Weekly Federal Update 9/12/22

President and Administration

A team of scientists has found a cheap, effective way to destroy so-called forever chemicals, a group of compounds that pose a global threat to human health…

In Head Start preschools and child care centers for low-income families, mandatory masking rules are still on the books for teachers and children as young as 2-years-old…

A record-setting drought crippled economic activity across southwestern China, freezing international supply chains for automobiles, electronics and other goods that have been routinely disrupted over the past three years….

A comprehensive new analysis shows that child poverty has fallen 59 percent since 1993, with need receding on nearly every front….

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said the U.S. will eventually need to overhaul the nation’s immigration system, calling the lack of available workers to fill jobs a “bigger threat” to the economy than inflation

In the weeks since President Biden signed a comprehensive climate bill devised to spur investment in electric cars and clean energy, corporations have announced a series of big-ticket projects to produce the kind of technology the legislation aims to promote…

The Federal Reserve appears to be on a path to raise interest rates by another 0.75 percentage point this month…

Today, 9/12, President Biden is set to give a speech about his “Cancer Moonshot” initiative on Sept. 12 at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston…

Education

At a time when affirmative action is under legal attack, students like it, according to a survey by Niche…

The start of the fall semester has brought more than students back to college campuses...

Current high school students are optimistic about their chances of experiencing future life outcomes, including having a well-paying career, owning a home and enjoying good health, according to a new report from ACT...

The American Jewish Committee, an advocacy organization, has released a new guide called “A Call to Action Against Antisemitism” which that calls on lawmakers; diversity, equity and inclusion professionals; and college and university leaders, among others, to increase their knowledge of antisemitism and better address it...

The headlines on the effects of COVID on kids could hardly be gloomier...

Data from the Education Department suggests that U.S. schools now enroll more than twice as many Latino students as they did in 1995 and suggest that, by 2030, Latinos will make up roughly 30% of all public school enrollment...

Schools that closed their doors the longest due to COVID have spent just a fraction of the billions in federal relief funds targeted to students who suffered the most academically, according to an analysis by The 74...

Today, 9/12, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona will launch the Road to Success Back to School Bus Tour alongside First Lady Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff...

While pundits caution that schools are facing catastrophic teacher shortages — the result of substantial exit from the profession during the chaos of COVID — new research indicates that those warnings could be overstated...