Late last year, the Education Department publicly released the
typical student debt and starting salary for graduates of
thousands of higher education programs nationwide. A new
interactive tool from the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF)
puts this data to innovative use, showing where the typical
student’s debt burden is high relative to her earnings. It’s a
useful tool for students, but it also exposes the hypocrisy and
limitations of past federal government approaches to
accountability for the colleges and universities that soak up
billions in taxpayer dollars every year.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Friday announced plans to
further relax heightened school meal nutrition
standards created by the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of
2010, which was championed by former first lady Michelle Obama.
For those and other reasons, and at a time when they would seem
to be searching for new sources of revenue, U.S. colleges and
universities are producing a surprisingly small proportion of the
nation’s patents and startups and making so little money from
licensing inventions that, at many schools, it doesn’t even cover
the cost of managing them.
For those and other reasons, and at a time when they would seem
to be searching for new sources of revenue, U.S. colleges and
universities are producing a surprisingly small proportion of the
nation’s patents and startups and making so little money from
licensing inventions that, at many schools, it doesn’t even cover
the cost of managing them.
Student loan borrowers whose education debt has been canceled
because their college closed or engaged in fraud will no longer
face a tax bill, relief that arrives as applications for
forgiveness continue to grow.
On Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service
issued guidance shielding borrowers from having their
discharged federal and private loans treated as taxable income.
The measure is effective for education loans canceled on or after
Jan. 1, 2016. Anyone affected by the new policy may claim a
credit or refund for an overpayment of taxes.
This Proposition 13 would authorize a $15 billion bond for school
modernization and construction projects. Here’s how it would
break down: $9 billion for K-12 schools ,and $2 billion each for
community colleges and the state’s two public university systems,
the California State University and University of California.
The U.S. Department of Education has proposed a new
rule clarifying that faith-based colleges are eligible for
department grants on the same terms as other private
organizations and prohibiting colleges from denying faith-based
student groups “any of the rights, benefits, or privileges”
allowed for non-faith-based student organizations as a condition
of receiving grant funding.
Jennifer Levitz and Melissa KornWall Street Journal
LOS ANGELES—Matteo Sloane was home on spring break when FBI
agents showed up at his family’s Spanish-style house in the hills
of Bel Air at 6:15 a.m. to take his father to jail.
By the time his father came home at the end of that day after
posting $500,000 in bail, Matteo, then a freshman at the
University of Southern California, was ready to confront him.
“Why didn’t you believe in me?” Matteo asked. “Why didn’t you
trust me?”
President Trump on Thursday defended students who feel they can’t
pray in their schools — and warned school administrators they
risk losing federal funds if they violate their students’ rights
to religious expression.
In the 2017-18 school year, a handful of students (mostly from
wealthy suburban Chicago districts) were sent to Discovery
Academy or one of its associated facilities in Utah, and at least
70 more to other Utah boarding schools. That’s according to
documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, from
the Illinois State Board of Education.
Trump’s actions ahead of the 2020 election are fulfilling a
promise he made earlier this month at an “Evangelicals for Trump”
event. The president told evangelical supporters he would “be
taking action to safeguard students’ and teachers’ First
Amendment rights to pray in our schools.”
The Trump campaign has been angling to rev up support
from religious voters critical to his political base,
including Catholics and Evangelicals.
Dallas ISD is preparing to ask taxpayers for the largest school
district bond in state history.
While details are months from being finalized, the district is
considering three plans which range from $2.7 billion to $3.7
billion for the upcoming bond package, any of which would be the
largest ever issued by a Texas school district, according to data
from the Texas Bond Review Board.
The 74’s Beth Hawkins covers the little-known true story of how Booker T. Washington and the president of Sears built 5,000 schools for generations of Southern black students.
"White schools had one teacher for every 30 students, while in the few existing black schools, each teacher was responsible for upwards of 200 students. This was what 'separate but equal' meant." Great read/look via @beth_hawkins, my #tellEWA pick. https://t.co/6VirWF6V09
For Washington Monthly, Grace Gedye reports on the reasons teachers pursue graduate degrees despite decades of research questioning their effectiveness.
In 1910, Julius Rosenwald, president of the Sears, Roebuck
mail-order empire, read Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery,
an account of his emancipation and founding of the Tuskegee
Institute, originally a school for teachers that became one of
today’s most venerated of the Historically Black Colleges and
Universities. Rosenwald recognized a kindred spirit, someone who,
like him, was a fierce believer in the power of
self-determination.
City officials are discussing a faster timetable for the election
to renew Pre-K 4 SA, the city’s early childhood education
program, expecting it more likely to pass if voters get it in May
rather than November.
The program stands a better chance, supporters believe, if it can
be kept away from a bruising, high-turnout presidential election
clouded by more controversial city ballot initiatives.
A study from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the
Workforce finds that over the course of a career, a liberal arts
education is remarkably practical, providing a median return on
investment 40 years after enrollment that approaches
$1 million. The results, searchable and sortable by
institution, were released Tuesday.
About 25 years ago, a public school in the Baltimore suburbs
invited Deborah Roffman to teach a class on puberty to fifth
graders. Roffman, who was known as the “Sex Lady” at the private
Park School of Baltimore, where she had been teaching for two
decades, was flattered. But she was troubled by the restrictions
that the public school’s vice principal had given her: She
couldn’t use the words fertilization, intercourse, or sex. And
she couldn’t answer any student questions related to those
subjects. That wasn’t going to work for the Sex Lady.
Catherine Gewertz and Sarah SchwartzEducation Week
As soon as they feel feverish or achy, teachers must juggle a
tricky mix of considerations: Do I have enough sick time left to
stay home right now? Will my principal be angry if I call in
sick? Are my students at a crucial juncture in their learning,
and how will they do with a substitute? Will my school even be
able to find a sub, or will they impose on one of my colleagues
to fill in for me?
Dan Bauman, Tyler Davis, and Brian O’LearyThe Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle‘s executive-compensation package includes the
latest data on more than 1,400 chief executives at more than 600
private colleges from 2008-17 and nearly 250 public universities
and systems from 2010-18.
Gone from the Democratic primary, his education policy voice may
yet return somehow.
New Jersey Senator Cory Booker’s presidential bid is over. On
January 13 he announced that he was suspending his long-shot bid
for the Democratic nomination, citing a lack of funding and an
inability to attract enough polling support to qualify for the
debate stage.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren would capitalize on the federal
government’s current legal authority and begin canceling existing
student loan debt on her hypothetical first day in office.
In a plan released Tuesday, Warren said she would direct the
Secretary of Education to “use their authority to begin to
compromise and modify federal student loans consistent with my
plan to cancel up to $50,000 in debt for 95% of student loan
borrowers,” which equals about 42 million people.
For the past several years, the story of international education
has been one of uneasiness and uncertainty.
The travel ban, shifts in visa policy, a trade war with China,
doubts about job prospects, increased competition from other
countries, even fear of American gun culture — all have
contributed to three years of declines in the number of
new international students on American college campuses.
For the 130 students in the business program at Susan Wagner High
School in Staten Island, the opportunity to design and run their
own company has been life-changing.
The students are part of a class called Virtual Enterprise – a
four-year high school business curriculum where students learn
industry skills by creating a mock company. The course is offered
in dozens of schools across the city through the Education
Department’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) office.
The textbooks cover the same sweeping story, from the brutality
of slavery to the struggle for civil rights. The self-evident
truths of the founding documents to the waves of immigration that
reshaped the nation.
The books have the same publisher. They credit the same authors.
But they are customized for students in different states, and
their contents sometimes diverge in ways that reflect the
nation’s deepest partisan divides.
San Diego’s public school schools have filed suit against Juul
Labs, Inc., the largest U.S. producer of e-cigarettes, accusing
the company of deliberately marketing its vaping products to
young people, effectively rolling back years of progress made by
anti-smoking campaigns.
You could be forgiven if you think all of the important news is
happening on the national level lately. If you have a news app on
your smartphone, you’ve likely had few mornings over the last
several years when you didn’t wake up to a screen of alerts about
big, national stories happening in Washington: scandals,
investigations, bombastic tweets from the president.
Researchers rely on district-level English-learner data to craft
reports and propose policy on the state and national level. The
problem is that states may not always report the data the same
way—and sometimes it goes missing.
A proposed constitutional amendment in Minnesota seeks to strengthen the state’s public schools, reports Adelle Whitefoot for Duluth News Tribune.
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis president Neel Kashkari and former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page are hoping to amend language in the Minnesota Constitution so that every child will have an equal right to a quality education. #TellEWAhttps://t.co/ofOBNusRjw
When D.C. families choose a school that is not their assigned
neighborhood campus, they tend to select schools that educate
fewer students from low-income families, according to an 86-page
study released Thursday from the Office of the D.C. Auditor.
The result: Traditional neighborhood public schools, particularly
in low-income neighborhoods, struggle with declining enrollment
over the long term and have higher concentrations of students
living in poverty. Smaller schools are more expensive to operate,
leaving campuses with less money to hire staff.
The next School Board will be working with a new superintendent,
with one of three finalists expected to be selected by next
month. They will also make a decision on removing a school
resource officer from one high school and potentially be involved
with the run-up to November referenda.
While policymakers and parents are wringing their hands about how
to get kids not to vape, a number of e-cigarette companies are
offering college scholarships to teens.
Authors of a new report in the journal Tobacco Control interpret
the scholarships as a possible marketing scheme. The report
looked at the prevalence of these scholarships and the types of
essay questions they ask high school students. Some ask teens to
write essays about vaping — often with questions about the
benefits of e-cigarettes over traditional cigarettes.
The preschool dual-language program at Gates Street Early
Education Center in Lincoln Heights, one of Los Angeles’ oldest
neighborhoods with dense populations of Latino and Asian
residents, is part of a growing number of bilingual education
models taking root in California and across the
country. Many of them are designed to serve students from
Spanish-speaking families, as well as students from other
cultures, under mounting evidence that learning two languages can
help people from all backgrounds become stronger
students.
At a meeting to select Indianapolis Public Schools board leaders,
attention quickly turned to the November 2020 election. Four
seats are on the ballot, and the results could help shape the
direction of the state’s largest district for years to come.
A seismic change to how the state’s second largest school
district operates could be afoot.
The Jersey City Council will vote on a resolution next week that
would let voters decide whether the nine members of the Jersey
City Board of Education continue to be elected by the public or
are appointed by the mayor.
According to the latest student loan debt statistics, there are
more than 44 million borrowers who collectively owe $1.6 trillion
in student loan debt. Today, according to personal finance site
Make Lemonade, student loan debt is now the second highest
consumer debt category – second only to mortgages and higher than
credit card debt and auto loans.
Some candidates have weighed in on the future of higher
education, how to manage growing student loan debt, and how to
pay off student loans faster.
For decades, American men over the age of 18 have gone through
the ritual of registering with the government in case of a
military draft. In recent years, this action has felt more like
going through the motions, simply checking a box.
But on Friday, after a United States drone strike in Iraq killed
Iran’s top security and intelligence commander, prompting
concerns about the possibility of a new war in the Middle East,
that oft-forgotten paperwork became a reason for spiking anxiety
among many Americans.
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren on Monday
introduced a plan designed to protect the rights of people with
disabilities, including children in the nation’s public schools,
and ensure equitable treatment for them.
Warren’s campaign released “Protecting the Rights and Equality of
People with Disabilities” on Monday, providing more detail on her
broader K-12 education plan and her pledge to commit an
additional $20 billion in grant funding for the Individuals with
Disabilities Act and expand the program to cover more services
for children, ages 3 to 5.
Democratic Presidential candidates clashed Thursday
evening over how to make college more affordable, with dueling
proposals that would either allow everyone to qualify for free
tuition and public colleges and universities or only those who
need the help the most.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of
Massachusetts have embraced the most progressive positions: a
tuition-free model for all public two-year and four-year colleges
and the wide-scale elimination of student loan debt.
Inside classroom No. 12 at Brooklyn’s HeartShare Taranto
preschool, children play side-by-side with blocks, puzzles, or at
a pretend kitchen each day. Roughly half are students with
disabilities, including physical impairments, autism, and speech
delays. The others are typically developing children.
On a recent morning, a group of sleepy juniors and seniors at
Cary-Grove High School in northwest suburban Cary listened as
teacher Laura Jacobson talked about repaying college debt in a
family and consumer science class.
She was teaching them personal finance, which can be an abstract
concept to a bunch of teens. But Jacobson wanted to get through
to them, and that’s why she got personal. She has two adult
children who she helped pay off college loans. She brought in
their actual financial statements.
Florida’s debate over how to test its more than 265,000 students
still learning English has churned for more than a decade, with
calls for exams in children’s native languages regularly falling
flat with the officials in charge.
Julie Bosman, Emily Shetler and Natalie YahrThe New York Times
The video was just two minutes long: a sunny montage of life at
the University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus in Madison. Here
were hundreds of young men and women cheering at a football game,
dancing in unison, riding bicycles in a sleek line, “throwing the
W” for the camera, singing a cappella, leaping into a lake.
“Home is where we grow together,” a voice-over said. “It’s where
the hills are. It’s eating our favorite foods. It’s where we can
all harmonize as one. Home is Wisconsin cheese curds. It’s
welcoming everyone into our home.”
A San Antonio school district’s approach to allocating funds for its highest-need schools served as a model for new statewide system, reports Emily Donaldson for the Rivard Report.
For years, #txlege defined student poverty by who received free or reduced price lunch. Changes made in House Bill 3, inspired by an @SAISD system, will show poverty in a new light.https://t.co/MXrGTXTWC1#tellEWA
The Salem Statesman Journal’s Natalie Pate tells the story of a Princeton scholarship recipient looking to the past of his immigrant parents to motivate his future.
There’s a story people tell to explain how college leaders think
about money that comes from ethically dubious sources. The
protagonists change, but other details stay the same.
Someone asks the leader of an institution what he or she thinks
of “tainted money.”
“The only problem with tainted money,” the leader answers, “is
tain’t enough of it.”
Though he’s never been convicted of a crime, Geard Mitchell spent
part of his childhood in a juvenile detention center, at times
sleeping on cement floors under harsh fluorescent lights left on
through the night during lockdowns.
He attended high school by clicking through online courses and
had “no one to talk to but the walls” because of restrictions on
phone calls. He attended group therapy with teens accused of
rape, when what he really needed was grief therapy to process his
mother’s death.
A large Midwestern public university, a historically black
college, and a career-focused nautical academy have discovered
ways to consistently help students up the economic ladder.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. — Ricardo Alcalá’s parents, born in Mexico,
carried less than a second-grade education when they came to
California to work the fields. His older siblings dropped out of
high school. One was sentenced to prison for life and killed
behind bars. Ricardo was 13 then, living in poverty.
But when he was 14, something changed. A Latina teacher told him
he was too smart for pre-algebra and should move up.
When Indiana’s largest charter network collapsed earlier this
year after an enrollment scandal that triggered state
and federal investigations, the resulting mess left hundreds of
students scrambling for transcripts, dozens of teachers
unpaid, and $40 million still owed to the state.
The downfall of Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual
Pathways Academy also placed under the microscope Daleville
Community Schools, a tiny rural district that runs just two
brick-and-mortar schools serving fewer than 1,000 students in
total.
Taxpayers Fund College Degrees That Don’t Pay Off
Late last year, the Education Department publicly released the typical student debt and starting salary for graduates of thousands of higher education programs nationwide. A new interactive tool from the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) puts this data to innovative use, showing where the typical student’s debt burden is high relative to her earnings. It’s a useful tool for students, but it also exposes the hypocrisy and limitations of past federal government approaches to accountability for the colleges and universities that soak up billions in taxpayer dollars every year.
Trump Team Plans to Relax School Lunch Rules. Opponents Warn of ‘Junk Food Loophole’ – Politics K-12 – Education Week
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Friday announced plans to further relax heightened school meal nutrition standards created by the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which was championed by former first lady Michelle Obama.
Click here to read the full story.
Universities Aren’t Making a Lot of Money From University Research
For those and other reasons, and at a time when they would seem to be searching for new sources of revenue, U.S. colleges and universities are producing a surprisingly small proportion of the nation’s patents and startups and making so little money from licensing inventions that, at many schools, it doesn’t even cover the cost of managing them.
Click here to read the entire story.
Universities Aren’t Making a Lot of Money From University Research
For those and other reasons, and at a time when they would seem to be searching for new sources of revenue, U.S. colleges and universities are producing a surprisingly small proportion of the nation’s patents and startups and making so little money from licensing inventions that, at many schools, it doesn’t even cover the cost of managing them.
Click here to read the entire story.
Defrauded College Students Will No Longer Be Taxed on Their Canceled Loans
Student loan borrowers whose education debt has been canceled because their college closed or engaged in fraud will no longer face a tax bill, relief that arrives as applications for forgiveness continue to grow.
On Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service issued guidance shielding borrowers from having their discharged federal and private loans treated as taxable income. The measure is effective for education loans canceled on or after Jan. 1, 2016. Anyone affected by the new policy may claim a credit or refund for an overpayment of taxes.
The New Proposition 13: A $15 Billion Bond for School Facilities
This Proposition 13 would authorize a $15 billion bond for school modernization and construction projects. Here’s how it would break down: $9 billion for K-12 schools ,and $2 billion each for community colleges and the state’s two public university systems, the California State University and University of California.
Read the full story here.
Proposed Rule Focuses on Faith-based Colleges, Religious Liberty and Free Speech
The U.S. Department of Education has proposed a new rule clarifying that faith-based colleges are eligible for department grants on the same terms as other private organizations and prohibiting colleges from denying faith-based student groups “any of the rights, benefits, or privileges” allowed for non-faith-based student organizations as a condition of receiving grant funding.
‘Why Didn’t You Believe in Me?’ The Family Reckoning After the College Admissions Scandal
LOS ANGELES—Matteo Sloane was home on spring break when FBI agents showed up at his family’s Spanish-style house in the hills of Bel Air at 6:15 a.m. to take his father to jail.
By the time his father came home at the end of that day after posting $500,000 in bail, Matteo, then a freshman at the University of Southern California, was ready to confront him.
“Why didn’t you believe in me?” Matteo asked. “Why didn’t you trust me?”
Trump Reinforces Protections For Student Prayer In Schools
President Trump on Thursday defended students who feel they can’t pray in their schools — and warned school administrators they risk losing federal funds if they violate their students’ rights to religious expression.
Read the full story here.
Far From Home
In the 2017-18 school year, a handful of students (mostly from wealthy suburban Chicago districts) were sent to Discovery Academy or one of its associated facilities in Utah, and at least 70 more to other Utah boarding schools. That’s according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, from the Illinois State Board of Education.
Trump to Underline his Support for School Prayer as He Courts Evangelicals
Trump’s actions ahead of the 2020 election are fulfilling a promise he made earlier this month at an “Evangelicals for Trump” event. The president told evangelical supporters he would “be taking action to safeguard students’ and teachers’ First Amendment rights to pray in our schools.”
The Trump campaign has been angling to rev up support from religious voters critical to his political base, including Catholics and Evangelicals.
Dallas ISD Preparing to Ask Voters for Largest School District Bond in State History
Dallas ISD is preparing to ask taxpayers for the largest school district bond in state history.
While details are months from being finalized, the district is considering three plans which range from $2.7 billion to $3.7 billion for the upcoming bond package, any of which would be the largest ever issued by a Texas school district, according to data from the Texas Bond Review Board.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Jan. 10 – Jan. 16)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
The 74’s Beth Hawkins covers the little-known true story of how Booker T. Washington and the president of Sears built 5,000 schools for generations of Southern black students.
For Washington Monthly, Grace Gedye reports on the reasons teachers pursue graduate degrees despite decades of research questioning their effectiveness.
The Incredible True Story of How Booker T. Washington & the President of Sears Built 5,000 Schools for Generations of Southern Black Students
In 1910, Julius Rosenwald, president of the Sears, Roebuck mail-order empire, read Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery, an account of his emancipation and founding of the Tuskegee Institute, originally a school for teachers that became one of today’s most venerated of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Rosenwald recognized a kindred spirit, someone who, like him, was a fierce believer in the power of self-determination.
Fast Track Eyed for San Antonio Sales Tax Election to Fund Pre-K 4 SA
City officials are discussing a faster timetable for the election to renew Pre-K 4 SA, the city’s early childhood education program, expecting it more likely to pass if voters get it in May rather than November.
The program stands a better chance, supporters believe, if it can be kept away from a bruising, high-turnout presidential election clouded by more controversial city ballot initiatives.
Read the full story here.
Liberal Arts Education: Waste of Money or Practical Investment? Study’s Conclusions Might Surprise You.
A study from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce finds that over the course of a career, a liberal arts education is remarkably practical, providing a median return on investment 40 years after enrollment that approaches $1 million. The results, searchable and sortable by institution, were released Tuesday.
This Sex-Ed Teacher Lets Students’ Questions Guide Learning
About 25 years ago, a public school in the Baltimore suburbs invited Deborah Roffman to teach a class on puberty to fifth graders. Roffman, who was known as the “Sex Lady” at the private Park School of Baltimore, where she had been teaching for two decades, was flattered. But she was troubled by the restrictions that the public school’s vice principal had given her: She couldn’t use the words fertilization, intercourse, or sex. And she couldn’t answer any student questions related to those subjects. That wasn’t going to work for the Sex Lady.
When Teachers Get Sick, Taking Leave Can Be Tough
As soon as they feel feverish or achy, teachers must juggle a tricky mix of considerations: Do I have enough sick time left to stay home right now? Will my principal be angry if I call in sick? Are my students at a crucial juncture in their learning, and how will they do with a substitute? Will my school even be able to find a sub, or will they impose on one of my colleagues to fill in for me?
Read the full story here.
Executive Compensation at Public and Private Colleges
The Chronicle‘s executive-compensation package includes the latest data on more than 1,400 chief executives at more than 600 private colleges from 2008-17 and nearly 250 public universities and systems from 2010-18.
Read the full report here.
Bye-Bye, Booker
Gone from the Democratic primary, his education policy voice may yet return somehow.
New Jersey Senator Cory Booker’s presidential bid is over. On January 13 he announced that he was suspending his long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination, citing a lack of funding and an inability to attract enough polling support to qualify for the debate stage.
Election 2020: Elizabeth Warren Says She Will Cancel Student Loan Debt on First Day
Sen. Elizabeth Warren would capitalize on the federal government’s current legal authority and begin canceling existing student loan debt on her hypothetical first day in office.
In a plan released Tuesday, Warren said she would direct the Secretary of Education to “use their authority to begin to compromise and modify federal student loans consistent with my plan to cancel up to $50,000 in debt for 95% of student loan borrowers,” which equals about 42 million people.
Meet the New International Student
For the past several years, the story of international education has been one of uneasiness and uncertainty.
The travel ban, shifts in visa policy, a trade war with China, doubts about job prospects, increased competition from other countries, even fear of American gun culture — all have contributed to three years of declines in the number of new international students on American college campuses.
NYC School Vocational Programs Threatened by Funding Cut
For the 130 students in the business program at Susan Wagner High School in Staten Island, the opportunity to design and run their own company has been life-changing.
The students are part of a class called Virtual Enterprise – a four-year high school business curriculum where students learn industry skills by creating a mock company. The course is offered in dozens of schools across the city through the Education Department’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) office.
Two States. Eight Textbooks. Two American Stories.
The textbooks cover the same sweeping story, from the brutality of slavery to the struggle for civil rights. The self-evident truths of the founding documents to the waves of immigration that reshaped the nation.
The books have the same publisher. They credit the same authors. But they are customized for students in different states, and their contents sometimes diverge in ways that reflect the nation’s deepest partisan divides.
San Diego Schools Sue Juul Labs Over Youth Vaping Epidemic
San Diego’s public school schools have filed suit against Juul Labs, Inc., the largest U.S. producer of e-cigarettes, accusing the company of deliberately marketing its vaping products to young people, effectively rolling back years of progress made by anti-smoking campaigns.
Local Journalism Is in Crisis. That’s a Big Problem for Education
You could be forgiven if you think all of the important news is happening on the national level lately. If you have a news app on your smartphone, you’ve likely had few mornings over the last several years when you didn’t wake up to a screen of alerts about big, national stories happening in Washington: scandals, investigations, bombastic tweets from the president.
How Many English-Learners Do Districts Serve? Data Are Inconsistent
Researchers rely on district-level English-learner data to craft reports and propose policy on the state and national level. The problem is that states may not always report the data the same way—and sometimes it goes missing.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Jan. 3 – Jan. 9)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
A proposed constitutional amendment in Minnesota seeks to strengthen the state’s public schools, reports Adelle Whitefoot for Duluth News Tribune.
For U.S. News & World Report, Lauren Camera covers the achievements and resignation of Louisiana’s long-serving state education chief.
Does D.C.’s School Choice System Hurt Neighborhood Schools?
When D.C. families choose a school that is not their assigned neighborhood campus, they tend to select schools that educate fewer students from low-income families, according to an 86-page study released Thursday from the Office of the D.C. Auditor.
The result: Traditional neighborhood public schools, particularly in low-income neighborhoods, struggle with declining enrollment over the long term and have higher concentrations of students living in poverty. Smaller schools are more expensive to operate, leaving campuses with less money to hire staff.
One Primary, Two Contested Seats for Madison School Board Election
The next School Board will be working with a new superintendent, with one of three finalists expected to be selected by next month. They will also make a decision on removing a school resource officer from one high school and potentially be involved with the run-up to November referenda.
Read the full story here.
When The Vaping Industry Offers Scholarships, Is It Marketing to Teens?
While policymakers and parents are wringing their hands about how to get kids not to vape, a number of e-cigarette companies are offering college scholarships to teens.
Authors of a new report in the journal Tobacco Control interpret the scholarships as a possible marketing scheme. The report looked at the prevalence of these scholarships and the types of essay questions they ask high school students. Some ask teens to write essays about vaping — often with questions about the benefits of e-cigarettes over traditional cigarettes.
More US Schools Teach in Spanish, But Not Enough to Help Latinos
The preschool dual-language program at Gates Street Early Education Center in Lincoln Heights, one of Los Angeles’ oldest neighborhoods with dense populations of Latino and Asian residents, is part of a growing number of bilingual education models taking root in California and across the country. Many of them are designed to serve students from Spanish-speaking families, as well as students from other cultures, under mounting evidence that learning two languages can help people from all backgrounds become stronger students.
Election Could Shake Up Indianapolis School Board. Here’s Who is Running for Reelection
At a meeting to select Indianapolis Public Schools board leaders, attention quickly turned to the November 2020 election. Four seats are on the ballot, and the results could help shape the direction of the state’s largest district for years to come.
Jersey City Mayor Wants Power to Appoint School Board Members, ‘Fix’ School System
A seismic change to how the state’s second largest school district operates could be afoot.
The Jersey City Council will vote on a resolution next week that would let voters decide whether the nine members of the Jersey City Board of Education continue to be elected by the public or are appointed by the mayor.
Read the full story here.
Here’s What 2020 Presidential Candidates Think About Your Student Loans
According to the latest student loan debt statistics, there are more than 44 million borrowers who collectively owe $1.6 trillion in student loan debt. Today, according to personal finance site Make Lemonade, student loan debt is now the second highest consumer debt category – second only to mortgages and higher than credit card debt and auto loans.
Some candidates have weighed in on the future of higher education, how to manage growing student loan debt, and how to pay off student loans faster.
Will There Be a Draft? Young People Worry After Military Strike
For decades, American men over the age of 18 have gone through the ritual of registering with the government in case of a military draft. In recent years, this action has felt more like going through the motions, simply checking a box.
But on Friday, after a United States drone strike in Iraq killed Iran’s top security and intelligence commander, prompting concerns about the possibility of a new war in the Middle East, that oft-forgotten paperwork became a reason for spiking anxiety among many Americans.
Warren: ‘We Are Failing on Our Country’s Promise’ to Children With Disabilities
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren on Monday introduced a plan designed to protect the rights of people with disabilities, including children in the nation’s public schools, and ensure equitable treatment for them.
Warren’s campaign released “Protecting the Rights and Equality of People with Disabilities” on Monday, providing more detail on her broader K-12 education plan and her pledge to commit an additional $20 billion in grant funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Act and expand the program to cover more services for children, ages 3 to 5.
Democratic Candidates Spar Over Free College at Debate
Democratic Presidential candidates clashed Thursday evening over how to make college more affordable, with dueling proposals that would either allow everyone to qualify for free tuition and public colleges and universities or only those who need the help the most.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have embraced the most progressive positions: a tuition-free model for all public two-year and four-year colleges and the wide-scale elimination of student loan debt.
Same Classroom, Different Salaries: Special Education Pre-K Teachers Earn Dramatically Less Than Their General Education Co-Teachers
Inside classroom No. 12 at Brooklyn’s HeartShare Taranto preschool, children play side-by-side with blocks, puzzles, or at a pretend kitchen each day. Roughly half are students with disabilities, including physical impairments, autism, and speech delays. The others are typically developing children.
As College Debt Grows, High School Class Prepares Students For What Lies Ahead
On a recent morning, a group of sleepy juniors and seniors at Cary-Grove High School in northwest suburban Cary listened as teacher Laura Jacobson talked about repaying college debt in a family and consumer science class.
She was teaching them personal finance, which can be an abstract concept to a bunch of teens. But Jacobson wanted to get through to them, and that’s why she got personal. She has two adult children who she helped pay off college loans. She brought in their actual financial statements.
Is 2020 The Year Florida Okays Testing In Spanish?
Florida’s debate over how to test its more than 265,000 students still learning English has churned for more than a decade, with calls for exams in children’s native languages regularly falling flat with the officials in charge.
In a Homecoming Video Meant to Unite Campus, Almost Everyone Was White
The video was just two minutes long: a sunny montage of life at the University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus in Madison. Here were hundreds of young men and women cheering at a football game, dancing in unison, riding bicycles in a sleek line, “throwing the W” for the camera, singing a cappella, leaping into a lake.
“Home is where we grow together,” a voice-over said. “It’s where the hills are. It’s eating our favorite foods. It’s where we can all harmonize as one. Home is Wisconsin cheese curds. It’s welcoming everyone into our home.”
#tellEWA Member Stories (Dec. 27 – Jan. 2)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week
A San Antonio school district’s approach to allocating funds for its highest-need schools served as a model for new statewide system, reports Emily Donaldson for the Rivard Report.
The Salem Statesman Journal’s Natalie Pate tells the story of a Princeton scholarship recipient looking to the past of his immigrant parents to motivate his future.
Higher Ed’s Dirty-Money Problem
There’s a story people tell to explain how college leaders think about money that comes from ethically dubious sources. The protagonists change, but other details stay the same.
Someone asks the leader of an institution what he or she thinks of “tainted money.”
“The only problem with tainted money,” the leader answers, “is tain’t enough of it.”
States Have So Many Foster Children They’re Putting Them In Jails
Though he’s never been convicted of a crime, Geard Mitchell spent part of his childhood in a juvenile detention center, at times sleeping on cement floors under harsh fluorescent lights left on through the night during lockdowns.
He attended high school by clicking through online courses and had “no one to talk to but the walls” because of restrictions on phone calls. He attended group therapy with teens accused of rape, when what he really needed was grief therapy to process his mother’s death.
How 3 Colleges Make Mobility a Reality
A large Midwestern public university, a historically black college, and a career-focused nautical academy have discovered ways to consistently help students up the economic ladder.
Read the full story here.
Most Teachers Are White, Even as Schools Are More Diverse Than Ever
SANTA ROSA, Calif. — Ricardo Alcalá’s parents, born in Mexico, carried less than a second-grade education when they came to California to work the fields. His older siblings dropped out of high school. One was sentenced to prison for life and killed behind bars. Ricardo was 13 then, living in poverty.
But when he was 14, something changed. A Latina teacher told him he was too smart for pre-algebra and should move up.
A Tiny Indiana Town Saw Promise in Virtual Charter Schools. Then Things Started To Unravel.
When Indiana’s largest charter network collapsed earlier this year after an enrollment scandal that triggered state and federal investigations, the resulting mess left hundreds of students scrambling for transcripts, dozens of teachers unpaid, and $40 million still owed to the state.
The downfall of Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy also placed under the microscope Daleville Community Schools, a tiny rural district that runs just two brick-and-mortar schools serving fewer than 1,000 students in total.