Author: BelieveAgain

Programs that direct public money toward private schools of a family’s choosing or family accounts that can cover any education expenses outside the public school system are proliferating.Parents say they have sought out these programs as a way to deliver an education customized to their children’s unique needs. Politicians championing them say they represent a lifeline for students trapped in underperforming schools. Critics argue the programs deprive public schools of much-needed resources and point out that many children now benefiting from private school choice funds were already attending private schools beforehand. Several private school choice programs are facing lawsuits alleging…

More than 200 school districts have now sued the major social media companies over the youth mental health crisis. What started as a single lawsuit filed by the Seattle public schools one year ago has morphed into an all-out offensive against the social media platforms that adolescents spend multiple hours a day on.It is still the early stages of this legal saga, but experts say it could prove to be highly consequential for K-12 education—win, lose, or settle.“Most of these [lawsuits] are as much about legal success as they are about shaping issues and winning in the court of public…

In “Straight Talk with Rick and Jal,” Harvard University’s Jal Mehta and I examine the reforms and enthusiasms that permeate education. In a field full of buzzwords and jargon, our goal is simple: Tell the truth, in plain English, about what’s being proposed and what it might mean for students, teachers, and parents. We may be wrong and we will frequently disagree, but we’ll try to be candid and ensure that you don’t need a Ph.D. in eduspeak to understand us. Today’s topic is the value of scholars writing for the public.—RickJal: I am a dreadfully slow writer. Articles, books,…

A slew of federal and state funding initiatives that helped schools weather the logistical and financial chaos of the pandemic are set to expire in the coming months or have recently done so—even as district leaders and advocates argue the need for those funds hasn’t gone away.The highest-profile funding program set to dwindle is the last and largest round of $190 billion in emergency aid Congress sent to districts in three rounds between March 2020 and March 2021. Districts will have to commit all their remaining funds from ESSER to specific expenses by Sept. 30 or forfeit the remainder.But ESSER…

Over a sharp dissent by two justices, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to take up a challenge to the admissions plan for a highly selective K-12 magnet school in a case that many conservative legal advocates had hoped would be the next step after the justices last year outlawed race-based admissions in higher education.The court declined to hear the case involving Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va. A group advocating for Asian American students had sought review of a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit that upheld the…

School districts want more time to spend COVID-19 relief aid for homeless-student programs, citing growing need and logistical challenges in meeting the September 2024 spending deadline.Senators who first championed that aid—$800 million for homeless children and youth included in the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act—circulated a letter to colleagues this week, rallying support to give districts an additional year to allocate that money.District homeless liaisons have used the money to identify and locate homeless students, transport them to their original schools when their highly mobile families move into new attendance zones, and address the non-academic barriers that prevent them from…

Republican justices on North Carolina’s highest court signaled on Thursday that they’re open to revising a court order made less than two years ago requiring that the state spend billions more dollars on K-12 schools.It’s the latest twist in a three-decade-old attempt by North Carolina school districts to compel the state to invest more funding to minimize education inequities in the state’s public schools. And it’s an example of how public schools can win a victory in court, only to face fresh complications in the quest for more resources.Democrats controlled the seven-member court in November 2022 when it ruled in…

Nearly a decade ago, Congress handed states and districts near-autonomy to fix their worst-performing schools in the ways they saw fit.Now, many of those schools appear to have been left to languish in the academic doldrums, without clear improvement strategies to use or dedicated resources to execute turnarounds. Fewer than half of district plans for improving the bottom 5 percent of schools in each state dubbed “drop-out factories”—high schools where fewer than two-thirds of students graduate—meet bare minimum federal requirements, even though they received their state’s seal of approval, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress’…

The Staunton schools in Virginia employ roughly 530 people. But according to the state, they only need 200.That means the state only contributes to the cost of salaries for roughly 40 percent of the district’s staff. And even then, the state pays for only 40 percent of those 200 staff members’ salaries.All told, the Staunton district spends $34 million, or $12,630 per student, on staffing. Local taxpayers cover half those costs.This discrepancy is the result of a complex K-12 school funding formula that the state hasn’t altered in decades, and applies decades-old assumptions about school staffing and student services to…

Renee Fairless runs three K-8 public charter schools in Nevada that enroll a total of nearly 4,000 students. Almost all of the students are English learners, economically disadvantaged, or both.Until recently, the state each year provided the Mater Academy of Nevada schools with a base amount of roughly $7,000 per student, as well as an extra dose of funding for roughly 1,700 students the state categorized as “at risk.”This school year, Fairless’ funding haul looked a little different: Only 45 students qualified as at risk and, therefore, were eligible for the additional aid.Now Fairless is pondering cuts to services like…