups and some school choice organizations, plus 10 attorneys general in Republican-led states, want the Supreme Court to intervene. — Justices haven't yet decided to take up the case. But they did ask Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar to weigh in, a significant move that means the Biden administration will pick a side in a case with major implications for charters and the overall school choice movement. — A high court ruling could galvanize a movement to open publicly funded religious charter schools depending on how justices address the complex question of whether charter schools are public entities acting on behalf of the government — or something more like private institutions. — "It's the first time we have an actual case that could potentially label charter schools as private," said Nina Rees, the president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and a former top Bush administration education official. "I think it will be a dramatic shift in what charters are, and in some places it will have repercussions, and in other places it may not, depending on the political structure of the state and how open they are to other forms of choice." — As red state governors set out other school choice expansion efforts this year, some charter backers see the case as a threat to bipartisan political support for a model that educates roughly 7 percent of the country's elementary and high schoolers. IT'S MONDAY, JAN. 23. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. Union membership hit an all-time low in 2022 despite a surge in organizing efforts that emerged during the pandemic. The highest union membership rates were among workers in protective service occupations — such as firefighters — as well as education, training and library jobs. Reach out with tips to today's host at jperez@politico.com and also my colleagues Michael Stratford (mstratford@politico.com), Bianca Quilantan (bquilantan@politico.com) and Mackenzie Wilkes (mwilkes@politico.com). And don't forget to follow us on Twitter: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro.
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Parents, schoolchildren and education activists rally during an event supporting public charter schools. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images | ARE CHARTERS STATE ACTORS? — Charter schools are public campuses that receive taxpayer dollars and don't charge tuition, but they have significant autonomy to operate independently and privately — outside the bounds of some state and local regulations that apply to traditional public schools. — Some religious liberty and school choice advocates have seized on that distinction to argue that charters are therefore not "state actors", and are instead private entities that do not act on behalf of the government. If that's true, proponents argue states would have to permit public religious charter schools — schools that adhere to some public rules, and receive public funding, but teach like private religious schools. — Rees has taken to the op-ed pages of The Washington Post to argue against that position, and says her group intends to file an amicus brief before the Supreme Court "to set the record straight" should justices decide to take up the case. — "If you're a supporter of charter schools, you already have your work cut out for you," said Charles Barone, the vice president of K-12 policy at Democrats for Education Reform and its affiliate organization Education Reform Now. "Those fights will get harder if you bring in a ruling that they're actually private actors, and that they can be religious schools. All that would get infinitely harder." — Charters have won significant enrollment increases and growth in the past decade. Between fall 2009 and fall 2019, overall public charter school enrollment increased from 1.6 million students to 3.4 million students and the number of public charter schools increased from approximately 5,000 to 7,500. Part of that expansion can be credited to significant bipartisan support for the idea among moderate politicians. Now there's concern a court ruling could endanger that consensus. — "People in the advocacy community are concerned that if this snowballs, it will make the political gains a lot more difficult," Barone said. — "The broader problem here is you're sort of blowing up the charter model," he added. "And for the benefit of an archdiocese here, and an archdiocese there, you're going to potentially damage a public school model that's serving millions of kids."
| | | | JOIN POLITICO ON 2/9 TO HEAR FROM AMERICA'S GOVERNORS: In a divided Congress, more legislative and policy enforcement will shift to the states, meaning governors will take a leading role in setting the agenda for the nation. Join POLITICO on Thursday, Feb. 9 at World Wide Technology's D.C. Innovation Center for The Fifty: America's Governors, where we will examine where innovations are taking shape and new regulatory red lines, the future of reproductive health, and how climate change is being addressed across a series of one-on-one interviews. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | | 
School staff cheer as students returned to in-person classes at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis on Jan. 17, 2023, nearly three months after a shooting at the school. | Jim Salter/AP Photo | SUSPENSIONS AND POLICE — Schools are rethinking their approach to discipline and safety, as public administrators report problems with disruptive students despite tougher security plus classroom practices intended to reduce suspensions and expulsions. — That includes revisiting social-emotional learning and restorative justice tactics backed by President Joe Biden's administration, while it promotes how it believes campuses should spend safety funds approved by Congress after last year's mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. — "We have to get back to traditional discipline — not corporal punishment — but suspensions and expulsions to get the parents' attention," said Tom Horne, Arizona's newly-elected superintendent of public instruction, after taking office earlier this month. "We have to have orderly classrooms," Horne added, as he also prioritized adding police officers and counselors to schools. — In Boston, WBUR reports the Council of the Great City Schools recently recommended weighing the re-establishment of an internal police department even though the city's school-based officers lost their powers after a 2021 change in state law. — Other schools are facing pressure from critics, The Associated Press reports. That includes some teachers in Newport News, Va., who have publicly complained that the school system where a 6-year-old shot their teacher has become too lenient with students. — A recent federal survey showed large majorities of schools said their efforts to tamp down disruptions were limited by a lack of options for disruptive students — and that inadequate funding, inadequate teacher training, or a lack of parental support for school policies created other roadblocks. — "Preventative measures around school safety and student well-being involve comprehensive safety plans, and creating school buildings where every student feels safe, supported, connected and included," Assistant Education Secretary Roberto RodrĆguez said last week during a webinar about spending allowed under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. "That means not just addressing physical safety, but also addressing the psychological and emotional safety of our students as well."
| | | | A message from Sallie Mae®:   | | | | | | BACKING OUT — In case you missed it, the new Democratic attorney general of Arizona is moving to end the state's lawsuit against Biden's student debt relief program filed by her Republican predecessor. — Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a notice in federal court on Friday dismissing the legal challenge that was brought in September by then-Attorney General Mark Brnovich, Michael reports. — Brnovich's lawsuit was separate from a case brought by six Republican-led states that is now pending before the Supreme Court. Arizona's lawsuit against student debt relief had also been moving along more slowly than the other legal challenges. DESPERATE FOR GUIDANCE — A college sports reform group wants the Biden administration to address a gusher of endorsement deal cash that it says flows predominantly — and inequitably — to male athletes and violates federal education law that bans sex-based discrimination. — The Drake Group this month asked top Education Department officials and the White House domestic policy czar to issue guidance that warns schools, athletic conferences and the NCAA of their obligations under Title IX, and addresses how those requirements apply to a sweeping range of state laws, rules and policies that allow athletes to make money off their publicity rights. — A key problem identified by the Drake Group: So-called "collectives" of college sports donors are raising money and then funneling it to athletes under the auspices of newly-allowed name, image and likeness endorsement deals. Universities are often now assisting the collectives' efforts and participating in the marketplace using methods once banned by NCAA rules, the Drake Group said, despite virtually no evidence that schools are encouraging donors and businesses to provide equal benefits to women. — The group called on the Education Department and its civil rights office to warn schools, college athletic conferences and national governing organizations of their obligations under Title IX's existing requirements, explain how those requirements apply to these new endorsement deal-related activities, and warn that actions by "collectives" will be attributed to the universities when appropriate. — "We do not write to suggest that [the department's civil rights office] stem this flow of cash to college athletes," Drake Group President Andrew Zimbalist wrote. "But rather to alert OCR that this cash is, with the blessing and/or cooperation of the 1000+ universities in the NCAA, flowing predominantly to men. Such inequitable financial aid, treatment and benefits provided to men are a violation of Title IX. OCR must provide guidance to the schools that this is improper and will be pursued with enforcement proceedings as necessary."
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| | | — A new Brookings Institution report finds that college enrollment gaps are smaller and sometimes reversed among students with similar test scores, high school grades and course-taking patterns. Researchers say the results suggest that people interested in addressing enrollment disparities should pay careful attention to disparities in academic preparation during elementary and secondary education. — A new analysis from The Institute for College Access & Success finds that students who attended colleges that serve greater shares of students of color earn less in income 10 years after graduation than their peers who attended colleges with fewer students of color. Plus, at colleges serving the largest share of Black students, students owe more in student loans than they originally borrowed.
| | A message from Sallie Mae®: While the vast majority of college-bound students believe higher education helps open doors to greater opportunities, less than half feel confident about financing that education and most want help planning how to pay for it. Sallie Mae is here to make sense of college financing for students and families from all backgrounds. As a private student loan lender and education solutions provider, we believe higher education should be affordable and accessible. Our free tools and resources help students maximize free money from scholarships and grants before taking out a loan. If a student chooses to borrow with us, we make sure they understand their options. Learn more about how Sallie Mae is helping students and families navigate to, through and immediately after college. | | | | | | — When students change gender identity, and parents don't know: The New York Times — Seizing on parents' frustration, GOP governors push for 'Education Savings Accounts': The 74 — Classified-documents controversy brings spotlight to Penn Biden Center: The Wall Street Journal — A teacher shortage so acute that students are expected to learn without one: The Washington Post — Easing college degree requirements should be a no-brainer for conservatives: National Review | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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