Republican Rep. Greg Gianforte Wins Montana Governor’s Race on Record of Supporting School Choice; Public Education Advocates Worry About Support for Private Schools
Republican Rep. Greg Gianforte defeated Democratic Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney in the bid for Montana governor Tuesday night — a win many advocates fear threatens public schools due to Gianforte’s past record promoting private education. Gianforte, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, had 53.1 percent of the vote as of Wednesday morning, with most precincts reporting. Cooney had 43.1 percent. Pre-Election Day, Montana’s...
Republican Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox Wins Utah Governor’s Race, Calling for Boosted Education Funding in State with Lowest Per-Pupil Spending
Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican who made education and boosting school funding a core tenet of his campaign for governor, claimed victory Tuesday night. Cox, who’d been pegged to win in pre-election polling,...
10 Students, 10 Reasons Why They Skipped School Friday to Join the Climate March: ‘It’s Everyone Doing Something That Changes Everything’
Updated September 22 Lower Manhattan was jam-packed with students chanting and carrying vibrant posters Friday as tens of thousands of kids from around the city and metropolitan area skipped school to demand action on...
From Threats to Gifted & Talented Programs to a State Audit of Special Ed: NYC School Headlines Worth Watching as 2019-20 Begins
Updated Sept. 3 The nation’s largest school district is headed back to school on Thursday. And while many of New York City’s 1.1 million students may have gotten a reprieve from the classroom, the education news...
NYC’s First LGBTQ Liaison Reflects on Progress — Including New Policy That Lets Students Change Their Names, Genders — as He Departs for Harvard
Corrected Aug. 21 A lot has changed since Jared Fox took the helm three and a half years ago as New York City schools’ first LGBTQ liaison. When the Cleveland, Ohio, native started in January 2016, there had never...
Our 5 Key Storylines Out of L.A. as the Nation’s Second-Largest District Heads Back to School
This article was produced in partnership with LA School Report. *Updated L.A. Unified’s nearly half-million district students are headed back to school on Tuesday for the 2019-20 year. While students were away,...
In New Legal Complaint, Los Angeles Parents Say School District Is Failing to Ensure $1 Billion Is Going to High-Needs Students Annually
This article was produced in partnership with LA School Report L.A. Unified and its county overseers have failed to ensure that high-needs students are receiving the more than $1 billion annually they are due in state funding, a new legal complaint claims. So the complaint, filed Thursday on behalf of two L.A. Unified parents, is asking the state to force the nation’s second-largest school district to be more transparent in its...
Los Angeles School District Approves $7.8 Billion Budget for Next Year: Here’s What It Means for High-Needs Students, Lowest-Performing Schools and District Finances
This article was produced in partnership with LA School Report L.A. Unified board members passed the 2019-20 budget and accountability plan last week — but not before acknowledging that they are “unintelligible”...
‘Voters Are Tired of You’: A Week After Parcel Tax Fails in Los Angeles, Parents Rail at District Leaders During Budget Hearing
Parents blasted L.A. Unified officials at a school board hearing last week — one even bursting into tears — offering an angry glimpse into the fractured trust between the community and the district just one week...
Los Angeles Voters Roundly Defeat $500M Annual Parcel Tax, Leaving Nation’s Second-Largest School District on Shaky Financial Footing
This article was produced in partnership with LA School Report. Los Angeles voters decisively defeated a parcel tax that would have sent $500 million a year to schools, according to unofficial results by the county...
As L.A. Voters Go to the Polls on $500M Annual Parcel Tax, Lessons Learned From Two Other California School Districts That Approved Theirs Years Ago
This article was produced in partnership with LA School Report. If L.A. Unified’s proposed $500 million annual parcel tax passes Tuesday, it would be uncharted territory for the country’s second-largest school...
Union Report: The National Education Association Just Lost Another Large Local Affiliate. Could More of These Union Walkouts Reshape the Labor Landscape?
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears most Wednesdays; see the full archive. Unionized teachers or nonunion teachers? Many education conflicts and larger public policy issues center on this binary question. But there is a third group that will force school districts, unions and even legislatures to rethink their systems of labor relations. They are public school teachers who want unions — just not the unions they currently...
Los Angeles Schools’ Bid for $500M Annual Parcel Tax Likely to Fail if Low Voter Turnout Trend Persists, Poll Shows
This article was produced in partnership with LA School Report The Los Angeles School District’s proposed $500 million annual parcel tax is unlikely to pass next week if low voter turnout trends continue, a new...
Vargas & Guerrero: As Superintendents, We Know the Dangers of ‘Opportunity Gaps’ — and Why the Classroom Is Where Educational Equity Starts
A recent report from TNTP revealed a troubling truth about our nation’s schools: Classrooms with mostly white students receive four times as many high-quality lessons as those with mostly students of color. Even...
As Both College Student and Entrepreneur, Jessica Sun Is Instilling Confidence in the Thousands of Kids at Her Debate Camp — and in Herself
Jessica Sun doesn’t need to think back too far to remember her high school debate team. Sun, now 20 and a business student at Northeastern University in Boston, is only a couple of years removed from an endeavor she...
86% of Charter School Graduates in Los Angeles Are Eligible for State Universities — Two Dozen Points Higher Than Grads at Traditional LAUSD Schools
Eighty-six percent of independent charter school graduates in L.A. met college eligibility standards for the state’s public universities last year, according to data from the California Charter Schools Association...
This Week in Education Politics: 2020 Federal Funding Comes Into Focus, the State of Integration 65 Years After Brown, Entrepreneurship at HBCUs & More
THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION POLITICS publishes most Saturdays. (See previous editions here.) You can get the preview delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for The 74 Newsletter; for rolling updates on federal...
Facing Mounting Financial Pressure, Los Angeles’s School District Is Asking for a $500M Parcel Tax. Its Biggest Barrier: Business Leaders Who Want Reforms First
As the nation’s second-largest school district in Los Angeles looks to sway residents to green-light its first-ever parcel tax, staunch opponents in the business and taxpayer communities say reform has to come...
3 Ways NYU Is Training New Teachers to Use Special Ed and ELL Strategies to Better Serve All Kids
New York University is expanding its novel teacher training program, which places diverse teachers into high-needs schools for an intensive, yearlong master’s program organized around the belief that all teachers...