From Brookings: Federal Preschool Development Grants: Evaluation needed

An example of federal grants, as well as policy evaluation. Brookings is a think tank, so file this under interest groups as well

- Click here for the article.

In December 2014, then Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan announced that $226 million had been awarded to 18 states under the Preschool Development Grants (PDG) program. Duncan said that expanding access to high quality preschool programs was critically important, and that the states receiving funding would serve as a model for others. The goal for these programs is to close the “opportunity gap.” However, no part of the $226 million included an independent and objective evaluation of the variety of programs states implement or their short- or long-term effectiveness. This paper reports on the dangers of continuing to implement an elementary school-based program in terms of its likely longer term effects and advocates for a serious evaluation of this policy so that it does not have the same fate as others that have been tried.

A description of the grant from the U.S. Department of Education:

The Preschool Development Grants competition supports States to (1) build or enhance a preschool program infrastructure that would enable the delivery of high-quality preschool services to children, and (2) expand high-quality preschool programs in targeted communities that would serve as models for expanding preschool to all 4-year-olds from low- and moderate-income families. These grants would lay the groundwork to ensure that more States are ready to participate in the Preschool for All formula grant initiative proposed by the Administration.

Based on the information provided, I can't determine whether this qualifies as a categorical or block grant.

From Mother Jones: 10 More States Sue Federal Government Over Transgender Bathroom Rules

Regarding federalism, specifically the use of federal funding to impact state policy:

- Click here for the article.

Ten more states sued the federal government Friday over a rule allowing transgender kids to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity—rather than the sex listed on their birth certificates—in public schools. They join a group of 13 other states already suing the Obama administration over the same mandate.

A May 13 directive from the Department of Education and the Department of Justice, which does not carry the force of law, said schools that forced transgender kids to use bathrooms matching their birth sex would be violating Title IX and could lose federal funding.
"The recent action by federal agencies to require showers, locker rooms, and bathrooms to be open to both sexes based solely on the student's choice, circumvents... established law," wrote Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson.

The lawsuit filed Friday is being brought by the states of Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming. They argue the Obama administration's directive was an overreach and a misinterpretation of Title IX.

"The recent action by these two federal agencies to require showers, locker rooms, and bathrooms to be open to both sexes based solely on the student's choice, circumvents this established law," Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson wrote in a statement. "It also supersedes local school districts' authority to address student issues on an individualized, professional and private basis. When a federal agency takes such unilateral action in an attempt to change the meaning of established law, it leaves state and local authorities with no other option than to pursue legal clarity in federal court in order to enforce the rule of law."

On May 25, another lawsuit was filed against the federal government over the same directive by the states of Texas, Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Utah, and Georgia; the governor of Maine; the Arizona Department of Education; and school districts in Texas and Arizona. Kentucky and Mississippi later signed on to that lawsuit.