INBOX: APPROPRIATIONS 鈥� The 2020 budget-writing season kicks off this week, as a takes the first crack at writing a spending bill covering the Education Department.

The subcommittee, now under Democratic control, notably clashed with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos over the Trump administration’s proposal to end federal funding to the Special Olympics, a spat that drew national press attention and eventually led to Trump walking back the proposal.

But members also challenged DeVos on other proposed cuts, including an end to Title II teacher training grants, ESSA Title IV grants that support areas like technology and mental health, and afterschool programs.

Outside of those programs 鈥� which Congress is sure to fund, as it has the past two years over administration asks to cut them 鈥� look for the Democratic-controlled subcommittee to increase funding for long-standing K-12 programs like Title I grants for low-income students and IDEA special education grants.

The federal charter school program could be a flash point, too. It has long had bipartisan support and received big increases in recent years, but some Democratic members of the subcommittee were skeptical of DeVos鈥檚 support for the program amid what they said were subpar results.

The committee meets at 4 p.m. Tuesday, and the bill text is expected about 24 hours ahead of time. This is just the start of what will be a months-long process to write a spending bill for the department, and the rest of the federal government, ahead of the new fiscal year Oct. 1.

TUESDAY: BROWN V. BOARD, 65 YEARS LATER 鈥� The House Education and Labor Committee holds a on the 65th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision and 鈥渁 promise unfulfilled.鈥�

TUESDAY: FUNDING INDIAN EDUCATION 鈥� A House Appropriations subcommittee holds a on the budget request for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education, which educates about 41,000 students in 183 schools on reservations in 23 states.

TUESDAY: EDUCATION ACCOUNTS FOR MILITARY PARENTS 鈥� The Heritage Foundation hosts an on providing education savings accounts to military families as a way of increasing recruitment and retention in the armed services. Rep. Jim Banks, Republican of Indiana, who sponsored a bill to create such a program, speaks.

TUESDAY: ENTREPRENEURSHIP AT HBCUS 鈥� A House Small Business subcommittee holds a on whether historically black colleges and universities 鈥渁re receiving enough support from the Small Business Administration to to help develop successful entrepreneurs.鈥�

WEDNESDAY: SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 鈥� Communities in Schools holds a focused on school discipline. Former education secretary Arne Duncan and Thomas B. Fordham Institute President Mike Petrilli are among the speakers. The group will also release new polling data on 鈥減ublic attitudes about effective solutions to better address disciplinary challenges in schools.鈥�

WEDNESDAY: SCHOOL REFORM & STUDENTS 鈥� The Thomas B. Fordham Institute holds the in its Education 20/20 series. Former education secretary Rod Paige will argue that real school reform will require schools to hold students accountable and foster a culture that 鈥渆mphasizes innate abilities and that celebrates academics over ball games and socializing.鈥� Peter Wehner, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, will discuss the importance of character education.

THURSDAY: SCHOOL DESEGREGATION 鈥� The Urban Institute holds a on the state of school integration, 65 years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case. The discussion will focus on research and policy solutions.

THURSDAY: SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING 鈥� Politico holds an on 鈥渢eaching coping skills in the classroom鈥� and how policymakers can best measure and support effective SEL practices. Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat from Ohio who is running for president, is among the advertised speakers.

INBOX: TITLE IX鈥� The ongoing debate surrounding federal regulations that govern how schools must respond to sexual assault and harassment reaches the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee this week.

On Tuesday, HELP will have a 鈥渁ddressing campus sexual assault and ensuring student safety and rights鈥� in the context of a pending reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Both Sens. Lamar Alexander, the committee chairman, and Patty Murray, the ranking Democrat, have said the issue should be addressed in the HEA rewrite.

The Obama administration prioritized the issue with a 2014 鈥淒ear Colleague鈥� letter that encouraged schools to take a tougher stance by requiring a lower standard of evidence when adjudicating allegations of assault.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in 2017 announced she was revoking that letter and rewriting the rules. She said the 2014 guidance hadn鈥檛 been issued in accordance with proper rulemaking procedures and inappropriately tilted the scales of justice against the accused.

Her proposed rules, released last fall, would let schools use a higher standard of proof when adjudicating claims and limit the types of claims in which they must intervene. They were immediately panned by civil rights and women鈥檚 groups, who led a campaign to flood the department with more than 100,000 public comments. Officials must read them all and respond as appropriate before issuing a final regulation.

Though more commonly thought of as a topic affecting colleges, Title IX does apply to K-12 schools as well. 蜜桃影视鈥檚 Mark Keierleber covered this issue at length in 2017, when he reported on the open K-12 investigations that were missing from the college sexual assault debate. There were 125 open Title IX investigations for allegations of sexual violence at the K-12 level, last updated March 1.

Advocates have raised concerns about how DeVos鈥檚 proposed rules would affect K-12 specifically, highlighting discrepancies between the regulation and mandatory child abuse reporting laws.

Murray, who has been a sharp opponent of DeVos鈥檚 proposal, asked the secretary last week if she would hold off on issuing new higher education rules while HEA negotiations are ongoing. DeVos said she didn鈥檛 expect any finalized rules to be issued before Memorial Day, 鈥渂ut we are going to continue with our timeline.鈥�

TUESDAY: SAVE THE CHILDREN 鈥� Several members of Congress are slated to speak to advocates with Save the Children, a group that works on international aid programs and domestic early childhood education. The group will also hear from Timothy Shriver, president of the Special Olympics, which became a flashpoint between members of Congress and DeVos last week before President Trump said he鈥檇 no longer call to end federal funding for the program.

TUESDAY: EQUALITY ACT 鈥� The House Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on the , a bill that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in school assignments, employment, housing and public accommodations. It also would specifically include gender identity in Title IX, the federal law banning discrimination in education based on sex. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the issue is a top priority.

WEDNESDAY: HIGHER EDUCATION ACT REWRITE 鈥� The Education and Labor Committee holds the second in its planned series of five hearings on rewriting the Higher Education Act. focuses on accountability 鈥渢o better serve students and taxpayers.鈥�

WEDNESDAY: LABOR DEPT. BUDGET 鈥� Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta before a House Appropriations subcommittee. The agency oversees federal apprenticeship and youth job training programs.

WEDNESDAY: PAID FAMILY LEAVE 鈥� Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy discusses his ideas for a federal paid family leave program . Later, a panel of experts discusses federal and state family leave policies.

THURSDAY: CLIMATE CHANGE 鈥� The new House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis holds a called 鈥淕eneration Climate: Young Leaders Urge Climate Action Now.鈥� Students around the world walked out of school in mid-March to protest inaction on climate change.

THURSDAY: MIGRATION & IMMIGRANT CHILDREN 鈥� The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee holds a on 鈥渦nprecedented migration on the U.S. southern border.鈥� The head of Customs and Border Protection that immigration enforcement is 鈥渁t the breaking point鈥� amid an influx of migrant families with children.

THURSDAY: HHS BUDGET 鈥� Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee. The agency is responsible for federal child care and early childhood education programs, and for care of unaccompanied immigrant children on the border.

INBOX: DEVOS TO THE HILL 鈥� Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will testify on the administration鈥檚 budget request before both the House and Senate this week.

She鈥檚 clashed with Democrats in these hearings before. A brief rundown:

鈥擨n 2017, she battled with House Democrats over civil rights protections for students participating in a proposed voucher program. In the Senate, she similarly faced questions on civil rights protections, particularly for LGBT students, and on ESSA implementation.

鈥擫ast year was more of the same. She again went several rounds with members of the House Appropriations committee on protections for LGBT students and battled with them on school safety issues, while a hearing at the Education Committee turned to vouchers for military families and immigration enforcement at schools.

This year should be no different, with Democrats having already panned the administration鈥檚 budget requests. The proposal, like the administration鈥檚 last two, seeks deep cuts to long-standing Education Department programs and expansion of school choice initiatives. DeVos is set to appear at a House Appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday, and one in the Senate on Thursday.

ICYMI: WHITE HOUSE ON HIGHER ED 鈥� The White House put forward its priorities for the ongoing rewrite of the Higher Education Act, focusing on workforce needs.

Additionally, President Trump signed an that will require colleges that receive federal research dollars to certify that they鈥檙e upholding the First Amendment. The executive order also will require the Education Department to post more student earnings and loan default data on the College Scorecard, and to put together a report on 鈥渞isk-sharing,鈥� the idea that colleges should be held financially responsible when graduates can鈥檛 repay their loans.

MONDAY: PUBLIC SCHOOLS WEEK 鈥� The Learning First Alliance, an umbrella group of a dozen education groups, hosts , including Capitol Hill events on protections for students with disabilities and church-state issues in education.

MONDAY: FREE SPEECH IN HIGHER ED 鈥� The Bipartisan Policy Center holds a on free speech and intellectual diversity in higher education. The event is a kickoff of the group鈥檚 Campus Free Expression Project.

TUESDAY: CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION 鈥� A House Education and Labor subcommittee holds a on strengthening prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect. A federal law, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, is due for reauthorization; Sen. Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has listed the reauthorization as among his priorities.

TUESDAY: CIVIC PARTICIPATION 鈥� The Thomas B. Fordham Institute holds the latest in its , this one focused on schools鈥� obligation to foster a sense of patriotism and why a good education means an open debate that challenges a person鈥檚 ideas. William Damon of Stanford and Robert P. George of Princeton will speak.

TUESDAY: WORKERS鈥� RIGHTS 鈥� The House Education and Labor Committee holds a on protecting workers鈥� rights and 鈥渢he need for labor law reform.鈥� Several states passed laws in the run-up to the Janus decision last year to strengthen public sector union rights ahead of the Supreme Court鈥檚 decision to end mandatory union dues.

WEDNESDAY: APPRENTICESHIPS 鈥� A House Education and Labor subcommittee holds a on 鈥渋nnovations in expanding registered apprenticeship programs.鈥� Apprenticeships have been one of few policies with bipartisan support in recent years.

WEDNESDAY: BUDGET MEMBER DAY 鈥� The House Appropriations subcommittee opens a for House Members to share their spending priorities in the Education, Labor and Health and Human Services departments.

INBOX: BUDGET 鈥� The Trump administration will release the first of two waves of budget documents this week, reportedly to contain large-scale proposals, with specific policy details coming next week.

Overall, the Trump administration will seek to increase defense spending while cutting non-defense programs by 5 percent, representing 鈥渙ne of the largest spending reductions in history,鈥� Russ Vought, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, .

Cuts to the Education Department, included in the broad non-defense discretionary bucket, would not be new for the administration. For the past two years, Trump has sought massive cuts to K-12 spending, including eliminating afterschool programs and teacher training grants, while at the same time proposing new school choice programs.

The White House also may use the budget release to unveil new executive orders for higher education, including one that would make federal research dollars contingent on, in Trump鈥檚 words, protecting free speech, .

Presidential budget proposals, particularly Trump鈥檚, are largely symbolic and usually don鈥檛 become law. The Democratic majority in the House makes it even less likely.

ICYMI: SPECIAL ED 鈥� A federal court in Washington, D.C. last week that the Education Department cannot delay implementation of the Obama-era 鈥淓quity in IDEA鈥� rule that required states to ensure that children of a particular race are not over-identified for inclusion in special education, nor disciplined differently.

2020 WATCH: Former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper is the latest to join the Democratic field. (Check out his conversation with 蜜桃影视 at a governors鈥� education event last year.) Washington Gov. Jay Inslee also declared his candidacy last week; Inslee opposed charter schools but of laws that let them survive in the midst of legal battles.

TUESDAY: CHILD NUTRITION 鈥� A House Education and Labor subcommittee holds a and 鈥済rowing a healthy next generation.鈥� The federal law authorizing those programs, including school breakfast and lunch and summer meals programs, .

TUESDAY: PTA 鈥� The Parent Teacher Association holds its Tuesday through Thursday, with a focus on federal policy and school finance, special education, school safety, and student data and outcomes.

TUESDAY: FAFSA SIMPLIFICATION 鈥� The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee holds a . Both Sen. Lamar Alexander, the committee chair, and Sen. Patty Murray, the ranking Democrat, have discussed their priorities for reauthorizing the Higher Education Act.

TUESDAY: FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES 鈥� A House Appropriations subcommittee examines . The Education Department鈥檚 about the department鈥檚 efforts to roll back regulations on those schools, and the issue is sure to be the subject of contentious debates when it comes to reauthorizing the Higher Education Act.

TUESDAY: NET NEUTRALITY 鈥� A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on a legislation to restore net neutrality rules, which Democrats are calling the . Education groups have raised concerns that the FCC鈥檚 2017 decision to end the rules could lead to higher prices and slower service for internet in schools.

WEDNESDAY: INDIAN EDUCATION 鈥� The Senate Indian Affairs Committee holds a to examine the status of programs for Native Americans included on the Government Accountability Office鈥檚 2017 鈥渉igh-risk list.鈥� One was the Bureau of Indian Education, specifically its mismanagement of spending and facilities. The agency and has 鈥減artially met鈥� all the GAO鈥檚 criteria for assessing risk.

WEDNESDAY: COLLEGE COSTS 鈥� The House Education and Labor Committee holds a and 鈥渟tudent-centered reforms to bring education within reach.鈥� Committee leaders that they will hold five bipartisan hearings as Congress works to reauthorize the Higher Education Act.

WEDNESDAY: HHS BUDGET 鈥� A House Appropriations . Among the department鈥檚 responsibilities are the Head Start preschool program for low-income children and care of migrant children on the southern border.

WEDNESDAY: CYBERSECURITY & CTE 鈥� The Brookings Center for Technology Innovation hosts a , including presentations by Rep. Glenn Thompson, Republican of Pennsylvania, and Rep. James Langevin, Democrat of Rhode Island, the co-chairs of the Congressional Career and Technical Education Caucus.

THURSDAY: MEMBER DAY 鈥� The House Education and Labor Committee holds a 鈥溾�� at which any lawmaker may come and talk about his or her priorities for education and labor issues.

FRIDAY: FREE COLLEGE 鈥� Centrist Democratic think tank Third Way to 鈥渄ig beneath the headlines鈥� on free college, specifically details like which students benefit the most.

INBOX: GUN CONTROL 鈥� A year after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida kicked off a wave of student activism on gun control, the House will vote on two gun control bills.

would expand background checks to cover gun shows and online sales. Student advocates with March for Our Lives and were when the bill was introduced and earlier this month .

The other would expand the time period in which background checks can be completed. Prospects for passage of either bill in the Republican-controlled Senate or approval by President Donald Trump are slim.

2020 WATCH: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders became the latest candidate to throw his hat in the ring for the Democratic nomination for president last week. A longtime member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Sanders universal pre-K and free four-year college for nearly everyone.

MONDAY: SESAME STREET 鈥� America鈥檚 Public Television Stations hold a including an event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sesame Street and visits to lawmakers.

TUESDAY: HIGHER ED ACCESS 鈥� The National College Access Network brings its members to Capitol Hill for a , including a panel discussion to examine steps Congress can take to make higher education more affordable. Four student panelists will discuss obstacles they faced when applying for financial aid and at other points in the college application process.

TUESDAY: VOTING & COLLEGES 鈥� The considers , a broad voting, campaign finance, and ethics bill. Under the bill, all U.S. citizens would be automatically registered to vote, unless they explicitly decline to do so, during interactions with government agencies. All colleges and universities that receive federal funding would become voter registration agencies for students who vote in that state.

WEDNESDAY: SECLUSION & RESTRAINT 鈥� A House Education and Labor subcommittee holds a called 鈥淐lassrooms in Crisis: Examining the Use of Inappropriate Seclusion and Restraint Practices.鈥� Democrats in November introduced legislation to curtail the practices, which disproportionately affect students with disabilities and black students. The Department of Education last month launched an initiative to combat 鈥渋nappropriate鈥� uses of the practice.

WEDNESDAY: FAMILY SEPARATION 鈥� A looks into the Trump Administration’s family separation and unaccompanied minor policies. The subcommittee covers the Department of Health and Human Services, whose reportedly substandard care of children separated from their parents at the southern border triggered a still-pending inspector general . A separate report released in January found that than earlier believed.

WEDNESDAY: BORDER WALL & MILITARY SCHOOLS 鈥� Part of President Trump鈥檚 declaration of a national emergency on immigration includes moving $3.6 billion in military construction funds to pay for a wall on the southern border. Now, a is looking into that declaration and its 鈥渆ffect on military construction and readiness.鈥� Which specific military construction projects will be cut hasn鈥檛 yet been decided, but could be scuttled, several news outlets have reported.

THURSDAY: INTEGRATION 鈥� Fifteen education advocates and policymakers and 鈥渨here we stand today with regard to realizing educational equity,鈥� according to the Learning Policy Institute, the think tank organizing the event. House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Bobby Scott and former U.S. education secretary John King are among the panelists.

THURSDAY: HIGHER ED REAUTHORIZATION 鈥� Sen. Patty Murray, the ranking Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, gives a speech about her vision for reauthorizing the Higher Education Act. The speech, , will be followed by a panel discussion.

Murray鈥檚 remarks come three and a half weeks after her Republican counterpart, Chairman Lamar Alexander, gave a speech describing his priorities at the American Enterprise Institute. House Education and Labor Committee leaders last week announced a series of five bipartisan hearings as they too begin work on a reauthorization.

INBOX: SCHOOL FUNDING 鈥� The marquee K-12 event this week is the House Education and Labor Committee hearing on school funding, called 鈥淯npaid Teachers and Crumbling Schools: How Underfunding Public Education Shortchanges America鈥檚 Students.鈥�

The hearing, the first the new Democratic majority in the House will hold on K-12 issues, comes on the heels of increasing focus on school infrastructure, as well as mounting labor unrest among teachers across the country.

said 2018 had the highest number of strikes and lockouts (20) since 2007, and the largest number of employees affected (485,000) since 1986. Teachers made up the majority of those stoppages, with more than 375,000 employees in 鈥渆ducational services鈥� out of work at some point last year. The two largest strikes of the year were attributed to teachers in Arizona and Oklahoma.

Educators in and could strike this week.

Total spending on public schools in the U.S. was about $678 billion in the 2015-16 school year, . The numbers vary by state, but overall, it was the third year in a row that spending increased after a dip following the great recession. Funding mostly came from state (47 percent) and local (45 percent) revenues with the remaining 8 percent from the federal government.

2020 WATCH: Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar will , widely believed to be about a presidential run. Klobuchar cited her mother鈥檚 career as a schoolteacher and her daughter鈥檚 experience with disability as a young child in a .

TUESDAY: FAMILY SEPARATION 鈥� The House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees hold simultaneous hearings on the Trump administration鈥檚 moves this summer that led to the separation of children and parents at the southern border.

will conduct general oversight and hear from leaders in Customs and Border Protection, the Justice Department, and the Health and Human Services Department that oversaw care of the separated children. will look at agencies鈥� failure to produce documents about the policy.

TUESDAY: CIVICS 鈥� The Thomas B. Fordham Institute holds the , this one focused on civics. Eliot Cohen, of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, will argue that civics promotes 鈥減atriotic history,鈥� while Yuval Levin, editor of National Affairs, will 鈥渕ake the case for reasserting the role of education in character formation.鈥�

TUESDAY: MILITARY ACADEMIES & SEXUAL ASSAULT 鈥� Two subcommittees hear testimony on the nation鈥檚 military academies. In the morning, an on Defense hears a general overview from the leaders of the Military Academy, Naval Academy, and Air Force Academy.

In the afternoon, an hears testimony on the academies鈥� plans to address a new . Military academies , the federal law governing how schools handle allegations of sexual misconduct.

TUESDAY: STEM EDUCATION 鈥� The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine hold a day-long conference to discuss two recent reports on STEM education, one on , and the other on .

TUESDAY: HIGHER ED 鈥� Three panels of experts , a libertarian think tank, to 鈥渟crutinize many of the most popular suspects for higher ed鈥檚 decline and … debate potential policy changes to which their conclusions point.鈥�

WEDNESDAY: THE BENEFITS OF READING ALOUD 鈥� 鈥渢he latest neuroscience and behavioral research linking reading aloud to cognitive and social-emotional benefits for young children鈥� at the American Enterprise Institute.

INBOX: STATE OF THE UNION 鈥� The annual address became the D.C. equivalent of a feuding tween鈥檚 birthday party, with invitations given and rescinded as a prize in a larger fight. But it鈥檚 really happening Tuesday, and President Trump will be 鈥� wait for it 鈥� 鈥渦nity.鈥�

Alongside topics such as immigration, trade, health care, and foreign policy, Trump will ask Congress to 鈥減roduce an infrastructure package that delivers substantial investments in vital national infrastructure projects,鈥� a senior administration official said on a call with reporters Friday.

The White House official didn鈥檛 elaborate on the infrastructure package, including how much Trump would seek to spend. Though Trump hasn鈥檛 included upgrading America鈥檚 school buildings in past infrastructure plans, look for Democrats, at least those on the Education and Labor Committee, to push hard to include them in any big package.

Rep. Bobby Scott, the committee鈥檚 chairman, and other Democratic lawmakers last week released a bill to fund $100 billion in school infrastructure improvements and said schools could 鈥渆asily be a part鈥� of any bigger infrastructure deal.

Trump鈥檚 2017 address (not officially a State of the Union because it was his first year in office) focused heavily on school choice. Last year, K-12 talk was almost nonexistent besides discussion of DACA and Dreamers, the young people brought to the country illegally as children who were temporarily given some legal protections.

ICYMI: WELCOME ED LABOR 鈥� The House Education and Labor Committee (renamed from Education and the Workforce, as it had been known under GOP control) formally organized last week.

On the committee鈥檚 oversight agenda for the next two years: ESSA implementation; the federal school safety commission鈥檚 report and 鈥渋nterest in arming teachers鈥�; rebuilding schools in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and elsewhere affected by natural disasters; the Education Department鈥檚 鈥渄isproportionality鈥� rule for special education; child nutrition programs; and general implementation of civil rights laws.

2020 WATCH 鈥� Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey announced Friday he鈥檚 running for president. The former mayor of Newark has a long history in education policy, including a continued embrace of charter schools, even as they鈥檝e become more contentious in the Democratic Party.

He joins several other familiar faces who have already joined the race:

鈼徧�Juli谩n Castro, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development and former mayor of San Antonio, who .

鈼徧�Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, best known in the education world for her .

鈼徧�Sen. Kamala Harris of California, who .

鈼徧�Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who has been one of the most vocal voices on ESSA implementation and civil rights protections in the Senate.

MONDAY: HIGHER ED听鈥� Sen. Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, at the American Enterprise Institute. A panel discussion will follow. Alexander, a former college president and U.S. education secretary, has for several years focused on rewriting the law, with an emphasis on deregulation. He鈥檚 on something of a ticking clock: he announced last year he will leave the Senate at the end of his current term in 2020.

TUESDAY: SKILLS听鈥� The National Skills Coalition kicks off a . Reps. Glenn Thompson and Raja Krishnamoorthi, the co-sponsors of a 2018 update to federal career and technical education law, on Wednesday discuss 鈥渉ow bipartisanship can change the course of skills policy.鈥�

WEDNESDAY: ED NOMINEES 鈥� The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee holds a , including Robert L. King to be assistant secretary for postsecondary education. King, currently the president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, will play a key role as Congress again considers a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

WEDNESDAY: EARLY CHILDHOOD听鈥� Representatives of Public Prep, a charter network in New York City, that provides a home visiting program, focused on school readiness, to the young siblings of their students. A panel at AEI will also discuss the potential for partnerships between K-12 and early childhood, and implications for including young children in federal education law.

THURSDAY: COLLEGE LEADERS听鈥� Harvard President Larry Bacow to discuss universities鈥� need to adapt to evolution in technology, state budgets, and student needs. He then joins a panel of experts to discuss the future of higher education in America.

INBOX: SHUTDOWN WEEK 4 鈥� As the partial federal government shutdown, now the longest ever, enters its fourth week, both sides remain entrenched. A deal floated by some Senate Republicans to fund the border wall in exchange for passage of a law protecting DACA recipients is off the table. The ongoing stalemate has taken the wind out of the sails of most other congressional activity.

Though the Education Department has a full year of funding and is up and running as usual, there have been impacts to students, particularly those living in the D.C. area, where and about 145,000 people have been furloughed.

In Northern Virginia, Fairfax Public Schools officials held an event to hire out-of-work feds as substitute teachers; one event held last week quickly reached capacity and officials planned another session this week, according to .

School districts throughout the D.C. region are expediting free and reduced-price lunch applications for children of furloughed federal workers, and some urged affected families to requests breaks on afterschool program fees, .

A spokesperson for the School Nutrition Association, which represents cafeteria workers, said the group has not heard of similar needs for the school lunch program outside of Washington.

The program is run under the auspices of the shuttered Agriculture Department. Officials had originally said the program could keep running on surplus funds 鈥渋nto February,鈥� but in a memo to program providers, they said it would continue 鈥渨ell into March.鈥�

ON THE HORIZON: TITLE IX COMMENTS 鈥� Congressional Democrats urged the Education Department to extend the comment period for proposed changes to Title IX rules governing how schools handle allegations of sexual assault. The current deadline is Jan. 28.

The rules changes are complex, and many students were taking final exams and on winter break during the comment period, Sen. Patty Murray, ranking Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, chair of the Appropriations subcommittee with oversight of the Education Department, said in a . They asked for an additional 30 days.

The Education Department did not respond to a request for comment from 蜜桃影视. More than 50,000 public comments had been submitted as of Jan. 10.

THIS WEEK: DISASTER AID 鈥� The House Rules Committee will consider a large-scale that includes $165 million for schools affected by a variety of disasters last year, including Hurricanes Florence and Michael, the wildfires in California, and typhoons and earthquakes. The bill could come to the House floor later in the week.

MONDAY: HIGHER ED REGS 鈥� The Education Department starts a week of to hash out regulations on a variety of higher ed issues, including accreditation and online learning. The proposed regs would let recipients of federal TEACH grants, which help prospective teachers pay for college in exchange for teaching at low-income schools, to teach in private schools serving low-income students, .

TUESDAY: SCHOOL CHOICE WEEK 鈥� Sen. Tim Scott and Rep. Paul Mitchell, co-chairs of the congressional School Choice Caucus, hold a press conference. Members of Congress, students, parents, and teachers 鈥渨ill discuss the importance of innovation and opportunity in education,鈥� organizers say. The event is held annually (see our coverage from 2017 and 2018) as part of National School Choice Week.

TUESDAY: ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEE 鈥� The Senate Judiciary Committee begins on the nomination of William Barr to be the next attorney general. The Justice Department during the Trump Administration has been involved in a variety of education-related issues, including the repeals of student discipline guidance and protections for transgender students, the end of the DACA program, and school safety.

WEDNESDAY: EARLY CHILDHOOD 鈥� The Bipartisan Policy Center hosts a on Early Head Start鈥揅hild Care Partnerships. The federal program, authorized in 2014, allows Early Head Start, a spinoff of the federal preschool program for low-income children under age 3, to integrate into existing childcare centers and family care providers.

SHUTDOWN, PART OH WHO KNOWS ANYMORE: Welcome to a new year and a new Congress.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a said her priorities include expanded gun control, protections for Dreamers, and passage of the , a bill that would include sexual orientation and gender identity among protected characteristics in federal civil rights laws, including in public education.

The last issue has been a major topic in K-12 education during the Trump administration, from the revocation of Obama-era guidance guaranteeing transgender students鈥� rights to access facilities matching their gender identity, to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos鈥檚 repeated clashes with congressional Democrats over protections for LGBT students in her hypothetical federal voucher program.

Any of those bills, of course, would run into opposition in the Republican-controlled Senate and from President Donald Trump.

The new Congress also welcomes back an old foe: the government shutdown. The House passed a bill Thursday to fund most of the currently shuttered agencies through the end of the fiscal year in September, and the Homeland Security Department through early February.

As of mid-day Friday, the Republican-controlled Senate had not taken up the bill. Trump has said he won鈥檛 sign a bill that doesn鈥檛 have money for a border wall.

The Department of Education received full-year funding last summer, so it remains fully open and running as usual, as is the Department of Health and Human Services, which in years past has had to shutter Head Start preschool programs during shutdowns.

Some smaller impacts to K-12 students, however, are percolating:

鈥擳he Bureau of Indian Education will remain open despite being under the umbrella of the shuttered Interior Department, because it received funding for the current school year in a 2018 funding bill. Other programs in Indian Country, however, from stocking food pantries to clearing snow-covered roads, without federal funding.

鈥擳he school breakfast and lunch programs, run by the now-closed Agriculture Department, will use carry-over funds to continue 鈥渋nto February,鈥� according to a from the department.

SCOTUS WATCH: We’re keeping an eye on a few cases pending before the high court.

Justices could announce as soon as Monday whether they鈥檒l hear 听 concerning participation by churches in New Jersey’s publicly funded historic building preservation program. They’re a follow-on to the court’s 2017 Trinity Lutheran decision, in which the court ruled that an organization couldn鈥檛 be excluded from a secular program simply because of its religious affiliation. The decision could have implications for public funding of religious schools, like in voucher and tax-credit scholarship programs.

Also pending before justices is a case concerning to exercise their religion while on the job and in the presence of students. The case concerns a football coach in Bremerton, Washington, who was banning school personnel from praying at school-sanctioned events when they could be observed by students.

ICYMI:听DISCIPLINE GUIDANCE 鈥� The Education and Justice departments just before Christmas concerning school discipline. The move had been anticipated after being recommended by the federal School Safety Commission.

Proponents of the guidance, which urged schools to reduce suspensions and warned that racial disparities in punishments could violate federal civil rights laws, said the guidance was needed to help break clear patterns of harsher discipline for students of color, particularly black boys, and those with disabilities. Opponents have said it was an inappropriate federal intervention in what should be local policy and could hamper classroom safety. The impact may not be large: Relatively few districts changed policies in response to the Obama-era guidance, , and some and have already vowed to stick with changes to discipline policies.

WEDNESDAY: POST-SCHOOL SUCCESS 鈥� in the Thomas B. Fordham Institute鈥檚 鈥淓ducation 20/20鈥� series. Charen will speak on the importance of the 鈥渟uccess sequence鈥�: finishing education, getting a job, getting married, and then having children. Ponnuru will discuss what he says is America鈥檚 preoccupation with college attendance, to the detriment of students who would be better served by other postsecondary options.

THURSDAY: SUPERINTENDENTS OF THE YEAR 鈥� Four will participate in a panel discussion on current trends in education. The finalists are Jeff Butts of the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township (Indiana); Curtis Jones Jr., Bibb County School District (Georgia); Mary Ann Rannels, West Ada Joint School District #2 (Idaho); and Brian Woods, Northside Independent School District (Texas). The winner of the prize will be announced at AASA The School Superintendents Association鈥檚 conference in February.

THURSDAY: STATE OF AMERICAN BUSINESS 鈥� Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue delivers a 听鈥渉ighlighting pro-growth policies that enable workers, families, and businesses.鈥� Donohue this fall said expanded early learning opportunities and K-12 education reforms are key to ensuring a prepared workforce.

INBOX: APPROPRIATIONS CLOCK 鈥� Lurking beneath the political drama of a bombshell anonymous op-ed and a full-on Supreme Court nomination battle is a much more routine political crisis in the making: funding the federal government.

The Senate last month, for the first time in a decade, debated and passed a $71.4 billion bill funding the Education Department. The education bill, which is always bundled with funding for the Labor and Health and Human Services departments, was packaged with the defense spending bill to ease its passage through the Senate.

The House passed its own bill through committee earlier in the summer but has not considered it on the floor. Both chambers voted last week to go to conference on the bill and begin ironing out differences.

House members are scheduled for just seven more days before the Sept. 30 funding deadline. Members are likely to want to wrap up work before that so they can go back home and campaign for re-election. he has a 鈥渧ery good understanding鈥� with the president about the need to continue government funding before the deadline, despite President Donald Trump鈥檚 comments that a shutdown, largely over money to build a border wall with Mexico, could happen.

ICYMI: KAVANAUGH HEARING 鈥� Much of Judge Brett Kavanaugh鈥檚 two-day-long testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee focused on political hot-button topics like abortion and presidential pardon power. A few K-12 education-adjacent topics, though, did come up in questioning late Thursday.

Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono, a听Democrat, asked about the Janus decision, the Supreme Court鈥檚 June ruling exempting dissenting public-sector employees from paying required union dues. An earlier Supreme Court case from the 1970s held that non-union public employees still had to pay fees to cover the costs of collective bargaining and other shared benefits. With Janus, the current court found that being compelled to support those activities violated the dissenting members鈥� First Amendment rights.

Hirono charged that Kavanaugh鈥檚 nomination is part of a larger campaign by conservative donors to take away workers鈥� rights, and she questioned how and when justices can overturn long-standing precedent.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 a precedent of the court, that, of course, because it鈥檚 one of the recent cases, I can鈥檛 comment on whether I agree or disagree with it. But it鈥檚 a precedent that is now part of the body of the Supreme Court case law,鈥� Kavanaugh said of Janus.

Sen. Kamala Harris, Democrat of California, questioned Kavanaugh over 1999 comments he made that the government, within 10 to 20 years, wouldn鈥檛 need to recognize differences in races. And, she asked, if that point ever arrives, whether that would mean the federal government should stop funding historically black colleges and universities.

Kavanaugh said the effort for racial equality is not finished and discrimination 鈥渋s still a reality we see on an all-too-frequent basis.鈥�

On the question of funding for HBCUs, Kavanaugh said it鈥檚 鈥渉ard to foresee what that would mean,鈥� but he recognizes the history and 鈥渋mportance鈥� of the institutions.

MONDAY: SCHOOL SAFETY 鈥� The conservative Heritage Foundation hosts a through the use of 鈥渃hild safety鈥� school choice accounts. Florida earlier this year passed a program to offer vouchers to bullying victims.

WEDNESDAY: CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS 鈥� The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation holds its annual legislative conference, including sessions focused on 鈥渞emoving the stigma of career and technical education,鈥� 鈥渃ombating the administration’s assault on education,鈥� and 鈥減rotecting our students from gun violence.鈥�

THURSDAY: SCHOOL POLICE 鈥� The Advancement Project and Alliance for Educational Justice on school policing, calling for an end to law enforcement in school, highlighting 鈥渉ow school policing uniquely harms youth of color,鈥� and analyzing national and city-specific policing and school discipline data.

The Advancement Project this spring brought together student organizers to call for less law enforcement and more counselors in school ahead of the March student walkouts to call for more gun control and memorialize the Parkland victims.

FRIDAY: EDU-PINIONS 鈥� The journal EdNext hosts a of its annual poll on school choice, accountability, school spending, and other issues. looked at teacher salaries, charter schools, Common Core, and immigration, among other issues.

INBOX: ALL EYES ON KAVANAUGH 鈥� The Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday begins confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, nominated in July by President Donald Trump for an open 鈥斕齛nd pivotal 鈥� swing-vote seat on the Supreme Court.

Kavanaugh, the son of a onetime D.C. public school teacher, has praised efforts to allow public funding of religious institutions. He served for two years as the co-chair of the conservative Federalist Society鈥檚 school choice subcommittee before he worked in the George W. Bush White House, he said in a听.

He鈥檚 also served on the board of the听Washington Jesuit Academy, an extended-day, extended-year Catholic school for low-income middle school boys in the D.C. area. Most go on to attend the city鈥檚 most elite private high schools.

Kavanaugh has worked in ancillary roles on a few key K-12 education cases.

In the Judiciary questionnaire, Kavanaugh listed one, Good News Club v. Milford Central School, as among the 10 鈥渕ost significant鈥� matters he litigated.

The 2001 case concerned whether a district in New York state could ban religious organizations from using school facilities after hours. Kavanaugh represented Sally Campbell, who had challenged a similar policy in Louisiana, in her 鈥渇riend of the court鈥� filing. The Supreme Court ruled, 6-3, that the policy was unconstitutional.

In detailing his previous advocacy before the Supreme Court, Kavanaugh also discussed Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe. That case hinged on whether a school district could permit student-led prayer before football games.

Kavanaugh filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of two congressmen who supported the students who wanted to lead such prayers. The court in its decision said prayers 鈥渙n school property, at school-sponsored events, over the school’s public address system, by a speaker representing the student body, under the supervision of school faculty, and pursuant to a school policy that explicitly and implicitly encourages public prayer鈥� violated the First Amendment clause dealing with the separation of church and state.

While in private practice before joining the Bush White House, Kavanaugh also helped then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush defend the state鈥檚 opportunity scholarship program, which allowed students at underperforming public schools to attend higher-performing public or private schools. Kavanaugh helped draft briefs for an appeal to an intermediate court, which ruled that the program did not violate the state鈥檚 constitution, though the state鈥檚 Supreme Court ultimately ruled the private-school-funding portion unconstitutional. A separate program, funded by donors who get tax breaks for their contributions to scholarship-granting organizations, remains on the books.

On higher education, advocates believe, based on his past decisions in other race-based cases and writings as a private attorney, that he could be a fifth vote to overturn affirmative action programs,听. Justice Anthony Kennedy, whom Kavanaugh would replace, wrote the majority opinion in a 2016 case upholding race-conscious admissions at the University of Texas.

The issue was in the news again last week, this time with siding with Asian Americans who say they were discriminated against in their applications to Harvard University by its affirmative action policies.

ICYMI:听SUMMER MOVES ON TITLE IX, SPENDING, GUNS听鈥� Though the House has been in recess since late July, the Senate has been working intermittently through August.

And the Education Department, of course, was still in business.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will reportedly release new Title IX rules that, among other changes, would let schools set new evidentiary standards, making it more difficult to prove an assault occurred. The report came almost a year after DeVos said she would rewrite the Obama-era rules that she said inappropriately weighted campus proceedings against the accused.

And, earlier in August, reports emerged that she had considered allowing schools to use federal Title IV grants under the Every Student Succeeds Act to buy guns to keep in schools. The report caused substantial uproar, including an unsuccessful effort to block it in a pending Education Department spending bill in the Senate.

More than 170 House Democrats also听, asking that she 鈥渃learly and unequivocally disallow the arming of teachers using [the funds] intended to improve equity of educational opportunity,鈥� and asked for her written confirmation by the end of the week. All but five Senate Democrats followed up with听 in the week.

That Education Department spending bill, which calls for the first federal study of the state of America’s school facilities since 1995, passed the Senate. It would authorize $71 billion for the department, and it must still be approved by the House and President Trump. Current funding expires Sept. 30.

THIS WEEK: STUDENT LOAN COUNSELING听鈥� The House this week will consider the听, which would require in-person or online counseling before students accept federal student loans or Pell Grants. The bipartisan bill has passed the House twice before, in 2014 and 2015.

TUESDAY: FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES听鈥� The National Student Legal Defense Network hosts a听 of Fail State, a documentary 鈥渆xposing the dark history of predatory for-profit colleges,鈥� the group said in an invitation to the event. Former education secretary John King, Rep. Maxine Waters, civil rights leader Wade Henderson, and the film鈥檚 director, Alex Shebanow, will hold a panel discussion before the screening.

WEDNESDAY: 鈥淧LAYFUL LEARNING鈥�鈥� The Brookings Institution holds a听 on 鈥渢he power of playful learning鈥� and how individuals outside the school system, such as doctors, mayors, and librarians, can better promote it.

WEDNESDAY: APPRENTICESHIPS听鈥� A House Education and the Workforce subcommittee holds a听 on 鈥渞ebuilding the workforce through apprenticeships.鈥�

THURSDAY: STUDENT LOAN DEFAULTS听鈥� The American Enterprise Institute听 to unveil research by AEI and the Urban Institute on student loan defaults and recommendations for policy reforms.

INBOX: WORKFORCE EDUCATION IN FOCUS 鈥� Following the Trump administration鈥檚 launch last week of the 鈥淣ational Council for the American Worker,鈥� congressional committees in both chambers will highlight workforce education and training issues.

On Tuesday, the House Education and the Workforce Committee hosts an 鈥溾�� that will allow 24 invited companies from committee members鈥� districts to highlight 鈥渉ow they are addressing the nation鈥檚 education and workforce development challenges,鈥� according to the committee. Five panels of company representatives will speak and answer questions from the House members, and they鈥檒l also have a showcase in one of the House office buildings to share their work.

On Thursday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a on modernizing apprenticeship programs.

And following the committee鈥檚 approval in late June of its reauthorization of the federal law, the Senate is likely to pass its Perkins bill by the end of the month, , citing a Senate aide.

Though the bill will have to be reconciled with a House version that passed early last year, a CTE reauthorization represents the best chance for a substantial K-12 education law change before the current session of Congress finishes at the end of the year.

President Trump, meanwhile, last week signed an executive order creating the National Council for the American Worker. It will develop a strategy to train American employees for high-demand jobs.

Part of the council鈥檚 job will be to develop a national campaign to raise awareness of several issues, including the importance of STEM education. It will also help expand apprenticeships, and it called on companies to sign a pledge to create more work-based education opportunities. The executive order came with no additional funding.

鈥淭his Administration understands that a dynamic and changing economy requires dynamic and changing approaches to education and workforce development,鈥� Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a press release after the signing. 鈥淭he partnerships announced today involve those who are best-positioned to identify ideas and drive solutions.鈥�

Business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, also praised the move.

Education and the Workforce Committee Democrats, meanwhile, dismissed the executive order in a as 鈥渏ust a publicity stunt鈥� that 鈥減rovides no new investments or tangible support to prepare workers for high-quality, in-demand jobs.鈥�

MONDAY: ECONOMIC MOBILITY 鈥� The hosts the World Bank authors of a report on global economic mobility 鈥� that is, whether young people exceed their parents鈥� standard of living or educational attainment. The , 鈥淔air Progress? Economic Mobility Across the Generations,鈥� found, for example, that girls are outperforming boys in higher education attainment and economic mobility in advanced countries, and that the trend is 鈥渋n the similar direction in the developing world.鈥�

TUESDAY: AMATEUR ATHLETE SAFETY 鈥� A Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee holds a on changes made by the U.S. Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics, and Michigan State University to better protect amateur and Olympic athletes from abuse.

Larry Nassar, a former doctor at Michigan State who worked with the USA gymnastics team, was accused of assaulting hundreds of young women under the guise of medical treatment; he has been convicted of multiple counts of child pornography and sexual assault of minors. The Education Department in February of Michigan State鈥檚 handling of the incidents.

TUESDAY: FOSTER CARE 鈥� A House Ways and Means looks at implementation of the Family First Prevention Services Act. The legislation, passed as part of a budget deal this spring, permits federal reimbursement for in-home parenting skills training, mental health care, and substance abuse treatment, with the goal of putting fewer children in foster care. The number of children in foster care rose 10 percent between 2012 and 2016, and in many places, that correlated with the opioid crisis, .

WEDNESDAY: MILITARY CHILDREN 鈥� The Military Child Education Coalition holds its national training seminar in downtown Washington, including a session Wednesday on school choice and military-connected children.

A bill proposed earlier this year to provide education savings accounts to some children whose parents are in the military has not been considered, either as a stand-alone measure or as part of a must-pass annual defense bill.

THURSDAY: CHARTER STIGMA? 鈥� The conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute, noting increasingly narrowed political support for charter schools in recent months, 鈥渇log a panel of experts to examine what America鈥檚 rising polarization and populism mean for charter schools.鈥� Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools; Charles Barone, director of policy for Democrats for Education Reform; and Carlos Marquez, senior vice president for government affairs at the California Charter Schools Association, participate.

INBOX: TAKING STOCK 鈥� The clock is ticking for Congress to pass any major legislation before it departs for its August recess and the remaining months of 2018 are consumed by the midterm campaigns.

The one must-do is appropriations. Current government funding runs out Sept. 30. Congressional leaders have moved forward on several less controversial funding bills, but a continuing resolution for the Education Department is likely.

The House and Senate Appropriations Committees each passed $71 billion funding bills for the Education Department, but the timeline is likely too tight to pass the full bills out of each chamber and reconcile differences between the House and Senate. The bill for the Education Department also funds the Labor and Health and Human Services departments. The measure was a lightning rod for partisan controversy even before HHS, which cares for immigrant children separated from their parents at the border, became embroiled in that crisis.

Both chambers have failed to make any substantive progress on immigration issues, be it a resolution solving the uncertain status of DACA recipients or changes to how the government deals with unaccompanied minors or children separated from their parents at the border.

The only other education bill close to final passage is the rewrite of the Perkins Act governing federal grants for career and technical education.

The House is scheduled to be in session this week and next, and then on recess until after Labor Day. The Senate is slated to stay in D.C. a bit longer in August, with a focus on nominations, particularly that of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Senators are voting Monday evening on the nomination of Scott Stump to assistant secretary for career, technical, and adult education. Besides Stump, Education Department nominees awaiting Senate approval are Jim Blew to be assistant secretary for planning, evaluation, and policy development, and Mark Schultz to be commissioner of the Rehabilitative Services Administration. No one has been nominated to fill three other Senate-confirmed offices in the Education Department.

TUESDAY: SUMMER FOOD PROGRAM 鈥� A House Education and the Workforce subcommittee holds a on the summer food program, an offshoot of the school lunch program, which provides meals for low-income students when school is not in session. They can be run through schools, camps, local government agencies, or nonprofit groups.

WEDNESDAY: GOVERNMENT REORGANIZATION 鈥� The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee holds a on the Trump administration鈥檚 proposal to reorganize the federal government, including combining the Education and Labor departments.

WEDNESDAY: GI BILL 鈥� A House Veterans Affairs subcommittee holds a . Passed in March 2017, the bill eliminates deadlines for veterans to use higher education benefits, returns benefits to veterans whose schools closed, and expands awards for Purple Heart recipients. Several of the changes go into effect Aug. 1; the subcommittee will look at whether the Veterans Affairs department is ready for that deadline.

THURSDAY: EVIDENCE-BASED POLICY 鈥� The Brookings Institution holds a to promote newly released papers on the use of evidence-based policymaking and discuss its use in the Trump administration. highlights the Institute of Education Sciences as a model for other research offices.

THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION POLITICS publishes most Saturdays. (See previous editions here.) You can get the preview delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for 蜜桃影视 Newsletter; for rolling updates on federal education policy, follow Carolyn Phenicie on Twitter .

INBOX: WHO鈥橲 NEXT FOR SCOTUS?听鈥� President Donald Trump said last week that he鈥檇 announce his next nominee for the Supreme Court on Monday.

That new justice will replace Anthony Kennedy, a swing vote on many social issues, including affirmative action. The issue is prominently back in the public consciousness after the Education and Justice departments on July 3 emphasizing how colleges could use race in college admissions and how K-12 schools could emphasize diversity through competitive schools and zoning. The move drew immediate criticism from Democrats and civil rights groups, two constituencies already primed to oppose any Trump nominee.

Kennedy鈥檚 vote was key to a 2016 case , among other factors, as part of a 鈥渉olistic review鈥� it used to fill a small portion of each year鈥檚 freshman class. Most of each year鈥檚 class was filled by offering automatic admission to the top 10 percent of each high school class in the state.

Another affirmative action case is already working its way through federal courts. Brought by the same attorney responsible for the Texas case, it . It鈥檚 scheduled for trial early next year.

Kennedy sided with the majority in several recent education cases, including the 7-2 Trinity Lutheran听decision that ruled a religious institution can鈥檛 be excluded from a sectarian program, and last month鈥檚 5-4 Janus decision ending mandatory union fees.

Though the core questions in those cases are decided, further cases on those issues, the exclusion of religious institutions from non-religious state grants and mandatory union dues payments, could come before the court again.

On the support for religious issues, the high court ordered the New Mexico Supreme Court to reconsider an earlier ruling barring private schools, including religious ones, from participating in a state textbook-lending program. The state court鈥檚 earlier ruling relied on a clause in the state constitution prohibiting state aid to religious schools. That鈥檚 the same reasoning lower courts had used 鈥� and the Supreme Court rejected 鈥� in barring a Lutheran-church-affiliated preschool in Missouri from participating in a playground safety program.

The New Mexico high court has re-heard the case, and a ruling is expected by the end of the year, .

And though the dust has barely settled on the Janus ruling, some teachers are already suing for repayment of fees already paid to unions, .

ICYMI: APPROPRIATIONS, CTE TO SENATE FLOOR听鈥� Senate committees before their week-long July 4 recess approved a 2019 Education Department spending bill and a measure reauthorizing the Perkins Career and Technical Education Act.

The Appropriations Committee approved the spending bill. It would provide $71 billion for the Education Department while lawmakers rejected the Trump administration鈥檚 proposed cuts and new school choice programs. A House Appropriations Committee markup of the education spending bill has been postponed twice; it had not been rescheduled as of July 5.

The CTE bill would let states set their own goals without negotiating with the Education Department, and would require certain accountability measures for students who are deemed 鈥渃oncentrators鈥� in CTE, . The House passed its CTE reauthorization last year.

Both should be ready for consideration by the full Senate shortly; it鈥檚 up to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to schedule debate time for the measures.

MONDAY: UNIDOSUS听鈥� UnidosUS, the group formerly known as National Council of La Raza, Saturday through Monday. Several workshops and plenary sessions focus on education, including the federal government鈥檚 role in promoting equity.

TUESDAY: JANUS REACTION 鈥�听The Senate听Democratic Policy and Communications Committee holds a hearing titled “After Janus v. AFSCME: Why Teachers and Workers are Fighting Back Against the Secret Money Campaign to Take Away Their Rights.” Unions and their Democratic allies have said that the First Amendment arguments made against mandatory dues payments disguise the true motives of big-money conservative donors who funded Janus and similar cases. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten is among the witnesses.

TUESDAY: SUPERINTENDENTS 鈥� AASA: The School Superintendents鈥� Association holds its Tuesday through Thursday. Panels will focus on the fall elections and teacher training programs; attendees will also have meetings on Capitol Hill.

WEDNESDAY: PRINCIPALS鈥� The New America Foundation holds a . Panelists will discuss how principals can be not only effective building leaders but instructional leaders.

THURSDAY: NCLB AND HEA 鈥� Centrist Democratic think tank Third Way holds a on lessons learned from education reforms advanced under No Child Left Behind听that can be applied to an ongoing effort to reauthorize the Higher Education Act.

FRIDAY: DEVELOPMENT IMPACT BONDS 鈥� The Brookings Institution holds a on the world鈥檚 first development impact bond that helped fund Educate Girls, a nonprofit that aims to get more girls in school and improve outcomes for boys and girls in Rajasthan, India. Representatives of the UBS Optimus Foundation, which provided the upfront costs, Educate Girls, and Children鈥檚 Investment Fund Foundation, which will repay the UBS foundation, will participate.

THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION POLITICS publishes most Saturdays. (See previous editions here.) You can get the preview delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for 蜜桃影视 Newsletter; for rolling updates on federal education policy, follow Carolyn Phenicie on Twitter .

INBOX: 2019 SPENDING 鈥擜ll three branches of the federal government are slated to have a busy week ahead of the July 4 holiday: members of the executive branch are working on school safety; Congress is taking up Education Department appropriations and immigration, among a host of other issues; and the Supreme Court, of course, has yet to decide the Janus case.

In the House, the full Appropriations Committee Tuesday will consider a measure that would provide $71 billion for the Education Department for fiscal 2019. The measure avoids many of the hot-button issues that surrounded last year鈥檚 proposal, including eliminating funding for Title II teacher training grants and cutting money for afterschool programs.

Democrats on the House subcommittee earlier this month said that given an overall higher spending cap for next year, this bill should鈥檝e gotten a bigger increase, particularly for school safety.

On education issues, Democrats could, as they have in past years, offer amendments to address their ongoing concerns with the Education Department, like changing standards for Title IX sexual assault investigations.

The bill also funds the Department of Health and Human Services, which cares for unaccompanied minors crossing the border as well as the children more recently separated from their parents by the Trump administration.

In the Senate, education advocates are urging members to follow the House鈥檚 lead and remove language that prohibits federal funding from being used for busing for school integration efforts. The provisions are outdated and limit state authority granted under the Every Student Succeeds Act, .

A subcommittee will consider the bill Tuesday, and the full committee on Thursday.

Meanwhile, all eyes will also be on the Supreme Court, as justices wrap up the last week of their 2017 term. A decision in the Janus case, which could end mandatory agency fees for public employees, including teachers, is among those yet to be announced and could come Monday.

We will be tweeting and covering the news as it breaks, follow me at @cphenicie.

IMMIGRATION?: A plan to consider what鈥檚 been called a compromise immigration bill, including a solution for DACA recipients, was pulled from the House floor late last week after passage was in doubt. Another, more conservative bill, also failed. Even if House Republican leaders could find a compromise that would pass muster with their split caucus, any immigration measure is unlikely to pass the sharply divided Senate.

President Trump Friday morning also that the House should give up on immigration until after the midterms in the hope of electing a larger Republican majority, what he termed 鈥渢he Red Wave.鈥�

SCHOOL SAFETY: Members of the Trump administration will hold two events on school safety outside Washington this week.

The School Safety Commission will hold a public listening session at the Council of State Governments Tuesday in Lexington, Kentucky. Two panels will have roundtable discussions between state and local government officials and members of the commission, and a third will be for 鈥渕embers of the general public to express their views on how to improve school safety.鈥� The event will be .

Attorney General Jeff Sessions in Reno, Nevada. The number of schools with security staff has spiked in recent years, and the presence of law enforcement in schools has been at the center of both school safety debates and concerns about discipline and the school-to-prison pipeline.

The commission last week held a session focused on the effects of violent entertainment on school shootings.

MONDAY: FREE COLLEGE? 鈥� Think tank FutureEd holds a on making the first two years of college free, and whether it expands opportunity or increases government costs without targeting aid to students who need it most.

TUESDAY: CAREER ED 鈥� The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will amend and vote on a bill reauthorizing the federal career and technical education law. The House passed its own reuathorization last year. Members will also vote on the nomination of Scott Stump to be assistant secretary for career, technical and adult education. The meeting was rescheduled from last week.

TUESDAY: APPRENTICESHIPS 鈥� Centrist Democratic think tank Third Way holds a for the current era. Sen. Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, and Rep. Seth Moulton, Democrat of Massachusetts, will give opening remarks.

TUESDAY: INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 鈥� A House Judiciary subcommittee holds a on the 鈥渟tate of intellectual freedom鈥� in the country. Several professors are witnesses.

WEDNESDAY: GOVERNMENT REORGANIZATION 鈥� The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee holds a on the Trump Administration鈥檚 government reorganization plan, the most noteworthy portion of which calls for combining the Education and Labor departments.

Administration officials last week touted the move as a way to streamline two departments with similar goals of workforce training, while Democrats and others said the longshot plan could bury important Education Department functions, like early education and civil rights work, in a behemoth agency.

THURSDAY: HIGHER ED 鈥� The Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, holds a , the organizations that decide whether universities meet quality standards and are therefore eligible for federal financial aid. The Education Department has expressed a willingness to experiment on accreditation, for example by allowing more innovative degrees, .

FRIDAY: ED POLICY 鈥� The Education Commission of the States, a national group that helps translate education research and policy, holds its Wednesday through Friday. State leaders and education advocates will speak at a series of sessions throughout the three-day summit, and Deputy Education Secretary Mick Zais 鈥渨ill provide an overview on the federal perspective on school safety鈥� during the summit鈥檚 closing session on Friday.

THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION POLITICS publishes most Saturdays. (See previous editions here.) You can get the preview delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for 蜜桃影视 Newsletter; for rolling updates on federal education policy, follow Carolyn Phenicie on Twitter .

INBOX: IMMIGRATION? 鈥� After some high procedural drama surrounding a little-used petition process, House Republican leadership that would provide increased funding for a wall at the border with Mexico and set up a visa system for DACA recipients.

Leaders had planned to vote on the bill this week, but President Donald Trump threw cold water on the compromise when he announced Friday morning he wouldn鈥檛 sign the measure. Republicans scrambled to save the bill, with senior leaders predicting the president would walk back his remarks, . The bill鈥檚 fate was murky even before Trump鈥檚 remarks, with Democrats and hard-line conservatives both questioning the measure.

The future of 680,000 DACA recipients has been in turmoil for nine months, after the Trump administration ended the program. It has since continued renewing applications under court order, though most DACA recipients whose statuses expired have lost protections.

Lawmakers have been unable to come to a deal that satisfies Democrats and moderate Republicans who urge a pathway to citizenship for the so-called Dreamers, hard-line conservative Republicans who oppose citizenship, and President Trump, who has long demanded money for a border as part of any immigration deal.

JANUS WATCH: The number of days on which the Supreme Court could announce its opinion in a key public-sector union case is dwindling. The court is scheduled to be in Monday, June 18, and Monday, June 25, to announce decisions, but could add additional days as it approaches the end of its term. Review our recap of oral arguments, and five things to know about the case, as the edu-world awaits what many expect to be a landmark decision.

TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY: CHILD CARE 鈥� Progressive advocacy groups convene the first to call for better early federal child care policies. Sen. Patty Murray, the ranking Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and a former preschool teacher, will address the group.

WEDNESDAY: EDUCATION APPROPRIATIONS 鈥� The House Appropriations Committee marks up the fiscal 2019 spending bill that includes the Education Department. The Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education subcommittee approved the bill, which provides $71 billion for the Education Department, Friday.

ICYMI: LGBT SUICIDE PREVENTION 鈥� Sen. Orrin Hatch is an unlikely advocate for acceptance of LGBT Americans.

In the 1970s, he said gay people have a 鈥減sychological deficiency鈥� and shouldn鈥檛 be allowed to teach in public schools, and he was a strong defender of federal laws barring married same-sex couples from receiving government benefits, .

Yet on Wednesday, Hatch, an 84-year-old Mormon and strong social conservative, made an to send a 鈥渕essage of love鈥� to LGBT Americans, particularly LGBT young people, who .

鈥淟GBT youth deserve our unwavering love and support. They deserve our validation and the assurance that not only is there a place for them in this society, but that it is far better off because of them. These young people need us, and we desperately need them,鈥� Hatch said.

Hatch, with Indiana Democratic senator Joe Donnelly, wrote a bill that would require the Federal Communications Commission to recommend an easy-to-remember three-digit number for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, like 911 for emergency services. The Senate has passed the bill, as has a House subcommittee; Hatch encouraged the full House to approve the legislation quickly.

The National Suicide Prevention Hotline number is 1-800-273-8255. The Trevor Project鈥檚 hotline for LGBTQ youth is 1-866-488-7386.

INBOX: PROTECTING MILITARY KIDS 鈥� The Senate this week will consider the annual defense policy measure, and this year鈥檚 includes several provisions aimed at better protecting children on military bases, including at Defense Department鈥搑un schools, from assaults by other children.

The Associated Press in the spring published an , including schools run by the Defense Department, from sexual harassment and assault committed by other children. Military law doesn鈥檛 apply to civilians, and the Justice Department, which has jurisdiction, doesn鈥檛 often prosecute crimes on base, according to the AP. The Pentagon doesn鈥檛 have a central system to track the issue; the AP, through interviews and records requests, documented 600 such cases since 2007.

includes a provision clarifying that Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bans discrimination in education based on sex, applies to the schools run by the Defense Department. It would also require the Department of Defense Education Activity, the name given to the military鈥檚 school system, to establish 鈥減olicies and procedures鈥� to protect students who are victims of sexual harassment. Those policies and protections must 鈥渁fford protections at least comparable to the protections afforded under Title IX.鈥�

It would also require the department to start keeping a database of such incidents.

Committee leaders also added a provision requiring the Defense Department鈥檚 inspector general to review policies. A separate review by the Government Accountability Office is underway,听.

The House bill would also require the establishment of a centralized database, but it doesn鈥檛 mention the applicability of Title IX. After the Senate passes its measure, the two will have to be reconciled.

ICYMI: CIVIL RIGHTS NOMINEE APPROVED 鈥� The Senate voted 50-46, on party lines, on Thursday to approve the nomination of Kenneth L. Marcus to be assistant secretary for civil rights.听Marcus, who had worked in the office in the George W. Bush administration, had most recently led an organization aimed at fighting anti-Semitism on college campuses. Civil rights groups had opposed his nomination,听 that he 鈥渉ad not demonstrated a willingness and ability to enforce civil rights law and protect all students in our country from discrimination.鈥�

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in a statement after his confirmation praised Marcus as a 鈥渟trong advocate for victims of intolerance and discrimination鈥� who won鈥檛 back down from protecting the civil rights of all students.

The pace of nominations, and then confirmation, of Education Department officials has been particularly slow even amid the unusually plodding confirmation process for presidential appointments. As of Friday, the administration had nominated four people who were still awaiting Senate confirmation. There are three positions, including undersecretary, for which no one has been nominated.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell听 to deal with, among other issues, nominations.

DEVOS WATCH: EURO TOUR 鈥擡ducation Secretary Betsy DeVos is in Europe this week, visiting schools in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom after visits to Switzerland last week. An Education Department press release noted that 鈥渢he majority of Dutch K-12 schools are publicly supported private schools鈥� and highlighted new reforms in the United Kingdom that 鈥渋nclude greater autonomy for schools and increased parental choice.鈥�

During DeVos鈥檚 visit to Switzerland, she highlighted vocational training and apprenticeships. The European trip meant DeVos听; she sent Deputy Secretary Mick Zais in her stead.

TUESDAY: ACLU 鈥� The American Civil Liberties Union holds a听, with sessions focused on Dreamers and rights for transgender people. The group has represented Gavin Grimm in his ongoing court battle over the right to access facilities matching his gender identity.

WEDNESDAY: CHARTER SCHOOLS 鈥� The House Education and the Workforce Committee holds a听 on 鈥渢he power of charter schools.鈥� The primary federal role in charter schools comes through the federal Charter School Program, which provides funding to help the startup and expansion of high-quality charter schools. Congress has increased annual funding for the program in recent years; it received $400 million in the appropriations measure passed in the spring.

WEDNESDAY: INDIAN AFFAIRS 鈥� The Senate Indian Affairs Committee holds a听 on turning around Indian programs labeled 鈥渉igh-risk鈥� by the Government Accountability Office. The Bureau of Indian Education was included on that list last year, and听senators dressed down the agency鈥檚 leadership in a hearing for accounting and school safety failures. The committee also held a separate hearing just on the BIE earlier this spring.

INBOX: MILITARY ESAS 鈥� This week marks Republicans鈥� last real shot to build on their small victory in the tax plan and enact a new federal private school choice program this year.

Rep. Jim Banks, Republican of Indiana, has introduced a bill that would provide education savings accounts to the children of some military members. The funds, either $4,500 or $2,500 a year, depending on where a family lives, could be used for private school tuition, tutoring, or other expenses.

Advocates with Heritage Action, a far-right think tank that has held sway with the Trump administration, have urged Republicans to attach the measure to this year鈥檚 defense authorization bill. It鈥檚 one of the last must-pass bills to come before Congress this year and, after negotiations with the Senate, usually attracts bipartisan support.

Banks鈥檚 proposal didn鈥檛 come up when the House Armed Services Committee considered the bill earlier this month, so it now goes before the Rules Committee Tuesday afternoon. That committee, which sets parameters for floor debate, will decide whether or not to allow a vote by the full House on the proposal, offered as an to the defense bill.

If the Rules Committee does allow the proposal to come before the full House, it鈥檚 sure to face sharp opposition on the floor: Banks proposes paying for the education savings accounts by tapping Impact Aid, the $1.4 billion federal grant program geared toward the education of 鈥渇ederally connected鈥� children. The program has long had bipartisan support, and school leaders have said diverting Impact Aid funds could have dire consequences for public schools that educate large numbers of those children.

The Trump administration, which generally backs the idea, doesn鈥檛 support paying for it with Impact Aid, .

Time is running out for Republicans to pass any new private school choice measures ahead of the midterm elections. In terms of their agenda, they can point to increases in federal charter school funding and the expansion of 529 tax-advantaged savings accounts to private K-12 tuition, but the victories end there. Efforts to include homeschool expenses in the 529 expansion were scuttled, and Congress has so far rejected every one of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos鈥檚 choice proposals.

Besides the defense authorization measure, the only other must-pass bill members will consider before November is a funding measure. Government funding expires September 30, but Democrats are likely to push for a continuation of current-level funding until after the elections when, given current predictions, they would have increased leverage after picking up seats and possibly retaking the House.

ICYMI: NOMINEES 鈥� The Senate last week approved the nomination of Mitchell Zais as deputy secretary of education by a . Trump also to be assistant secretary of career, technical and adult education. The Education Department in particular has been plagued with delays in nominations.

With the confirmation of Zais and nomination of Stump, seven of the 15 top positions have been confirmed, while five are awaiting Senate approval. The president has not offered nominees for undersecretary, assistant secretary for postsecondary education, or assistant secretary for communications and outreach.

MONDAY: HIGHER ED PERCEPTIONS 鈥� The New America Foundation, a liberal think tank, holds an on perceptions of higher education, including the value of higher ed and issues of affordability.

TUESDAY: DEVOS 鈥� DeVos testifies before the on the 鈥減olicies and priorities鈥� of her department. She has appeared before Appropriations committees in both the House and the Senate but has not yet testified before either chamber鈥檚 education committee since her confirmation.

TUESDAY: SCHOOL STANDARDS 鈥� The journal EducationNext, with the Hoover Institution and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, releases new research and on the rigor of state proficiency standards, particularly in the wake of the Every Student Succeeds Act.

TUESDAY: FREE SPEECH 鈥� Two subcommittees of the House Oversight and Government Reform hold a on the 鈥渃hallenges of freedom of speech on campus.鈥� A focused on how college administrators can appropriately respond to potential violence and hate crimes without overcorrecting and banning constitutionally protected speech.

WEDNESDAY: CHARTER SCHOOL DESERTS 鈥擳he Thomas B. Fordham Institute holds an on charter school deserts in the greater D.C. metro area. Although there is a vibrant charter school sector in Washington, D.C., there are more low-income students and far fewer charter schools in neighboring counties in Maryland.

INBOX: IMMIGRATION & NET NEUTRALITY 鈥� Two petitions are circulating in Congress that would allow Democrats to circumvent Republican opposition to force votes on immigration and net neutrality, two issues that touch education. Prepare for this to get a little wonky.

In the House, Democrats are pushing a petition that would get around House Speaker Paul Ryan to bring to a vote four immigration proposals: one each backed by the Trump administration, House Democrats, and Ryan, and then a bipartisan measure. The proposal that received the most votes would be adopted. Each would deal, to a different degree, with the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

The Obama-era program provided legal status and work permits to young people brought to the country illegally as children, so long as they met certain requirements. The Trump administration ended it as of March, but court rulings have meant that current recipients may renew their status, and the administration may be forced to accept new applications, too.

The petition would require the support of all the chamber鈥檚 Democrats and 25 Republicans; as of Friday afternoon, 18 Republicans and one Democrat . The chamber can only consider the petition on the first or third Monday of a month when the House is in session; the next time that is planned is June 25, .

Ryan has said forcing a vote in this manner would be a 鈥渟pectacle鈥� that ends with a bill President Trump would veto, and members should instead work in a bipartisan manner to draft a bill that can become law, .

In the Senate, Democrats are pushing for the chamber to consider a measure that would, in effect, reinstate the Federal Communications Commission鈥檚 net neutrality rule. The FCC in December 2017 overturned an Obama-era rule barring internet providers from slowing down or blocking access to certain content, or providing faster content to other types that pay for the privilege.

The new rules go into effect June 11. The actual impacts to users, including schools, aren鈥檛 clear, but it could mean higher internet bills and less access to innovative education technology if startups can鈥檛 pay for premium access to consumers, for example.

The Democrats鈥� petition is running through the same Congressional Review Act process that Senate Republicans used last year to kill Obama-era rules governing implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act. It is nearing majority support, and a vote is likely this week, .

Although support in the House is less clear, some advocates believe House Republicans can be persuaded to back it because of the strong public support for net neutrality.

ICYMI: The House Armed Services Committee didn鈥檛 include a proposal by Rep. Jim Banks to provide education savings accounts to the children of some active-duty service members in the annual defense authorization during markup this week. Advocates hope to add it to the bill when the full House considers the measure later this month, .

MONDAY: BROWN V. BOARD ANNIVERSARY 鈥� Journey 4 Justice, an educational advocacy group aligned with teachers unions, will release a report, 鈥淔ailing Brown v. Board,鈥� to highlight how public education remains inequitable across racial lines. They鈥檒l also hold a .

TUESDAY: SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS 鈥� The House will consider a听听requiring the Justice and Education departments, within a year, to survey every public elementary and secondary school on whether they have a school resource officer, and whether the officer or officers work full or part time. The bill is being considered under suspension of the rules, a parliamentary procedure used for uncontroversial legislation that speeds up debate but requires support of two-thirds of members to pass.

The placement of law enforcement on campus has come to the fore as schools grapple with safety issues in the wake of mass shootings, but advocates have also warned it could put more young people, particularly young men of color, in the criminal justice system unfairly.听Many big-city districts have more school resource officers on campus than counselors.

TUESDAY: FOSTER CARE 鈥� Casey Family Programs, a foundation focused on foster care, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and families affected by the opioid crisis and the child welfare system hold a on the recently passed . , which was included in a February budget deal, changes some federal financing systems by paying for substance abuse treatment, mental health counseling, and parent skills training with the aim of preventing children from entering foster care.

WEDNESDAY: SECURE SCHOOLS 鈥� The will consider the 鈥淪ecure Our Schools Act.鈥� The bill would require the Department of Homeland Security to develop a strategy to secure schools and colleges from 鈥渁cts of terrorism, active shooters, and other homeland security threats,鈥� .

WEDNESDAY: INDIAN EDUCATION 鈥� The Senate Indian Affairs Committee holds a . The federally funded system, serving about 48,000 students in 183 schools, has long been plagued by neglect and mismanagement. The same panel dressed down agency leaders for failures in a similar hearing exactly a year ago.

THURSDAY: DATA PRIVACY 鈥� The House Education and the Workforce Committee holds a and 鈥渆xploring how schools and states keep data safe.鈥� Schools are facing new data security concerns, like when the Leominster Public Schools in Massachusetts earlier this month to hackers who wiped the school system鈥檚 data and held it for ransom. Attempts to rewrite the decades-old federal laws governing student data, the Education Sciences Reform Act and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, have stalled in recent years.

THURSDAY: FCC 鈥� A Senate Appropriations subcommittee holds a hearing on the 2019 budget requests for the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission. In addition to the net neutrality issue, the FCC runs the E-Rate program, which provides low-cost internet to schools. The FTC has, with the Education Department, .

INBOX: SCOTUS WATCH BEGINS 鈥� The Supreme Court wrapped its oral arguments for this term last week, and there are several important education-adjacent cases pending before the justices.

On unions, justices will in the coming weeks decide Janus v. AFSCME, a case that challenges a 40-year-old precedent that permits dissenting public employees to opt out of the political portion of union dues but requires them to pay 鈥渁gency fees鈥� that fund contract negotiations and similar activities. Those employees say that in the realm of public sector employment, everything is inherently political, and forcing them to pay for advocacy they disagree with violates the First Amendment. Unions say requiring those fees prevents free riders from benefiting from union contracts without paying for them.

Justices will also decide whether the Trump administration鈥檚 ban on travelers from some Muslim-majority countries is unconstitutional. The so-called Travel Ban 3.0, which is currently in effect, bans travelers from Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, North Korea, and Venezuela. Challengers have said that given President Trump鈥檚 campaign pledge to ban immigration by Muslims, it amounts to an unconstitutional breach on religious freedom; the government says it鈥檚 a lawful way to keep the country safe.

Higher education advocates have also , saying it limits colleges鈥� ability to attract international scholars.

Rulings on the Janus case and the travel ban case are due before the end of the court鈥檚 term next month; announcements on decisions begin May 13.

Several cases concerning the DACA program are also pending. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that the Trump administration must keep the program in place while court challenges proceed.

Seven states, meanwhile, . The Supreme Court has so far refused to hear the case, but if judges in Texas order the Trump administration to stop the program, that would set up dueling orders that would have to be resolved by the high court, .

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Before their week-long recess last week, Senate leaders cut a deal to vote, at a time to be determined, on the nomination of Mitchell Zais to be deputy secretary of education. That vote will come after 10 hours of debate, down from the 30 hours Democrats could have forced Republicans to burn. The Education Department ranks among the lowest Cabinet-level agencies in terms of confirmed nominees, even after Carlos Mu帽iz was confirmed as general counsel last month.

MONDAY: FIRST LADY 鈥� First Lady Melania Trump will announce several new initiatives during remarks in the Rose Garden. She will focus on challenges facing children, including social media, health, and the opioid epidemic, . She has previously .

TUESDAY: FOOD STAMPS 鈥� The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, holds a , currently known as SNAP. Agriculture Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Conaway gives remarks. The proposal would expand work requirements. Democrats and progressives say it could imperil children鈥檚 access to the school lunch program, for which children whose families receive food stamps are automatically eligible.

TUESDAY: BABY INVASION 鈥� Infant and toddler advocacy group ZERO TO THREE holds 鈥�,鈥� a gathering of babies and families from across the country at the U.S. Capitol to encourage policymakers to focus on babies when making policy.

WEDNESDAY: SKILLS GAP 鈥� A House Education and the Workforce subcommittee holds a .

FRIDAY: HATE CRIMES 鈥� The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights holds a , including 鈥渢he role of the Education and Justice departments in prosecution and prevention of these heinous acts.鈥�

INBOX: WHERE ARE THE NOMINEES? 鈥� Six months ago, the Education Department had the highest vacancy rate of any Cabinet-level department, with no one even nominated for a whopping 80 percent of slots. Now, many names have been put forward to fill those jobs 鈥� they just haven鈥檛 been confirmed, leaving the Education Department again at the bottom of the pack among Cabinet agencies.

Last Wednesday, the Senate voted 55鈥�48 to confirm Carlos Mu帽iz as general counsel, making him the sixth of the Education Department鈥檚 15 Senate-confirmed positions to be approved. Translation: Only 40 percent of the department鈥檚 top positions are currently filled.

Mu帽iz was nominated June 6, and his nomination was reported out of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for full Senate consideration October 18.

鈥淚t鈥檚 completely unreasonable for it to be taking this long to get our highly qualified nominees out of the Senate and to work on behalf of students. The Secretary is hopeful that now that Carlos has been confirmed, the others will be soon to follow,鈥� Press Secretary Liz Hill said in an email.

The Education Department is once again at the bottom of the pack in terms of percentage of top staff confirmed by the Senate.

As of April 20, Education was ahead of just four other agencies: the Justice Department (31 percent confirmed), the CIA (one of three are on the job, after previous director Mike Pompeo was nominated to be secretary of the State Department), the office of the Director of National Intelligence (33 percent confirmed), and the Agriculture Department (38 percent are on the job).

Sen. Lamar Alexander, chairman of the HELP Committee, has in the past blamed both the Trump administration for its slow pace in nominating officials and Senate Democrats for dragging out the confirmation process.

鈥淚t is unfortunate that Senate Democrats would not allow a nominee with these qualifications to receive a vote sooner when there are so many pressing issues facing the department,鈥� Alexander said in a release after Mu帽iz鈥檚 confirmation.

Four remaining officials, including the deputy secretary and undersecretary for civil rights, were nominated between September and December last year but remain unconfirmed. Nominees in those same jobs in the Obama administration were confirmed in less than three months, Alexander鈥檚 staff noted.

Democrats changed chamber rules in 2013 to require only a simple majority, rather than 60 votes, to advance a nominee. Their only option to delay confirmations of nominees they find unqualified is to force Republican leaders to burn through some or all the allotted floor debate time for each nominee, which is up to 30 hours.

In floor debate, Sen. Patty Murray, the ranking Democrat on the HELP Committee, said Mu帽iz would not 鈥渟tand up to [DeVos] when laws are being bent or broken.鈥�

Given the 鈥渜uality鈥� of some nominees sent from the White House, it鈥檚 extra-important for Democrats to take the time to vet nominees before they鈥檙e confirmed, and floor debate gives members who aren鈥檛 on the HELP Committee a chance to speak on the nominations, a Senate Democratic aide said.

It鈥檚 up to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to schedule floor votes for nominees, the aide said, adding that the Senate only debated Mu帽iz鈥檚 nomination for 10 hours.

There are limited days left on Congress鈥檚 legislative calendar for the year. Anyone not confirmed by the end of this year must be re-nominated in the new year when Congress begins a new session, one that could potentially see the .

A Senate committee will vote this week on a for most executive branch nominees, except Cabinet secretaries, who would continue under current time rules, and district court judges, who would get two hours.

TUESDAY: OPIOIDS 鈥� The HELP Committee will vote on the Opioid Crisis Response Act, which, among other efforts to combat the crisis, includes funds for drug prevention for young people and better mental health care in schools.

They鈥檒l also vote on the nomination of Jon Parrish Peede to be chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, a grant-making body that, among other duties, helps K-12 schools on literacy initiatives.

TUESDAY: LATINOS鈥� COLLEGE EXPERIENCE 鈥� UnidosUS (formerly National Council of La Raza) will release a new report on Latinos鈥� experience in college and hold a panel discussion. The report focuses on challenges Latinos face enrolling in, attending, and paying for college. Researchers from the University of North Carolina and advocates from Young Invincibles, Ed Trust, and the United Negro College Fund will discuss the report.

WEDNESDAY: SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY 鈥� will host a forum on whether expanding the scope of school accountability measures beyond reading and math scores under the Every Student Succeeds Act will lead to increased school quality and student achievement. Jason Botel, a top adviser in the Education Department, will give 鈥渇raming remarks鈥� ahead of a panel discussion.

The Hamilton Project will also release a new paper on ESSA accountability and how schools can reduce chronic absenteeism, and the George W. Bush Institute will highlight its 鈥淭he A Word鈥� series on accountability.

WEDNESDAY: WORKFORCE PIPELINE 鈥� The House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees education and labor spending holds a on the 鈥減ipeline to the workforce.鈥� College leaders and employers testify.

WEDNESDAY: NAEP REDUX 鈥� The Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the Hoover Institution hold a on the recent NAEP results and the 35th anniversary of 鈥淎 Nation at Risk.鈥� Hoover Institution fellows Chester Finn, Eric Hanushek and Paul Peterson discuss the test results, the landmark report and the future of education reform.

THURSDAY: BLACK VOICES IN ED REFORM 鈥� Education leaders gather to discuss the on African-American youth鈥檚 perspective of the K-12 education system. The discussion will include exploration of the role of African-American voices, specifically historically black colleges and universities, in education reform efforts.

INBOX: TAKING STOCK 鈥� Many of the biggest names in federal education policy past and present gather in D.C. on Thursday to discuss the progress made since 鈥淎 Nation at Risk,鈥� the landmark report that launched the modern education reform movement, was released 35 years ago.

Elected officials, former education secretaries, and education advocates will gather at a . 蜜桃影视鈥檚 Romy Drucker will moderate the first panel of the day, a conversation between Janet Napolitano, formerly the secretary of Homeland Security and governor of Arizona and currently president of the University of California, and Condoleezza Rice, former secretary of state and provost of Stanford University.

Leaders will have some new data to assess those three and a half decades of progress: the Tuesday release of the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), a.k.a. the Nation鈥檚 Report Card. The test takes stock of fourth- and eighth-graders鈥� performance in math and reading in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and the schools run by the Defense Department. There will also be results for , some for the first time.

The most recent results, from 2015, showed a drop in scores, with education leaders citing implementation of the more rigorous Common Core State Standards as one possible cause.

State education leaders have raised fears that results in up to 10 percent of test administrations may artificially skew lower because students who took them had less experience with technology.

MONDAY: FIRST LADY 鈥� D.C.-area middle schoolers will meet with First Lady Melania Trump at the White House. They will discuss issues facing children today and will 鈥渉ave the opportunity to speak with the First Lady about their day-to-day lives, including their personal triumphs and struggles,鈥� according to a press release from the White House. The Trumps鈥� son Barron is a middle schooler at St. Andrew鈥檚 Episcopal in Potomac, Maryland.

WEDNESDAY: OPIOIDS 鈥� The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee holds a on the Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018. The bill aims to attack the opioid crisis from a number of angles, including creating an initiative on drug prevention for children and young adults and a grant program to 鈥渋ncrease student support services and better integrate mental health care in schools,鈥� according to a .

THURSDAY: PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT 鈥� The Learning Policy Institute, a research group led by Stanford professor Linda Darling-Hammond, holds a , or assessing students鈥� learning and thinking skills through means other than traditional standardized tests. Education leaders and representatives of civil rights groups will hold a discussion, and Sen. Maggie Hassan, Democrat of New Hampshire, will make remarks. New Hampshire has been trying out alternative competency-based performance assessments for several years.

FRIDAY: CHICAGO 鈥� The Center for American Progress and Education Trust hold a , declared by some measures to be the fastest-improving district in the country. Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice K. Jackson and Rep. Danny Davis, Democrat of Illinois, will give remarks.

INBOX: FUNDING – The 鈥楪roundhog Day鈥� loop that is federal government funding returns this week.

Current allocations expire Friday, and after lawmakers reached a deal to raise the overall spending level for the next two years, Hill watchers are expecting a complete bill that funds the government for the rest of the year rather than another 11th-hour stopgap.

Though there is more money to go around, there are 鈥渟ubstantial competing claims鈥� for those same dollars, including biomedical research and veterans鈥� health programs, David Reich, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said at a panel Friday.

Beyond tracking the usual marquee education programs, like Title I for low-income students and the grants that fund special education, education watchers will surely be looking to see if lawmakers increase funding for mental health programs, violence prevention, counselors, and school security upgrades in the wake of the Parkland, Florida, shooting.

Sen. Lamar Alexander said earlier this month that more money could be coming through Education Department grants known as Title II, which pay for teacher training and salaries, and Title IV, a catchall provision for school funding programs. Other funding could come through Department of Justice grants.

Also on the calendar: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday on the Trump administration鈥檚 fiscal 2019 budget. Her testimony to House and Senate funding committees last year primarily revolved around her proposal for a private school choice program and whether participating private schools would have to honor civil rights protections for students, particularly those with disabilities or LGBT kids.

The administration this year asked for $1 billion in 鈥渙pportunity grants鈥� for private school scholarships even as it sought to cut the Education Department鈥檚 budget by 5 percent overall. Presidential budgets are messaging documents generally, but particularly this year, when Congress is unlikely to adopt the administration鈥檚 suggested reductions when it has agreed to a higher overall spending level.

MONDAY: CITY SCHOOLS 鈥� The Council of the Great City Schools, which represents the country鈥檚 70 largest school districts, holds its in D.C. this week. Leaders will hear policy briefings on happenings on Capitol Hill and the Department of Education and will pay visits to congressional offices.

TUESDAY: SCHOOL SAFETY 鈥� Democrats on the House Education and the Workforce Committee and members of party leadership will . Members will hear from 鈥渆xperts and practitioners on research and best practices around promoting improved school climate through evidence-based preventative measures,鈥� according to a release from members. The forum organizers have also invited DeVos to testify.

TUESDAY: APPRENTICESHIPS 鈥� The will hold a hearing on apprenticeship initiatives for small businesses. It鈥檚 part of a series of hearings on 鈥渟trategies to mitigate small business workforce challenges caused by the skills gap.鈥�

WEDNESDAY: INDIAN EDUCATION 鈥� The looks at the fiscal 2019 budget proposal for Indian programs, which includes the Bureau of Indian Education. $741.9 million for the agency, some of which goes to management costs and postsecondary institutions. That would be $143.6 million less than current-year spending. It also proposed creating a public lands infrastructure fund to pay for sorely needed repairs at BIE schools as well as improvements to national parks and wildlife refuges.

THURSDAY: WEST VIRGINIA STRIKE 鈥� Teachers and labor union leaders from West Virginia, where educators held a successful nine-day strike to call for increased pay, will discuss their efforts in a . Teachers in other states are considering following suit.

INBOX: SCHOOL SAFETY 鈥� As students across the country prepare to walk out of class Wednesday to honor the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Congress begins its slow-moving legislative machinations to respond to the shooting.

In the House, members will vote on the , which authorizes $50 million annually in grants through the Justice Department to pay for school threat assessment teams, anonymous reporting systems, training to identify early indications of violence, better coordination between schools and law enforcement, and improvements to school security. The bill has bipartisan support.

Elsewhere in Congress, the holds an oversight hearing on the Parkland shooting and school safety measures on Wednesday. Leaders of the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees met with FBI leadership last week and released a from the meeting, including several missed opportunities to identify the shooter.

Another item to watch will be the pending government funding bill. Current appropriations run out March 23. Senate education committee chairman Lamar Alexander, who has introduced his own school safety bill and also sits on the Appropriations Committee, said there could be additional funding for existing federal grants that can be used for counseling and school safety measures.

MONDAY: SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING 鈥� At a , the National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development releases a 鈥渟tatement of practice鈥� on how best to support students鈥� emotional, social, and academic development. Educators, including 2017 National Teacher of the Year Sydney Chaffee, participate in panel discussions.

MONDAY: DISCIPLINE 鈥� The conservative Heritage Foundation holds a on the Obama administration鈥檚 2014 guidance that encouraged schools to look into disparities in discipline for students of different races. Conservatives have said it was a federal overreach that has led to schools being less safe, and the Trump administration may get rid of it.

MONDAY: NOMINATIONS 鈥� The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee of Frank Brogan to be assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education and Mark Schneider to be director of the Institute of Education Science. The meeting was rescheduled from last week.

THURSDAY: HHS BUDGET 鈥� The hears from Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on his agency鈥檚 fiscal 2019 budget proposal. HHS runs most federal early childhood education programs, including the Head Start preschool program for low-income students, Preschool Development Grants, and the Child Care and Development Block Grant program that gives vouchers for daycare. The Trump administration proposed a slight increase for Head Start but wants to eliminate Preschool Development Grants, which help states create or expand preschool programs. A long-term budget deal doubled the funding for the childcare grants.

FRIDAY: PUBLIC SCHOOLS WEEK 鈥� This week is 鈥�,鈥� a campaign led by AASA, the school superintendents鈥� association, and other advocacy groups. Events will include speeches on the floor of the House and Senate and a Friday panel discussion on understanding funding streams that impact public education.

INBOX: SCHOOL SAFETY 鈥� President Trump and congressional leaders continue to work on gun control and school safety proposals in the wake of the massacre in Parkland, Florida. At a meeting with members of Congress last week, the president made news by seeming to embrace Democrats鈥� gun control proposals, though .

Trump continues to push to allow teachers and others to carry weapons on campus and to end gun-free school zones. In another meeting last week, he also raised the issue of violence in video games, and he鈥檒l sit down with representatives of that industry this week.

Meanwhile, Parkland students have continued their gun control advocacy, planning a rally in Washington (where for teens traveling to D.C. for the event) in late March. And teachers unions, gun control advocates, and civil rights groups are pushing a April 20, the 19th anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School.

MONDAY & TUESDAY: STATE CHIEFS 鈥� , which represents state education secretaries and superintendents, holds its annual Legislative Conference. The group recently launched its own school safety working group.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos addresses the chiefs late Monday afternoon, and congressional Education Committee leaders make remarks first thing Tuesday morning.

MONDAY & TUESDAY: STATE ED BOARDS – The National Association of State Boards of Education also holds its this week. On Tuesday, members will meet with lawmakers and hear from Jason Botel, principal deputy assistant education secretary, on ESSA and 鈥渙ther administration priorities.鈥�

TUESDAY: WELFARE & CHILD CARE 鈥� A subcommittee of the House Education and the Workforce Committee looks at the role of child care in 鈥渟trengthening welfare to work.鈥� for low-income Americans in its recent deal setting up long-term spending.

TUESDAY: LABOR DEPT. BUDGET 鈥� Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta testifies before the House Appropriations Committee on his department鈥檚 fiscal 2019 budget request. The Trump administration proposed cutting about $1.1 billion from the department, including to Job Corps, a residential job training program for people ages 16 to 24, and to workforce training programs for young people, . The administration鈥檚 requests, though, are largely moot, as Congress agreed to a two-year deal that would raise total government spending.

WEDNESDAY: ED NOMINEES 鈥� The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will vote on two nominees: Frank Brogan to be assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education, and Mark Schneider to be director of the Institute of Education Sciences, the Education Department鈥檚 research arm.

Brogan previously served as Florida鈥檚 education secretary and lieutenant governor and led the state higher education systems in Florida and Pennsylvania. As , Brogan has a unique experience in the ongoing debate on arming teachers: When he was an assistant principal, Brogan 鈥渃hased down an armed teenager, talked him into lowering his weapon, then grabbed his arm and wrestled it away.鈥�

Schneider would come to the job from the American Institutes for Research, and he led the National Center for Education Statistics during the George W. Bush administration.

After a delay in nominations by the Trump administration, the confirmation logjam is now focused on the Senate floor. If approved by committee, Brogan and Schneider would join four other nominees approved by the HELP panel and awaiting confirmation by the full Senate.