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** Weekly Update
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A newsletter from The Hechinger Report.
Sponsored by:
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In this week's edition: Puerto Rico faces unique challenges with cuts to the Department of Education ([link removed]) . What we know about Trump's plans for special education programs ([link removed]) . Six months after Hurricane Helene, young kids in North Carolina are still reeling ([link removed]) .
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[Students in Puerto Rico have experienced a series of natural disasters in recent years, including hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and landslides, followed by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, that has interrupted learning on the island. Credit: Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images]
** In Puerto Rico, Trump’s campaign to dismantle the Department of Education has a particular bite
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Maraida Caraballo Martinez has been an educator in Puerto Rico for 28 years and the principal of the elementary school Escuela de la Communidad Jaime C. Rodriguez for the past seven. She never knows how much money her school in Yabucoa will receive from the government each year because it isn’t based on the number of children enrolled. One year she got $36,000; another year, it was $12,000.
But for the first time as an educator, Caraballo noticed a big difference during the Biden administration. Because of an infusion of federal dollars into the island’s education system, Caraballo received a $250,000 grant, an unprecedented amount of money. She used it to buy books and computers for the library, white boards and printers for classrooms, to beef up a robotics program and build a multipurpose sports court for her students. “It meant a huge difference for the school,” Caraballo said.
Under President Joe Biden, there were tentative gains, buttressed by billions of dollars and sustained personal attention from top federal education officials, many experts and educators on the island said. Now they worry that it will all be dismantled with the change in the White House. President Donald Trump has made no secret of his disdain for the U.S. territory, having reportedly said that it was “dirty and the people were poor.” During his first term, he withheld billions of dollars in federal aid after Hurricane Maria and has suggested selling the island or swapping it for Greenland.
Trump is seeking to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education and has already made sweeping cuts to the agency, which will have widespread implications across the island. Even if federal funds — which last year made up more than two-thirds of funding for the Puerto Rican Department of Education, or PRDE — were transferred directly to the local government, it would likely lead to worse outcomes for the most vulnerable children, say educators and policymakers.
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** Special education and Trump: What parents and schools need to know
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How might dismantling the Education Department alter services for students with disabilities?
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** When a hurricane washes away a region’s child care system
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Nearly six months after Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina, some child care centers remain closed and young kids are still reeling from the disruptions.
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Disaster recovery systems regularly overlook the youngest children and their needs, experts say. ([link removed])
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** Reading list
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Head Start is turning 60. The federal child care program may not make it to 61 ([link removed])
Providers operating on ‘razor-thin margins’ worry about the possibility of deep cuts from the Trump administration
Losing homeschool data ([link removed])
Under Trump, homeschool statistics are disappearing
Do-it-yourself mental health efforts by community college students ([link removed])
Students are getting support to generate new ideas for campus support systems — and to turn the ideas into reality
Tracking Trump: His actions to dismantle the Education Department, and more ([link removed])
Read the latest updates about Trump's actions on education
OPINION: With higher education under siege, college presidents cannot afford to stay silent ([link removed])
Later generations will look back at this dark time and judge those who didn’t fight back
OPINION: Stop labeling kids and start revealing their strengths ([link removed])
We need to be partners in their recovery
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