Rachel M. Perera

What’s at Stake as the Supreme Court Takes Up Transgender Sports Bans | ACLU How one West Virginia teenager could shape the future of Title IX and civil rights protections for transgender youth.

Becky Pepper-Jackson is the only transgender girl in school sports in the entire state of West Virginia.

Soon, she'll be at the Supreme Court defending the freedom of all trans kids to be themselves on and off the playing field.

Universal school choice programs mostly benefit the wealthy unless policymakers act to prevent it | Brookings Authors analyze six states’ universal school choice programs, showing how income rules shape who benefits most.

More evidence that the wealthiest communities accrue the most benefits from universal private school choice programs.

www.brookings.edu/articles/uni...

the most important thing to remember when you see eugenicists who don’t believe that autistic people should exist rambling about “the autism epidemic” is not that they’re wrong about the “cause” (although they are absolutely wrong about it); it’s that they are eugenicists

Vanessa Williamson, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and at the Tax Policy Center, is leading a research project conducting confidential interviews with recent IRS civil servants. The purpose is to create a historical record of first-hand accounts of changes occurring at the Internal Revenue Service in 2025-2026, to gather insights into what impacts to expect from these changes in the next tax season and in years to come, and to preserve the institutional memory that will support federal tax administration in the future. Recent IRS civil servants at all levels and in all areas of work are encouraged to participate. If you are interested in participating in an interview or would like to learn more about the project, please contact Vanessa Williamson. (Email: vwilliamson@brookings.edu; Signal: VanessaWilliamson.50)

Are you a recent IRS civil servant? I would like to interview you!

Details below, including my contact info -- or reach out via Bsky!

i have said this before but when “getting rid of race in admissions” for the administration means “you can’t even try to reach out to underrepresented communities and encourage them to apply and if you do it is illegal discrimination against white people” then the actual goal here is segregation

thanks for sharing!

This is a great resource! @rachelmarisa.bsky.social @brookings.edu

“awful people don’t deserve to be killed, but they don’t deserve to be praised, either” is apparently a thought too complex for the pundit mind

What the Trump administration legally can and can’t do to implement its agenda in public schools | Brookings Join Brookings for an online discussion on litigation challenging the Trump administration’s executive actions related to K-12 education.

We're also holding a public webinar this Mon 9/15 @ 4 PM EST to discuss the status of the Trump admin's K-12 agenda with education scholars & civil rights attorneys.

Register using the link below. (A recording will be made available shortly after.)

www.brookings.edu/events/what-...

The status of litigation against the Trump administration's K-12 education agenda: A guide for education leaders | Brookings Rachel M. Perera and co-authors track litigation over President Trump’s K-12 orders, showing courts have blocked key actions.

To accompany the lawsuit tracker, we summarize the status of legal challenges to the Trump admin's most consequential executive actions on K-12 ed in a new Brookings' policy brief co-authored w/ Thalia González & Aidan Thomas (UC Law SF).

www.brookings.edu/articles/the...

Tracking lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s K-12 education agenda | Brookings Education scholars track ongoing litigation resulting from the Trump administration’s executive actions related to K-12 education.

🚨Our new @brookings.edu data tool tracking ongoing litigation against the Trump admin's K-12 education agenda is now live!

The tracker, to be updated monthly, provides up-to-date info on the status of lawsuits challenging Trump's K-12 related executive actions.

www.brookings.edu/articles/tra...

This looks really interesting! Also check out the lawsuit tracker -

Lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s K-12 education agenda www.brookings.edu/articles/tra...

please help us spread the word about this mentorship opportunity for writers of color & share it with anyone you think might be interested!

What the Trump administration legally can and can’t do to implement its agenda in public schools | Brookings Join Brookings for an online discussion on litigation challenging the Trump administration’s executive actions related to K-12 education.

Join us for an online @brookings.edu event Mon 9/15 @ 4PM, ET to discuss the state of the Trump administration's K-12 education agenda with education & legal scholars & civil rights attorneys.

Submit questions in advance via email or the registration form!

www.brookings.edu/events/what-...

The authoritarian checklist It is time to admit that America is no longer a functioning democracy

New, from me:
America is no longer a functioning democracy. It is a competitive authoritarian system, hurtling rapidly toward authoritarianism.
This was a hard piece to write but we can't move forward if we don’t acknowledge where we are.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-author...

Fascinating work by Deven Carlson, @t-h-a-d.bsky.social, James Carter, @rachelmarisa.bsky.social, Vitali Radsky, and Andrew McEachin on both the potential of school choice for the purpose of desegregation and the disappointing reality that most school choice systems tend to exacerbate segregation

I cannot stop shouting about how much I loved AUGUST LANE by Regina Black. One of my favorite romances I've read this year. (I've been reading a lot of romance novels this year...)

Zero Tolerance Five years after the George Floyd protests, many liberals blame “wokeness” for stifling open debate. So why can’t they handle being disagreed with?

I bet that reading Andrea Long Chu on Thomas Chatteron Williams will brighten up my day. www.vulture.com/article/post...

Columbia and Brown, by settling, have encouraged this tactic. Authoritarians are emboldened by capitulation, and they won't stop until the cost outweighs the benefits.

so appreciated your perspective in this piece -- it's so important to keep the big "so what" at the front of the convo and it's easy to get lost in the weeds on the specific thing that's in front of you.

"Higher education policy in the United States is now being developed through ad hoc deals, a mode of regulation that is not only inimical to the ideal of the university as a site of critical thinking but also corrosive to the democratic order and to law itself."

balkin.blogspot.com/2025/07/regu...

In this piece I specifically call out academics happy with the policy changes mandated by the administration

Government coercion can be used in a number of ways - be careful for what you wish for!

I love this! For years I tried to make digital note-taking tools work because I know they're more "efficient" or whatever and this year I've come to appreciate just how well pen and paper works for me & I'm leaning into it to great effects.

Exactly. I was disappointed to see these outright lies that Hess espouses go unchecked in this piece.

I think it’s worth noting this piece generated the most unsubscribes I’ve seen in a while, and the newsletter version had the lowest open rate in many months. These horrors persist in part because too many people go to great pains to avoid them.

Budget cuts threaten federal protections for homeless students | Brookings Over 1.4 million homeless students rely on federal protections that could disappear under the president’s proposed budget.

Important piece from @brookings.edu out this AM on what's at stake for the unhoused student population under the president's proposed FY2026 budget.

www.brookings.edu/articles/bud...

Whose fault is it that race and ethnicity are inseparable from socioeconomic status, conservative group?

These are some of the most odious people alive.

So-called colorblind policy was used by conservatives (with lots of liberal support) to ensure that the racial make-up of America power barely changed following the Civil Rights Movement.

Now, when colorblind policy is used to promote equality they drop the ruse in favor of open segregation.

Legal experts weigh in on the implications of the 2025 Supreme Court term for K-12 education | Brookings Brookings scholars focusing on education policy explore the legal implications of the Supreme Court's 2025 term.

"At a time when schools are in dire need of more resources and support, the Court has added only more challenges to their plate," says @rachelmarisa.bsky.social.

Experts on education law and policy share their reactions to some of the Supreme Court’s decisions this term.