EduClips: CA Races Expose North-South Divide in Ed Politics; IL Assembly Passes Mandate for $40,000 Minimum Teacher Salary — and More Must-Reads From America’s 15 Biggest School Districts

EduClips is a roundup of the day’s top education headlines from America’s largest school districts, where more than 4 million students across eight states attend class every day. Read previous EduClips installments here. Get the day’s top school and policy news delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for the TopSheet Education Newsletter.

Top Story

IMMIGRANT STUDENTS —Education Secretary Betsy DeVos continues to face a backlash after she told Congress that schools should be able to decide whether to report undocumented students to immigration authorities, an assertion that critics say flies in the face of the law and could stir fear in immigrant communities.

DeVos appeared before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce late last month. When Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) asked her if principals or teachers had a responsibility to report undocumented students and their families to immigration authorities, DeVos replied: “Sir, I think that’s a school decision. That’s a local community decision.”

Civil rights groups swiftly condemned the remarks, noting that the Supreme Court ruled in the 1982 case Plyler v. Doe that undocumented children are entitled to a public education. Since then, courts have struck down measures that could deter undocumented or immigrant children from showing up to school, such as requiring a U.S. birth certificate or threatening to call immigration authorities. About 725,000 K-12 students were undocumented in 2014, the most recent data available, according to the Pew Research Center. (Read at The Washington Post)

National News

TRANSGENDER STUDENTS — Despite Recent Gavin Grimm Court Ruling, Trump Administration Unlikely to Change Course on Transgender Rights. Will Supreme Court Weigh in? (Read at The74Million.org)

SCHOOL SAFETY — Florida school massacre survivors ready voter registration push (Read at Reuters)

READING — Are Poor Kids Really Behind by 30 Million Words? A Debate Rages as New Research Questions One of Early Childhood’s Premier Studies — and Researchers Say It’s More Complicated (Read at The74Million.org)

SCHOOL SAFETY — Ready for a Shooter? 1 in 5 School Police Say No (Read at Education Week)

ESSA — Trump Administration Considering ESSA Spending Guidance, Advocates Say (Read at Politics K-12)

PARKLAND SHOOTING — 4 Parkland Seniors Who Died in School Shooting Are Honored at Graduation (Read at The New York Times)

District and State News

CALIFORNIA — Primary Day in California: 6 Ways This Year’s Races for Governor and Superintendent Have Resurfaced a North-South Divide in Education Politics (Read at The74Million.org)

ILLINOIS — Illinois General Assembly Passes Bill Mandating $40,000 Minimum Salary for Teachers (Read at Illinois Policy)

FLORIDA — How many ways can you think of to make schools safer? This Broward group has 100. (Read at the Miami Herald)

CALIFORNIA — Why L.A. Unified may face financial crisis even with a giant surplus this year (Read at the Los Angeles Times)

NEW YORK — A Chalkbeat cheat sheet: The Specialized High School Admissions Test overhaul (Read at Chalkbeat)

PENNSYLVANIA — Mayor, superintendent push for more Philadelphia school repair funding (Read at 6abc.com)

NEW YORK — Critics blast Mayor de Blasio’s school desegregation plan (Read at the New York Daily News)

TEXAS — Poverty Poses Challenges for Schools — and Texas’ Future, Education Leaders Say (Read at KERA News)

FLORIDA — It’s time we call out Florida lawmakers for shortchanging education | Opinion (Read at Florida Today)

TEXAS — What does Texas need to boost public education? Pre-K and quality teachers top the list for these leaders (Read at Dallas News)

Think Pieces

TEACHER PREPARATION — A teacher prep program that really works? This one is successfully minting math and science educators (Read at Chalkbeat)

CHARTER SCHOOLS — Unchartered Territory: A new kind of charter school could shake up the battle over school choice and segregation. (Read at U.S. News and World Report)

SCHOOL SAFETY — As America Grapples With Gun Violence in Schools, a UVA Librarian Recounts How — and Where — It All Began (Read at The74Million.org)

PRIVATE SCHOOLS — We need an education commission to take a critical look at private schools (Read at The Hechinger Report)

Quote of the Day

“This is wrong. The secretary showed a sophomoric understanding of the law and at minimum used her bully pulpit to recklessly send a mixed signal to school districts across the nation that complying with federal law and long-standing legal precedent is optional.” —Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.), chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, on U.S. Secretary of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s testimony that schools should be able to decide whether to report undocumented students to immigration authorities. (Read at The Washington Post)

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