National test scores show decline in history and civics proficiency

Knowledge of civics among the nation's eighth-graders fell for the first time since the federal government began testing children under the current framework in 1998, according to new results that come amid a broader concern about pandemic-era learning loss.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress tests, known as the Nation’s Report Card, also show a 5-point decline in average scores in history.

Poor performance: Results from exams administered in the spring of 2022 offer a window into the state of academic performance in social studies following pandemic disruptions to learning, a bleak look regarding the level of understanding of the nation’s history, government and democratic processes. The tests are administered every four years by the Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics.

“The latest data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress further affirms the profound impact the pandemic had on student learning in subjects beyond math and reading,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement, noting the abysmal math and reading NAEP scores released last fall.

“It tells us that now is not the time for politicians to try to extract double-digit cuts to education funding, nor is it the time to limit what students learn in U.S. history and civics classes,” the secretary said.

Key context: Average history marks have fallen for nearly a decade with scores dropping 9 points since 2014 (from 267 to 258, out of a possible 500). This puts history test scores close to the 1994 score when the test was first administered under the current framework , 259. Student performance across all history themes tested — democracy, culture, technology and world role — all saw decreases. In civics, the 2-point downturn puts the average score in 2022 at the same level as 1998 (150 out of a possible 300). For both history and civics, there were widespread declines in scores across most races and ethnicities.

What’s more, lower-performing students had larger score declines than higher-performing students. In history, students who scored in the bottom 10th percentile had a 7-point drop between 2018 and 2022 and students in the 90th percentile had no significant score drop at all.

“For U.S. history, I would say that I was also very, very concerned, because it's a decline that started in 2014 long before we even thought about Covid,” NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr told reporters. Adding that she thinks “a larger concern that we need to think about is what is happening with our lower performing students across all of these subjects.”

Carr’s suggestions for improving scores: More social studies lessons for students. Nearly half of eighth graders, 49 percent, said they were taking courses mainly focused on civics and 68 percent said they took courses mainly focused on U.S. history, a slight decline from 2018. Both results point to a portion of students who are getting some or no formal history and civics classes.

“Teachers, practitioners need to get this content in front of students. When you look at what they don't know, and it's not just about reading, it's about content, facts, information about our constitutional system. Students don't know this information,” Carr said. “That is why they're scoring so low on this assessment.”

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Florida GOP passes sweeping anti-immigration bill that gives DeSantis $12 million for migrant transports

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Republicans on Tuesday handed Gov. Ron DeSantis another legislative victory after lawmakers signed off on a sweeping anti-immigration measure that will guarantee millions of dollars more for a controversial program the governor used to fly migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard.

DeSantis, who is expected to announce a run for president in the coming weeks, has repeatedly faulted President Joe Biden’s immigration policies and regularly criticizes the administration’s handling of the surge of migrants crossing into the U.S. at the southern border.

The governor and his Republican allies contended that the newly approved bill will send a “message” to the Biden administration, while Democrats countered the legislation was overtly cruel and intimidating to migrants.

House lawmakers approved the measure after debating for 90 minutes, culminating with bill sponsor Rep. Kiyan Michael, a Jacksonville Republican who was elected last year, recounting how someone who had entered the country illegally had killed her 21-year-old son in a car accident while he was driving to the bank to cash his paycheck.

“The price of illegal immigration cost us everything,” said Michael, who won a GOP primary last year with the help of an endorsement by DeSantis. “There is not an ounce of malice in my heart … I just want it to stop. It has to stop and it is insane if we are waiting on Washington, D.C. to do something.”

But Rep. Susan Valdes, a Tampa Democrat whose parents immigrated from Cuba, contended the bill “demonized marginalized people.”

“Immigrants are people just like us except they did not have the fortune to be in the United States,” Valdes said.

Republicans have pushed immigration into the spotlight during the Biden administration, highlighting the thousands of asylum seekers that have attempted to cross into the country. Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott has bused hundreds of migrants to cities like Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C., straining city resources in those blue strongholds.

Florida also saw a huge influx of migrants when hundreds of Cuban and Haitian asylum seekers landed in the Florida Keys by boats in December and January, forcing DeSantis to activate the state national guard to respond.

DeSantis has repeatedly pushed anti-immigration measures during his time in office, starting with a push for legislators to ban “sanctuary cities” and culminating with this year’s comprehensive bill.

The legislation lawmakers passed Tuesday would require medium-sized and large employers to use the federal E-Verify system to check the status of new employees and mandates hospitals to ask patients about their legal status. The bill, S.B. 1718, will also allow authorities to charge someone with human trafficking if they knowingly transport an undocumented migrant across state lines. It would also prohibit an undocumented immigrant from driving a car even if they have a driver’s license from another state.

Legislators also set aside $12 million in the bill for the DeSantis administration to transport migrants from outside the state to Democratic strongholds and agreed to roll back a measure adopted in 2014 by Republicans and signed by then-Gov. Rick Scott that allowed undocumented individuals to be admitted to the Florida Bar.

DeSantis had also called on legislators to repeal a law that allows undocumented children to qualify for in-state college tuition if they attended a Florida high school for three straight years. The measure was adopted at the urging of Scott and was sponsored by Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez while she was in the state House.

Back in February, DeSantis said that “if we want to hold the line on tuition, then you have got to say ‘you need to be a U.S. citizen living in Florida.’” But the proposal never surfaced during the session and Senate President Kathleen Passidomo said she urged DeSantis to drop the idea for this year.

Immigration advocates and other groups strongly condemned the bill, with some even calling it “racist” and threatened to challenge it in court.

“DeSantis’ political shenanigans will force every Floridian to pay a heavy price,” said Paul R. Chavez, senior supervising attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund. “This bill will push hundreds of thousands of people into the shadows, including U.S. citizens, putting freedom and even our state’s economy at risk. ... This cruel and misguided effort will negatively impact public safety and public health and cause harm to all Floridians.”

Republicans, however, defended the legislation. State Rep. Berny Jacques, a Seminole Republican who immigrated from Haiti when he was a child, told Democrats that he wished they “had the same energy” defending American citizens.

“This bill protects our citizens,” Jacques said. “This bill protects the people who are here legally and did it the right way. People like my family.”

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‘Corruption toll’: Federal jury convicts 4 at Chicago bribery trial

CHICAGO — Federal jurors on Tuesday convicted all four defendants of bribery conspiracy at their trial in Chicago that provided an inside look at pay-to-play politics in Illinois that prosecutors said involved the state’s largest electric utility and, at the time, one of its most powerful politicians.

It’s a resounding win for U.S. prosecutors in one of the biggest corruption trials in Illinois since former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was convicted in 2011 in the same federal courthouse, including on charges he sought to sell President Barack Obama’s vacated U.S. Senate seat.

During a month and a half of testimony, prosecutors sought to prove two former ComEd executives, a former utility consultant and a longtime government insider arranged contracts, jobs and money for associates of then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan — once one of the nation’s most powerful legislators — to ensure proposed bills boosting ComEd profits became law.

Madigan, 81, has been indicted in the case, though his own trial is scheduled for next year. He wasn’t in court during the just-ended trial but featured in much of the key evidence. The across-the-board convictions Tuesday may not bode well for his prospects when he gets to trial.

During closing arguments, prosecutor Amarjeet Bhachu called the four defendants “grand masters of corruption,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Defense attorneys argued their clients were engaged in run-of-the-mill lobbying and never crossed lines into illegality.

The defendants were onetime Madigan confidant Michael McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and former ComEd consultant Jay Doherty.

Jurors deliberated for several days before returning with the sweeping convictions. Bribery conspiracy, the headline count in the case, carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.

Bhachu likened the alleged conspiracy to a toll that drivers pay to continue their journey on state highways, and suggested Madigan was the gatekeeper. “It was a corruption toll to make sure that Mr. Madigan was not an obstacle to their legislative agenda,” said Bhachu, according to the Chicago Tribune. “And they paid that toll every month, from 2011 to 2019, when they were caught.”

Evidence in the government’s case included secret recordings of Madigan and others. Defense lawyers singled out a star government witness, ex-ComEd executive Fidel Marquez, alleging federal agents frightened him into cooperating, which included making secret recordings.

“We are here because the government scared Fidel Marquez to death,” Hooker’s lawyer, Jacqueline Jacobson, told jurors in her closing.

Marquez is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to bribery conspiracy.

Madigan was indicted in 2022 on charges that included racketeering and bribery. He’s denied wrongdoing. A year earlier, he resigned from the Legislature as the longest-serving state House speaker in modern U.S. history amid speculation that he was a federal target.

The indictment accused Madigan, among other things, of reaping the benefits of private legal work illegally steered to his law firm.

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Judge rejects Zooey Zephyr's effort to return to Montana House

HELENA, Mont. — Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the transgender Montana lawmaker who was silenced after telling Republicans they would have blood on their hands for opposing gender-affirming health care for kids, cannot return to the statehouse House floor and participate in debate, a judge ruled Tuesday.

The ruling came after attorneys for the state of Montana asked the judge to reject Zephyr’s attempt to return. She was silenced two weeks ago then banished last week for admonishing Republican lawmakers and encouraging a raucous statehouse protest.

District Court Judge Mike Menahan said it was outside his authority to overrule the Legislature and return Zephyr to the House floor.

Such a move “would require this court to interfere with legislative authority in a manner that exceeds this court’s authority,” Menahan wrote in his five-page ruling.

Zephyr told The Associated Press that the decision was “entirely wrong.”

“It’s a really sad day for the country when the majority party can silence representation from the minority party whenever they take issue,” Zephyr said.

Lawyers working under Attorney General Austin Knudsen cautioned that any intervention by the courts on Zephyr’s behalf would be a blatant violation of the separation of powers. They wrote in a court filing that the Montana House of Representatives retains “exclusive constitutional authority” to discipline its own members.

Knudsen, a Republican, issued a statement through a spokesperson saying the lawsuit was an attempt by outside groups to interfere with Montana’s lawmaking process.

”Today’s decision is a win for the rule of law and the separation of powers enshrined in our Constitution,” he said.

An attorney for Zephyr, Alex Rate, said an appeal was being considered. But the 2023 legislative session is nearing its end, so a ruling in coming days would be of little immediate consequence.

Zephyr and several of her Missoula constituents on Monday filed court papers seeking an emergency order allowing her to return to the House floor for the final days of the 2023 legislative session.

Zephyr and fellow Democrats have denounced her exclusion from floor debates as an assault on free speech that’s intended to silence her criticism of new restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors.

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Oregon secretary of state resigns over lucrative weed contract

Embattled Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan is resigning over her acceptance of a $10,000-per-month contract with a cannabis company at a time when her office was auditing the state’s marijuana program.

Fagan’s resignation is effective May 8. Deputy Secretary of State Cheryl Myers will take over the post until a successor is appointed by Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek.

Fagan has come under fire after Willamette Week broke the news about her contract with Veriede Holdings, an affiliate of cannabis chain La Mota, last week.

The Democratic former state lawmaker was elected to the statewide post in 2020. The contract was more lucrative than her annual $77,000 salary. It also included additional bonuses of $30,000 for each license Fagan helped the affiliate of La Mota obtain outside the states of Oregon and New Mexico.

On Monday, Fagan announced that she was canceling her contract with the cannabis company. But she faced a looming ethics investigation and calls for her resignation from Republican lawmakers. Fagan is the state's chief election officer.

“While I am confident that the ethics investigation will show that I followed the state’s legal and ethical guidelines in trying to make ends meet for my family, it is clear that my actions have become a distraction from the important and critical work of the Secretary of State’s office,” Fagan said in a statement. “Protecting our state’s democracy and ensuring faith in our elected leaders — these are the reasons I ran for this office. They are also the reasons I will be submitting my resignation today.”

Oregon will have local elections in May.

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Eric Adams calls White House irresponsible for handling of migrant crisis

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams, a top surrogate for President Joe Biden, slammed the “irresponsibility” of the White House on Tuesday for its handling of the migrant crisis, as the influx of newcomers continues to strain city resources.

“It is not about the asylum-seekers and migrants, all of us came from somewhere to pursue the American Dream,” Adams said at an unrelated press conference, when asked whether his rhetoric on migrants could inflame anti-immigrant sentiment. “It is the irresponsibility of the Republican Party in Washington for refusing to do real immigration reform, and it’s the irresponsibility of the White House for not addressing this problem.”

Adams is among more than 20 Democrats on a national advisory board convened by the president's team to stump for him on both television and at events around the country as part of his reelection bid.

A spokesperson for Biden did not immediately comment on Adams' remarks, but has previously said the Federal Emergency Management Agency provides assistance to cities dealing with an influx of migrants and will be announcing additional support soon, but Congress needs to provide more resources to fix the country's broken immigration system.

More than 57,000 migrants, mostly from Latin America, have arrived in New York since last spring after crossing the Southern border. Adams said the city is facing a $4.3 billion price tag from its ongoing obligations to provide shelter, food and other services to newcomers.

Cities including New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Denver and El Paso shouldn’t have to “bear the weight of the failure from Washington, D.C.,” Adams said.

“It’s not about the people who are pursuing the American Dream, it’s the irresponsibility of those that are allowing them to come to a country and not build the infrastructure to allow them to pursue their dream,” he said.

Adams’ rhetoric on the issue in recent weeks has echoed Republican talking points on immigration. At an event with other Black mayors last month, Adams said the city “is being destroyed” by the influx of migrants. While making a recent plea for more federal aid at City Hall, he said the White House has “failed this city.”

Adams on Monday accused Texas Gov. Greg Abbott of targeting Black-run cities by busing asylum-seekers from the border state to areas with Black mayors.

He called Abbott “morally bankrupt” and said it’s “impossible to ignore the fact that Abbott is now targeting five cities run by Black mayors.”

In a radio interview on WABC’s “Sid and Friends” on Tuesday, Adams defended his comments on Abbott to conservative host Sid Rosenberg, who said he’s “sick of hearing that word ‘racist’.”

“Every one of these cities, whether it’s Denver or D.C. or New York or Chicago or Los Angeles, they’re Democrat cities. Has nothing to do with Black people, white people, it’s called Democrat policies,” Rosenberg said.

“I didn’t use the term racist,” Adams responded. “What I did was show the facts. We have 108,000 cities in America, 108,000. Many of them are Democratic cities, but where did Abbott send the migrants? To New York, to Chicago, to Denver, to Los Angeles, to Houston, to Washington. Each one of those cities are run by Black mayors.”

Joe Anuta contributed reporting.

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E. Jean Carroll concludes testimony as judge denies Trump’s mistrial request

NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s lawyer attempted to highlight inconsistencies in E. Jean Carroll’s testimony during her third and final day on the witness stand Monday in Manhattan federal court, seeking to discredit her allegation that the former president raped her decades ago.

During the final portion of his cross-examination of Carroll, Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina attempted to highlight what he presented as discrepancies between answers Carroll gave while testifying and statements she made in interviews, her book, depositions and social media posts prior to the trial.

Carroll, a longtime writer and advice columnist, is suing Trump for battery and defamation, claiming he raped her in a dressing room in the lingerie department at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury Manhattan department store, in the mid-1990s. Trump has denied the allegation, saying it “never happened.”

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan denied Tacopina’s request for a mistrial based on what the lawyer described as “pervasive unfair and prejudicial rulings by the Court,” including instances in which Tacopina said Kaplan had “bolstered the testimony” of Carroll. The judge didn’t explain his decision to deny the motion.

Tacopina pointed out that in her deposition, Carroll said she had used the changing rooms at Bergdorf’s since the alleged rape. Moments earlier on the witness stand Monday, she said she didn’t think she had used a changing room at the department store in the years following the alleged incident.

Though she testified at trial last week that she hadn’t had a sexual relationship with anyone since Trump raped her, Tacopina played audio of a podcast in which Carroll said of the termination of her romantic life: “I think it wasn’t because of him. I think it was, I just didn’t have the luck to meet that person that would cause me to be desirous again. I think maybe in that dressing room my desire for desire was killed.”

At several points Monday, Tacopina questioned Carroll about her social media commentary, showing evidence to suggest she didn’t shy away from entertainment or humor connected to Trump. In a Facebook post, Carroll said she was a “MASSIVE” fan of “The Apprentice,” the reality television show Trump hosted, and Carroll testified that she “was a big fan of the show.”

“I was very impressed by it,” she said on the witness stand. “I had never seen such a witty competition on television.”

Tacopina also showed the jury a Facebook post from August 2012 in which Carroll wrote: “Would you have sex with Donald Trump for $17,000? Even if you could a) give the money to charity? b) close your eyes? And he’s not allowed to speak.”

“So you joked around about having sex with Donald Trump for money, right?” Tacopina asked. “Yes,” Carroll replied.

Tacopina questioned Carroll about a 2012 “Law & Order” episode involving a character who fantasizes about a rape taking place in a dressing room in the lingerie department at Bergdorf Goodman. Carroll, who went public with her allegation about Trump in 2019, said she has never seen the episode.

Tacopina asked if she found the similarities to be an “amazing coincidence.”

“Yes, it’s astonishing,” she said.

Noting that Carroll has said she never contacted the police after the alleged incident with Trump, Tacopina pointed out that she did contact the police at another point. Carroll acknowledged that she called the police one Halloween, after a group of children hit the mailbox at an upstate farmhouse where she was staying.

“So it’s your testimony you’ll call the police if a mailbox is attacked, but not if you’re personally attacked?” Tacopina asked. Carroll replied that was the one time she had ever contacted the police.

In response to questioning by Tacopina, Carroll testified that she often tells people her life is “fabulous,” but she explained to the jury that her positive attitude is “a front.”

“I don’t want anybody to know that I suffer,” she said. “Up until now, I would be ashamed to let people know what is actually going on.”

The trial is set to continue Tuesday with additional testimony by witnesses for Carroll.

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