Author: BelieveAgain

Four-term North Carolina Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt, a towering figure in North Carolina politics in the late 20th century who helped leaders from both major parties strive for public education reform, died Thursday at the age of 88, his daughter Lt. Gov. Rachel Hunt announced.Hunt, whose career provided a prototype for the modern “education governor,” served an unprecedented 16 years as governor as the state received the rewards and stings of shifting from textiles and tobacco to a high-tech economy.Rachel Hunt’s office said that her father died peacefully Thursday at his Wilson County home.“He devoted his life to serving the…

This school year, for the first time, the rural Moscow school district in Idaho has employed two full-time “community schools coordinators” who help connect students and families to social services and academic enrichment opportunities, like internships and career counseling.Moscow Middle School opened a family resource hub, open for walk-ins three hours a week during school and once a quarter on Saturday afternoons, where any child from the community can pick up free clothing, school supplies, books, and toiletries.Middle-school students learning about forestry got to visit a nearby university’s experimental forest three times this semester. And the school hired a licensed…

It’s been a wild year in education, with everything from the disruptions of AI to Trump’s disassembly of the Department of Education. Along the way, there’ve been horrific NAEP scores, a slew of cellphone bans, a new federal tuition tax-credit program, Supreme Court rulings with big implications for K-12, and much else. Before we ring in the new year, it can be useful to reflect on the year that was. In that spirit, I like to revisit the year’s RHSU columns and surface some of the top hits—as determined by readership, feedback, and personal preference.There are always a few pieces…

When a measles outbreak hit West Texas earlier this year, school absences surged to levels far beyond the number of children who likely became sick, according to a study, as students were excluded or kept home by their families to minimize the spread of the disease.Absences in Seminole Independent School District, a school system that served students at the heart of the outbreak, climbed 41% across all grade levels compared with the same period the two previous years, according to the Stanford University study.The preliminary study, which has not been published or finished a formal peer review, offers a glimpse…

Utah has repealed a collective bargaining ban passed earlier this year that prevented labor unions serving teachers, firefighters, police, and other public employees from negotiating on behalf of their workers.Republican Gov. Spencer Cox on Thursday approved the repeal of a policy that experts had called one of the most restrictive labor laws in the country.The state’s Republican-controlled Legislature originally approved the policy in February, saying it was needed to allow employers to engage directly with all employees, instead of communicating through a union representative. Thousands of union members from the public and private sector rallied outside Cox’s office for a…

A new documentary is shining fresh attention on a major special education ruling the U.S. Supreme Court decided last term, spotlighting the lawyer who not only won that case but has played a role in several landmark victories for students with disabilities in recent years.“Supreme Advocacy,” a 40-minute film from Bloomberg Law, pulls back the curtain on how a single case moves through the Supreme Court—from the time it is taken up by the justices through legal briefs, oral arguments, and then a decision. (Released Dec. 2, it is available for free on YouTube.)The filmmakers chose as their subject Roman…

More than 10 separate ongoing projects to strengthen instruction and school-based social services in low-income communities will come to a halt after the federal government late last week abruptly canceled tens of millions of dollars in grants just two weeks before their next round of funding was set to arrive.The U.S. Department of Education website lists more than 70 recipients of active five-year grants through its Full-Service Community Schools program, which helps school districts, colleges and universities, and nonprofit organizations provide food and housing assistance, medical care, and other services in school buildings.Last Friday, according to three education program advocates…

Federal payments to rural schools that lapsed more than a year ago are on track to resume—but they’d only be guaranteed through 2026, and they may come too late for some schools to reverse cuts they made during the delay.The U.S. House on Dec. 9 approved the Secure Rural Schools Act of 2025 and sent it to President Donald Trump, who’s expected to sign it soon. The latest iteration of the program allocates roughly $250 million in annual formula funds—as well as two years of back pay—for counties to pay for road improvements and help school districts that lose revenue…

President Donald Trump didn’t fulfill his pledge to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education in 2025. But he got closer than any other president in the agency’s 46-year-old history, and his dramatic downsizing of the agency and attempts to redirect federal funding cast a shadow of uncertainty over schools and districts. That’s why “dismantle” is Education Week’s 2025 word of the year. Education is largely governed by states, and federal funding makes up about 10 cents for every dollar K-12 schools spend. So shifts in federal bureaucracy seem to pale compared to actions on the state and local level. But…

Even as the U.S. Department of Education dismantles large swaths of the Institute of Education Sciences, a bipartisan group of lawmakers wants to create a new research center modeled on the Pentagon’s moonshot research-and-development program. The proposed legislation, introduced this week by Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., would create a fifth IES center, the National Center for Advanced Development in Education or NCADE to fund “informed-risk, high-reward education research” to improve teaching and learning.“We must pursue innovation with both ambition and accountability,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement. The proposal ” builds a smarter bridge between research and…