The latest casualty in President Donald Trump鈥檚 war on diversity, equity and inclusion is a $1 billion federal grant program to train school counselors and thwart mass shootings.

The U.S. Department of Education notified grant recipients this week it was ending funds to train and hire K-12 school mental health professionals included in a 2022 law that passed with bipartisan support following the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which led to the deaths of 19 elementary school students and two teachers. 

The grants, which were included in a bipartisan gun control law approved by then-President Joe Biden, don鈥檛 align with the Trump administration鈥檚 goals, according to sent to grant recipients Tuesday evening and obtained by 蜜桃影视. Grantees include local school districts, state education agencies and colleges tasked with training some 14,000 mental health professionals and placing them in K-12 schools in virtually every state. 

鈥淭hose receiving these notices reflect the prior Administration鈥檚 priorities and policy preferences and conflict with those of the current administration,鈥� Murray Bessette, a senior advisor in the Education Department鈥檚 Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, wrote in the letter. Affected programs, Bessette wrote, 鈥渧iolate the letter or purpose鈥� of federal civil rights laws, run counter to the department鈥檚 priority on 鈥渆xcellence in education鈥� and 鈥渦ndermine the well-being of the students these programs are intended to help.鈥�

Proponents of the grant program said they were caught off guard by the move, especially since , have attributed the unprecedented surge in school shootings to a student mental health crisis.

鈥淓nding these mental health investments will hurt students and families and make our schools less safe,鈥� Mary Wall, who was the Education Department鈥檚 deputy assistant secretary for P-12 education during the Biden administration, told 蜜桃影视. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not an exaggeration to say that mental health supports save lives.鈥�

An Education Department spokesperson confirmed it would not renew $1 billion in grants, a move that appears to impact the entirety of the largest-ever federal effort to train school mental health professionals included in the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The law also created the first significant federal gun control measures in decades, including background checks on firearm purchases for anyone younger than 21 years old. 

Spokesperson Madi Biedermann said in a statement the grants didn鈥檛 live up to their goal of improving schools鈥� mental health support services 鈥� and suggested the cuts were part of a broader Trump administration effort to derail programs that support diversity, equity and inclusion in education. 

鈥淯nder the deeply flawed priorities of the Biden Administration, grant recipients used the funding to implement race-based actions like recruiting quotas in ways that have nothing to do with mental health and could hurt the very students the grants are supposed to help,鈥� Biedermann said. 

Biedermann鈥檚 statement echoed by conservative pundit Christoper Rufo, who turned to X this week to accuse the Biden administration of using the grants 鈥渢o advance left-wing racialism and discrimination.鈥� 

鈥淣o more slush fund for activists under the guise of mental health,鈥� wrote Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Rufo didn鈥檛 immediately respond to a request for comment from 蜜桃影视. 

Wall said the Education Department during the Biden administration 鈥渙ffered a voluntary competitive priority鈥� to applicants who worked to ensure mental health professionals reflected the school communities they serve, but rejected the idea that the grants were a DEI initiative. Instead of creating a plan to support students鈥� well-being, she said the Trump administration has sought to 鈥渞ob school districts who have made important groundwork to have clinical services available to children and interrupt them midstream.鈥�

鈥淲e in no way required any of this to be focused on race or gender or sexuality or anything,鈥� Wall said. 鈥淲e were deliberately looking to set these up to be long-lasting, high-impact programs, where we would get the maximum amount of benefit.鈥�

Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut who introduced the 2022 law, accused the Trump administration Thursday of killing the grant program “in order to fund a giant tax cut for the crazy wealthy.鈥�

鈥淚 thought we had a bipartisan consensus around trying to support kids with really serious traumas and mental illnesses with support services in our schools,鈥� Murphy said in a statement to 蜜桃影视. 鈥淏ut there鈥檚 not consensus on anything that helps people in this administration.鈥�

Lauren Levin, the chief advocacy officer at the nonprofit Sandy Hook Promise, said the cuts hinder students鈥� access to those services in schools that are already under-resourced. Though the has been long debated, student rates of depression, anxiety and loneliness. 

Nationally, there is an average of about , significantly lower than the 250-to-1 recommended by the American School Counselor Association. School psychologists are , with a national average of 1 for every 1,127 K-12 students, according to the American Psychological Association.  

鈥淎fter school shootings, we hear a lot of important conversations about the mental health needs and gaps in this country for youth,鈥� including from Republican lawmakers, Levin told 蜜桃影视. 鈥淚n many of these cases with these grants, it means children who are currently receiving mental health services in schools are going to stop getting that help.鈥�

In the first few months of the Trump administration, several federal initiatives designed to prevent mass school shootings have faced a similar fate. A 26-person committee of violence prevention experts 鈥� also approved as part of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Axe 鈥� was gutted. 

Levin said Sandy Hook Promise, founded after the 2012 mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, has also begun to track cuts to grants authorized under the federal Trump approved that law in 2018 in response to the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, which resulted in the deaths of 17 people. So far, Levin said they鈥檝e documented cuts to about a dozen grant recipients totaling nearly $20 million, including funding designed to help schools address social isolation among students and prevent bullying.  

鈥淥ne of the reasons that students or any of these shooters are not getting the help that they need is that we have a gap in access to mental health care,鈥� said Levin, who noted that schools are among the most consistent places for young people to get help. 

鈥淚f someone is showing signs of wanting to hurt themselves or others, if they are socially isolated, if we see changes in behavior and if there is a school counselor, that school can be their lifeline,鈥� Levin said. 鈥淭hat could make all the difference.鈥� 

But research suggests that both men might be wise to play their cards close to the vest. According to , presidents who weighed in on education policy debates between 2009 and 2021 鈥� such as COVID-era school closures or the adoption of Common Core 鈥� tended to polarize the public much more than galvanize them. Only when endorsing proposals that cut directly against the traditional position of their parties do they succeed in generating overall public support, the authors write. 

The findings seem to counsel caution in an election year, particularly with attitudes on national politics diverging as widely and consistently as they have in the history of polling. They also raise challenging questions about whether federal leadership on K鈥�12 schools can be viable in the absence of the bipartisan consensus that largely favored school reform in the 1990s and 2000s. If not, state-level actors like governors and legislators may be left in the driver鈥檚 seat for the foreseeable future.

David Houston, a professor of education policy at George Mason University and the paper鈥檚 lead author, said the gulf separating Democrats and Republicans on education questions resembles some of the biggest divides in the American cultural landscape.  

鈥淲e really disagree on a lot of education issues, and that trend has accelerated over the last decade,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he difference in positive evaluations of teachers’ unions is of approximately the same magnitude as the partisan gap on legal abortion under any circumstances.鈥�

If the politics of education has taken on some of the acrimony surrounding other issues, it represents a break with historical patterns. Schools have traditionally been insulated from national trends by their unique governance structure, with elected boards attracting little public attention as they decide questions of funding and curriculum. When presidents have entered the fray 鈥� as in the case of school desegregation in the 1950s, or the push to pass the No Child Left Behind law in the early 2000s 鈥� they have encountered resistance, but seldom failed entirely.

Morgan Polikoff, a professor of education at the University of Southern California, agreed that the past decade has brought heightened partisanship. Yet he also voiced hope that future presidents, perhaps including some now occupying state-level office, could notch greater education policy successes than Washington has seen recently.

鈥淚 could imagine having national leaders who were charismatic and had powerful views about the role of federal education policy again,鈥� said Polikoff. 鈥淲e just don’t have them currently, and we didn’t have them in the previous administration.鈥�

The Obama exception

To estimate the influence of high-profile politicians like the current and former presidents, Houston built his study on public opinion research dating back to 2007.

The annual , developed and administered by researchers at Harvard, is one of the only measures that regularly surveys the public on their attitudes toward education topics. The paper relies on responses drawn from five separate editions of the poll, which included questions on topics like school choice, merit pay for teachers, and allowing illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition to attend public universities. (Houston, who formerly served as Education Next鈥檚 survey director, has previously used similar data to show that general opinions on schools with time.)

鈥淚 look at questions that have been asked in the exact same way, or nearly the exact same way, over the course of at least 10 years,鈥� he said. 鈥淩egardless of the imperfections of the survey questions 鈥� and every survey question has imperfections 鈥� those are true over time, so we can capture trends.”

Before giving their own views of 18 policy proposals, a random assortment of participants were first primed by hearing the incumbent president鈥檚 opinions on them. Because respondents included Democrats, Republicans, and independents, Houston was able to measure their reaction to hearing that a highly visible figure of either the same or opposing party had opined on a particular policy.

The overall result of receiving a partisan cue 鈥� effectively becoming aware of the president鈥檚 endorsement, regardless of one鈥檚 own political preferences 鈥� was statistically insignificant, moving respondents鈥� attitudes by just .02 points on a five-point scale. But that average accounts for larger effects that moved Democrats and Republicans in opposite directions: If someone learned that a president of his own party favored a specific education policy, they warmed to it by an average of .37 points. If a president of the opposite party was revealed to favor a policy, whether school vouchers or universal pre-K, the respondent moved away from that proposal by .32 points. 

In other words, voters carefully weigh what high-profile figures like U.S. presidents say about schools. But their pronouncements tend to be counterproductive, splitting the public along partisan lines. 
Recent history offers some support for the paper鈥檚 hypothesis. For example, multiple studies of school districts鈥� behavior during the pandemic found that their local partisanship, much more so than the prevalence of COVID in the surrounding area, was highly associated with whether they heeded President Trump鈥檚 2020 exhortation to open schools for in-person learning.

Notably, one subset of results actually showed the opposite effect, bringing both sides somewhat closer to one another. When a president backs policies that are not traditionally associated with their party and its backers 鈥� the key example being Barack Obama, whose endorsement of charter schools, merit pay and higher academic standards were revealed to partisans in three separate polls 鈥� it actually depolarizes responses: Democrats moved .28 points toward the previously unfavored proposals, while Republicans moved in the opposite direction by .14 points.

Charles Barone, the vice president of K鈥�12 policy for the pressure group Democrats for Education Reform, said his own observations of voters during the Obama era largely dovetailed with the study鈥檚 conclusions. 

“Obama’s support for education reform, and particularly charter schools, did help with Democrats,鈥� Barone said. 鈥淲e saw higher poll numbers among Democrats on issues like charters after Obama came out in favor of them.鈥�

Elusive common ground

Education observers generally agreed that polarization around schools has clearly escalated since the Obama administration, and that many everyday voters rely heavily on their party leaders to form judgments on policy initiatives they鈥檙e unfamiliar with. 

But while Polikoff agreed that the receding center ground represented a 鈥渉uge problem鈥� for those attempting to improve the way schools deliver education, he added that President Biden鈥檚 most recent predecessors might have been particularly good at exercising partisan energies.

鈥淵ou wouldn’t necessarily want to extrapolate from these two presidents to all of them,鈥� he said. 鈥淥bama and Trump, if nothing else, were very visible and almost ubiquitous in ways that other presidents might not be 鈥� and that state and local leaders, who are actually influencing these policies 鈥� are not.鈥�

State leadership may provide some cause for optimism as well. While rancorous fights over school closures and contentious classroom material have won headlines in recent years, long-awaited support from both parties has also led to efforts to incorporate the science of reading in early literacy instruction. And in further illustration of Houston鈥檚 findings, a slew of Republican governors have taken the opportunity to lift teacher salaries, winning popular approval in part by embracing a stance that is most often associated with Democrats.

Margaret Spellings, formerly the U.S. Secretary of Education under President George W. Bush, now serves as the CEO of the Washington-based . An enthusiastic proponent of No Child Left Behind-style education reform, she said she was struck by the 鈥渧acuum of federal leadership and cohesion鈥� that now prevails in Washington.

In her office, she said, she still keeps mementos of the law鈥檚 passage, which was supported by mammoth margins in both the U.S. House and Senate. That occurred during the administration of a much more unifying president 鈥� Bush was riding sky-high approval ratings in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and NCLB was seen as a major bipartisan compromise 鈥� but the victory reflected what political will and energy could accomplish, she added

鈥淚 wish someone would tell me what the Biden K鈥�12 policy is,鈥� Spellings said. 鈥淭here is none. And the Trump administration was just about vouchers. But I haven’t given up on bipartisanship, period, or I wouldn’t be doing the job I’m doing.”

As artificial intelligence rapidly expands its presence in classrooms, President Biden signed an executive order Monday requiring federal education officials to create guardrails that prevent tech-driven discrimination. 

The , which the White House called 鈥渢he most sweeping actions ever taken to protect Americans from the potential risks of AI systems,鈥� offers several directives that are specific to the education sector. The order dealing with emerging technologies like ChatGPT directs the Justice Department to coordinate with federal civil rights officials on ways to investigate discrimination perpetuated by algorithms. 

Within a year, the education secretary must release guidance on the ways schools can use the technology equitably, with a particular focus on the tools鈥� effects on 鈥渧ulnerable and underserved communities.鈥� Meanwhile, an Education Department 鈥淎I toolkit鈥� released within the next year will offer guidance on how to implement the tools so that they enhance trust and safety while complying with federal student privacy rules. 

For civil rights advocates who have decried AI鈥檚 potentially unintended consequences, the order was a major step forward. 

The order鈥檚 focus on civil rights investigations 鈥渁ligns with what we鈥檝e been advocating for over a year now,鈥� said Elizabeth Laird, the director of equity and civic technology at the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology. Her group has called on the Education Department鈥檚 Office for Civil Rights to open investigations into the ways AI-enabled tools in schools could have a disparate impact on students based on their race, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 really important that this office, which has been focused on protecting marginalized groups of students for literally decades, is more involved in conversations about AI and can bring that knowledge and skill set to bear on this emerging technology,鈥� Laird told 蜜桃影视. 

In to federal agencies on Wednesday, the Office of Management and Budget spelled out the types of AI education technologies that pose civil rights and safety risks. They include tools to detect student cheating, monitor their online activities, project academic outcomes, make discipline recommendations or facilitate surveillance online and in-person.  

An Education Department spokesperson didn鈥檛 respond to a request for comment Monday on how the agency plans to respond to Biden鈥檚 order. 

Schools nationwide have adopted artificial intelligence in divergent ways, including in to provide students individualized lessons and with the growing use of chatbots like ChatGPT by both students and teachers. It鈥檚 also generated heated debates over technology鈥檚 role in exacerbating harms to at-risk youth, including educators鈥� use of early warning systems that mine data about students 鈥� including their race and disciplinary records 鈥� to predict their odds of dropping out of school. 

鈥淲e鈥檝e heard reported cases of using data to predict who might commit a crime, so very Minority Report,鈥� Laird said. 鈥淭he bar that schools should be meeting is that they should not be targeting students based on protected characteristics unless it meets a very narrowly defined purpose that is within the government鈥檚 interests. And if you鈥檙e going to make that argument, you certainly need to be able to show that this is not causing harm to the groups that you鈥檙e targeting.鈥� 

AI and student monitoring tools

An unprecedented degree of student surveillance has also been facilitated by AI, including online activity monitoring tools, remote proctoring software to detect cheating on tests and campus security cameras with facial recognition capabilities. 

Beyond its implications on schools, the Biden order requires certain technology companies to conduct AI safety testing before their products are released to the public and to provide their results to the government. It also orders new regulations to ensure AI won鈥檛 be used to produce nuclear weapons, recommends that AI-generated photos and videos be transparently identified as such with watermarks and calls on Congress to pass federal data privacy rules 鈥渢o protect all Americans, especially kids.鈥�

In September, The Center for Democracy and Technology released a report that warned that schools鈥� use of AI-enabled digital monitoring tools, which track students鈥� behaviors online, could have a disparate impact on students 鈥� particularly LGBTQ+ youth and those with disabilities 鈥� in violation of federal civil rights laws. As teachers punish students for using ChatGPT to allegedly cheat on classroom assignments, a survey suggested that children in special education were more likely to face discipline than their general education peers. They also reported higher levels of surveillance and subsequent discipline as a result. 

In response to the report, a coalition of Democratic lawmakers penned a letter urging the Education Department鈥檚 civil rights office to investigate districts that use digital surveillance and other AI tools in ways that perpetuate discrimination. 

Education technology companies that use artificial intelligence could come under particular federal scrutiny as a result of the order, said consultant Amelia Vance, an expert on student privacy regulations and president of the Public Interest Privacy Center. The order notes that the federal government plans to enforce consumer protection laws and enact safeguards 鈥渁gainst fraud, unintended bias, discrimination, infringements on privacy and other harms from AI.鈥� 

鈥淪uch protections are especially important in critical fields like healthcare, financial services, education, housing, law and transportation,鈥� the order notes, 鈥渨here mistakes by or misuse of AI could harm patients, cost consumers or small businesses or jeopardize safety or rights.鈥�

Schools rely heavily on third-party vendors like education technology companies to provide services to students, and those companies are subject to Federal Trade Commission rules against deceptive and unfair business practices, Vance noted. The order鈥檚 focus on consumer protections, she said, 鈥渨as sort of a flag for me that maybe we鈥檙e going to see not only continuing interest in regulating ed tech, but more specifically regulating ed tech related to AI.鈥�

While the order was 鈥減retty vague when it came to education,鈥� Vance said it was important that it did acknowledge AI鈥檚 potential benefits in education, including for personalized learning and adaptive testing. 

鈥淎s much as we keep talking about AI as if it showed up in the past year, it鈥檚 been there for a while and we know that there are valuable ways that it can be used,鈥� Vance said. 鈥淚t can surface particular content, it can facilitate better connections to people when they need certain content.鈥� 

AI and facial recognition cameras

As school districts pour billions of dollars into school safety efforts in the wake of mass school shootings, security vendors have heralded the promises of AI. Yet civil rights groups have warned that facial recognition and other AI-driven technology in schools could perpetuate biases 鈥� and could miss serious safety risks. 

Just last month, the gun-detection company Evolv Technology, which pitches its hardware to schools, acknowledged it was the subject of a Federal Trade Commission inquiry into its marketing practices. The agency is reportedly probing whether the company employs artificial intelligence in the ways that it claims. 

In September, New York became the first state to , a move that followed outcry when an upstate school district announced plans to roll out a surveillance camera system that tracked students鈥� biometric data. 

A new Montana law bans facial recognition statewide with one notable exception 鈥� . Citing privacy concerns, the law adopted this year prohibits government agencies from using facial recognition, but with a specific carveout for schools. One rural education system, the 250-student Sun River School District, employs a 30-camera security system from Verkada that uses facial recognition to track the identities of people on its property. As a result, the district has a camera-to-student ratio of 8-to-1. 

In an email on Wednesday, a Verkada spokesperson said the company is in the process of reviewing Biden’s order to understand its implications on the company.

Verkada offers a cautionary tale about the potential security vulnerabilities of campus surveillance systems. In 2021, the company suffered a massive data breach and hackers claimed to expose the live feeds of 150,000 surveillance cameras 鈥� including those in place at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the site of a mass shooting in 2012.聽A conducted on behalf of the company found the breach was more limited, affecting some 4,500 cameras.

Hikvision has similarly made inroads in the school security market with its facial recognition surveillance cameras 鈥� including during a pandemic-era push to enforce face mask compliance. Yet the company, owned in part by the Chinese government, has also faced significant allegations of civil rights abuses and in 2019 was placed on a U.S. trade blacklist after being implicated in the country鈥檚 鈥渃ampaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention and high-technology surveillance鈥� against Muslim ethnic minorities. 

Though multiple U.S. school districts continue to use Hikvision cameras, a recent investigation found the company鈥檚 software despite claiming for years it had ended the practice.

 In an email, a Hikvision spokesperson didn鈥檛 comment on how Biden’s executive order could affect its business, including in schools, but offered a letter it shared to its customers in response to the investigation, saying an outdated reference to ethnic detection appeared on its website erroneously.

鈥淚t has been a longstanding Hikvision policy to prohibit the use of minority recognition technology,鈥� the letter states. 鈥淎s we have previously stated, that functionality was phased out and completely prohibited by the company in 2018.鈥�

Data scientist David Riedman, who built a national database to track school shootings dating back decades, said that artificial intelligence is at 鈥渢he forefront鈥� of the school safety conversation and emerging security technologies can be built in ways that don鈥檛 violate students鈥� rights. 

Riedman became a figure in the national conversation about school shootings as the creator of the K12 School Shooting Database but has since taken on an additional role as director of industry research and content for ZeroEyes, a surveillance software company that uses security cameras to ferret out guns. Instead of using facial recognition, the ZeroEyes algorithm was trained to identify and notify law enforcement within seconds of spotting a firearm. 

The 鈥� as opposed to facial recognition 鈥� can 鈥渆vade privacy and bias concerns that plague other AI models,鈥� and internal research found that 鈥渙nly 0.06546% of false positives were humans detected as guns.鈥� 

鈥淭he simplicity鈥� of ZeroEye鈥檚 technology, Riedman said, puts the company in good standing as far as the Biden order is concerned.

鈥淶eroEyes isn鈥檛 looking for people at all,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 only looking for objects and the only objects it is trying to find, and it鈥檚 been trained to find, are images that look like guns. So you鈥檙e not getting student records, you鈥檙e not getting student demographics, you鈥檙e not getting anything related to people or even a school per se. You just have an algorithm that is constantly searching for images to see if there is something that looks like a firearm in them.鈥�

However, false positives remain a concern. Just last week at a high school in Texas, from ZeroEyes prompted a campus lockdown that set off student and parent fears of an active shooting. The company said the false alarm was triggered by an image of a student outside who the system believed was armed based on shadows and the way his arm was positioned. 

The Biden administration on Tuesday urged school districts nationwide to refrain from subjecting students to 鈥渃ontinuous surveillance鈥� if the use of digital monitoring tools 鈥� already accused of targeting at-risk youth 鈥� are likely to trample students鈥� rights. 

The White House recommendation was included in an in-depth but non-binding white paper, dubbed the that seeks to rein in the potential harms of rapidly advancing artificial intelligence technologies, from smart speakers featuring voice assistants to campus surveillance cameras with facial recognition capabilities. 

The blueprint, which was released by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and extends far beyond the education sector, lays out five principles: Tools that rely on artificial intelligence should be safe and effective, avoid discrimination, ensure reasonable privacy protections, be transparent about their practices and offer the ability to opt out 鈥渋n favor of a human alternative.鈥�

Though the blueprint lacks enforcement, schools and education technology companies should expect greater federal scrutiny soon. In , the White House announced that the Education Department would release by early 2023 recommendations on schools鈥� use of artificial intelligence that 鈥渄efine specifications for the safety, fairness and efficacy of AI models used within education鈥� and introduce 鈥済uardrails that build on existing education data privacy regulations.鈥� 

During , Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said officials at the department 鈥渆mbrace utilizing Ed Tech to enhance learning鈥� but recognize 鈥渢he need for us to change how we do business.鈥� The future guidance, he said, will focus on student data protections, ensuring that digital tools are free of biases and incorporate transparency so parents know how their children鈥檚 information is being used.

鈥淭his has to be baked into how we do business in education, starting with the systems that we have in our districts but also teacher preparation and teacher training as well,鈥� he said.

Amelia Vance, president and founder of Public Interest Privacy Consulting, said the document amounts to a 鈥渕assive step forward for the advocacy community, the scholars who have been working on AI and have been pressuring the government and companies to do better.鈥� 

The blueprint, which offers a harsh critique of and systems that predict student success based on factors like poverty, follows in-depth reporting by 蜜桃影视 on schools鈥� growing use of digital surveillance and the tech鈥檚 impact on student privacy and civil rights.

But local school leaders should ultimately decide whether to use digital student monitoring tools, said Noelle Ellerson Ng, associate executive director of advocacy and governance at AASA, The School Superintendents Association. Ellerson Ng opposes 鈥渦nilateral federal action to prohibit鈥� the software.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 not the appropriate role of the federal government to come and say this cannot happen,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut smart guardrails that allow for good practices, that protect students鈥� safety and privacy, that鈥檚 a more appropriate role.鈥�

The nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology praised the report. The group recently released a survey highlighting the potential harms of student activity monitoring on at-risk youth, who are already disproportionately disciplined and referred to the police as a result. In a statement Tuesday, it said the blueprint makes clear 鈥渢he ways in which algorithmic systems can deepen inequality.鈥� 

鈥淲e commend the White House for considering the diverse ways in which discrimination can occur, for challenging inappropriate and irrelevant data uses and for lifting up examples of practical steps that companies and agencies can take to reduce harm,鈥� CEO Alexandra Reeve Givens said in a media release. 

The document also highlights several areas where artificial intelligence has been beneficial, including improved agricultural efficiency and algorithms that have been used to identify diseases. But the technologies, which have grown rapidly with few regulations, have introduced significant harm, it notes, including that screen job applicants and facial recognition technology that . 

After the pandemic shuttered schools nationwide in early 2020 and pushed students into makeshift remote learning, companies that sell digital activity monitoring software to schools saw an increase in business. But the tools have faced significant backlash for subjecting students to relentless digital surveillance. 

In April, Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey warned in a report the technology could carry significant risks 鈥� particularly for students of color and LGBTQ youth 鈥� and promoted a 鈥渘eed for federal action to protect students鈥� civil rights, safety and privacy.鈥� Such concerns have become particularly acute as states implement new anti-LGBTQ laws and abortion bans and advocates warn that digital surveillance tools could expose expose youth to legal peril. 

Vance said that she and others focused on education and privacy 鈥渉ad no idea this was coming,鈥� and that it would focus so heavily on schools. Over the last year, the department sought input from civil rights groups and technology companies, but Vance said that education groups had lacked a meaningful seat at the table. 

The lack of engagement was apparent, she said, by the document鈥檚 failure to highlight areas where artificial intelligence has been beneficial to students and schools. For example, the document discusses a tool used by universities to predict which students were likely to drop out. It considered students鈥� race as a predictive factor, leading to discrimination fears. But she noted that if implemented equitably, such tools can be used to improve student outcomes. 

鈥淥f course there are a lot of privacy and equity and ethical landmines in this area,鈥� Vance said. 鈥淏ut we also have schools who have done this right, who have done a great job in using some of these systems to assist humans in counseling students and helping more students graduate.鈥� 

Ellerson Ng, of the superintendents association, said her group is still analyzing the blueprint鈥檚 on-the-ground implications, but that student data privacy efforts present schools with 鈥渁 balancing act.鈥�

鈥淵ou want to absolutely secure the privacy rights of the child while understanding that the data that can be generated, or is generated, has a role to play, too, in helping us understand where kids are, what kids are doing, how a program is or isn鈥檛 working,鈥� she said. 鈥淪ometimes that鈥檚 broader than just a pure academic indicator.鈥�

Others have and just of recommendations from civil rights groups and tech companies. Some of the most outspoken privacy proponents and digital surveillance critics, such as Albert Fox Cahn, founder and executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, argued it falls short of a critical policy move: outright bans.

As Cahn and other activists mount campaigns against student surveillance tools, they鈥檝e highlighted how student data can wind up in the hands of the police.

鈥淲hen police and companies are rolling out new and destructive forms of AI every day, we need to push pause across the board on the most invasive technologies,鈥� he said in a media release. 鈥淲hile the White House does take aim at some of the worst offenders, they do far too little to address the everyday threats of AI, particularly in police hands.鈥�

鈥淥ur elected officials have seen American after American drop from a bullet,鈥� said Corin, a survivor of the 2018 mass school shooting in Parkland, then the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School junior class president. As a co-founder of March For Our Lives, her advocacy in 2018 galvanized a countrywide movement that brought hundreds of thousands of demonstrators to the National Mall to demand new firearms laws. 鈥淎nd instead of waking up to protect us, they have been hitting the snooze button. But we鈥檙e here to shake them awake.鈥� 

Yet four years after youth activists chanted 鈥渘ever again,鈥� some might argue that America is still sleepwalking through wave after wave of gun violence. The latest mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, are once again wreaking havoc on American communities and student advocates are once again preparing to hit the streets to force an end to the carnage. 

On Saturday, Corin and other advocates with the youth-led March For Our Lives, including David Hogg and X Gonzalez, will return to Washington for a second rally to press for new firearm restrictions and a slew of policy changes they believe could thwart a gun violence rate that鈥檚 . 

Their insistence that children should never again be allowed to die by gunfire in school was belied 鈥� again 鈥� by  the reality of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, where 19 children and two educators were shot and killed May 24.

鈥淔our years ago we said 鈥榥ever again,鈥� there鈥檚 never going to be another Parkland, and unfortunately that has not reigned true,鈥� Corin told 蜜桃影视. Since then, Corin has graduated high school and is now a rising senior at Harvard University, where she studies government and education. During those years, mass shootings have continued to grow more common, with the Uvalde assault  becoming the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. 鈥淎 large reason for that is because barely anything has been done on a national level.鈥�

Along with , organizers have planned hundreds of , all in a matter of weeks. Ahead of the event, March For Our Lives advocates are to promote their agenda. 

They hope for a different outcome this time, but acknowledge the obstacles that have blocked change in the past remain as challenging as ever. In , President Joe Biden questioned 鈥渉ow much more carnage are we willing to accept?鈥� before calling on Congress to ban assault weapons 鈥� or to at least raise the age from 18 to 21 for those looking to buy one. He also pushed for a ban on high-capacity magazines, strengthening background checks and adopting a federal 鈥渞ed flag鈥� law that would allow courts to temporarily remove weapons from people deemed an imminent threat to themselves or others. At the same time, he lamented that 鈥渁 majority of Senate Republicans don鈥檛 want any of these proposals even to be debated.鈥� 

After the Parkland shooting, the Trump administration , a device that uses the recoil of a semiautomatic gun to mimic an automatic rifle. Yet even though then-President Donald Trump embraced an effort to raise the age on rifle sales, efforts fell flat. 

Earlier this week, in negotiations with Republicans over gun proposals after the Uvalde shooting while pointing out that compromises would be crucial to progress. Instead of major firearm restrictions, a bipartisan deal could encourage states to adopt red flag laws and new funding for campus security upgrades 鈥� a reaction that for years has followed virtually every mass school shooting. Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, 鈥渋t will be embarrassing鈥� if Democrats and Republicans in the Senate fail to reach a legislative response to Uvalde. 

鈥婱eanwhile, a ruling this month from the U.S. Supreme Court a decades-old New York law that puts sharp limits on who can carry guns in public. 

For Corin, having a Democrat in the White House isn鈥檛 necessarily an encouraging sign. Biden has been president for a year and a half, yet 鈥渨e haven鈥檛 seen anything done,鈥� she said. While Biden has sought to pass the issue onto Congress, Corin said her group has called on the president to appoint a gun violence prevention director, to create a task force focused on the issue and to 鈥渄eclare gun violence a national emergency 鈥� but that hasn鈥檛 happened either.鈥� 

鈥淣o one is exempt from doing work on this issue,鈥� Corin said. 鈥淚 know the executive office doesn鈥檛 have all of the power, but ultimately everyone has a role to play.鈥� 

Corin is very aware that the post-Parkland focus on gun violence had a larger impact at the state level, where . In her native Florida, for example, lawmakers passed a red flag law, raised the age to buy rifles from 18 to 21, created a three-day waiting period on gun purchases and authorized certain educators to be armed at school. In New York, lawmakers responded swiftly to the Buffalo shooting and approved a new law on Monday to strengthen gun control measures, including a red flag law that was implemented after Parkland. 

鈥淚 can only hope that the same sadness and fury that the country is feeling now, as we all did back in 2018, will fuel the continuation of these changes on the state level and ultimately 鈥� hopefully 鈥� on a national level,鈥� said Corin, who the former Marjory Stoneman student who pleaded guilty in October to opening fire on the school. 

In its policy platform, March For Our Lives blames American gun violence on a culture of 鈥済un glorification,鈥� political apathy, poverty and 鈥渁rmed supremacy鈥� in which the threat of guns are used to 鈥渞einforce power structures, hierarchies, and status.鈥� And while they recognize a national mental health crisis exists, they oppose 鈥渟capegoating鈥� those with mental illnesses as being a threat to others when they鈥檙e actually more likely than those without such disorders to .

Solutions, according to the group, include a ban on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines and a national firearm buy-back program that could reduce the number of firearms in circulation by some 30 percent. There are an estimated 393 million guns in circulation across the U.S. 鈥� that鈥檚 more guns than people. 

But the group鈥檚 platform extends far beyond firearm policies to prevent violence and encompasses a slew of policies generally associated with Democrats. Those include ending the 鈥渨ar on drugs,鈥� combating the 鈥渟chool-to-prison pipeline,鈥� and reducing the scope of policing. 

For RuQuan Brown, a D.C. native whose stepfather was killed in a 2018 shooting, the conversation, he said, needs to 鈥渇ocus more on love than legislation.鈥� RuQuan, who is Black, said that urban gun violence has long failed to garner the same urgency as mass shootings like the ones that played out in Parkland and Uvalde despite . 

Through his work with March For Our Lives, Brown said he鈥檚 been able to help ensure that the experiences of all gun violence victims are reflected in reform efforts. 

鈥淚鈥檝e been able to work with March to make sure that when we talk about March For Our Lives, that all peoples鈥� lives are included in that,鈥� said Brown, who also attends Harvard. For him, uplifting disenfranchised communities will be the key to gun violence prevention. 鈥淭his country and its ancestors are extremely comfortable with the deaths of Black and brown people, it鈥檚 almost a part of the fabric of this country. America wouldn鈥檛 be what it is without the deaths of Black and brown people, the genocide, the rape and the forced labor.鈥�

He said it鈥檚 critical that lawmakers develop compassion for, and a commitment to help, society鈥檚 most marginalized people. If they were 鈥渃ommitted to furthering the well-being of all people,鈥� he said, 鈥淲e wouldn鈥檛 even be having this conversation about gun violence.鈥� 

With the midterm elections approaching, Corin predicted the recent mass shootings, including at the Uvalde elementary school and a Buffalo supermarket, could once again make gun violence a top issue on the campaign trail. It鈥檚 more important than ever, she said, for candidates to let people know on which side of the issue they stand. 

鈥淚f people aren鈥檛 clear on their stances and if they don鈥檛 act with courage, they鈥檙e going to be voted out,鈥� Corin said. 鈥淎nd you know what, we鈥檙e going to vote in someone that doesn鈥檛 believe that children should be shot in their seats in school.鈥�

Even before the World Health Organization labeled the Omicron coronavirus strain a new 鈥渧ariant of concern鈥� Friday, school closures were continuing to increase across the country. 

Last week, 621 schools across 58 districts announced new closures for a variety of reasons including teacher burnout, staffing shortages and virus outbreaks, according to counts from Burbio, a data service that has tracked school policy through the pandemic. Since the start of the academic year, nationwide have added extra days off.

The numbers suggest that nearly 10 percent of the nation鈥檚 roughly 98,000 K-12 schools have experienced closures this year. In Maryland, more than 3 in 10 schools have been affected by at least one day of disruption this academic year. In North Carolina, where such events have been most frequent, the number is above 4 in 10.

Now, schools already struggling to keep classrooms open could face further challenges should the recently identified Omicron variant, which has already , fuel a COVID surge this winter. 

鈥淭his is only going to make matters worse,鈥� Dan Domenech, executive director of the School Superintendents Association, told 蜜桃影视. 鈥淲e already see that most districts are short-handed.鈥�

Earlier in November, lack of substitute teachers forced multiple large school systems to announce unplanned closures as teachers took additional time off around Veterans Day and Thanksgiving.

Shutting down is a last-resort option that schools should seek to avoid, said Domenech. But sometimes it鈥檚 school leaders鈥� only viable choice, he said.

鈥淚f they have a staff that’s on the verge of burnout and they keep pushing them, they’re only going to lose more staff. And that’s going to result in more closures and fewer kids being in person.鈥�

Now, with K-12 staff stretched thin in districts across the country, health experts are scrambling to understand the threat posed by the new variant, which Moderna鈥檚 President Dr. Stephen Hoge described as having a 鈥溾�� of mutations. 

In South Africa, where Omicron was first identified Nov. 24, the strain has contributed to a sharp spike in cases, leading doctors to believe that it is more transmissible than previous versions of the virus. But whether those cases are more severe, and exactly how much protection is delivered by the vaccines, remains unclear. 

The South African doctor who first discovered the variant told the BBC on Sunday that symptoms have generally been 鈥�.鈥� But other experts point out that these initial observations are only based on a very small sample size.

鈥淭his variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic,鈥� said President Joe Biden in an address to the nation Monday morning.

Health experts, the president said, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, believe that existing COVID vaccines will continue to provide a degree of protection against the new strain, especially for individuals who have upped their immunity through booster shots. But it will be before scientists gain more precise results on just how effectively antibodies built up through vaccination neutralize the Omicron variant, Dr. Kavita Patel, a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution, told CNBC on Monday. Still, there鈥檚 reason to be hopeful, she said.

鈥淭he current vaccines don鈥檛 just generate the variant-specific antibodies. They try to generate kind of a broad antibody response,鈥� said the Washington, D.C.-based physician.

Because of the Omicron variant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday on booster doses to recommend that all adults 鈥渟hould,鈥� rather than 鈥渕ay,鈥� receive a third shot six months after their second. Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported Monday evening that Pfizer-BioNTech plans to for 16- and 17-year olds, after initial booster data out of Israel showed positive results within that age group.

While the details of the new variant come into focus, Atlanta-based pediatrician Jennifer Shu said K-12 buildings need to keep their guard up to stave off in-school transmission.

鈥淚t鈥檚 important for schools to continue protective measures such as masking, hand washing, physical distancing when possible, disinfecting, optimizing ventilation, etc. to limit the spread of COVID-19,鈥� the doctor wrote in an email to 蜜桃影视.

At this point, Domenech said he is not aware of any school leaders within his network having changed their safety procedures in response to the emergence of the Omicron variant.

Over the course of this school year, many districts have moved to introduce 鈥�test-to-stay鈥� measures that allow students potentially exposed to the virus to skip quarantine, provided they test negative for COVID on a rapid test. The WHO confirmed Sunday that existing PCR tests do accurately detect infection from the Omicron variant, but studies are ongoing to determine the effectiveness at recognizing the new strain employed in most test-to-stay schemes.

Since September, there have been over , and in the week before Thanksgiving, children accounted for about a quarter of new infections, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Weekly youth cases are on the rise, up 32 percent as of Nov. 18 over the previous week to 142,000, but they are well below their peak in early September of 252,000.

Over 19 million youth have received at least one vaccine dose, President Biden said in his Monday address. Over 99 percent of schools nationwide are now open for in-person learning, he pointed out, compared to less than half this time last year.

The new strain further underscores the importance of continuing efforts to boost vaccination rates within school communities, said Domenech, and raises the stakes for immunizing newly eligible children.

鈥淭he bottom line here is that unless we get to the point where the majority of people are vaccinated, where we can get to that herd immunity point, these variants are going to keep coming [and] kids are going to get infected,鈥� he said.

Correction: Last week, 621 schools across 58 districts announced new closures for a variety of reasons. An earlier version of the story incorrectly reported that 9,313 campuses across 916 districts had announced closures last week. Those numbers represent the total closures since the start of the academic year.

At the state level, financial support for college has steadily grown more generous, as nineteen states have enacted free community college tuition over the last four years. This shift represents a major investment in providing community college for all, even if many of these programs are 鈥渓ast dollar鈥� programs that kick in after all other grants have been applied to their tuition, while students still pay other significant costs 鈥� room, board, transportation, and books.

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Biden鈥檚 proposals and these state programs aim to spend more public money on the same systems, based on the premise that many students would complete either a two- or four-year degree if only costs were lower. But increasing educational opportunity is more complicated than that. The President鈥檚 plan acknowledges the complexity of the issue, including 鈥�$62 billion to invest in evidence-based strategies to strengthen completion and retention rates at community colleges and institutions that serve students from our most disadvantaged communities.鈥�

With the nationwide completion rate for two-year Associate鈥檚 programs at 42.1% percent after four years, the need for new approaches is clear. Hopefully, the administration will recognize the structural issues with community colleges and consider alternatives to the current system as it invests in education.

My on the City University of New York鈥檚 (CUNY鈥檚) community colleges offers an instructive case study in the problems with our current approach. At the root of the issue is the misdirection of too many low achieving students to academic study eventually requiring four-year degrees. The most recently available results from CUNY show that only about a quarter of the students who entered two-year Associate degree programs in 2015 were able to earn their degree within four years. The long-term outcomes for an earlier group of students were also sobering. Ten long years after beginning their college careers in the community colleges, only 21 percent of students earned a bachelor’s degree and 17 percent earned an associate degree.

These results should hardly be surprising. Many students enter CUNY鈥檚 community colleges after barely eking by in the city鈥檚 lowest performing public high schools. While CUNY鈥檚 Senior Colleges generally admit students with high school Grade Point Averages in the mid 80s to 90s (A and B students), CUNY鈥檚 community colleges admit students with GPAs in the range of 77-79 (C students). Data from the City鈥檚 high schools indicate that many of these students came through that system鈥檚 least selective and lowest performing schools. Their graduates are ill-prepared for college.

And yet, these students are preparing for four-year degrees. Once admitted to CUNY鈥檚 community colleges, 42 percent of students are enrolled in liberal arts programs and another 24 percent are enrolled in other associates degree programs designed to move them on to bachelor鈥檚 programs. Given the low completion rates of students for these students, many would be better served by more expeditious programs to prepare them for entry level positions with a living wage.

There is one bright spot in the CUNY community college system, which could be a model for improving completion rates beyond New York 鈥� the Accelerated Studies in Associate Programs (ASAP). Independent evaluators have found it to be clearly successful in increasing both student retention and graduation rates.

Originally begun with students who had attained full proficiency for college level work, the program has evolved to include students who need developmental course work in one or two areas. Once admitted, in return for tuition waivers, free Metro-card passes and financial support for books and other expenses, the students must follow an individualized course plan, check in regularly with dedicated counsellors and maintain their grades and progress toward graduation.

ASAP certainly qualifies as a successful 鈥渆vidence-based strategy to improve completion rates鈥� that the administration should consider supporting, but even these sorts of programs won鈥檛 be the best fit for everyone. Young people who persevere through high school passing, but just getting by, are not well served by the current system. They need programs that will allow them to quickly find success in the world of work, gaining agency over their own lives, while allowing them the opportunity to later pursue continued college education or training at their own choosing.

An equally hopeful trend on the national level is the growing use of certificate programs to quickly move students to the workforce (in 2019, close to 620,000 certificates were by community colleges). These numbers are encouraging; by targeting higher education to specific skills and courses needed for a certain industry, certificates save students money, and prepare them for the outside world more quickly. But still too many students are unsuccessfully pursuing Associates degrees designed as pathways to bachelor’s degree programs. More money will not solve that problem, but money tied to incentives for community colleges to continue to expand their work with local business and trade groups might well create much greater opportunities in underserved communities.

Longtime education analyst Bruno Manno has a name for this paradigm shift: opportunity pluralism. As he has described, programs focused on workforce preparation 鈥渇oster opportunity pluralism, creating new options to the 鈥榖achelor鈥檚 degree of bust鈥� mindset.鈥� He stresses that in order to be successful, these programs must have clearly sequenced curriculum, 鈥渁ligned with labor market needs.鈥� Where these programs have been successful, they are guided by formal agreements among schools, colleges, local governments and trade associations or organizations.

Last year, Opportunity America, a think tank led by Tamar Jacoby, convened a panel of experts to consider reimagining the nation鈥檚 community colleges as the country rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic. Their report called for community colleges to focus more directly on preparing their students for entry into the workforce. Whenever possible, their programs, the report emphasized, 鈥渟hould be offered in partnership with employers who help design the content and stand ready to hire graduates.鈥� These programs need to be judged by their success at job placement: 鈥渃ommunity college funding should be geared more closely to job placement and wages鈥� and engage in 鈥渄ay-to-day鈥� collaboration with employers.

These findings suggest that a fundamental reorientation could replace the shortfalls of the CUNY community colleges and similar systems across the country with true paths of upward mobility. By seeking an institutional alignment with the business sector, community colleges could provide students a rapid jump start to meaningful careers, and allow students pursuing higher education to succeed rather than stagnate on their way to a degree.

Community colleges will not undergo this seismic shift on their own, as many of them remain rooted in the notion that four-year college degrees are the only path to success. But if Congress pursues broad structural reforms as it considers the President鈥檚 plans, it could uplift students left behind by the current educational system and build a more inclusive economy. At the federal level, legislators should resist the urge to throw more money at the problem. At the state and local level, policymakers should work creatively to offer all high school graduates a path to the world of work.

If today鈥檚 leaders can pursue meaningful reform to the community college system, and operate within a paradigm of true opportunity pluralism, the next generation will have broader educational opportunities, better employment outcomes, and perhaps even a new definition of success.

Ray Domanico is a senior fellow and director of education policy at the Manhattan Institute.

Educators welcome President Joe Biden鈥檚 plan to spend $20 billion 鈥� on top of the federal government鈥檚 current funding for high-poverty districts 鈥� to address the needs of schools with the greatest concentrations of disadvantaged students.

But with the new administration already getting a late start on the budget process and Republicans cringing at the size of Biden鈥檚 infrastructure and family policy proposals, it鈥檚 unclear where the additional funding will come from.

The president鈥檚 for fiscal year 2022 would reverse 鈥測ears of underinvestment in federal education programs,鈥� Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told reporters last week. But some Republicans are calling it , considering the other relief bills Congress has passed to address the pandemic.

The current federal budget runs through the end of September. If Congress doesn鈥檛 agree on a new budget by then, lawmakers would likely pass a continuing resolution to keep funding the government, leaving open the possibility they won鈥檛 act on Biden鈥檚 new proposals this year. Meanwhile, the administration continues to in an effort to find a compromise over Biden鈥檚 infrastructure plan, but it鈥檚 possible Democrats would plow ahead and pass much of the president鈥檚 agenda on their own.

鈥淒emocrats hold control and they want to help the president fulfill his priorities,鈥� said Danny Carlson, associate executive director for policy and advocacy at the National Association of Elementary School Principals. 鈥淗e obviously campaigned on tripling Title I.”

As they did with the March relief bill, Democrats could use the reconciliation process, which allows them to pass spending bills without a single Republican vote. With the Senate split 50-50, Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia, could once again end up casting the deciding vote. If the administration aims for a bipartisan deal, Biden will need the support of at least 10 Republicans.

, released May 28, would keep funding for the existing Title I program at the current level of $16.5 billion but would create a new formula for distributing $20 billion in 鈥渆quity grants鈥� to states that work to close gaps between rich and poor districts and between those serving primarily white students and those that enroll more students of color.

, an advocacy organization that ceased operating last year, showed that despite decades of school finance lawsuits, there was still a $23 billion gap between white and nonwhite school districts as of 2016.

Under the administration鈥檚 plan districts would need to spend the additional funds on priorities Biden promoted during his campaign 鈥� increasing teacher compensation, expanding students鈥� access to advanced courses and providing preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds.

But many questions about the proposal remain, particularly how the federal government would hold states and districts accountable for the money, said Khalilah Harris, managing director of K-12 education policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. Some of those answers would come if the plan is approved when the Department of Education creates rules for the program, according to the proposal.

鈥淚t will be important not to just have surface-level conversations about equity and access,鈥� Harris said, adding that she expects Republicans to keep a close eye on how districts spend any increase in funding and that education is likely to be a 鈥渉uge issue鈥� in next year鈥檚 midterm elections.

She said the Title I equity proposal complements Biden鈥檚 plan to increase funding for community schools to $443 million 鈥� almost 15 times the current level 鈥� and would help students with the greatest needs, including homeless students, children in foster care and those with disabilities.

The additional dollars, however, wouldn鈥檛 change the fact that most funding for schools still comes from the state and local level. Zahava Stadler, a special assistant for state funding and policy at The Education Trust, an advocacy organization, said the new equity grants can serve as a 鈥減owerful incentive鈥� for states to address long-standing funding disparities.

鈥楾hink about sustainability鈥�

Another challenge is that the appropriations bill covers not just education, but also the departments of Labor and Health and Human Services. Republican members of the House appropriations committee expressed shock that Biden is asking for almost $103 billion for the education department 鈥� a 41 percent increase.

鈥淎pparently math was not his strong suit when it came to his education because this budget he has put forward is so far out of whack,鈥� Congressman Ben Cline (R-Va.) said last month during an appropriations hearing. 鈥淭his level of an increase in spending in the same year that Congress has allocated extensive funds to mitigate the effects of COVID is highly irresponsible.鈥�

If the new program becomes a reality, district leaders say it could allow them to continue the programs they鈥檙e launching with relief funds to address students鈥� learning and social-emotional needs brought on by the pandemic.

鈥淥ne of the challenges of hiring staff is you have to be able to think about sustainability,鈥� said Robert Tagorda, the executive director of equity, access, and college and career readiness in the Long Beach Unified School District, the fourth largest in California. 鈥淭hat makes it hard for us to think about long-term investments.鈥�

And John Sasaki, spokesman for the Oakland Unified School District, said even though the funds would come with restrictions, 鈥渢hey are intended to help low-income students overcome obstacles that their peers do not face.鈥�

Michael Magee, CEO of Chiefs for Change, said district leaders have talked about using federal relief funds either for one-time expenses, such as facility improvements, or innovative programs that they 鈥渉ope attract state and local dollars over time.鈥� With the equity grants, they could do both, he said.

The budget also includes a new $100 million competitive grant program for middle and high school career-and-technical education programs, separate from the Title I proposal. Biden, however, isn鈥檛 asking for any funding increases for the national Charter Schools Program 鈥� a mistake, Magee said, since charter schools have been reporting enrollment growth in many states since the beginning of the pandemic.

And Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said charter schools should have been included in the president鈥檚 equity agenda, considering they predominantly serve children of color. The alliance is pushing for an increase in funding to $500 million in next year鈥檚 budget.

In a statement, Rees said, 鈥淭he administration鈥檚 pledge to lift all forms of excellence in education cannot be fully achieved without explicit support for all public schools 鈥� both charter and district.鈥�