| | | | | |  | | By Bianca Quilantan | With help from Betsy Woodruff Swan, Michael Stratford, Andrew Atterbury 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. | | | — The Senate HELP Committee is holding its second hearing today on school leaders' plans to reopen their classrooms safely this fall, this time focusing on K-12. Don't forget to watch, starting at 10 a.m. — A grand jury indicted former Harvard University professor Charles Lieber on charges of lying to government officials about his work for a Chinese university. The Justice Department initially charged him in January. — A federal judge appears poised to stop Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' efforts to exclude undocumented students and others who don't qualify for federal financial aid from accessing billions of dollars in emergency coronavirus relief grants. Meanwhile, the Education Department pushed back a timeline for issuing an interim final rule on the issue. IT'S WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10. WELCOME TO MORNING EDUCATION. WILL YOU HAVE ENOUGH CORONAVIRUS TESTS FOR STUDENTS THIS FALL? Ping me at bquilantan@politico.com with your school's plan for resuming in-person classes. 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. | | | K-12 SCHOOL LEADERS TO DISCUSS FALL REOPENING: Senators will hear from witnesses on how they'll implement social distancing guidelines, modify calendars of the school day and year, prepare for distance learning, and coordinate with state and local public health officials. — The lineup includes : Penny Schwinn, Tennessee commissioner of education; Matthew Blomstedt, Nebraska commissioner of education; Susana Cordova, Denver Public Schools superintendent; and John B. King Jr., Education Trust CEO and former Education secretary. — "We must reopen with eyes wide open," Schwinn said in a statement. "We are confident in the innovative spirit of our Tennessee educators and districts to continue accelerating the achievement of all of our children." — And Blomstedt said Nebraska doesn't plan to "build back to the same systemic inequities that have persisted for years and that are made visible in educational assessment and accountability." Instead, he said, "We need to take this opportunity to 'build back better.'" — Senate HELP ranking member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) plans to focus on the need for the federal government to help schools reopen. Chair Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said at last week's hearing on college fall plans, however, that there should be minimal government intervention when it comes to colleges' decisions on whether to reopen. — "While I'm glad we have the opportunity to hear from the witnesses today, we need to hear from [DeVos], especially about her efforts to push her privatization agenda in the K-12 system and her flawed interpretation of the equitable services provision in the CARES Act," Murray plans to say in her opening remarks. | | | | JOIN TODAY AT 4 p.m. EDT - WOMEN AND COVID-19, SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS IN CRISIS PART II : What if Hillary Clinton had won in 2016? Join Women Rule editorial director Anna Palmer for a virtual interview with Curtis Sittenfeld, author of "Rodham," to discuss the novel that reimagines Hillary Clinton's life and political career without a marriage to Bill Clinton. Curtis will also share the process of releasing a book in the midst of global pandemic and how she is working with independently owned bookstores struggling as a result of this crisis. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | GRAND JURY INDICTS HARVARD PROFESSOR: Lieber was indicted several months after being charged with lying to government officials about his ties to the Wuhan University of Technology, a prominent Chinese institution, while he was also Harvard's chemistry department chair. But he is still pleading innocent. — Authorities alleged that Lieber lied to DoD investigators about his relationship with WUT and that he also lied to Harvard. They say this caused Harvard to share bad information about Lieber's affiliation with the National Institutes of Health. He had received grant funding from both DoD and NIH. — Lieber also allegedly denied participating in China's Thousand Talents Plan, which a DOJ press release said aims to "reward individuals for stealing proprietary information." — "The government has this wrong," said Lieber's trial counsel, Marc Mukasey. "Professor Lieber has dedicated his life to science and to his students. Not money, not fame, just his science and his students. He is the victim in this case, not the perpetrator." Read more from POLITICO's Betsy Woodruff Swan. — The indictment comes as Republican lawmakers and the Trump administration have heightened their focus on academia's relationships with foreign countries. There has been intense scrutiny on foreign gifts reporting from the Education Department and calls from lawmakers for universities to get rid of Confucius Institutes on their campuses. — Last month, President Donald Trump also vowed to ban some Chinese graduate students and researchers from receiving visas to study in the U.S. because the administration suspects they're being used by the Chinese government to steal intellectual property. | | | JUDGE APPEARS SKEPTICAL OF DEVOS' RESTRICTIONS ON CARES ACT GRANTS: U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, during a virtual hearing on Tuesday, blasted DeVos and the Education Department for "putting roadblocks" in the way of the swift distribution of emergency coronavirus assistance under the CARES Act, H.R. 748 (116) , and suggested she may issue a ruling on the matter within the next week. — Rogers is overseeing the California community college system's lawsuit challenging DeVos' policy, announced in April , that restricts more than $6 billion in emergency relief grants only to those students who qualify for federal financial aid. The Trump administration has argued that the court shouldn't rule on the guidance because it's not a final decision by the department and a formal rule is forthcoming. — The Education Department said earlier this week that it's planning to write a new regulation to enforce the restrictions, and initially aimed to issue an "interim final rule" on Tuesday. But shortly before the virtual hearing, the department backtracked on that timeline, telling the court that the rule wouldn't be ready "before June 15, 2020, at the earliest." — Washington state, which has also sued over the guidance, has a similar hearing slated for Thursday. Read more from Michael Stratford. | | | SCHOOLS WILL RESUME IN-PERSON CLASSES, VIRGINIA GOVERNOR SAYS: Gov. Ralph Northam said the state will allow schools to slowly resume in-person classes this summer and in the fall, which means schools districts can expect to move forward with their plans once they send them to the state Department of Education. — School districts will have discretion on how to implement Northam's plans and may decide their schools will have additional restrictions, depending on local public health conditions. — The phased approach to reopening K-12 schools aligns with Virginia's plan for reopening the economy. Most of Virginia is in phase two, and by Friday, all locations will be. Read more from Nicole Gaudiano. | | | GATES FOUNDATION-BACKED INSTITUTE CALLS FLORIDA'S NEW K-12 STANDARDS 'WEAK': The Fordham Institute said the state's Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking standards, which came from a push from Gov. Ron DeSantis to replace Common Core and to set a national example, are in need of "significant and immediate revisions." The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a supporter of Common Core, backs the institute. — "As for other states, they should indeed look for model standards, but they won't find them in Florida," wrote Fordham Institute President Michael Petrilli and Amber Northern, senior vice president of research. The study also says Florida leaders are unlikely to reexamine the new standards "anytime soon." Read more from POLITICO Florida's Andrew Atterbury. | | | | 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. | | | | | | | | — The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities released two reports on employability skills preparedness gaps among college graduates. "From Academia to the Workforce: Critical Growth Areas for Students Today" focuses on the quantitative data analysis from the results of a survey of employers, faulty, alumni and students. And, " From Academia to the Workforce: Navigating Persistence, Ambiguity, Change and Conflict in the Workplace" is a qualitative analysis of the open-ended survey questions. — The National Center for Education Statistics released a new report, "Male and Female High School Students' Expectations for Working in a Health-Related Field," which found nearly one-third of students expected to have a job in health care at age 30 either when they were freshmen in high school in 2009 or in 2012. — The Center for American Progress, in its report "The Coronavirus Pandemic Isn't the Time To Abandon Financial Accountability for Private Colleges," analyzes a request from a trade group representing private colleges that called on the Education Department to waive financial accountability rules for three years. | | | — Kimberly DuMont is the American Institutes for Research's new vice president leading its social responsibility investments. DuMont, previously with the William T. Grant Foundation, will oversee projects funded by AIR's quasi-endowment. — Portia Reddick White joined the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids as senior director for strategic partnerships. She will be responsible for cultivating and sustaining relationships with organizations representing communities disproportionately impacted by tobacco use in the United States. She was most recently a federal lobbyist with the National Education Association. | | | — Fauci calls coronavirus his 'worst nightmare' as infectious disease expert: POLITICO — Historically black colleges fight for survival, reopening amid coronavirus pandemic: USA Today — Behavior pledges, empty stadiums, and widespread testing: The Chronicle of Higher Education — Schumer holds off endorsing Eliot Engel: POLITICO — Seniority, generosity may decide who enters college stadiums: The Associated Press | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment