When entrepreneur Elon Musk made headlines with his vociferous comments supporting the H-1B visa program, the ensuing debate focused on the implications of his position on immigration. 

But this debate obscured the reason America even has such a program in the first place: its homegrown students are being poorly educated in math. 

According to federal law, the H-1B program gives visas to foreigners coming to perform services "in a specialty occupation." A specialty occupation is defined as requiring "theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge," plus higher education requirements. 

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The program is annually capped at 65,000 regular H-1B visas, with another 20,000 for those foreigners who have earned advanced degrees from U.S. universities. 

Given Musk’s vehement support of the program, it is no surprise that a federal report states that in 2023, "computer-related occupations were the largest major occupational area, accounting for 65% of all beneficiaries [of the program]." In comparison, less than 1% of H-1B visas were given to foreigners in the social sciences. 

While much of the coverage of the H-1B debate focuses on the foreign-versus-American-worker angle, the real issue regarding H-1Bs is that the U.S. is failing to produce domestic workers with the requisite math skills required by Musk’s SpaceX and other high-tech companies. 

In 2024, a shocking 72% of eighth-grade students taking the National Assessment of Educational Progress math exam failed to score at the proficient level -- a full 6% increase over the 66% of eighth graders failing to achieve proficiency in 2019.

Why are American students doing so badly in math? The answer lies in the ineffective math instruction they are receiving. 

In the early 2010s, most states adopted the Common Core national education standards, which were touted as a cure for America’s math woes. Unfortunately, Common Core turned out to be bad medicine. 

Common Core confused many students by emphasizing indirect ways to arrive at the right answer instead of just learning straightforward mathematical operations. 

For example, in multiplying numbers, children are often asked to draw pictures instead of simply memorizing the multiplication tables. 

Michael Malione, a professional math tutor in California, said that his students were instructed by their public schools to draw and shade different areas of rectangles when multiplying fractions, rather than simply multiplying the numerators and multiplying the denominators to get the correct answer. Requiring students to learn math this way is both inefficient and ineffective. 

"We’re going to draw a picture every time we’re given 10 problems with fractional multiplication, when you could do them in your head?" Malione asks. "That’s insane." 

Malione sees students "who are completely lost and they’re not getting the step-by-step guidance early on." 

Given Malione’s experience, it is unsurprising that a federally funded study found that Common Core had significant negative effects on the math achievement of eighth graders. 

College math professors are shocked at students’ poor math skills. 

One college math instructor in the Silicon Valley lamented that the lack of algebra knowledge is "the number one deficiency and its chronic." He said, "we’re not producing the kinds of students and graduates that Silicon Valley needs."

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Sugi Sorensen, a top engineer at famed Jet Propulsion Laboratory who also tutors students in math, urged a return to proven traditional math practices, which includes mastering the basic skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division through "the memorization of math facts and procedures" so that students "can perform computations quickly, accurately, and effortlessly." 

Further, math topics should be sequential, "where new concepts are built upon previously learned ones in a structured, hierarchical manner," Sorensen said. 

Finally, Sorensen recommends that math operations such as long division "should be explicitly taught and practiced until mastery," with an emphasis on accuracy. 

America has nearly 50 million K-12 students. If schools use proven math instructional methods instead of failed progressive techniques, there would be less need for H-1B visas because there would be more than enough young Americans with the skills companies need. The tech titans at Trump's inauguration should lean on schools to do just that. It is time to make math great again. 

Lance Izumi is senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute. He is the author of the PRI book The Great Classroom Collapse: Teachers, Students, and Parents Expose the Collapse of Learning in America’s Schools. 

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Middlebury College’s student commencement speaker encouraged her fellow graduates and alumni to pull their donations and instead support the people of Gaza during her speech.

Film, media, culture and environmental studies major Faith Wood was chosen among a committee of students to represent the graduating class on Saturday with a final address. She spoke to the class wearing a rainbow scarf and keffiyeh and largely mourned the state of Gazan cities.

She suggested holding the school accountable for what she claims is the school's culpability in the suffering of Gaza through their pocketbooks. 

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"Being an alum of Middlebury College gives you power in this world. Leveraging that collective power in this room can be that difference. First step, Middlebury. Then, in the world," Wood said. "Here's one thing you can do. Open up the pamphlets people have been handing out and pledge to donate any money you would have to Middlebury to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency." 

She concluded, "Until Middlebury demonstrates its commitment to prioritizing education here and everywhere over profit through divestment from war profiteering, there is nothing as whole as a broken heart. Loving Middlebury means holding it and ourselves accountable to our promises. To love means to grow together. That is what it's going to take."

Earlier in her speech, Wood called out the school for standing "tall and pretty" while schools in Gaza are destroyed.

"There is simply nothing we as students at one of the eleven NESCACs (New England Small College Athletic Conference) deserve that students of the eleven institutions of higher education in Gaza do not also deserve," Wood said.

She also lamented the "heartbreaking" situation she and her fellow students find themselves in after President Donald Trump returned to office.

"We are literally graduating the same month a fascist has taken office. Within 11 days, he has pulled out of Paris Climate Agreement for the second time, denied the existence of trans people and unleashed a slew of ICE agents to arrest an average thousand people every single day since they began," Wood said.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Middlebury College for a comment.

Last year, Fox News Digital reported that the StandWithUs (SWU) organization filed a lawsuit against Middlebury College alleging that the school "failed egregiously to provide adequate protection for Jewish students seeking to remedy persistent antisemitic bigotry on campus." Students at Middlebury also requested to remain anonymous on their comments out of fear of retaliation.

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Parents are "overjoyed" with the trajectory of the education system under President Donald Trump after years of pushing back on so-called woke practices in schools, a parents' rights education group told Fox News Digital.

During his first two weeks in office, Trump signed several education-related executive orders on school funding and antisemitism, and launched a federal review of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) practices in federally funded institutions.

Additionally, the Trump administration launched an investigation into a Colorado school district for allegedly "discriminating against its female students" after a girls' restroom was reportedly converted into an "all-gender" facility, while the boys' restroom remained for males only. 

Nicole Neily, the founder and president of Parents Defending Education, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that the investigation will "open the floodgates" of the Trump administration's expected crackdown on similar policies in schools across the country.

TRUMP PUTS HIGHER EDUCATION ON NOTICE FOR ‘DANGEROUS, DEMEANING, AND IMMORAL’ DEI TEACHINGS

"I think what it is intended to do is to send a signal to families that obviously there's a new sheriff in town. This is a priority. This administration, as the executive orders have made clear, actually views the difference in the sexes to be significant," Neily told Fox News Digital.

On Tuesday, the Department of Education sent a letter to the superintendent of Denver Public Schools to sound the alarm over reports that East High School in Denver was in violation of Title IX after opening up a female-only restroom to all genders. 

"For this to be a very clear signal to families, to students, that if your school has engaged in something similar, this is something that the department is interested in looking into and adjudicating," Neily said, adding that the investigation is something "families are going to be really encouraged by." 

Neily said that in recent years, parents "have been gaslit by our states, by our local school districts, by the federal government" all because "we want our children to have a colorblind education," but that the educational system is already undergoing "sorely overdue" change under Trump.

TRUMP'S WRITTEN A DEI GOVERNMENT DEATH SENTENCE. SCHOOL POLICIES SHOULD BE NEXT

During his first week in office, the president launched a federal review of DEI teachings and practices in educational institutions receiving federal funding, in an effort to restore "merit-based opportunity," according to the White House.

Trump, prior to being sworn in, said he was open to considering abolishing the Department of Education in order to give states more individual control over their schools. Asked about the idea, Neily said she believes that states "know their communities, their needs, their values better than anybody in Washington ever can or would."

"I think there's a real opportunity to make sure that the department is focusing on the things it should be, which is educating children, restoring trust in the system and not doing things like giving out the billion dollars in DEI-focused grants," she said.

Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is calling out the national security risk of having a generation dependent on China as U.S. students fall behind in the classroom. 

"75% of eighth graders are not math proficient according to international standards," Ramaswamy told "The Ingraham Angle" on Thursday. "We're number 26 out of 38 developed countries. There are kids in other countries where English is not even their first language, out-beating our own students on English proficiency and I just think, speaking as an American and as a parent myself, that's unacceptable." 

According to recent studies, reading comprehension scores are hitting all-time lows in the U.S., with only 31% of fourth graders reading at grade level, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Now, President Donald Trump is attempting to turn around these statistics by supporting school choice and getting rid of CRT and gender ideology in the classroom. 

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY CHANGES ‘ILLEGAL’ PROGRAM THAT EXCLUDED WHITE MEN   

The former presidential candidate told Fox News that states must lead the way in improving education by allowing merit-based pay for teachers, giving families school choice and by encouraging students in American virtue. 

"Lighting a fire under the feet of our educational culture, not teaching our kids to be victims, but to be victors, rewarding excellence instead of victimhood. I think it's a cultural change we need in our educational system, too, and if we don't fix it, China is going to be eating our lunch if they already aren't," he said.

Ramaswamy explained the importance of returning to a "true American system" of education, with fewer participation trophies and competition in various academic fields. 

"This is a national security risk to the future of the United States if we have an entire generation that is dependent on China," he said. "It's unacceptable and yes, the woke left is responsible for a lot of this ...but it goes beyond that to where we got to just light that fire under the feet of a generation and teach them that achievement is actually worth working for."

"Hard work is an American virtue, and that doesn't start in college," he continued. "It doesn't even start in high school. It starts young and so, President Trump is leading the way with that culture, but it's going to take the states to really lift us up."

The Supreme Court will weigh an effort to establish the nation's first religious charter school with implications for school choice and religious practices. 

The court agreed Friday to hear two cases on the matter, which will be argued together — Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond. 

In 2023, the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted to approve an application by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa for a K-12 online school, the St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Charter School.

SUPREME COURT TO DECIDE IF FAMILIES CAN OPT OUT OF READING LGBTQ BOOKS IN THE CLASSROOM

Oklahoma parents, faith leaders and an education group sought to block the school after the approval. 

In a 7-1 decision, the Oklahoma Supreme Court found a taxpayer-funded religious charter school would violate the First Amendment's provision on "establishment of religion" and the state constitution.

"Under Oklahoma law, a charter school is a public school," Justice James Winchester wrote in the court’s majority opinion. "As such, a charter school must be nonsectarian.

"However, St. Isidore will evangelize the Catholic school curriculum while sponsored by the state."

Alliance Defending Freedom Chief Counsel Jim Campbell told Fox News Digital the case "is fundamentally about religious discrimination and school choice."

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"The Supreme Court has been clear in three cases over the last eight years that you can't create a public program like that and then exclude religious organizations," Campbell said. "So, we're going to be arguing before the court that the state of Oklahoma should be allowed to open up the program to religious organizations."

Campbell says the decision would give parents, families and the state "more educational options." 

Oklahoma Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who originally challenged the school's approval, has previously said the school's establishment is unconstitutional. His spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement the attorney general "looks forward to presenting our arguments before the high court."

"I will continue to vigorously defend the religious liberty of all 4 million Oklahomans," Drummond said in a statement released in October. "This unconstitutional scheme to create the nation’s first state-sponsored religious charter school will open the floodgates and force taxpayers to fund all manner of religious indoctrination, including radical Islam or even the Church of Satan. My fellow Oklahomans can rest assured that I will always fight to protect their God-given rights and uphold the law."

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The Oklahoma case is one of several religious institution cases that have been filed in the Supreme Court. 

In 2017, the high court ruled in favor of a Missouri church that sued the state after being denied taxpayer funds for a playground project as a result of a provision that prohibits state funding for religious entities. 

Likewise, in 2020, the Supreme Court struck down a ban on taxpayer funding for religious schools in a 5-4 decision that backed a Montana tax-credit scholarship program. Most recently, in 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that a Maine tuition assistance program violated the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause for excluding religious schools from eligibility.

Campbell said given the court's previous considerations of cases involving religious educational institutions, he is "hopeful that the Supreme Court will recognize that the same principle applies here."

"You can't create a charter school program that allows private organizations to participate but tell the religious groups that they can't be included," Campbell said. "So, we're hopeful that the Supreme Court will make it clear that people of faith deserve to be a part of the charter school program as well."

Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case, although an explanation was not given. The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments in April. 

School choice has become a hot-button issue, particularly after the 2024 election cycle. President Donald Trump recently signed two executive orders on education, one to remove federal funding from K-12 schools that teach critical race theory and another to support school choice. 

Fox News Digital's Ronn Blitzer and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

A group of moms in one Massachusetts public school district were condemned for questioning Diversity, Equity and Inclusion's (DEI) influence on local education, but now the district itself is changing course.

Carey Goldberg, a contributing writer for Globe Ideas, wrote an extensive opinion piece about how a trio of mothers in the tony Boston suburb braved public backlash to warn against far-left school policy changes. The three moms, all of whom were Democratic Party voters, began to question Newton public school district policies in 2022.

"At first we were just trying to understand the drastic changes that took place while no one was in school during COVID," Vanessa Calagna, one of the trio, told The Globe writer. "It was like we were trying to put a puzzle together. And then we were trying to ring the alarm."

Those changes, Goldberg wrote, "involved a heightened emphasis on racial equity and antiracism, including a district commitment to ‘dismantle structures rooted in racism’ and seek ‘more equitable outcomes for all students.’"

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One of the most controversial initiatives was combining students into "multilevel" classes, where, "Rather than students being divided into separate classes by level, students at varying levels would learn together — even in math, science, and languages." 

The purported goal was to "break the persistent pattern that white and Asian students predominated in ‘honors’ classes while Black and Hispanic students tended to be clustered in less-challenging ‘college-prep’ classes."

"[The mothers] wanted to know whether the multilevel classes and other new policies — such as denying advanced math students the chance to skip ahead a year — hurt students academically," the author summarized. "They also worried that the schools’ newer approaches to race and other identities emphasized differences rather than commonalities. And that equity was being defined as 'equal outcomes' rather than fairness."

School Committee member Paul Levy estimated that when he campaigned in 2021, 80% of more than 1,000 parents voiced concerns to him about these issues, but many would not dare speak about them in public for fear of being called "racist."

In 2022, the trio of mothers and their allies faced severe backlash after launching a petition to create an advisory panel that would give parents a voice on such academic issues. 

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"The mothers and their allies found themselves portrayed online and in public as dog-whistling bigots doing the bidding of right-wing national groups," Goldberg wrote. She added further that "PTO newsletters opposed them, as did the teachers’ union and the robust local group Families Organizing for Racial Justice, which claimed in an email that some petitioners ‘challenge the need for any activities related to microaggressions, inclusion, respect, or belonging.’"

When the three mothers and other parents questioned these new policies, defenders would cite the district’s "statement of values and commitment to racial equity," which sought "more equitable outcomes" and "an antiracist future."

"And that was untouchable," Calagna told The Globe contributor. "That was the third rail until, all of a sudden, now."

Now many Newton teachers are reportedly "openly rebelling" against multilevel classes.

"Those teachers report that the classes do not tend to work well for anyone — not for teachers, not for students who need more support, not for those who need more challenges," Goldberg reported. "Many parents concur."

"I’ve heard about multilevel classes from many, many parents over the last three years, and the feedback has been consistently negative," School Committee member Rajeev Parlikar reportedly argued during a meeting in November. "I actually have not heard from a single parent who thought their child benefited from being in a multilevel class."

However, even with both teachers and parents openly calling to remove multilevel classes by next fall, Newton’s new superintendent, Anna Nolin, told Goldberg such reforms are a long process.

"When [Nolin} took office in mid-2023, she found that the prestigious district lacked basic infrastructure that is standard elsewhere, including systems for curriculum development and student assessments," Goldberg summarized. "Also absent: an agreed-upon system for the district to track the effects of the multilevel classes on student achievement."

Work is reportedly underway to create distinct levels, but Nolin warned, "you can’t fix the curriculum overnight."

The superintendent has also begun efforts to restore parents’ trust in the schools, such as by establishing a new Office of Family Engagement so parents "know exactly what we’re doing."

Nolin observed that after the COVID-19 pandemic, "parent attitudes toward the schools changed, and there was a skepticism about how effective our methods were. For whatever reason, they did not feel heard by the school system, and that is the cocktail that brought us this schism between ‘equity’ and ‘excellence’ groups."

The superintendent noted that the school’s motto "Equity & Excellence," is now seen as "divisive." 

It will soon be replaced by the phrase, "Where All Children Thrive."

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Fox News Digital reached out to the school district and did not receive an immediate reply. 

EXCLUSIVE – A law firm requested public records from five major universities in order to investigate whether they were participating in a "censorship regime" they claim was conducted under the Biden administration.

"Free speech is essential to a free society," said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Phil Sechler, director of the ADF Center for Free Speech, in a press release obtained by Fox News Digital.

"The American people have a right to know if their tax dollars were used to suppress certain voices and how involved state actors were—and are—in social media censorship," Sechler said in the statement.

Now with a new administration in power, ADF is going after the University of Michigan (UM), the University of Wisconsin (UW), Indiana University (IU), the University of North Carolina (UNC), and the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).

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ADF cited President Donald Trump signing an executive order that seeks to restore freedom of speech. Trump on Jan. 20 announced that the executive order ends the previous administration’s practices of trampling "free speech rights."

The White House said the federal government will not censor speech on social media or any online platform in general, which they said was executed "under the guise of combating ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation.’"

ADF claims that these universities created "misinformation" centers that are "designed to censor speech."

For example, ADF called out UM’s Center for Social Media Responsibility (CSMR), which, according to their website, "addresses the negative effects of broad access to the means of public communication, while amplifying positive effects."

CSMR’s website explains further that while social media product managers, designers, and engineers "are the day-to-day policymakers of today's social media landscape," the institution aims to help them articulate "principles" as well as create "metrics and tools" that help them "set responsible policy."

LOCAL VIRGINIA TEACHERS NO LONGER FORCED TO USE STUDENTS' PREFERRED PRONOUNS AFTER SETTLEMENT

The law firm wants records related to the CSMR containing any communication between the CSMR administrators, including the director, and federal government officials or employees. Furthermore, ADF requests documents related to communication between CSMR directors and employees of social media companies Google, Facebook, Instagram, "Twitter," YouTube, Snapchat, and Reddit.

Acquiring such communication would help ADF identify any "certain censorship red flags," in its view, like "cancel," "throttle," "First Amendment," and "free speech." 

ADF also cited a report released in February by investigators from the U.S. House Judiciary Committee which found that UM officials pitched an idea of an artificial intelligence tool to the National Science Foundation (NSF) for "externalizing the difficult responsibility of censorship."

The House Judiciary Commitee's Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government stated in February last year that NSF issued "multi-million-dollar grants to university and non-profit research teams" to combat "alleged misinformation" regarding COVID-19 and the 2020 election.

Considering that NSF "is responsible for funding censorship grants," ADF wants records containing any of the terms National Science Foundation and NSF. 

ADF suspects that CSMR and similar institutions at IU, UW, UNC, and UCLA had worked with the Biden administration.

Sechler claimed that the Biden administration "established a censorship regime that aimed to suppress so-called ‘misinformation’ and other speech deemed unfavorable to the government," which "included funding censorship tools created by these public universities."

"The U.S. government should defend our First Amendment right to free speech, not be its greatest threat," he said.

UM, IU, UW, UNC, and UCLA, as well as a spokesperson for former President Joe Biden, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.

Anti-Israel protesters say they spray-painted the front of a Columbia University building and "cemented" the sewage lines of another building to mark the one-year anniversary of a Palestinian girl who was killed by Israeli forces in 2024.

Three groups, in a joint post, uploaded a video to social media on Wednesday showing evidence of their defacement, while Columbia University says it is working with law enforcement to investigate the incident, which included "disturbing, personal attacks."

The video shows the front of the Henry R. Kravis Hall building at the university’s Business School in Manhattan being doused and then covered with red spray paint.

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The walls of the women’s restroom at the university’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) building were also spray-painted with an image of Hind Rajab, the 6-year-old who died during Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.

The protesters also sprayed the words "Keren eat Weiner" with a drawing of feces. The message relates to Rebecca Weiner, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for intelligence, who also serves as an SIPA adjunct professor.

The protesters also claimed to have clogged the toilets with cement.

"One year ago, the world failed Hind. But today and every day we owe Hind, all our martyrs, and ourselves, action," the defiant post reads. "So today we acted. Inspired by Hind, and the bravery of every Palestinian child who has faced down Israeli genocide for the last century - whether they threw a Molotov at a checkpoint, a rock at a tank, or made a call for help. So long as they resist, so must we."

The women’s restrooms on the fourth, sixth, 14th, and 15th floors of the SIPA building were "vandalized with a cement-like substance causing the toilets to clog," according to an internal email by the university, cited by the Columbia Spectator. 

COLUMBIA STUDENTS CONFRONT ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS WHO STORMED CLASSROOM WITH ANTISEMITIC FLYERS

In the video, a gray watery substance is seen in a toilet.

"Early this morning, Columbia Business School’s main entrance was sprayed with red paint in an act of vandalism," the university said in a statement. "Vandalism of a University building in an attempt to disrupt our academic mission and intimidate or harass our community will not be tolerated. We will provide updates as they become available."

The three anti-Israel groups — the Palestine Solidarity Working Group, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) and @nycresistswithgaza — bragged about the vandalism and wrote that they targeted the Henry R. Kravis Hall building because they say it is "one of Columbia's most recent violent gentrification projects into Harlem."

"The construction of which was conditioned on the creation of Columbia's Apartheid Global Center in ‘Tel Aviv.’ We will not allow this land-grab to go unchallenged."

They said that the SIPA building was targeted because it was the first Columbia institution to expel a student for their support for "Palestinian liberation," which is run by Keren. 

When a mob of anti-Israel protesters stormed the iconic Hamilton Hall academic building at the university in April during the campus protests, they rebranded it "Hind’s Hall," after Rajab. The group unfurled a banner with "Hind’s Hall" emblazoned on it and at the time they described her as a "Gazan Martyr."

Rajab was killed as she and her family were fleeing Gaza City when their vehicle was shelled.

The attack killed her uncle, aunt and three cousins, with Rajab and another cousin surviving. She contacted the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) to ask for help while noting that they were being attacked by an Israeli tank. 

And then there was a burst of gunfire. She screamed and fell silent. But after the organization sent an ambulance, it lost contact with the crew.

Twelve days later, the ambulance was discovered, blackened and destroyed. The two medics were dead and Rajab. Her cousin also died. 

The Palestinian Red Crescent accused Israeli forces of targeting the ambulance as it pulled up near the family’s vehicle. The organization said it had coordinated the journey with Israeli forces as in the past.

Wednesday's incident came on the same day President Donald Trump ordered a law enforcement crackdown on antisemitism on college campuses, including removing pro-Hamas activists with student visas from the country,

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

A Tennessee state lawmaker reintroduced a bill for the 2025 legislative session that would look to fill a shortage of School Resource Officers by allowing veterans and retired law enforcement officers to be hired.

Republican Rep. Tim Rudd reintroduced the bill for the 2025 legislative session. It was passed by the House during the last legislative session, but it failed to make it through the Senate.

The bill would allow public charter schools to hire honorably discharged veterans and retired law enforcement officers to serve as School Resource Officers.

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Applicants must complete 40 hours of basic training in school policy, pass a test to be eligible to purchase and possess a handgun, receive written authorization to carry or possess a firearm on school grounds, undergo a psychiatric evaluation and pass an FBI criminal history check.

"They still have to go through training. The reason why is to try to find more resource officers in these rural areas, especially so we can protect our children," Rudd told WTVC.

"This certainly won't solve the shortage problem, but it will help," he added. "Ultimately, it'd be up to the school system whether they want to use them, and what guidelines and rules they put in place."

Rudd says the proposal would help veterans and retired law enforcement officers, but the main priority is to protect the children.

A man who served in the Navy for more than 20 years said the measure could be an opportunity for veterans to find a renewed purpose and be a role model for students.

"They have all the skills that would be necessary to bring into the environment of a school environment as a resource officer," Mickey McCamish told WTVC.

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The transition from military life to civilian life can be difficult for some, but McCamish says these individuals would be perfect role models for students.

"There just couldn't be a better fit than having veterans as a role model to students in either a resource officer position or just to be a part of the school life," he said.

Washington State University (WSU) is offering free "Queer Pole Fit" classes to help challenge the stigma surrounding pole dancing and offer an inclusive "safe space" for "queer" people.

The free classes, hosted each Friday, do not require registration and are "open to all who identify as LGBTQ+ and allies!" according to a description on the university's website. 

"Queer Pole Fit is meant to create a community and environment that helps folks feel safe and disrupt stereotypical ideas about pole dancing. Taught by our queer pole instructors, come as you are, and enjoy this fun and challenging format," the class description continues.

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Laura Yasinitsky, the University Recreation fitness coordinator, told The Daily Evergreen – the university's news source – in a recent piece that the classes serve a purpose of welcoming those who are traditionally left out or not "supported" in their fitness journey.

"This is labeled queer. You’re allowed to present however you are, and you will be seen exactly in that way," she said.

Yasinitsky added that the program's goal is to "break" boundaries and welcome beginners to a "safe space" that allows them to "try something new."

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Ri Scovel, a Queer Pole Fit instructor, told the outlet that, by focusing on the "queer" demographic, the course challenges the pattern of pole classes being addressed to "ladies," expanding the sport to a frequently ignored group while also granting space to a stigmatized method of dance.

The university began offering the classes last January and continues to attract new people, reports say.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Washington State University for additional comment about the course but has yet to receive a response. 

The Department of Education has dismissed 11 complaints related to "book bans" and eliminated a Biden-era position tasked with investigating school districts and parents, the agency announced Friday. 

The department said it was ending Biden's "Book Ban Hoax" regarding complaints that alleged that the removal of age-inappropriate, sexually explicit or obscene materials from school libraries created a hostile environment for students.

It also eliminated the "book ban coordinator," which investigated school districts and parents "working to protect students from obscene content."

GOP SENATOR DEBUTS BILL TO ABOLISH DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FOLLOWING TRUMP CAMPAIGN PROMISE

"By dismissing these complaints and eliminating the position and authorities of a so-called ‘book ban coordinator,’ the department is beginning the process of restoring the fundamental rights of parents to direct their children’s education," said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor. 

"The department adheres to the deeply rooted American principle that local control over public education best allows parents and teachers alike to assess the educational needs of their children and communities.

"Parents and school boards have broad discretion to fulfill that important responsibility," Trainor added. "These decisions will no longer be second-guessed by the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education."

Six pending allegations were also dismissed. 

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The DOE called the book removals "meritless" and based "upon a dubious legal theory." The agency began investigating the complaints Jan. 20, finding that school districts and parents have "established commonsense processes by which to evaluate and remove age-inappropriate materials."

The first complaint was filed with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Feb. 23, 2022, against the Forsyth County School District in Georgia. The complainant alleged the district violated Title IX and Title VI by removing eight books from the school library because they contained sexually explicit content, the DOE said. 

The OCR's office in Atlanta sought to have the complaint dismissed, but the Biden administration overruled a determination that the complaint had no merit, the agency said. The school district agreed to a resolution under threat of further federal intervention, officials said.

"This included requiring the district to post a statement in all of its middle and high schools that embraced Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion," the OCR said. "The department will terminate the agreement and any obligations under it."

California State University changed a program that was only open to men of color to now be open to all students, following a complaint filed to the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. 

"Cal State, like most universities, has very large bureaucracies devoted towards preventing and remedying discrimination," Cornell professor William Jacobson and founder of the Equal Protection Project, told Fox News Digital. "So how is it that the university as a system engages in open discrimination?"

The complaint, filed Nov. 19, 2024, by Jacobson and the Equal Protection Project, claimed that 23 campuses at California State University operated a "Young Males of Color Consortium."

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According to the consortium's website, it was instituted to "create systematic changes in higher education and improve outcomes for Black, Latinx, Asian Pacific Islanders and Native American males." 

"Because the discrimination … is presumptively illegal, and since CSU cannot show any compelling government justification for it, the CSU system’s exclusions based on race, skin color, national origin and sex violate federal civil rights statutes and constitutional equal protection guarantees," the complaint from EPP reads. 

"The Cal State system at the highest level needs to look into how this happened to make sure it doesn't happen again," Jacobson said. "It should not take a group like mine, a small nonprofit like mine, to bring this sort of issue to attention and to get it resolved. This is something they should self-police. But apparently they didn't."

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The Jan. 15, 2025 closing letter from the Office for Civil Rights says that California State University cannot lawfully discriminate based on sex under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. 

Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex or gender for entities that receive federal funding. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination over race, color, and national origin for any activity or program receiving federal funding. 

The complaint alleges that at least eight of the 23 programs violated Title VI and Title IX, such as "The Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Men of Color Success Initiative Male Success Initiative." The initiative was only open to students who self-identify as men of color. 

In the closing letter, the Office of Civil Rights said that CSU has changed the consortium to be open to all students.

"OCR confirmed that, since you filed your complaint, the University made changes to the Consortium and its programs/initiatives such that they are open to any student regardless of race, color, national origin, and sex," the closing letter reads. "Because OCR has obtained credible information indicating that allegations are resolved, the facts underlying the allegations are no longer present, and OCR has no evidence the law is violated." 

The California State University System didn't respond to a request for comment.

However, Jacobson told Fox News Digital that it remains to be seen if the issue is resolved. 

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"When a school changes the language for a program and opens it up to everybody, are they really doing that," Jacobson said. "Is that how they're practicing? Is that what they're doing when they think nobody is watching? And that's a huge concern because one of the problems we have is we often feel like we're playing Whac-A-Mole. We knocked down this program and get them to open it up and another one pops up someplace else and you deal with that and then another one pops up someplace else." 

He added that the public plays a significant role in oversight and accountability. 

"We need people to be vigilant because you can't just accept at face value that a school says, ‘We're not going to do that anymore,’ and just assume they're not going to do that anymore," he said. "So that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to teach the universities not to do this and hope that they don't. But we rely on the public to alert us if they're not fulfilling their obligations." 

A Nashville-area school district voted this week to remove a transgender book for children from its school libraries after questions were raised about the book's content at last month's board meeting.

During the public comment section at the December 10 Murfreesboro City School Board meeting, pastor and activist John K. Amanchukwu called out the district for having the picture book, "It Feels Good to Be Yourself," on the shelves at Bradley Academy, an elementary school serving pre-K through 6th grade students in the district.

The book introduces the concept of gender identity to readers as young as four, according to its description. 

"Some people are boys. Some people are girls. Some people are both, neither, or somewhere in between," it says.

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The book tells the story of "Ruthie," a transgender girl, and introduces terms like "cisgender" and "nonbinary" to explain different gender identities to younger readers.

After Amanchukwu started to read from the book, board chair Butch Campbell objected to the pastor bringing up the book at the meeting, saying he was going against the rules of only bringing up agenda items during the public comment section.

The pastor continued to read from inside the book, calling the book's message about there being more than two genders "a lie" and citing the Book of Genesis.

After about two minutes of the board attempting to get Amanchukwu to stop speaking, they forced the meeting into a recess.

At the January 14 school board meeting this week, the board announced the transgender-themed book had been reviewed by a committee of staff and parents, who recommended removing the book. 

One board member said the book had been on the shelves since 2022 and had never been checked out.

Before they conducted a vote, vice-chair Amanda Moore accused Amanchukwu of conducting a "show" to bring the book to the district's attention.

Amanchukwu is a contributor for Turning Point USA and travels around the country to different school board meetings to draw attention to explicit books in school libraries.

"This person had advertised his visit to us for weeks before he came. Never contacted the school, never contacted central office and never contacted this board, even though he came and yelled at us about this dangerous book we had on the shelf," vice chair Amanda Moore said before the board voted to remove the book from library shelves.

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Amanchukwu responded to the board's decision and comments in a statement to Fox News Digital.

"If my commitment to protecting children from content that mentally rapes them is a 'show'....I  pray that this ‘show’ gets bigger for the sake of the least of these, in 2025," Amanchukwu said.

He quoted Proverbs 22:6, which says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

"We are called to train children up, not mess them up," his statement continued. "I salute the board members for using common sense in governing the pedagogy of students in Murfreesboro City Schools." 

This month, a school district in Minnesota removed a transgender book from an elementary school library after facing pressure from a concerned parent.

Rochester Public Schools said it pulled the 2022 book, "The Rainbow Parade" by Emily Neilson, from its elementary school media center last month after a Franklin Elementary School parent raised concerns about nude illustrations in the book.

The National Education Association hosted a webinar on Wednesday encouraging teachers to oppose President-elect Donald Trump on immigration reform, saying their goal is to make students who are in the country illegally "feel less afraid." 

"Right now, there are laws on the books that prohibit immigration agents from venturing on to school grounds, and so various people in the Trump administration would like to roll that back," Jennifer Berkshire, author of The Education Wars, said. 

Trump has said that his focus would be targeted deportations for violent criminals who have entered the country illegally, including apprehending terrorists and cartels first. 

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"There is a real role for teachers, including aspiring educators, to play in having conversations with those groups and figuring out... what can we do, within the school space, to try to make those kids feel less afraid," Berkshire said. 

She also called out Ryan Walters, the Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction, who said in September that he wanted to put a Bible in every school in his state. 

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"The reality is that, like, whether it's book bans or extremist candidates for school, school board, or a Ryan Walters type person who's, you know, insisting that teachers teach from the Bible or lose their certification, uh, more and more, this really does feel just like a circus," Berkshire said.   

The National Education Association is an organization of over 3 million members. Their president, Rebecca S. Pringle, has previously called the Trump administration "tyrannical, deceitful, and corrupt."

Chelsie Acosta, chair of the NEA Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Committee and a board director for the American Civil Liberties Union, said that she is "concerned" for her community. 

"When I started… with the ACLU, it was as Trump came in the first term, so it's a little bittersweet that… here we are at the second term," Acosta said. "I did not think that we would… be here, but here we are, and I think a lot of us are concerned about our own communities and our students." 

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The webinar was opened by Caitlin Ehlers, a member of the NEA’s Aspiring Educators Program and board director for Student Washington Education Association, who gave a land acknowledgment.  

"We begin by acknowledging that we meet on the traditional lands of many Indigenous peoples, land upon which the participants of this call live and work. I'm speaking to you all from the traditional lands of the Duwamish people, governed by the Treaty of Point Elliot," Ehlers said.

 "We honor this land's first people and all their elders, past, present, and emerging, and we are called on to learn and share what we learn about the tribal history, culture, and contributions that have been suppressed in telling the story of America." 

President-elect Trump announced on Saturday he has picked Penny Schwinn, the former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Education, as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education.

While in Tennessee, Schwinn oversaw the department's response to the coronavirus pandemic, implemented Gov. Bill Lee's school voucher program and overhauled the state's school funding formula, the Associated Press reported.

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Schwinn previously worked at the Texas Education Agency as the deputy commissioner of standards and engagement, deputy commissioner of special populations and monitoring, and chief deputy commissioner of academics. 

She was also the assistant secretary of education in Delaware.

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Trump congratulated Schwinn on Saturday in a post on Truth Social. 

"A former teacher herself, Penny became the founding principal of a charter school, because she believes in the power of School Choice, and is committed to delivering the American Dream to the next Generation by returning Education BACK TO THE STATES," Trump wrote. "Congratulations to Penny and her wonderful family!"

Schwinn holds a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins, and a Ph.D. from Claremont.

FIRST ON FOX - The American Accountability Foundation, a conservative government research nonprofit, assembled a "watch-list" of top bureaucrats at the Department of Education who it recommends President-elect Donald Trump should fire. 

The nonprofit, which is funded by the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, published the list on its website. The AAF assembled 19 "dossiers" naming "America's Most Subversive Education Bureaucrats." 

AAF President Tom Jones, a former Republican congressional staffer, told Fox News Digital that the "public-facing" list was not compiled at the behest of the Trump transition team, but rather because the conservative organization believes it's important that the American people "understand that there's a lot of civil servants within the federal government, and particularly within the Department of Education, who are not impartial technicians executing on the agenda of the president, but rather are ideologues who have an agenda that they're willing to implement despite the clear direction from the voters in November." 

"At the end of the day, it's fundamentally undemocratic. What you get is a group of people who don't reflect the will of the American people implementing their agenda over that of what the American people said was their will in November. At the end of the day, what it means is you get a left-wing approach to education, particularly higher education," Jones told Fox News Digital. "The higher education system in America is broken. I think the events of last summer, where you saw left-wing pro-terrorist groups take over American campuses, and the faculty and administration support them, really should have been a wake-up call for all Americans. And I think this could be a wake-up call for this administration." 

Jones said those on the list include individuals who are "serial donors" to Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren and President Biden, as well as other "hard core ideologues" who will prioritize their own progressive agendas, such as promoting Biden’s student loan "bailouts," increasing regulations on successful online class partnerships, and conducting a "witch hunt" against Christian and career colleges through the Student Financial Aid Office of Enforcement. 

NEW GOP BILL SEEKS TO HOLD PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES TO SAME TAX STANDARD AS CORPORATIONS: 'ON NOTICE'

Jones identified one individual at the Office of Enforcement who "had spent his career at the Maryland Attorney General's Office investigating career colleges and Christian colleges." He pointed to another person who stated that he would work to turn the DOE into a "mini-CFPB," a reference to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which Jones described as "essentially just a witch hunt factory that's used to investigate organizations of people that the administration doesn't like." The nonprofit described one general attorney for the DOE included on the list as "a leading legal advocate for transgender rights in the debate over religious exemptions for certain universities."  

"These people are not going to say, you know what, 'I hated Trump last week, but on January 22nd, I'm going to be super excited about implementing his education agenda.' Unless these folks are moved out of their positions within the Department of Education, they're going to continue to work behind the scenes to attack alternatives to traditional four-year institutions," Jones said. 

Others named on the list include a civilian employee within the DOE Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) who the nonprofit says spearheaded a "$6.1 billion student loan forgiveness scheme to art institute students." 

"They call it relief, but it's really a huge giveaway to people who pursue college degrees that are just unaffordable," Jones told Fox News Digital. "And look, that's completely unacceptable to essentially have the federal government repaying the student loans for someone and putting that burden on the back of a plumber or a welder, you know, a teacher who is taking care of their education or who didn't go on to college, they've now got to pay for some guy who's got a feminist studies degree from Columbia and $150,000 in debt. That's just simply, fundamentally unfair and wrong. But look, if you want to go get that degree, you should be prepared to pay for it." 

The list includes another DOE employee who the nonprofit says helped the Biden administration "weaponize federal student aid policies against faith-based higher education." 

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The nonprofit accuses the person of playing a key role in the DOE levying a $37.7 million fine against Grand Canyon University, the nation’s largest Christian college, for alleged misrepresentation of the cost of its doctoral degree programs, accusing the Biden administration of effectively having "bullied" the college into wiping out student debt for them.

Everyone named on the list is making six figures, Jones said, adding that some are even earning an annual salary of more than $200,000, while the average American teacher's salary sits at around $50,000 to $60,000. 

"These woke bureaucrats at the Department of Education are pulling down $200,000 to attack alternatives to education," Jones said. "The Office of Enforcement is attacking things like career colleges and Christian colleges, and they're getting rich doing it. And that's just shameful. So I'm hopeful that the administration says, look, this is, you know, paying people $200,000 a year to attack opportunities for, you know, welders, nurses and folks like that to get a higher education. It's just unacceptable." 

"At the end of the day, American people need to understand that the people we're talking about here are not technicians," Jones said. "This isn't plumbing that they're doing. This is policy work. This is fundamentally ideological work. And at the end of the day, these people are just like the political appointees that can be fired at the beginning of the administration." 

"I'm hopeful that the administration really takes the opportunity to treat them like political appointees and ask them to move on, because if they don't, they're going to get left-wing political ideology in the administration for the next four years," he added. "And unfortunately, we saw some of that happen in the first administration. I'm cautiously optimistic that the administration learned their lesson the hard way, the first time that they can't let a bunch of unelected bureaucrats run roughshod over their agenda during this administration." 

Jones said he supported President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to become Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, who still faces a Senate confirmation process. 

"I'm excited that she's going to have the ability and the latitude to do the hard work that it takes to really shake up the Department of Education, because it's, you know, it's a Carter administration agency that's stuck in the 1970s, when the world has moved on to different approaches to education, whether it's in, you know, high schools or whether it's in post-secondary education," Jones said. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of Education press office, as well as the individual staffers listed, seeking comment. 

The AAF assembled a similar "watch-list" of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees who it recommended the Trump administration clear out. In response at the time, DHS Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas condemned "in the strongest terms any effort to harass or intimidate our public servants." 

"What Alejandro Mayorkas did was use the force of the Department of Homeland Security to chill speech by groups like the American Accountability Foundation," Jones told Fox News Digital. "There were no examples of anyone feeling threatened, but what there were examples of was him ordering departments within the Department of Homeland Security to open investigations of AAF. That's, you know, that's the kind of weaponization of the U.S. government that we saw for four years under the Biden administration… So the idea that some folks are feeling targeted is just nonsense and a complete red herring and really a tool for Mayorkas and Biden administration officials to shut down speech that they don't just don't agree with." 

EXCLUSIVE: A GOP lawmaker is seeking to significantly raise taxes on endowment profits being banked by private universities to align their levy with the current corporate tax rate.

Many private universities have invested funds for operational use that acquire interest each year, known as an endowment. In 2017, the Trump-era Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted a 1.4% tax on the interest private universities were receiving from these endowments. 

However, a new Republican bill would raise that tax to hold elite educational institutions to the same tax standard as corporations, which currently see a 21% corporate tax.

Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, is expected to introduce legislation on Wednesday, the Endowment Tax Fairness Act, to raise the excise tax on annual private university endowment investment returns by nearly 20 percentage points, from 1.4% to 21%.

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The GOP-backed bill would then require the revenue to be deposited into the General Fund of the Treasury, a fund managing the government's budget, to be used to reduce the national deficit. 

Nehls tells Fox News Digital he introduced the bill because elite universities should not have "far lower" taxes than working Americans.

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"Elite private universities have accumulated and sit on massive university endowments and pay a tax less than 2% on the investment earnings of their endowments, which is far lower than what most hardworking Americans pay in taxes. Meanwhile, these universities have significantly increased tuition for America’s youth, which has overwhelmingly surpassed the average annual inflation rate," he said.

The tax would apply to private colleges and universities that meet certain requirements, such as institutions that have 500 or more students.

Additionally, universities that would be taxed are those that aggregate fair market value of assets of at least $500,000 per student and that have more than 50% of its student body located in the United States, according to the bill. 

Endowments subject to the tax, such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia, reportedly hold a combined $270 billion of assets under management.

"This is unacceptable," Nehls told Fox. "My bill would put elite universities with massive endowments on notice by holding them to the same tax standard as corporations."

If passed, the tax would begin effective immediately after the date of the bill's enactment.

A Florida state lawmaker has introduced a bill to ban illegal migrants from being admitted to some public colleges and universities.

Republican state Sen. Randy Fine proposed the legislation the day after GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis called for a special legislative session to help push President-elect Trump's immigration agenda.

"Is it fair to allow an illegal immigrant to take a spot that could be taken by a Floridian or an American? I would argue no," Fine said.

Fine’s bill would ban public colleges and universities with an acceptance rate under 85% from admitting students who are in the country illegally, which would include the University of Florida, Florida State University, the University of Central Florida and Florida International University.

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There are an estimated 1.2 million illegal migrants living in Florida, according to the Pew Research Center.

Migrant students in the U.S. illegally can currently qualify for in-state tuition at public colleges and universities. Fine also recently proposed a bill that would require high school graduates with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, status to pay out-of-state tuition.

During the 2023-2024 school year, about 6,500 migrant students who were in the U.S. illegally qualified for a waiver from paying out-of-state tuition at the state’s public colleges and universities, according to the nonprofit Florida Policy Institute.

Three states prohibit students in the U.S. illegally from enrolling in at least some colleges, while half of states allow these students to qualify for in-state tuition, according to the National Immigration Law Center.

DeSantis scheduled the special session to begin the week after Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration to fund efforts to address illegal immigration, including for detention and relocation. The governor has said the state must work to support Trump's promises to tackle illegal immigration and ensure that "we don’t have any lingering incentives for people to come into our state illegally."

Trump, in a Truth Social post on Tuesday, thanked DeSantis for calling a special session, saying "hopefully other Governors will follow!"

But the governor has faced criticism from the legislature's Republican leaders, who described his call for a special session as "premature" and "irresponsible."

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Fine is among the Republican lawmakers who have vowed to support Trump and his agenda but have criticized the governor's push for a special session as rushed.

"This was not accompanied with a robust bill package for us to consider," Fine told reporters. "You want to call a special session? Give me the bills you want me to vote for."

Fine, who joined the state Senate in November, is resigning from the legislature, effective March 31, so he can run for the U.S. House seat that is expected to be vacated by U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., who was nominated by Trump to be his national security advisor.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, announced Tuesday a plan to offer free tuition for certain degree programs at state and city colleges.

The governor announced the education proposal during her state of the state address, in which she also vowed to give students free meals at schools, make it more difficult for hedge funds to buy homes, cut taxes for middle-class earners and expand the child tax credit.

Under the free tuition plan, New York residents between the ages of 25 and 55 who enroll in associate degree programs in nursing, teaching, technology, engineering and other fields at colleges operated by the State University of New York and the City University of New York would have their tuition covered.

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The state would also cover the cost of books and other college fees.

"When my dad got a college education, our whole family got a shot at a better life — and I want every New Yorker to have that opportunity," Hochul said in a statement. "Under my plan, every New Yorker will have the opportunity to pursue a free degree at SUNY and CUNY community colleges to help fill the in-demand jobs of tomorrow."

Other states have similar tuition programs, and several others offer various discounted tuitions for state colleges.

New York residents already receive discounted tuition at the vast network of state and city colleges, which consists of nearly 90 schools, and a program that already provides free tuition at the institutions for residents who make less than $125,000 a year.

Hochul also said she wants to address the problem of smartphones in K-12 schools by creating a statewide standard for distraction-free learning in the state.

Additionally, Hochul said she will work to address crime, expand mental health treatment services and to strengthen security in the New York City subway system after a surge in violent crimes on the subway. This would include plans to add police patrols on overnight trains and install barriers and better lighting on platforms.

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The governor's proposals will be debated in the Democrat-controlled state legislature.

She is expected to face a contested Democratic primary election next year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.