Has the Trump administration “returned education to the states”?

President Donald Trump and his Education Secretary Linda McMahon have made “returning education to the states” — including closing the Education Department — the centerpiece of their education agenda.

What does that actually look like? To find out, Chalkbeat ideas editor Matt Barnum will be in conversation with two state education leaders: Rhode Island Commissioner of Education Angélica Infante-Green and Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner.

We’ll discuss how they see the convulsive changes at the federal level affecting schools in their states. Does it matter if education programs are run out of the Department of Labor? Should parents and teachers be concerned about cuts to federal programs? What will happen to testing and accountability? How has civil rights enforcement changed? What new opportunities exist for state leaders?

Join us for this virtual Chalkbeat Ideas conversation on Thursday, June 11, 1-1:45 ET. RSVP to join us. There will be time for audience-submitted questions. Please share yours upon registering.

Matt Barnum is editor and columnist for Chalkbeat Ideas, a section devoted to explaining and examining the ideas and debates shaping American schools. Before launching this section, he covered K-12 education for the Wall Street Journal.

As Indiana’s first Secretary of Education and the state’s top education official, Dr. Katie Jenner leads a unified, student-centered vision from K-12 to college. Dr. Jenner oversees eight state agencies/boards, including leading the Indiana Department of Education and the Indiana Commission for Higher Education and chairing the State Board of Education.

Angélica Infante-Green has served as Rhode Island’s Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education since April 2019, leading major statewide efforts to improve PK–12 education. She guided the education system through COVID-19 recovery and school reopening, advanced readiness-based graduation requirements to reimagine high school, earned national recognition for reducing chronic absenteeism, and is overseeing the state intervention in the Providence Public School District to address long-standing challenges.