Trump’s executive order to dismantle the Department of Education could hurt rural and low-income schools. Axios reports that states that voted for Trump might be hit the hardest. Venezuelans were sent from the U.S. to El Salvador after the Trump administration alleged, without sharing evidence, that they belonged to a gang. The Washington Post’s Silvia Foster-Frau explains how the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 factors in. Canada doesn’t have the same issues as the U.S. when it comes to egg prices. NPR lays out why. Plus, Canada’s new prime minister called for a snap election, Pope Francis was released from the hospital, and Idaho residents are standing up for a teacher and her “Everyone Is Welcome Here” classroom poster. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Chapter 1: What are the key topics discussed in this episode?
Good morning. It's Monday, March 24th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, what closing the Department of Education would mean for low-income school districts, why American chicken farms are particularly vulnerable to bird flu, and a community rallies behind a teacher who was told her classroom decor violates policy.
But first, we're learning more about the Venezuelan migrants deported by the United States and sent to El Salvador with no due process.
Chapter 2: Why were Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador?
CBS News has obtained an internal government list with the names of the 238 men, more than half of whom President Trump and his administration have accused of being part of the Tren de Aragua gang, a group that Trump has called a foreign terrorist group and wartime enemy. He used those terms again when he invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 against
a move that allowed him to give these men no chance to defend themselves in court and has set off a legal battle. And now many of their family members and friends are speaking out, saying they are not part of any gang and have committed no crimes. Washington Post immigration reporter Sylvia Foster-Frau told us about 29-year-old Mervin Yamarte, who came to the U.S.
Chapter 3: How did the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 play a role?
to escape Venezuela's political and economic crisis and to send money to his partner and child back home.
And so he came up through Central America, crossed the border, was detained for a few days, released, and then got a home in Dallas, Texas, where he began working at a tortilla-making factory. He lived there with his three friends and was working there.
They formed a soccer team and they played soccer together in the afternoons and really just kind of made a life for himself in the year and a half that he's been in the United States.
Armed officers showed up at their Texas home and brought all four of them to a detention center. Yamarte's family told the Post he and his friends were asked to sign deportation papers, and they agreed to it, thinking they were going home to their loved ones in Venezuela. But that wasn't the case.
He was put on a plane and actually sent to El Salvador's mega prison, which is a notorious and huge complex that has been at the center of allegations of human rights abuses and has been part of the crackdown on crime there in El Salvador.
Yamarte's mom realized her son was in El Salvador from seeing a video shared by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele that depicted gang members being violently pulled from airplanes and brought to this infamous prison.
We found, you know, the still that the moment where she recognized her son, it's a very close up part of the video where you see his face and he appears to be wincing. He's kneeling down wearing this like ripped black shirt. His head has been shaven. There had been footage earlier in the video of them shaving all of the new prisoners' heads. And there's an officer behind him kind of gripping him.
on the shoulder. And as you can imagine, how hard that would be for a mother to see.
Neither the White House nor the Department of Homeland Security would confirm whether Yamarte and his friends had ties to gangs.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of dismantling the Department of Education?
The administration has so far provided no evidence supporting their claim that the men on these flights had gang affiliations. And it's becoming increasingly clear some, if not many, likely were not gang members. Still, the administration has continued to defend the deportations.
Meanwhile, the judge who ordered the administration to turn around the planes flying these men to El Salvador in order that was not followed, he said in a separate hearing on Friday that he was skeptical the Justice Department has grounds to invoke the Alien Enemies Act at all, saying the administration has stretched and distorted the intent of the statute.
As President Trump makes moves to end the Department of Education, even though Congress is supposed to get the last word on eliminating it, let's talk about what kind of impact that might have on students, particularly in low-income districts. We've said it before, but it's worth saying again, the DOE isn't in charge of curricula. That's up to the states.
Funding also largely comes from states, with only about 8 percent coming from the federal government. And the Trump administration has said it would maintain federal funding streams for two of the DOE's key programs, Title I, which serves low-income communities, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
But some educators and policy experts worry that disruptions to these and other programs are inevitable if the DOE is eliminated and its functions assigned to other parts of state and federal government.
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Chapter 5: How might the closure of the DOE affect low-income school districts?
One coming change with the potential for big impact, a data arm of the Education Department called the National Center for Education Statistics will soon see its staff reduced from more than 100 earlier this year to just three employees. This is a department that tracks the condition of education in the country, identifies gaps in achievement, and assigns grants for rural and low-income schools.
But with a severely short staff, it's unclear how money will be allocated in the future. And that money is really important. Title I and rural schools can use it for basics like teachers' salaries, technology, and school buses. Axios reports the states that have the most to lose if the DOE is dismantled are mostly states that voted for Trump. Take, for example, Mississippi.
In the 2021 to 2022 school year, about 23 percent of its public school funding came from federal dollars. One policy expert told Axios lower wealth states like Mississippi will struggle to make up for lost federal funding. Meanwhile, educators themselves, many who are already tired of super tight budgets in the classroom, say that they're fed up.
Chloe Eierman is a third grade teacher in the Denver area. She spoke with NBC News at a teacher's rally against federal cuts to education last week.
I think the scariest part is that we don't know. That uncertainty is terrifying and it's drawing away from what really matters here, which is the education of our youth and our future Americans.
The administration, for its part, says this is all about eliminating bureaucracy and returning power to the states. Here's Education Secretary Linda McMahon speaking to Fox News after Trump signed the order.
We want to raise scores, not continue to let scores get lower. And the president is really convinced that the bureaucracy of the Department of Education is a hindrance in that.
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Chapter 6: What challenges do educators face with federal education cuts?
But even officials in some Republican states say they aren't sure Trump's order actually does that. Kevin Huffman led Tennessee's education department under a Republican governor. Here's what he told NPR.
I think the whole thing is based on a false premise that somehow federal bureaucracy is the barrier and the reason why kids aren't learning more. But in my experience, that's not true. States already have lots of autonomy and some use it well and some do not.
Aside from administering federal aid to K-12 schools, the education department is also the largest source of loans for college students. The Trump administration says loans will instead be overseen by the Small Business Administration, which McMahon headed up during Trump's first term. Let's turn now to egg prices, an American staple that's been causing a lot of pain for grocery shoppers.
It's outrageous. I just don't understand why egg prices got to be so high.
At Waffle Houses across the country, the menus now say there will be a temporary 50 cent surcharge for every egg you order. A tough hit since eggs are Waffle House's most ordered item.
It's extremely high.
Like the price of anything they've gone up substantially over the last few years. Skyrocketed in the last six, seven months. Made us a lot more conscious of like how much we're using them. Those omelets are going to become a luxury item.
It feels like people are eating gold now. Now, there is some good news on the horizon. The Department of Agriculture reported last week that Americans should soon start to see the price of eggs come down a bit. They're saying wholesale egg prices have fallen significantly and consumers should start to notice it on their grocery shelves in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, NPR looks at our neighbor to the north, Canada, and how they have managed to keep egg prices at bay. According to NPR, Canadian chickens haven't been affected by bird flu the way American chickens have. That's primarily because egg farms in Canada exist on a much smaller scale. The typical egg farm up north has around 25,000 egg-laying hens, while many farms in the U.S.
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