EduClips: TX Board Votes to Drop Hillary Clinton, Helen Keller From History Textbooks; Will Chicago’s Universal Pre-K Program Outlive Rahm Emanuel’s Departure? — 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

FUNDING — We finally have an idea of how much Congress wants to spend on education.

After months of wrangling, top lawmakers for the education budget struck a deal to fund the U.S. Department of Education for the upcoming fiscal year. It’s not a done deal, because it still needs to pass the House and Senate, and President Donald Trump then has to sign it. But through this agreement, members of Congress who oversee spending are sending the Trump administration a pretty clear signal about what they want to pay for and how much they want to pay. (Read at Politics K-12)

National News

EDLECTION2018 — How the 2018 State Elections Could Shape the K-12 Market (Read at EdWeek)

DEVOS — Betsy DeVos Wants to Make It Easier for Religious Schools to Avoid Title IX (Read at Buzzfeed)

District and State News

TEXAS — Texas board votes to drop Hillary Clinton, Helen Keller from history curriculum (Read at USA Today)

ILLINOIS — Emanuel Confident That Chicago’s Universal Pre-K Program Will Live On After His Exit, but Will Next Mayor Balk at the Price Tag? (Read at The74Million.org)

TEXAS — Texas education officials OK Mexican-American studies course (Read at Chron)

FLORIDA — Florida Board of Education explores flexibility for school guardian funding (Read at the Tampa Bay Times)

ILLINOIS — Why Illinois Data on Chronic School Absences Could Be ‘Meaningless’ (Read at Illinois Newsroom)

CALIFORNIA — Ten years on, California is making progress but must do more for preK-12 education (Read at EdSource)

NEW YORK — New York City schools with greatest share of low-income students lag in funding, analysis finds (Read at Chalkbeat)

NEVADA — School district reaches agreement on teacher pay (Read at KTNV)

NEW YORK — Schools chancellor calls for more black, Latino students in city’s specialized high schools (Read at the New York Daily News)

NEVADA — Performance gaps clip star ratings of Clark County schools (Read at the Las Vegas Review-Journal)

GEORGIA — As student numbers continue to rise, Gwinnett schools are finding ways to cope, thrive (Read at the Gwinnett Daily Post)

CALIFORNIA — Opinion: Tony Thurmond, California schools chief candidate, has poor record as trustee (Read at the San Francisco Chronicle)

Think Pieces

SPECIAL-NEEDS STUDENTS — How Can Parents Tell Whether a School Can Really Serve Their Special-Needs Child? These 7 Principles Can Help (Read at The74Million.org)

DUAL-LANGUAGE — Dual-Language Learning: 6 Key Insights for Schools (Read at Education Week)

BULLYING — Early evidence of a ‘Trump effect’ on bullying in schools (Read at The Hechinger Report)

BOOKER — Waters: Cory Booker Could Have Run Away From School Reform. Instead, He’s Doubling Down on Newark’s Education Revival. That’s a Smart Move (Read at The74Million.org)

STUDENT ACTIVISM — STUDENT VOICE: It shouldn’t take a tragedy to spark youth activism (Read at The Hechinger Report)

Quote of the Day

“I believe, mark my words, that every [candidate] will get the question, ‘Are you going to fulfill the next three years of universal, full-day pre-K?’ And I guarantee you that all of them are going to say ‘Yes.’ Because that’s what the public wants. … It’s what our kids need.” —Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, on the chances of his sprawling pre-K initiative surviving his departure. (Read at The74Million.org)

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