US President-Elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Education Secretary, Elisabeth (Betsy) DeVos, has come in for tough questioning this week during her Senate confirmation hearing. Trump has not given education much air time, but has said he wants to spend $20 billion in federal funds for block grants for states to support vouchers for children to attend private schools.
DeVos, a billionaire who has never worked in or attended public education, is a strong advocate of vouchers. But under questioning, said she would encourage – but not force – states to implement them.
Meanwhile, Education Week reports that elected officials in hundreds of U.S. cities and other local jurisdictions have said they will work to limit their cooperation with any plans to use data they possess towards Trump’s threat to deport undocumented immigrants. For (more…)

Jessica Ringrose and Victoria Showunmi. 
Many school and university teachers around the world have been asking how to discuss the 2016 USA elections with children, young people and students in the aftermath of what has been called the most divisive election in American history.
Wednesday night, in the wake of the election results, we were presented with the timely opportunity to re-tune our planned MA lecture in Sociology of Education on “Racism and Black Feminist Intersectionality” into a discussion about the global significance of Donald Trump’s election as President of the United States. Since the lecture was on Black Feminism, we would naturally be addressing the issues of racism and misogyny and also the deep class divisions that became powerful focal points throughout the battle between (more…)