Category: Federal Government Actions

Rollins to lead USDA, Including School Nutrition Programs (November 30, 2024)

President-elect Donald Trump has named Brooke Rollins to be secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), where she would oversee the programs that reimburse schools providing school meals for low-income children.

Rollins, a Texas native, is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a conservative think tank launched in 2021. She also served as acting director of the White Houseā€™s Domestic Policy Council at the end of Trumpā€™s first term.

Although Trump has yet to reveal his position on school nutrition or universal meal policies, he did roll back Obama-era nutrition standards on grains, milk and sodium content during his first term in office. Meanwhile, Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation policy blueprint developed by former Trump administration officials, has called for Congress to eliminate universal school meal programs like the Community Eligibility Provision.

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Linda McMahon Named to Head the USDE (November 20, 2024)

On November 19th, President-elect Donald Trump named Linda McMahon, who served as administrator of the Small Business Association for two years in his first administration, as his nominee for U.S. Secretary of Education. McMahon is also a former president and CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), a company that develops and produces scripted wrestling events. In addition, she currently serves as co-chair of the Trump-Vance transition team.

According to Trump, ā€œLinda will use her decades of Leadership experience, and deep understanding of both Education and Business, to empower the next Generation of American Students and Workers, and make America Number One in Education in the World.ā€ He also praised McMahon for her advocacy for state-level universal school choice policies: ā€œAs Secretary of Education, Linda will fight tirelessly to expand ā€˜Choiceā€™ to every State in America, and empower parents to make the best Education decisions for their families.ā€

Trumpā€™s post also referred to his campaign promise to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. ā€œWe will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort,ā€ his post said.

McMahon has served on the Connecticut State Board of Education and also as a trustee at Sacred Heart University, a private Catholic school in Fairfield, Connecticut.

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USDA to Eliminate School Meal ā€˜Junk Feesā€™ for Low-income Families (November 6, 2024)

On November 1, 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that, starting in the 2027-28 school year, schools will be prohibited from charging junk fees to low-income families for meals served through the School Breakfast Program and the National School Lunch Program.

The new policy will only apply to students who are eligible for free and reduced-price school meals, but the USDA wants to eventually expand the ban on school meal junk fees for more students.

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As GAO Report Looked at Effectiveness of ESSER, PA Reports Appropriate Funds Usage (October 30, 2024)

According to a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released October, 23, 2024, school districts prioritized spending of COVID-19 emergency (ESSER) funds based on community input, financial need, state policies and other influences. It also found that the effectiveness of the ESSER money for COVID-19 recovery efforts is difficult to determine because school districts were involved in many activities during the pandemic. Additionally, long-term improvements are unknown because not enough time has passed since initial positive effects were noted.

Republican members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee had asked GAO to examine school district ESSER spending. Some conservative lawmakers at the federal level have questioned the proper use of the money. A statement posted on the Senate HELP Committee GOP page on X said that the report “found it difficult to determine what uses were effective. More research is needed from the field,ā€ read a statement posted Wednesday on the Senate HELP Committee GOP page on X.

In addition, AASA, The School Superintendents Association released a September report on spending practices from ESSERā€™s allocations from the American Rescue Plan and found most districts directed money toward expanded learning time, including summer programming and after-school activities. But because districts had various fiscal priorities and approaches for investing the money in different phases, it was difficult to generalize the best practice approaches for the emergency funds.

GAOā€™s report said education officials from varying states sometimes differed on what they considered was an allowable expense for district-level use of federal COVID-19 emergency funds for schools. Directives from state legislatures also influenced spending practices. Pennsylvania officials told GAO researchers that proposals to renovate or upgrade athletic fields, stadiums or tracks were denied because school districts could not justify that those improvements were necessary to respond to the pandemic.

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CDC: A Decline in Routine Vaccinations and Increase Exemption Rates can Lead to Outbreaks (October 29, 2024)

Fewer kindergartners are getting routine vaccinations compared to pre-pandemic times, dipping from 95% in the 2019-20 school year to less than 93% in 2023-24, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Meanwhile, the vaccination exemption rate for this group rose from 2.5% in 2019-20 to 3.3.% ā€” the highest level ever reported ā€” last year. Exemptions increased in 41 states and territories, and surpassed 5% in 14 of them. That amounts to more than 126,000 kindergartners with an exemption from at least one vaccination for the 2023-24 school year.

The combined decrease in routine shots and increase in exemptions ā€œjeopardizeā€ the 95% kindergartner vaccination rate goal for measles, mumps and rubella by 2030 set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It also “set[s] the stage for accumulation of clusters of undervaccinated children, which can lead to outbreaks.ā€

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