HOUSE PANEL TAKES UP ANTI-SEMITISM: The House Judiciary Committee today will hold a hearing on finding solutions to combat the rise in anti-Semitism on college campuses – bringing renewed congressional attention to the contentious issue of how the Education Department defines anti-Semitism when it investigates discrimination against Jewish students on campus under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
— House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte said in a statement that he’s “extremely concerned by the increased reports of anti-semitism” on college campuses and wants to “examine potential solutions, as well as the implications of proposed new approaches to federal civil rights laws.” That includes a controversial proposal, The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, to require the Education Department to rely on the State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism. That definition includes examples in which demonizing or delegitimizing Israel are deemed anti-Semitic.
— The bill, S. 10 (114), cleared the Senate by unanimous consent last December but hit a snag in the House amid concerns that it could run afoul of the First Amendment. The bipartisan legislation hasn’t yet been reintroduced in either the House or Senate this year.
— President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, Kenneth Marcus, has been a staunch proponent of the legislation. He wrote, for example, in a POLITICO column earlier this year that the Education Department's civil rights office is “ill-equipped to recognize anti-Semitism when it sees it” because it lacks a definition for it. “Absent a definition, the office is stymied by anti-Semitism cases and is failing in its mission to protect Jewish students.”
— Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, will testify today in support of the legislation. He’ll argue that the Education and Justice departments “should have the authority to investigate instances in which anti-Israel activity – including anti-Semitic stereotypes and anti-Israel or anti-Zionist expressions coded as political discourse – cross the line to targeted, intentional, unlawful, discriminatory intimidation and harassment of Jewish students.”
— Paul Clement, who was President George W. Bush’s solicitor general and now is a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, will also testify on behalf of several groups that support the bill. Clement said in written testimony that the more expansive definition of anti-semitism doesn’t run against the First Amendment “because it does not license universities to prohibit any speech, but only to reach certain conduct that rises to a level of harassment when it is undertaken on a forbidden basis such as racism or anti-Semitism.”
— Several civil liberties and free speech groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have opposed the legislation. Suzanne Nossel, executive director of PEN America, a group that advocates for free expression, will testifytoday against adopting an “overly broad definition” of anti-Semitism. She’ll argue that “it is a mistake to adopt a blanket rule that would treat broad categories of criticism of Israel’s government or its policies as anti-Semitism.”
— The hearing starts at 10 a.m. in room 2141 of the Rayburn House Office Building. Watch live here.
GOOD MONDAY MORNING AND WELCOME TO MORNING EDUCATION. Drop me a line with your tips and feedback: mstratford@politico.com or @mstratford. Share event listings: educalendar@politicopro.com. And follow us on Twitter: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro.
IT’S ELECTION DAY: There are hot races to track today in Virginia and New Jersey with implications for education policy. But a school board race in Douglas County, Colo., is also being watched closely by private school choice friends and foes. That’s because the school board in 2011 approved a program that would provide scholarships for 500 students to attend a private school using public funds. But it has been caught up in the courts ever since. If enough new board members are elected who oppose the voucher program, the effort could be withdrawn altogether — dropping the legal dispute that has possible Supreme Court implications. Both the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity, which supports private school choice efforts, and the American Federation of Teachers union, on the opposite side, have pumped money into the race. The Colorado Supreme Court had struck down the voucher program, but a lower district court was ordered to revisit the case, after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in a similar religious discrimination case.
— In Virginia, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, is running against Republican Ed Gillespie for governor. Northam’s education platform prioritized attracting and retaining teachers and revising standardized tests so that students are applying skills more creatively. Gillespie, in turn, promised to advance quality charter schools, encourage policies fair to homeschoolers and improve teacher compensation.
— In New Jersey, the state’s top teachers’ union made headlines when it endorsed a Republican over the state’s highest-ranking Democratic official: Senate President Steve Sweeney. POLITICO New Jersey has reported that that the bad blood dates back to 2011, when Sweeney struck a deal with Gov. Chris Christie to overhaul pension and health benefits for state public employees.
HOUSE GOP NARROWS COLLEGE ENDOWMENT TAX PROPOSAL:House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady on Monday introduced an amendment to the House GOP tax bill that would exempt more private colleges and universities from a new tax on their endowment earnings. The amendment to the bill, H.R. 1 (115), would more than double the threshold at which private colleges become subject to a 1.4 percent excise tax on their net investment income.
— Under the proposal, the tax would now apply only to private colleges whose assets are valued at $250,000 per full-time student or greater. The original GOP plan released last week would have set the threshold at $100,000 per full-time student. The new endowment tax, which is opposed heavily by higher education groups, would apply only to private, not public, schools with at least 500 students. Read more.
— Higher education groups are continuing to fight against the GOP tax plan. The American Council on Education, along with 45 other higher education organizations, said in a letter on Monday that the legislation “would discourage participation in postsecondary education, make college more expensive for those who do enroll, and undermine the financial stability of public and private, two-year and four-year colleges and universities.” Read more.
— Peter McPherson, president of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and former deputy Treasury secretary during the Reagan administration, wrote in a separate letter that the bill “would have deeply negative consequences for low and middle [class] families seeking access to higher education.” Read it here.
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT HIRES START BEFORE SENATE CONFIRMATION: Two people pegged for top Education Department jobs have started working at the department before they've been confirmed by the Senate, an Education Department spokesman confirmed to POLITICO on Monday. Jim Blew has joined as a "special assistant" to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. And Frank Brogan has joined the agency as a "principal deputy assistant secretary" in the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development.
— President Donald Trump has already nominated Blew — the former director of the education advocacy group Student Success California — for assistant secretary of the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development. Brogan, a Republican with extensive K-12 and higher education experience who was twice elected Florida’s lieutenant governor, is expected to be nominated for assistant secretary of the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, multiple sources tell Caitlin Emma.
— The hires reflect an impatience among federal agencies to fill top jobs nearly 10 months into the Trump administration. The Federal Vacancies Reform Act prohibits most people who have been nominated to fill a vacant government position from performing that office’s duties in an acting capacity. The Education Department spokesman said Blew and Brogan won’t be attending “senior staff meetings, and neither will ... be involved in meetings or discussions relevant to any future offices’ duties."
— The spokesman added: "We are nearly a year into the president's first term, and the American people deserve a fully staffed government. The Senate must act quickly to confirm pending nominees. We take the confirmation process very seriously.”
MORE THAN 400 SCHOOLS IN PUERTO RICO WELCOME STUDENTS BACK TODAY: More than half of Puerto Rico’s public schools are now back online, almost two months after Hurricane Maria shut down the island’s school system. Today, education officials plan to resume classes at 422 public schools across the island — bringing the number of operational schools up to 574. Six out of the island’s seven educational regions now have operating schools. Many of these schools will reopen without electricity and welcome students for shorter school days, though many are offering after-school care. Education Secretary Julia Keleher said in a statement that the process remains “dynamic” and that schools will be authorized to reopen once a school building has been cleared as safe. “The priority is the safety of the school community,” Keleher said. Before the devastation that swept the island on Sept. 20, Puerto Rico operated 1,113 schools. Of those, 44 experienced severe damage and will not reopen, education officials there said this weekend. Students who previously attended those schools will be relocated.
— Thousands of families from Puerto Rico have already relocated their children to schools in the contiguous U.S. As of late Monday, 6,405 students previously attending public schools in Puerto Rico are now enrolled in school districts across eight states, according to data obtained by the Puerto Rico Education Department with the help of the U.S. Education Department and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Florida registered as the top destination, with 4,631 students enrolling there following Hurricane Maria. New York schools have enrolled 679 students, while 524 now attend public schools in Massachusetts. Districts in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arkansas, Kansas and Louisiana have also enrolled displaced students from Puerto Rico.
— In the coming weeks, Puerto Rican officials hope to launch a online platform that will allow parents, guardians and educators in those school districts to access transcripts for Puerto Rican students.
BIG-TIME COLLEGE SPORTS TAKE A HIT IN HOUSE GOP TAX BILL: The House GOP's tax plan could also land a blow to some major college sports programs by targeting season ticket holders, top-dollar coaches and stadiums. For example, the legislation would do away with a deduction tied to season tickets. Many college booster clubs require a donation for the "right" to buy season tickets for football, basketball and other games. Donors now can write off 80 percent of that gift.
— And the bill could also create a tax on high-paid coaches. Under a provision in the plan, employers would be taxed on their top five paid employees. The charge would apply to employees making more than $1 million and would be 20 percent of the amount over $1 million that employee is paid. Benjamin Wermund has more here.
TRACKING TITLE IX POLICIES: End Rape on Campus, a group that advocates for survivors of sexual assault, is launching a map this morning detailing institutions’ sexual assault investigation policies, prevention efforts, and available survivor support resources. The map includes more than 100 schools, including the two largest four-year undergraduate colleges and universities in each state and D.C., as well as 15 Historically Black Colleges and Universities. “We believe that prospective students and families will learn far more from this map than from an information session where administrators say ‘we take this issue very seriously,’” the group said in a statement. Check out the map here.
STUDY EXPLORES SCHOOL CHOICE BARRIERS FOR HOUSTON ELL STUDENTS: Houston’s English language learners were significantly less likely than their peers to participate in school choice, according to recent research from the Houston Education Research Consortium — a research partnership between Rice University and the Houston Independent School District. That pattern only held for current English language learners, while students no longer classified that way were just as likely to attend a magnet school, charter school or another form of school choice — which are considered “non-zoned” schools. Houston Independent School District is the largest school district in the state.
— “There are a couple of different explanations we offer,” said Madeline Mavrogordato, co-author of the study, “but one that comes to mind fastest is language; these parents have a language barrier and learning about schools and gathering the necessary information they would need to inform choosing a non-zoned school for their child is just more difficult for these parents.” More.
REPORT ROLL CALL
— Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee, led by Sen. Martin Heinrich, today are releasing a new report describing “The College Affordability Crisis in America.” Read it here.
— After-school programs with positive, responsive and organized environments can have academic benefits for students, according to a new study by NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
— The Education Trust-West, a West Coast-based advocacy group, is out with a report that looks at Latino students in California and how they attend some of the most segregated schools in the country, have insufficient access to early childhood education and are more likely to take remedial courses at colleges and universities.
— Principals value the teaching of social and emotional skills like feeling empathy for others and maintaining positive relationships, but fewer are convinced of a large-scale benefit when it comes to academics, according to a new survey by the firm Civic Enterprises and Peter D. Hart Research Associates for the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning — an organization devoted to social and emotional learning.
SYLLABUS
— Slaves in the Ivy League: Princeton discovers its racial past: The Chronicle of Higher Education.
— South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard plans to appoint Don Kirkegaard as the state’s secretary of education: The Associated Press.
— Florida State suspends fraternities, sororities in wake of pledge’s death: The Washington Post.
— Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder OKs bill to expand scholarship program to Flint: The Associated Press.
— California suspension and expulsion rates drop again but racial gaps remain: KPCC.
— New Mexico school district considers four-day weeks to attract teachers: KRQE News.
— Connecticut teachers’ union withdraws lawsuit challenging governor over school funding: CTNewsJunkie.
— California teacher pension executives get big bonuses: The Associated Press.
— Judge agrees Tulsa, Oklahoma City school districts have stake in charter school funding lawsuit: Tulsa World.
— Growth in Utah’s charter school enrollment slows again as public school students top 650K: The Salt Lake Tribune.
Find the article here.
