| | | | |  | | By Bianca Quilantan | EDUCATION AND THE ECONOMY — Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are testing out their economic messaging in front of crowds ahead of the election as the economy remains a top concern for voters. — Trump and the GOP have been making the pitch that a Trump presidency could mean lowering inflation and helping younger voters become homeowners. Meanwhile, Harris, who is crafting her platform, is similarly talking about bringing down everyday costs and emphasizing that “building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency.” Many Democrats also believe she could advance work on student debt relief. — But Republican and Democratic voters say 2024 candidates aren’t paying enough attention to one key area: Jobs and the education needed to get them. A significant share of voters surveyed by the advocacy group Jobs for the Future said they are dissatisfied with the level of attention elected officials are giving to these areas. Only about 41 percent said they were very or somewhat satisfied with the level of attention given to employment and economic issues, and 36 percent answered similarly on postsecondary education and training issues. — “If I travel around Virginia and I talk to employers … everybody tells me, ‘Wow, it's really hard to hire,’” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said at an event hosted by JFF. “Those employers are not hearing strategies from presidential campaigns or others.”
|  Sen. Tim Kaine has been pushing to allow Pell Grants to be used for short-term programs for nearly a decade. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | — Kaine, along with Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.), attempted to build a bipartisan case for issues like supporting job training and opening up the Pell Grant, which is reserved for the lowest-income students, to high-quality short-term programs. Kaine touted a long-stalled House bill, H.R. 6585 (118), that would do just that, and also said the Senate hopes to mark up its own short-term Pell bill soon. He said differences will be “resolvable in a conference.” — So far, the GOP platform has outlined it wants to reduce the cost of higher education and support "drastically more affordable alternatives to a traditional four-year College degree.” But the issue hasn’t exactly taken the spotlight at flashy Trump rallies. And the DNC is still finalizing its platform ahead of its August convention. — Wonky-sounding policies like “short-term Pell” don’t grab the headlines or attention of voters as much as say student loan forgiveness. College affordability and student loans are reasons why voters are supporting policies that create a path to jobs but don’t necessarily require a four-year degree, JFF CEO Maria Flynn said. At least three-fourths of Republicans, Democrats and Independents agree policies that are important to them include giving high schoolers opportunities to develop job-related skills, ensuring people working full time can earn enough to support their families, and encouraging employers to hire people based on skills and not just a college degree. — “Regardless of which party ultimately controls the White House or Congress or statehouses, voters want elected officials to do better and engineer our education and employment systems so that no American faces a dead end at school or at work or in their lives,” Flynn said. “A lot of polarization in our nation today comes back to issues of jobs. … I think we have an opportunity to truly make it a unifying issue.” IT’S MONDAY, JULY 29. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. Who should Kamala Harris tap to be her veep? Drop me a line at bquilantan@politico.com. Send tips to my colleagues Rebecca Carballo at rcarballo@politico.com, Mackenzie Wilkes at mwilkes@politico.com and Juan Perez Jr. at jperez@politico.com. And follow us: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro.
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|  Vice President Kamala Harris works on a Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service project with students at the George Washington University on Jan. 16, 2023, in Washington. With President Joe Biden now out of the race, many youth-led progressive organizations are energizing Harris’ candidacy. | AP | HARRIS’ PITCH TO GEN Z — The vice president on Sunday delivered virtual remarks at the “Year of Youth” summit hosted by Voters of Tomorrow, a Gen Z-led group that is organizing young voters. Harris’ remarks leaned on what she called “fundamental freedoms,” which included the freedom to be “safe from gun violence,” “love who you love openly” and “the freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body.” — Harris largely focused on Project 2025, a far-right policy blueprint from which Trump has fought to distance himself. On education, she noted that the plan could eliminate the Education Department and programs like Head Start. She did not mention her economic policy and left out any mention of student loan forgiveness. — Before the video played, Harris campaign youth engagement director Eve Levenson touted her candidate’s record on reaching out to young voters — and the response of young voters to Harris’ bid for the presidency. — “In the less than six days since Vice President Harris launched her campaign, we have seen young people register to vote at breakneck speed,” Levenson said. “We've seen hundreds of young people sign up to start ‘Students for Harris’ chapters on their high school and college campuses across the country. And in the many Zoom trainings and calls that me and my team have hosted this week with thousands of young people across the country, the Zoom chats have been exploding with one question that's overwhelmingly being asked: ‘How can I get involved?’” “It's going to be really close, which is why we need your help,” she said. “Every door knocked, campus quad clipboarded, meme shared, text sent, dollar donated and video posted can really make the difference.”
| | EYES ON TITLE IX — The Supreme Court could make a decision this week on the Biden administration’s plea to allow the Education Department to enforce most of its Title IX rule. The administration’s final rule, which is slated to take effect this Thursday, clarifies that the federal education law that bars sex-based discrimination includes discrimination protections based on gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy status. It also overhauls much of the Trump-era policy that mandated how schools must respond to sexual misconduct. — So far, the rule has been blocked in at least 21 states by roughly half a dozen district courts and more challenges are pending. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar is arguing two of the cases — led by Tennessee and Louisiana — are only challenging provisions of the rule related to discrimination against transgender students, so the rest of the rule to could proceed. Two circuit courts have already declined to allow partial enforcement of the rule. — On Friday, Republican attorneys general and conservative groups who brought on the court challenges submitted their response to the high court. They urged the justices to deny the request, arguing that partial enforcement could be “disastrous.” They also said the courts rightly “declined to red-pencil hundreds of pages of agency work and hurl schools into a scramble that would compound their compliance costs and create widespread confusion.”
| | OPPORTUNITY FOR GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION ADVOCATES — Trump on Friday vowed to hold another campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the town where he was shot earlier this month at a campaign event. This could provide an opportunity for the former president to reflect on his own gun policies. Looking back at the days after the July 13 shooting, some gun violence prevention advocates stressed the shooting — like others that have happened at schools and grocery stores — happened because of the access to guns, not just because of a lapse in security. — Many advocates see the jarring event as a possible opening to work with a potential Trump administration on further preventing gun violence. Mark Barden, co-founder of Sandy Hook Promise, emphasized that these events are often catalysts for change and that the group has been successful in the past in passing bipartisan policies under the Trump administration via the STOP School Violence Act. — “Former President Trump has joined this horrifically growing group of people who have been directly affected by gun violence,” Barden said. “That violence doesn't select around political affiliation. … I think it should be a call to action for this nation to come together and support programmatic and bipartisan policy solutions that can save lives.”
| | A SWEEPING SPORTS DEAL — NCAA officials and antitrust attorneys unveiled a proposal Friday that would pay players billions of dollars in damages and create an unprecedented athlete compensation model, our Juan Perez Jr. reports. — The officials and attorneys representing former athletes offered U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken their proposals to settle three antitrust lawsuits that target restrictions on pay and benefits players can receive for their work and publicity rights. A legal review of the proposals is expected to stretch over several months in Wilken’s California courtroom. — What’s in the deal: The proposal would allow schools to pay players a share of the revenue generated by major college sports programs. It would also pay nearly $2.8 billion in back damages to athletes over a 10-year period, eliminate limits on scholarships college programs can offer and establish caps on team rosters. — But NCAA officials still want Congress to step in. They want lawmakers to protect the pending agreement by passing laws that block athletes from employment rights and override a patchwork of state laws that govern how players can make money off their so-called name, image and likeness rights.
| | | | The space economy is already woven into our lives in ways we don't always appreciate, creating a global backbone for communications, media, data, science and defense. It's also becoming an increasingly competitive zone among nations - and a venue for complex and important public-private partnerships. Join POLITICO on July 30 for a conversation about what Washington needs to understand is at stake – which sectors of the global economy see their growth arc in space, and what the role of government leaders is in both growing and regulating the explosion of orbital ideas. REGISTER | | | | | | | | | — Map: Michigan joins list of states that offer tuition-free community college: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — Youngkin appoints two more to education board, including Scalia daughter: The Washington Post — How the private school landscape could change with more religious public schools: The Hill | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
