Rachel M. Perera
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rachelmarisa.bsky.social
Rachel M. Perera
@rachelmarisa.bsky.social
1.9K followers 950 following 550 posts
👩🏽‍💻 Research & write about k-12 ed policy @ Brookings
💖 Stationery, books, coffee, & reality tv
🏆 Once voted best penmanship
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rachelmarisa.bsky.social
It is wild to sign this dissent with "respectfully"
When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it. Two lower courts rose to the occasion, preliminarily enjoining the mass firings while the litigation remains ongoing. Rather than maintain the status quo, however, this Court now intervenes, lifting the injunction and permitting the Government to proceed with dismantling the Department. That decision is indefensible. It hands the Executive the power to repeal statutes by firing all those necessary to carry them out. The majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naive, but either way the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is grave. Unable to join in this misuse of our emergency docket, I respectfully dissent.
July 14, 2025 at 8:19 PM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
Nothing like settling into relax from my stressful day job by watching a realistic depiction of far more stressful job.
TV screen showing the opening credits of The Pitt
April 15, 2025 at 1:18 AM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
For folks at #AEFP2025 till the end, join us TODAY @ 11:45a for a policy dialogue session about 60 years of federal civil rights enforcement. Bring all your questions about OCR and civil rights!
AEFP session 11.12 details @ 11:45a in Rhode Island session title: 60 years of Civil Rights Enforcement in Educational Institutions in the US - Taking Stock and Looking Forward Panelists: Maithreyi Gopalan, University of Oregon Erica Frankenberg, Professor of Education and Demography, The Pennsylvania State University, Rachel Perera, Fellow – Governance Studies, Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings Robert (Bob) Kim, Executive Director, Education Law Center (ELC) Seth Galanter, Former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office for Civil Rights
March 15, 2025 at 2:19 PM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
I almost forgot to share the most damning figure about the education department's Office for Civil Rights from my recent Brookings piece.

This figure shows that OCR's budget has remained flat over the last two decades while its' civil rights caseload has quadrupled!

#EduSky
A line graph showing the number of civil rights complaints received by the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights and the agency's budget for each fiscal year from 2001 through 2024. The line graph shows fiscal year on the x-axis and a double y-axis with annual appropriations in millions on the left and total civil rights complaints received on the right. The graph shows that the number of civil rights complaints received by OCR has increased from ~5k in FY2001 to more than ~20k in FY2024 while OCR's budget has hovered around $140 million for the entire period.
February 14, 2025 at 3:57 PM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
this from a representative at American Institutes for Research about DOGE/Trump cancelling IES contracts is spot on (& good on them for speaking out clearly about this)
“This is an incredible waste of taxpayer dollars, which have been invested—per Congressional appropriations and many according to specific legislation—in long-standing data collection and analysis efforts, and policy and program evaluations,” Tofig said. “These investments inform the entire education system at all levels about the condition of education and the distribution of students, teachers, and resources in school districts across America. Many of these contracts are nearing completion and canceling them now yields the taxpayers no return on their investment. If the purpose of such cuts is to make sure taxpayer dollars are not wasted and used well, the evaluation and data work that has been terminated is exactly the work that determines which programs are effective uses of federal dollars, and which are not.”
February 11, 2025 at 1:41 AM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
This quote from Liz King of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights in EdWeek on the question of whether Trump has the authority to cut off federal funding for school curriculum decisions is spot on.

#EduSky
Quote from Liz King of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights in EdWeek article that reads: The law is “very intentional about limiting the discretion a secretary has to advance an agenda unrelated to the core requirements,” of the law, King said. “And so the concept of applying these bigoted, narrow-minded ignorance-promoting principles to existing ESSA funds is baseless. It is nonsense.”
January 30, 2025 at 12:48 AM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
Not Jay-Z donating money to support expanding private school choice in Pennsylvania

people.com/jay-z-roc-na...
June 10, 2024 at 7:51 PM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
This description in this NYT article is so wild.

Does tweeting = pressuring??

Also “media organizations” is a funny way to spell NYT

www.nytimes.com/2024/04/17/b...
April 17, 2024 at 4:53 PM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
Chronic absenteeism is a problem, yes.

But referring families to child protective services or the attorney general is NOT THE ANSWER.

www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...
April 11, 2024 at 2:59 PM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
My colleagues & I wrote up reactions to the President's FY25 budget proposal for the Dept of Ed.

The president proposed a 16% increase to the Office for Civil Rights's budget- which I argue is far too little given the breadth of work OCR is being asked to do.

www.brookings.edu/articles/bro...
April 9, 2024 at 5:10 PM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
these were some of things kids were suspended for in one of the districts highlighted in the piece.
April 9, 2024 at 3:00 PM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
It is also worth underscoring how counter productive suspending kids for... *checks notes*... behaving like children is to addressing the very real challenges of chronic absenteeism.
April 9, 2024 at 2:58 PM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
This piece also underscores an important fact that often gets lost in debates about school discipline policy:

Most school discipline incidents, and resulting suspensions, are for non-violent offenses.
April 9, 2024 at 2:45 PM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
I write about this literature a bit in this piece (w/ Melissa Diliberti): www.brookings.edu/articles/wha...

Here's our summary:
April 9, 2024 at 2:35 PM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
Anyone who makes this assertion should be asked to cite their sources.

There is not anything close to a strong research base to back up the idea that suspending kids improves outcomes for their non-suspended peers.
April 9, 2024 at 2:31 PM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
okay I get the eclipse hype
April 8, 2024 at 7:27 PM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
Whenever I'm asked how to improve federal civil rights enforcement in schools, I always say money. Here's why:

OCR's caseload has exploded in recent years, while staffing levels have declined! OCR has more than 3x the cases it did in 2003, yet fewer staff.

www2.ed.gov/about/overvi...
April 4, 2024 at 7:38 PM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
I wrote about some of my favorite books I've read so far this year for my (for fun, for me) substack newsletter.

rachelonpaper.substack.com/p/some-of-my...
March 31, 2024 at 5:36 PM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
can’t stop listening to Beyoncé’s JOLENE & had to write out the lyrics with my favorite fountain pen 🖋️
March 30, 2024 at 4:32 PM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
Reading this interview with Percival Everett & laughed out loud at this 👇🏽

can’t wait to pick up a copy of James

www.elle.com/culture/book...
March 25, 2024 at 4:22 PM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
I started a newsletter about my two favorite non-work past times: reading and journaling! (As an elder millennial, what I really wanted was to start a blog, but it's 2024, so Substack it is.)

In today's post, I'm recapping my favorite books from 2023.

open.substack.com/pub/rachelon...
February 25, 2024 at 2:53 PM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
I also fundamentally don’t understand how fans of his don’t know his prior work.
February 16, 2024 at 1:22 AM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
so much of his new work is just straight up pull yourself up conservative ideology…

like you know what would make me happy?? Having paid fucking family leave & affordable child care
February 16, 2024 at 1:20 AM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
I read Charles Mills’ Racial Contract for the first time two years ago (I’m still mad at my graduate training for this), and it is one of the most clarifying books I’ve ever read.

This passage in particular is one I find myself coming back to again and again
January 4, 2024 at 5:09 PM
rachelmarisa.bsky.social
A really underemphasized point in the broader discussion of book bans, and the variety of political actors and activists behind these efforts
December 11, 2023 at 4:39 PM