In 2025, 31 California schools were nominated for one of the nation’s highest education honors, but the Trump administration abruptly canceled the program weeks before the final award announcement would have been made.

The National Blue Ribbon Schools program honored public and private schools where students score high on state standardized tests and those that had made the most progress in closing achievement gaps between different groups of students. Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell created the award in 1982 during President Ronald Reagan’s first term.

The program’s cancellation was first reported in late August .

More than 9,000 schools have received the award since it began, but now the official national record of that achievement is gone along with the program’s webs

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