Private schools could end up with no public money if they press too hard

Private schools could end up with no public money if they press too hard

Could public money finance private-school discrimination, religion and fake history?

If states can't control what's taught with taxpayer money, the upshot could be ending charter schools and public funds for private tuition altogether.

With bills pending in more than 20 state legislatures to expand private school voucher programs, this spring could usher in the biggest transfer in funds from public schools to private schools in our nation’s history. But something more is at stake with this new round of voucher legislation: When the public pays for private schooling, will the public get to decide how taxpayer dollars are used in private settings, or will the public be forced to abandon norms as simple and fundamental as nondiscrimination?

The problem started last year when the Supreme Court held in Espinoza v. Montana that states cannot adopt blanket policies to exclude religious schools from voucher programs. The court left open the possibility that states could still place limits on what private schools do with the money. States might still prohibit them from using public money to teach religion or discriminate based on religion, race, sex, gender, sexual orientation and other protected classes.

But choice advocates argue these minimal requirements are unconstitutional, too. 

Satisfied slaves, divine intervention

This distinction is lost on a lot of states, which make no attempt to stop private schools from using public dollars to teach religion, discriminate or deliver curriculum that flies in the face of historical and scientific facts. Students in North Carolina, Florida and Indiana have tried to use their vouchers at religious schools only to be turned away because they didn't fit the CONTINUE READING: Private schools could end up with no public money if they press too hard

COVID online school hits 1 year: Teachers, kids share powerful quotes - USA TODAY

COVID online school hits 1 year: Teachers, kids share powerful quotes

A year after COVID shut schools, students and teachers share what shook them — and what strengthened them

From grade school to graduate school, developing young minds in close physical proximity halted abruptly in mid-March 2020.

What happened next to schools and families was devastating and electrifying, thought-provoking and quieting, unifying and isolating. Homes became entire worlds. Working parents juggled daytime teaching. College students studied from childhood bedrooms. Millions of kindergarteners started school in a format previously unfathomable: on Zoom.

Teachers shifted to nurturing and encouraging through screens — with little training. Many hunted down students in person to ensure they were safe, fed and outfitted with resources to learn.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a set of real-world lessons too close and too fresh to be captured by textbooks: How does one manage lives lost? Calculate the damage of lost income? Measure new levels of mental fatigue? We interviewed more than 30 students and educators, of all ages and experience, about how they grew and changed in 2020 — or just made it to the next day.

On the anniversary of this extraordinary year, here’s what they learned. 

What surprised you the most about virtual or hybrid learning?

“The mask environment — having to teach through that, having to work with students through that and communicate through this barrier was a struggle. I couldn’t quite tell if they were getting it. My dad jokes just didn’t land.” — Josh Montgomery, 43, associate professor of computer science at Southern State Community College in Hillsboro, Ohio

When personal protective equipment was scarce at the beginning of the pandemic, Montgomery organized about 200 volunteers, most of them local educators, to create and assemble face shields for first responders. With the help of 3D printers, the educators distributed more than 4,000 face masks to 51 medical organizations. CONTINUE READING: COVID online school hits 1 year: Teachers, kids share powerful quotes

Biden needs to pursue student loan forgiveness - USA TODAY

Biden needs to pursue student loan forgiveness

Student loan forgiveness: Biden can restore a broken promise

We found a minefield of deceptions by student loan companies and negligent indifference by government officials.

Kelly Finlaw is a middle school art teacher in New York City. Over the last year, she has also been called an “essential employee,” a “frontline worker” and — a term she has certainly never attributed to herself — a “hero.” During this time, she has done everything she could to meet the needs of her students and make remote learning work as well as possible, all the while knowing it is no substitute for being in the classroom with her students.

Yet despite delivering on her promise to educate the next generation of Americans — even in the midst of a pandemic — the federal government has broken its promise to her. Finlaw remains stuck with nearly $90,000 in student debt that should have been canceled years ago.

Finlaw, along with millions of others, was made a simple pledge: If she worked for a decade as an educator, as a nurse or in another public service profession, her student debt would be wiped away. 

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program 

That was the intent of the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program — a bipartisan law that recognized that spiraling student debt burdens are particularly punishing for workers in public service, and that our communities and our country are worse off if this burden drives a generation of students away from careers as educators, healthcare workers, first responders, and other public service workers. CONTINUE READING: Biden needs to pursue student loan forgiveness

NYC schools chancellor Carranza resigns, Meisha Ross Porter steps in

NYC schools chancellor Carranza resigns, Meisha Ross Porter steps in

Longtime NYC educator Meisha Ross Porter to be first Black woman leading nation's largest public school district

NEW YORK – Richard Carranza, the current New York City’s Schools Chancellor announced his resignation Friday and said Meisha Ross Porter will be taking the role.

Porter will be will become the first Black woman to lead the nation's largest school district. 

"This is the great privilege of my life at this moment," Porter said in a press conference.

"She eats, drinks, sleeps and thinks at all times about New York and the children of New York," Carranza said of his successor.

Porter takes the role after the schools' reopening amid the COVID-19 pandemic has largely been heralded as a success. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that New York City schools have done a "pretty good job in terms of showing the way" for the rest of the country's schools to reopen.

Carranza cited the need for time to grieve his eleven family members and close friends who died from COVID-19.

"I feel that I can take that time now because of the place that we are in and the work that we have done together," he said.

Carranza said the system reopened safely for children of essential workers, distributed over half a million electronic devices for remote learning, and delivered 80 millions meals to its students. CONTINUE READING: NYC schools chancellor Carranza resigns, Meisha Ross Porter steps in

Reopen schools with COVID testing, teacher vaccines: Shah & Weingarten

Reopen schools with COVID testing, teacher vaccines: Shah & Weingarten

With robust testing, we can open schools this spring before the vaccine is widely available

We have spent months studying this problem and finding solutions. We know how to minimize risks enough for everyone to trust being back in a classroom.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, too many of America’s 51 million public school students have lost out. While educators and school staff have been Herculean, remote learning is not a substitute for in-school instruction: Up to 30% of students lack reliable Internet access in this country. As a result, too many elementary and middle school students are falling behind; absences are up and academic performance is down.

Even worse than the impact on learning, without a school’s support and services, more children are going hungry, are socially isolated and are suffering abuse or neglect at home. With each week out of school, the social and emotional costs increase, especially for low-income and minority kids.

The latest COVID-19 surge is a clear cause for concern, and it must be addressed before schools reopen for in-person instruction. Despite the devastating rise in cases, there is some good news when it comes to children and schools, particularly young children.

Data from the United States and abroad suggest that because of strong mitigation measures, schools are some of the safest places in a community, particularly with testing in place. Widespread, regular testing remains critical to school reopening, and combined with the right steps and federal support — even before the new vaccines are widely available — the nation’s more than 98,000 public schools could be open soon, getting students back to in-person learning. 

Testing and teacher vaccines CONTINUE READING: Reopen schools with COVID testing, teacher vaccines: Shah & Weingarten