AN EYE ON OCR FUNDING — A low-staffed Office for Civil Rights at the Education Department, a delayed Title IX final rule and a surge in discrimination cases filed are combining to crumble student’s hopes for speedy relief in school discrimination and sexual misconduct cases.

— Advocacy groups that support students who face sexual misconduct or harassment on campus are rallying around efforts to boost funding for OCR as lawmakers work out the details of federal spending for the next fiscal year. An increase in funding for the office, however, is at odds with the debt limit compromise Speaker Kevin McCarthy struck with President Joe Biden to limit spending bills to overall totals from fiscal 2022.

— Know Your IX and The Every Voice Coalition, two advocacy groups for students, say students will bear the burden of a decision to cut funding from OCR and they’re already facing delays. The office received a record high of 18,804 complaints in fiscal 2022, which OCR in its annual report said exceeded its previous record in fiscal year 2016 of 16,720 complaints. Even though the office saw a 12 percent increase in complaints, the office had about 18 percent fewer investigative staff than in fiscal year 2016.

— “In this moment we are currently in, where we still have the Trump administration’s rule in effect and we’re waiting for a new Biden administration rule, advocates are really focused on what interim solutions and things can we do to protect students and offer them resources and support,” said Emma Grasso Levine, manager of Know Your IX. “The Office for Civil Rights is a key hub for that … not having enough staff or not enough funding, means that there are fewer enforcement mechanisms that are happening from OCR. They’re not able to move through the backlog.”

— Before the debt limit deal was secured, the Biden administration’s budget wish list was seeking $178 million — a 27 percent increase over the 2023 enacted level — for OCR “to expand staffing capacity and address a growing complaint workload, which will in turn enhance OCR’s ability to resolve cases in a timely manner,” according to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona’s House Appropriations hearing testimony in April.

— In addition to the increase in complaints filed, the office is also going through more than 240,000 public comments on its proposed Title IX rule which would mandate how schools must respond to reports of sexual misconduct and codify protections for transgender students. The Education Department said it would delay its final regulation until October to ensure “the final rule is enduring.” The department is also seeking to finalize its separate rule on athletics eligibility that would make sweeping bans on transgender student sports participation illegal.

— “We need a strong OCR, we need a strong Title IX rule and we have neither one right now,” said Lily James, co-executive director at The Every Voice Coalition. “That’s just such a complicated place to be in, and it is a disheartening place to be in. … It creates this complicated ecosystem for students, survivors, knowing where to turn.”

IT’S TUESDAY, JUNE 20. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. WE’RE ALL WAITING… On the Supreme Court to release its rulings on student debt relief and race-conscious admissions. Share your thoughts with me. Reach me at [email protected]. Send tips to my colleagues Mackenzie Wilkes at [email protected], Juan Perez Jr. at [email protected] and Michael Stratford at [email protected]. And follow us on Twitter: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro.

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EXCLUSIVE: ‘HISTORICALLY BLACK, HISTORICALLY UNDERFUNDED’ — Goldman Sachs’ research arm today is out with a new report on the historic underfunding of historically Black colleges, which advances the company’s research on Black economic inequality. To break down the report, your host spoke with Gizelle George-Joseph, Goldman Sachs’ chief operating officer of global investment research. Read the full story from your host.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

MORNING EDUCATION: Why did Goldman Sachs choose to pursue a report on HBCUs?

GEORGE-JOSEPH: HBCUs are different from other minority-serving institutions because they were specifically created with the goal of educating Black Americans. They were born out of segregation and they have a long history of educating and empowering Black Americans. We wanted to take a look at the compelling reasons why these institutions should continue to be supported, why they should continue to thrive and why the public and the private sectors need to continue to invest in these colleges.

ME: If someone didn’t have the time to get through the whole report, what takeaway would you want them to leave with?

G-J: HBCUs remain a really important pathway to equality for Black Americans. … They advance social mobility. They advance students from lower-income families to higher-income families at almost twice the rate of non-minority-serving institutions. And that’s in part because they accept more students from lower-income families and they make school more accessible and affordable for the students.

ME: What impact, if any, will the affirmative action case being considered by the Supreme Court have on HBCUs? Will they be able to support an influx of students?

G-J: [Some schools] saw an influx of students after George Floyd. … And I talk a little bit about that in the research that, for example, Morehouse College, saw a 60 percent increase in applications after George Floyd, and there were other schools that saw very high percentages of increases in applications during that time. … I can’t speak exactly to how much capacity some of these schools have. … I do think the funding aspect is incredibly important as these schools need additional funding. If the affirmative action ruling changes things, the schools will probably need to open up to more students and I think it makes the case for exactly what we’re advocating [for] a bit in the research.

HOUSE RULES TODAY — House Rules will meet at 3 p.m. to take up several bills, including a resolution, H. Res. 461, that would condemn the use of school facilities to provide shelter for migrants.

— “Public school facilities should be used for educating children, not housing illegal immigrants,” a committee report submitted with the resolution says. “Unfortunately, this basic principle seems to have been lost on New York City.”

— House Republicans argue that the move would pose “a significant safety risk to school children, impedes children’s access to the educational resources they need, and distracts schools from their core mission of education.” Democrats, however, argued that “schools have long been used to shelter people.” The minority view in the report called the resolution “inflammatory, provocative, uninformed, and at the end of the day, pointless.”

NEW POLL: MAJORITY OF TEACHERS FEEL CAUGHT IN CULTURE WAR ‘CROSSFIRE’ — A new survey from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools found that the majority of public school teachers agree they don’t want politics to affect their ability to teach. Ninety-one percent of teachers reported that they “feel like they have gotten caught in the crossfire of culture wars,” according to a press release, and 94 percent answered that “they just want to teach.” The survey on more than 1,200 teachers was conducted by The Harris Poll from May 10-30.

— Teachers also reported feeling overwhelmed (72 percent), burned out (67 percent) and worried or anxious (58 percent). The majority of respondents cited student behavior, discipline issues and pay as top challenges teachers face. Nearly all teachers (97 percent) said that they “wish people understood how demanding it is to be a teacher,” and about two-fifths said they have either seriously considered leaving the profession in the past or are planning to leave by the end of the year.

— “We owe an immense debt of gratitude to teachers,” said Nina Rees, CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, in response to the findings. “We must listen to what they are telling us and do more to support them.”

— Additionally, the survey found that the vast majority of teachers “agree that public education needs more government funding, but fewer mandates” and a majority of those surveyed said they support public school choice.

— Can America’s students recover what they lost during the pandemic? The New Yorker and ProPublica

— Glenn Youngkin eyes total control in Virginia: POLITICO Pro

— How will Minnesota’s free college tuition program work? Here’s what families should know: The Star Tribune

— Without an updated state budget, Va. schools face hiring uncertainty: The Washington Post

— South Asian college students are fake marrying for the vibes: The New York Times