| | | | | |  | | By Bianca Quilantan | With help from Michael Stratford, Juan Perez Jr. and Nicole Gaudiano Editor's Note: Morning Education is a free version of POLITICO Pro Education's morning newsletter, which is delivered to our subscribers each morning at 6 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day's biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro. | | | — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos unveiled an interim final rule that prohibits colleges from giving emergency coronavirus relief grants to students who don't quality for federal financial aid, including undocumented students. — President Donald Trump is hitting the campaign trail again and he's not forgetting about his student voter base. The Students For Trump Convention on June 23 in Phoenix is on the list of his recently announced stops. — Sen. Lamar Alexander, after two Senate HELP hearings on how to reopen schools this fall, told lawmakers they should consider giving schools more money and include liability protections in future coronavirus-related bills to ensure they can reopen safely. IT'S FRIDAY, JUNE 12. WELCOME TO MORNING EDUCATION. WHAT DOES YOUR INSTITUTION NEED TO SUCCESSFULLY REOPEN THIS FALL? Ping me at bquilantan@politico.com with your answer. Send tips to your host or to my colleagues, Juan Perez Jr. at jperez@politico.com, Michael Stratford at mstratford@politico.com and Nicole Gaudiano at ngaudiano@politico.com. Share event listings: educalendar@politicopro.com. And follow us on Twitter: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro. | | | | NEXT WEEK - A VIRTUAL CONVERSATION ON WATER SECURITY : How can we secure long-term solutions at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic consumes the attention and resources of local and state leaders? Join POLITICO on Monday, June 15 at 10:20 a.m. EDT for a virtual panel discussion on the policies and legislation needed at the state, regional and federal levels to meet the water needs of Western states. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | DEVOS' INTERIM FINAL RULE: The rule carries out DeVos' policy, first announced in April, that is being challenged by two lawsuits for restricting which students can receive CARES Act (H.R. 748 ) grants. It will take effect immediately after publication in the Federal Register, which the department said would happen on June 15. — DeVos said in a statement that the rule was aimed at eliminating any "uncertainty" for colleges about how they must distribute the funds, while carrying out the department's "responsibility to taxpayers to administer the CARES Act faithfully." — Democratic lawmakers have pushed back, saying the rule violates the intent of the CARES Act. "As students across the country are struggling to make ends meet in the face of unprecedented financial challenges, Secretary DeVos' efforts to deny some much-needed aid is cruel," said Senate HELP ranking member Patty Murray (D-Wash.). "These extreme eligibility requirements will not only harm students, but they are also contrary to Congressional intent." Read more from Michael Stratford. TRUMP TO CONGRESS: ENACT SCHOOL CHOICE: President Donald Trump on Thursday said he is renewing his call on Congress to "finally enact school choice now." During his State of the Union Address earlier this year, Trump promoted his administration's proposal to create a new $5 billion federal tax credit to expand school choice. The Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act, introduced in the House as H.R. 1434 (116) and the Senate as S. 634 (116), has no Democratic cosponsors in either chamber. "School choice is a big deal," he told his audience during a "Transition to Greatness" roundtable in Texas. — Trump said unions and "others" are against school choice for the wrong reasons. "Access to education is the civil rights issue of our time," he said, adding that he has heard that for "the last, I would say year, but it really is." He said, "And it creates competition and other schools fight harder because all of a sudden they say, 'Wow, we're losing it, we have to fight hard.'" — DeVos tweeted a video clip of Trump's statement and wrote, "Education is the pathway to a stronger tomorrow and a stronger America for all. Thankful for @realdonaldtrump's unwavering commitment to ALL our nation's students and their success. The time for action is now! #EducationFreedom" | | | TRUMP TO STOP AT STUDENT RALLY: Students for Trump is billing the president's stop at its convention as "The BIGGEST event for young Americans." The organization has ties to conservative student group Turning Point Action and is the official chapter-based, pro-Trump student group on college and high school campuses. — Turning Point Action is the sister group to Turning Point USA, led by founder Charlie Kirk, who also chairs Students for Trump. The president has addressed Turning Point USA in the past. Last year, the focus of his speech — and DeVos' — to Turning Point USA was on safeguarding free speech for conservative student groups who have said they have been silenced by their campuses. — Let's throw it back to last June: DeVos joined the group for a "fireside chat" at Turning Point USA Women's Leadership Summit in Dallas. Her main focus was on campus free speech, since Trump had signed an executive order months earlier that formally required colleges to agree to promote free inquiry in order to get billions of dollars in federal research funding, — Another refresher: Last year, Trump gave remarks at Turning Point USA's Teen Student Action Summit that included threatening college funding -- the crowd cheered him on. "Any college that refuses now to respect your First Amendment rights will be asking for billions and billions of dollars, and they won't be getting it," he said. "They won't be getting it." | | | ALEXANDER TALKS MONEY, LIABILITY WAIVERS FOR SCHOOLS ON THE SENATE FLOOR: The Tennessee Republican, in his remarks on the Senate floor Thursday, told lawmakers, "I think it's in our interest to make sure that principals and school boards know that they'll have sufficient funds to open 100,000 public schools safely." He also brought up liability waivers, something colleges have been advocating. — The Senate HELP Chair's comments follow a committee hearing where witnesses expressed concern over budget cuts from state and local governments that, without additional federal spending, will deprive schools when they need help the most. The hearing was focused on their efforts to safely reopen schools this fall. — "If there's more money we need to be open to that, I think here in the federal government, but not before we see whether it's really needed," he said in his remarks. — Alexander has been a big proponent of reopening schools this fall, and many schools nationwide are developing safety plans to get students back into the classroom. He urged lawmakers to allow schools the flexibility they need to reopen, including considering giving them liability protections in future Covid-19-related legislation. — Alexander also touched on racial injustice, a conversation the nation has been heavily entrenched in since the killing of George Floyd while in Minneapolis Police custody last month. Schools should reopen this fall because of the inequalities minority students face, he said. — "This is a time when we're especially concerned in our country and our attention is focused on racial injustice, on problems that minority families and minority children have," he said. "The single best thing that we could do to help minority children and minority families is to help them go back to school safely in August and September." HOUSE HEARING ON REOPENING SCHOOLS SCHEDULED FOR MONDAY: The House Education and Labor Committee will "examine the state of public education amid the Covid-19 pandemic," according to a press release. It will also focus on how the coronavirus has affected inequities and achievement gaps, and state and local public education funding. — The hearing, entitled "Budget Cuts and Lost Learning: Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on Public Education," will be livestreamed at noon. Witnesses include: Michael Leachman, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' vice president for state fiscal policy; Eric Gordon, CEO of Cleveland Metropolitan School District; and Becky Pringle, vice president of the National Education Association. | | | VIRGINIA GIVES COLLEGES GREEN LIGHT TO REOPEN: Gov. Ralph Northam's office on Thursday unveiled a nine-page document that they've billed as the nation's first sets of guidelines on restarting campus life. Northam announced that Virginia's colleges and universities can submit "comprehensive reopening plans" to the state's higher education council by July 6. — According to Northam's reopening guidelines, colleges will need to describe how they will implement testing for campus members who have Covid-19 symptoms. They also need to have strategies for "campus outbreak management" and how to shut down if conditions worsen. More from Juan Perez Jr. ICYMI: TEXAS SOUTHERN U. OFFERS FLOYD'S DAUGHTER FULL RIDE: The Board of Regents of Texas Southern University approved a fund to provide a full scholarship for Floyd's 6-year-old daughter, Gianna, if she chooses to attend. —"This Board is committed to education and understands that a college degree is one of many powerful steps toward a productive and successful life," said Albert H. Myres, chair of the Board of Regents, in a statement. "We know that this gesture cannot take the place of her dad's loving presence, but we hope that it will contribute to easing her journey through life." | | | | WINNERS PLAY THE LONG GAME: Interested in building a sustainable future for generations to come? "The Long Game" is designed for executives, investors and policymakers leading the conversation about how society can thrive in the future. Engage with the sharpest minds on our biggest challenges, from pandemics to plastics, climate change to land use, inequality and the future of work. Subscribe today for a nuanced look at these issues and possible solutions. | | | | | | | | — RAND Corporation's Gun Policy in America initiative project published a new teaching tool, Understanding and Using Research on Gun Policy in America: An Interdisciplinary Unit Plan Based on RAND's Gun Policy in America. It is a website, suggested for grades 10 through 12, designed to help educators and students understand existing gun policy research. — A new survey from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators found a 47 percent increase this year, compared to 2019, in the total number of personal judgment requests, which financial aid administrators use in student aid appeals. | | | — These are the schools reporting coronavirus cases within their athletic programs: CNN — A Conversation With Janet Napolitano: The New York Times — Potential Legal Land Mines For Colleges Opening This Fall: Law360 — Teacher beats West Virginia Senate president after protests: The Associated Press | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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