Most clicked story of the week:
Twenty-one state attorneys general on March 23 sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture to stop the agency from enforcing new conditions that they say could threaten their states’ ability to receive key federal funds for school meals and other nutrition programs.
The lawsuit said that USDA created new requirements, effective Dec. 31, 2025, that prohibit all USDA grant recipients from using funds to “promote gender ideology” or for programs that “deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities” or that “provide incentives for illegal immigration.
If the Democratic-led plaintiff states do not comply with USDA’s new conditions, millions of children could lose access to nutritious meals, hindering their ability to learn and harming their health, the lawsuit said.
New data — and a new program — address K-12 staffing
- Superintendents report an average tenure of 5.4 years in their current roles, according to a study from AASA, The School Superintendents Association, released March 26. The latest figure is roughly double the tenure of three years or less often cited as the standard in past years, and it’s in line with a prepandemic figure of six years.
- Meanwhile, a recent analysis of federal data by the Learning Policy Institute sheds light on pandemic-era teacher turnover trends. Turnover rates overall jumped 27% during the pandemic compared to the early 1990s, the institute reported.
- Maryland has lately seen promising evidence and investments in grow-your-own teacher programs to address teacher pipeline challenges. A study published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management in January found that high school students exposed to the Teacher Academy of Maryland program were 45% more likely to become teachers within a decade of participating. The state is also launching a separate $19.4 million grow-your-own grant program in April to help school districts build a strong teacher pipeline by recruiting and training school-based employees to become licensed teachers.
Key school court developments to watch
- A Jewish charter school organization filed suit against the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board on March 24 over the recent rejection of its application to open a religious public school. Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation’s application was rejected in light of the state supreme court’s ruling in St. Isidore v. Drummond that a Catholic public school — which would have been the nation’s first religious public school had it opened as expected — violated the separation of church and state. That decision was affirmed by a deadlocked U.S. Supreme Court last year.
- A federal district court judge this month tossed out another attempt by parents to challenge overhauled admissions policies at three highly sought-after K-12 public schools in Boston — called the Boston Exam Schools — that they say racially discriminate against White and Asian students. The lawsuit is one of a handful of cases by parents in recent years meant to revert school admissions policies that they say use ZIP codes or socioeconomic status as proxies for race-based admissions.
