Most-clicked story of the week:
New York became the 31st state to signal it will opt into the Education Freedom Tax Credit program, the first nationwide federal school choice program. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s announcement came about a week after the federal government released long-awaited proposed guidelines for what implementation of the program may look like.
“I’m not going to leave money on the table when it could help our kids,” said Hochul in an Oct. 9 announcement.
Democratic leaders in other blue-leaning states, such as Pennsylvania and Illinois, are still weighing participation in the Trump administration-backed program, according to Chalkbeat. The program, which has also received pushback from public school advocates, is set to launch on Jan. 1, 2027.
The portion of ACT test-takers in the high school class of 2026 who took the college entrance exam at least twice, according to data released by the organization behind the test. Those students raised their composite score by an average 1.1 points between their first and last attempts.
Policy roundup
- The U.S. Department of Justice in September announced an end to desegregation orders impacting dozens of mostly Southern school districts. K-12 Dive analyzed the data and found many of these school systems are located in areas where segregation actually increased, with some now more racially segregated than they were in the 1990s. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has described the settlements requiring school desegregation as “onerous and outdated.”
- The Federal Communications Commission’s proposed rule exploring changes or a potential sunset for the E-Rate program drew several thousand public comments. Among them came concerns from many district leaders that ending the federal discount program for school and library broadband services and infrastructure would shift costs to local taxpayers and strain districts’ increasingly tight budgets.
- In a Tuesday letter to U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Democratic lawmakers on the Senate Appropriations Committee accused the U.S. Department of Education of “frontloading” grants. The lawmakers said the approach makes multiyear funding available in one lump sum ahead of time rather than funding a larger number of grants over time. The move has resulted in the agency withholding about $630 million in appropriated resources across some 35 grant programs, according to the letter from U.S. Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc.
School business officials gather in Pittsburgh
- Leaders from Michigan’s Livingston Educational Service Agency shared their strategies for breaking down silos and developing relationships across departments during the district’s budget process, speaking Wednesday at the Association of School Business Officials International’s 2026 annual conference in Pittsburgh. Deputy Superintendent Stephanie Weese and Livingston ESA Superintendent Michael Hubert explained how to “connect the dots” and hold practice budget exercises.
- On Thursday, Nathalie Princilus, supervisor of grants and unique programs at Delaware’s Christina School District, told ASBO attendees about how her school system worked with WestEd to develop an academic ROI dashboard that lets district leaders continually evaluate student performance against program investments. The dashboard launched in July and can track a program's cost alongside data measuring its related academic outcomes, Princilus said.
