There were multiple considerations at play: academic opportunities; social life; Manhattan’s Upper West Side vs. bucolic Hanover, New Hampshire. And over the past few weeks a new one had emerged: the quickly spreading pro-Palestinian campus protests and subsequent arrests for which Columbia was ground zero.

Dodson was one of these students, watching closely as protesters occupying Columbia’s Hamilton Hall were cleared from the building Tuesday by the New York Police Department.. 

“All of that made me wait until kind of the last minute to officially decide,” the track runner told ���˶���.

The class of 2024 has had a high school experience bookended by jarring national news, their freshman year coinciding with school shutdowns and COVID-era virtual learning and their senior year ending amid a volatile movement protesting Israel’s assault in Gaza that has swept up dozens of colleges and brought over 2,000 arrests, according to a tally. As seniors weigh options for their future universities, some are looking to the actions of college student activists and the responses of their respective administrations before making final decisions.

“I do think that all of the turmoil and things that are going on definitely had me reconsidering. It had me having second thoughts about different things and had me, I guess, take second looks at different schools,” Dodson said. “But ultimately I guess I tried to look past anything with that and understand that this is a choice I’m making for the next four years and what I think would be the best experience for me — academically, personally, in terms of just student life. All of those things.”

Dodson’s experiences are reflective of as well. Safa Al-Omari, a senior at NYC’s The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology told she is still deciding between City College and Hunter College. The Yemeni student said she wants to do more research about City College’s response to the protests before she commits.

“Being Middle Eastern, I have a lot of feelings about what’s going on,” Al-Omari said. “I would not want to go to a college that is arresting students based on them speaking for people who are suffering.”

For Sam Dodson’s mom, Sarah, there were also conflicting emotions. “It’s very hard to put the ‘yes’ when you have a lot of … chaos,” she said. While she said her son was drawn to the diversity of perspectives on Columbia’s campus, the more heated elements of the past few weeks have given him pause. At the same time, she emphasized the importance of being in a higher education space where free speech is strongly respected and encouraged. 

“You never want your kid to go to a school that is on the national news because of police involvement, right? It just doesn’t sit really well,” she said. “However, I guess I am under the assumption that there’s going to be resolution … I’m guessing because this is a college platform that they are going to hopefully have more engaging, open conversations so that there can be some sort of — I don’t know — persistence of everyday campus life that is not so inflamed.”

For now, all academic activities on Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus — including finals — have been moved fully remote for the remainder of the semester and school President Minouche Shafik has asked the NYPD to maintain a campus presence until at least May 17, two days after commencement is scheduled.

Sam Dodson, who began his freshman year of high school in hybrid learning, said it would be frustrating if his first year of college classes also goes remote because of campus unrest. On the other hand, “there’s something interesting about being in the center of the news or the center of exactly what’s happening.” 

Students reconsider and recommit

It was about two week after pro-Palestinian students and activists on Columbia’s campus first erected the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” that a group occupied Hamilton Hall, a building with a long history of . Hours later, the cops moved in, arresting, 112 people, including 32 who were not affiliated with the university. 

By this point, the movement had spread across the country, including to Dodson’s other contender, Dartmouth, where nearly were arrested this week. About a week and half before that escalation, Columbia hosted its accepted students weekend and Dodson was there. 

He took some time, he said, to wander around campus and speak with protesting students near the encampment. “They were like, ‘Hey, new Columbia students. Come talk to us!’ You know, I guess, they were very like welcoming. They were very much wanting to talk with the admitted students, which I thought was a nice thing.”

While he was disappointed that many of the accepted student weekend activities had been canceled or modified, he was grateful he got to experience the events on campus firsthand and form his own views.   

Around the same time, another high school senior Lila Ellis, who uses they/ them pronouns, was also closely observing the activities on Columbia’s campus. A Jewish student from Massachusetts, they had committed months before to the dual-degree joint program between Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Ellis said that because of their religion, they’re concerned there are certain places on campus they won’t be welcomed. “I think that to just stay away from all secular extracurriculars entirely, is a disservice to myself and to the community as a whole,” they said. “And I’m just thinking about, like, how am I going to balance that while also, you know, recognizing that some spaces don’t want me in them?”

Ellis pointed to the example of a protester outside the gates of campus , “Go back to Poland,” at Jewish students. Recently, a January video of one of the student protest leaders, Khymani James, began circulating in which he said, “be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.” He has since been barred from campus and released a of apology. 

Notably, as reported by , protests within the encampment were on the whole peaceful and included Jewish students, though others on campus agreed with Ellis that anti-Zionist rhetoric made them feel unwelcomed. 

While Ellis is sticking with their decision to attend Columbia, they did briefly toy with the idea of a gap year or of moving core curriculum requirements around to stay away from the main campus for a while. 

“I really do want to be in this program,” they said, “And it’s just a matter of thinking about ‘How do we make that work with what’s happening at Columbia?’ rather than ‘Can it work?’ Because I think it can work.” 

As Ellis prepares to enroll for classes — especially literature overview courses on Columbia’s campus — they’re considering a number of factors including whether or not the professors taught from the encampment. 

“Hopefully,” they said, “it’s not an issue in the fall, but just thinking about who were the professors who were willing to do that? And is that an environment that I want to be in for learning and for having an open discussion?”

Their father, Andy Ellis, added his own apprehension. All parents, he said, are nervous to send their first child off to college. But the protests on campus, he said, add an extra dimension, especially for a Jewish student. 

Ellis, a graduate of MIT, has spent significant time in higher education. He said he was on a Harvard visiting committee and in an academic center there for the last decade but resigned from both positions in October, “when it became clear that people were ripping off their mask around anti-semitism.” 

He said that if he were a current student on Columbia’s campus, he would be on the front lines of the counter-protests, displaying footage from Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel.

“I think I would be that person,” the consultant said, “But I know that Lila is not that person. But I also know that Lila is not going to just duck [their]head and stay completely quiet, but I think find a balanced view. Listening to what Lila said about, you know, ‘find the humanity’ is an amazing, generous take. I’m really proud that I think we’ve created somebody who has a better moral compass than I do because I’m a lot more angry.”

Back in West Virginia and with time to spare before Wednesday’s midnight deadline, Dodson had finalized his decision: He committed to be a member of the class of 2028 at Columbia where he plans to study political science and government. 

“I think it’ll just be interesting,” he said, ”to go from — to take my perspective from this kind of small town area where like, I mean, I’ve met people from other places. I try to read, I try to keep myself exposed to those things, but it’d be cool to actually meet people from all sorts of perspectives and all sorts of backgrounds.”

The Virginia Board of Education recently approved six applications to bring students and colleges together to offer specialized instruction amid concerns over awarding state funds to private schools and financial uncertainty as leaders funding for the biennium budget.

Under Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration, which has made a priority since the governor’s term started in 2022, the accepted by the board increased from six to 12 on April 18. The additions are Paul D. Camp Community College, George Mason University, Old Dominion University at Newport News and Chesapeake, and private schools Roanoke College and Emory and Henry College.

“In a desperate move to advance his political agenda, the Governor’s administration is recklessly fast-tracking approvals of new lab schools and willfully breaking the law by extending state grant funding to private and two-year universities,” said James Fedderman, president of the Virginia Education Association in a statement. “Although these institutions can launch lab schools, the budget couldn’t be more clear that they are disqualified from receiving state grant funding.”

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Todd Reid, a spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Education, said in an email that for the past two years the department has been working closely with community colleges, universities, school divisions and communities on their lab school proposals and applications.

“It is no surprise that we are seeing several applicants now ready for board consideration as many of them have been moving on similar tracks through the planning process for a similar amount of time,” said Reid.

Why lab schools?

Laboratory schools, which operate like charter schools, offer students tuition-free specialized instruction for high-demand careers like teaching, computer science and technology; higher education institutions create their own curriculum, which is reviewed by the state, in partnership with local employers and community organizations.

Students are accepted through a lottery system.

Dating back to his campaign, the governor has called for more options for students, including providing more options for students in public education by expanding charter schools.

In January 2022, Youngkin proposed in his first budget investing $150 million to kick start 20 new charter schools. During his first month in office, he a proclamation standing up for school choice during School Choice Week.

“We must empower parents and students with choice and innovation in K-12 public education,” Youngkin said in a statement.

But he faced opposition from Democrats on his pledge for school choice because it would siphon funding from already underfunded public schools.

By mid-February, the administration’s position changed slightly after Democrats killed efforts to add more charter schools. Laboratory schools then became Youngkin’s alternative to public schools.

A debate over language

Later that year lawmakers passed establishing laboratory schools and appropriated $100 million to support the Virginia College Partnership Laboratory fund, which had been established 12 years before for colleges and universities with teacher education programs.

Out of the $100 million, $5 million was appropriated for planning grants to support eligible entities in the design of lab schools and to assist in drafting and submitting a lab school application to the board. A total $20 million was designated for initial start-up grants for approved lab schools to make one-time purchases and $75 million for per-pupil operating grants to support ongoing expenses for lab school operation and maintenance.

, which the governor signed, stipulated that a “college partnership laboratory school” means a public, nonsectarian, nonreligious school in the commonwealth established by a baccalaureate public institution of higher education.

During a Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee hearing at the time, then-Sen. George Barker, D-Fairfax, said the language was created to keep the funding for public four-year institutions before any expansion to other institutions of higher education is considered.

“That language is not squishy,” he said. “That language is very clear.”

Since then, however, the administration and legislature have debated which applicants can receive state funds under the definition of lab schools and how much funding should be appropriated over the next two years.

Youngkin’s administration says the definition in state law does not prohibit the College Partnership Laboratory Schools Standing Committee from accepting applications from all institutions. In two April 10 letters, Deborah Love, a senior assistant attorney general, agreed, saying: “In my view, there are no legal impediments to the Standing Committee’s consideration of this application.”

Love wrote that the office reviewed earlier versions of the and applications and provided feedback to the department on March 21 and April 4, and Feb. 2 and March 5. However, the feedback the office provided to the department was not included in the committee’s public documents.

But Democrats and the Virginia Education Association are critical of the education department awarding grants to private colleges such as Ferrum College, the University of Lynchburg and Virginia Union University.

Senate Education Committee Chair Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, said the administration attempted to rewrite the state code about establishing College Partnership Laboratory Schools prompting Democrats to make sure funding was supporting public education.

“We put a lot of safety rails on it so that so-called ‘college partnership schools’ would only be delivered through four-year institutions,” said Hashmi. “They would not be open to private actors and they would have to follow a process of approval that included local school divisions and so there has been a lot of effort on the administration’s part to bypass some of those safety rails that we put in.”

However, Sen. Mark Peake, R-Lynchburg, said he hopes the state will support lab schools, public and private, both of which he pointed out benefit public school children.

“I’m not looking at the school that’s providing it, I’m looking at students that are receiving it,” said Peake, who sits on the Senate Education committee.

“I think we need to take new looks at how we are educating our children and the opportunities we’re giving our children, and that is especially the case after the learning shortfalls we have had since Governor [Ralph] Northam shut down our schools during the coronavirus,” Peake said. “When you look at the learning loss our students are facing since the coronavirus shut down, we’ve got to try everything possible to get our kids caught back up and if it’s lab schools, I think it’s a great opportunity.”

Funding

Within the past two years, the Board of Education has accepted six lab school applications: Virginia Commonwealth University, James Madison University, the University of Mary Washington, the University of Virginia, and Germanna and Mountain Gateway Community Colleges.

VCU’s partnership with Regional High School was the first application approved by the Board of Education and awarded $6 million. It opened in January. While VCU is a public university, the decision was criticized because it supported a regional school that was already “fully funded” and “fully staffed.”

Fedderman of the Virginia Education Association, suggested the money could have gone instead to neighboring Overby-Sheppard Elementary School in Richmond.

“Virginia is one of the richest states in the country, yet we spend less per student in state funding than states with fewer resources, such as Alabama and West Virginia,” Fedderman said in a statement at the time. “Showering one school with huge amounts of state and local funding might look nice and distract some of the public, but parents of kids in other public schools want and deserve adequate funding for their students, too. Let’s work to fund all our public schools like we fund our lone lab school.”

Democrats in budget amendments during the recent legislative session that public funds for lab schools should only be used for public four-year institutions. Youngkin and lawmakers have gone back and forth over whether to include funding for lab schools in the two year budget.

After trading proposals, which included Youngkin proposing $60 million and the General Assembly offering no investments for lab schools, the two are at a stalemate before the current budget ends on July 1.

Change in process

The budget negotiations and disagreements on language are not the only issues plaguing lab school decisions.

On April 11, Virginia’s College Partnership Laboratory Schools Standing Committee voted 3-2 to adjust the process for approving applications by cutting the number of reviews from two to one before submitting them to the Board of Education for final review. While some members said the move would help, others expressed concern after the process was created a year ago.

Board member Andy Rotherham, a Youngkin appointee on the committee, said the move would streamline the process for applicants to meet with reviewers and travel to Richmond.

“I think we just need to continue to try to refine it [the process] to maintain the highest bar of quality, but also think about how can we do it as efficiently as possible,” Rotherham said at the meeting.

He said if the committee finds any issues with applications, it has options including sending applications to the board with conditions.

Some of the notable elements reviewed in applications is a school’s plan for serving all students including those with disabilities, English language learners, and students who are academically behind or gifted.

According to , all lab schools are subject to “all federal and state and constitutional provisions prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, ancestry, or need for special education services.”

Applications must also include plans for student recruitment and enrollment, the school’s financial plan and policies, including financial controls and audit requirements; and assurances that the college partnership laboratory school is nonreligious in its programs, admission policies, employment practices.

“Fundamentally the accountability for actually authorizing these schools lies with the nine members of the state board who it’s incumbent on them to look at everything including the public comment which is still provided in this process,” Rotherham said

Board Vice President Bill Hansen, a Youngkin appointee, also supported the change.

“I think it’s the evolution of where we are, where the Department of Education is, where we are in the process and I just really don’t have any concerns whatsoever that we’re going to be stepping away from quality outcomes of what we’re all seeking to achieve here,” Hansen said during the meeting.

However, Joan Wodiska and Pam Moran, committee chair and vice chair, voted against changing the process.

Moran asked the committee to consider keeping a second review on a case by case basis, but no action was taken.

“I don’t want to vote ‘no,’” said Moran. “I’d like to be able to have these proposals get the support and go through the process if they need to, and [if] there are some that are coming to us that we may say … ‘let’s send it on,’ I’m good with that;  but I don’t want to leave out a piece of the process that gets people something that they need to then get back to the place where they can go to the state board.”

Wodiska added that she believes having a first and final review is necessary, a historical practice done by the state board.

“The role of a standing committee as charged under law is to set a process to review applications,” Wodiska said. “That is our role, that is our charge. There are millions of taxpayer dollars at stake in these conversations, but most importantly is the welfare of the students and educational professionals that will be at these lab schools.”

House Education Committee Chair Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, who represents a part of Roanoke City near Roanoke College, said he considered the board’s decision presumptive when the budget is not completed and the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission found that Virginia has been underfunding public education for a number of years.

“Lab schools in and of themselves are not a bad idea,” Rasoul said. “The question is, are we going to be diverting funds when we just had a massive report from JLARC, saying how underfunded our public schools are, given that funds for new projects like this seem to divert away from needing to pay our teachers at the national average mental health resources and other critical services.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on and .

They can in the General Assembly. They can drive a car. They can . They can consent to , or . They can in a week and pay taxes on these earnings. They can put that money in a they’ve opened.

These are some things 17-year-olds can do in Rhode Island, and a few apply to 16-year-olds as well. A recent pair of bills brought to the State House would give older teenagers one more privilege: the ability to vote in elections for their local school committees.

“Students go to the meetings, they can talk at the meetings, they can give all the ideas that they want,” said Henry Siravo, 17, a senior at Smithfield High School. “But at the end of the day, how often do they get listened to? We get brushed off as kids.”

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A pair of bills sponsored by two Democratic lawmakers — by Rep. Leonela Felix of Pawtucket and by Sen. Tiara Mack of Providence — would make it harder to brush off kids.

The identical bills do not mandate any statewide changes. They would create the statutory outline to allow 16- and 17 year-olds to vote in school committee elections, but the key phrase in the bills’ language is that municipalities “may provide” this privilege — it wouldn’t be required. Additional stipulations are that the 16- or 17 year-old would have to be a resident of the municipality for at least 30 days, and register at least 30 days before the school election itself.

“We always talk about people not being engaged in elections as adults,” Felix said in a phone interview. “What better way to get them engaged than starting early?”

Siravo started early: He originally became involved with Young Democrats of Rhode Island, who have also pushed for the current legislation, after he rallied against the Smithfield School Committee in 2023, who were considering a disclosure policy that could potentially out transgender and LGBTQ students to their parents.

“I organized over 100 students, but mostly parents, teachers and just community members to come out against that, because as powerful as the testimonies of the students were, they didn’t vote. They didn’t get to hold them accountable at the ballot box,” Siravo said.

“We really don’t have financial power to donate to candidates,” Siravo continued. “The bare minimum that we’re asking for is a voice, so that we can say, ‘If you slash our department funding, if you make school really hell to go to … we’re gonna vote you out.’ Right now, we don’t have that voice. We don’t have that say.”

The legislation mirrors efforts in other states to see youths represented in electoral processes. Maryland state law leaves it up to municipalities to lower the voting age for local elections — and the city of enacted their youth voting legislation over a decade ago in 2013 when they approved 16-year-olds’ participation in local elections.

Earlier this year in Newark, New Jersey, municipal officials OK’d 16-year-olds’ votes in school committee elections — although Chalkbeat in February that the law wouldn’t be in effect until 2025 because of voter registration issues. KQED that Berkeley and Oakland passed measures allowing 16-year-olds to vote but that the law hasn’t been satisfactorily enacted yet either.

Meanwhile, campaigns similar to Rhode Island’s are underway in Michigan, Hawaii, Illinois and Massachusetts as well as a number of California cities, according to advocacy organization . A successful passage of youth voting laws in New York that will take effect by July 1, 2024, has led the to offer guidance on the rollout.

Data from the shows that 18 is the standard voting age for many countries, although suffrage begins earlier in some places than others. Nicaragua, Cuba and Austria provide universal suffrage starting at age 16. Estonia and Germany allow 16-year-olds to vote in some local and state elections. If you’re 16 and employed, you can vote in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Argentina and Brazil up the ante by requiring citizens ages 18 to 70 to vote in elections or face fines and penalties — but 16- and 17 year-olds can voluntarily vote, too.

At the March 26 hearing of Felix’s bill in the House Committee on State Government and Elections, two Republicans and one Democrat were unconvinced. Rep. Brian Newberry, a Smithfield Republican, worried about students having say over municipal bodies who make budgetary decisions.

Rep. Patricia Morgan argued against 16-year-olds’ mental readiness to vote. “At the age of 16, they really are not adults,” said Morgan, a West Warwick Republican. “And they don’t have that capacity. As much as whatever, you know, research you got, it’s just not true.”

Rep. Arthur Corvese, a North Providence Democrat, was more specific in his criticism: “I don’t buy that the same individuals who would support allowing teenage and young adult murderers to either get out of jail or have a reduced sentence because of their inability to understand what they did — but you want 16-year-olds to vote in elections? I’m sorry.”

Felix told Corvese that cognitive processes involved in crime and voting are hardly the same. Comparing impulse decisions like crime is entirely different from the decision making they would use at the ballot box, she suggested.

“The research has shown that youth, when it comes to non-impulsive behavior, they’re just as rational as adults,” Felix said. “It’s astonishing to me to hear folks talk about that.”

The Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore supports the legislation, offering a few reasons why youth voting is worth considering.

“Ultimately, we believe that our youth should be directly engaged in their communities and in the democratic systems and structures that govern them so that they become lifelong citizens and active participants in our democracy,” Amore wrote in a submitted in support of Felix’s bill.

Potential issues with the bill involved ballot preparation and implementation, but Amore noted his office would be happy to help tweak the law and make it more logistically viable.

Both Felix’s bill and Mack’s have been held for further study since their respective hearings in House and Senate committees.

Larry Berman and Greg Paré, spokespeople for the House and Senate respectively, offered a statement via email.

“These bills were heard in their respective Senate and House committees earlier this session,” they wrote. “The Senate President and Speaker will be reviewing the testimony and communicating with the chairpersons as part of the normal committee review process.”

This is the second year Rhode Island’s General Assembly has seen this legislation, said Mary-Murphy Walsh, the president of the Young Democrats of Rhode Island. But the idea is still young.

“I think next year might be easier considering all the other priorities that the legislature has,” Felix said.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com. Follow Rhode Island Current on and .

The El Paso Independent School District is planning to close or consolidate schools — which the district calls “sunsetting campuses” — by the 2025-26 school year as it braces for continued declining enrollment.

EPISD Superintendent Diana Sayavedra on Wednesday announced the district is evaluating programs, resources and facilities and will present recommendations to the Board of Trustees in late fall.

The district will hold a series of this month to introduce their restructuring plans and gather public input.

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In an interview with El Paso Matters, said the district still doesn’t know how many or which of its 76 campuses could be affected but noted it does not plan to close any high schools at this point.

“If we don’t begin to have that conversation and make those difficult decisions, we will find ourselves in a crisis,” Sayavedra told El Paso Matters. “So before we get there, we’re giving ourselves a good runway to partner with the community so that our decisions are informed.”

EPISD enrollment declines

The superintendent of El Paso’s largest school district said the change is needed due to declining enrollment that she expects to continue falling in the coming years.

EPISD’s enrollment has declined by 20% since the 2013-14 school year, according to the Texas Education Agency. The district currently has fewer than 50,000 students for the first time since the 1960s.

“Over the next 10 years, we stand to lose additional students. Because our birth rates and the birth rates nationally are showing that we’re graduating more students from school systems than there are children being born,” Sayavedra said.

The number of children born to El Paso County residents declined by 21% between 2013 and 2023, according to state data provided to El Paso Matters. Nationally, the number of births declined by 9% in the same period.

Elementary schools are the first affected by declining birth rates. nine elementary schools between the 2018-19 and 2020-21 school years. The declines then ripple through to middle schools and high schools over the years.

Sayavedra said she expects the district’s enrollment to settle between 36,000 and 42,000 students. That would take the district’s enrollment back to where it was in the 1950s, according to newspaper reports from that period.

El Paso ISD budget, teacher pay

As enrollment declines, Sayavedra said the district will likely have to tighten its budget and possibly forego raises for its teachers and other employees in the coming school year.

“I don’t foresee that we can give a significant compensation increase, if any at all. But what I can share with you is that I’m going to bring a balanced budget to the board,” Sayavedra said. “We’re not at a point where we’re having to make significant staffing cuts because we’ve been very conservative and very fruitful and very strategic about our budget development process.”

She said the district plans to maintain its fund balance at 75 days or higher and keeps its employee’s insurance premiums the same.

Trustees for El Paso’s two other largest school districts, the and Ysleta Independent School Districts, have also said they may not be able to give employees raises in the 2024-25 school year.

During an April board meeting, SISD trustees discussed possibly reducing its employee health plan contributions as it deals with a $33 million deficit.

The future of EPISD high schools

Though Sayavedra said EPISD does not currently plan to close any high schools in the district, many have also seen declines in enrollment.

Since the 2013-14 school year, enrollment dropped by over 43% at Irvin High School, 27% at Austin High School, and 21% at Andress High School.

Among EPISD’s 10 traditional high schools, El Paso and Franklin were the only ones to see their enrollment increase during that time, by 31% and under 9%, respectively.

2025 bond election plans

The district also plans to bring a bond election to voters in November 2025 to upgrade heating and cooling systems throughout the district, improve security and potentially pay for upgrades or the construction of new consolidated school campuses.

Sayavedra said changes would need to be made even without a bond.

“If we were to sunset a campus, and families are going to transition to another campus, with a bond there may be opportunities for us to update that facility so that it’s a healthier learning environment for children. But if we’re not able to pass a bond, at the very least what we will be able to offer is program expansion for the receiving campus,” Sayavedra said.

What’s next in school closure plan?

A series of will be held this month to gather input from the community. Over the summer, the district will develop preliminary criteria for school consolidations and closures.

The criteria will be shared with the community by early fall, and the district will conduct a preliminary analysis of campuses, including which schools require facility improvements or have opportunities to implement or expand programs.

Recommendations will be presented in late fall to the EPISD school board, which will vote on which schools to close or consolidate.

Timeline:

May 2024: 10 feeder pattern community meetings

Summer 2024: EPISD reviews feedback; begins developing preliminary criteria for school consolidations, closures

Early fall 2024: Criteria shared with the community; begins preliminary analysis of campuses, including which schools require facility improvements or have opportunities to implement or expand programs; more community meetings

Late fall 2024: EPISD presents recommendations to the Board of Trustees.

2025-26 school year: School consolidations, closures implemented

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

In March 2020, colleges were on the verge of a crisis. Students were dropping out en masse, and California’s public colleges and universities predicted they might lose billions of dollars within the year.

Enter the federal government. In three installments over the following year, Congress gave more than $8 billion to California’s public colleges and universities as part of a national rescue plan. For the California State University system, the stimulus money accounted for roughly a quarter of its annual revenue.

Suddenly, colleges and universities were scrambling to spend the money as quickly as possible, despite limited or inconsistent federal and state guidance. Experts worried , too fast. Campuses failed to take full advantage of the money, according to , and they made decisions that “prioritized students differently.” 

Now, as the final deadline to spend the money approaches this June, the boom is turning to bust. Most schools have exhausted the money, often through major purchases, such as new laptops or tuition waivers for students. But maintaining those programs can be costly, and with the state facing a , colleges say it’s not clear where the money will come from next. 

For students, the boom was especially short-lived. Over three years, California’s colleges used the federal money to give cash to students, typically less than $1,000 each. For many struggling students, it wasn’t enough.

How pandemic relief funds ended up in students’ hands 

After graduating high school in 2020, Jose Castillo enrolled at Merced College, but he didn’t stay long. He needed money.  he dropped out in fall 2020 and started working 12-hour shifts, five days a week, at a food packaging warehouse. As long as he took a few overtime shifts, he could make nearly $2,000 a month.

He eventually quit and re-enrolled at the community college, where he’s studying animal science. Along with his regular financial aid award, about $10,000 a year, his college gave him an additional $2,000 over two semesters as part of the pandemic relief money. “I’m thankful for whatever I get,” he said. 

Castillo lives with his parents and younger brother on a dairy farm, about a half hour from the college. While he isn’t working anymore, his parents work 12-hour shifts at the farm. To help, he drives his brother to school and pays for gas. He also pitches in on groceries. 

Covering family expenses, school fees and textbook costs, the money “just goes away,” he said. “Right away.” 

Of the $8 billion in federal aid, colleges were required to give about half directly to students. The money went to the poorest students, who often spent it on daily necessities, such as housing, food and transportation, according to 

But the criteria varied: the same student could qualify for COVID relief money at one school but not another. At Chico State and UC San Diego, for example, students applied for aid by submitting a simple form that only asked the amount of money they needed. Students at other schools, such as Cal State Long Beach State and Sonoma State, needed to write explanations justifying their need and some were denied, according to the 2021 state audit.

The other half of the $8 billion went to “institutional” needs, which colleges could define broadly, such as equipment or staff training. Compared to other federal relief, such as the Payment Protection Program for business loans, the higher education relief program had low levels of fraud, said Kevin Cook, who helps lead the higher education center at the Public Policy Institute of California. In 2022, the Institute released  on how California’s public colleges and universities used pandemic relief money. 

“It seems like these colleges, when given extra funds, were spending it on areas that were needed,” Cook said. “They didn’t build a new football field. They spent it on things that would make the campus safer or help students stay enrolled.” 

Missing out on millions

Still, the federal relief program was far from perfect. The federal government bypassed the state and issued stimulus money directly to colleges and universities, allowing schools to spend the money quickly but with relatively little oversight.

In their reporting, schools often used vague terms to describe how, exactly, they spent the money they received for institutional use.  reported putting the vast majority of institutional funds towards recuperating “lost revenue” from tuition and dorms when students stopped attending. The university declined to specify what they used that revenue for.

Many community colleges were equally vague, though not all. At Yuba College, an hour north of Sacramento, administrators decided to give students additional cash by using the money designated for institutional needs. Because of low vaccination rates across the county, they also gave out nearly $700,000 worth of Amazon gift cards as incentives for students to get vaccinated. In East San Jose, Evergreen Valley College put most of its institutional needs dollars toward new technology, tuition discounts and waivers for students who had accumulated fines and fees. 

Often these expenses come with ongoing costs that the one-time federal funding can’t cover. At Evergreen Valley College, Vice President of Administrative Services Andrea Alexander has been scaling back how often departments get technology upgrades while searching for other funds to pay for future maintenance. She said the school will likely ask voters for a bond in the next five years to cover the ongoing cost of technology. The bond will also pay for cybersecurity upgrades, which are increasingly necessary as .

Amid the flurry of federal funding, the audit found that many public colleges and universities had neglected to apply for grants they were likely eligible for. Following the audit’s recommendation, the UC system found nearly $74 million in expenses that colleges could bill to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to Stett Holbrook, a spokesperson for the president’s office. The same agency approved from the Cal State system, with nearly $20 million in expenses still pending review. 

A spokesperson for the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, Paul Feist, said it has not issued any formal guidance to schools about requesting such reimbursements and that it “does not monitor what claims, if any, districts made to FEMA.”

‘I wouldn’t say it lasted long’

On a per-student basis, community colleges received less money than UC or CSU campuses, even though community colleges educate the majority of low-income students in the state. That’s because the federal government initially prioritized giving money to schools with a higher percentage of full-time students and to schools that had more Pell Grant recipients. 

Federal Pell Grants go directly to low-income students. Though many community college students qualify, . Community college students are also more likely to attend part-time, since many work. 

Initially, some community college students didn’t qualify for any aid. In January 2022, Mikala Hutchinson began taking classes at MiraCosta College in Oceanside, north of San Diego. She was taking high school-level classes since she didn’t have a high school degree or equivalent. 

For decades, adult students without a high school degree or equivalent have been left out of the financial aid system, . When the federal government first announced the COVID-19 relief grants, it neglected to specify whether students like Hutchinson were eligible.

Since enrolling, Hutchinson said navigating financial aid has been “a massive headache.” It wasn’t until May 2022, when she was taking college-level classes, that she got any financial aid from MiraCosta College. Over the course of a year, she received just over $2,000 in COVID-relief funds, all of which she put towards child care.

Hutchinson has two young children. That year, she paid more than $20,000 in child care. The money “helped in the beginning for sure,” she said, “ but I wouldn’t say it lasted long.”

This was originally published on CalMatters.

Five days after the Maryland State Board of Education unanimously voted to appoint as the state’s permanent superintendent of schools, she held a news conference on Monday to announce the creation of a task force to assess academic achievement.

Wright said members of this group will include local superintendents, principals and higher education representatives to provide recommendations on how to better assess how students are doing in the classroom. The group will be led by the Center for Assessment, a national education nonprofit that designs, implements and evaluates accountability systems to see how students are learning.

Part of this initiative stems from the  (MCAP), which measures a student’s proficiency in math, English and science.

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The uses a rating system from one to five stars to measure overall school performance such as graduation rates, attendance and academic performance.

MCAP results are among the factors that determine the state’s report card and school star rating system.

Although 76% of Maryland schools received at least three out of five stars on the state’s report card released in December, only 47% of all students in third to eighth grades scored on a proficient level in English language arts. The percentage was even lower in math, at nearly 25% proficiency.

“That’s doesn’t ring true,” Wright said. “You can’t have three quarters of your schools being rated as excellent, if you will, and then not seeing student achievement, almost commensurate with that.”

The task force, which will meet about twice a month, will begin its work Thursday and provide recommendations by December to the state Board of Education. Because this accountability system to assess student achievement is in state statute, any proposed changes would need to be done before the Maryland General Assembly convenes for its 90-day legislative session in January.

There’s also a plan to update the online report card to make it easier for parents, guardians and students to comprehend.

“The report card website needs to be a lot more accessible for folks to understand and be able to access data for their schools in their districts,” said Joshua Michael, vice president of the school board. “So delighted that Dr. Wright will be leading that portion of the accountability [measure].”

Wright, who will begin her tenure without the interim title July 1, said conversations “have to start now” on trying to diversify the state’s teacher workforce.

That’s part of the priorities in the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan, but some have documented challenges in hiring and retaining qualified teachers, and even recruiting teachers of color.

Although Maryland is one of the most diverse states in the nation, a September 2023 report from noted that 70% of the teachers in the state were white in 2022. In comparison, about 19% were Black and 4% were Latino.

The percentages of the student population at the time: About 40% white, 33% Black and 21% Latino.

Wright recalled a program in place while she was schools superintendent in Mississippi that she would like to replicate in Maryland.

During her nine-year tenure in Mississippi, which ended with her retirement in 2022, the to launch a state-run residency teacher program to fill teaching positions and lack of diverse teachers.

“I think we need to do a better job of campaigning and outreach,” Wright said Monday about boosting Maryland’s teacher workforce. “It’s looking to see how we are helping districts recruit at specific areas. Children need to see somebody that looks like them standing in front of the classroom.”

This was originally published in Maryland Matters.

LINCOLN — The state teachers union and other advocates for keeping public funds for public schools say they won’t let supporters of Nebraska’s revamped school choice law sidestep the voters this fall.

They said so while launching a petition drive Tuesday to repeal Legislative Bill 1402, the latest version of a scholarship or voucher program for K-12 students attending private schools. That law turned a tax credit program into a direct state appropriation to nullify a previous ballot initiative.

The Nebraska State Education Association and Support Our Schools Nebraska have argued that those who want to spend public dollars on private education are afraid of facing the voters — and that polling shows they should be.

“LB1402 was passed to silence voters, and their voices need to be heard and respected,” said Jenni Benson, NSEA president and a Support Our Schools Nebraska sponsor. “We were successful last summer, and with everyone’s help we can again gather enough signatures to put this latest voucher scheme on the ballot so Nebraskans are not denied their right to vote.”

Money on both sides of fight

State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, the sponsor of both school choice efforts, has said it is difficult, even with help from school-choice advocates like U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., and former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, to outspend public school supporters like Susie Buffett and national teachers unions.

Linehan, reached Tuesday, said she was not surprised.

“The teachers union always puts the union first, not the kids,” she said. “The teachers union should be doing more to keep young teachers in the profession, fighting to make sure teachers get paid more. The Legislature, we’ve done several bills to address the teacher shortage, and we’ve passed bills to address funding for public schools. But their focus is on this. It’s alarming.”

She and other LB 1402 supporters have argued that advocates for public schools are ignoring low-income families who want more educational options.

“Are they against low-income kids, kids who are bullied, are they against them getting scholarships?” she has said.

Opponents of LB 1402 described the law as a “costly voucher scheme” that “denies Nebraskans their right to vote on the issue of diverting public funds to pay for private schools.”

‘Unprecedented step’

The next president of the NSEA, Tim Royers of Omaha, criticized state senators for taking “the unprecedented step” of passing another bill that denied voters the opportunity to have a say on an issue after advocacy groups organized and fulfilled all legal obligations to give voters that chance.

“We thought we had resolved this question last summer when we turned in 117,000 signatures, that Nebraska voters want to have their say on whether public dollars should go to private schools,” Royers said.

He said the union was seeking a partial repeal of LB 1402, leaving intact the part that repeals the previous school choice program. It would also leave alone the separate appropriations bill. Without a program to fund, lawyers told the Examiner, that would send $10 million a year back to the general fund.

Royers disagreed with Linehan and others arguing that the choice to spend public dollars on private education leads to better educational outcomes. He said he has not seen evidence of that in the experiences of 48 other states with similar programs.

“We don’t want to find ourselves going down a road where there’s a false promise that’s also taking critical resources away from public schools, which makes it harder for us to deliver for the vast majority of Nebraska students that attend public schools.”

Opponents of LB 1402 might also pursue legal action against the law, he said.

Addressing critics’ concerns

Linehan has said the new measure addresses opponents’ concerns about the tax credit provided by last year’s legislation, LB 753.

Critics of the original school choice law said it raided the state treasury of potential revenue from wealthy donors, many of whom might already have given to existing scholarship programs run on behalf of private or religious schools.

Benson said diverting millions of tax dollars to fund vouchers for private schools “will hurt our public schools as well as other essential public services and infrastructure.”

Support Our Schools faces a tight timeline to get the initiative on the ballot. The group has 90 days after the end of the legislative session to collect about 61,000 valid signatures. That would give signature gatherers until about mid-July.

The group plans to turn in the petition language to start gathering signatures at 4 p.m. Tuesday in Lincoln. Organizers say they have started receiving commitments from many of the 1,800 people who helped them with the first petition.

LB 1402 directs a $10 million-a-year appropriation to the State Treasurer’s Office for the scholarship program, down from the $25 million a year tax credit in the original law, an amount that would have increased gradually up to $100 million a year.

Supporters hope to increase the amount appropriated under LB 1402.

State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil, chair of the Legislature’s Education Committee, said it was “shocking and saddening to see these groups attack even the humblest legislation aimed at giving low-income families a choice in their education.”

He, like Linehan, highlighted increased state investment over the past two years in K-12 education, including the seeds of a $1 billion fund to offset local costs of special education and new baseline state aid to K-12 education.

“With these recent investments in our public schools, it is surprising that the $10 million cost of LB 1402, which is about 0.2 percent of our total education funding, is such a concern to the teachers union.”

Students applying for help

More than 1,500 students have applied for scholarships under the existing program, one local school choice advocate said, and organizers expect another 1,000 to apply this spring.

One mother of a program participant, Latasha Collar of Omaha, said her family needed the help to be able to re-enroll her daughter in a private school of her choosing, according to Opportunity Scholarships of Nebraska, a scholarship granting organization.

“I can’t tell you how much it means to see your child excited to go to school again,” she said.

In other states that passed similar programs, state funding starts with help for needy students and expands to cover more students who want to attend private schools, with most of the benefits going to families already attending private schools.

Linehan’s end-of-session push to remake the scholarship program will render moot the first petition drive that Support Our Schools organized against the 2023 tax credit. LB 1402 repeals its predecessor once it becomes law in mid-July.

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen, the state’s top elections official, who oversees ballot initiatives, has not yet issued a formal opinion booting that first initiative from the ballot. Political observers expect that to happen as soon as this week.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: info@nebraskaexaminer.com. Follow Nebraska Examiner on and .

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper presented on Wednesday, calling for approximately an additional $1 billion to go toward public education — including an average 8.5% raise for teachers, a $1,500 retention bonus, and reinstatement of master’s pay.

His proposal includes a 5% raise for most state employees, which includes non-certified school employees, and most community college employees.

Cooper said his proposal presents lawmakers with a choice to invest in North Carolina’s public schools, instead of prioritizing further tax breaks and the expansion of private school vouchers.

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“That’s the billion dollar choice,” Cooper said during a press conference in Raleigh. “…We have the revenue to do this — it is about priorities.”

The governor’s proposal follows his declaration of  and proclamation of 2024 as

Cooper presented his budget proposal on during which lawmakers can adjust the . Most sessions, the governor’s proposal is released first, followed by the House and Senate. At that point, the two chambers work together to pass an updated compromise budget.

There is a Republican supermajority this session, meaning Republicans will drive fiscal and policy decisions.

This year, North Carolina has a projected one-time  through FY 2025, according to the . This essentially means there is $1.4 billion extra state dollars that lawmakers can choose to invest during the short session.

House Speaker Tim Moore, , has already  that he would like to put $300 million more toward . The program, which funds private school vouchers at eligible schools, was expanded during the long session to all families regardless of income.

Moore also said he would like to see funding for child care subsidies, additional raises to school and state employees, and an additional $400 million toward Medicaid.

On Wednesday, Cooper said his proposal includes “a moratorium” on further expansion of public school vouchers. His proposal freezes the investment in the Opportunity Scholarship program at 2023-24 levels — adding about $174 million toward his investments in public school pay raises.

“We are at a crossroads,” he said. “One path prioritizes giveaways to the wealthy over the well-being of our state. The other secures a future of success for everyone — let’s hope we make the right choice.”

Below, you can find an overview of the education investments included in Cooper’s proposal.

Educator pay, bonuses

Cooper’s proposal includes $322.7 million to raise salaries for educators by 8.5% on average. This includes the average 3% raise most educators are slotted to receive in FY 2024-25 under

Under the proposal, a $1,000 bonus would go to all state employees. An additional $500 bonus would go to employees making less than $75,000 per year. One half of the bonus would be paid in Oct. 2024; the second half in April 2025.

The budget “lifts starting teacher salaries to more than $47,500 — the highest in the Southeast,” the proposal packet says. This number seems to include the $1,500 retention bonus the governor is proposing for most teachers.

Take a look at Cooper’s proposed teacher salary schedule for FY 2024-25, in the rightmost column.

The proposal also includes $10 million to “restore 10% master’s pay supplements for over 1,000 teachers whose advanced degrees are in the subjects they teach.”

As mentioned above, the proposal includes a raise of at least 5% for all state employees, which includes non-certified school employees.

Most state employees would receive an additional 2% raise in FY 2024-25, on top of the raise approved in the 2023 budget. Employees paid on an experience-based salary schedule would receive an extra 3%.

Finally, the governor’s budget proposal includes a one-time 3% retiree supplement in FY 2024-25. The 2023 budget included a one-time 4% supplement.

Cooper’s proposal also includes:

• $25.4 million to improve recruitment and retention for school-based administrators through salary increases. The budget includes a 6% total increase for existing principals.
• $8.2 million to expand the North Carolina Principal Fellows Program “to prepare up to 300 new principals annually.”
• $1.8 million to expand the Advanced Teaching Roles program.
• $1.7 million to increase funding for district-level recruitment bonuses in small and low-wealth counties. With the allocation included in the 2023 budget, the net allocation for this item would be $6 million.
• $1.6 million in recurring funds to expand supports for pre-service and beginning teachers in becoming fully licensed.
• The proposal also increases supplemental funding for the state’s 69 eligible low-wealth counties by 13%, or $40 million.
• $900,000 to cover the cost of National Board certification fees for 470 teachers each year, with priority to educators in high-need and low-performing schools. Board certified teachers earn a 12% supplement to their annual salary.

The proposal would also invest in many initiatives to strengthen the state’s teacher pipeline. During the 2022-23 school year, — up from 7.8% of teachers who left teaching the year before.

There is $4.7 million to expand to up to 490 new candidates in FY 2024-25. The budget would extend eligibility for the program to all institutions with approved educator preparation programs (EPPs) and to students in any licensure area.

The proposal includes an additional $4 million to expand , which focuses on supports for beginning teachers at low-performing, high-poverty schools.

Another $5 million would establish a matching grant program for “high-quality teacher preparation residency programs in high-need rural and urban districts,” to be distributed by the State Board of Education.

There is $500,000 for statewide professional development from the N.C. Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT). Another $300,000 would expand “teacher candidate recruitment programs and fund a study to improve recruitment strategies” to reduce teacher vacancy rates. That study will “include research and recommendations for a statewide system or entity to coordinate teacher recruitment and support.”

Other funds for public schools, students

The governor’s proposal includes funding to hire 700 additional K-3 teacher assistants (TAs) — an increase of 11% from the current budget. The increase is funded by Education Lottery receipts.

Additionally, the proposal would fund about 575 new school health personnel, which includes school counselors, nurses, social workers, and psychologists.

The budget also proposes a $2.5 billion school construction bond, which would be voted on in November 2024. That bond could fund approximately 90 new elementary and middle schools, Cooper said during the press conference.

“Over the next five years almost 1,600 schools report needing renovation and 131 new schools need to be built,” the proposal says.

The proposal also addresses several of the

First, there is $35 million to expand Read to Achieve literacy programs to middle grade students.

There is also $19 million toward DPI’s . DPI asked the General Assembly for $4.5 million to continue that work after federal Covid relief dollars run out in September.

State Superintendent Catherine Truitt also advocated last long session for universal school meals for students.

Cooper’s proposal does not include funding for universal school meals, but does include an additional $900,000 to “offset the co-pays for students eligible for reduced-price lunches in schools participating in the National School Lunch Program.”

“Research shows that receiving free lunch improves school attendances and decreases food insecurity and suspensions,” the proposal says.

The 2023 budget included $3 million to permanently eliminate the reduced-price lunch copay for North Carolina students and eliminate penalties for unpaid student meal debt. The governor’s proposal makes that $3.9 million for FY 2024-25.

The proposal also includes required state matching funds for the federal Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer Program for Children (Summer EBT). The program, also known as , “will provide grocery-buying benefits to qualifying families to prevent child hunger during the summer months when school is out for children who rely on school meals for daily nutrition.” SUN Bucks will launch this summer.

Additionally, the proposal includes:

• $10 million to hire a Career and Postsecondary Planning Director at DPI and increase the number of school-based coordinators in sixth-12th grade.
• The elimination of the 13% funding cap for Exceptional Children (EC) students to “provide additional teachers and instructional support, instructional supplies and materials, and staff development.” The 2023 budget instructed DPI to to remove that cap and instead fund children “on the basis of the reported cost of services provided.”
• The proposal also removes the 10.6% funding gap for students with Limited English proficiency. Under the proposal, schools for whom English learners make up more than 10.6% of their ADM would receive additional funds for “classroom teachers, textbooks, staff development, and other supports needed to help these students thrive.”
• $70 million combined in the At-Risk and Disadvantaged Student Supplemental funds to “fund teachers and instructional support positions, provide intensive in-school and after school remediation, and provide professional development for teachers serving disadvantaged students.”
• $6 million to create a pilot program to give funds to high-poverty schools “that adopt a Community Schools or other evidence-based model to address out of school barriers to learning.”
• $12.8 million to the Uniform Education Reporting System (UERS) to increase statewide student reporting capacity. There is also nearly $5 million to support various cybersecurity initiatives across the state’s public schools.

The proposal also includes $400,000 to establish an equity office at DPI “to direct the recruitment and retention of a diverse educator workforce that is representative of the state’s student population.”

This comes after the UNC Board of Governor’s Committee on University Governance recently .

There is also $453,000 to fund positions to support DPI’s central financial infrastructure. Recent financial challenges and budget shortfalls among North Carolina school districts of chief financial officers and sound financial systems.

Early child care

Federal funds stabilizing child care run out at the end of June. In response, child care advocates  for a one-time $300 million allocation to avoid closures and price increases for parents.

Advocates  for the same amount last year .

The governor’s proposal includes $200 million for stabilization grants.

“Access to affordable child care for parents, businesses, and educators is one of the most immediate threats to sustaining our momentum,” the proposal’s introduction says. “Nearly one-third of North Carolina child care centers are at risk of closure and only 26% of parents can afford child care costs.”

There is also $129 million for child care subsidies to increase reimbursement rates for providers in rural and low-wealth communities, which the proposal says will “secure child care for approximately 50,000 children per year by creating a statewide rate floor starting in July 2024.”

“These funds will allow about 3,500 child care sites in over 75% of NC counties to see an increase in their subsidy rate,” the proposal says.

The proposal also includes $197 million to expand access to NC Pre-K, the state’s preschool program for eligible 4-year-olds. The program currently reaches about half of eligible 4-year-olds, or 30,000 children.

There is also $24 million to provide “wrap-around summer care and learning programs for students once they complete NC Pre-K and before they enter kindergarten.”

As EdNC has previously reported, child care teachers make some of the

The governor’s proposal would create a grant program to help child care teachers afford care for their own children. The $25 million program would provide “free or reduced cost care for the children of roughly 2,200 child care providers,” the proposal says.

There is also $26 million to provide educational attainment-based salary supplements, through expansion of the .

The budget also adds a fourth region to the . That model splits the cost of child care between participating businesses, eligible employees, and the state government.

The governor’s proposal also includes:

• $50 million toward start-up and capital grants for NC Pre-K and child care centers. There is also $10 million to expand Smart Start, which serves young children and families across the state.
• $24 million to create a pilot program “to incentivize the business community to contribute to employee dependent care flexible spending accounts.”
• $1.2 million to implement recruitment strategies and professional development for child care teachers.
• The provision of a refundable child and dependent care tax credit.

Finally, the budget allocates $100,000 to the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) to “evaluate the effectiveness of the Child Care Grant Program, which was appropriated $1.2 million in recurring funds” in the 2023 budget.

The program, which has been in place since 1993, provides grants to community college students to use for child care while they are in school. The program needs more funding and wider eligibility, local administrators of the grants

“The evaluation will assess the program’s effectiveness and propose adjustments that would support more North Carolina parents seeking community college education,” the governor’s proposal says.

Community colleges

During the press conference, Cooper said his proposal includes “significant funding for community colleges.”

There is about $28.5 million to give 5% across-the-board raises to most state-funded community college employees in FY 2024-25. Another $28.5 million goes toward the Enhanced Labor Market Adjustment Reserve, to give the system “flexibility to address specific challenges for hard-to-retain and fill roles.”

State-funded community college employees would receive the same retention bonus as state employees and educators, up to $1,500. Community college retirees would also receive the same one-time 3% supplement.

On top of the retention bonus, Cooper’s proposal includes $3.1 million to give “a 10% per course bonus for full-time and adjunct instructors who teach courses inside correctional facilities.”

“Community colleges play a key role in education for incarcerated individuals. Obtaining an associate’s degree significantly reduces recidivism rates,” the proposal says. “Currently, over 75 community college courses are offered in prisons across the state.”

This year, the NCCCS’ primary legislative request is funding for Propel NC, . The request includes a nearly $100 million price tag for FY 2024-25.

Propel NC would shift the current full-time equivalent (FTE) funding tiers to “workforce sectors,” with courses ranked and valued by statewide salary job demand data. The NCCCS says this will move the system toward a labor-market driven model of community college programs. The anticipated cost of this component of the model is approximately $68.6 million, .

The governor’s budget includes $34.3 million to implement Propel NC.

“This new funding model will help streamline degree attainment and prepare a well-trained workforce to meet the demands of the State’s growing economy,” the proposal says.

Propel NC also includes a request of $6 million to increase the enrollment increase reserve across the system. Per the system’s proposal, those nonrecurring funds would go toward a fixed per-FTE amount for any colleges that go over the enrollment threshold set by their FTE for the fiscal year.

Cooper’s proposal allocates $3 million to establish that reserve.

The governor’s proposal did not including funding for the last component of Propel NC with a price tag — $24.4 million to increase the base allocation for colleges.

The proposal did include a $25 million enrollment growth adjustment for FY 2024-25, “based on the increase in community college enrollment. Community college enrollment increased by 4.6%, or 10,435 full-time equivalent students.”

The governor’s proposal also includes a number of investments in the workforce, funding many projects through the NCCCS.

The budget proposal includes $40 million to complete construction of Central Carolina Community College’s Moore Center, which “will be used as a shared training center by Advance NC to train staff for new and expanding employers in the electric vehicle manufacturing supply chain, semiconductors, and life sciences.”

There is $4 million for the NCCCS to create a competitive grant fund for community colleges with electric vehicle workforce programs.

Finally, there is also $133,000 for ApprenticeshipNC to establish a “whole system model” of apprenticeships with the DPI and the Department of Commerce.

“We recognize (community colleges) as a core anchor to economic improvement,” Cooper said.

The budget also includes $3.25 million in nonrecurring funds to establish a rural youth apprenticeship program across five regions, to be distributed by the Department of Commerce. After two years, the funding of successful programs will depend on local funding sources.

The proposal packet says the program is modeled on “the successful Surry-Yadkin Works model developed by Surry and Yadkin counties.” That model created in 2021 to connect high school students in Surry and Yadkin counties with internship and pre-apprenticeship opportunities in local high-demand fields.

You can read the governor’s full proposal .

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District leaders plan to cut their librarian staff in half next year, becoming the latest Houston-area district to reduce librarians amid budget cuts. 

Expecting a $138 million budget deficit for the 2024-25 school year, leaders of the Houston-area’s second largest school district are aiming to slash roughly 670 staff positions, including 50 librarians.

The plan would leave 42 librarians in a district with 117,000 students and 88 schools.

The changes have not yet been voted on by the district’s school board, but a district spokesperson confirmed the plans to the Landing on Monday. The district has until the end of June to adopt a finalized budget.

“Staff reduction is inevitable when almost 90 percent of the budget is allocated to personnel,” district spokesperson Leslie Francis said Monday. 

As Texas school districts reduce costs, librarians have taken blows.

Four of Texas’ largest school districts — Houston, San Antonio and Spring Branch, and now Cy-Fair — have either made plans to or have eliminated dozens of librarians in the last year. 

Texas lawmakers failed to significantly increase public school funding during the 2023 legislative session, spelling financial trouble for districts as they grapple with inflationary costs and the end of pandemic-relief funds. 

Tara Cummings, a parent with students at Cy-Woods High School and Spillane Middle School, feels like the district’s leadership has its hands tied as it tries to save money, but she wishes the changes didn’t have to gut “the heart and soul of a school.”

“I don’t know really what the alternative is. The cuts have to come from somewhere,” Cummings said. “The anger needs to be focused on our Republican-led state government. They have the money to fund public education. They just won’t do it.”

A Cy-Fair spokesperson did not respond to a list of questions about the reduction plan, including how the 42 librarians would be placed across 88 schools.

Cy-Fair Superintendent Douglas Killian assembled a group of community members and stakeholders to form a “budget reduction advisory committee” and make recommendations to the administration. 

However, cutting librarians was not included in a list of committee ideas or listed on the budget reduction plan presented to trustees at an April 22 board meeting. Board president Scott Henry did not respond to calls from the Landing Monday. 

In recent budget workshops, leaders have discussed their plan to offset $70 million of their $138 million deficit with their fund balance, or rainy day funds. The rest will come from cost-saving changes, such as cutting staff positions. 

Librarians in Cy-Fair earned annual salaries ranging from roughly $64,000 to $97,000 in 2022-23, the most recent year with state data.

“I think there’s probably a less worse option than (cutting librarians), but I don’t know what it is,” said Cummings, the Cy-Fair parent. “And regardless of what it is, it’s going to piss off somebody and devastate somebody.”

In an email to a community member obtained by the Landing, Superintendent Killian warned “this is truly the beginning of cuts” and the librarian reductions are “just the tip of the iceberg.”

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Citing issues with the federal government’s rollout of a new application for student aid, Gov. Jim Justice on Tuesday declared a state of emergency and suspended a requirement that college-bound high school seniors fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid in order to receive state financial aid, including the Promise Scholarship and the Higher Education Grant Program.

The FAFSA form is required for applying for federal student aid and used to determine a student’s financial need. The form recently went through — its first massive revamp in more than 40 years — in an effort to streamline the process.

The changes are supposed to result in more students being eligible for financial aid, especially low-income students. The new FAFSA went live in January, three months later than the application is typically available, and has been plagued by a number of glitches and problems that have caused further delays.

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Justice said Tuesday the issues with the FAFSA have resulted in a 40% reduction in West Virginia high school FAFSA completion rates and have left students wondering if they’ll be able to go to college.

“So the way around this is for the governor to declare a state of emergency … in education that we can bypass this FAFSA stuff and we can at least get on with getting our kids the state funding,” Justice said during his administration briefing Tuesday.

Under the emergency proclamation, students who apply for and qualify for the Promise Scholarship by Sept. 1, 2024, will receive an award of up to $5,500 for the 2024-25 academic year. Students who completed a 2023-24 FAFSA who qualify for the need-based Higher Education Grant, will receive up to $3,400 for the fall semester.

Students who don’t have a previous FAFSA on file but are eligible for SNAP, TANF, Medicaid, CHIP, Child Care Subsidy Program or WIC can show their eligibility letter to their higher education institution’s financial aid office to receive the Higher Education Grant.

In a news release, Sarah Tucker, the state’s chancellor of higher education, said the cost of college is one of the biggest hurdles students — especially low-income students — face when planning for education after high school.

“That’s why our state has invested so strongly in our own financial aid programs — which, combined, total more than $100 million each year for West Virginia students,” she said. “I thank Governor Justice for his strong leadership and allowing students to access these funds this year despite their FAFSA status. And I encourage students to continue working to complete the FAFSA so that they can get as much money from other sources, including the federal government, as possible.”

The federal Department of Education on Tuesday encouraged students to fill out the FAFSA, saying that issues with the application have been resolved, .

Justice encouraged students and parents to call a state hotline at 1-877-987-7664 or visit for more information and assistance with applying for aid.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com. Follow West Virginia Watch on and .

When finalized, the secession will likely cost East Baton Rouge Parish Public Schools 10,000 students and 25% of its $700 million budget, school board President Dadrius Lanus estimated. 

“This is all rooted in institutional racism,” he said in an interview. “It’s about what white, middle-class people want for their kids.” 

Barring complications, it will be the fifth time in nearly a quarter-century that part of the district has broken off and formed its own school system. Currently, the district — Louisiana’s second-largest — has 40,000 students. Ninety percent are impoverished. 

A complicated tangle of laws governs the creation of new school districts, with the most straightforward path being the formation of a new municipality corresponding to the area seeking to break away. A decade ago, residents of the affluent southeast quadrant of the parish began campaigning to , St. George.

In 2019, 54% of the area’s residents voted to incorporate as a standalone municipality. Baton Rouge leaders sued, and in late April the state’s high court ruled in favor of the new city’s proponents. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry will now appoint St. George’s first mayor and five city council members.

The St. George area is represented by East Baton Rouge School Board member Nathan Rust, who backed the breakaway. Rust could not immediately be reached for comment, but his campaign website includes a statement decrying the condition of local schools.

“Our schools in District 6 are overcrowded and fraught with violence, disruption and an exodus of quality teachers,” it states. “After 20 years of Board Tenure, how is this the best public education offered to our children?” Many parents, it adds, “resort to spending their hard-earned money on private schools because they have no better option.”

In 2109, ���˶��� published a deep dive into a decades-long school integration scheme that shaped the district, the first four secessions and the potential implications of a St. George . Under the terms of a desegregation order — no longer in force — many East Baton Rouge students attend magnet schools that are spread throughout the district. Consequently, many children who live in the most impoverished neighborhoods — many still devastated by recent floods — attend schools in the St. George area. 

According to Lanus, the existing district has 90 days to “annex” the 10 existing schools and two properties where it had planned to build schools within the new city’s boundaries — all of which were purchased or built by parish taxpayers. St. George residents would then have a choice: pay to build their own schools, or attempt to buy existing school facilities and lots from the East Baton Rouge district. As yet unknown is whether the district would be willing to sell and, if not, how many students would be bused into the new city to attend existing district schools. 

The secession would also shift an unknown but significant amount of local tax revenue to the new city, further straining the East Baton Rouge district’s coffers. Lanus estimates the district will lose some $150 million in per-pupil state and federal aid, plus money that is supposed to flow to children in poverty, magnet school students and those receiving special education or gifted-and-talented services.  

“I can’t tell you how many calls I’ve gotten from parents saying, ‘What’s going to happen to my kids?’ ” said Lanus. “We don’t have any time to waste.”

Gov. Brian Kemp signed a suite of education-related bills into law Tuesday, including a controversial measure that will allow parents of children in low-performing schools to claim $6,500 in state education funds to pull their children out of the public system and enroll them in private school or teach them at home.

Supporters say expanding school vouchers will help kids in schools that don’t meet their needs succeed academically. Opponents say they siphon needed dollars from underfunded public schools to private institutions with less oversight.

Kemp thanked the bill’s author, Cumming Republican Sen. Greg Dolezal, and House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones for working on the bill for years before it finally passed this year.

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“I am grateful for that dedication because this legislation has always been about one thing, providing every Georgia child the opportunity to get the education that they deserve,” Kemp said. “To ensure that participating schools are living up to that promise, they must demonstrate their own sound financial footing and submit student performance data before enrolling students, and they must administer an education savings authority approved assessment to ensure quality student performance.”

Those additions Kemp mentioned were sweeteners added to help convince Republican holdouts in the House to support the measure. Other additions make temporary teacher pay raises approved over the last few years permanent and allow public schools to use state capital construction dollars to build or renovate Pre-K facilities.

The program is set to go into effect for next year’s fall semester and is limited to students zoned into the lowest 25% of Georgia schools. Except for kindergartners, participants must have been enrolled in public school for at least a year to qualify. The cost to the state is capped at 1% of the cost of the Quality Basic Education formula used to determine the state’s school funding share, which now equals more than $100 million.

Though some House members needed convincing, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones indicated the Senate is ready to move further.

“As a longtime proponent of school choice, I am proud of the General Assembly for passing the most substantive initiative in decades,” Jones said. “I want to thank Gov. Kemp for his support for school choice and education freedom within our state. Today’s signing of SB 233 is a great step in the right direction, however, there is still more work to be done to give parents the choice and resources that can meet their child’s unique educational needs. I look forward to working with Governor Kemp and my colleagues in the General Assembly to ensure educational freedom in Georgia.”

Many education leaders were not cheering as Kemp affixed his signature to the bill. Teachers and education lobbyists have long complained that the voucher bill will leave already cash-strapped schools with less money. In a virtual news conference hosted by the Intercultural Development Research Association Association following the bill’s signing, activists lamented what they called a rushed and non-transparent process that led to the bill’s passage and predicted that it will do little to help the families proponents say it will because $6,500 is not enough to pay for tuition at most Georgia private schools, which tend to be clustered around major metro areas.

Elijah Brawner, a divinity student at Emory University, said every private school in his area is Christian-based, which would further alienate some students.

“So if you can get a public school voucher and that lets you leave your supposedly terrible public schools and take your money with you, first of all, the voucher doesn’t cover the whole tuition,” he said. “So now you’re only letting people come through who can already afford to pay partial tuition through subsidizing students above a certain income level, and you’re not subsidizing any students that are of a diverse faith background.”

Tracey Nance, the 2022 Georgia Teacher of the Year, said she is concerned that families who take advantage of the program may be exposed to legal discrimination and give up rights that public school families would have.

“The private schools that accept these publicly funded vouchers are not held to the same standards as public schools, and they are in fact even legally allowed to discriminate,” she said. “They have little oversight students will not be required to take the same accountability test as the rest of Georgia students, they will not be held to the same instructional standards. Even more when parents use this voucher they waive all rights to federal protection and public education services, including services for students with disabilities and services such as transportation and school meals.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on and .

The idea is simple: Civil engagement requires, well, engagement. When parents get to choose their children’s schools, they become more engaged and invested in their communities. That is why Black school founders are launching schools — pastors in churches, former public school teachers in pods. For the Black school founders and education entrepreneurs I work with at , this experience can be transformational for everyone involved. School leaders change and lift their communities, parents become empowered to make positive changes for their families and connect with others doing the same, and students experience and appreciate vastly new experiences and peers.

A new finds strong evidence that private schooling is associated with better civic outcomes than public education. The authors show there’s a statistically significant association between attending private school and having more political tolerance, political participation, civic knowledge and skills, and volunteerism and social capital than students who attended public school. 

As the authors note, it’s clear there is a problem with the status quo, as studies show both public school students and adults are woefully behind on civics education. The trickle-down effects are clear, and public schools are just one of many areas of American life where hostility and lack of trust . Private schools can offer a different experience, where parents are encouraged to be involved and schools must work to earn their trust.

When parents go from a hostile to a cooperative relationship, they can recognize their power to become engaged to make change in their communities; when that option is threatened, they realize they can make a difference and use their voices to maintain their rights.

Not long ago, I participated in a march and rally for school choice alongside over 10,000 people in Florida. Martin Luther King III said at the event, “This is about justice; this is about righteousness; this is about freedom — the freedom to choose for your family and your child.” Disenfranchised parents have become powerful leaders in this cause.

Students are transformed, too. This latest study follows others in showing the potential. For example, shows that Milwaukee voucher recipients showed modestly higher levels of political tolerance, civic skills, future political participation and volunteering than public school students did — notable for a program limited to at-risk communities. And that’s not the only positive life outcome. A found that participating in a voucher program throughout high school reduced a student’s likelihood of being accused of a crime between 21% and 50% — with statistically significant reductions for all types of crimes.

Society does not have to consist of adults at odds and children on the wrong path. There is a better way. Improving civil society is a big task, but school choice offers one pathway for making change. Policymakers should take it for the sake of the present — and the future.

Think of the ripple effect that can occur when just one student gets to attend a school to a place where he or she can thrive; when just one parent goes from feeling ignored to having a seat at the table. Multiply this effect by many students and families, and the potential is clear. It’s time to empower every family and every student to reach their potential so our society can truly thrive.

Denisha Allen is a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children and founder of Black Minds Matter.

Nearly one fourth of respondents reported being physically harmed or threatened during the previous year. Youth who were physically attacked or menaced were three times more likely to attempt suicide. 

A third of those surveyed were victimized in school because of their perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. One-fifth were prevented from wearing clothes that align with their gender and 11% were disciplined for standing up to bullies. Seven percent said they left a school because of mistreatment.

“Our country is grappling with a youth mental health crisis, and it is particularly pronounced for LGBTQ youth,” says Ronita Nath, Trevor’s vice president of research.

Suicide rates among transgender and nonbinary youth are significantly higher than for their cisgender peers. 

More than 8 in 10 overall wanted mental health care, but half were unable to get it. More than 40% said they were afraid to talk to someone. Cost and transportation were frequently cited as barriers, says Nath. Young people also said they were afraid to ask their parents or caregivers for help.

Ninety percent said the political climate has had a negative impact on their well-being, while 45% reported they or their family have considered moving to another state because of LGBTQ-related politics or laws. 

Nath says, “It’s very important that this year we contextualize this in a political context.” 

According to Trevor’s tally, so far in 2024 lawmakers have considered 540 anti-LGBTQ bills nationwide. Nath says she expects headlines and political rhetoric to continue to spark anxiety and depression among queer youth in the runup to the presidential election.

Two-thirds of LGBTQ youth said they had recent symptoms of anxiety, a rate that rises to 71% among gender-nonconforming young people. More than half suffer from depression.  

Consistent with past surveys, the new poll found more youth get support at school than at home, work, church or in the community. A little more than half — 52% — of respondents said school is affirming, versus 40% who said they feel supported at home. Transgender and nonbinary youth  are slightly more likely to find school affirming but feel unsupported at home.

Reasons for feeling safe at school include the existence of a club such as a gay-straight alliance — also known as a GSA — zero-tolerance anti-bullying policies, and the ability to wear preferred clothing and use desired pronouns. 

Nine percent of students who were able to use a gender-neutral bathroom at school attempted suicide, versus 15% of those who were not. Young people who said their school is supportive were four points less likely to have tried to take their own life, 10% versus 14%. 

“There is a real critical need for schools to adopt protective policies,” says Nath. 

The annual survey, the organization’s sixth, was administered to 18,000 LGBTQ people ages 13 to 24 last fall. In response to virtually every question, gender-nonconforming youth reported more negative experiences than cisgender gays, lesbians and bisexuals, and young people of color more than their white peers.

Asked about ways people in their lives can show support, nearly 9 in 10 of those surveyed said they wanted to be trusted to understand their identity and 81% want others to stand up for them. 

Among transgender and nonbinary youth, 13% said they take gender-affirming hormones, while just 2% are on puberty blockers. Two-thirds of those who take hormones worry about losing access to care.

“Every time we look at one of these variables, across the board we saw higher rates of suicidality,” says Nath. “LGBTQ youth face hardships their cisgender, straight peers simply don’t.”

That kind of itinerary would be nearly impossible for Gestel at any traditional high school, which is why she chose to attend A School Without Walls, a first-of-its-kind hybrid program in New York City that blends in-person and remote learning. 

“I do a lot of other stuff, so I thought it was easier than going to another school and being extremely exhausted and late with work,” Gestel said. 

While hybrid learning might still hold negative connotations for many students and families after years of COVID-19-disrupted schooling, leaders at SWoW say their model reimagines the hybrid structure for a truly student-centered program — allowing students like Gestel to follow their passions while still mastering rigorous academics. It’s the first public school to win approval from New York State for a hybrid learning model.

“The hybrid schedule is really not meant for students who just don’t want to be in a building every day,” SWoW principal Veronica Coleman said. “The goal of the hybrid schedule is for students to have flexibility so that they do real-world learning.” 

Learning Inside and Outside the Classroom 

SWoW launched in 2022 in partnership with , a nonprofit that supports a network of public schools that incorporate an expeditionary learning model through project-based curricula. It’s also part of Imagine NYC Schools, a dynamic partnership between New York City Public Schools and the to design innovative, high-quality schools with equity and excellence at their core.   

Through support and funding from New York City Public Schools, XQ and the , SWoW designed its program to emphasize — one of six research-based XQ . 

Students were deeply involved in shaping the school from the start. SWoW recruited 50 students from other schools across the city during its pilot year to serve as interns and test program ideas, provide feedback on what worked and what didn’t and help think through the school’s grading policy (an approach that’s been gaining momentum nationally, and which is also ). 

In place of traditional letter grades, teachers use narrative reports to guide students in developing seven competencies: collaboration, investigation, interdisciplinary connection, analysis, design, communication and reflection. Students receive quarterly progress reports and reflect on their learning through student-led conferences that occur twice yearly.   

“We’ve really tried to amplify student voice and choice,” Coleman said. “That’s the piece for us that feels like the focus and all of the other pieces fit into that being the center of what we’re really trying to do.” 

Students learn in person at the Lower Manhattan campus two to three days a week. The rest of the time is a mix of synchronous and asynchronous online learning and real-world learning, including internships, fieldwork and early college coursework through the City University of New York. 

Every Friday, students and staff also meet in an auditorium to discuss what’s going well and share their wants and needs, from designing new clubs to giving input on school-wide policies and procedures. 

“What I like about this school is that you can really communicate with them,” Gestel said. “If I’m feeling really stressed or overworked, they help me balance it out and help me organize.” 

SWoW borrowed many of its principles from NYC Outward Bound Schools and expanded them within its model. These include “Crew,” an advisory and community-building time with teams made up of a dozen or so students and an adult. At SWoW, however, Crew is more than an advisory period. It’s also where students earn their humanities credits by working on their passion projects — student-led and student-designed research projects that are the core of the SWoW curriculum.  

Passion-Driven Projects 

Students select a passion project based on a topic that is meaningful to them and their communities. is another . Working with their advisor, each pupil creates an individualized learning plan, setting project goals that align with New York State curriculum standards.  

In 9th grade, students research a service learning project that can address a broad range of issues, from youth homelessness to the environmental impact of illegal fireworks in New York City. In 10th grade, each student starts a passion project in earnest, formulating a research question through reading materials and interviews with experts in the field, culminating with an internship in the spring to put their learning to the test in the real world. All students will take on full-fledged independent projects by 12th grade and find an internship. 

“The goal is to build that agency and independence while the students are exploring something they are passionate about,” Coleman explained.

For her passion project, 10th grader Gestel is exploring the lack of representation of different body types and skin tones in ballet and how to create a more inclusive dance community. Another 10th grader, Lily Paraponiaris, is researching film restoration and preservation. 

SWoW uses a case study framework to model for students what good research looks like. For example, in January they explored a unit on the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the country’s history of cobalt mining. In addition to earning their humanities credits, students also figure out the ingredients of high-quality research to apply to their own passion projects. 

Some students will devote much of their time at SWoW to their passion projects, diving deeply into a topic while exploring it from different angles and applying that knowledge through real-world learning in an internship. But some teens may take longer to land on a subject that is truly meaningful for them, and Coleman said SWoW makes sure that flexibility is built into the curriculum. 

 “The idea is that you go through that cycle of making and doing and reflecting, and that reflection can lead you to say, ‘I’m done with this topic,’ which is totally normal for a teenager,” she explained. “Or you can continue, but you continue in a way that requires a new avenue of research.” 

Throughout their projects, students get regular opportunities to present their work to an audience, including an end-of-year presentation of learning, a resource fair where students have the chance to network with potential internship mentors and summer employers, and a mid-year presentation called roundtables where students share their passion projects with outside guests, sharpening not only their research questions but also their public speaking skills. At a roundtable in early 2024, one student gave a presentation exploring the rising cost of public transit fares while another investigated the fashion industry’s environmental impact. 

Want to learn more about how to inspire high school students with the latest best practices for teaching and learning? Subscribe to the , a newsletter that comes out twice a month for high school teachers.

Hybrid Learning Post-Pandemic

SWoW’s launch hasn’t been without bumps along the way — in part because another completely virtual program opened at the same time, causing confusion for students and parents. That program has since been renamed, but figuring out whether hybrid or fully virtual is best for individual students is still a question for families.   

Ava Smith, who is in her first year at SWoW, said she likes learning online, but ultimately, the school is not for her. 

“I just think I like traditional school more,” she said. “I like the schedule. I feel like here it’s very mishmashed, and here every day is different.” 

The school has its own saying: SWoW is for anyone but not for everyone. 

“I think it’s been a struggle for us to find the right matches,” Coleman said. “And I think it’s going to take a few more years for that to really settle, for people to really know what they are getting when they come to A School Without Walls and a sense that this is right for me and for my child.” 

While some students like Smith might end up missing the traditional school environment, overall, SW0W students seem happy with the experience. Out of the 60 original 9th graders who started in 2022, 50 returned for year two, with 35 new students joining in 10th grade. 

Coleman said those numbers, and what she hears from the students, prove this new kind of high school is needed — not only because of its small community, flexibility and the safe space it offers. 

“Their families are saying their student was at a big high school and experiencing anxiety,” she noted. “And they like this model because of the individualization.” 

Disclosure: is a financial supporter of ���˶���.

Kim, a 12th grade student at West Lafayette High School, discovered his dog, Joy, had heartworm disease and ordered medicine through an online pharmacy.

But the medicine Kim ordered would not only be ineffective but also aggravate Joy’s illness even more.

Motivated by his dog’s health scare, Kim designed a way for people to verify the authenticity of pharmaceutical products — by printing an edible QR code directly on the medicine.

Kim was one of in middle and high school who presented their inventions and research projects focused on solving key global issues at the in Washington, DC.  

“There have been countless tragedies and deaths caused by either substandard, falsified or diverted pharmaceutical products,” Kim told ���˶���. “So I’m glad to have had this opportunity to raise more awareness of counterfeit medicine.”

Hosted by and the , student innovators were selected from an array of nationwide competitions, including the where more than 2,500 students submitted projects across six categories: Environmental Stewardship, Future Foods, Health & Medicine, Powering the Planet, Tech for Good and Space Innovation.

Here are five student innovators featured at the National STEM Festival:

Joshua Kim, 18

West Lafayette High School · West Lafayette, Indiana

Among more than 50,000 online pharmacies worldwide, Kim found only 3 percent operate and distribute medicine legally — contributing to the annual deaths of over one million people.

Kim said the measures most pharmacies use to reduce counterfeit concerns are “limited by low security,” such as only tracking medicine through its exterior packaging.

“It’s easy for medicine to be removed from their packaging…and dose level securities are either limited by the need for expensive technology or trained personnel,” Kim said.

“So this means patients at home do not have access to ways of verifying their medicine.”

Kim believes his edible QR code will allow people to ensure they are receiving genuine and legitimate medicine.

Ashley Valencia, 17

Harvest Preparatory Academy · Yuma, Arizona

Self-conscious about her crooked teeth, Arizona high schooler Ashley Valencia saw how expensive dental care can be growing up in a low-income family. But it wasn’t just her family that couldn’t afford dental care — many of her neighbors also struggled to afford it. 

Valencia, a 12th grade student at Harvest Preparatory Academy, channeled her insecurity to help students in developing countries who have even less access to proper oral hygiene products — by creating an affordable toothpaste and mouthwash using their native plants.

“I always knew I wanted to do something in medicine so when I thought about different [research] topics close to me, I started to think about my past experiences,” Valencia told ���˶���.

“That’s why I created my own oral treatments that were easily accessible and affordable to people who might not have access to the things I had,” she added.

Valencia said she shared her research with public schools in the Philippines to address their students’ dental concerns.

At the festival, Valencia said she plans to travel to developing countries across South and Southeast Asia to share her oral hygiene products.

“Because I come from a school that doesn’t have a lot of resources…being able to attend the festival and present my research to all of the important people that were there was really exciting,” Valencia said.

Clarisse Telles Alvares Coelho, 18

New Mexico Military Institute · Roswell, New Mexico

From lion’s mane to king oyster, New Mexico high schooler and longtime vegetarian Clarisse Telles Alvares Coelho loves eating all types of mushrooms.

Coelho, a 12th grade student at the New Mexico Military Institute, said the misconceptions of mushrooms inspired her research project on their health benefits — particularly the abundance of a soluble fiber called beta-glucan.

“I knew many people didn’t like mushrooms…but what if I was able to make them change their minds,” Coelho told ���˶���. “With beta-glucan acting in your immune system, our metabolism works faster.”

Coelho said she was “very surprised” to have the opportunity to present her project at the festival.

“It was such a great feeling because there was so much hard work and late nights put into researching this project…[so] it was so amazing to be recognized,” Coelho said.

Alicia Wright, 17

Rockdale Magnet School for Science and Technology · Conyers, Georgia

Concerned by our global carbon footprint, Georgia high schooler Alicia Wright discovered the majority of CO2 emissions come from the cement used in construction.

Wright, an 11th grade student at Rockdale Magnet School for Science and Technology, found a way to replace cement with mycelium — a type of fungi that can be transformed into a biodegradable construction material.

“I was inspired by the complexity of mycelium and how fungus works,” Wright told ���˶���. “This will better the environment so that future generations can enjoy as we have.”

At the festival, Wright said the diversity of students presenting their projects with her felt “empowering.”

“It was very encouraging to see people with my skin color and gender presenting with me,” Wright said.

Haasini Mendu, 16

William Mason High School · Mason, Ohio

Ohio high schooler Haasini Mendu came up with a way to improve medication dosage for Parkinson’s disease — a disorder that causes involuntary body movement, often called tremors.

Mendu, an 11th grade student at William Mason High School, designed a wearable device that quantifies the number of tremors someone has and automatically sends the information to an app she created called “TremorSense.”

She said the information is processed through an “AI-based machine learning” filter to distinguish between tremor and non-tremor movements.

Mendu said the opportunity to meet other students and build connections was her favorite part of the festival.

“It was very easy to make some friends and also learn about their very cool inventions and ideas,” Mendu told ���˶���.

“Having this recognition…feels motivating to continue working on my skills [because] there were so many people interested in what I’m trying to do with my research.”

The proportion of Oregon’s community college enrollment made up of high schoolers has grown in recent years, and many aren’t taking classes on a campus. 

Overall, community college enrollment has plummeted in the past decade, but in 2021-2022 enrollment rose 3% and then grew another 4% in 2022-2023. High school students enrolled in community college classes made up nearly one-third of that growth. 

At five of the state’s 17 community colleges, high schoolers enrolled in college credit classes made up 20% or more of the colleges’ headcount during the 2022-23 school year, the most recent year of Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission data.

Many of the high schoolers enrolled in community college classes are taking a college-level class in their high school, taught by a high school teacher. Nevertheless, the colleges still collect tens of thousands of dollars from the state by counting these students in their enrollment. High school teachers instructing the classes often do not receive extra pay, or are paid a stipend by the school districts, according to interviews with community colleges, districts and a representative of the state’s largest teachers’ union, the Oregon Education Association. 

State data shows that more than 26,000 high schoolers accounted for 14% of the more than 193,000 students enrolled in classes at the state’s community colleges in 2022-23. That proportion is double what it was in 2010. Though both high school and adult enrollment have fluctuated over the years, high school enrollment in community college has remained far more stable than adult enrollment and, in recent years, was slightly higher than it was a decade ago. The number of adults enrolled in recent years was about half of what it was a decade ago.

And it’s not just in community colleges. Between 2011 and 2021, high schoolers taking dual-credit classes through a state four-year public university increased from more than 3,500 to more than 8,900. The number grew during the pandemic while most Oregon universities saw their overall enrollment drop.

Pathway to College

Jim Pinkard, the higher education commission’s director of postsecondary finance and capital, said dual enrollment for college credit on campus or in high school is positive for students, high schools and community colleges. Once graduated from high school, students are on track to finish college sooner and are spared from paying full price for general education courses at post-secondary institutions.

“We’re trying to encourage students who know from a young age that they want to go to college to get a four year degree,” Pinkard said. “If you know from a young age you want to be a doctor, a nurse, a lawyer – if we tell you how you can start as a junior or senior in high school and get the basics out of the way – that’s one or two or three classes you don’t have to pay for later, and hopefully it lowers the cost of your degree.”

Pinkard acknowledged that disparities exist in who is dual enrolled in college coursework. A 2023 from the commission found those enrolled are disproportionately white and female. Latino students are especially underrepresented among those dual enrolled.

And the share of high schoolers taking college-credit courses through five of Oregon’s community colleges was much higher than at others. At Blue Mountain Community College, Klamath Community College, Clackamas Community College, Columbia Gorge Community College and Lane Community College, high schoolers made up about 20% or more of the total enrollment. Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton had one of the largest shares, with dual-enrolled high schoolers accounting for nearly 30% of its enrollment.

Financial arrangements

Oregon is unusual in how it calculates per-pupil funding to community colleges, according to Pinkard of the Higher Education Coordinating Commission. Other states provide funding based on the cost to deliver a program. In some states, cost weights are used to reimburse colleges for students taking a welding course at a higher rate since that program costs more to deliver. In Oregon, community college funding per-pupil is based on the number of what's considered a "full-time equivalent" student.

When it comes to high schoolers dual enrolled, the state takes the number of hours each student spends in college-credit bearing classes, adds it up, then divides by 510 – the length of instructional hours over three terms for a student considered enrolled "full-time."

Ultimately, the state sends about $6,300 per full-time equivalent student to the colleges. 

The school districts and colleges also have financial agreements over how much a student should pay in fees per credit, how and when college instructors should mentor and collaborate with the high school teachers and how credits should transfer. Some high schoolers aren’t charged additional fees, while some pay $30 to $50 per credit. 

But each college-credit class that an Oregon high schooler enrolls in contributes to the college’s funding. Put it this way: If 20 students are taking a college-level, dual-credit biology course for one hour every day for one term at their high school, a class that's instructed by a high school teacher, the state calculus equates it to a bit more than 1,100 hours of instruction. The state divides that by 510 to reach the determination that it should fund the community college to the tune of about two full-time equivalent students. So that one dual-credit high school class brings about $13,600 to the college.

Because students are attending the class at the high school, the district also gets to count the student toward its enrollment, so districts don't lose any of the per-pupil funding they receive annually from the state school funding formula: about $13,800 per student, on average. Some community colleges work out revenue sharing agreements with the schools to give the public school teachers some of the higher education funding from the state, but some don't. 

"Their cost in instructing that student is de minimis if they’re not paying that high school instructor," Pinkard said. 

The bulk of students from Pendleton High School in east Oregon who receive dual credit through Blue Mountain Community College take their classes at the high school, with a high school teacher. The high school does not get any extra money for that, and teachers do not get any additional compensation, according to Matt Yoshioka, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment at Pendleton High School. 

Blue Mountain does pay for the high school to employ Mandy Oyama, a college and career counselor, and it pays for faculty to mentor high school instructors and help administer courses and grading. The rest of the extra money Blue Mountain gets from the high school enrollment goes into its general fund, according to the college’s president, Mark Browning. 

Browning said the college is spending money to make to dual enrollment work, not raking it in. Between paying for college faculty to mentor high school teachers and develop courses, providing transcripts and accreditation, the costs add up, he said.

“Whatever the HECC sends us does not cover the cost of instruction for our students. Take the total number of credits we teach, divided by $17.4 million – what our total budget is – that's what the cost of instruction is,” he said. This year, according to Browning, HECC appropriated $4 million in per-pupil funding to Blue Mountain.

Browning said Oregon is far behind other states like Washington and Idaho, where the state government pays for dedicated post-secondary education options in high schools. In both Washington and Idaho, the state pays for the instructors who teach these college-credit courses in the high schools, and it pays for the staff who train teachers, develop courses and coordinate everything on the college’s side.

“In Oregon, we're just doing it all out of hide,” Browning said. “There are ways to do it better.”

Pinkard agreed that overall the deals between colleges and high schools for dual credit aren’t wildly lucrative for the colleges, but he said, they help subsidize the college's other programs, such as adult basic education classes in math and reading that cost as little as $25 per credit at most community colleges. 

“Most of them are not making a helluva lot of money on it,” Pinkard said. “But, there must be some that are making enough, because otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Lynne Terry for questions: info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com. Follow Oregon Capital Chronicle on and .

Edwin Locke and Gary Latham are two scholars who’ve spent nearly 50 years studying goal setting. In the , they advise organizations to set goals that are meaningful and “difficult but attainable.”

One meaningful purpose of schooling has been to prepare students for college and careers. Georgetown University project that by 2031, 72% of jobs in the United States will require at least some college, while 55% will seek applicants with an associate degree or more. This is the reverse of the educational requirements of 40 years ago, when 70% of jobs required a high school diploma or less.

New York’s Board of Regents has made in the last decade, but there’s a general sense they remain aligned with college readiness expectations. State tests give parents and teachers a sense of whether students, all the way down to elementary school, are on track to being college-and career-ready.

With this system in place, it makes sense for New York City’s achievement goals to align with the proportion of students who will eventually need to be prepared to succeed in college over the next decade. In other words, the K-12 and higher education goals should match: Having 72% of K-12 students reading and writing proficiently, and a similar number on track to complete some college, is a meaningful goal for school leaders, teachers and parents.

One advantage is that this goal removes “we’re above average” as the aim, and it gives school districts a target that’s grounded in what the state’s future economy needs. It also applies the same goal for every group: low-income students, English learners, white students, etc. — all must reach 72% proficiency, the same high floor of excellence.

What might it take to get there?

Last year, just 48% of New York City third-graders could read and write proficiently. Increasing that number by 3% a year, across each grade, could have 72% of eighth-graders meeting standards by 2031 and 75% by 2032.

Principals and teachers would need to follow classes of students as they move through school, something most reporting and accountability systems don’t currently do. The trajectory would look like this for each new class:

To reach that goal, each district would have to increase literacy achievement by 3% a year, not just among third-graders, but across every grade. Three percent fits the “difficult but attainable” criterion.

Why not set a goal of 100%? Isn’t it OK to be ambitious and aim high, even if districts miss?

No Child Left Behind famously asked schools to get 100% of students proficient by 2014. managed to achieve the goal. Locke and Latham warn leaders that if a goal is set at a level no one can reach, it eventually undermines individual motivation and effort. People in an organization can easily become demoralized if they believe the goals set for them are unachievable. Better for district leaders to treat 72% as the floor for all and raise it once they have experience on what it takes to get there.

For districts whose communities insist on 100%, they might consider the approach the United Nations uses with its sustainability goals, which aim for . In schools, this would mean getting to no students at “below standard” and all students scoring as “partially proficient” or higher.

Preparing students to be college and career ready is , but it is one of the most important. As school leaders develop and refine their strategic plans, it’s crucial that they keep “meaningful and difficult but attainable” as the criterion.
Growing 3% a year feels do-able from classroom to classroom. It’s realistic, . If New York City is consistent in its efforts, it will be one of the nation’s leaders in literacy achievement.

The study followed 23,000 students starting with their freshman year of high school in 2009. Though 74% enrolled in college after graduating, almost half didn’t receive any postsecondary credential by June 2021. They are the fifth group the NCES has tracked for postsecondary outcomes, but the first cohort it began tracking in ninth grade. The studies allow researchers and policymakers to have a better understanding of students’ educational experiences beyond high school.

The previous group of 2002 graduates had a higher college enrollment rate, at 84%, and a completion rate of 52%. Though the study doesn’t include direct insight from students about why they may not have finished their education, it does give a snapshot of graduating seniors during that time. The 2013 cohort’s diverse set of characteristics such as their gender, race and income, paired with the economy, likely played a role. Additionally, students who were still in school at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 likely had their learning disrupted.

Elise Christopher, director of the NCES longitudinal studies, says the 2008 Great Recession could have influenced how this cohort thought about life after graduation and entering the workforce. She also points out that the No Child Left Behind Act could have had an effect.

When the study was being designed in the early 2000s, there was a lot of policy focused on degrees and careers in science, technology, engineering and math. But, Christopher says, No Child Left Behind strongly emphasized math and reading, which put it at odds with the STEM pipeline push. The new study found that students who attended postsecondary education in the 2013 cohort mostly pursued degrees in non-STEM fields. Over 80% of students who earned a degree were in an unrelated field. Of the males who completed their higher education, nearly 30% were in STEM fields, as were nearly 14% of females. By race, Asian students had the highest percentage of STEM degrees and certificates, at nearly 34%.

Among the students who enrolled in postsecondary education, more than half were female. Thirty-nine percent of them earned a bachelor’s degree and 32% attained no credential. Though male students had a lower enrollment rate, at 44%, 38% similarly earned bachelor’s degrees.

The study also examined students by race. Although white students had the highest enrollment rate (53%), Asian students were the top earners of bachelor’s degrees, at 56%. Hispanic and Black students had the second-and third-highest enrollment rates, though far behind white students, at 20% and 12%, respectively. Despite pursuing higher education, 46% of Hispanic students and 56% of Black students earned no postsecondary credential.

The NCES also looked at the income and education levels of the students’ parents. About 80% of those whose families earned more than $115,000 completed their degree or credential, in comparison to 49% of students whose families earned under $35,000. Of students whose parents had a high school education or lower, nearly 40% didn’t pursue higher learning after graduation.

“It’s very important to understand what’s happening in ninth grade,” Christopher said. “But we really don’t know the full measure of those impacts of those educational experiences until we get these long-term outcome data.”

The young adult was set to speak at a webinar about one of CalHope’s new experimental apps. 

“I saw how many participants there (were)  and I was like, I’m about to use the app so it could calm me down,” said Paniagua. 

But Paniagua had some strategies from the app — including exercises to deal with anxiety. 

According to a study conducted by the California Department of Public Health, the state saw a 20% increase in suicides for young people ages 10 to 18 after the pandemic. To deal with the rising mental health crisis, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) has launched two new app-based programs, BrightLife Kids and Soluna, to be a first response resource for children and participants up to age 25.

“I never really knew how to express myself,” said Esther Verdugo, another Soluna participant who had experienced anxiety from her busy life before she started using the built-in journaling exercises. “The people around me always expressed themselves that I didn’t know how to share my own emotions so I shared them through journaling, and all of this I found through the . . . app.”

The release of both apps is part of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health, which launched in 2022 with a proposed budget of $4.7 billion. The two apps are free and are focused on providing a variety of resources. 

The BrightLife Kids app was introduced to California children under the age of 13 to be able to access mental health resources with their parents and guardians. Children can navigate the app under their guidance and request family or one-on-one coaching. 

The Soluna app is made for California teens and young adults from the ages of 13 to 25, covering a range of topics based on Soluna’s research of interviewing over 300 California youth on what matters to them, including body image, discovering identity, anxiety and depression.

These topics are laid out in the app as a series of constellations, with each star in the constellation featuring a different exercise such as: articles, podcasts, videos and quizzes all built into the app. One of the exercises, a meditative breathing exercise, was made in partnership with the Calm app, Apple’s 2017 App of the Year.

 “It turns out that the needs for the younger kids are quite different than the needs for older kids and young adults,” said Amrita Sehgal, vice president of business operations at Brightline, the company that made BrightLife Kids. “Especially for younger kids, there’s a big need to involve parents and caregivers and families into their care; versus for older kids, folks may want to interact more independently.”

For many Californians, getting help for mental health issues hasn’t always been easy. Dr. Beth Pausic, vice president of clinical excellence & safety at Kooth Digital Health, said, “When you look at US healthcare at the moment, there’s a provider shortage, there’s not enough therapists, there’s not even enough psychiatrists.” This can be especially difficult for teenagers that are  or .

Because the core belief is that mental health should be an ongoing conversation that is happening not just when problems arise, the apps focus primarily on prevention and early intervention. The individual coaching sessions are not meant to replace therapists or other traditional forms of behavioral health, but act as a first-response method.

“Mental health just needs to be a conversation that we’re having and not in a way that trends when something bad happens in the news,” Pausic said. “Covid put a spotlight on mental health, but there’s always been a mental health crisis. We just haven’t been talking about it.”

For kids and teens interested in using the services, they can be downloaded on the Apple App Store; and BrightLife Kids on the Google PlayStore with Soluna soon to follow.

This article is part of a collaboration between ���˶��� and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Public school enrollment rose steadily throughout the first two decades of the 2000s.

The National Center for Education Statistics was projecting public school enrollments to continue to grow, although its future projections were becoming less optimistic, thanks to falling immigration and birth rates. 

When COVID-19 hit, enrollments took an immediate dive, and the center lowered its forecast. It now projected a short-term bounceback followed by a longer-term decline.

The immediate, sharp rebound didn’t happen. The center is now projecting much lower enrollments for the rest of the decade. 

According to the center’s most recent data, public schools served 1.2 million fewer students in 2022-23 than they did in the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The losses were widespread, with 37 states and two-thirds of school districts suffering a decline. California was the biggest loser in numeric terms, with 420,000 fewer public school students (a 6.7% decline), while Oregon suffered the biggest decline in percentage terms (9.4%). 

What caused these trends? As Stanford University researcher Thomas Dee has , the COVID-era enrollment declines were due to a combination of factors — a rise in homeschooling, a shift to private schools, fewer school-age children and some students who simply went missing from the data. 

But that’s the past. A separate division of the center is in charge of making forward-looking projections, and it has more grim news: It that public schools, including public charter schools, will lose an additional 2.4 million students (4.9%) by 2031.

Those projections are a mix of historical enrollment patterns and demographic assumptions, and it’s possible they will be too pessimistic, especially given the uncertainty of the last few years. For example, homeschooling numbers surged in the early years of COVID but have started to in most places. Similarly, took a dramatic nosedive in 2020 but has rebounded since then. 

Birth rates, however, are a major driver of student enrollment trends, and they have been in a decline. Birth rates also bounced around during COVID, but in a piece for , Melissa Kearney and Phillip Levine found that the trajectory is once again downward. To put it in concrete terms, they point to data showing that there were almost 600,000 fewer births in 2019 than in 2007. That means 600,000 fewer kindergartners showing up to schoolhouse doors next fall.  

The enrollment changes are not spread evenly across the country. Thirteen states — including Florida, North Dakota and Idaho — are to gain students by the end of the decade. But that means the rest of the country should brace for fewer students. Seven states — Hawaii, California, New Mexico, New York, West Virginia, Mississippi and Oregon — are all projected to suffer double-digit declines in addition to any losses they’ve already seen. California alone is projected to lose nearly 1 million public school students by 2031.

In general, districts receive money based on how many students they serve, so shrinking communities should expect smaller school budgets going forward. It’s not a 1:1 relationship because most districts will still be able to count on local funds, which are typically not tied to student enrollment, as most state funds are. That protects about 45% of school district for the average district. Similarly, states have a variety of that offer at least temporary financial protection for districts with declining enrollment.  

Still, those districts will eventually have to get by with lower revenues. That’s a hard transition to make, especially as they shoulder growing pension costs plus fixed expenses like bond or facilities payments. 

The one-time federal relief funds gave a temporary lifeline to districts that were operating beyond their means, and it allowed schools across the country to reduce their student:teacher ratios. But when the money expires later this year, districts will have to consider options for downsizing their budgets, whether that means closing underenrolled schools, laying off staff to get back to their pre-pandemic levels or promising programs that are only just beginning to show results. 

In other words, districts with the steepest enrollment declines won’t be able to escape the mathematical pressures that will come with serving fewer students. Further enrollment declines are coming in most parts of the country, and districts must be prepared to navigate those headwinds. 

The Alaska House of Representatives voted by a wide margin and with bipartisan support on Friday to .

, from Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, also requires companies that provide internet pornography to check whether an Alaskan viewing that pornography is at least 18 years old.

The bill, which passed on a 33-6 vote, advances to the state Senate for further consideration.

Help fund stories like this.

Vance said the age requirement, which also requires parents to sign off on 14- and 15-year-olds using social media, is about protecting children.

“It contributes to the well-being of our children, because we know that continued exposure to this kind of content affects their mental health, the way that they view themselves, the way that they view relationships, body images, and it really gives a twisted view of what healthy sexuality is,” she said before the vote.

The bill was originally written without the social media component, which was inserted via an amendment offered Wednesday night by Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage.

“I believe that with the inclusion of (a) social media (ban) for kids under 14, and only with parental consent for those under 16, we are achieving the goal of the underlying bill, which is to prevent young people from seeing online pornography,” Gray said before the vote.

The bill’s opponents — and even some of its supporters — said they believe it raises privacy and constitutional free-speech concerns. The bill requires pornography websites to verify ages via a “commercially reasonable age verification method,” which could entail submitting an ID.

Supporters who acknowledged those issues said they hope that the Senate will address potential problems, while detractors said the potential problems are too big to be overcome.

“There might be a scenario in the future where it is safe enough to protect people from privacy concerns, but really, I am very concerned about the privacy of all individuals who might have to comply with this type of commercial age verification technology,” said Rep. Genevieve Mina, D-Anchorage, who voted against the bill.

Rep. David Eastman, R-Wasilla and another opponent, said that right now, the United States has a very different view of the internet than a place like China, which puts restrictions on its citizens’ use.

“We are so close to going more in a direction with China’s internet,” he said, “where anytime you hop onto the Web, you have to upload your picture, you have to upload your template and again, you’re going have to do something to verify who you are, and then that will be tracked.”

The original version of the bill is similar to legislation backed by , which says that 16 states have passed bills it supported.

Legal challenges in state and federal courts have had mixed results, and last month, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Texas’ version of the law in a 2-1 decision.

Gray, who added the social media ban to the bill amid bipartisan support, also successfully amended it to include a $100 per-year state voucher for parents who buy content-filtering software.

Under the language of the amendment, parents would submit a reimbursement request to the state.

Eastman, speaking to the voucher plan, criticized it as poorly worded and suggested that Alaskans might be able to receive reimbursements for their Netflix subscriptions because that company offers content-filtering features on its video streaming service.

Vance said legislators should not lose sight of the bill’s ultimate goal.

“In the end, we’re protecting the most vulnerable among us,” she said.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alaska Beacon maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Andrew Kitchenman for questions: info@alaskabeacon.com. Follow Alaska Beacon on and .

Mayor, a 12th grade student at Santa Susana High School in Simi Valley, said she is often just going through the motions in her classes where she feels disconnected from her schoolwork.

It’s the work after school that excites her.

“If you’re not engaged with school and involved in clubs and have a group of friends that help you stay around, I understand why you wouldn’t feel that sense of comfort and purpose going to school,” Mayor, 18, told ���˶���.

Mayor is one of many Gen Z students who feel disenchanted and disconnected from school.

A from and the surveyed more than 1,000 Gen Z students between the ages of 12 to 18, finding that less than half enrolled in middle or high school felt motivated to go to school. About half said they do something interesting in school every day.

The report found the most influential driver of Gen Z students’ happiness is their “sense of purpose” at work and school, with more than 60 percent considering themselves happy.

The sentiment among Gen Zers has forced educators nationwide to shift their strategies and way of thinking to find new ways to engage students — from offering a range of elective classes, such as graphic design and culinary arts, to internships that sync up with careers they’re interested in. 

This shift also comes as a growing number of high school students value on-the-job training over other postsecondary options, including a four-year degree.

Mayor said the survey results were “honestly not that surprising.”

She said many of her classmates have grown disconnected from school because teachers often position students’ future success with how well they perform in traditional academic courses.

“I’ve seen a lot of students struggle…but they’re good at other things like art or sports, and I feel like that’s something teachers should recognize and hone in because not every student is going to be good at academics,” Mayor said.

Tackling Student Disengagement

Courtney Walker, an assistant principal at Carrolltown High School in Georgia, addresses student disengagement by offering elective classes including graphic design and culinary arts. She also has students take career aptitude tests to gauge their skills.

“Anytime we add new elective courses, we use the [career aptitude test] data to help us plan courses that align with students’ interest that they could be very talented and successful in,” Walker told ���˶���.

Walker said high school students who have already completed graduation requirements are “plugged into internships.”

“We had a student a couple of years ago that really knew he wanted to become a pilot so we were able to set up an internship at the West Georgia Regional Airport,” Walker said.

“We really want to make sure we’re providing students with opportunities to dig into fields that they really are passionate about,” she added, “so that they don’t just graduate from high school but also have a plan and support in place to be successful in that plan.” 

Kimberly Winterbottom, a principal at Marley Middle School in Maryland, said students need to feel “connected” with both their peers and adults, such as teachers or mentors they trust. 

“We spend a lot of time trying to connect kids to what they’re interested in, whether it’s joining a club, or if they’re struggling connecting them with an adult they really respond to,” Winterbottom told ���˶���.

Winterbottom added how having direct conversations with students on the importance of engaging in school has proven helpful.

“Adults don’t spend a lot of time explaining to students the reasons why but I feel like when we do some light bulbs go off and students start to understand and become more invested,” Winterbottom said.

Disclosure: Walton Family Foundation provides financial support to ���˶���.

As of this school year, most of the state’s families became eligible for . This means that any Ohio student can access public funds to pay for tuition at one of 462 participating private schools in the state.

However, the scholarship can’t be used at public schools, and because of in Ohio’s open enrollment laws — which are supposed to allow students to transfer to public schools outside their residential zone — many of the state’s highest-ranked public schools remain for most children. 

For instance, 35 of Ohio’s 97 school districts have chosen not to participate in open enrollment, making them inaccessible to students who don’t live within their boundaries.

Often, the only way for students to access these highly ranked public schools is to move. This is easier said than done, since the cost of public schooling is often hidden in expensive mortgages or rents. 

In Ohio, the median home sale price in January 2024 was $215,300, requiring an annual household income of about to obtain a typical mortgage. Yet home sale prices in non-participating five-star districts averaged nearly $351,000, according to data collected by , a platform that gathers information on school districts. 

For instance, in the five-star Indian Hill Exempted Village School District, the median home sales price is more than . Numbers like these make districts like Indian Hill, and their top-quality schools, effectively off limits to middle- and low-income families.

Currently, 107 of Ohio’s 658 public school districts don’t participate in open enrollment. The Ohio Department of Education & Workforce awarded of them four or five stars in student achievement on the state’s Performance Index for the 2022-23 school year, based on statewide exam scores. Notably, these non-participating districts include in the state. 

Some of them could likely accommodate transfer students, since K-12 enrollment statewide declined by — a loss of nearly 81,000 students — between the 2018-19 and 2023-24 school years. For instance, the highly rated and non-participating Beachwood City and Tipp City school districts saw their enrollment decrease by .

Without , these districts can continue to shut out students who could fill those empty seats. However, there is one way for families to get their kids into some of these districts without moving: They can buy their way in. 

Under Ohio law, school districts that opt out of the state’s open enrollment program can charge tuition to transfer students at a rate equal to or less than an amount established annually by the state Department of Education. Of the 107 districts, a Reason Foundation investigation found that 22, or 21%, charge public school tuition to non-resident students. Another 46 allow district employees who live outside the zone to enroll their kids for a fee.

Ohio Public School Districts’ Annual Tuition Rates Charged to Transfer Students:

In some cases, these districts operate more like private schools than public schools, because admission is often at the superintendent’s discretion. For instance, Northmont requires that applicants have at least a . Other districts, such as Centerville City, permit tuition-based transfers, but only for children of their teachers.

Of the districts charging tuition, the average fee is about $11,000 per student per school year, the Reason Foundation investigation found. That’s $11,000 annually to attend a supposedly public school. At least 12 districts charge $10,000 per transfer annually, while nine districts charge less. 

By contrast, private schools in Ohio charge about in tuition, on average. Most families can use EdChoice Scholarships to cover participating private schools, these scholarships cannot be used to pay tuition at public schools. This means private school tuition can be more affordable than some public schools. 

When school districts can sell their seats they lose their democratic qualities and become de facto private schools. Public schools should be free to all students, not just those whose families can afford to live there — or pay.

A few weeks ago, many were pointing out the four-year anniversary of the last “normal” week of our lives. Some pandemic-era reflections acknowledged the “silver linings” like more time with family, flexible work arrangements, gratitude for one’s health. With respect to education, however, it’s harder to find such perspectives, as stunted K-12 academic achievement poses serious long-term implications for a generation of learners.

This is unquestionable and absolutely cause for concern. But long before that seismic shift in March 2020, a similar story held true: Schools largely helped some — but not all — students thrive. For many years, parents accepted this status quo, even as they desired otherwise in the form of emotionally supportive environments, rigorous college preparation and the opportunity for their children to explore diverse career pathways, to name a few.

These priorities aren’t new, but in the wake of the pandemic, parents are now more openly exploring other ways to meet them — fueling increased absenteeism, a decline in public school enrollment and a substantial rise in homeschooling, microschools and families exercising various forms of school choice.

Ironically, at this moment when parents are expressing frustration with the status quo, more and more schools and districts are indeed embracing new models and ways of measuring success, prioritizing student-centered pedagogy, inclusive pathway programs and interdisciplinary learning. Yet, despite these positive changes, schools often lack the means to communicate their efforts effectively to parents, leaving them disconnected from the very information they seek.

GreatSchools wanted to dig deeper to understand how districts were communicating with parents postpandemic and how parents were looking for schools in an era of exploration and increasing disengagement.

For the past year, we have undertaken a variety of research, including conducting in-depth interviews with district leaders from across the country, surveying and interviewing parents to understand their mindsets and priorities, and examining more than 75 districts nationwide to find out what kinds of data they are collecting and sharing with their communities.

Some of our findings substantiate what we’ve suspected to be true: Information overload is real, pockets of innovation exist, parents value information that pertains to their own child. Others underscore the need to strengthen feedback loops between parents and districts to elevate families’ shifting desires and, in turn, deliver the information they value most.

A few key themes that emerged in our research among parents and district leaders include:

The data that exists doesn’t always match what parents are prioritizing, and many still find the school search process chaotic. 

• Parents expressed challenges in finding schools aligned with specific values or characteristics they prioritize, such as specialized programs, safety or a friendly atmosphere.
  
• Parents still believe that the only way to assess a school culture is by visiting in person.
  
• Mental health programs and services for students are significant concerns for parents, but they say they don’t know how to find this information.
  
• Not all parents approach searching for a suitable school with the same time and energy: Some conduct only superficial research, leading to frustration or resignation.
  
• Parents lack guidance on when and how to prepare their child for enrollment in a new school, including navigating lottery programs, understanding application procedures and participating in events like open houses or tours.

Parents’ relationship with their children’s school varies widely, but trends show a growing desire for a more personalized experience.

• A majority of parents are satisfied with their school but still worry about their child’s happiness and emotional well-being.
  
• Dissatisfied parents, while fewer in number, prioritize academic quality over emotional well-being.
  
• Middle school parents are more likely to feel stuck, possibly due to limited school choice options. High school parents seeking change emphasize academic preparation for college and tailored educational experiences for their children.
  
• Parents feel there is both too much information coming from districts and not enough relevant information as it pertains to their individual child.
  
• Parents prefer personalized information about their child rather than broad, aggregated data about the entire school or district. 

District leaders are feeling caught between a rock and a fiscal cliff, but many acknowledge they should do more to engage parents in their communities. 

• District leaders acknowledge that many parents and caregivers are unaware of programs that could benefit their child, such as help with clothes or food, extracurricular activities or scholarship opportunities.
  
• While many districts and states collect data from parents through surveys, there’s often a lack of follow-through in terms of analysis, sharing and action based on the results.
  
• Some district leaders feel politicized culture wars are making their jobs more difficult, worrying that parents on one side of the aisle will be unhappy with any decision they make.
  
• District leaders believe that improving the quality of education matters more than collecting and distributing data. Some struggle with enough resources to do both.

These findings paint a picture of educational priorities among America’s parents that reflect an emphasis on both academic rigor and mental health and well-being. Although a majority report being happy with their school, responses suggest that even these parents harbor concerns about their children’s short and long-term happiness. District leaders want parents to not only have a better understanding of the innovative ways they are working to meet their needs, but to see the precarious position their schools are in — as emergency relief funding dwindles, fiscal cliffs loom and parents continue to seek alternatives.