U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said an attempt by President Donald Trump to shut down the Department of Education will not cut off funds “for those who depend on them,” namely children protected by the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) and other “essential programs.”

She issued the statement Thursday following Trump’s signing of the executive order to make make good on his campaign promise to dismantle the Department of Education, which Congress created in 1979. Trump’s order would need congressional approval to move forward.

It directs McMahon and her staff “to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to the States, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs and benefits on which Americans rely.”

“Closing the Department does not mean cutting off funds from those who depend on them— we will continue to support K-12 students, students with special needs, college student borrowers, and others who rely on essential programs,” McMahon said in a statement Thursday. “We’re going to follow the law and eliminate the bureaucracy responsibly by working through Congress to ensure a lawful and orderly transition.”

The Education Department oversees programs and funding enacted by Congress. If the House and Senate eventually approved its closing, these programs would need to be moved to another cabinet-level department. McMahon suggested during her Senate confirmation hearing that IDEA could reside in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Prior to the Education Department’s creation by Congress in 1979, IDEA and other education law resided in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

Other programs that would require continued oversight are Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, Title IX of the 1972 education amendments, and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Trump’s executive order also prohibits Education Department programs or activities that receive federal education funds from advancing DEI or gender ideology.

“I can’t react to a non-concrete plan, so first I want to wait and see how transparent is Secretary McMahon going to be about the process that she’s going to use,” commented Noelle Edgerson Ng, associate executive director of policy and advocacy for AASA: The Superintendents Association. “As she’s cutting and gutting, is she using a mallet or a scalpel? What data is she using to inform what changes she makes? The approach they take informs the pushback or the response. And we don’t know that yet, so we’re going to take a breath.”

The National Association for Pupil Transportation issued a statement Friday afternoon.

“During this transition to a reduced department, we are eager to learn how IDEA funding and programs will be administered,” NAPT wrote. “IDEA funding is important to the ability of our members to safely transport children with disabilities.”

The statement also said NAPT looks forward to collaborating with the Education Department “to ensure safe and efficient transportation of America’s students.”

NAPT added it believes the Trump administration’s attempt at “examining and ending bureaucratic excess in all areas of the federal government” will extend to other NAPT partners such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and the National Transportation Safety Board.

Meanwhile, Trump’s executive order also targets “Dear Colleague Letters” that are issued by the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights and Office of Special Education Programs. Several have addressed transportation of students with disabilities and preschoolers. Trump’s order states these letters “have forced schools to redirect resources complying with ideological initiatives, which diverts staff time and attention away from schools’ primary role of teaching.”

AASA’s Edgerson Ng added the executive order makes any work being done by the Office of Civil Rights without a statutory mandate easier to be rescinded.

“That doesn’t mean that the Trump administration might not try to cut and gut programs that have a statutory base, but those will face a much more solid challenge because many of these programs existed before the Department of Ed, and so they’ll continue to exist after whatever [the executive order] is. They exist in law, so they have to exist in implementation,” she said.

Related: Transportation Professionals: A Critical Link in the Education of Students with Disabilities
Related: Setting Realistic Expectations for School Bus Drivers of Students with Special Needs
Related: Recommended Do’s and Don’ts for Meeting the Challenges of Transporting Children with Disabilities

Earlier this month, the Education Department announced layoffs affecting half the workforce, another attempt to dismantle the agency. A coalition of 20 Democratic-led states responded with a lawsuit last week against the Trump administration seeking an injunction. A U.S. district court issued a temporary restraining order to stop the firings and reinstate thousands of probationary employees.

“I think it’s feasible to anticipate that the Department of Ed, under Secretary McMahon’s cut and gut, do they over-cut and then find that they’re not able to meet the intent of Congress? And then, somehow, they set a middle ground where some people are brought back? Sure,” Edgerson Ng said. “But what that looks like again depends on the approach they take to cutting people and cutting programs.”

McMahon, the former executive for WWE and wife of founder Vince McMahon, drew the ire of many educators nationwide—including several student transporters spoken to on background for this article—when she was unable to say what the IDEA acronym stands for during a March 11 interview with Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham.

“This is my fifth day on the job. I’m trying to learn very quickly,” McMahon said.

This is a developing story.

The post Dismantling Education Department, Mandated Programs Would Need Congressional Approval appeared first on School Transportation News.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will visit Eau Claire next week to rally Democrats ahead of key elections this year and next.

The post Tim Walz coming to Eau Claire next week to boost Crawford, attack Van Orden appeared first on WPR.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will visit Eau Claire next week to rally Democrats ahead of key elections this year and next.

The post Tim Walz coming to Eau Claire next week to boost Crawford, attack Van Orden appeared first on WPR.

Is the sixth time a charm for the School Bus Safety Act?

Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee and Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois hope so, but the bill faces the added hurdle of passing both chambers that are controlled by Republicans. The two announced Wednesday the latest iteration: The School Bus Safety Act of 2025.

No bill numbers were available at this report.

The legislation, which most recently was introduced last fall but died, seeks the required installation of three-point seatbelts in all school buses, plus stability control and automatic braking systems, both of which are already being standard equipment on most large school buses.

The bill would also require event data recorders that capture pre- and post-crash data, driver inputs and restraint usage when a collision does occur. The act calls for a fire suppression system, which addresses engine fires and a firewall that prohibits hazardous quantities of gas or flame to pass from the engine compartment to the passenger compartment.

In a statement, Cohen called the safety measures recommended by National Transportation Safety Board “common sense.”

“We’ve seen too many deaths and serious injuries in school bus accidents in Tennessee and elsewhere, and it is past time we act to protect young lives,” he said.
A grant program would provide funding to help school districts meet the mandate.

Related: School Bus Safety Act for Seatbelts Again Introduced in Congress
Related: Blue Bird Announces Standard Lap/Shoulder Seatbelts on All School Buses
Related: NHTSA-Proposed Automatic Emergency Braking Has School Bus Safety Connection

The post School Bus Safety Act Renews Call for Seatbelts, Other Safety Improvements appeared first on School Transportation News.

Congress has set targets for cutting $2 trillion in federal spending and $880 billion of that could come from programs including Medicaid.

The post As Congress targets trillions in cuts, state lawmakers disagree on impacts on Wisconsin’s next budget appeared first on WPR.

U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson got an earful from constituents concerned about mass federal layoffs, potential cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency during dueling virtual town halls, Thursday.

The post Tammy Baldwin, Ron Johnson get earful from constituents during virtual town halls appeared first on WPR.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Feb. 7, 2025) – Late yesterday, the Federal Highway Administration?halted?new funding for state programs to install tens of thousands of new vehicle chargers along highways and at rest stops across the nation. A key part of the 2022 bipartisan infrastructure law, all 50 states have federally approved plans to build these fast chargers, …

The post New Federal Vehicle Charging Funds Halted appeared first on Alternative Energy HQ.

Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) (Photo: Screen grab from Senate.gov)

North Carolina lawmakers introduced legislation in Congress Wednesday that would allow the victims of felonies committed by undocumented immigrants to sue cities, counties, and states that did not comply with ICE deportation orders.

Entitled the “Justice for Victims of Sanctuary Cities Act,” the bill is sponsored in the Senate by North Carolina Republican Senators Thom Tillis and Ted Budd and nine other GOP members. Western North Carolina Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards, who introduced the legislation in the House last year, announced on Thursday that he has reintroduced it.

“For far too long, we have watched local jurisdictions in North Carolina and across the country ignore the lawful notification and detainer requests made by ICE agents and instead release dangerous criminals back into their communities, putting innocent lives at risk,” Tillis said in a news release. “It is time for Congress to step in and hold sanctuary cities accountable.”

“Sanctuary jurisdictions” employ local protocols that restrict or prohibit cooperation with ICE, typically by preventing law enforcement from complying with ICE “detainers” — orders from the agency to hold undocumented immigrants taken into custody until they can be turned over to ICE.

If passed into law, the bill would open up such jurisdictions to civil liability for not complying with ICE detainers for or notifying the agency of the release of undocumented immigrants who go on to commit felonies. The statute of limitations for such claims would be 10 years after the felony or the death of an individual resulting from the felony.

But according to Rick Su, a UNC immigration law professor, states must first waive their “sovereign immunity” to become liable to federal civil lawsuits. Similarly, because of state sovereignty, jurisdictions cannot face federal criminal charges for declining to enforce ICE detainers, which function as requests rather than legal orders.

In an effort to bypass sovereignty immunity, the bill stipulates that recipients of several categories of federal grant programs — centering on economic, community, and housing development — waive that legal immunity for “sanctuary-related civil action,” with an exception for disaster relief grants for housing.

Su said this section of the bill could open it up to constitutional challenges, as federal courts have held that while such requirements are permissible, they cannot be “coercive,” or they may violate the Eleventh Amendment. The Supreme Court struck down a section of the Affordable Care Act that would have required all states to adopt Medicaid expansion or lose all Medicaid funding, for example.

“They have a delicate dance here, right, because they have to make it big enough that essentially everyone will waive,” Su said. “But they might be interested in making it not so big that it will fall for this coercive condition.”

While he declined to predict whether courts would find these conditions coercive should the bill become law, he noted that the funds specified are substantial — covering sweeping grants ranging from public works and research facilities to public housing for low-income families.

It also shields members of law enforcement from legal liability for complying with ICE detainers and classifies them as agents of the Department of Homeland Security — though this does not extend to knowing violations of civil or constitutional rights. Su said cities may find themselves between “a rock and a hard place” under the proposed law because failing to comply with detainers could expose them to liability, but cooperation with ICE could open them up to civil rights lawsuits.

“Sanctuary cities cannot continue to jeopardize Americans’ safety and not be held accountable for their role in the illegal immigrant crime crisis we are facing today,” Edwards said in a news release. “The Justice for Victims of Sanctuary Cities Act will finally hold these communities responsible when their harmful, often illegal, policies result in a crime against an American citizen by allowing the victim to take legal action against counties, cities, or towns for the dangerous policies that directly led to their harm.”

The bill comes as President Donald Trump prepares to carry out the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants he repeatedly promised to undertake on the campaign trail. But Trump has already faced early obstacles to his immigration agenda: on Thursday, a federal judge in Washington halted his executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship in the U.S., a tenet of immigration law enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment.

It also follows the passage of the “Laken Riley Act,” a bill expanding the mandatory detention requirements for undocumented immigrants arrested for petty crimes, with the aim of facilitating the president’s deportation agenda. That bill passed with bipartisan support, with 46 House Democrats and 12 Senate Democrats joining Republicans in supporting it.

Trump repeatedly sparred with sanctuary jurisdictions during his first term in office, at one point signing an executive order to strip them of all federal funding for resisting his administration’s attempts at immigration enforcement — though this action was struck down as unconstitutional by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

These jurisdictions remained in the political crosshairs of conservatives during the Biden administration, when Republican governors Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas sent migrants to sanctuary cities en masse using chartered buses and planes.

North Carolina state lawmakers enacted legislation targeting sanctuary jurisdictions in November over the veto of then-Governor Roy Cooper. That bill, H.B. 10, requires sheriffs in the state to comply with ICE detainers and shields them from legal liability for holding individuals believed to be subject to detainers for up to 48 hours.

Read the full text of the new Senate bill here:

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

A joint U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Treasury webinar shared ways electric school buses could be more affordable using new tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act.

The first tax credit discussed Thursday relates to the vehicle itself. The Qualified Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit (45W) provides an income tax credit to a taxpayer who purchased and placed into a service a qualified commercial clean vehicle during the taxable year. The 45W rule, established by the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, was published in the federal register on Tuesday.

45W credit amount for the lesser amount of either 30 percent of basis of the qualified vehicle, or the incremental cost of the vehicle up to a credit maximum of $40,000, in the case of a vehicle with a GVWR of 14,000 pounds or more. The incremental cost is the excess of the purchase price of a clean vehicle compared to a comparable gas or diesel internal combustion engine. The 45W Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would provide pathways for taxpayers to determine the incremental cost.

In order for the vehicle to qualify, it must be made by a qualified manufacturer (a list of qualified manufacturers is on the IRS website), is acquired for use or lease, treated as a motor vehicle for use on public roads, has a battery capacity of at least 15 kWh, used predominantly in the 50 states plus Washington, D.C., and be either electric, plug-in hybrid or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

Meanwhile, Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit (30C), published in the Federal Register in September 2024, allows an income tax credit equal to 30 percent for individuals and up to 30 percent for businesses for the purchase and installation cost of any qualified alternative fuel vehicle refueling property that was placed into service by the taxpayer during the taxable year. This applies to all aspects of electric charging infrastructure as well as CNG, propane or hydrogen fueling centers.

Each charging point is considered a single item and therefore the credit is limited to $100,000 per business use property and $1,000 for personal use property. Electric panels, conduit/wiring, smart charge management system installed in different tax years are only credible in the year the functionally interdependent or integral part property is placed into service.

Related: EPA Extends 2024 Clean School Bus Program Rebate Application Deadline
Related: EPA Awards Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicles Grant Program Funds Nationwide
Related: Propane Bus Grant Provides Funding Opportunities for Missouri Districts
Related: Webinar Reviews Community Benefits of School Bus Electrification

The webinar explained a special section of the tax credit rule, which relates to vehicles funded by grants and forgivable loans. The webinar noted, “if an investment-related credit property is funded by a tax-free grant or forgivable loan, entities get the same value of eligible tax credit as if the investment were financed with taxable funds, provided the credit plus the restricted tax-exempt amounts do not exceed the cost of the investment.”

This means if a school district receives a tax-exempt grant of $300,000 to purchase an electric school bus, in which the total cost of the bus came out to $400,000, the 45W credit is $40,000. Since the amount of the grant and the credit ($340,000) is less than the cost of the school bus, the credit is not reduced.

One attendee asked if these credits are at risk from the presidential administration change. A Department of Treasury representative noted that they will remain in effect unless changed by Congress.

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Current methods used to process hydrogen into a usable fuel are cost-prohibitive, but several new innovations are promising to open the door to cost-competitive green hydrogen. Hydrogen is well positioned to be the fuel of the future. However, a commercially viable transition to green hydrogen – the environmentally friendly version of the fuel – seems …

The post Fueling the Future: Unlocking Low-Cost Green Hydrogen appeared first on Alternative Energy HQ.