| | | | | |  | | By Michael Stratford | With help from Juan Perez Jr. and Ryan McCrimmon Programming announcement: Our newsletters are evolving. Morning Education will continue to publish daily for POLITICO Pro subscribers, but starting on July 13th will consolidate to a weekly newsletter for all others. There will be no changes to the policy newsletters available to POLITICO Pro subscribers. To continue to receive Morning Education daily, as well as access POLITICO Pro's full suite of policy tools and trackers, get in touch about a Pro subscription. Already a Pro subscriber? Learn more here. | | | — Trump administration officials say they want to use the next coronavirus relief bill to prod states into reopening schools and push school choice policies. That could complicate a fight over education funding. — Democrats' "unity" task forces, created by former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, released policy recommendations that include an education agenda. — The Ivy League has canceled fall sports because of the pandemic. IT'S THURSDAY, JULY 9. WELCOME TO MORNING EDUCATION. Drop me a line with your tips and feedback: mstratford@politico.com or @mstratford. Share event listings: educalendar@politicopro.com. And follow us on Twitter: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro. | | | | Get the free POLITICO news app for the critical updates you need. Breaking news, analysis, videos, and podcasts, right at your fingertips. Download for iOS and Android. | | | | | | TRUMP PUSH TO REOPEN SCHOOLS COMPLICATES FIGHT OVER STIMULUS FUNDING: President Donald Trump's effort to leverage federal funding to pressure schools into physically reopening this fall drew most of the headlines over the past 24 hours. But it's not clear how the administration would or could make good on such a threat — and there's no indication that Education Department officials are moving to do so (though the agency says it's "looking at all of our options.") — The bigger news might be how the Trump administration's drive to open schools — which is widely seen as key to an economic recovery — could reshape how Congress negotiates education funding in the next round of coronavirus relief in the coming weeks. — Top Trump administration officials, for the first time on Wednesday, said they're eyeing the next stimulus package to prod states to reopen and push school choice policies. That adds a new wrinkle to the debate over whether lawmakers should allocate the hundreds of billions of dollars that school groups and teachers unions say they need to safely reopen schools and stave off budget cuts. — Vice President Mike Pence said the administration wanted to "build in incentives" to the next bill. "As we work with Congress on the next round of state support, we're going to be looking for ways to give states a strong incentive and encouragement to get kids back to school," he said. — White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump wanted to "substantially bump up money for education" in the next coronavirus relief package, without offering a specific dollar amount. But she added that the White House may demand that the additional assistance is "tied to the student and not to a district where schools are closed." — Education Department spokesperson Liz Hill said that DeVos believes "the investment in education is a promise made to students and families." She continued: "If schools are not going to keep that promise, why would they get the money? Why shouldn't that money go directly to parents to find an option for their student if the school they are assigned to refuses to open?" — House Democrats already staked out their opening bid on more educational aid, including more than $100 billion for all types of education in their relief package that passed in May. Senate Democrats last week proposed a $430 billion plan for child care, K-12 schools and higher education. — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that getting kids back in schools will be a "theme" of the next coronavirus relief bill he'll be releasing. McConnell has expressed an openness to additional funding to help schools reopen but hasn't weighed in on whether that additional money should come with the types of conditions that Trump administration officials described on Wednesday. — Happening today : Trump will likely get some backup on his campaign to fully reopen schools. The House Freedom Caucus is holding a press conference on the issue at 1 p.m. ET. — Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins University is out today with a new tracker that analyzes school reopening plans across the country. The new tool examines whether or not each state reopening plan addresses a dozen different issues. | | | | HAPPENING JULY 16, 9 a.m. EDT – REBOOTING THE AMERICAN WORKFORCE : Join POLITICO for a virtual discussion exploring how recovery efforts have affected different sectors of the American workforce and what measures lawmakers need to implement to help Americans get back to work. Featuring a keynote conversation with Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, the program also includes a panel discussion with Neil Bradley, executive vice president and chief policy officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Marianne Wanamaker, associate professor of economics at the University of Tennessee and former chief domestic economist for President Donald Trump's White House Council of Economic Advisors. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | BIDEN-SANDERS UNITY PLATFORM FOR EDUCATION: The sweeping 110-page document released by the task forces on Wednesday includes several education proposals. Here are the highlights: — Child care/early education: A new "child care guarantee of grant assistance" to help families afford early learning for children under five. Universal pre-kindergarten for all three- and four-year-olds. — K-12 education: Triple Title I funding; fully-fund IDEA and the Bureau of Indian Education. Universal free school meals and open food pantries in school. — Teachers: Forgive up to $50,000 in student loan debt for educators; boost pay of teachers and support staff; expand collective bargaining rights. — Charter schools, vouchers: Ban all for-profit charter schools and impose new federal conditions on funding for charter schools. Eliminate the federally-run school voucher program for students in the District of Columbia. — Higher education: Tuition-free public colleges and universities for all students from families earning below $125,000. Double the maximum Pell Grant award. — Student debt: Provide pandemic relief of up to $10,000 per student loan borrower while also canceling all monthly federal student loan payments during Covid-19 national emergency. Forgive the undergraduate tuition-related federal student loan debt from public colleges and private HBCUs for borrowers earning up to $125,000. — Civil rights: Reinstate Obama-era policies on school discipline and rights of transgender students. Restore Obama-era Title IX policies on campus sexual assault. Strengthen Education Department's Office for Civil Rights to "end segregation and discrimination in our schools." | | | NO FALL SPORTS FOR IVY LEAGUE TEAMS: Some of the nation's top universities say the coronavirus pandemic has made it impossible for their teams to compete during the fall semester, given campus-wide restrictions on travel and social distancing guidelines. Now it's time to watch if more prominent schools and athletic departments reach similar conclusions, as growing cancellations and delays drill holes in planned college sports schedules. — Ivy League officials said decisions on winter and spring sports are still to be determined. Same goes for whether canceled fall sports can resume in the spring. — School presidents did make one thing clear when they announced their decision on Wednesday: It's still not safe, in their view, for college athletics to get back to business. — More sobering college sports news out of California: Stanford announced it's cutting an eye-opening 11 varsity sports programs at the end of the 2020-21 school year. University officials said those athletes could compete in this year's seasons, but only if circumstances allow games to go on. "The financial model supporting 36 varsity sports is not sustainable," Stanford officials said. | | | |  | | | | | | HARVARD, MIT SUE OVER ICE POLICY ON INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS: Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Wednesday sued to block the Trump administration's efforts to bar international students from attending U.S. colleges that remain online-only this fall. The University of California also plans to file a separate lawsuit over the policy. — White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany responded: "The policy speaks for itself. You don't get a visa for taking online classes from, let's say, the University of Phoenix. So why would you if you were just taking online classes generally?" — Happening today: A federal judge in Boston will hold a virtual hearing at 10 a.m. ET on the universities' request for an emergency order blocking the ICE policy. — Also today: A group of House Democrats is sending a letter to the heads of the DHS and ICE, urging them to rescind the new policy. The letter is led by Jimmy Panetta (Calif.) Linda Sánchez (Calif.), Susan Davis (Calif.), Jerry Nadler (N.Y.), and Zoe Lofgren (Calif.). | | | | WINNERS PLAY THE LONG GAME : Now more than ever, it's essential to look ahead to how society will thrive in the future. "The Long Game" is a newsletter designed for executives, investors and policymakers leading that conversation. Sustainability starts in your inbox; engage with the sharpest minds on our biggest challenges, from pandemics to environmental justice, climate change to renewable energy, inequality, and the future of work. Subscribe today for a nuanced look at these problems and possible solutions. | | | | | | | | — The American Enterprise Institute is out with a new report: "College in the time of coronavirus: Challenges facing American higher education." — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce today is releasing new policy recommendations for closing the nation's education gap. Among them: more equitable educational funding, improving K-12 education accountability, expanding school choice at the state level, and improving transparency in higher education. — The risk of obesity for children in poverty decreased significantly because of school nutrition standards enacted a decade ago, according to a new study published in Health Affairs. The prevalence of obesity in 2018 was an estimated 47 percent lower than it would have been in lieu of healthier school meals. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which backed the study, today is calling for universal free school meals for the upcoming school year. | | | — University of California President-elect Michael V. Drake knows firsthand about harsh police tactics: The Los Angeles Times. — Supreme Court rules against 2 teachers at religious schools in discrimination case: POLITICO. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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