(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin is crisscrossing the country, meeting with policy leaders and everyday Americans to address issues of importance to constituents and promoting his “Powering the Great American Comeback” initiative.

“Under my leadership, EPA will no longer view the goals of protecting our environment and growing our economy as binary choices. We must and we will choose both,” Zeldin said of the EPA’s mission.

The EPA’s “Powering the Great American Comeback” initiative “will continue tirelessly in our work to ensure clean air, land, and water for every American, while simultaneously driving economic growth by unleashing energy dominance, pursuing permitting reform, making the U.S. the AI capital of the world, and bringing back American auto jobs,” he said.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are recommitting to common sense policies that preserve our environment and work for all Americans to unleash American energy, revitalize domestic manufacturing, cut costs for families and pursue permitting reform. The EPA will strive to accomplish all this while fulfilling our commitment to the rule of law, advancing cooperative federalism, and being great stewards of your hard-earned tax dollars,” he said.

To that end, Zeldin’s been traveling across the country meeting with Democrats and Republicans, including Democratic governors, state and federal lawmakers.

During his latest stop in Midland, Texas, he met with industry executives to discuss the agency’s reversal of Biden-era policies and regulations targeting the oil and natural gas industry, The Center Square reported. It was the first time an EPA administrator ever went there.

This was after a 36-hour swing through Salt Lake City, where Zeldin toured the Kennecott Copper Mine. It’s the world’s largest open-pit copper mine where the EPA is conducting a review of cleanup efforts. He also met with state and federal lawmakers to discuss air quality issues, including rescinding a previous administration guidance on international transport emissions. Zeldin is working with states and local air agencies “to develop the evidence necessary to grant regulatory relief,” he said.

“It is a priority for me to work directly with the regions and states, instead of leading from behind a desk in DC. It is essential to learn about the top environmental issues Americans face in communities across the nation and what we can do at EPA to more effectively carry out our mission,” he said.

Prior to that, Zeldin traveled to Denver to visit the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Superfund Site, met with Democratic Gov. Jared Polis and state and federal officials to advance the agency’s commitment to “cooperative federalism,” discuss air quality and energy issues critical to Colorado.

Zeldin is traveling to Superfund sites and disaster recovery areas as part of his Powering American Comeback Initiative.

In Missouri, he visited the West Lake Superfund and Coldwater Creek sites and participated in events hosted by U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley. Hawley had asked Zeldin to expedite cleanup of the West Lake Landfill that’s been a Superfund site since 1970. Prior to being confirmed EPA administrator, Zeldin promised Hawley he would visit the site to determine the extent of radioactive waste contamination that caused high cancer rates in the area. Zeldin met with residents who described their illnesses attributed to the site as well as with farmers who expressed concerns about fuel costs, food security and water.

In Arizona, he met with Democrats Gov. Katie Hobbs and U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, members of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and the Ak-Chin Tribe to discuss efforts to improve air quality, reduce pollution, implement policy reforms and spur economic growth.

A major focus of Zeldin’s is working with states and tribes to “resolve the massive backlog of State Implementation Plans (SIPs) and Tribal Implementation Plans (TIPs) that the Biden-Harris Administration refused to resolve.”

Because the Biden administration focused on “ideological pursuits instead of the agency’s core mission and statutory duties,” Zeldin argues, there were extensive delays in air quality improvement. “With more than 140 million Americans living in nonattainment areas around the country, cooperative federalism and clearing out the State Implementation Plan backlog will make significant strides to improving the air we breathe,” he said.

“The EPA will work with, not against, states and assist them to ensure that air quality is protected while growing the economy – including development and expansion of semiconductor manufacturing and artificial intelligence,” he said.

Zeldin also traveled to Hawaii where he met with officials and community leaders to survey recovery efforts after the 2023 Maui wildfires, visited the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, and met with the Hawaii Department of Health to discuss collaborative efforts to provide clear air, land and water.

(The Center Square) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting some Venezuelans in the country who’ve been identified as members of violent gangs, including the terrorist organization, Tren de Aragua.

“The government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this court,” the unsigned brief states.

More than 50 Venezuelan nationals were scheduled to be deported in the next flight; five flights were already conducted as part of the administration’s removal process under the Enemy Aliens Act.

The flights went to El Salvador, whose president, Nayib Bukele, is working with the Trump administration to detain violent criminal illegal foreign nationals deported from the U.S.

After a previous district court ruling demanding that some Venezuelan nationals sent to El Salvador be returned to the U.S., Bukele said, “too late,” they were already in his prison and he wasn’t complying, The Center Square reported. Bukele has said more than once that he will not remove terrorists from El Salvador’s maximum security prison, CECOT.

In March, President Donald Trump issued an executive order invoking the Alien Enemies Act in response to already declaring that the U.S. was being invaded by criminal foreign nationals, including TdA members, The Center Square reported.

In response, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of five Venezuelans in the U.S. illegally, requesting a district court in the District of Columbia to halt their deportations.

On April 7, the Supreme Court ruled the administration could continue Venezuelan deportations, arguing the lawsuit was filed in the wrong court, The Center Square reported. After the ruling, the ACLU, which filed the first lawsuit, filed lawsuits in New York, Denver and Brownsville, Texas, where the Venezuelans were being detained. In these cases, district court judges ruled against the Trump administration and those cases are being appealed.

The case in question before the Supreme Court is related to two Venezuelans detained in Anson, Texas, where a federal district judge in Abilene refused to grant the ACLU’s emergency request to block their deportation. The ACLU then filed emergency requests in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans and with the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, a hearing was held on Friday and the court issued its opinion shortly before 1 a.m. EST Saturday morning. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.

The White House has yet to issue a statement.

Trump invoked the Enemies Alien Act after his administration began aggressively targeting TdA members in response to a record more than 1 million Venezuelans who illegally entered the U.S. under the Biden administration, including TdA members.

Under the Biden administration, for the first time in U.S. history, TdA criminals began operating en masse, terrorizing Americans and noncitizens nationwide; confirmed violent crimes by TdA members were reported in at least 22 states, The Center Square first reported.

Under the Trump administration, Venezuelan repatriation flights first began, paid for by the Venezuelan government, negotiated by the Trump administration, The Center Square reported.

Cooperation between the U.S. and El Salvador expanded under Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, representing a reversal of Biden administration policy that used taxpayer money and planes to transport illegal foreign nationals into the U.S.

This isn’t a reflection on the nation’s oldest and most renowned institution of higher learning. Remedial courses aren’t new. Plenty of colleges and universities offer courses geared toward helping students with precalculus and calculus. 

The fact that students at a highly competitive school like Harvard may need help getting caught up in a core subject should be a bright red warning light that our K-12 system is falling behind when it comes to math education.  

Looking at the most recent scores from the Nation’s Report Card, we know there has been minimal progress for students catching up from COVID learning loss, and most fourth and eighth graders on last year’s exam still performed below pre-pandemic levels, with a widening gap between disadvantaged students and their more resourced peers.  

To ensure future generations are prepared for postsecondary success, we need to look for upstream solutions—state-level math policy that we know will help students build the foundation they need.  

State leaders can act now on five essential math policies designed to transform math achievement. 

Next, we know that math coaches are an essential investment for all elementary and secondary schools and can be relied upon to lead professional development, facilitate lesson planning, teach model lessons and observe and provide immediate feedback. States like Alabama and Kentucky have implemented strong math coach programs.  

Just as we look to NAEP as a national assessment tool, teachers should be implementing regular assessments in their classrooms that provide valuable student progress information and inform future instruction tactics. When assessments are followed by timely interventions to get students back on track, student learning outcomes can dramatically improve. 

Lindsey Henderson serves as the Math Policy Director at ExcelinEd.