WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Monday touted a national private school voucher program set to launch in early 2027.

During a White House Rose Garden event celebrating the back-to-school season, Trump and McMahon lauded the incoming federal school choice effort along with many of the education policies the administration has pursued, including ongoing efforts to dismantle the 46-year-old Education Department.

At least 30 states have already opted in to the school voucher program, which allocates up to $1,700 in federal tax credits for people donating to organizations that provide private and religious school scholarships.

The program, known as the Education Freedom Tax Credit, was created in the GOP’s mega tax and spending cut bill Trump signed into law in July 2025. 

“One year ago, as part of the great, big, beautiful bill, we passed the Education Freedom Tax Credit — the largest ever expansion of school choice — and we want every parent to have the power to send their child to a high-quality school that shares their values,” Trump told the crowd of educators, parents and students. 

Monday’s event highlighted Trump and congressional Republicans’ continued focus on school choice as a central point of their education agenda, with the upcoming voucher program marking a pillar of that effort. 

The umbrella term “school choice” centers on alternative programs to a student’s assigned public school. While opponents argue these efforts drain critical funds and resources from school districts, advocates say the initiatives are necessary for parents dissatisfied with their local public schools.

Attendees at the Rose Garden also included Republican Govs. Jim Pillen of Nebraska and Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, as well as GOP Rep. Tim Walberg of Michigan, who chairs the House Committee on Education and Workforce.  

McMahon echoed the president, saying the federal program gives parents “unprecedented freedom to choose the path that is best for their child.” 

She added that “it’s no surprise that over half of our nation’s states — both red and blue — have raced to this historic choice option, benefiting families whether their child attends public or private school.”  

Dems working to reverse program

Meanwhile, congressional Democrats are already attempting to axe the program. 

Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii in April introduced a bill in the Senate, alongside nearly 30 of their colleagues, that would repeal the program. 

Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin introduced a companion bill in the House in June with Reps. Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, Mark Pocan of Wisconsin and dozens more original co-sponsors. 

The legislation faces a dismal fate in the GOP-controlled House and Senate. 

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice has sued New York, Connecticut and Vermont over laws that allow immigrants in the country without permanent legal status to pay in-state college tuition in the states where they live.

The suits, filed Aug. 10, are part of a larger push from the Trump administration to go after states with such policies, as the administration seeks to curb any benefits that could be extended to people without permanent legal status.  

Since President Donald Trump re-took office, the DOJ has sued 17 states over laws that allow noncitizen students who meet certain requirements access to in-state tuition at public colleges and universities, regardless of their immigration status. 

In five of those lawsuits the DOJ filed — targeting Texas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Illinois — courts have already struck down the laws. All of those states, except for Illinois, had joined with the federal government rather than defend their laws. 

Beyond New York, Connecticut and Vermont, lawsuits are also pending in California, Colorado, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Virginia.

The lawsuits argue that the policies allow students without permanent legal status to pay drastically lower tuition for public education than U.S. citizens from other states.

“This is a simple matter of federal law: colleges cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate of the DOJ’s Civil Division said in a statement regarding the New York, Connecticut and Vermont lawsuits. 

“This Department of Justice will not tolerate American students being treated like second-class citizens in their own country,” Shumate said.  

Landscape of state laws

At least 20 states and Washington, D.C., offer in-state tuition to “the states’ undocumented students,” according to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal, a project of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization. 

Roughly 525,000 “undocumented students” are enrolled in colleges and universities across the U.S., according to the Portal. An estimated 129,900 “undocumented students” are eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. 

DACA is intended to help people brought into the country without legal documentation as children. The program, created by the Obama administration in 2012, protects participants from deportation and allows them to receive work permits and obtain driver’s licenses. 

Five states, Arkansas, Idaho, Maine, Ohio and Texas, limit in-state tuition access to DACA recipients, according to the Portal.

Ongoing court battles threaten DACA recipients in Texas with the possibility of losing their ability to obtain a work permit. 

‘Unprecedented’

Diego Sánchez, vice president of policy and strategy at the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, said the DOJ’s efforts to pursue states that offer in-state tuition benefits to students without permanent legal status is “unprecedented.”

“It’s a coordinated federal effort to dismantle state tuition equity policies that have existed for decades,” Sánchez told States Newsroom.

Sánchez added that the policies “do not provide free college or special tuition discounts — they generally allow students who attended and graduated from high school in the state and meet additional state requirements to pay the same in-state tuition rate as the classmates they grew up with.” 

The students “still have to apply, they still have to be admitted, pay tuition and meet the same academic requirements as everyone else,” he said. “The state has already invested in these students … these are benefits that don’t only apply (to) undocumented students.” 

DOJ goes after Texas first

The DOJ’s lawsuits came after Trump signed an executive order in April 2025 that calls on the U.S. attorney general to stop the enforcement of state laws and policies “favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens that are unlawful, preempted by Federal law, or otherwise unenforceable, including State laws that provide in-State higher education tuition to aliens but not to out-of-State American citizens.” 

Texas was the first state the DOJ pursued over such policies. 

The Justice Department challenged in June 2025 the Lone Star State’s 2001 law — the first of its kind in the country — signed by former Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican. 

Rather than defend the law, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Trump-aligned Republican, sided with the DOJ to try to permanently block the state law and signed an agreement the same day the DOJ filed suit. A federal judge then blocked the Texas law.  

A federal appeals court in July rejected an attempt from two advocacy groups, a Texas community college and a student to intervene in the case and defend the Texas law. The appeals effort came after the federal judge had earlier rejected the groups’ attempt to intervene. 

“It’s not the end of the road yet, but it’s been an uphill battle,” said Efrén Olivares, vice president of litigation and legal strategy at the National Immigration Law Center, one of several public interest groups that sought to intervene on behalf of one of the advocacy groups, the Texas community college and the student. 

“It’s a shame because for the last year, thousands of kids who, all they’re doing is trying to get a college education to better themselves and their families, are now prevented from doing so by exorbitant tuition.” 

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday signed a sweeping executive order that aims to reshape guidance surrounding childhood vaccines, standing alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and was met with immediate pushback.

The order — which calls on federal programs and funding to “support maximal parental choice over childhood vaccines” — came as Trump continued to erroneously connect vaccines with autism during the White House event and his administration has sought to de-emphasize childhood vaccinations’ importance. 

“This updated recommendation finally aligns the United States with other advanced and developed nations around the world,” Trump said during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office, joined by Kennedy, a longtime opponent of vaccines, as well as National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya and “Make America Healthy Again” advocate Jayme Franklin, also founder and CEO of The Conservateur lifestyle brand, and others.

“More importantly, it aligns us with common sense and knowledge,” Trump added.

What the order can legally accomplish was unclear as it’s up to states to decide which recommendations to follow.

GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician and chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, rebutted the new order on social media. “I’m a doctor. This executive order is wrong. The President does not have the expertise to make these changes,” Cassidy said. “Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines DO NOT cause autism.”

Splitting up MMR vaccine

The order recognizes “gold standard childhood vaccine recommendations” and divides the childhood immunization recommendations into three categories. 

The order recommends all children receive immunizations for 11 diseases, including for “measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type B, pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus, and varicella.” 

Immunizations recommended for certain high-risk groups or populations include: “respiratory syncytial virus monoclonal antibodies, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, meningococcal B, meningococcal ACWY, and dengue.” 

The order also lists “hepatitis A, hepatitis B, rotavirus, meningococcal disease, influenza, and COVID-19” as immunizations “based on shared clinical decision-making.” 

Trump’s executive order also calls for splitting up the combined measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine into three separate single-disease shots and recommends that “all childhood immunizations should be administered at separate medical visits.” Such single-disease shots are not currently available in the United States, White House officials acknowledged on a background call, but said they believe work will occur in the private sector to make that option eventually available. 

“For example, at one year, you should have five separate visits for vaccines rather than getting them all in the same day,” Trump said during the signing ceremony. 

Trump said the order also directs the attorney general “to advance legal challenges against states that violate children’s rights to religious or medical vaccination exemptions.” 

‘Uncertainty and fear and confusion’

Meanwhile, Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told reporters Monday during a press briefing after the Trump event that “the only thing that I can see is going to happen as a result of the announcement from today is an injection of greater amounts of uncertainty and fear and confusion, when there doesn’t need to be any of that.” 

Many states rely on the AAP, rather than the federal government, for guidance surrounding childhood vaccines, according to the health research organization KFF, following earlier moves on vaccines during the Trump administration.

Rep. Frank Pallone, ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, blasted Trump’s order, saying the effort “lets political appointees attempt to overrule decades of peer-reviewed science and dictate vaccine schedules to American families,” in a statement. 

The New Jersey Democrat added that “parents deserve accurate, trusted medical guidance, not a White House-curated list designed to rubberstamp Secretary Kennedy’s radical anti-vaccine agenda.” 

Democrats from a coalition of states filed suit earlier this year over Trump administration changes to the federal vaccine guidelines, as did medical groups, but White House officials said Trump’s recommendations were not related to the litigation and were within his authority.

WASHINGTON —  The U.S. Senate adjourned for its summer recess early Saturday after approving a stopgap spending bill but declining to advance legislation that would require photo ID for voting. 

In a rare overnight session that began on Friday, senators trudged through a slew of measures, confirmed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Todd Blanche as attorney general and then departed the nation’s capital for the coveted August recess. The chamber is not expected to return to regular session until after Labor Day.

The Senate passed, 86-11, a major effort first proposed by the late GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina that would impose sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with the country’s oligarchs and military leaders. 

A bipartisan education bill — championed by GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado — served as the vehicle for the Russia sanctions package. 

Collins’ and Bennet’s bill would ensure that “early childhood educators can claim the same federal tax credit for out-of-pocket classroom supply purchases that is currently available to K-12 teachers,” per a press release. 

Averting a shutdown 

The Senate also passed a bipartisan measure on a 90-6 vote that would keep the federal government funded through Dec. 11. The House has passed a different version so the two would have to be reconciled.

Earlier in the day, senators had advanced the legislation, known as a continuing resolution, toward a final vote on another strongly bipartisan vote of 91-6. 

Senators did not vote on a proposed blueprint that would unlock the complex budget reconciliation process and allow Republicans to move ahead on their third party-line bill.

Attorney general vote 

The upper chamber also confirmed Blanche, the acting attorney general, to be the next U.S. attorney general. 

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana marked the determinative vote amid GOP opposition from Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska over Blanche’s bid, as well as the absence of Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who’s recovering from a health issue. 

The Senate confirmed a batch of nominees earlier Friday, including Cameron Hamilton to serve as the next administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, 51-47.  

Voting and photo ID

The Senate failed to advance on a 52-46 vote a bill that would require a photo ID to vote in an election to federal office. 

Related to the separate SAVE America Act, it was sponsored by Republican Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio. Sixty votes were required to move ahead on the measure, which was opposed by all Democrats voting.

Democrats have said in the past such a requirement would make it more difficult for all Americans to vote.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a proponent of photo ID and the SAVE America Act who at one point had said he would hold up adjournment to obtain action, vowed afterward to continue pushing for it. “This fight’s not over. We’re just getting started,” he said.

Trump is an intense proponent of the SAVE America Act and urged the Senate to stay in town to pass it though Republican leaders have said repeatedly there are not 60 votes to do so. The SAVE America Act would require voters to show proof of citizenship when they register and a photo ID when they vote. Noncitizens are already barred from voting in state, federal and almost all local elections.

College sports

The Senate did not take a procedural vote before leaving town on a sweeping bipartisan bill that would set national standards for college athletes’ compensation.

GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state — the top members of the Senate Commerce panel, which has jurisdiction over the matter — introduced the bill, with GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri and Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware as original co-sponsors. 

The bill underwent several changes after it was passed by the Commerce panel in June, and was able to ultimately garner the support of the formidable Big Ten and Southeastern conferences. 

But the Congressional Black Caucus opposed the legislation in a statement earlier this week, noting that “at the very moment that Black political representation is under attack across the country, we will not be complicit in efforts to further exclude the interests of Black people by advancing legislation that will determine the economic future of Black athletes, their families, and their communities without their meaningful participation and engagement.” 

President Donald Trump, who’s thrown his support behind the measure, urged the Senate earlier Friday evening to stay in town until the bill passes.

“Stop grandstanding, and try getting this done,” he wrote in a social media post.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is urging Republican senators to “release their holds” and pass a measure making daylight saving time permanent nationwide.  

A bipartisan bill passed the House in July but faces hurdles in the Senate, where members from both parties have pushed back against ending the semiannual clock changes. 

“People are sick and tired of having to change their clocks twice a year,” Trump wrote in a social media post Tuesday night, adding that “it is foolish, inconvenient and, in some cases, very costly.” 

Trump said “this is an issue that Republicans, Democrats, and Independents can unite behind” while asking GOP senators to “release their holds, and allow the hotline to clear on the Republican side.” Members of the Senate are scheduled to adjourn for an August recess later this week, though it’s also possible they may get delayed by pending legislation.

The president also flexed the benefits of ceasing the semiannual clock changes, saying “leading Medical, Crime, and Economic Studies” show it would help decrease robbery and murder rates, reduce car accidents, lower risk for cardiac issues, stroke and seasonal depression and also make it safer for children to get home from school, among other advantages. 

Florida GOP Rep. Vern Buchanan introduced the measure in the House — dubbed the Sunshine Protection Act — which passed it, 308-117. 

But the Senate has yet to take up the legislation, with at least one fierce critic of the move, GOP Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, having argued in a floor speech last year that making daylight saving time permanent would “push winter sunrises to an absurdly late hour, depriving Americans of morning sunshine that’s essential for our safety and well-being.” 

Cotton also noted that the darkness from making daylight saving time permanent would be “especially harmful for schoolchildren and working Americans.” 

Meanwhile, GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who sponsored a companion bill in January 2025, celebrated the House’s passage and urged the Senate to “take it up NOW and send it to President Trump’s desk,” per a July social media post. 

WASHINGTON — Dr. Erica Schwartz will be the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after the U.S. Senate confirmed her nomination Wednesday.

The Senate confirmed, 51-44, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the national public health agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, which has taken heat over the vaccine-skeptical agenda pursued by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

That agenda marked a central theme of Schwartz’s tense confirmation hearing in July before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, where lawmakers on both sides of the aisle pressed her on how she would deal with any political interference from the Trump administration when it comes to vaccine policy. 

Schwartz ultimately scored the backing of the panel’s chair, Louisiana GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy, who had appeared dissatisfied with her responses at her confirmation hearing.

Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia was the only Democrat who voted to confirm Schwartz’s bid.

Five senators did not vote, including GOP Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, along with Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. 

Schwartz worked as an occupational medicine physician in the U.S. Navy. She transferred to the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, where she achieved the rank of rear admiral. 

Schwartz also served as the chief medical officer of the U.S Coast Guard and later as deputy surgeon general of the United States.

WASHINGTON —  U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday rebuked the Department of Education’s efforts to transfer its special education programs and civil rights enforcement to other agencies. 

Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii convened a panel of advocates and former department officials in Republican and Democratic administrations to blast the department’s moves, which represent a key step in President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle the Education Department. 

Education announced in June that the Department of Health and Human Services would administer programs under Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, or OSERS, while civil rights enforcement under its Office for Civil Rights would be transferred to the Justice Department.

Democrats have been highly critical of the moves since they were announced. 

Families of students with disabilities “deserve an educational system that is going to provide their kids with the education services that (are) required under IDEA,” Hirono said Tuesday. 

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, guarantees a free public education for students with disabilities. OSERS is responsible for managing and supporting IDEA. The umbrella unit includes the Office of the Assistant Secretary, Office of Special Education Programs and the Rehabilitation Services Administration. 

Meanwhile, Education’s Office for Civil Rights is tasked with investigating discrimination complaints from students and families.

Lacking expertise

Democratic critics of the interagency agreements say the Education Department is best equipped to deal with special education programs and civil rights enforcement.

“In my view, neither of these other agencies or departments have the expertise to really be able to handle their piece of this,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen said.  

The Maryland Democrat noted that he’d “much rather be in a position where we’re trying to make good things happen than trying to prevent harm to the Department of Education and the effort to make sure that we address the civil rights of students and make sure that people have the special education opportunity that the law requires, but here we are.” 

The Education Department announced 10 earlier interagency agreements with HHS, Labor, Interior, State and Treasury in an effort to shift several of its major functions to those agencies. 

‘One consistent answer’

Valerie C. Williams, who served as director of the Office of Special Education Programs, or OSEP, under the Biden administration, said the deteriorating quality of special education may not be immediately noticed, but would have significant consequences for the students.

“Here’s what worries me most, as someone who ran this office: The damage does not announce itself,” she said. “The erosion of enforcement and support does not show up the week it happens. It shows up months later, as a state that quietly stops getting monitored, a complaint that just sits, or a phone call that never gets answered.”

Laurie VanderPloeg, associate executive director for professional affairs at the Council for Exceptional Children, called on members of Congress across the aisle to “stand up for infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities by preserving the Department of Education and protecting special education programs from being transferred to another agency.” 

VanderPloeg served as director of OSEP during the first Trump administration. 

“We must resist the urge to make the fate of children with disabilities political, and urgently remain focused on supporting outcomes for all children,” she said. 

Seth Galanter, a senior fellow at the Edley Center on Law and Democracy at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law said “there’s a reason that Congress kept OCR and OSERS in the same building.” 

Galanter, who served as the principal deputy assistant secretary for civil rights during the Obama and Biden administrations, said “school districts need one consistent answer on disability rights, not two agencies pulling in different directions.” 

Administration defends transfer

Tuesday’s forum came just days after a Senate education panel advanced a bipartisan bill to rein in Trump’s efforts to dismantle the Education Department and would block interagency agreements that transfer programs regarding special education, elementary and secondary education, postsecondary education and Native American education. 

That legislation notably would not apply to the administration’s efforts to shift civil rights enforcement under OCR to the Justice Department. 

Savannah Newhouse, a spokesperson for the Education Department, doubled down on the administration’s efforts, in a statement shared with States Newsroom on Tuesday. 

Newhouse said Hirono and her Democratic colleagues “are either completely ignorant to the collapse of American education, or they are actively rooting for the bureaucracy over our children,” adding that “their desperate fearmongering, claiming students will lose guaranteed federal support, is flatly false.” 

Newhouse added that under Education’s partnership with Justice, “families retain the exact same direct line to staff for civil rights complaints.” 

Regarding Education’s agreement with HHS surrounding special education programs, Newhouse said “OSERS staff remain fully committed to protecting the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) with bolstered support from HHS — an agency that already successfully manages grants and programs that serve individuals with disabilities.” 

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan effort to rein in President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education has cleared its first major legislative hurdle in a bipartisan U.S. Senate committee vote. 

The measure, approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in a 13-9 vote Thursday, represents the most sweeping attempt from Congress so far in rejecting some of the interagency agreements, or IAAs, Education has signed with other departments as part of the administration’s push to eliminate the 46-year-old agency. 

The Senate bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, with GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska as original co-sponsors, would block IAAs that transfer programs regarding special education, elementary and secondary education, postsecondary education and Native American education.

Part of the measure takes aim at Education’s efforts announced in June to outsource programs under its Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, or OSERS, to the Department of Health and Human Services. 

OSERS is responsible for administering the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, which guarantees a free public education for students with disabilities.

Education has so far entered into agreements with HHS, along with the departments of Labor, Interior, State, Treasury and Justice, to offload several of the department’s core responsibilities to those agencies.

Collins, Murkowski join Dems

Collins said the “straightforward” bill “keeps the administration of important landmark education programs at the Department of Education — where Congress specifically put them and where they belong.”

All Democrats on the panel voted to advance the measure. They are: Kaine, Patty Murray of Washington state, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, John Hickenlooper of Colorado, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Andy Kim of New Jersey, Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland.

Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, ranking member of the panel who caucuses with Democrats, also voted to advance the bill. 

Collins and Murkowski were the only GOP members to join Democrats. 

GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky did not vote. 

The panel’s chair, Sen. Bill Cassidy, voted against the bill, saying that while he opposes the transfer of special ed programs to HHS, he is open to moving OSERS to the Labor Department. 

“I don’t oppose all of these IAAs,” the Louisiana Republican said. “I do think the administration should be allowed to pilot how to address inefficiencies and the potential for efficiencies by operationalizing these IAAs.”

The other GOP members who voted against the measure were Sens. Roger Marshall of Kansas, Tim Scott of South Carolina, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Jim Banks of Indiana, Jon Husted of Ohio, Ashley Moody of Florida and Alan Armstrong of Oklahoma. 

‘Show us the price tag’ 

The panel also approved an amendment to the bill from Murray that would require Education Secretary Linda McMahon to report to Congress on the cost estimates for each of the IAAs her agency has signed with other departments. 

“My amendment is very simple — it asks one thing: Tell Congress and the public what these interagency agreements actually cost taxpayers,” Murray said. 

“If you’re proud of this deal, show us the price tag,” she added. “What do you have to hide?” 

Education Department defends transfers

Trump has sought to take an axe to the Education Department in his quest to send education policymaking “back to the states.” That push continues despite much of the oversight and funding of schools already occurring at the state and local levels. 

Savannah Newhouse, an Education Department spokesperson, said “the era of coddling a failed status quo must end,” in a statement to States Newsroom Thursday.

“Secretary McMahon promised Congress a proof of concept that is currently underway and delivering results across our partner agencies, and it is entirely premature to sabotage this effort before it has the chance to eliminate bureaucratic barriers and fully deliver the results that our students, families, and educators deserve,” Newhouse added. 

McMahon, along with the heads of the six departments involved in the IAAs, defended the agreements in a letter sent to the GOP and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate the same day the Senate panel advanced the bill. 

“Misconceptions have circulated about our fourteen IAAs,” McMahon and the leaders of the agencies wrote. 

“Since these agreements were signed, however, they have demonstrated measurable results by driving stronger grant competitions, streamlining government operations, and producing better outcomes for Americans.”

The Senate measure sharply contrasts with a package that advanced out of a House education panel this month that would greatly reduce the department’s responsibilities.

WASHINGTON — Education experts and advocates warned Wednesday that the recent federal student loan system overhaul stemming from the GOP’s mega tax and spending cut law will drive borrowers to private lenders and could derail their higher education plans. 

U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Education and Workforce, convened a panel to blast the sweeping loan changes, as well as separate, ongoing efforts from President Donald Trump’s administration to dismantle the Education Department and its impact on the federal student aid system. 

“Student loan debt now exceeds $1.7 trillion. Borrowers need clear guidance and certainty,” Scott said. “Instead, they’re forced to deal with uncertainty and chaos created by an administration that has systematically weakened the federal student aid system.”   

Scott criticized Education’s plans to transfer core student aid functions to the Treasury Department. Under an interagency agreement, or IAA, announced in March, Treasury will take over Education’s responsibility for collecting on defaulted federal student loan debt in what marks the first step in a multi-phase process toward Treasury taking on the entire federal student loan portfolio. 

The Virginia Democrat said Treasury “has no expertise serving students or institutions of higher education or monitoring servicers for accuracy.” 

Meanwhile, the Education Department finalized regulations — most of which took effect July 1 — that implement sweeping student loan system changes outlined in the GOP’s “big, beautiful” law.

Scott said that the sweeping changes to the federal student loan system originating from that law are “compounding the issues that have risen from the dismantling of the Education Department.” 

Borrowing limits

Among the major changes are new loan limits for graduate and professional students, a restructured repayment system that gives new borrowers only two plans to choose from and the elimination of a key loan program for graduate and professional students that allowed for unlimited borrowing.

Wil Del Pilar, senior vice president at the nonprofit policy and advocacy group EdTrust, said the mega tax and spending cut law “restricts access to federal graduate lending, pushing many borrowers, especially those from low-income and middle-income backgrounds, many of whom are students of color, into the hands of private banks.” 

Del Pilar, who was deputy secretary of postsecondary and higher education for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, said that would present a series of challenges for borrowers. 

“That means higher interest rates, fewer consumer protections, stricter credit requirements, and flat-out denials for some, forcing those students to halt their educational journey,” he said.

Access to graduate education 

Clare McCann, managing director of policy and operations at the Postsecondary Education and Economics Research Center, said her organization was “very concerned that for many borrowers who want to continue to pursue a graduate education, that they will find themselves locked out of the private market or unable to access affordable loans without a qualified cosigner.” 

McCann, whose organization is housed at American University, added that the center’s research suggested almost 40% of student borrowers subject to the new caps have either poor or no credit scores, making them unlikely to be able to borrow money in the private market without a cosigner.

McCann noted that allowing largely unlimited graduate lending is “unwise” and “puts both students and taxpayers at risk,” while calling on Congress to “allow students to borrow enough to make high-return investments in themselves, so long as their loans remain affordable and repayable based on the salaries students should expect.” 

Ellen Keast, a spokesperson for the department, defended the student loan system overhaul, in a statement shared with States Newsroom on Wednesday. 

“Blank checks to universities resulted in tuition skyrocketing for American students and families. Mass student loan forgiveness failed in nearly every courtroom it entered. The student loan portfolio is at a fiscal cliff because the last Administration perpetrated the lie that students do not need to repay their loans,” Keast said. “The Trump Administration is righting these wrongs – all while implementing historic reforms to federal student aid that will drive down the cost of college and simplify student loan repayment.”

WASHINGTON — Former U.S. Department of Education officials in Republican and Democratic administrations sounded the alarm Monday over the agency’s efforts to outsource its special education programs and civil rights enforcement to other agencies. 

U.S. Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state convened the former officials, along with advocates and educators, at a virtual press conference to blast those sweeping moves, which are part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to dismantle the 46-year-old Education Department. 

Murray rebuked the transfers as “outrageous” and “completely unacceptable,” noting that while she is fighting “tooth and nail” against any effort to dismantle the agency, she is “especially concerned about what this could mean for all students, especially students with disabilities.” 

The agency in June said the Department of Health and Human Services will administer programs under Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, or OSERS, while civil rights enforcement under its Office for Civil Rights will be transferred to the Department of Justice. 

The Education Department had announced 10 earlier interagency agreements, or IAAs, with HHS, Labor, Interior, State and Treasury, which transfer several of Education’s responsibilities to those agencies.

The department has said it “will continue to perform all statutorily required duties and responsibilities” involving special education programs and civil rights enforcement.

OSERS is responsible for administering the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, which guarantees a free public education for students with disabilities. The umbrella unit OSERS includes the Office of the Assistant Secretary, Office of Special Education Programs and the Rehabilitation Services Administration. 

The civil rights office is tasked with investigating complaints from students and families. 

‘Learners, not patients’

Katy Neas, CEO of The Arc of the United States, an advocacy group for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, said that the transfers “would split apart the offices responsible for making disability rights real in schools, leaving families chasing answers across the federal government instead of getting accountability from one education agency.” 

Neas was the deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary at OSERS during the Biden administration. 

“The stakes have never been higher,” she said. “If we allow the Department of Education to be dismantled, we not only undo decades of progress, we also risk abandoning the promise that every child deserves a chance to try and to succeed.” 

Catherine Lhamon, executive director of the Edley Center on Law and Democracy at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law said the “new interagency agreement between the Department of Education and the Department of Justice is what someone would create if the person were designing a system to fail.” 

Lhamon served as assistant secretary for civil rights during the Obama and Biden administrations. 

“The principal harm of this new agreement is that it guarantees lengthier continued silence from the federal government on the classic kinds of discrimination cases families experience,” Lhamon said. Examples include restraining or secluding students, she said.

It raises “the core question (of) whether students with disabilities have the free appropriate public education to which the law entitles them,” Lhamon added.

Stephanie Smith Lee, co-director of policy and advocacy at National Down Syndrome Congress, pointed out that “IDEA is an education and civil rights law, not a healthcare program.” 

“Students with disabilities are learners, not patients,” added Lee, who served as director of the Office of Special Education Programs under the George W. Bush administration. 

“Moving special education and vocational rehabilitation to the Department of Health and Human Services would separate them from the rest of federal education policy and weaken the expertise and coordinated oversight that students, families and states depend on,” she said. 

Savannah Newhouse, a spokesperson for the Education Department, dismissed the criticism, saying in a statement to States Newsroom that Murray and the former officials were part of a failing status quo. 

“As Senator Murray is well aware, the Department of Education’s interagency partnerships do not alter the Trump Administration’s dedication to students with disabilities and federal civil rights laws,” she wrote. “These agreements simply ensure that well-positioned agencies can support the workload, pool their expertise, and ultimately strengthen protections for students.” 

US House bills ‘dead’ in Senate  

Meanwhile, earlier in July the House Committee on Education and Workforce advanced a package of 10 bills permanently transferring several of Education’s functions to other departments and largely reflecting many of the earlier IAAs. 

Notably, that package does not include any efforts to transfer Education’s responsibilities regarding special education programs and civil rights enforcement to other agencies. 

“As long as this former preschool teacher is a United States senator, every one of those bills is dead on arrival,” Murray said. 

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Labor Department on Thursday defended the agency’s major role in a broader drive by the administration to dismantle the Education Department.  

Grilled by U.S. Senate Democrats, acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling stood behind the multiple interagency agreements, or IAAs, Education has so far signed with Labor, likening his agency’s functions in the transfer to a “firm that’s just consulting and helping them move these programs’ money, but not the actual programs themselves.” 

The agreements — also made with the departments of Health and Human Services, State, Treasury, Interior and Justice — are a main part of the plan by the Trump administration to axe the 46-year-old Education Department. 

Sonderling appeared before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in his bid to serve as the next Labor secretary, where he touted his extensive DOL experience.   

“Few people have had the opportunity to experience the department from so many different perspectives, from the outside in private practice, as a policy adviser, as an agency head, as an adjunct professor, as deputy secretary, as acting secretary, and now as the nominee for Labor secretary,” he said. “These experiences have prepared me to lead this department with a deep understanding of its mission, its people, and most importantly, the Americans we serve.” 

The Floridian took on the role as acting secretary in April, after Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned amid misconduct allegations. 

Sonderling was also named by the president in June to serve as acting director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and confirmed by the Senate in March 2025 as deputy Labor secretary. 

The committee will vote July 23 on whether to advance Sonderling’s nomination to the full Senate. 

‘It makes zero sense’

At the hearing, a handful of Democrats dug into the Trump administration’s continued dismantling of the Education Department and Labor’s role regarding several of Education’s programs. 

“Right now, you are working with (Education) Secretary (Linda) McMahon to take over the Department of Education programs to help Trump abolish that department,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who noted that Sonderling has built his “own anti-worker record at DOL.” 

Murray pointed out that “it makes zero sense that DOL, an agency whose expertise is in supporting wage earners and job seekers, is being tasked now with taking over complex education programs from the Department of Education to help kindergartners and elementary school students.” 

Through multiple IAAs, the Department of Labor is taking on expanded roles in administering Education’s programs surrounding elementary and secondary education; postsecondary education; and career, technical and adult education. 

The Education Department has stressed in fact sheets that it would maintain its statutory responsibilities and oversight of the programs regarding the IAAs.

In the lower chamber, a package of 10 bills permanently transferring several of Education’s functions to other departments and largely reflecting many of the earlier IAAs advanced out of the House Committee on Education and Workforce on Wednesday.

Programs still run by ‘career experts’

Sonderling stood behind the administration’s efforts, saying “it makes a lot of sense” for DOL to handle more grant responsibilities and work with Education.

The nominee also emphasized that the interagency agreements are “not dealing with policy,” but instead with providing the Department of Education “a service.” 

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, said the Trump administration’s scattering of education programs across the federal government, including at DOL, creates a system that’s “much more complicated and much less efficient, particularly for states and public school districts.” 

But Sonderling argued that those programs “still all remain” at the Education Department and are “being run by career experts” at Education.

He added that “for efficiency purposes, we’ve moved a few tranches of employees to the Frances Perkins Building (DOL’s headquarters), where they all have their own offices, they all have their own computers, they have parking, and they are working out of that building.”  

Pressed by Baldwin on any evidence the nominee will present that “transferring these programs to the Department of Labor has made anything better for students, teachers, parents,” Sonderling expressed his commitment to providing the senator with that data. 

“There’s a right way to do reform — come to the committee and say, ‘Hey, look, this is in statute but there’s a better way to do it, so let’s work on a better way to do it,’” said Sen. Tim Kaine.

“The wrong way to do it is to treat the (Education Department) like it’s a furniture store and having a discount going out of business sale and hand off pieces willy-nilly to agencies that don’t have the expertise to deal with them,” the Virginia Democrat said. 

“That’s my concern about what’s happening right now.” 

WASHINGTON — A major legislative package that would put into law President Donald Trump’s push to greatly reduce the responsibilities of the U.S. Department of Education advanced out of a U.S. House panel on Wednesday. 

The U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce approved — nearly along party lines — each of the package’s 10 bills that would permanently transfer several of Education’s functions to other departments. 

The measure, largely reflecting many of the interagency agreements, or IAAs, Education has signed with other agencies, signifies a sweeping effort from Republicans in Congress to carry out the Trump administration’s plan to do away with the 46-year-old department as part of the president’s quest to return education “back to the states.” 

That drive continues, though much of the oversight and funding of schools already occurs at the state and local levels.

But the legislation faces an uncertain fate. Even if passed in the full U.S. House down the line, it would face steep odds in the narrowly GOP-controlled Senate. 

The upper chamber requires at least 60 senators to advance a bill past the filibuster, and Republicans hold just 53 seats.

Rep. Tim Walberg, chair of the House panel, lauded the package as the “first step toward ending the Department of Education’s reign over our nation’s education system,” during his panel’s markup. 

The Michigan Republican added that the legislation advances Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s “vision for an education system that empowers families, students, workers and local communities.” 

McMahon said “today marks a major step by Congressional leaders to cement the Trump Administration’s historic reforms to right-size the federal role in education,” in a statement after the package advanced out of the committee. 

Other departments to take over

Under multiple bills, the Department of Labor would manage Education’s programs surrounding elementary and secondary education; postsecondary education; and career, technical and adult education — mirroring earlier IAAs. 

In another piece of legislation, the Treasury Department would manage Education’s federal student aid functions, a nod to a March agreement Education signed with Treasury to take over its responsibility for collecting on defaulted federal student loan debt.

That agreement marked the first step in a multiphase process toward Treasury taking on Education’s entire roughly $1.7 trillion federal student loan portfolio.

Under other bills in the package, the State Department would manage Education’s international education and foreign language studies programs, as well as its foreign gift and contract reporting — also mirroring earlier agreements. 

Reflecting additional IAAs, the Department of Health and Human Services would manage Education’s accreditation for foreign medical schools; functions regarding child care access for low-income parents in postsecondary education; and family engagement programs for elementary and secondary education. 

The Interior Department would also manage tribal education and job training programs under the package. 

Notably, the 10-bill package does not include any efforts to transfer Education’s responsibilities regarding special education programs and civil rights enforcement to other agencies. 

In perhaps the Trump administration’s most far-reaching attempts yet to dismantle the Education Department, the agency in June said HHS will administer programs under the Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, while civil rights enforcement under its Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, will be transferred to the Department of Justice. 

Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the panel, said that the committee’s move to not consider either of the two actions in the package was possibly because “even my colleagues recognize how politically unpalatable such transfers would be.” 

‘Pain and suffering’

Meanwhile, the legislative package drew fierce pushback from congressional Democrats on the committee, who offered up a slew of amendments to the bills in an attempt to block the dismantling. 

Scott, a Virginia Democrat, said “it’s difficult to articulate how impractical these proposals are, to say nothing of the pain and suffering they’ll inflict on students, educators and their communities, if they were to become law.” 

He pointed to the GOP’s objective of stripping down the department as part of its intent to “return education to the states,” saying these proposals “will actually contribute to the creation of miles of bureaucratic red tape, inconsistent education policy and enforcement across the federal government and a significant waste of the taxpayers’ money.” 

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici said the bills under consideration “demonstrate that Republicans in Congress know that the Department of Education lacks the authority to transfer offices and programs to other federal agencies without congressional action, and are now trying to cover for the unlawful actions already taken.” 

The Oregon Democrat, who introduced an impeachment resolution against McMahon in June, added that the secretary “has said that it is her mission to shut down the Department of Education, something she does not have the authority to do, but that is exactly what she is doing, disguised as a series of interagency agreements.” 

WASHINGTON — Sen. Darline Graham joined the U.S. Senate Tuesday, temporarily filling the seat of her late brother, Lindsey Graham. 

Darline Graham was sworn in just a day after South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster appointed her, as a Republican, to serve out the remainder of her brother’s term. President Donald Trump recommended her to fill Lindsey Graham’s seat hours before the governor’s appointment.   

Lindsey Graham died unexpectedly this weekend from an aortic dissection due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, according to preliminary findings from the medical examiner of the District of Columbia released by the senator’s office. 

Lindsey Graham served in the U.S. Senate for more than two decades and had just returned from Ukraine before his death.

Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, the president pro tempore of the Senate, swore in Darline Graham. Grassley joined Darline Graham and her family in the Old Senate Chamber for a reenactment of the swearing-in shortly after. 

Darline Graham leads the South Carolina Commission for the Blind. She is the first woman to represent the Palmetto State in the U.S. Senate. 

She will serve alongside South Carolina GOP Sen. Tim Scott until January when Lindsey Graham’s term ends. 

Lindsey Graham in June secured the GOP primary in his bid for a fifth Senate term. 

A special GOP primary will take place Aug. 11 to determine whose name will appear on the November ballot, with a runoff slated for Aug. 25, if needed. 

The winner of that primary will be up against Democratic candidate Dr. Annie Andrews. 

WASHINGTON — Students pursuing several advanced degree programs can now access higher loan caps, but the temporary relief has ushered in a wave of uncertainty amid an ongoing legal battle.  

Graduate-level programs such as nursing, occupational therapy and speech-language pathology are, for now, considered “professional” degrees by the U.S. Department of Education after a court order in late June halted the agency’s new “professional” definition while a legal challenge unfolds.

That definition had limited the number of advanced degrees eligible for higher annual and lifetime loan limits to just 11 fields, while excluding several programs, such as nursing.

In response to U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell’s interim ruling, the department temporarily expanded the list of degrees considered “professional” to 29 fields, per guidance given to institutions. 

Pushback from Trump administration

But the Education Department said it was confident its definition is “lawful” and vowed to keep defending the regulations. 

The agency also stressed in its guidance that the temporary “professional” designations “are provided solely to facilitate implementation of the Court’s order and may change as litigation in the case proceeds.”

A department spokesperson, speaking on background, declined to comment on whether the department would appeal the ruling. 

The department said in its guidance that while the case continues, institutions may wish to consider limiting loan amounts to the graduate-level caps for programs temporarily deemed “professional” in an effort to “mitigate potential disruption to student borrowers resulting from changes in program classification that may arise from the ongoing litigation.” 

The programs on the expanded list from the department include: veterinary medicine; law; divinity/ministry; rabbinical studies; clinical psychology; counseling psychology; school psychology; clinical child psychology; health/medical psychology; family psychology; forensic psychology; clinical, counseling and applied psychology; chiropractic; audiology; speech-language pathology; dentistry; anesthesiologist assistant; physician associate/assistant; athletic training; medicine; osteopathic medicine; podiatry; optometry; pharmacy; occupational therapy; physical therapy; registered nursing; nurse anesthetist; and nursing practice. 

On the flip side, the department identified several programs that may have been considered “professional” prior to the court’s ruling but no longer carry the status while the court order is in place, such as theology, pharmaceutical sciences, environmental psychology, and clinical and industrial drug development. 

Schools ‘not sure what to do’

Denise Morelli, of counsel at Sligo Law Group, a firm made up of former Education Department attorneys, said the department’s late June guidance lacks clarity, especially in spelling out any repercussions for schools and students if the agency prevails in court and can keep its “professional” degree definition.

“I do think that has an impact on schools and students because schools are, kind of, not sure what to do because now … these people in these programs are allowed to have the higher loans, according to the department, but the department’s not saying they can keep them,” said Morelli, a former attorney for the Office of the General Counsel at the department. 

“You could be partway through the program, the department prevails, now the student has to get their loan amount cut, and it could also affect their annual limits, so it puts both students and schools in a very precarious position right now,” she added. 

Student loan system overhaul

The new definition is part of President Donald Trump’s administration’s sweeping overhaul of the federal student loan system stemming from the GOP’s 2025 “big, beautiful” law. Most provisions in the overhaul took effect July 1. 

Part of the regulations axed a program allowing for unlimited borrowing for graduate and professional students and set new caps on federal student loans, with much different limits based on whether a degree is deemed “professional.” 

Now, graduate student loans face a $20,500 annual cap and $100,000 lifetime limit. Professional student loans are subject to a $50,000 yearly limit and $200,000 aggregate cap. 

Lawsuits crop up

The department’s new “professional” degree definition prompted a handful of legal challenges against the administration, including the suit that sparked Howell’s June order. 

That case stems from a pair of combined challenges brought by a total of eight groups representing people in fields outside of the department’s new “professional” definition. 

One of the lawsuits was brought in May by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners; the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners; the American Association of Colleges of Nursing; the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health; the National Education Association; and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. 

The PA Education Association and the American Academy of Physician Associates filed the other lawsuit in June.