Sponsors (2)
The resolution symbolically preserves recognition for high-performing 2025 schools and highlights effective practices, but it provides no federal funding or policy action to sustain, scale, or equitably extend those gains nationwide.
Students, teachers, and communities in the 2025 honored schools retain national recognition for academic excellence, preserving morale and public attention for those educators and communities.
Recognizing exemplary schools highlights effective teaching and school practices that other teachers and districts can study and emulate.
The resolution does not reinstate a federal program or authorize funding, so the recognition is largely symbolic and does not provide resources to sustain or scale successful schools nationwide.
Shifting recognition and any follow-up work to state and local levels risks creating unequal visibility and access to support across states, disadvantaging students and schools in some areas.
The preamble itself does not implement policies or interventions to address cited declines in NAEP scores, so it is unlikely to produce direct improvements in student outcomes.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced December 18, 2025 by Richard Joseph Durbin · Last progress December 18, 2025
Expresses the Senate's findings about the Blue Ribbon Schools program, honors schools selected as 2025 Blue Ribbon Schools from every State, and affirms the program's legacy after the Department of Education discontinued the national program. The resolution notes the program's history of recognizing over 9,000 public and private schools, its role in validating educator work and best practices, and cites recent declines in high school reading and math scores as context for why recognition matters. The resolution is symbolic: it does not create new funding or restore the federal program, but it spotlights the schools chosen in 2025 and encourages continued state and local recognition efforts following the program's discontinuation.