Author: BelieveAgain
The chaotic and substantially delayed rollout of a simplified FAFSA form, rising reports of antisemitism at K-12 schools and on college campuses, Biden administration efforts to execute student-debt relief, and new Title IX regulations dominated a U.S. House of Representatives hearing with Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona on Tuesday.Spanning more than three hours, the House education and workforce committee hearing gave Republican House members a chance to lambaste the education secretary. Meanwhile, Cardona defended the Biden administration’s education record and made an appeal to representatives to pass the administration’s 2025 budget proposal, particularly to boost funding for the Education Department’s…
As a conservative, I understand why Republicans and Republican-leaning voters say “dealing with immigration” should be a top priority for President Joe Biden and Congress this year. And no, it’s not just because Fox News and other right-wing media are highlighting the border crisis 24/7.Any fair-minded assessment of our immigration system would acknowledge that it is badly broken—millions of people streaming into our country every year with our asylum laws serving as a pretext for entering. The United States sorely needs immigrants, and is stronger because of them, but no country can long survive if it can’t control its borders.Now,…
State laws that allow teachers to carry guns are “dangerous” and could lead to “accidents and more tragedy,” the U.S. Secretary of Education told school and district leaders here during a wide-ranging onstage interview Wednesday.Tennessee last week joined 33 other states that permit school staff members to carry guns, with administrator approval and some training.“I’m all in favor of making sure we’re ensuring safety in our schools,” Cardona said during the EdWeek Leadership Symposium, an annual gathering of school and district leaders. “But this is not in my opinion a smart option.”State lawmakers in favor of this approach argue arming…
School districts will have a busy summer as they work to comply with the Biden administration’s revised Title IX regulation.The regulation, which the U.S. Department of Education released April 19, has become the subject of political outcry because of the protections it provides to LGBTQ+ students and staff. At least 15 Republican-led states have joined lawsuits challenging the regulation, and governors and state education chiefs in Florida, Louisiana, Montana, and South Carolina have directed districts to defy the rule.Those lawsuits could result in court orders halting the rule’s implementation. But for now, districts everywhere in the United States will need…
Two separate groups of Republican-led states on Monday filed lawsuits challenging the U.S. Department of Education’s final regulation on Title IX, focusing on the new rule’s protections for students’ gender identity.The regulation is “a naked attempt to strong-arm our schools into molding our children in the current federal government’s preferred image of how a child should think, act, and speak,” says the lawsuit filed by Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Montana. “The Final Rule is an affront to the dignity of families and school administrators everywhere, and it is nowhere close to legal.”Meanwhile, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, joined by…
In the week since the U.S. Department of Education finalized a rule on the rights of transgender students under Title IX, education leaders in at least five states have urged school districts to ignore it—and activist groups are pressing conservative governors to challenge the directive in federal court.“We are very proud of our districts that are holding the line, and we will never allow Joe Biden to control our schools and indoctrinate our kids,” said Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters said at a state board meeting Thursday.Governors and state education chiefs in Florida, Louisiana, Montana, and South Carolina have also…
With the recent release of ChatGPT, host Mike Palmer dives into the learning implications of this technology for the world of education. Nancy, our virtual cohost, joins Mike in the conversation this time powered by the new dialogic toolset from OpenAI. We begin by learning what this technology is in its own words before hearing which trends ChatGPT sees as most impactful to education. Then we explore the risks and opportunities emerging with new and widely accessible AI tools like this entering the scene. Will we lose our jobs? Will OpenAI achieve Skynet-like self-awareness? What does this all mean for…
Aaron Rasmussen is the Founder and CEO of Outlier.org. He’s also a Cofounder of Masterclass and an award-winning game designer. He joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about how the team at Outlier is designing a product experience built to disrupt higher education by providing affordable access to highly engaging, accredited online courses and certificates. We begin with the story of Aaron’s roots in rural Oregon where he taught himself with books from local libraries before gaining access to higher ed at Boston University. He shares the lessons he learned from successful robotics and gaming startups that set the…
Jennie Magiera is the Global Head of Education impact at Google. She’s also the author of the best-seller, Courageous Edventures: Navigating Obstacles to Discover Classroom Innovation. She joins host Mike Palmer to talk about Part 1 of Google’s The Future of Education Report – Preparing for a New Future which was recently released. We begin by hearing about Jennie’s impressive career path beginning as an award-winning Math teacher in New York and Chicago before rising through a number of administrative and technology roles in Chicago and in the Obama Administration before landing in her current role with Google. From there…
Chester E. Finn, Jr. is a Distinguished Senior Fellow and President Emeritus at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He’s the author of Assessing the Nation’s Report Card: Challenges and Choices with the NAEP. He joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about the history of the NAEP, its challenges and opportunities, and the importance of having a shared set of standards for educational performance across the nation. You can learn more about the NAEP by checking out Overhauling the Nation’s Report Card. We begin by hearing Chester’s origin story dating back…