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Tag: american federation of teachers

  • Chicago nonprofit sues Department of Education over alleged ‘unlawful’ grant program cuts

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    A Chicago nonprofit, in conjunction with the American Federation of Teachers, is suing the U.S. Department of Education over funding cuts to a program that has long provided wraparound services to students in high-poverty and rural areas.

    The Brighton Park Neighborhood Council and AFT, in a complaint filed Monday, allege the department broke both federal law and direction from Congress when it abruptly terminated millions of dollars of grant funding through its Full-Service Community Schools (FSCS) program earlier this month. Defendants include the Education Department, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and Ruth Ryder, its acting assistant secretary.

    For decades, multiyear grants through the FSCS program have helped public elementary and secondary schools provide a range of supportive services — from social, health, nutrition and mental health support to family resources — to students and their families, especially those in vulnerable situations.

    On Dec. 12, the department discontinued 19 community school grants midyear, according to Brighton Park Neighborhood Council and AFT’s complaint. The department had budgeted more than $60 million in FSCS appropriations to fund the grantees, including funding that directly impacted both of the suing parties, their complaint says. The unused funds are set to expire Dec. 31.

    The Department of Education did not immediately return a request for comment Monday night.

    Among the funding cuts are two grants, one serving schools in metropolitan Chicago and the other in rural Illinois, that were stopped after two years of their five-year terms, the complaint states. Another five-year grant providing about $2.8 million per year to serve schools in northern Chicagoland was discontinued after three years.

    Multiyear grants have long been the norm for the FSCS program and are annually continued based on grantee performance, the complaint states. However, the lawsuit argues that the department cut funding without lawful justification and without following legal procedures.

    The complaint cites a discontinuation notice from the department, in which the agency notes it cut funding to programs “that reflect the prior Administration’s priorities and policy preferences and conflict with those of the current Administration.”

    Through FSCS funding, the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council delivers wraparound services to eight schools on the city’s Southwest Side. The largest school it serves is Curie Metro High School in the Archer Heights neighborhood, the third-largest public school in Chicago.

    The department’s decision to slash funding has already disrupted operations, causing the organization to cancel events and prepare for programming cuts down the line, the complaint states.

    “The Department of Education is unlawfully refusing to spend tens of millions of dollars that Congress appropriated to help students and their families get the support they need to succeed,” Lynn Eisenberg with Jacobson Lawyers Group said in a news release. The Chicago-based firm is representing the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council and AFT in the case, alongside the Washington, D.C., nonprofit Democracy Forward.

    Since taking office, President Donald Trump has called for the dismantling of the Education Department.

    The Brighton Park Neighborhood Council and AFT, among 10 claims for relief through their complaint, are asking for the department to stop changing funding priorities and obligate congressionally-mandated FSCS funds. They are also seeking, if necessary, an extension to program appropriations for this year beyond Dec. 31.

    “We hope and pray,” Brighton Park Neighborhood Council Executive Director Patrick Brosnan said in a statement, “that these necessary grant funds are restored, and we can continue to provide the needed services so that all students and families in our community can achieve their goals and thrive.”

    tkenny@chicagotribune.com

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    Tess Kenny

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  • Trump administration pledges to speed some student loan forgiveness after lawsuit

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    NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration has agreed to resume student loan forgiveness for an estimated 2.5 million borrowers who are enrolled in certain federal repayment plans following a lawsuit from the American Federation of Teachers.

    Under the agreement reached Friday between the teachers union and the administration, the Education Department will process loan forgiveness for those eligible in certain repayment plans that offer lower monthly payments based on a borrower’s earnings. The government had stopped providing forgiveness under those plans based on its interpretation of a different court decision.

    The agreement will also protect borrowers from being hit with high tax bills on debt due to be forgiven this year.

    “We took on the Trump administration when it refused to follow the law and denied borrowers the relief they were owed,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement. “Our agreement means that those borrowers stuck in limbo can either get immediate relief or finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.”

    The Education Department said the Trump administration is reviewing forgiveness programs to identify ones that were not affected by court rulings that blocked much of the Biden administration’s efforts to cancel student debt.

    “The Administration looks forward to continuing its work to simplify the student loan repayment process through implementation of the President’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the department said in a statement.

    Several forgiveness programs are included

    According to the deal, the Trump administration must cancel student debt for eligible borrowers enrolled in the following plans: income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, income-contingent repayment plans, Pay As You Earn (PAYE), and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) plans.

    If borrowers have made payments beyond what was needed for forgiveness, those payments will be reimbursed. The Education Department must also continue to process IDR and PSLF “buyback” applications. Balances forgiven before Dec. 31 will not be treated as taxable income, as they will in 2026 due to a recent change in tax law.

    The administration must also file progress reports every six months with the court to show the pace of application processing and loan forgiveness, according to the AFT.

    How many borrowers are waiting for forgiveness?

    An estimated 2.5 million borrowers in IDR plans will be affected by the agreement, and another 70,000 are waiting for forgiveness through the PSLF program.

    Even with the agreement in place, mass layoffs at the Education Department could factor into processing times for forgiveness, said Megan Walter, senior policy analyst at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

    If borrowers continue to make payments while their application is pending forgiveness, that will be refunded to them if they are successful, Walter said. “But keep really good records,” she said.

    What are the PSLF and buyback forgiveness programs?

    Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which has been in place since 2007, forgives federal student loans for borrowers who have worked at non-profit organizations or in public service after 120 payments, or 10 years. The Biden administration also created an option for borrowers to “buy back” months of payments they missed during forbearance or deferment in 2023, to allow more people to qualify for that forgiveness.

    To determine if you qualify for a buy-back under the PSLF program, consult this page at the Education Department.

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    The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

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  • A Right-Wing Group Used ‘Trickery’ On Teachers, Union Says

    A Right-Wing Group Used ‘Trickery’ On Teachers, Union Says

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    Public school teachers in Ohio recently got some surprising news in the mail: They were due a “credit” from their union.

    Melissa Cropper, president of the 20,000-member Ohio Federation of Teachers, was listed as the sender of the “CREDIT DUE NOTICE.” All educators had to do was fill out the attached form and mail it back for an apparent refund.

    There was just one problem. The notice didn’t actually come from Cropper or the union ― it came from the Freedom Foundation, a conservative group whose mission is to get teachers and other public sector workers to drop their union membership.

    Anyone who carefully read the form would see that by signing it, a teacher would be authorizing the Freedom Foundation to submit it to their union and employer on their behalf to renounce their membership.

    “People are really pissed,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the Ohio union’s parent group.

    Weingarten said she is accustomed to the foundation ― which has ties to GOP megadonors ― “misrepresenting” teachers unions and their work. But she believes the group crossed a legal line this time by listing Cropper as the sender of the document.

    “They lie all the time, and their MO is to divide and divide and divide,” she said. “This one was a complete fraud.”

    A teacher who quits their union would stop paying dues out of future paychecks. But the mailer didn’t just imply that teachers were owed a credit, Weingarten said ― it also suggested the union’s own leader “is inducing you to drop the union.”

    A letter an Ohio teacher received from the right-wing Freedom Foundation. The union has accused the group of “trickery” and fraud.

    Courtesy American Federation of Teachers

    The Freedom Foundation declined to answer detailed questions about the mailer campaign, such as how many were sent out and how many the group received back from teachers. But Ashley Varner, a spokesperson for the group, defended the use of the mailers in an emailed statement to HuffPost.

    “Freedom Foundation informs public employees, including teachers, of their constitutional right to leave their unions and stop paying dues because unions like AFT fail to do so,” Varner said. “The communication with teachers in Ohio was neither fraudulent nor misleading. Randi Weingarten’s claims are simply untrue.”

    Nonetheless, the Freedom Foundation backed down from using the mailers after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from the AFT, according to letters provided to HuffPost. The foundation agreed not to send any more mailers, and assured the AFT that it hadn’t distributed any outside of Ohio.

    The union’s general counsel, Dan McNeil, said in a letter to the foundation that its “reliance on trickery and deception to further its insidious goals is not only morally repugnant, it is also unlawful.” McNeil alleged that the effort ran afoul of both trademark law and identity fraud statutes, and that it amounted to “federal mail fraud.”

    Freedom Foundation executive vice president Brian Minnich wrote in a response that the group “respectfully disagrees” that the letter was meant to deceive teachers. Although the letter’s sender was listed as the union president, Minnich said the return envelope and tear-off form “clearly indicated the return would go to the Foundation.”

    “They lie all the time… This one was a complete fraud.”

    – Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers

    The mailers are part of a long-running conservative effort to weaken public sector labor groups that tend to support Democrats. Republicans in states around the country have taken aim at teachers unions in particular, pushing laws designed to make it harder for the groups to hang on to members and influence education policy.

    This right-wing cause got a major lift from the Supreme Court in 2018.

    The conservative majority ruled in its landmark case Janus v. AFSCME that public sector workers could not be required to pay any dues to a union, even if the union is still legally obligated to represent them. The decision effectively made the entire U.S. public sector “right to work,” and forced public sector labor groups to change the way they operate and focus more on member retention.

    After the ruling in Janus, the Freedom Foundation started pouring resources into campaigns encouraging workers to drop their unions. The recent Ohio mailers were part of a project called “Opt Out Today.”

    It’s difficult to unpack how the Janus decision has affected teachers unions nationally so far, in part because membership hinges on school staffing levels that fluctuate. The Freedom Foundation claims teachers have been opting out of AFT “in droves,” but Weingarten says this doomsday scenario has not come to pass.

    “They used Janus to try to defund unions. What’s happened in terms of our union is, it hasn’t worked,” she said. “But the amount of time, energy and effort we have to spend correcting the record and dealing with these misrepresentations and out-and-out lies, that takes time away from us servicing the members.”

    Weingarten said the Freedom Foundation’s use of the “credit due” mailer is a sign of “desperation.” She noted that in the group’s Oct. 12 response to the union’s cease-and-desist letter, the group said that it had “not forwarded a single request to opt-out received recently” from the Ohio mailer campaign.

    The union demanded a list of all members who received the mailers, but it says the Freedom Foundation hasn’t provided one yet. The union suggested in a follow-up letter that it might pursue legal action.

    “The AFT reserves all rights,” the letter read.

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