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David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Sep 2

The federal administration is severely misguided in its call to cut the English Language Acquisition Program (ESEA Title III) as part of a $5 B federal K12 funding cut.
(here is what Title III actually does: www.newamerica.org/education-po...)
learningpolicyinstitute.org/blog/5-billi...

$5 Billion in Federal Funding for Nine K–12 Formula Grant Programs Hangs in the Balance Between White House and Senate Proposals

As Congress works to finalize the FY26 budget, two competing proposals could have dramatically different impacts on federal K–12 education funding, potentially eliminating some $5B. Understanding the ...

learningpolicyinstitute.org

David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Aug 26

Who benefits from universal K-12 school voucher programs? Mostly wealthier households.
This article summarizes key points about the federal voucher policy, ECCA, part of the so called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” // @seattletimes-rss.bsky.social @nepc.bsky.social www.seattletimes.com/education-la...

Gov. Ferguson ‘deeply skeptical’ of new federal tax credit

President Donald Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Bill includes a new voucher-like program that will pay for private school scholarships. Will Washington take it up?

www.seattletimes.com

David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Aug 26

The Trump megabill will give the top 1 percent tax cuts totaling $1.02 trillion over the next decade. For comparison, the bill’s cuts to the Medicaid health care program will total $930 billion over the same period.
Read more at: itep.org/top-1-to-rec...

Top 1% to Receive $1 Trillion Tax Cut from Trump Megabill Over the Next Decade

The Trump megabill will give the top 1 percent tax cuts totaling $1.02 trillion over the next decade. For comparison, the bill’s cuts to the Medicaid health care program will total $930 billion over t...

itep.org

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Alvaro M. Bedoya @bedoyausa.bsky.social · Aug 26

Dear journalists:

The President has not fired Lisa Cook. The President is *trying* to illegally fire her.

Your words shape people’s reality. Please be accurate in your reporting.

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David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Aug 1

Critiques of the free market by school choice researchers often come too late, and rarely discuss how wealthy donors have successfully leveraged their influence to push failed school choice policies.

We explain more in this AJE Forum piece (w/ @DrDeMatt): sites.psu.edu/ajeforum/202...

Free Market Logic Fails in Schooling: A Response to Harris (2024) by David S. Knight & David E. DeMatthews – AJE Forum

sites.psu.edu

David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Aug 1

Reading individual stories of professionals who have devoted their careers to improving the nation's public school system is helpful for understanding how important their work was, and the challenges coming now that the Education Department is officially gutted:
www.npr.org/2025/08/01/n...

Today is the last day for many Education Department workers. Here's what they did

Employees across multiple divisions agree: They can't imagine how the department will fulfill its legal obligations with roughly half its staff gone.

www.npr.org

Jesse Rothstein @jrothst.bsky.social · Feb 19

It seems almost unavoidable at this point that we are headed for a deep, deep recession. Just based on 200K+ federal firings & pullback of contracts, the March employment report (to be released April 4) seems certain to show bigger job losses than any month ever outside of a few in 2008-9 and 2020.

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David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Jul 14

Justice Sotomayor: "When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it." 💯 www.npr.org/2025/07/14/n...

Supreme Court says Trump's efforts to close the Education Department can continue

The Trump administration had appealed a decision that had directed it to stop gutting the U.S. Education Department and to reinstate many of the workers the government had laid off.

www.npr.org

National Education Policy Center @nepc.bsky.social · Jul 3

A new analysis of a school finance lawsuit hints at lessons learned for those hoping to obtain state-level education funding that is both adequate and equitable. @dsknight99.bsky.social‬ bit.ly/46qG7uN

Adequacy Without Equity: The Anatomy of a School Finance Lawsuit

A new analysis of a school finance lawsuit hints at lessons learned for those hoping to obtain state-level education funding that is both adequate and equitable.

nepc.colorado.edu

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David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Jun 19

If you support detailed reporting on student math and reading test scores for children in grades 4 and 8, add you comments to the ED's May 2025 proposal here: www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PR... (which reverses the data collection). This isn't more tests, it's just SEA's reporting data centrally.

Comment Form

www.reginfo.gov

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David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Jun 4

File under headlines that should not exist:
www.edweek.org/policy-polit...

A Court Told Trump to Reverse Ed. Dept. Layoffs. Will It Happen?

A judge ruled May 22 that the Trump administration had to reinstate laid-off Ed. Dept. staffers. They're still not back on the job.

www.edweek.org

David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · May 29

I thought the federal administration was giving power back to the states?
Nondiscrimination on the basis of gender identity has been the law since 2006 in Washington. Threatening school funding for a political agenda is just wrong. www.cascadepbs.org/news/2025/05...

Title IX federal investigation clashes with WA gender identity laws

In a departure from previous cases, the Department of Education publicly announced investigations against Washington and Maine for presumed violations.

www.cascadepbs.org

David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · May 19

This bill is essentially a $20 billion hand out to wealthier private school families that would have dire consequences for public K-12 schools:

Sweeping private school voucher program tucked inside US House tax bill stateline.org/2025/05/15/r...

Sweeping private school voucher program tucked inside US House tax bill • Stateline

A national school voucher program got a step closer to becoming law.

stateline.org

David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Apr 11

How should governments spend money?
Public education is one of the strongest economic investments, far greater than tax breaks for the wealthy. Prioritizing children is not only the right thing to do, it pays off in the long run:
www.seattletimes.com/opinion/was-...

WA's 'fix' for school funding didn't repair much. Here's what will | Op-Ed

Washington has started repairing ineffective school funding but there are ways to make it more effective.

www.seattletimes.com

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David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Mar 31

Useful resource from AAUP (@aaup.bsky.social): www.aaup.org/sites/defaul...

www.aaup.org

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David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Mar 16

“President Donald Trump promises he’ll make American schools great again. He has fired nearly everyone who might objectively measure whether he succeeds”

@jillbarshay.bsky.social
hechingerreport.org/proof-points...

Chaos and confusion as the statistics arm of the Education Department is reduced to a skeletal staff of 3

Acting stats chief booted after only 15 days in the job; fate of the Nation’s Report Card unclear

hechingerreport.org

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David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Feb 26

...teacher turnover is a huge cost for schools that disproportionately impacts higher-poverty contexts. Lower turnover means ECHS leaders are spending less time and money on hiring and re-training, and more time supporting teachers, students, which likely explains some of their effectiveness. /end

David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Feb 26

...studies find positive effects associated with these College and Career Readiness Models, especially Early College High Schools. We find ECHS have about 4.3 pp lower turnover, about 20% lower, than comparable traditional public high schools. This finding is important because... 2/n

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David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Feb 26

Excited to share this co-authored article (w/ Pooya Almasi, Jinseok Shin, and Julia Duncheon)!

We studied teacher retention in Early College High Schools and STEM academies.
Why? Although small schools are thought to be "inefficient," studies find... 1/n www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Teacher retention in early college high schools and STEM academies: understanding the positive impacts of college and career readiness school models

Several experimental studies find that high schools using College and Career Readiness School Models (CCRSM) produce positive postsecondary outcomes for students. Yet little research explores the i...

www.tandfonline.com

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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · Feb 24

Early versions of what I think are among the 3 most important things I've worked on, and with a brilliant set of collaborators:
1) On Money Matters www.shankerinstitute.org/sites/defaul...
2) On School Finance Systems edworkingpapers.com/ai25-1127
3) on Vouchers edworkingpapers.com/ai25-1142

A Framework for Evaluating and Reforming School Vouchers

Following the 2002 work of economist Henry Levin, who laid out a framework for evaluating school vouchers, we provide an updated framework involving four major goals: equity, effiency, accountability ...

edworkingpapers.com

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David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Feb 24

...educational leaders will now have less evidence to work with because of poorly-informed decisions from our federal leaders. As a researcher of school finance, I can tell you, much of Elon's "slashing" in education is not efficient, it's wasteful and is slowing down the research process. /end

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David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Feb 24

...possible inclusion in WWC, but that process ended when when DOGE canceled the contract (www.chalkbeat.org/2025/02/11/e...). This is absurd. School leaders will still need to make important investment decisions with public tax dollars next year, so we have to study what's working, but... 3/n

DOGE is ‘gutting’ key education research efforts. Here’s how that affects students.

The Trump administration canceled dozens of contracts held by the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education. The president is looking to significantly scale back the size and work of the Educat...

www.chalkbeat.org

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David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Feb 24

One of the canceled Dept of Ed contracts helped support the What Works Clearinghouse, an ED database established in 2002 to curate effective educational programs. A study I published last year evaluating a widely implemented publicly funded college readiness program was being evaluated for... 2/n

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David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Feb 24

The process DOGE is using is sloppy and ill-informed. Many of DOGE’s cuts do not improve government efficiency. I'll share one first-hand example from a Dept. of Ed contract that DOGE cancelled, summarizing here: 1/n

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David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Feb 24

Part 2 of report is out! We describe our ongoing work with school district superintendents from across the state to reform Washington's K-12 school finance system.
Available here: www.education.uw.edu/epal/?page_i...

Sustaining a Shared Vision of Ample and Equitable K-12 Funding in Washington: A Convening of Superintendents to Support School Finance Reform (Part 2)

Authors: Kendall Fujioka, David Knight, Anthony Craig, Mia Tuan, Kelly Aramaki, William Jackson, and Trevor Greene

www.education.uw.edu

Liliana M. Garces @garceslm.bsky.social · Feb 18

Here, I explain how the February 14 "Dear Colleague" letter is a widely expansive distortion of the court’s ruling in SFFA. Institutional responses should remain focused on areas that the Supreme Court addressed and not expand to those clearly outside its purview.

www.chronicle.com/article/hitt...

Hitting Pause on the ‘Dear Colleague’ Letter

The Department of Education is overstepping its bounds and infringing on constitutional rights.

www.chronicle.com

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David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Feb 18

EdWeek asking: "Does plotting spending figures against test scores wind up increasing confusion rather than clarity?"

[yes, we've been saying for years, "the graph" is silly, and it's a gift for the GOP to further misinterpret]

Does Money Matter for Schools? www.edweek.org/policy-polit...

Does Money Matter for Schools? NAEP Scores Reopen the Debate

A provocative set of graphs has kicked off a debate over whether—and how—more money can improve student outcomes.

www.edweek.org

Chris Saldaña @cmsaldana.bsky.social · Feb 18

Excited this piece (co-authored with my grad student, Xinyu Guan) is out in the Texas Education Review. We study trends and patterns in security expenditures (e.g., SROs, surveillance tech, and safety equipment) across school districts in Texas. repositories.lib.utexas.edu/server/api/c...

repositories.lib.utexas.edu

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David Knight @dsknight99.bsky.social · Feb 12

Washington legislators are looking to both increase tax base equalization for K-12, and increase the local property tax limit, allowing district to raise local dollars.
How will this impact students? Read our policy brief to find out!
www.education.uw.edu/epal/?page_i...

Understanding the Impacts of Property Tax Limits and Tax Base Equalization

How K-12 policies considered during the 2025 Washington state legislative session affect students and school systems

www.education.uw.edu