Author: BelieveAgain

Missouri’s commissioner of education, Margie Vandeven, is no stranger to politics in education—even if she’d prefer to be one.In the 8 1/2 years she’s spent leading the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, she has survived a former governor’s ouster attempt, polarizing debates over the response to COVID-19, and a growing parents’ rights movement that has injected itself into debates on numerous topics, including social-emotional learning.Vandeven has navigated these challenges all while trying to maintain a nonpartisan approach to her position—which is officially nonpartisan and appointed by a state board of education designed to maintain partisan balance.Now, Vandeven is…

For the first time in U.S. history, a former president has been convicted of felony crimes, and K-12 teachers will likely have to contend with a few questions from students as the nation comes to terms with the verdict.On May 30, a New York jury convicted former President Donald Trump on all 34 counts of falsifying business records to illegally influence the 2016 election. The conviction marks the conclusion of the first of four criminal trials Trump is facing.The former president’s sentencing date is July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention, where delegates are expected to formally nominate…

Policies that provide families with public money to cover the cost of private school, homeschooling, and other educational expenses outside of the public school system continue to grow in Republican-led states. As of May 31, 29 states and the District of Columbia had at least one private school choice policy, according to Education Week’s school choice tracker. Twelve had at least one private school choice program designed to be accessible by all or nearly all K-12 students in the state.Those numbers could continue to grow.Louisiana lawmakers recently advanced a bill to establish an Education Savings Account program, leaving many of…

After a long wait, the Biden administration has officially made its mark on Title IX, the landmark federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in schools, with a revision to the law’s regulations finalized earlier this spring.However President Joe Biden isn’t the first president to rewrite regulations implementing the historic law or change how it’s enforced. For the past three presidential administrations, Title IX has been an easy place for presidents to flex their political muscle on education and make value statements about the rights of women and LGBTQ+ people in educational settings.In the Biden administration’s case, the latest revision strengthens the…

As they choose a presidential candidate in the November election, California voters may also have an unusual opportunity to decide whether the state should add a new course to its high school graduation requirements.While supporters say the course is urgently needed, critics say the unusual step of putting curriculum-related issues directly to voters could prompt more such proposals—including the hot-button issues that have plagued many other states over the past three years. The proposed ballot measure would require a one-semester, one-credit course on personal finance, including instruction in budgeting, credit, and investment, concepts that will help students thrive as adults,…

More than half of educators believe that students will need some knowledge of artificial intelligence to succeed in the workplace of the future, according to an EdWeek Research Center survey conducted late last year.It appears that at least some lawmakers in Congress have come to the same conclusion. U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., this month introduced the bipartisan NSF AI Education Act of 2024. The bill seeks to expand scholarship aid and professional development opportunities for K-12 educators interested in artificial intelligence and quantum computing, with support from the National Science Foundation or NSF.Quantum computing, like…

We teachers have our hands full with our day-to-day classrooms, but education policies can have a major impact on our working lives.Here are the policy issues some educators feel we should be most concerned about: Restrictions on What Can Be Taught Bryant Odega is a Los Angeles-based labor-rights activist and teacher-candidate fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education:I think the most important education policy issue facing public schools today are the topics and curricula teachers are able to teach. There is a growing effort by conservatives to restrict teaching topics, even going as far as banning books that talk…

The charter school movement was once the golden child of the U.S. education reform world, celebrated and bolstered by billionaire philanthropists and by politicians of both major parties. But charter schools are in the midst of radical changes and are confronting an increasingly unstable alliance supporting them.Republicans arguably dealt the first major blow. While President Donald Trump embraced the charter school growth policies of the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ great passion was instead for private school vouchers. Other Republicans have shown the same preference, with charters suffering from a bit of GOP neglect.But…

A federal judge on Tuesday struck down a New Hampshire law that bars the teaching of “divisive concepts,” such as that one individual’s race is superior to others or that any person is inherently racist.U.S. District Judge Paul J. Barbadoro of Concord, N.H., said the law is impermissibly vague and in violation of the First Amendment because it does not provide fair notice to teachers as to what they may not teach, does not explain when classroom discussion of a forbidden topic crosses the line into impermissible teaching, and does not make clear when teacher speech outside the classroom violates…

The availability of education savings accounts spurs private schools to raise tuition. Wealthy families benefit from state-subsidized private education options more than poor families do. Politicians in states without vouchers or ESAs aren’t giving up on making them legal.Those are a few takeaways from recent developments on the landscape of private school choice—state-led programs that offer public funds for parents to spend on private school tuition, fees, and other related expenses.Private school choice has grown rapidly in recent years. Twenty-nine states currently have at least one private school choice program, and 12 of those states have at least one program…