Education for All

A proposed Core Issue plank for TIP. Last updated October 4, 2026. Dollar amounts, ratios and dates are marked TBA until they are scored.

The short version

“It would forever unfit him to be a slave.”

Frederick Douglass, recalling his enslaver's reason for forbidding him to learn to read.

They wrote it into law because they understood what learning does. Laws across the South made teaching enslaved people to read a crime, and the ban reached further after 1831. Today no law forbids a child from learning. But where a child lives still decides how much is spent on her school, which class she is placed in, whether she is screened for advanced work, and whether she is disciplined or counseled. We will end that. Every child gets a fair budget, with more for the schools that need it. Every child is screened for advanced classes, not picked by a referral. Early learning is part of the system. Counselors replace police in the hallways. Special education is fully funded, teachers are paid like professionals, every child is fed at school, and buildings are safe. And we will teach children to use AI without letting it do their thinking. And the money is public, so the public sees where it goes.

A short history, and a myth to skip

Public schooling is older than the stories told about it. Here is what the sources support, and what they do not.

1642 and 1647. Massachusetts required instruction and required towns of 50 or more families to hire a teacher. Public schooling started long before any modern foundation.
1740. South Carolina, after the Stono Rebellion, banned teaching enslaved people to write: a £100 fine and six months in jail. It was the first of many anti-literacy laws.
1829 to 1832. Georgia (1829), Louisiana and North Carolina (1830) banned it. Virginia banned meetings of free Black people for reading instruction (April 1831). After Nat Turner's revolt that August, Virginia also outlawed enslaved preaching and unsupervised meetings (1832), and Alabama passed its ban. The reasons lawmakers gave were forged passes, abolitionist writing and organizing. Turner was a literate preacher, and the bans mostly predate his revolt.
1852 and 1918. Massachusetts passed the first compulsory attendance law (1852). By 1918 every state had one. Schooling became universal and required.
1902 to 1903. John D. Rockefeller's General Education Board began with $1 million, and the family later gave over $180 million. It funded Southern schools, medical education and rural programs. The influence was real, but it came after public schools already existed.
1954 to 1974. Brown v. Board (1954) rejected separate schools. San Antonio v. Rodriguez (1973) held there is no federal constitutional right to equal school funding, and Milliken v. Bradley (1974) limited cross-district desegregation remedies. That is why funding gaps persist.

The myth to skip. Rockefeller did not invent public schools to make obedient workers. Public schools and compulsory attendance came decades earlier. What is true is narrower. Reformers did value discipline and moral training, and foundations such as the General Education Board, the Jeanes Fund and the Rosenwald Fund shaped Southern schools, including over 800 Rosenwald schoolhouses in North Carolina, inside a segregated and unequal system. Scholars disagree on whether that served business interests, expanded access, or both.

The Douglass quote. The words are Douglass's, recording what his owner Hugh Auld said when he forbade his wife to teach the boy. Douglass took the lesson the other way: if reading could unfit a man to be a slave, it was the way out.

What the administration has done

Since January 2025, Secretary Linda McMahon has been dismantling the Department from the inside, mostly without new laws. This is what the record shows through October 4, 2026. Court challenges are continuing, and some details are disputed.

Cutting the staff. In March 2025 about 1,300 to 1,400 employees got layoff notices, and about 600 more left through retirements and separations and about 100 were fired during probation, cutting the workforce roughly in half. The Supreme Court allowed the layoffs to proceed, 6 to 3, on July 14, 2025 while lawsuits continue. A second round of 500 layoffs during the fall 2025 shutdown was rescinded. A court blocked the firing of civil-rights office staff, and the Department rehired them after paying up to $38 million in administrative leave.
Moving programs to other agencies. About $30 billion in programs has moved. Career and technical education went to Labor in summer 2025. On September 30, 2025, six agreements sent TRIO, grants for historically Black colleges and minority-serving institutions and more than a dozen other higher-education programs to Labor, Fulbright-Hays and international education to State, Indian education and tribal colleges to Interior, and programs to HHS. On February 24, 2026, school safety and family engagement programs went to HHS. On March 19, 2026, the $1.7 trillion student loan portfolio and FAFSA administration went to Treasury. By July 2026 the Department had 14 agreements with six agencies, including the June 16 agreements sending special-education functions to HHS and civil-rights enforcement to Justice (K-12 Dive). The Department says it keeps legal authority and that the agencies only administer the programs. Critics say the moves bypass Congress.
Special education. Under agreements announced June 16, 2026, HHS would handle much of the IDEA grant administration, with the Department keeping nominal oversight because federal law requires the special-education office to stay at Education (NPR). The Department says funding continues and federal law is unchanged. Disability groups, including COPAA, say splitting special education from the rest of K-12 weakens coordination. Both sides agree functions are moving; whether that is lawful is contested.
Canceling grants. Ready to Learn ($23 million, May 2025), five statewide family engagement centers (September 2025) and Full-Service Community Schools ($60 million to 18 grantees, December 2025).
Rolling back civil-rights enforcement. The February 2025 anti-DEI letter was vacated by a federal court in Maryland on August 14, 2025 on procedural and constitutional grounds. On July 23, 2026 the Department removed disparate-impact provisions from its Title VI regulations, saying they forced schools into racial balancing. The administration dropped its appeal of that ruling on January 22, 2026. An August 18, 2026 letter on school discipline is non-binding guidance. It says schools must stop considering race in discipline except in extraordinary circumstances, and it criticizes the 2014 guidance; critics say it ignores documented disparities. The Department opened investigations into two districts. Since June 2026 the Office for Civil Rights refers complaints to the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, which evaluates and investigates them, with the Department reimbursing Justice. The Office keeps technical assistance, a capacity that staff cuts have sharply reduced.
Changing student aid. Under the 2025 law, on July 1, 2026 a new Repayment Assistance Plan began, SAVE is ending, Grad PLUS closed to new borrowers, and Parent PLUS borrowing is capped. Workforce Pell began for short-term programs.
Setting priorities. A "patriotic education" funding priority, federal waivers under the main K-12 law for Iowa (January 2026), Louisiana (May) and Indiana (June), which merges about $50 million in funding streams and drops the rule that academic measures count most in school ratings (EdTrust says this could obscure results for disadvantaged students), and a "Returning Education to the States" tour ahead of the midterms. Secretary McMahon has called eliminating the Department "realistic," with no timeline.
Where Congress stands. Federal News Network reports that Congress's FY2026 spending bill rejected the administration's deepest proposed cuts. Senate appropriators have also questioned the agency agreements. Education Week reports that 20 states have amended an existing lawsuit arguing the agreements are illegal; no ruling had been reported at the time of writing. Senator Bill Cassidy has promised a vote on a bill to block the HHS transfer, which faces steep odds.
What this plank does about it. Congress created these programs and funds them, so the plank rebuilds the Department and writes its core promises into statute, so they no longer depend on who runs it. It also publishes the data that the civil-rights rollback would stop schools from being held to.

The plan: stops on the itinerary

Every stop names a fixed destination and a flexible route. Every amount, ratio and date is TBA until scored.

Stop 1: A fair budget for every school

The destination. A federal floor for every public school, with extra money weighted for poverty, so a child's budget no longer depends on local property wealth.
The route (flexible). The floor amount, the poverty weights, and how fast states are phased in.
Who pays. A dedicated funding source, separate from 2KUSA, Medicare for All and housing, so the same dollars are not counted twice. Cost unscored.
Target date. TBA.

Stop 2: A rebuilt Education Department

The destination. The Department is rebuilt the way the Housing plank rebuilds HUD: staffing restored to the pre-2025 level (about 4,133, versus just under 2,200 now, roughly 2,000 positions); programs brought back from Labor, Interior, State, HHS, Treasury and Justice, including career and technical education, TRIO and other higher-education grants, school safety and family engagement programs, the student loan portfolio and FAFSA, and special-education staff being relocated to HHS (about $30B in programs have moved); civil-rights offices rebuilt; and core promises written into statute with a protected program office.
The route (flexible). Board and term protections, subject to what current law allows; timing of reversing transfers; whether some functions, such as loan servicing, stay with another agency by design; whether to restore disparate-impact enforcement by statute. Day one: reverse by executive action, subject to legal process, then lock it in by law.
Who pays. Rehiring cost TBA.
Target date. TBA.

Stop 3: Screen every student

The destination. Every student is screened for gifted and advanced classes, and identified students get funded, open advanced classes.
The route (flexible). Screening grade and method. The single admission test at New York City's eight specialized high schools stays a separate decision, since it needs the state legislature.
Who pays. Part of the floor. A requirement tied to federal funds.
Target date. TBA.

Stop 4: See the pipeline

The destination. Every district publishes, by race and income, how many students are screened, identified, placed in advanced classes, take the test and get offers.
The route (flexible). Which stages and how often.
Who pays. Low cost. A reporting condition on federal funds.
Target date. TBA.

Stop 5: Early childhood

The destination. Early childhood is part of the public system, funded for quality: trained staff, small classes and ratios, not only seats.
The route (flexible). Ages covered, child care versus pre-K, which agency runs it, pace.
Who pays. Cost and source TBA. New Mexico funds universal child care from oil and gas permanent funds (about $700 million a year), which most states do not have.
Target date. TBA.

Stop 6: Public money, public accountability

The destination. Magnets: open admission by lottery or universal screening. Charters: nonprofit only, lottery admission, full obligations to students with disabilities. No vouchers or education savings accounts that let private schools pick students or skip testing, civil-rights and financial-reporting rules.
The route (flexible). Whether TIP urges states to opt out of the federal tax-credit scholarship starting in 2027, or seeks repeal.
Who pays. Every school taking public money publishes the share spent on instruction, student support and administration. Minimum classroom share TBA.
Target date. TBA.

Stop 7: AI and the future of learning

The destination. No student-facing generative AI through 8th grade, with exceptions for disability and language support. High school uses guardrailed, evidence-tested tools only, and teaches AI literacy, including when not to use it. Teachers stay in charge: no AI grading or mental health support. Any AI tool sold to schools must meet a published evidence standard.
The route (flexible). The grade cutoff, which tools pass, and how schools are checked. Reassess each year against results.
Who pays. Federal funding for research and for the evidence standard. Cost TBA.
Target date. TBA.

Stop 8: Counselors, not police

The destination. Suspensions and expulsions only for serious safety threats. Police respond to real emergencies, not routine discipline. Counselors, psychologists, nurses and social workers meet recommended ratios. A safety plan covers violence and weapons, with support for teachers.
The route (flexible). Exact offenses and grades covered by suspension limits; counselor ratio.
Who pays. Cost TBA.
Target date. TBA.

Stop 9: Special education, fully funded

The destination. The federal government keeps the 1975 promise to cover 40% of the extra cost of educating students with disabilities, through mandatory, scheduled increases. Special education stays in the rebuilt Education Department with disability expertise, and every student's individual education plan stays enforceable.
The route (flexible). The pace of the increases; how funds are weighted; how to build the special-education teacher pipeline. The IDEA Full Funding Act (introduced April 2025) is one model.
Who pays. A dedicated funding source, not counted twice. Advocates put the 2024-25 shortfall at $38.66 billion. TIP has not scored it.
Target date. TBA.

Stop 10: Teachers paid like professionals

The destination. Federal floor money is tied to a pay standard that closes the teacher wage penalty, with paid pathways into teaching so no one borrows to become a teacher, and extra pay for hard-to-staff schools and subjects.
The route (flexible). The pay target and how fast; federal versus state share; the residency model; whether to protect teachers' right to bargain.
Who pays. Part of the funding floor. Cost TBA.
Target date. TBA.

Stop 11: Every child fed at school

The destination. Free breakfast and lunch for every public school student, with funding that does not shrink when SNAP enrollment falls.
The route (flexible). Phase-in; how the federal reimbursement formula changes. This stop works together with TIP's No Hunger plank.
Who pays. Federal funding, scored together with the No Hunger plank so the same dollars are not counted twice. Cost TBA.
Target date. TBA.

Stop 12: Safe, healthy school buildings

The destination. Every school building has working heat and cooling, water, electrical systems and safe air, with federal facility money targeted by poverty and need and a requirement to maintain what is built.
The route (flexible). Grants versus bonds; the role of the Climate and Tourism Corps in retrofits; a maintenance standard.
Who pays. A dedicated capital fund separate from the Housing trust fund. Cost TBA. The Rebuild America's Schools Act of 2026 ($130 billion) is one model.
Target date. TBA.

Stop 13: Every child reads

The destination. Every child reads at a basic level by the end of third grade, and no student leaves high school without showing basic reading. Every child is screened for reading difficulty from kindergarten through third grade, and again in middle school. Struggling readers get structured, research-based instruction and tutoring during the school day until they catch up. Teachers are trained in the research on how children learn to read. A student who has not shown basic reading by graduation age stays in funded reading support, with unlimited retakes and a project-based alternative, until the skill is shown. The diploma means the student can read.
The route (flexible). The basic-reading check itself (a short test set at the middle-school level or below, not a hard exit exam); the grade of the first check; the alternative way to show the skill (portfolio or project, as in Maryland's Bridge route); how disability accommodations work; whether third-grade retention is allowed at all, and only with intensive support; tutoring dose and staffing; how fast states phase in; whether a basic-reading demonstration counts toward the 2KUSA completion bonus.
Who pays. A dedicated funding source for screening, tutoring and teacher training, not counted twice with the funding floor or special education. The student gets the support, not the penalty. Cost unscored.
Target date. TBA.

What the evidence says

Money matters, for children in poverty. About 20% more spending over a low-income child's K-12 years raised graduation and adult income and closed the adult poverty gap (Jackson, Johnson and Persico). A Learning Policy Institute brief reports graduation up 23 points and adult family income up 52%. Strong study design, one research team.
Funding is unequal. 46% of school funding comes from states, 44% local (mostly property taxes) and 11% federal (2020-21). 16 states give high-poverty districts less per pupil. Districts serving mostly students of color got about $2,700 less per pupil than mostly white districts in one study, and high-poverty districts may need about 90% more.
Stricter discipline raises adult arrests. In a Charlotte natural experiment, attending a school one standard deviation stricter raised adult arrest by 3.2 points and incarceration by 2.5 points, more for Black and Hispanic boys. Strong design, but non-violent crimes only and data end in 2013.
Police in schools. A study of federal school-police grants found more suspensions, expulsions and police referrals, about two to three times larger for Black students, and more chronic absence. It also found less non-firearm violence and little effect on school shootings. One study, limited to grant-funded officers.
Counselors are scarce. An ACLU report says 14 million students attend schools with police but no counselor, nurse, psychologist or social worker. This is an advocacy source, and the year is not confirmed.
Restorative practices are mixed. In a Pittsburgh randomized trial, suspensions fell 36% against 18% in control schools, most in elementary schools. Academics did not improve and worsened in middle schools.
Gifted placement helps some students. Placing high-achieving Black and Hispanic fourth-graders in a gifted class raised scores about half a standard deviation, with no harm to other students. One district.
AI without guardrails. A study of 26,811 students in grades 7 to 12 in China found homework scores up 18% after AI adoption, while monthly exam scores fell 20%. A randomized trial of nearly 1,000 Turkish high schoolers found standard ChatGPT access left students 17% worse on an unassisted exam, while a hint-giving tutor largely avoided the harm. A randomized study of 334 university students found an AI tutor raised exam-prep results by about 0.23 standard deviations, mostly for students with stronger self-regulation. Mixed: design decides the outcome, and there are few studies of young children.
Early childhood. Boston's lottery study found on-time college enrollment up 8.3 points and graduation up 5.4 points, with no test-score gain. Tennessee's randomized statewide pre-K found lower scores and more discipline problems through sixth grade. Strong designs with opposite results, so quality and design matter. On August 6, 2026, HHS proposed cutting Head Start standards (class sizes, ratios, curriculum, mental health) and lowering the administrative cost cap from 15% to 5%. HHS says it would add 236,000 slots and save $2.2 billion. It is a proposal, and the final rule is pending.
School choice. CREDO (2023) found charters add about 16 days of reading and 6 of math a year on average, more in Northeast networks and worse for virtual charters and for students with disabilities. Louisiana and Indiana voucher studies found falling test scores (Louisiana math from the 50th to the 34th percentile in a year). Arizona's May 2026 audit found $654 million in purchases approved automatically. Mixed, with modest effects.
Special education is underfunded. The federal share is under 12% of costs against the 40% promised, a 2024-25 shortfall of $38.66 billion, according to the sponsors of the IDEA Full Funding Act. Administration is shifting: HHS is to run much of the IDEA grant work under June 2026 agreements, while the Education Department says funding and federal law are unchanged.
Teacher pay lags. Teachers earned 25.2% less per week than comparable college graduates in 2025 (a record 26.9% in 2024; 6.1% in 1996). Counting benefits, the gap is 14.5%. By state it ranges from 40.7% in Colorado to 10.4% in Rhode Island (Economic Policy Institute). The NEA reports an average salary of $74,495 and a starting salary of $48,112 in 2024-25. Both sources are labor-aligned.
The teacher shortage persists. In 2026, 387,843 teachers are not fully certified for their assignments and 37,569 positions are unfilled in the 29 states and DC that report it, about 1 in 8 positions (Learning Policy Institute). Special education is short in 45 states. Turnover runs 35 to 37% higher in schools with more low-income students and students of color.
School meals are at risk. Community eligibility pays schools based on how many students are on SNAP. 5.6 million people lost SNAP between May 2025 and May 2026 (a 13.5% drop), and Miami-Dade kept universal free meals in only 121 of 500-plus schools (Stateline). More than a quarter of public schools serve free meals to all.
Buildings are failing. The 2025 State of Our Schools report finds a $90 billion yearly shortfall ($56 billion capital, $34 billion maintenance); it comes from an advocacy coalition. GAO found about 19% of districts canceled school in 2024-25 over facility problems, affecting about 2 million students and 3.5 million instructional days. 47% have chronic issues, and 14% of schools are in poor or very poor condition.
Reading is slipping. On the 2024 NAEP, fewer than one-third of 4th and 8th graders were Proficient in reading. About 40% of 4th graders and 33% of 8th graders were below Basic, the largest shares on record for those grades, and no state gained from 2022 (National Assessment Governing Board). Proficient is a high bar and is not the same as grade level, so TIP uses below Basic.
Adults too. In 2023, 28% of U.S. adults ages 16 to 65 performed at the lowest literacy level or below, up from 19% in 2017 (NCES, PIAAC).
Mississippi's gate. Mississippi's 2013 law paired phonics-based instruction and coaching with third-grade retention for struggling readers. Fourth-grade NAEP reading rose about 10 points from 2013 to 2019 (Chalkbeat, 2023). In one study, retained students scored substantially higher in sixth-grade reading, mostly Black and Hispanic students, with 90 minutes of daily reading instruction and intensive intervention, but the result was only marginally significant and only 5.8% of eligible students were actually retained (Wheelock Policy Center, 2023). Researchers cannot separate retention from the rest of the package.
Holding children back. Evidence is mixed. A Florida study found retention gains statistically insignificant within five years. Indiana found benefits lasting through middle school. A 2018 study found retention in elementary grades raised the odds of dropping out, most among Black and Hispanic girls. Gains depend on significant added support (Education Commission of the States).
Reading tests for diplomas. Basic-skills graduation exams (below 9th-grade level) had negligible effects on graduation rates, while harder standards-based exams cut graduation by about one point, half offset by GED receipt, and raised incarceration by about 0.2 points (Baker and Lang, NBER, 1977-2001 data). In Maryland, students who failed an exit exam but graduated through a project-based Bridge route had employment similar to test-passers and did better than students without diplomas, with 3 to 6 points less college enrollment (NBER).
Tutoring works, less at scale. A meta-analysis of 265 randomized trials found an average effect of 0.42 standard deviations, with elementary reading strongest. Programs serving 1,000 or more students averaged 0.16, and tutoring during the school day beat after-school tutoring (EdWorkingPapers, 2024).
Teachers were not taught. NCTQ's 2026 review of 700 university programs found 53% teach all five components of reading, up from 26% in 2023. About one in five still use outdated practices, and alternative routes were not reviewed (Education Week). At least 40 states have introduced science-of-reading legislation (Stanford).

The specialized high schools: what broke

Why did Black and Latino enrollment at New York City's specialized high schools fall over 30 to 40 years? The sources name several causes, but no study measures how much each explains, and we found no program that has reversed the numbers.

The numbers. In 2025, about 3% of offers went to Black students and 6.9% to Latino students, while about 54% went to Asian students and 26% to white students. Black and Latino students are nearly two-thirds of the system. Stuyvesant made 781 offers, 8 to Black students. July 2026 coverage reports about 3 of 777. Brooklyn Tech's Black share fell from 50% in 1976 to 14% in 2017.
The gate. The 1971 Hecht-Calandra Act made a single test the gate for eight schools. The Discovery program, meant to widen access, was dropped at Stuyvesant and Bronx Science by 2015 and was later expanded. It has not substantially improved representation.
The pipeline. One author argues that ending gifted programs and honors classes in lower-income neighborhoods left strong students unprepared, while wealthier families turned to private options. That is an argument, not a measured finding. It fits the screening and gifted-class evidence.
The fix in the plank. Screen every student earlier, fund advanced classes everywhere, and publish the numbers at every stage, so the leak can finally be located.

AI and the future of learning

AI is arriving in classrooms faster than the evidence. The plank's position: pause where children are youngest and least able to use it without handing over the thinking, use guardrailed tools where the evidence supports them, and make the public standard the evidence, not the vendor's pitch.

What New York City decided. Starting in 2026-27, NYC prohibits student-facing generative AI from preschool through 8th grade for at least a year, then reassesses. It is disabling AI features in 38 software contracts. Exceptions: assistive technology for students with disabilities, English-learner supports and required computer-based tests. High school allows limited use in career and technical programs and five approved pilots. Teachers may use AI for lesson planning, translation and communications, but not grading, behavior monitoring, special education planning or mental health support. Device time limits also apply. This is New York City's policy, not New York State's.
TIP's position. Through 8th grade, no student-facing generative AI, with the same disability and language exceptions. In high school, only guardrailed, evidence-tested tools, plus AI literacy as a subject. Teachers stay in charge. A published evidence standard for any AI tool sold to schools.
Why. Unguarded AI helped homework and hurt exams in two large studies. A hint-giving tutor largely avoided the harm, and benefits went to students who could already direct their own learning. Younger children are the least likely to do that.
The weak points. NYC has no formal enforcement beyond trusting schools, the policy does not reach students' use at home, and families with tutors and devices keep using AI, so this can widen gaps. The plank answers with AI literacy taught to everyone in high school and a public evidence standard.
Versus the federal posture. An April 2025 executive order (14277) set up a White House AI education task force and industry partnerships to promote AI literacy and integration. TIP's approach puts evidence first and the public interest ahead of vendors.
Not yet reviewed. Student data privacy and AI vendors' use of children's data. That is a real concern, and TIP will check it before taking a position.

Hard questions

"Isn't this just more money?" The research finds the money matters most for children in poverty, and it finds states that spend less on poorer districts. The plank adds rules: public reporting of where the money goes, and a minimum classroom share.
"Won't limiting police make schools unsafe?" The plank limits routine policing and suspensions, not emergency response. Police still handle real emergencies, and a safety plan covers violence and weapons. The grant study found less non-firearm violence with police present but far more suspensions, so the trade-offs are real.
"Does screening everyone water down gifted programs?" Screening finds students who were overlooked. The gifted-class study found no harm to students who were not placed. The advanced classes must be funded so they are real.
"Why not just let families choose?" Choice helps the families who can use it, and the evidence on vouchers is weak and on charters modest. The plank's test: no child's school should depend on whether her family can move or win a lottery, and any school taking public money answers to the public.
"Is early childhood proven?" Not uniformly. Boston's results were strong on graduation and college, Tennessee's were negative, so the plank funds quality, not just seats.
"Won't pausing AI leave kids behind?" It is a pause, not a ban for life, and it is reassessed each year. The evidence says unguarded use can hurt learning. The plank teaches AI literacy in high school and lets guardrailed tools in where they show benefit.
"Isn't the history overblown?" The plank does not claim a conspiracy. It says what the record shows: literacy was outlawed, separate schools were never equal, and funding gaps persist.
"Why rebuild a department the administration says has failed?" Congress created these programs and pays for them. Moving them between agencies without a new law leaves families unsure who is accountable. The plank keeps states in charge of schools and puts the federal commitments (the funding floor, civil rights and special education) in statute.
“Won't a reading requirement just push kids out?” It could, which is why the plank sets only a basic check, allows unlimited retakes and a project-based alternative, and requires funded tutoring before any consequence. In older data, basic-level graduation tests had negligible effects on graduation rates, while harder exams reduced them. Students with disabilities get accommodations. The point is the support, not the penalty.
“Why not just hold kids back in third grade?” The evidence is mixed. Mississippi paired retention with intensive instruction and saw gains, but other studies found the gains fade without support and one found higher dropout odds. The plank leads with screening and tutoring, and TIP has not set a position on mandatory retention.
"Won't teenagers drop out waiting for 2KUSA?" 2KUSA starts at 18, the usual graduation age, so leaving school early gains nothing. The base dividend has no diploma requirement, so students the system failed are not cut off. A separate completion bonus (amount TBA, set in the 2KUSA plank) rewards finishing high school, a GED or a basic-reading demonstration. Still in draft: TIP has not yet studied how cash payments of this size affect school or work choices, and the completion bonus still needs its own funding source and legal review.
"Can the country afford all this?" No cost estimate exists yet for the floor, the weighting, early childhood, special education, teacher pay, meals, buildings or counselors. TIP will publish the scoring and the funding source before any dollar figure.

Still to be set (TBA)

The funding floor amount and poverty weights. Whether to restore disparate-impact enforcement by statute. Suspension limits and the counselor ratio. The minimum classroom-spending share. The early-childhood agency and cost. The pace of special-education funding. The teacher pay target and bargaining position. The universal-meals phase-in. The size of the school facilities fund. Education Department rehiring cost. Whether to keep, change or supplement the specialized-school test. The basic-reading check, its grade and its alternative route; the retention position; the tutoring dose. All target dates. TIP will publish the scoring when it exists.

Sources

Reading: National Assessment Governing Board, 2024 NAEP (nagb.gov); NCES, PIAAC 2023 (nces.ed.gov); Wheelock Policy Center, Mississippi retention (wheelockpolicycenter.org); Chalkbeat, Mississippi, July 2023 (chalkbeat.org); Education Commission of the States, third-grade retention (ecs.org); NBER, Baker and Lang, high school exit exams; NBER, Maryland Bridge study (nber.org); EdWorkingPapers, tutoring meta-analysis, 2024 (edworkingpapers.com); Education Week, NCTQ review, June 2026 (edweek.org); Stanford News, February 2026 (news.stanford.edu)
Brookings: On negative effects of vouchers; Chalkbeat: CREDO charter study, 2023 (chalkbeat.org); Stateline: federal scholarship tax credit (stateline.org)
Education Next: administrative staff growth; proving the school-to-prison pipeline (educationnext.org); Arizona Mirror: ESA audit, May 2026 (azmirror.com)
UVA Law: school funding opportunity gaps (law.virginia.edu); Learning Policy Institute: school finance reform (learningpolicyinstitute.org)
NBER: tracking the gifted (nber.org); NBER: long-term effects of universal preschool in Boston (nber.org); Tennessee pre-K study through sixth grade (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Discipline: Sorensen et al., school-based policing (files.eric.ed.gov); RAND on Pittsburgh restorative practices (rand.org); ACLU, Cops and No Counselors (aclu.org); The Conversation on the April 2025 executive order (theconversation.com)
Education Department: Chalkbeat, March 2025 layoffs (chalkbeat.org); Federal News Network, March 2026 (federalnewsnetwork.com); AASA on program moves (aasa.org)
Head Start: K-12 Dive on the August 2026 proposal (k12dive.com); New Mexico child care: Fiscal Policy Institute (fiscalpolicy.org)
Specialized high schools: Chalkbeat 2021 and 2025 offer data (chalkbeat.org); NY1, July 2026 (ny1.com); California Law Review, Lost Promise (californialawreview.org); The 74 (the74million.org)
History: EBSCO, history of public education in the U.S. (ebsco.com); Wikipedia, General Education Board and Common school; Journal of the History of Philanthropy, foundations in the Jim Crow South (histphil.org)
Anti-literacy laws: Encyclopedia Virginia (encyclopediavirginia.org); Zinn Education Project, April 7, 1831 (zinnedproject.org); Wikipedia, anti-literacy laws in the United States; Wikipedia, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
AI in schools: Chalkbeat on NYC's AI ban, September 2026 (chalkbeat.org); VoxDev on AI homework and exam penalties (voxdev.org); Bastani et al., Generative AI can harm learning (hamsabastani.github.io); IZA, AI tutoring study (docs.iza.org); Federal Register, Executive Order 14277 (federalregister.gov)
Special education: Fetterman, Van Hollen and Huffman on the IDEA Full Funding Act (fetterman.senate.gov); Disability Scoop on special education staff moving (disabilityscoop.com, July 13, 2026); Council for Exceptional Children (exceptionalchildren.org, June 16, 2026)
Teachers: Economic Policy Institute, The Teacher Pay Penalty Remained High in 2025 (epi.org); NEA teacher salary data, 2026 (nea.org); Learning Policy Institute, State Teacher Shortages 2026 (learningpolicyinstitute.org)
School meals: Stateline, September 1, 2026 (stateline.org)
School buildings: GAO-26-107970 (gao.gov); K-12 Dive on the State of Our Schools 2025 report (k12dive.com); Facilities Dive on the Rebuild America's Schools Act (facilitiesdive.com)
Administration actions: NPR, June 16, 2026 (npr.org); Education Week on special education, civil rights and the August 18 discipline letter (edweek.org); K-12 Dive on the Indiana waiver and the agreements (k12dive.com); Daily Pennsylvanian, January 2026 (thedp.com); Federal News Network, March 2026 (federalnewsnetwork.com); K-12 Dive on the interagency agreements (k12dive.com); Inside Higher Ed, November 18, 2025 (insidehighered.com); The 74 on school safety and family engagement moves (the74million.org); Chalkbeat on the Supreme Court layoffs ruling (chalkbeat.org); Education Department on Title VI disparate impact, July 23, 2026 (ed.gov); Hunton on the vacated guidance (hunton.com); Student Loan Borrower Assistance on July 1, 2026 changes (studentloanborrowerassistance.org)
School choice coverage: WHYY and PBS NewsHour, September 29, 2026 (whyy.org, pbs.org)