The new White House school cybersecurity plan

CYBERSECURITY PLAN — More than three years after Covid-19 pushed schools into remote learning and sparked a wave of cyberattacks against K-12 infrastructure, President Joe Biden’s administration is unveiling new attempts to protect schools before officials discuss the threat at the White House today.

— The Education Department will lead a Government Coordinating Council that officials say will quarterback policy and communications between governments to strengthen school cyber defenses. The department issued new technical briefs for schools, including one co-authored with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. A $200 million cybersecurity proposal from the Federal Communications Commission is also pending.

— But administration officials stopped short of promising additional federal regulation to address the problem, instead portraying today’s White House convening as a first step to action.

— First lady Jill Biden, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas are expected to speak at an event occurring amid the backdrop of major attacks on districts in Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Baltimore.

— “In the 2022-2023 academic year alone, we saw at least eight major cyber attacks on our schools,” said Anne Neuberger, the administration’s deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technologies, to reporters on Sunday. “Four of those attacks left schools having to cancel classes or close completely as a result of disruptive building operations and classroom technologies.”

— “The Minneapolis hack just a few months ago was a particularly vicious example of these kinds of cyberattacks,” Neuberger said. More than 300,000 files — including medical records, Social Security numbers and sexual assault case files — were dumped online after the 36,000-student Minneapolis Public Schools district refused to pay a $1 million ransom.

— In 2020, the FBI warned schools were likely targets for cyberattacks as virtual classes took hold across the country.

— Local and state officials told the Government Accountability Office that lost learning following a cyberattack ranged from three days to three weeks, and that monetary losses ranged from $50,000 to $1 million.

— “It’s crystal clear: We must take cyberattacks on our schools just as seriously as we take physical attacks on critical infrastructure,” deputy Education secretary Cindy Marten told reporters.

— Our colleagues on POLITICO’s Weekly Cybersecurity team have more details on how schools will receive cybersecurity training and other help from CISA and businesses.

IT’S MONDAY, AUG. 7. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. The decadelong friendship between Reps. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) and Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) survived elections, impeachments and the Jan. 6 insurrection. But the battle over where to place blame for the last pandemic, and how to confront the next one, is testing its limits.

Reach out with tips to today’s host at [email protected] and also my colleagues Michael Stratford ([email protected]), Bianca Quilantan ([email protected]) and Mackenzie Wilkes ([email protected]). And don’t forget to follow us on whatever it is people call Twitter now: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro.

WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY — Florida schools are scrambling to determine how to handle Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ culture war fight over a college-level psychology course, with just days to spare before students return from summer break.

— On Friday, Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. said the state believes a College Board’s Advanced Placement psychology course can be taught in its “entirety” and be “developmentally appropriate,” a stance that appeared to differ from the board’s determination earlier in the week that the class had been “effectively banned”.

— “College Board has suggested that it might withhold the ‘AP’ designation from its course in Florida, ultimately hurting Florida Students,” Diaz wrote in a letter to school superintendents. “This is especially concerning given that the new school year begins in a week.”

— But POLITICO’S Andrew Atterbury reports several school districts have already backed away from using the course this fall, even with Diaz reassuring school leaders it will be available as DeSantis’ presidential campaign emphasizes a fight against liberal classroom “indoctrination.”

— “Continuing to offer AP Psychology would put nearly 1,300 ... students in jeopardy of working toward college credit that would not be validated at the end of the school year,” Pinellas County Schools said in a statement announcing the district’s decision to drop the College Board course.

— In central Florida, Seminole County students who were taking AP Psychology are instead enrolling in AP Seminar. The course will emphasize the study of psychology and ensures students get a chance to earn college credit, according to school officials. AP Seminar is described as a wide-ranging course that delves into several “real-world topics and issues.”

— In Lake County, schools are offering college-level psychology courses through other avenues: Cambridge Advanced International Certificate of Education, or AICE, and International Baccalaureate programs.

— Pinellas County, where school starts on Wednesday, is making an “immediate, effective transition” from AP Psychology classes to Cambridge AICE Psychology courses at 16 campuses. School officials ordered AICE textbooks on Thursday — the same day it was announced the AP course could be disallowed.

— School districts in Pasco and Hillsborough counties also signaled their intention Friday to transition away from the AP course and toward AICE. Others said they will simply stop offering the College Board class.

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SEE YOU IN COURT — Two conservative groups have sued to block the Biden administration’s plan to cancel $39 billion in student loans for more than 800,000 borrowers, The Associated Press reports.

— “In a lawsuit filed Friday in Michigan, the groups argue that the administration overstepped its power when it announced the forgiveness in July, just weeks after the Supreme Court struck down a broader cancellation plan pushed by President Joe Biden.”

— “It asks a judge to rule the cancellation illegal and stop the Education Department from carrying it out while the case is decided. The suit was filed by the New Civil Liberties Alliance on behalf of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the Cato Institute.”

— The department said it was implementing the plan last month to compensate borrowers for what it called “historical inaccuracies” and other failures in how the agency and its contracted loan servicers have managed the income-driven repayment programs.

CHARTER AUDIT FINDINGS — The Education Department’s inspector general recommended the agency improve its procedures to review and monitor charter school program grant spending, following a yearslong audit of the department’s performance reporting process for federal charter replication and expansion grants.

— More than 100 of those grants, worth nearly $1.2 billion if fully funded, were awarded between FY 2010 through FY 2020 according to the inspector general.

— Among the IG’s findings:

The department did not always ensure federal charter program officers “accurately and completely” filled out annual performance review templates, or notified grantees of problems identified during reviews. That means the department might not have had reliable information needed to make informed decisions about continuing funding for charter programs, the IG said.Federally-designed processes should have provided reasonable assurance that charter grantees spent funds only on allowable activities in accordance with program requirements. The IG said the CSP office did not always ensure grantees “implemented corrective actions to address significant compliance issues”.The department’s charter school program office did not always retain records in official grant files, the IG said. The CSP office could not find roughly half of the annual review forms that officers should have completed from October 2015 through June 2021.

— The IG’s office started its audit during the Trump administration in March 2018, then paused the audit in July of that year before resuming work in May 2021.

— Yet the charter school program office was moved to a different branch of the department in 2019 to comply with a Trump executive order. The IG noted that change “resulted in significant personnel turnover and revisions of policies and procedures.”

— The Education Department disputed some of the audit’s findings, said they have implemented new policies and procedures, and reiterated the impact of the 2019 charter office overhaul.

— A new report from the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association shows that the association between student protection authorization policies and enrollment and completions after college closure is not overwhelmingly positive.

— The Institute for College Access & Success calls on Congress to at least double the maximum Pell Grant, restore automatic annual inflation adjustments, expand Pell eligibility to undocumented students, and make other changes to the federal grant for low- and moderate-income college students.

— How a sexual assault in a school bathroom became a political weapon: The New York Times Magazine

— Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters targets Tulsa Public Schools: Tulsa World

— What really happened in Texas A&M’s two high-profile controversies? An investigative report explains: The Chronicle of Higher Education

— State takeovers of ‘failing’ schools are increasing. Do they help students?: The Washington Post

— Once a big player, Teach For America tries to regain its footing: Education Week