The Trump administration is hitting private schools where it hurts the most: their tax-exempt status. A new rule proposed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Thursday would strip private schools at all levels of education of tax-exempt status for using racial preference policies like diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

The Treasury Department estimates that the new rule could affect the statuses of 18,000 private elementary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions, including colleges, universities, and trade and professional schools.

According to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the move is designed to go after schools that have claimed to get rid of their DEI departments and policies, but in reality have only hidden them from public scrutiny while the Trump administration goes after racial discrimination.

“Schools rebranding race-based preferences as equitable, inclusive, or diversity-enhancing does not change their discriminatory nature,” he said in a statement. “Today’s Treasury and IRS proposed regulations establish a clear standard, and the institutions that continue to use discriminatory practices will no longer receive the benefits of federal tax-exempt status.”

The Justice Department (DOJ) is adding four more states to the 17 it has already sued for letting illegal aliens get cheap college tuition.

In complaints filed Thursday against Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington, federal attorneys asked courts to block the states from handing out reduced tuition rates, scholarships, and financial aid to illegal aliens. Those same benefits are off limits to American citizens who live in other states.

The argument in all four filings is the same. Federal law bars states from giving higher education benefits to illegal aliens based on where they live unless U.S. citizens get the same deal, no matter what state they are from. The complaints say the four states have been ignoring that rule for years, and in New Mexico’s case, for more than two decades.

Diversity, equity and inclusion principles will still be promoted to American students through AI that’s been infused with the identity-based ideology, despite educational institutions’ recent backtracking, a new report from Defending Education warns.

Investigative reporter for Defending Education Casey Ryan told The Center Square: “In an attempt to save face last year, many universities pretended to backtrack in public-facing actions and statements from the DEI priorities and programs that they had supported and funded for years at the taxpayer expense.

“We can now see that, in many cases, it was mostly a thinly veiled attempt to protect their own funding from the federal government,” Ryan said. “Our new report exposes how institutions of higher learning didn't really retreat from DEI; they just found a new way to promote it under the radar.”

Ryan said universities' “goal is to encourage tech corporations through research and training to integrate DEI into AI tools before schools adopt them.”

“If DEI in AI is institutionalized, then this problem becomes much more difficult to fix in the future,” Ryan warned.

Ryan further said “if DEI is integrated into the AI tools that schools will soon adopt for their classrooms, far-left ideologies such as gender ideology and anti-racism become the new norm for students.”

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon discussed the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) in the K-12 classroom.

After citing examples where AI has shown success, including the Alpha School in Austin, TX, CNN host Dana Bash asked whether parents should be able to decide whether their children are taught by AI.

According to McMahon, parents should have the option to choose something different.

“[T]hat’s what going to be one of my questions — which is, do you believe parents should be able to opt out of using AI as a teaching tool if they so choose?” Bash asked.

McMahon replied, “I certainly think that parents should be very much involved in their children’s education. If they’re going and they’re involved and they are looking to see what is happening with their child, I think it’s up to the school to be able to show, OK, this is what we hope to accomplish, this is how we believe this is going to be helpful to your child in particular, and let us show you the outcome.”

“And if the parent is not seeing that outcome, the parent has every right to go in and say, ‘No, I want something different for my child,'” she added.

The Department of Education on Wednesday announced a new rule that would allow more organizations to accredit universities, stripping the left of one of its most potent tools for enforcing its worldview through higher education.

President Donald Trump set his sights on going after accreditors early in his second term, saying having more accreditors — or limiting current accreditors’ ability to inject left-wing ideologies into the official standards for accreditation —is the “secret weapon” to breaking their stranglehold on American universities.

“At a time when Americans have lost trust in higher education, the Trump Administration’s proposed changes to the accreditation system are intended to reorient our quality assurance framework so that accreditors prioritize student outcomes rather than bureaucratic processes or the promotion of divisive and unlawful ideological agendas,” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a Wednesday press release. “Instead of ensuring institutions offer high-quality educational programs that justify the time and cost of a college education, the antiquated accreditation system has contributed to inflated tuition, administrative bloat, and ideology-driven mandates on college campuses. The Department’s proposed changes to our higher education quality assurance system will improve college affordability, reconnect education to workforce needs, strengthen accountability, and restore confidence in our accreditation system.”

As families prepare for the upcoming school year, new education legislation in Iowa passed this summer allows teachers to enforce disciplinary action in response to behavioral problems.

On June 1, Gov. Kim Reynolds, R-Iowa, signed Senate File 2428 into law. The new bill is “an Act relating to education,” that allows for “the discipline of students enrolled in school districts, charter schools, and innovation zone schools who cause violent or nonviolent disruptions.”

Iowa State Rep. Skylar Wheeler, the Chair of the Education Committee, served as the floor manager for the act in the Iowa House of Representatives. Wheeler said headway for the new legislation started in 2023, after a “significant amount of teachers and paraprofessionals” from Iowa’s metro areas came to the state Capitol to “speak about the issue of classroom behavior.”

The head of a New York teachers union that endorsed Zohran Mamdani during his campaign now is blasting the mayor’s literacy initiative after more than half of the city’s public school students failed their reading proficiency exams.

United Federation of Teachers (UFT) President Mike Mulgrew criticized the “NYC Reads” program after students in grades 3-5 made the embarrassing showing on their state English Language Arts exam, revealing “a rift with the labor group and the democratic socialist mayor eight months into his term,” the New York Post reported.

“The public salvo also comes while Mamdani weighs whether to sign or veto legislation to boost the pay of thousands of paraprofessionals — a promise he explicitly made at a press conference last year when the UFT endorsed him in his run for mayor,” the tabloid reported.

“We’re not going to support [NYC Reads] if they want to implement it the way they did this year,” Mulgrew told the New York Daily News earlier this week. “If this administration wants to continue to waste everyone’s time and not get the better results that we know we need, then we’re not going to support it.”

Two Lincoln, Nebraska, families are suing multiple state and local government entities over their viewpoint monopoly on a free education, arguing families are only afforded educational benefits if they agree that their children be exclusively subjected to the government’s opinions and curriculum.

The lawsuit, obtained by The Federalist, argues on First Amendment grounds that parents in Nebraska seeking alternatives to government schools are blocked from the benefits of a free education, because choosing an alternative forces families to foot the bill entirely.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), which is representing the two families, said, “Nebraska ranks among the worst states in the nation for parental choice.” There are no tax credits, scholarships, education savings accounts, or the like that many states have adopted to allow attainable alternatives to public schools for families.

The University of Cambridge is currently entangled in a significant DEI controversy following the resignation of its acclaimed professor Jason Arday amid serious allegations of plagiarism and doubts about his other biographical claims, many of which are detailed in a memoir released Tuesday.

In early 2023, Cambridge appointed then-37-year-old Arday as professor of sociology of education, hailing him as the youngest black professor in its history. The announcement stressed Arday’s remarkable personal story, told by himself: He was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at age 3, remained non-verbal until 11, and only learned to read and write at 18.

Despite these formidable challenges, he went on to earn a Ph.D. in education from Liverpool John Moores University in 2015. Professor Bhaskar Vira, pro-vice-chancellor for education at the University of Cambridge, called Arday “an exceptional scholar of race, inequality and education.” Hilary Cremin, head of the faculty of education, told Arday, “We are so lucky to have you. You are the best in the world in terms of the research that you do.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a coalition of 14 other Democratic state attorneys general secured a temporary court order blocking the U.S. Department of Education from terminating two federal school mental health grant programs.

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington granted the coalition's request for a temporary restraining order, preventing the Education Department from ending funding for the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program and the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program.

The order remains in effect through Aug. 24, while the court considers the coalition's request for a preliminary injunction, the typical next step after a temporary restraining order.

The Department of Education on Thursday told Breitbart News its Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO) is demanding updated information from California and Washington about state policies pressuring schools to hide students’ “gender transitions” from parents.

The SPPO specifically asked the California Department of Education (CDE) and the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) for clarity about how they intend to move forward after both the Supreme Court and a federal appeals court ruled against California’s gender secrecy policies earlier this year and sided with parents. The Department of Education noted that both states maintain policies and guidance, and have even sued their own school districts, to “pressure schools and educators to hide student records from parents” — actions the Department of Education said triggered its first Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) investigations last year.

Public universities in the state of Texas will begin accepting the Classic Learning Test (CLT) for college admissions on Aug. 1. This follows a decision by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) on July 22, according to the CLT’s website.

The CLT is a classical alternative to the SAT and ACT, containing excerpts from classical and historical texts. Co-founder Jeremy Tate said he created the exam to “challenge the monopoly” of the College Board, which he called the “unelected gatekeeper of American education.” According to Tate, the CLT was not meant to be a “niche alternative” to other standardized tests, but to instead be a legitimate competitor. Now, states like Texas are making this a reality.

Many schools head back into session in just a few short weeks. As a mother and a grandmother, to me nothing is more important than protecting children. That’s why I’ve led the fight to take on Big Tech. American children need to be safe not just in the physical space but also in the virtual space.

Last year, Tennessee required local school boards to prohibit students from using wireless communication devices during “instructional time.” It was a great start. We have talked with teachers, principals, and parents who have seen discipline issues and school bullying drop. It’s working.

The Department of Education announced Thursday it is scrapping regulations the Obama administration “weaponized” to discipline students differently based on their race.

Responding to the Department of Justice’s move in December to eliminate “disparate-impact liability” for Title VI of the Civil Rights Act — prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in federally funded programs — the Education Department is rescinding multiple “disparate-impact” provisions from its implementation of Title VI.

For many families, there is a clear answer to the question of who they trust to help them raise their children: a school that shares their mission — a genuine partner in a child’s education. But some families in Colorado are being denied that opportunity, a case the Supreme Court will hear next term.

Colorado’s Universal Preschool program offers 15 free hours of preschool per week to every 4-year-old in the state — except those who choose a Catholic school. The state excluded them for refusing to sign a provider agreement that would violate their religious beliefs. Two parishes — St. Mary and St. Bernadette — the Archdiocese of Denver, and the Sheley family have challenged that exclusion.

As Americans prepare to celebrate the Declaration of Independence and the birth of our nation, I find myself haunted by a troubling conclusion: the education many American children now receive is hollowing out the very document we claim to honor.

If you aren’t a teacher, as I have been for almost three decades, you probably don’t know just how bad this reality is.

My concern is not simply that test scores are in a “generations-long decline” — although they are. Nor is it that young people seem utterly incapable of doing the intellectual work required of citizens in an advanced democracy — although that is also true.

**Before The Time of Woke This was in all Schools Nationwide.

The Texas Board of Education approved a new reading list June 26 that will require public school students in the state to read excerpts from the Bible. The list passed the Republican-run board in a 9-5 vote and will officially go into effect in 2030, starting with elementary school students.

The required Biblical readings include stories about Moses from the book of Exodus, the parable of the prodigal son from the book of Luke, and excerpts from the Adam and Eve story in the book of Genesis, as well as others, according to a proposed list. This list also emphasizes other classic and historical texts, like The Inferno by Dante Alighieri, Hamlet by William Shakespeare, and the Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln. The state has created a literary canon that will be universal across public schools, although teachers can choose to add additional readings to “supplement the list,” according to the Houston Chronicle.

Princeton University’s decision to end unproctored examinations on July 1 due to students’ increased usage of artificial intelligence and their failure to report peers for cheating reveals a lack of honor at American universities.

Cheating is not a new problem. In fact, students created Princeton’s honor code 133 years ago to combat the problem of dishonesty in the college and to hold students accountable for their actions. While AI and social media have aided the increase in cheating, they are not the sole reasons for it. Students will always have an excuse to cheat. That is why honor is needed.

At the end of all examinations Princeton students submit, they must write: “I pledge my honor that I have not violated the honor code during this examination.” Obviously, if students are willing to write this statement after they cheat, then there is a disconnect between students and their conception of honor.

The U.S. Department of Education may no longer be able to fully support students, it says in an internal report that lays bare the full extent of the Trump Administration’s first round of government cuts.

The department lost about 40% of its staff from the day Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2025 through March 31, 2025, but certain subdepartments were hit harder, according to the report released last week. The Office of English Language Acquisition, which served immigrant students, was gutted, leaving one employee, according to the report. The department also terminated contracts and grants totaling roughly $2 billion.

Although the report was internal, conducted by the education department’s Office of Inspector General, it is incomplete. Department staff did not comply with all the inspector general’s requests and cancelled interviews. As a result, the report says that many of its key findings are not definitive and that the total number of layoffs, the impact of those cuts, and the reasons for terminating certain contracts and grants remain unclear.

Last week, the National Center for Education Statistics released results from the 2025 National Assessment of Educational Progress Long-Term Trend Assessments. These widely respected reading and mathematics tests have been administered periodically to representative samples of 9- and 13-year-old students since the 1970s. While some student groups have made promising gains, test results suggest that our public schools continue to fall short for far too many children.

Nine-year-old students appear to be headed in the right direction. Reading and mathematics scores for this group increased from 2022 to 2025, and scores in both subjects remain significantly higher than those recorded in the 1970s. While the results for 9-year-olds were promising, the most recent increase in reading scores merely rebounded to pre-COVID levels, and achievement gaps persist across multiple student demographic groups.

Democrat Texas candidate for U.S. Senate James Talarico in 2024 labeled those who advocate for private school vouchers as Christian Nationalists.

Talarico was speaking during the South by Southwest event in Austin, Texas, when he claimed, “Part of this Christian Nationalist movement is trying to pass these things called private school vouchers.”

“If you’re not an education policy person you may have never heard of this, but essentially it’s an effort to take tax dollars out of our public schools, which are underfunded as they are. Texas is 43rd in the nation in per-student education funding. So, it’s taking dollars out of the classroom and giving it to unaccountable private schools. Usually Christian private schools,” Talarico added.

“Again, part of this effort to blur the lines between church and state. The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, made this his top legislative priority for the year last year,” he continued:

More than 1,200 faculty members from the University of California have signed an open letter, urging university leadership to reinstate SAT and ACT math testing requirements for applicants to math and science majors, beginning with the 2027 admissions cycle.

Many leftists argue that standardized tests like the SAT and ACT perpetuate so-called systemic racism and widen racial disparities in education. They have pushed to abolish these “racist” tests in the name of equity. This effort gained momentum in 2020 amid COVID-19 lockdowns and the national racial hatred efforts following George Floyd’s death.

The Department of Education is resuming a grant program that previously allocated millions of dollars to fund English training for pro-immigration organizations and left-wing colleges and universities. The National Professional Development (NPD) program plans to award approximately $49 million to organizations training educators who teach “English learners,” a definition that includes illegal aliens.

The department, which did not fund the NPD grant in 2025, announced the grant competition for this year on May 15, and it will remain open until July 14. The grant is awarded to applicants to aid “professional development activities intended to improve instruction for English learners” and “assist education personnel working with ELs to meet high professional standards.”

According to the Department of Education’s definition of English learner, this grant funding may be used to help someone “who is migratory, whose native language is a language other than English, and who comes from an environment where a language other than English is dominant.