Legal Issues

Source: Brookings

Date: 9/8/25

The status of litigation against the Trump administration’s K-12 education agenda: A guide for education leaders

As the federal policy landscape is quickly evolving, it is vital that state and local education leaders across the country have access to up-to-date information on the status of the administration’s actions. In response to the need for timely and accurate information, this brief provides an overview of the ongoing legal challenges (as of September 1, 2025) to the Trump administration’s executive actions related to K-12 education. We highlight the status of ongoing litigation using information from a new litigation tracker data tool (which will be updated monthly until these legal challenges resolve) and briefly summarize each executive action and the federal lawsuits challenging them.

Literacy Education

Source: Show-Me Institute

Date: 9/11/25

An Expedition to Improve Student Reading

Reading scores in Missouri continue to fall, relative to both past performance and other states. But this trend doesn’t have to continue. Across the country, numerous states have improved reading outcomes, and a common thread among these states (which include Mississippi, Indiana, and Louisiana) is their focus on early literacy policies.

 

The premise is simple: if you can effectively teach students to read in their early years, then they will be better at reading to learn for the rest of their years.

 

While there is of course need to continue reforming education practices at all grade-levels, the research literature and recent real-world examples show the positive outcomes that can result from focusing on helping students learn to read effectively at a young age.

 

This report explores the beneficial effects of a focus on early literacy. Drawing on the findings of a 2023 study by John Westall & Amy Cummings at Michigan State University, it provides a road map for Missouri: establishing a mandatory, academic-based third-grade retention policy, fully eliminating the three-cueing method for teaching word reading, and aligning teacher preparation programs with the science of reading.

Math Education

Source: CRPE

Date: 9/9/25

Access to Qualified Math Teachers for All Students

Concerns about student math performance in the U.S. have grown in recent years, driven by persistent disparities, pandemic-related disruptions, and stagnating or declining national achievement scores. In response, the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) convened a panel of math experts to identify priority topics in K-12 math education. For the initial topic, we focused on what we know about providing all students with access to qualified math teachers. Next, we highlight several findings from the issue brief, which summarizes the larger technical report on what is known about three necessary access conditions, standard approaches for addressing barriers, and opportunities for improvement. The issue brief and technical report can be downloaded below.

School Finance and Funding

Source: Bellwether

Date: 9/10/25

Setting a Benchmark: An Analysis of Arkansas’ K-12 Education Finance System

In spring 2025, the Arkansas Secretary of Education created an Education Task Force to explore the state’s Comprehensive Investment in Student Achievement funding model. In partnership with the task force, Bellwether developed a public report comparing Arkansas’ school funding system to regional peers and national best practices.

 

These resources are meant to inform the task force’s discussions and help the public better understand opportunities to improve funding.

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This analysis aims to give policymakers and community members clear, evidence-based insights as Arkansas considers updates to its school funding system.

School Finance and Funding

Source: EdChoice

Date: 9/8/25

Fiscal Analysis of the West Virginia Hope Scholarship Program: Year 2 Results

This brief conducts a fiscal analysis of the West Virginia Hope Scholarship Program for FY 2024, the program’s second year in operation. The analysis estimates the net fiscal effects of the program on state and local taxpayers statewide and for each school district. It also provides fiscal context and basic data to help inform the potential financial impact on school districts.

School Reform and Restructuring

Source: PPI

Date: 9/9/25

A New Compact for Educational Excellence

The country urgently needs a new vision that refocuses public schools on their core academic mission, ends the retreat from rigor and merit, increases opportunity for learners of all backgrounds, expands parental choice of public schools, closes achievement gaps, and moves to a post-bureaucratic system of autonomous and accountable public schools designed for today’s children.

Review of Fiscal Factbook: 2025 Edition

Source: Fiscal Research and Education Center (FERC) of EdChoice

Reviewed by: Mark Weber, Rutgers University

As enrollment in school privatization programs grows, right-wing ideological think tanks such as EdChoice have continued to argue that school vouchers and education savings accounts (ESAs) strengthen public school finances. Its Fiscal Factbook purports to find that voucher programs do not harm public school finances. The data presented in the report, however, fail to support its assertion.

In his review of Fiscal Factbook: 2025 Edition, authored by the Fiscal Research and Education Center of EdChoice, Rutgers University lecturer Mark Weber highlights several ways the report falls short of providing credible support for its conclusions.

New Resource Guide Provides Quick Access to ITPI Research

By: Donald Cohen, In The Public Interest

"In a new publication, In the Public Interest’s Resource Guide, we’ve collected some of the most relevant and important documents of our work in one place for the easiest access. The Resource Guide contains direct links to the research and materials that might be useful in your organizations or communities."

FCC proposal would disconnect school bus Wi-Fi, hotspots from E-rate coverage

By: Anna Merod, K-12Dive

"Schools and districts have requested a total of $15.3 million in E-rate funds to pay for school bus Wi-Fi and $50.2 million for hotspots so far in fiscal year 2025, according to federal data."

Trump administration axes federal Blue Ribbon program that recognized high-achieving schools

By: Kalyn Belsha. ChalkBeat

"The decision appears to have been made abruptly: States had already nominated schools for the award. In fact, the deadline for states to sign off on their picks was just one week prior to the cancellation letter. In some cases states had informed schools that they had won, pending the official federal announcement."

How the Education Department is using civil rights laws to bring schools to heel

By: Cory Turner, NPR

"The country's federal civil rights laws, written to protect marginalized groups from discrimination, have become an unlikely tool in the Trump administration's efforts to end targeted support for students of color and protections for transgender students."

In the Assault on Education Research, Students are the Victims

By: Cindy Long, NEA Today

"The Trump administration has decimated the Institute of Education Sciences, the Department of Education's research division. Students will feel most of the impact."

GreatLakesCenter.org