Jennifer Smith Richards

Sexual Assaults on Campus No Longer Scrutinized as Closely Under Trump’s Education Department @jsmithrichards.bsky.social @jodiscohen.bsky.social

Trump's Office for Civil Rights stopped making pending school discrimination investigations public. So @propublica.org sued for the case data, and now we've made it available to all. www.propublica.org/article/civi...

This is a big deal. ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/10/15/o...

How @propublica.org Reporters Became Private School Owners in 24 Hours The reporting experiment demonstrates how easy it can be to open private schools that might then access public money. No credentials or background checks required. / by @jodiscohen.bsky.social @jsmithrichards.bsky.social

Hey hey - if you're interested in the reporting we've been doing on school privatization, do join us for this, won't you? It should be an interesting virtual discussion!

NEW: We’re reporters, not teachers. We have no business running a private school. But to show you just how easy it is to start one, we decided to test the process ourselves.

Private schools in Arkansas operate with little transparency. They don’t have to turn over incident reports or video to the public. After a parent reported abuse at one such school to the police, our reporter @jsmithrichards.bsky.social started to piece together what happened.

NEW: The owner of a private school in Arkansas ordered students to scrub floors and urged them to attack a classmate. Few records exist of the incident. Reporter @jsmithrichards.bsky.social pieced together what happened.

A woman who sexually abused a minor. Boxer Mike Tyson, who served time for rape. Both of these people launched private schools that collected public money. As the voucher system grows more popular, few states have guardrails in place. Read this wild story from me & my brilliant colleagues.

“Most people don’t think you’re a nice kid," the owner of an Arkansas private school told a boy before urging other students to take turns attacking him. She repeatedly thwacked him with a footlong plastic cylinder, calling him a liar.

I am telling you, you have to read this story. It is absurd. It is bizarre. Twists and turns! Molly Parker is a great storyteller.

We’re on strike today! Support our fight for a fair contract by NOT visiting the @propublica.org website or engaging with ProPublica stories today. Tell ProPublica’s management you won’t cross the picket line: actionnetwork.org/petitions/te...

So glad to work in a newsroom that's willing to fight against disappearing data. ProPublica Sues Education Department for Withholding Records About Discrimination in Schools, by @jsmithrichards.bsky.social @jodiscohen.bsky.social

This is the best video explanation I have seen on how the Trump administration is changing public education as we know it. A must-watch for anyone who cares about schools. by @nadiasussman.bsky.social

ICYMI: Racial harassment of Black students ignored under Trump, by @jsmithrichards.bsky.social @megomatz.bsky.social @jodiscohen.bsky.social

Cases of Black students being called the N-word, taunted by classmates saying "white power" are being ignored by the Trump administration. @megomatz.bsky.social, @jodiscohen.bsky.social and I found the Ed Dept has not acted on any racial harassment cases since Jan. 21 to hold districts accountable.

This is a blow to the conservative effort to embed Christian teachings in state standards in Oklahoma. There have been a number of efforts to push education in the state to the right, which I detailed in this story. It has been a testing ground and remains an interesting state to watch.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down the controversial state social studies standards -- but not because of the many Biblical references and skepticism about the 2020 election and origins of Covid-19. The court ruled the state board of ed violated the Open Meetings Act. Nondoc explains here.

Huge day for the Columbus Dispatch, where I worked for more than a decade. Glad to support them!

I should add that we're still very much reporting on what's happening with civil rights in schools: www.propublica.org/getinvolved/...

Linda McMahon plans to move some functions of the U.S. Department of Education to other federal agencies. That would outsource two big roles -- managing funding streams for K-12 schools and colleges -- to the Department of Labor. (No announcement on the Office for Civil Rights yet.)

“You starve your public schools to feed your private schools and charter schools,” said one superintendent about Oklahoma's efforts to grow charter schools. “Our foundation was set up for a free and appropriate education for all kids. All kids!” By @jsmithrichards.bsky.social

Although this story focuses on the education system in Oklahoma, my brilliant colleague @jsmithrichards.bsky.social makes it plain that this is a vision for education, a blueprint really, for the entire country: www.propublica.org/article/trum...

Current and former Department of Education employees: We want to hear from you. Use Signal to contact our reporters @jsmithrichards.bsky.social at jsmithrichards.93, @jodiscohen.bsky.social at jodireporter.88 or @megomatz.bsky.social at 414-207-6225.

Some immigrants have tried to self-deport using a Trump-promoted app. Many are still here, despite the government giving them departure dates and promises of safe travel. @melissa-sanchez.bsky.social and @mariamelba.bsky.social have a deeply reported, riveting account of people stranded in America.

Five Ways Trump’s Department of Education Is Upending Public Schools, by @megomatz.bsky.social @jsmithrichards.bsky.social

To understand the Trump administration’s vision for American education, @megomatz.bsky.social and I studied dozens of hours of political appointees’ speeches and podcasts and essays. What emerged is a desire to dismantle the nation’s system of public schools.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon says she's leading the department's "final mission" to shut down. But @megomatz.bsky.social and I found it's more than that: Political appointees from ultraconservative groups are in power at ED now, and they hope to dismantle public schools.

NEW: ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the Trump administration’s cuts to an aid program.

The ex-Chicago cop who got out of dozens of traffic tickets by repeating the same bogus story — that his girlfriend stole his BMW — pleaded guilty. But there’s more: @jodiscohen.bsky.social and I have been tracking pending court cases that relied on his policing. More than 90 have been dropped.

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NEW: The Trump administration stripped funding from programs that serve deafblind students in 8 states. Programs' years-old grant applications mentioned diversity, inclusion, and in WI, transition. As in, transitioning from childhood to adulthood. w/ @jodiscohen.bsky.social

The Minnesota Star Tribune has a live feed of news updates about the school shooting in Minneapolis. www.startribune.com/minneapolis-...

Well, this is a wild ride.

1/ Early on in President Trump’s second term, I spent a few weeks observing Chicago’s immigration court to get a sense of how things were changing. One afternoon in March, the case of a 27-year-old Venezuelan asylum-seeker caught my attention. I want to tell you his story 👇

Today’s must-read.

UPDATE: The rural Ohio solar project that fossil fuel interests fought hard against (in part by using the local newspaper) was approved by the state today. Frasier Solar can move forward. Here's our previous story about the fight for reference. www.propublica.org/article/ohio...

Chicago operates 150 schools that are half-empty and another 47 at less than 33% capacity. It's extraordinarily expensive. The most extreme example: Douglass high school has 27 employees for 28 students this year and a per-student cost of $93,000. Story w/ with @chalkbeat.org's Mila Koumpilova.

NEW: Illinois legislators passed a law to explicitly prevent police from ticketing and fining students for minor misbehavior at school, ending a practice that harmed students across the state. By @jodiscohen.bsky.social & @jsmithrichards.bsky.social

1/ The day after the Antioch High shooting, Nashville police arrested a 12-year-old for posting a concerning screenshot on Instagram. His school was supposed to figure out if it was a valid threat. Instead, the school expelled him with no further investigation.

Three of our colleagues are being placed on PIPs today and @propublica.org management has refused to allow stewards in those meetings. We're not shutting up about this — our colleagues deserve better and we're extremely disappointed in management for denying us this basic union right.

The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights regional office in Chicago, which was previously monitoring Xander's school for civil rights violations of its disabled students, was one of seven offices abolished by President Donald Trump’s administration in March.