Chalkbeat

Donald Trump falsely claims migrants are displacing NYC students. The city has empty seats.

2024-03-05T23:12:29+00:00

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Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed this week that migrant students are displacing other children from New York City’s schools.

In fact, the city’s public schools have struggled in recent years with the opposite problem: too many empty seats.

Enrollment has ticked up slightly this school year, thanks in part to an influx of migrant students, though still remains about 9% below pre-pandemic levels. Education Department officials have said boosting school rosters is a top priority, as lower enrollment can lead to smaller budgets, mergers, and closures.

In an interview with the Right Side Broadcasting Network on Monday, Trump claimed without evidence that “we have children that are no longer going to school” because of the influx of migrants.

“I’m not blaming them,” he said. “I’m saying they put the students in the place of our students like in New York City. We have these wonderful students who are going to school — all of a sudden they no longer have a seat.”

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not respond to a request to elaborate on his comments. There is no evidence that any students have been left without a school seat due to the arrival of new migrants, and an Education Department spokesperson said the claims were false.

“We will continue to work with students, families, and partners to ensure that newcomer students have what they need in our public schools and that our schools are well equipped to support these needs,” Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein wrote in a statement.

Immigration advocates also blasted Trump’s comments.

“The idea that we somehow don’t have space or that children are being removed from schools is just completely unfounded,” said Liza Schwartzwald, director of economic justice and family empowerment at the New York Immigration Coalition.

Trump, the likely Republican nominee for president, has sought to make immigration a centerpiece of his reelection campaign and has escalated anti-immigrant rhetoric, promising to revive a ban from some Muslim-majority countries and refusing asylum claims. He has also swept discussion of education into some campaign stops, claiming at a Saturday rally in Virginia that New York schools are overwhelmed teaching students who speak languages “that nobody ever heard of.”

Since the summer of 2022, Republican governors of southern border states have sent busloads of migrants to cities with Democratic leaders, including New York. Over that period, about 36,000 children who live in temporary housing have enrolled in the city’s public schools — including 18,000 this school year — many of them migrants. (City officials do not ask for a student’s immigration status when they enroll.)

The city’s Education Department is required by law to provide a seat to any school-age child who needs one regardless of their immigration status. Many school communities have worked hard to welcome migrant students and provide appropriate instruction in English and their home language.

And while there is no evidence that migrants have displaced other students, some parent leaders and other groups have protested the new arrivals.

In January, Brooklyn’s James Madison High School pivoted to remote learning for one day after migrant families were temporarily housed there because severe wind threatened tent shelters at Floyd Bennett Field that housed newcomers. The episode generated vitriol from some families and morphed into a talking point for right-wing pundits. But several students and parents were perplexed by the outrage and noted the disruption was minor.

“The hostility towards the migrants was definitely uncalled for,” senior Zola Zephirin told Chalkbeat. “These are people, they have families, they come here and attempt to make a better life, just like many of the students at Madison.”

Schools have sometimes struggled to accommodate newcomers. The enrollment process has been bumpy for some migrant families as the city scrambled to keep up, and schools often can’t hire enough bilingual educators, a long-standing shortage area. At the same time, city officials have tweaked the school funding formula to funnel more dollars to schools with more students living in temporary housing — which benefits schools with more migrant children.

For his part, New York Mayor Eric Adams has sent mixed messages about the influx of migrants. Last year he claimed the influx of migrants would “destroy” the city, drawing outrage from immigrant groups, and has blamed them for cuts to city services. But he also celebrated the uptick in public school enrollment, fueled in part by new arrivals.

Some advocates, including Schwartzwald, see parallels between Trump and Adams’ rhetoric and worry about the climate it creates for asylum seekers, some of which has reverberated in schools. Some students at Newcomers High School, for instance, have sought a name change in part because they fear the label “puts a target on us.”

“When Mayor Adams uses rhetoric where he — just like Trump — tries to create an ‘us’ and a ‘them’ — what he’s saying is not all immigrants are New Yorkers,” Schwartzwald said. “Anyone who comes to New York to make a life is a New Yorker as far as we’re concerned.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Think tank with ties to Trump lays out plan to deny free education to undocumented students

2024-04-09T19:33:42+00:00

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Leer en español.

An influential conservative think tank has laid out a strategy to challenge a landmark Supreme Court decision that protects the right of undocumented children to attend public school.

The Heritage Foundation, which is spending tens of millions of dollars to craft a policy playbook for a second Trump presidential term, recently released a brief calling on states to require public schools to charge unaccompanied migrant children and children with undocumented parents tuition to enroll.

Such a move “would draw a lawsuit from the Left,” the brief states, “which would likely lead the Supreme Court to reconsider its ill-considered Plyler v. Doe decision” — referring to the 1982 ruling that held it was unconstitutional to deny children a public education based on their immigration status.

Plyler has survived challenges for more than 40 years. But some legal experts and advocates for immigrant children say the newest proposal to undermine it should be taken seriously, given Trump’s extreme anti-immigrant rhetoric, a steady drumbeat of headlines about the “migrant crisis,” and the conservative-led Supreme Court’s recent willingness to overturn established legal precedent.

“The politics right now of illegal immigration and the picture that conservatives, and even some liberals, have painted of stressing the resources of states and localities, I think that that’s a huge factor,” said Brett Geier, a professor at Western Michigan University who wrote a book about K-12 schools and the Supreme Court. “I do think that this court has the chutzpah to say: We’re going to take it on and overturn it.”

But others say the real intent is to rile up voters in an election year, and that Plyler v. Doe isn’t truly at risk.

“Every time there’s an election, all of a sudden immigration becomes a big problem, and [we hear]: ‘We have to do something about these immigrants, and get rid of them, and not pay for their schooling,’” said Patricia Gándara, a research professor at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education who’s written extensively about how immigration enforcement affects children and schools. “Then after the election is over, it dies away.”

Charging school tuition in Texas led to Plyler ruling

A growing share of Americans, and Republicans in particular, say immigration policy is a top concern right now. And immigration issues are getting a lot of attention in this year’s presidential race.

Trump has campaigned on a series of hardline, restrictive immigration policies, including the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and the end of refugee resettlement. He’s also falsely claimed that migrant children have displaced other kids in New York City’s public schools.

The focus on immigration comes as the country is seeing a significant increase in migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. Federal officials counted nearly 2.5 million people who reached the southern border last year. That was a 43% increase from two years earlier, though not all were admitted. A rising share are families with children.

More than three-quarters of Americans view what’s happening at the border as a major problem or a crisis, a recent poll by the Pew Research Center found. Just under a quarter of U.S. adults said they were concerned that the rise in migrants would be an economic burden on the country.

The Heritage Foundation taps into those concerns with its recent brief, titled “The Consequences of Unchecked Illegal Immigration on America’s Public Schools.” In it, the organization criticizes President Biden’s approach to immigration policy, saying it’s led to “large influxes of non-English-speaking children” enrolling in public schools.

The document cites examples of Texas schools holding lessons in hallways, and a Brooklyn high school that had students learn virtually for a day after the school housed migrant families overnight during a rainstorm.

In response, the Heritage Foundation is calling on states to prohibit schools from housing undocumented immigrants and to require schools to collect student enrollment data by immigration status “so that accurate cost analyses can be done.” States should require school districts to charge undocumented children tuition to attend public school, the brief states.

It was this exact practice nearly half a century ago — in the same state that’s defying the federal government by handling its own immigration enforcement — that led to the Plyler v. Doe ruling.

Texas passed a law in 1975 saying that public schools would not receive state funding for the education of undocumented children and that districts could bar these students from attending public school for free.

Two years later, the Tyler Independent School District started charging undocumented children $1,000 a year to attend school — a sum district officials knew would be unaffordable for the area’s immigrant families, who often worked in Tyler’s famous rose industry, along with meat-packing plants and farms.

Twenty-one years after the Supreme Court's Plyler v. Doe ruling, the Tyler Independent School District in Texas offered a Spanish-English dual language program for kindergartners and first graders.

“I don’t think any family could have paid that,” James Plyler, the district’s superintendent, told an Education Week reporter in 2007. “One thousand dollars back in 1977 was lots and lots of money, and most of those families who came in were working for minimum wage.”

Four families whose children were blocked from attending school sued Plyler and the school district, and eventually won at the Supreme Court. In the 5-4 opinion for the majority, Justice William Brennan wrote that denying undocumented children the ability to learn how to read and write would take an “inestimable toll” on their “social, economic, intellectual, and psychological well-being.” (The dissenting justices agreed it was wrong to deny undocumented kids an education, but argued it wasn’t a constitutional violation.)

Now, the Heritage Foundation says those education costs have grown too high, and states and schools should be able to recoup them. The federal government could help, said Madison Marino, a senior research associate who co-authored the Heritage Foundation brief, or parents or sponsors of undocumented students could pay.

“We really aren’t looking to deprive these kids of their education,” Marino said. “We’re calling for everyone to contribute.”

Most undocumented families today would likely struggle to pay school tuition, as they did in 1977. And federal aid seems unlikely. Congress is bitterly divided over how to fund immigration policy and whether schools need more funding in the wake of the pandemic, and the U.S. Department of Education has historically devoted a tiny fraction of its budget to educating English learners and immigrant students.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment about the Heritage Foundation’s proposals to challenge Plyler, but observers widely believe the think tank would play a crucial role in a second Trump administration. Elsewhere, the campaign has said that external groups do not speak for Trump or his campaign, and that policy recommendations are just that.

Migrants bused to cities spur calls for federal help

Who bears the financial responsibility for educating undocumented children has been a heated topic of debate, especially over the last two years.

In May 2022, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he wanted to challenge Plyler v. Doe “because the expenses are extraordinary and the times are different” than in 1982. He called on the federal government to cover the educational costs for undocumented students.

Since then, Abbott has bused more than 75,000 migrants to six cities led by Democrats that have certain “sanctuary” policies protecting immigrants.

Newcomer students can bring many assets, from linguistic diversity to knowledge about life elsewhere in the world, educators say, and some schools have successfully adapted to meet newcomers’ needs.

But many schools have struggled to do so. Newcomer students often do not speak English and sometimes have missed months or even years of schooling. Many experienced trauma on their journey to the U.S. or in their home country that can affect their schooling. Schools often lack bilingual teachers and mental health staff to help. And when lots of students arrive in the middle of the year, state funding doesn’t always follow right away, leaving schools to make do with the resources they have.

Many educators and local officials have called on their states and the federal government to provide additional funding to help — with limited success. Extra money for migrant students was left out of the Illinois governor’s budget proposal, and extra funding allotted in Colorado breaks down to less than half of what the state would typically spend per student.

Plyler challenge could hinge on cost questions

Challenging Plyler would be difficult, said Thomas A. Saenz, the president and general counsel at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which represented the families in the original Plyler case. The ruling is now tied up with other federal law, as well as privacy protections for K-12 students.

“It’s not like: ‘Oh, let’s just tee up Plyler, and pass a law, and immediately this more conservative Supreme Court will overturn the ‘82 decision,’” he said. “That analysis is way too facile.”

But there are ways Plyler could be vulnerable, said Amanda Warner, a doctoral candidate at George Mason University who analyzed past challenges to the ruling. The current Supreme Court has favored states’ rights and an originalist reading of the constitution. And in 1973, the Supreme Court held that there is no constitutional right to an education.

That is a “glaring hole” that could be exploited, Warner said.

Another avenue to challenge the ruling could center on educational conditions and costs, and whether those have changed enough to warrant denying undocumented children a free public education.

Back in 1982, Texas argued it needed to do that to preserve resources for educating its “lawful residents.” But the Supreme Court rejected that argument. Brennan wrote that undocumented students did not impose “special burdens” on Texas’ education system, and that excluding them from school would be unlikely to improve the overall quality of education.

The Heritage Foundation brief says that unauthorized immigration, particularly among children arriving without their parents, has reached a point where a “reconsideration is warranted.”

The original ruling seems to imply “there is a bar” for a state to show that educating undocumented students is too much of a financial burden, Warner said. But it wouldn’t be enough to simply show the cost of education is higher.

Any money saved by excluding undocumented children from school would have to be weighed against the ripple effects on housing, social services, and the criminal justice system. “Costs can be borne in a lot of ways,” Warner said. “What are the costs of having all these uneducated persons in the United States?”

Whether a serious challenge will emerge remains to be seen. Marino said no state official has reached out about making the Heritage Foundation’s proposal a reality.

After Abbott raised the possibility of challenging Plyler two years ago, a Texas lawmaker introduced a bill that would have denied undocumented students a free public education, unless the federal government paid for it. But unlike in 1975, the proposal didn’t go anywhere.

Nicholas Espíritu, the deputy legal director for the National Immigration Law Center, said if such a proposal couldn’t advance in Texas, that should deter other states from trying.

“It’s our hope that even though there might be some rumblings from the Heritage Foundation and states like Texas,” he said, “that eventually politicians will come to the same conclusion and realize that this is not a position that is ultimately supported.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Antisemitism, Israel-Hamas war expose fractures in proudly diverse school district

2024-05-20T12:13:00+00:00

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Residents of Montgomery County are grappling with the frequency and vulgarity of antisemitism in their reputedly welcoming public schools.

Kobie Talmoud has been the target of taunts from fellow students who have said things like “Shut up, you Jewish f---” and “Heil Hitler” since he started public school in seventh grade.

Jewish parents also report uncomfortable interactions, which Mara Greengrass prefers to describe as “misunderstandings.”

Greengrass raised concerns after a teacher handed out an anti-Jewish flier from Nazi Germany with no additional context during a lesson on propaganda. But school leaders didn’t seem to understand how a Jewish student might feel if they came across the flier on the school bus, for example. In fact, they seemed defensive rather than apologetic, Greengrass said.

Montgomery County, Maryland, is a diverse, overwhelmingly Democratic and liberal community bordering Washington, D.C. The Jewish population in the region is four times the national average. The county has many Jewish leaders, including the county executive. Synagogues, Jewish day schools, and kosher groceries dot the area.

Yet even before Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel, the school district had been wrestling with a disturbing rise in antisemitic incidents that Jewish residents say is unprecedented. And the latest Israel-Gaza conflict has acted like fuel to a fire, with even some elementary-age children reporting that friends won’t play with them because they are Jewish. The challenges the district faces, and its response to them, reflect the difficulties confronting schools nationwide that have grown since the start of the war.

Kobie Talmoud, an 11th grader in Montgomery County, Maryland, says he tries to respond to antisemitism by educating other students. But some days the taunts get to him.

“I’ve never seen a more disturbing time for American Jews than the time we are living in right now,” said Guila Franklin Siegel, associate director at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, a local advocacy organization that works with the school district.

Echoing Greengrass’ sentiments, Siegel says the district initially reacted defensively when approached years ago about the rise in antisemitism. However, today Siegel acknowledges that the district has become more proactive in its response to such incidents.

With the district’s support, Siegel’s group and the Anti-Defamation League, another national Jewish advocacy organization, have entered schools and trained about 1,500 county educators on Jewish identity, antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and recognizing and correctly responding to implicit and explicit bias against Jews.

The district has also revised the elementary and middle school social studies curriculums to expose students to the Jewish experience, the Holocaust, and antisemitism earlier. It has introduced clearer reporting processes and disciplinary responses, leading to consequences such as suspensions for students committing antisemitic acts. And this summer, officials say they plan to run hate-bias trainings for all staff.

But in the process of addressing the concerns of Jewish constituents, the school district has drawn criticism from other groups within the community. Teachers who were initially placed on leave by the district for allegedly expressing antisemitism in 2023 have been reinstated. Three of them are suing the district for ethnicity, religion and viewpoint discrimination, claiming they shared pro-Palestinian and pro-peace messages that were not antisemitic.

Even the Jewish community is split. Some Jewish parents are uncomfortable with the district’s approach, calling for a clear distinction between antisemitism and legitimate criticism of Israel, and rejecting any move toward censorship. Meanwhile, other parents say the district’s measures against antisemitism have not adequately protected their children.

And it’s not just parents and teachers confronting school district officials. Earlier this month, alongside school leaders from New York and California, Montgomery County Board of Education President Karla Silvestre faced hours of questioning from congressional Republicans regarding the district’s response to antisemitism. The focus of many questions was on the district’s decision not to fire teachers who made pro-Palestinian statements perceived by some as antisemitic.

After she finished testifying, Silvestre was confronted with more questions from Kobie, who was present during the hearing. He and other Jewish residents from the school district met with lawmakers to share their experiences with antisemitism and to press district officials on safety concerns.

Some Democrats criticized the premise of the hearing, accusing Republican lawmakers of attempting to score political points and overlooking antisemitic actions within their own party.

Still, the hearing concluded with a prevailing sense that district officials have lots of work to do.

Antisemitic hate at school rises in diverse county

Jews make up about 2.4% of the U.S. population, but they make up roughly 10% of Montgomery County. Despite their substantial presence — or perhaps because of it — the number of antisemitic incidents in the community has risen recently.

In 2022 and 2023, before the most recent war, police reports describe several school-related antisemitic incidents. Someone spray-painted the phrase “Jews Not Welcome” onto a sign outside Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland. There were also multiple incidents involving swastikas drawn on school property.

Rabbi Noah Diamondstein speaks to students who walked out of class at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2022 in response to antisemitic graffiti. Advocates say the school district has made progress in its response to antisemitism but more needs to be done.

Data from the county police department shows that reports of hate incidents for all groups in schools spiked over the last two years, but most of the growth was driven by anti-Jewish and anti-Black incidents. Montgomery County Public Schools experienced a 383% increase in school-based hate incidents from 2021 to 2022. And that only increased again in 2023, with anti-Jewish and anti-Black incidents occurring most frequently.

This trend aligns with recent national data from the FBI showing that antisemitism “drove 63% of reported religiously motivated hate crimes.”

Siegel from the JCRC said the Jewish students her organization is in contact with feel ostracized, exhausted from trying to navigate the war with friends, and fearful for their futures. And she finds herself working with younger and younger students each year.

“Before the last two years, we had not really engaged with elementary school principals and teachers,” Siegel said. “But now we have.”

Student refuses to be his community’s ‘quiet Jew’

Kobie is engaged on his own mission to educate people in the district.

An 11th grader, Kobie describes himself as an “openly Jewish” and Orthodox. With tzitzit visible at his waist, a yarmulke on his head, and his grandfather’s military dog tags identifying him as Jewish always in his pocket, he has chosen to assert his identity in school.

He’s been greeted in the hallways with shouts of “Jew boy” and the Nazi salute. He’s been called a “Jewish f---” so casually it sounds like a mere descriptor to his classmates. He refers to his peers as “kids” who may be brainwashed by TikTok.

“I feel like you don’t know what you’re saying or doing. They just seemed like idiots,” he said, shaking his head like a disappointed father.

He sees himself as a source of information about Jewish culture and identity for his peers. He volunteers to give presentations on the Holocaust in class, with permission from instructors. He says classmates respond with positive curiosity, asking clarifying questions. He hopes these efforts will help reduce the antisemitism he and other Jewish kids experience.

However, he also has days where antisemitism in his high school makes him want to punch a hole in the wall. And the lack of response from teachers is the salt in the wound, leaving him isolated and disappointed.

What’s taken on additional importance since Oct. 7 is that Kobie is a strong supporter of Israel who thinks criticism of the country often stems from antisemitism.

A military dog tag that once belonged to Kobie Talmoud's grandfather and identifies him as Jewish.

He speaks up when he thinks teachers are taking sides in the conflict, including reporting a teacher for wearing a keffiyeh, the checkered scarf is considered a symbol of Palestinian identity and resistance.

Kobie associates it with terrorism.

Kobie said that when he challenged the teacher about wearing the scarf, the teacher said: “‘I am representing peace.” Kobie said he responded: “No, you are not.”

“Why should I be the quiet Jew? … If not for me, who? If not now, when?” he said, paraphrasing Hillel, a Jewish scholar from two millennia ago.

Pro-Palestinian messages spur punishments for teachers

Kobie isn’t the only person in the district who refuses to be quiet.

Montgomery County educators frequently take clear political and social stances — openly supporting movements like Black Lives Matter or LGBTQIA+ rights. And alongside the rise in antisemitism, teachers and students who support the Palestinian cause have become more vocal about their views as the civilian death toll in Gaza rises.

However, the district cracked down on this particular wave of educator activism.

Last year, four teachers were placed on leave, then reinstated and assigned to different schools, after sharing pro-Palestinian messages that some interpreted as antisemitic.

One teacher wore homemade pins and buttons that included slogans like “Free Palestine.” She also updated her email signature to include the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Many Jews interpret this expression as a call for the destruction of Israel and the expulsion or murder of Jews. The teachers said it stands for freedom for all people living in Israel and Palestine, an interpretation shared by many Muslims, according to polling.

“Our teachers did not say anything that was harmful. They did not say anything that was hateful,” said Rawda Fawaz, an attorney representing three of the teachers, who sued the district for monetary damages and to stop them from enforcing policies on the basis of viewpoint, subject matter, ethnicity, and religion, in addition to other requests. “They expressed support for the Palestinian people and they expressed criticism and disappointment in both the Israeli and U.S. government in how they were approaching the situation in Gaza.”

Related: Meet the students who support — and oppose — the pro-Palestinian encampment on Denver’s Auraria campus

Fawaz calls what the district has done “content discrimination,” saying other teachers have made politically charged posts on other topics without repercussions. She also says one of her clients was targeted because she is a Muslim, Arab woman.

A fourth teacher, who is not involved in the lawsuit, was accused of sharing conspiracy theories on social media and denying that atrocities took place on Oct. 7.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights recently issued updated guidance to schools about protecting Jewish, Israeli, Arab, and Muslim students from harassment and discrimination based on nationality or shared ancestry.

The guidance provides examples of when political speech could contribute to a hostile environment at school, such as screaming “terrorist” at pro-Palestinian protesters or yelling slurs at Jewish students during a protest of the screening of an Israeli film. But criticism of Israel or its policies would be protected under the First Amendment — unless it was accompanied by discriminatory comments or harassing behavior, the guidance said.

Explaining the district’s justification for disciplining but ultimately not firing the teachers, Silvestre told lawmakers during the congressional hearing the teachers in question know that if they engage in such conduct again, “there will be deeper consequences, up to and including termination.”

Silvestre also said district officials would be the first to admit they haven’t “gotten it right every time” when it comes to responding to antisemitism, or making Jewish students feel safe at school. But she also said they have made significant changes and intend to continue working with parents and other interest groups to do more.

Balancing support for Israel with backing free speech

But some Jewish parents are wary about the pressures the district is under with respect to antisemitism.

Greengrass, the parent of a recent graduate and a high school freshman, was one of more than 150 former students, parents, teachers, and staff who signed a letter urging the Montgomery County school district to recognize that some Jews welcome criticism of Israel and Zionism, while also fighting antisemitism.

“All Jewish students, no matter their views on Jewishness and the question of Palestine, are entitled to inclusion and respect. Indeed, all students are entitled to such inclusion and respect. This includes Muslim and Palestinian students,” the people said in the letter, which they released before Silvestre’s appearance on Capitol Hill. “We must reject the notion that the safety or comfort of any particular set of students can come at the expense of that of other groups.”

Greengrass knows her views puts her at odds with many members of her community — even sometimes her own husband.

Mara Greengrass, the Jewish mother of a recent graduate and a freshman in Montgomery County Public Schools, worries about conflating criticisms of Israel and antisemitism.

Greengrass has a Black Lives Matter sign in her yard and celebrates Shabbat every Friday night. She does not consider herself religious. She considers herself culturally Jewish and progressive.

She has a strong emotional attachment to Israel and sees it as a refuge for Jews. But she balks at the idea that criticizing Israel or questioning Zionism is antisemitic.

“The problem is that it conflates Jews and Israel, which is exactly what we have been saying everybody shouldn’t do,” Greengrass said.

She also does not believe that expressions of support for Palestinians, like what some teachers have expressed in Montgomery County schools, are inherently antisemitic.

“Statements like ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ can mean different things to different people,” she said.

Falling out with friends over the Israel-Hamas war

With discussions, walkouts, and passionate expressions about the war, both Jewish and Muslim students across the country say they are exhausted but hope their schools can still be safe places for them to learn.

That aspiration doesn’t mean all their relationships have survived unscathed.

Kobie, like nearly half of all young adult Jews, says he has cut ties with friends over comments he deems antisemitic about the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Referring to one friend he fell out with, Kobie said: “I blocked her on everything I had with her. … She’s graduating early so, um, bye.” He then dismissively swatted away the thought of his former friend with his hand.

But even with all his resolve, Kobie is also planning to take a break. After graduation, he plans to take a gap year and live in Israel. He then wants to go to college and major in political science.

After the protests at Ivy League institutions like Columbia University, he is not even considering applying to those schools.

Greengrass, meanwhile, remains unsettled about the district’s direction. Two of the teachers placed on leave over allegations of antisemitism taught her son a few years back. She chose not to tell him to spare him from being upset.

She doesn’t feel students, teachers, and the district should approach the issue of the Oct. 7 attacks, Palestinians, and antisemitism with the same reticence.

“You need to be able to say, ‘I disagree with this, but I understand why you feel that way,’” Greengrass said. “That’s how I feel about the teachers.”

It took this Texas school district 48 years to desegregate. Now, some fear a return to the past.

2018-11-29T06:01:37+00:00

This story about school segregation was produced by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that provides free news, data, and events on Texas public policy, politics, government, and statewide issues.

LONGVIEW — At the first Friday football game in the first school year since the school district in this East Texas town had been declared racially integrated — nearly 50 years after a federal court order — thousands of spectators dressed in forest-green Lobos gear filled the stadium.

Enduring the late-August heat, fans filed into creaky fold-down seats they’d reserved for years. Some who had attended segregated white or black schools in Longview decades ago now shared the same rows. When the marching band played the school’s fight song, most of the crowd formed an “L” with their fingers and rocked them back and forth in unison.

Ted Beard, a longtime Longview Independent School District board member, watched the football players race across the field and wondered how long the commitment to integration would last.

The district is at a pivotal moment now that a federal court has released it from decades-long supervision of its policies for educating students of color. It has made progress to topple the barriers still holding black and Hispanic students back from the same academic success as white students.Whether it continues a commitment to student equity now depends solely on the collective will of a school board that could change with a single election cycle. And that worries Beard, whose father was part of the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965 and faced threats and violence along the way. Beard is black and had two kids go through Longview schools.

“The board could change and then the direction could change, and those that are ultimately affected are going to be the students,” Beard said.

Ted Beard, pictured at an August board meeting, has served on the Longview ISD school board since 1998.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision declared school segregation unconstitutional in 1954, but Longview ISD — along with hundreds of other Texas school districts — resisted until federal judges intervened and imposed detailed desegregation plans across large swaths of the state.

In 1970, an East Texas-based federal court mandated Longview ISD tackle a long list of tasks designed to make sure its black students were learning and playing in the same classrooms and playgrounds as their white peers — including closing four all-black schools and busing black students to formerly all-white schools throughout the district.

Forty-seven years later, Longview was one of only three Texas districts that remained under a federal court order, along with San Angelo and Garland.

A federal judge fully released the district from that order in June, and just weeks before the school year started, Beard and the rest of the board unanimously approved a voluntary plan to keep the district’s schools desegregated and ensure that students of color have equal opportunities to graduate and succeed beyond high school.

But Beard and others know the district has yet to overcome the deep disparities that have defined so much of its history. In Longview ISD, white students — who make up a fraction of the district’s enrollment — still outpace their black and Hispanic peers in many ways. They are roughly half of the students enrolled at Longview’s specialized elementary school, which has higher academic standards. And they are more likely to take classes and tests meant to prepare them for college.

And district leaders also have struggled with a new education challenge that federal judges couldn’t have foreseen in 1970 — adequately providing a burgeoning group of Hispanic students with crucial services they need to learn English.

Order from the court

Sixteen years after the Brown ruling, the federal government sued the state of Texas for refusing to integrate most of its schools. In 1970, a federal judge almost 40 miles from Longview placed nearly the entire state under court order and threatened sanctions against defiant school districts — resulting in one of the largest series of desegregation orders in the nation’s history.

Longview ISD Superintendent James Wilcox said the desegregation order was in many ways outdated by the time he started in 2007.

The same court ordered Longview to integrate both its faculty and students. That meant busing more than 600 black students to white schools and the consolidation or closure of several all-black schools. If white students tried to transfer, the court order mandated that they could only be reassigned to schools in which they would be in the minority.

Longview ISD was unlikely to have integrated without a court order. Like people in much of the state, folks in Longview saw the federal push for integration as a threat to their autonomy.

The effort to improve facilities across the district was slow. Board members began pushing to renovate some of the old school buildings in the late 90s. Since the integration order, white families — who still made up the majority of Longview’s population — had left the school district in droves for private schools, and white voters actively resisted paying to renovate the district’s schools.

“If you’re an Anglo family and you’re taking your kid out of school, why would you vote yes to float a bond?” said Chris Mack, a white board member first elected in 1993 who was a middle school student in Longview ISD when it was forced to integrate.

By many accounts, the turning point came when James Wilcox was hired as superintendent in 2007.

With Wilcox at the helm, the community approved — in a measure that passed in 2008 by fewer than 20 votes — a $266.9 million bond to finance a massive overhaul of the district’s schools. Longview ISD built eight schools, renovated three others and upgraded technology across the district.

The district made more progress integrating black students after 2008 than it had in the previous 15 years, according to an analysis of school segregation data by Meredith Richards, an assistant professor of education policy and leadership at Southern Methodist University.

While overhauling schools, the district went back to the federal court to argue that it no longer needed an extensive busing system, which district leaders argued had become tedious.

“We did what was best for our students while meeting the requirements of the desegregation order,” Wilcox said from his office earlier this year. “But it was a dinosaur, a pyramid, or whatever you want to say — something that in our mind has lost its function because it’s a totally different district.”

In 2014, the courts released the district from some of the restrictions of the original 1970 court order. In exchange, the district’s leaders promised to spend the next three years working to improve in areas where Longview still needed to make progress after more than four decades: monitoring racial disparities in student discipline, preventing students from transferring to schools where their race was the majority, hiring a more diverse staff and ensuring students of color had equal opportunity to take advanced classes.

A strategy with a Montessori in mind

Since 2017, most pre-K and kindergarten students in Longview have begun their education at East Texas Montessori Prep, a $31 million, 150,000-square-foot building in the middle of the district.

“We have the same exact expectations for every student,” Wilcox said.

Widely considered an exclusive educational program more common in private schools, Montessori prioritizes self-directed, hands-on student learning.

Troy Simmons, who became Longview ISD’s second black board member in 1985, saw East Texas Montessori Prep as a way to give students of color a competitive advantage early in their lives. Community members often responded to the district’s pitch to create the Montessori school by complaining about how much it would cost, he said.

“People don’t believe in educating all children. They believe in educating their kids, not your kid,” Simmons said.

Troy Simmons, a Longview ISD school board member, has long pushed for equity for students of color and faced backlash from a majority white community.

Among the strongest objections to a district-wide Montessori school came from parents at Johnston-McQueen Elementary School, located in the whitest part of the school district, where parents successfully advocated to keep a traditional pre-K and kindergarten program for students zoned there.

To Simmons, the separate program is a figurative foot in the door, impeding the district’s plan for a cohesive education system.

If the decision had been left up to Beard, Longview ISD would not have given up court supervision at all.

His opposition is recorded in a few lines in the minutes from the November 2017 board meeting: “Knowing that at a drop of a dime the board could change and take…its sight off what is best for ALL students, he will not support this motion.”

Beard voted no, joined by Shan Bauer, who is also black.

Longview ISD leaders consider the East Texas Montessori Prep campus a pillar of progress, starting all students in the same place.

Simmons, joined the majority in the 5-2 vote to ask the court to fully release the district — a decision he later regretted.

In June 2018, Judge Robert Schroeder lifted Longview ISD’s court order.

Another challenge emerges

The district was also confronting a new challenge that the courts in 1970 had never anticipated: Providing an equal education to an exploding population of Hispanic students — many of them immigrants or first-generation citizens, and many of them Spanish speakers.

Without a court order hanging over them, the district’s leaders, by their own admission, have struggled to lift Hispanic students like they did, belatedly, for black students.

Hispanic enrollment in Longview schools has almost doubled in the last 13 years alone. The district has included them in many of its desegregation measures, particularly in its efforts to recruit students for advanced classes, said Jody Clements, an assistant superintendent at Longview ISD.

But in Longview, most Hispanic students need bilingual or English as a second language instruction — hundreds more students enrolled in those programs between 2009 and 2017, state data shows.

The number of teachers for those programs only increased by about five.

“We haven’t cracked that nut yet,” Mack said after an August school board meeting during which the issue was discussed in executive session.

Chris Mack, a Longview ISD board member, said many white residents resisted paying for school renovations because their children were not enrolled in the district.

The new reality

In August, Longview’s school board unanimously approved a seven-page voluntary desegregation plan that it plans to implement with the help of a $15 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Starting this year, five predominately black and Hispanic schools will offer special programs, such as advanced engineering or college preparatory courses, to attract higher-income students and white students living in the district but attending private school or homeschool.

The plan is self-enforced, with no federal judge serving as referee.

Longview ISD leaders will no longer limit student transfers to certain schools based on race or set goals for the percentage of white, black or Hispanic students for each school. Instead, if they notice a school is becoming more segregated, they will correct the problem using “race-neutral” strategies, such as recruiting students from low-income neighborhoods — which some experts say is not as effective in achieving racial integration.

About 56.2 percent of white students graduated ready for college English and math in 2016, according to state data, compared with a dismal 23 percent of Hispanic students and 16 percent of black students. That disparity is similar among students who take Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate classes in high school.

Will the momentum continue?

The community’s commitment to equity could soon be tested. Though Mack was just re-elected to another three-year term, he will likely step down after handing his daughter her diploma at graduation this spring, after nearly 20 years on the board.

Longview ISD was recently declared desegregated, but still hasn’t toppled the barriers keeping black and Hispanic students from success.

Simmons, who now has the longest tenure on the board, regularly considers whether it’s time to retire. He’s tired, he says, but leaving is not a decision he can make without considering the impact on Longview’s progress.

“I have a lot of faith in our superintendent. I have a lot of faith in the core of our board, the way it operates, but I also know that one change, one blip, one glitch can turn the board into something completely different and basically destroy everything that we’ve built in these past years in doing this,” Simmons said solemnly at the start of the year. “And so that makes me hesitant about not seeking re-election, but at the same time I am tired of fighting this the way I have to.”

Four months later, Simmons ran for — and secured — another three-year term.

Ryan Murphy contributed to this report.

Disclosure: Southern Methodist University has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Study finds segregation increasing in large districts — and school choice is a factor

2024-05-06T07:00:00+00:00

Read more of Chalkbeat's coverage of the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.

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Over the last three decades, school segregation has been increasing — and it has increased the most within the large school districts that enroll many of the nation’s students of color.

Schools have become more segregated in these communities even as neighborhoods have become more racially mixed and as economic inequality between racial groups has declined.

Two main factors are driving the increase: the end of most court oversight that required school districts to create integrated schools, and policies that favor school choice and parental preference.

Those are the findings of new research on school segregation from Sean Reardon of Stanford University and Ann Owens of the University of Southern California. Their analysis coincides with the 70th anniversary this month of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which ended legally mandated racial segregation in public schools and overturned the doctrine of “separate but equal.” They said the findings should “sound an alarm for educators and policymakers.”

“Although school segregation is much lower than 60 years ago, both racial and economic segregation are increasing,” the authors wrote. “Those increases appear to be the direct result of educational policy and legal decisions. They are not the inevitable result of demographic changes — and can be changed by alternative policy choices.”

The analysis includes an interactive map that allows users to see school integration and segregation trends in their communities.

Reardon and Owens looked at national school enrollment data, including going back to 1967 for communities where older data was available. School segregation fell sharply after the Supreme Court’s Green v. New Kent County decision in 1968. The decision banned “freedom of choice” plans that states had used to undermine integration efforts and mandated desegregation plans in many districts.

The study measures segregation using a normalized exposure index, which compares the demographic makeup of schools attended by students of a particular racial group. The number 1 represents complete segregation and 0 represents fully integrated schools.

Overall, schools remain far more integrated today than they were before 1973, the analysis found. The 1970s saw widespread busing programs to create racially balanced schools, programs that continued into the 1990s in some communities.

Between 1991 and 2019, Black-white segregation increased by 3.5 percentage points in the 533 districts that serve at least 2,500 Black students, an increase of 25% from historically low levels. But in the 100 largest school districts, which serve about 38% of all Black students, the analysis found segregation increased by 8 percentage points — a 64% increase.

Hispanic and Asian American students attend more integrated schools on average than Black students, but rates of white-Hispanic and white-Asian American segregation have nearly doubled since the 1980s, the analysis found.

In Denver, advocates found that Latino students and English learners are especially likely to attend very segregated schools. A study last year that looked at wealthy California school districts found that white families move away as more Asian American families move in — and fear of academic competition may be a factor.

Economic segregation increased considerably in that same time period, Reardon and Owens found. In 2019, the average Black student attended a school where the rate of students receiving free- or reduced-price lunch was 18 percentage points higher than in schools attended by white students in the same district.

Segregated schools affect student opportunities

The high rates of poverty in predominantly Black and Hispanic schools contribute to the test score gaps and opportunity gaps associated with segregation, Owens said.

“It’s not that sitting next to a student of a certain race makes the school good or bad,” she said. “But we’ve never done ‘separate but equal.’ Until we eliminate broader systemic underlying inequalities in our society, we haven’t shown an ability to actually serve kids equitably.”

Owens said previous research on contemporary school segregation has focused more on metropolitan areas, finding more segregation between school districts than within them. That continues to be the case. But those analyses obscured how much segregation was increasing in large school districts where most Black and brown students attend school, she said.

Smaller school districts tend to have fewer schools overall and serve relatively fewer students of color. The result is that those schools are more racially integrated.

In larger school districts, neighborhood segregation contributes to school segregation — but it hasn’t driven the increases in school segregation over the last few decades, Reardon and Owens said, because neighborhood segregation has been declining during the same time period.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, their analysis found that the end of widespread court-ordered integration efforts, along with other voluntary school integration policies, has played a major role in schools becoming less integrated. School re-segregation accelerated starting in 2000, after court oversight ended in the 1990s. They estimate that school segregation would be less by about 20% if court orders had remained in place.

The researchers also found that charter school expansion was strongly associated with less integrated schools. The study did not look at the impact of private school choice programs, such as school vouchers, or district open enrollment policies. Instead, the authors treated charter expansion as a proxy for a robust school choice system, as those policies often go hand in hand.

Studies have found that school choice policies can accelerate gentrification, allowing affluent families to buy homes in low-income communities while opting out of the local schools — one reason racially integrated neighborhoods don’t always lead to racially integrated schools.

Reardon said they didn’t look at whether charter schools themselves are more segregated than district-run schools. That type of analysis can be misleading if, for example, a school district closed schools that mostly served Black and Hispanic children and replaced them with charters. Instead, they looked at the growth of charter schools over time within a school district and whether the district as a whole became more segregated. They found a strong association between the two.

The analysis estimates that school segregation would be less by about 14% without charter expansion.

Previous research by Brian Kisida of the University of Missouri and Tomas Monarrez and Matt Chingos of the Urban Institute also found that charter schools contribute to segregation. However, the effect was more modest, accounting for about 5% to 7% of school segregation. Students crossing district lines to attend charter schools offset some of the segregating effects.

In a separate paper, the same authors found that in neighborhoods with more Black and Hispanic representation, charter, private, and district schools contribute equally to school segregation, while in neighborhoods with less Black and Hispanic representation, private schools contribute the most to school segregation, though charters also play a role.

Brian Gill, a policy fellow at Mathematica who has studied charter schools, said people should not make a leap between charter schools contributing to less integrated schools and charter schools contributing to achievement gaps between students of color and their white peers. Many parents of color choose charter schools because they believe they will better serve their children. The better outcomes urban charter schools produce for Black, Hispanic, and low-income students should be considered alongside the potential harms of less integrated schools, he said.

“Whatever we have now is nothing like the legally imposed separation that existed before Brown,” he said.

Reardon said he’s not arguing that charter schools are bad or that parents having choices is bad.

“We’re saying that one consequence, empirically, of the expansion of this kind of choice regime is that it leads to more segregation,” he said. “And that should be taken into account in policy thinking about how we design school systems.”

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Restorative justice funding could be cut by more than half as fiscal cliff nears

2024-05-14T23:20:47+00:00

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Thanks to an infusion of federal pandemic relief money, city officials bolstered programs that encourage schools to talk through conflicts with students rather than resorting to suspensions.

Federal dollars now represent about $8 million of the program’s roughly $13.6 million budget — funding that is set to expire this summer. Mayor Eric Adams recently allocated more than half a billion dollars to save several other education programs that were financed with one-time federal money. Restorative justice was not included.

Restorative justice initiatives, which prioritize peer mediation and other forms of conflict resolution, have been a key alternative to more punitive forms of discipline, advocates say. If the funding evaporates, they worry schools will increasingly respond to student misbehavior by removing students from their classrooms.

Those programs allow “students to resolve conflicts on their own and it keeps them within the school community,” said Naphtali Moore, a staff attorney at the school justice project at Advocates for Children, a group that has pushed to find new sources of funding for programs that received one-time federal dollars. “You’re also building relationships as well.”

The possible budget cuts come at a precarious moment: Concerns about student behavior have intensified in the wake of the pandemic, and suspension rates are on the rise, returning to pre-pandemic levels last school year. Education Department officials have not released suspension data for the first half of this school year, despite a city law requiring they do so by the end of March and several requests from Chalkbeat for the statistics.

Schools Chancellor David Banks previously said he does not favor “zero tolerance” approaches to school discipline, but has also stressed that misbehavior must be met with consequences. In congressional testimony last week, he said that the city swiftly suspended 30 students who engaged in antisemitic incidents as some campuses grappled with upheaval related to the Israel-Hamas war. The schools chief has faced pressure to address broader safety concerns on many campuses, as the number of weapons confiscated in schools surged in the wake of the pandemic.

Banks has not pursued formal discipline policy changes, but school leaders across the city received training this year that reinforced their discretion to suspend students, three principals said.

“The message was, ‘if you need to suspend students you can do that’,” said one Brooklyn high school principal who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “The tone was kind of different. When we first came back from the pandemic, it was more, ‘focus on restorative justice.’”

Advocates fear that the city may retreat from restorative justice programs. Those efforts gained steam under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who overhauled the city’s discipline code and presided over a significant drop in suspensions. Some educators contend those reforms created more chaotic classrooms in some cases.

This is not the first time restorative justice programs have faced an uncertain future under Banks. City officials threatened to cut the program’s funding in 2022 only to save it at the last minute. A group of student activists pushed the city earlier this year to dramatically increase funding for more holistic approaches to student misbehavior and mental health challenges, including restorative justice.

“Kids need more support than ever, but in terms of the funding, the support is less stable than it ought to be,” said Tala Manassah, deputy executive director of the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility, which partners with hundreds of city schools on restorative justice and social-emotional programs.

Uncertainty over funding can make it difficult to offer training earlier in the school year or over the summer when they are more likely to be effective, Manassah added. If the funding is added at the last second, that means training may not ramp up until later in the school year when “folks are already overwhelmed,” she said. “You don’t want initiatives that seem like an add-on or more of a burden.”

Some Education Department staff are already bracing for cuts. “There will be less training, less opportunities for people to form teams and meet after school, less opportunity to pay students” to deliver restorative circles where school community members talk through conflicts, said one central office staff member familiar with the city’s restorative justice programming who spoke on condition of anonymity.

An Education Department spokesperson did not answer questions about the city’s plans for restorative justice funding.

Several advocates noted there’s still time to push the city to find new money, as the city budget must be hashed out with the City Council and finalized by July 1.

“We do have two months to push the negotiations to replace the federal dollars,” said Andrea Ortiz, the membership and campaign director for the Dignity in Schools Campaign, an advocacy group. “The budget’s not done.”

Update: After this story was published, Education Department officials revealed at a City Council hearing that they are spending less federal funding on restorative justice than initially budgeted. Officials allocated $8 million in federal funding for restorative justice this school year, not $12 million.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Organizers of Democratic National Convention in Chicago launch student art competition

2024-05-15T12:00:00+00:00

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Keiana Barrett still has the button she wore at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

The event, held in Denver, ended with former President Barack Obama, then a U.S. Senator from Chicago, becoming the party’s nominee.

Barrett, now a senior advisor for the Chicago 2024 Host Committee, is helping launch an art competition for high school students to design buttons, posters, and other art to be displayed during the Democratic National Convention in late August.

“We want to make sure that throughout the convention experience, the delegates, the visitors, our allied groups will have an inescapable opportunity to see the beauty of Chicago through the eyes of our young people and to give them a platform to continue to sharpen their creative pencils,” Barrett said.

Earlier this year, Chicago Public Schools announced it would begin the 2024-25 school year on Aug. 26, slightly later than usual to accommodate traffic and an expected 75,000 additional visitors during the week of the convention, Aug. 19 - 22.

Students and graduating seniors from public and private high schools across the Chicago area have until June 10 at 5 p.m. to submit their designs. Original artwork can include drawings, paintings, photography or other two-dimensional media, but must be created by hand and without the help of artificial intelligence.

One winner will have their design featured on a commemorative button and poster, and will get a $200 Visa gift card and two one-day passes to the convention. Other finalists will be selected to have their art displayed at the convention, which is taking place primarily at the United Center on Chicago’s West Side.

More information about the competition and how to submit is available here.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Concerned about mental health, NY lawmakers and advocates want fewer school lockdown drills

2024-05-14T21:54:30+00:00

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Lawmakers, parents, and school safety advocates rallied in Albany on Tuesday, calling for the passage of legislation that would reduce the number of school lockdown drills required under New York state law.

It’s the culmination of a multi-year effort by advocates who want changes in state law, which currently requires public schools to conduct at least four lockdown drills each year. Proponents of the bill say that number was arbitrarily chosen and that conducting so many drills harms student mental health without providing clear safety benefits.

The bill — recently amended through negotiations — would lower the required number of drills to two, while still allowing schools the option to conduct additional drills. It would also mandate that drills are conducted in a “trauma-informed, developmentally, and age-appropriate” manner, with accommodations for students with disabilities, training for educators, and advance notice provided to school staff and parents.

On Tuesday, state Sen. Andrew Gounardes and Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon, the sponsors of the bill, joined other lawmakers, advocates, and mental health experts to call for changes to the state’s “excessive and ineffective” lockdown drill requirement.

“We don’t want kids to grow up normalizing and believing that this is just an everyday fact of life,” Gounardes said. “Lockdown drills are supposed to prepare students for an active shooter in the event that one enters the school, but our current approach is deeply traumatizing for kids — not to mention teachers and parents — and simply is not making them safer.”

Simon added there was no data to suggest that lockdown drills are effective, or to justify requiring four drills, when the state enacted its law in 2016.

“There is no excuse for us traumatizing and re-traumatizing our kids because we are worried,” she said. “We have to find a way to solve this problem that doesn’t put the obligation on them.”

As of 2016, lockdown drills occurred in 95% of public schools in the U.S., with at least 40 states requiring them, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates against gun violence. But the organization has advised against conducting them, pointing to the “collateral consequences to school communities’ mental health and wellbeing.”

New York remains just one of a handful of states that mandate four or more lockdown drills per year — meaning its students can experience twice as many drills as those in other states, according to an analysis from the Trace.

“Excessive drills increase anxiety and depression in children of all ages,” said Sheffali Welch, a member of Moms Demand Action and a New York City parent. “Haven’t our kids been through enough?”

There are some signs that concern over the impact of the drills is gaining traction in Albany. At a meeting last month, the New York Board of Regents discussed proposed amendments to state regulations related to school safety planning — requiring schools to establish procedures for notifying parents about drills and mandating that drills be conducted in “a trauma-informed, developmentally and age-appropriate manner.”

Though state lawmakers initially sought to lower the number of mandated drills to one and offer parents the ability to opt their children out of drills, both provisions were changed during negotiations over the bill.

Still, advocates see the growing momentum to pass the legislation as a win, and lawmakers noted Tuesday they’re hopeful the bill will pass this legislative session.

“Kids are gaining from this,” said Robert Murtfeld, a Manhattan parent who has been advocating for the law for years, in a phone interview ahead of the press conference. “It’s the best solution for everybody to move forward with this in New York.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

How the ‘Southlake Playbook’ brought partisan battles to America’s school boards

2024-05-10T10:48:00+00:00

The following is adapted from “They Came for the Schools: One Town’s Fight Over Race and Identity, and the New War for America’s Classrooms,” a book by NBC News senior reporter Mike Hixenbaugh set to be published by Mariner Books on May 14.

Three years ago, a conservative uprising swept through the wealthy, North Texas city of Southlake.

The impact of that local movement has since rippled well beyond the suburb’s borders — helping bring divisive political strategies to nonpartisan school boards across the country and quietly influencing what children are taught about race, gender and sexuality. As these conflicts continue to roil communities, the story of what happened in Southlake — and how it inspired conservative activists nationwide — reveals what’s at stake as voters consider competing visions for America’s schools in the 2024 election.

Southlake’s fight began after a series of racist incidents spurred local officials to roll out a plan to make the affluent Carroll Independent School District more inclusive. Then came the backlash.

In 2020, parent activists — outraged at what they depicted as anti-white and anti-American indoctrination — formed a political action committee called Southlake Families PAC, which promised to end diversity programs and elevate “Judeo-Christian values” at the suburban Carroll school district. They raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to support a slate of hard-line conservative candidates, launched attack ads accusing their opponents of being radical leftists and, in 2021, won control of the Carroll school board.

The landslide victories caught the attention of conservatives nationally.

Afterward, The Federalist, a conservative online magazine, compared Southlake’s political revolt to the early days of the tea party movement in 2010, when anti-Obama blowback propelled a new generation of far-right Republicans into power. “Only this time,” the magazine wrote, “the stakes are far higher, with conditions ripe for a new takeover.”

The Wall Street Journal editorial board praised the outcome in an op-ed titled “Southlake Says No to Woke Education,” writing, “Perhaps parents in other parts of the country will take the lesson that they can resist indoctrination that tells students they must divide and define themselves by race and gender rather than focus on learning and achievement.”

Laura Ingraham opened her nightly Fox News broadcast on May 3, 2021, with big news out of a small town in Texas. The clear message from Southlake, she told viewers of the “Ingraham Angle,” was: “We’re winning.”

Ingraham, like other Fox hosts, had spent months calling on her audience to fight the rise of Black Lives Matter and critical race theory in American society. “More of you are smartly heeding that call, because in Saturday’s election in Southlake, Texas, candidates opposed to the far-left BLM curriculum won the two open seats on the Carroll Independent School District board with nearly 70% of the vote.”

It may have been the first time that a Fox News prime-time program led with the results of a local school board election. Six months after former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election defeat, conservative pundits appeared hungry for something to celebrate — some indication that the political winds were shifting ahead of the 2022 midterms. After years of selling their viewers a dark vision of America besieged by sinister forces from the left, the Southlake story appeared to present the bosses at Fox News with an opportunity to feed their audience something markedly different: hope that their side would prevail.

Activist Chris Rufo, the man most responsible for turning critical race theory into a conservative battle cry, was so excited by the outcome in Southlake that he apparently failed to fact check his celebratory tweet: “In 2020, Joe Biden narrowly won this district. Today, anti-woke candidates won by 40 points,” Rufo wrote, conflating Southlake’s 2020 presidential results — which skewed heavily for Trump — with those of the broader, more moderate Tarrant County, whose electorate had swung narrowly for Biden.

Nevertheless, Rufo’s point was fast becoming conventional wisdom on the right: Southlake, the argument went, held the answer for how Republicans could regain the ground they’d lost over the years in fast-growing and rapidly diversifying suburbs nationally. Republicans believed they could motivate voters by recasting nonpartisan school board elections as fights for the soul of America.

Days later, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon declared on his War Room podcast: “The path to save the nation is very simple — it’s going to go through the school boards.” That summer, the Center for Renewing America, a leading think tank in a conservative consortium that’s now preparing for a second Trump administration, published a 33-page handbook for taking control of school boards, holding Southlake Families PAC up as a model.

Mike Hixenbaugh author of They Came for the Schools.

The sense that the strategy was a winner for conservatives nationwide was also the headline message that spring when the leaders of Southlake Families PAC threw themselves a victory party at the home of Leigh Wambsganss, a longtime local conservative activist and one of the political action committee’s co-founders.

The chairman of the Texas GOP, Allen West, had come to celebrate their success — and issue a challenge.

“This is a best practice,” he said. “This is a lesson learned. You have to put this in a white paper. You have to make a video. You’ve got to make sure that you export this to every single major suburban area in the United States of America.”

West paused between those words for emphasis: Every. Single. Major. Suburban. Area. In the United States.

In August 2021, 17 months after the initial shutdowns to prevent the spread of Covid, a disturbing scene unfolded in a darkened parking lot outside a school board meeting in Williamson County, Tennessee, a wealthy and predominantly white community in the suburbs south of Nashville.

As the Delta variant of the coronavirus burned through the population that summer, filling hospital beds across the nation, the school board in Williamson County had made the politically divisive decision to follow the advice of public health experts and reinstate the district’s mandatory mask policy for the upcoming school year.

After the vote, an angry crowd swarmed mask proponents as they headed to their cars. “Take that mask off,” a woman shouted, getting into the face of another resident. Later, two men followed a mask-wearing official to his car, shouting, “We know who you are!”

“You can leave freely,” one of the men yelled, “but we will find you!” The other man made the threat more explicit: “You will never be allowed in public again!”

Video of the altercation went viral on social media, becoming the latest in a line of chaotic school board meetings to make headlines that summer, as conservative parents nationwide revolted against pandemic safety measures and lessons on racism that they attacked under the right’s ever-expanding definition of critical race theory.

Similar scenes had played out in Loudoun County, Virginia, where parents opposed to a district diversity plan shut down a meeting chanting, “Shame on you!” and in Rockwood, Missouri, where a school superintendent felt compelled to hire private security to stand guard outside the homes of Black senior administrators responsible for overseeing the district’s diversity and inclusion programs.

School board meetings grew so volatile that summer and into early fall that the National School Boards Association wrote a letter to President Joe Biden requesting help assuring the safety of school employees and board members. Attorney General Merrick Garland followed up by sending a memo to the FBI and federal prosecutors noting a “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” against school officials, and directing agency leaders to come up with strategies to address those concerns.

Conservative activists seized on the missive to spread a conspiracy theory that the Justice Department planned to target parents opposed to critical race theory and to prosecute angry suburban moms as “domestic terrorists.”

Many conservative parents embraced that title as a badge of honor that summer as they rallied around new national groups like No Left Turn in Education and Moms for Liberty that had formed to take the fight to school boards.

Robin Steenman had launched a Moms for Liberty chapter to oppose the mask mandate and lessons on racism in Williamson County, the site of the ugly parking lot showdown. An Air Force veteran and white mother of three, Steenman’s own children did not attend public school, but as a taxpayer in the Nashville suburb, she was determined to rid the district of any lessons or curriculum that she believed focused too heavily on the history of racism in America.

A member of Moms for Liberty protests against mandatory face masks for students in Brevard County, Florida. Conservative parent protests that started during the COVID-19 pandemic evolved from fighting masks to opposing how schools taught race, gender, and sexuality.

Although Steenman said she admired Martin Luther King Jr.’s call to judge others based only on the “content of their character,” she and her supporters wanted the district to ban the children’s book “Martin Luther King Jr. and the March on Washington,” because it contained historical images — including depictions of white firefighters blasting Black people with hoses — that might make white children feel bad about themselves.

“There’s so much positive that has happened in the 60 years since,” Steenman told a Reuters reporter, referring to several historical books she wanted removed. “But it’s all as if it never happened.”

The district refused to remove the books, arguing that they presented important historical facts in a clear, age-appropriate format. Later, the school board agreed to minor adjustments in the way teachers presented some of the material, but that did not appease Steenman, who’d come to believe that speaking at board meetings and writing stern letters wouldn’t be enough to effect real, lasting change.

If she and her supporters were going to take control of their public schools, they would need to harness the anger on display at public meetings that summer to win seats on the school board itself.

To do that, Steenman looked to the example set in a Texas town some 700 miles away.

In October 2021, five months after Southlake Families PAC’s landslide election victory, Steenman filed paperwork to form a new political action committee of her own. She and her allies named it Williamson Families PAC and quickly launched a website, which featured a mission statement taken nearly word for word from SouthlakeFamilies.org.

“Williamson County is built upon the rock of Judeo-Christian values that are the foundation of our country. We welcome all that share our concerns and conservative values.”

Steenman confirmed her inspiration in an interview with The Tennessee Star, a conservative online news site: “Williamson Families is a recipe that’s been done before. It was done in Southlake, Texas,” she said. “So I said, ‘Wow, that really works. That could really work here.’”

Like Southlake Families, Steenman’s political action committee held a kick-off celebration. Instead of Allen West, theirs featured John Rich, a popular country singer known for supporting Republican politicians. And like the Texas-based PAC that inspired it, Williamson Families quickly raked in nearly $200,000 and set its sights on recruiting candidates for the following year’s school board elections.

As in Southlake, Steenman and others on the PAC privately interviewed prospective candidates, looking to weed out those who were insufficiently conservative. The Williamson County-based PAC also hired a heavy-hitter GOP consulting firm called Axiom Strategies — the same firm advising Southlake Families. Axiom, known for its work on Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign and Glenn Youngkin’s campaign for governor that fall in Virginia, was now in the business of bringing sophisticated, national-level political strategies to local school board races.

Williamson Families PAC succeeded in turning the local election into a high-stakes partisan battle that deeply divided the community. But it fell short of its goal of taking control of the school board in the spring of 2022, winning just two of six open seats.

The Southlake Playbook, it turns out, wasn’t the universal winner that Republican strategists had hoped for. Suburbs that favored President Joe Biden in 2020 have tended to reject anti-diversity school board candidates; those favoring Trump, as in Southlake, have tended to embrace them. And some moderate conservatives — the people Republican strategists had hoped to win back — have been turned off by right-wing attacks on public schools.

Nevertheless, Steenman and her allies in Williamson County promised to continue fighting.

And she wasn’t the only white suburbanite inspired by Southlake.

From 2021 to 2023, Ballotpedia, a nonpartisan political encyclopedia, identified more than 2,000 school board elections where candidates took a stance on the battles over racism, LGBTQ inclusion or pandemic safety measures.

Just as in Williamson County, new Southlake Families-inspired political action committees began sprouting up across the country to push some of these candidates to victory.

A group seeking to block diversity lessons in Spalding County, Georgia, formed a PAC with a mission statement including the same copied-and-pasted phrase, “unapologetically rooted in Judeo-Christian values,” and noting that the group would “welcome all that share our concerns and conservative values.”

McKinney First, a political action committee formed to root out critical race theory in another North Texas school system, included identical language on its website. To stop the spread of CRT in the west Houston suburbs, there was Spring Branch Families PAC. North of Austin, politically connected parents formed Lake Travis Families PAC.

Nearly a dozen PACs formed that year in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs alone — so many that a liberal Fort Worth newspaper coined the phrase “the Southlake Playbook” to describe the surge of conservative organizing around local nonpartisan school boards.

These clashes have had a real impact, even in districts where hard-line conservatives have failed to win control. Fearing community backlash, two-thirds of teachers nationally reported limiting instruction about political and social issues, including racism and LGBTQ topics, according to a recent survey by the Rand Corp.

Wambsganss, the Southlake Families co-founder, would go on to replicate her own strategy in several other Texas school districts while overseeing a PAC funded by a far-right Christian cellphone company called Patriot Mobile. She reported receiving more than a thousand emails after the initial Southlake Families PAC election triumph, many from conservatives looking for tips on launching their own hyper-local political action committees.

Conservative activists in the affluent majority-white suburbs west of St. Louis were among those reaching out. Organizers there said they consulted directly with Southlake Families leaders before creating Francis Howell Families PAC in 2021 with a mission of supporting school board candidates who would ensure that schoolchildren learned “respect for our nation’s founding principles.”

After they won control of the school board, the Francis Howell Families-endorsed candidates once again followed Southlake’s lead, voting to rescind an anti-racism resolution adopted in 2020 that had called for “racial healing, especially for our Black and brown students and families.” In December 2023, PAC-endorsed board members voted to cancel a Black history course at district high schools — a decision it later rolled back after critical national media coverage.

These victories were just the beginning, Wamsgnass told a conservative outlet last year, as she and her supporters began to look ahead to 2024 and beyond.

“Parents in Southlake taught parents across the country that you can be called a racist and you can be called a homophobe, knowing that none of that is true, and you can keep standing,” Wambsganss said.

“People across the country are looking for leadership,” she added. “They’re looking for a blueprint.”

To meet class size mandate, NYC officials look to virtual learning

2024-05-09T22:24:48+00:00

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To reduce New York City’s class sizes under a new state mandate, Education Department officials floated one option to help principals comply: virtual learning.

In a plan released this week outlining ways that schools could meet the law’s goals, the Education Department suggested that some students could “receive regular remote instruction, potentially reducing the overall impacts on space in schools.”

Spinning up a virtual learning program would be optional, and the plan does not force principals to choose any specific method for achieving the new caps. It suggests 11 other possible ways principals could free up space, including repurposing rooms not currently used for instruction; boosting the number of classes taught by assistant principals; running student schedules with staggered start times; and ensuring students are spread evenly across classrooms.

Virtual learning could be valuable on campuses that are tight on space as officials scramble to find ways to reduce class sizes, including lengthy and expensive construction projects or capping school enrollment.

Many schools and families struggled with virtual learning amid the chaos of citywide building shutdowns during the pandemic, but city and union officials are betting that more targeted applications can bear fruit. The Education Department now runs two remote schools, and saw success with a remote learning pilot, offering online classes to students who couldn’t take those courses at their schools. And the most recent teachers union contract has expanded schools’ ability to offer virtual learning.

The class size reduction plan is preliminary and subject to approval by the unions representing teachers and school administrators. And it’s unlikely that the state’s class size mandate will directly lead to a big increase in virtual learning in the short term, since only 40% of the city’s classrooms must comply with the new class size caps this September.

“We’re very confident we are going to be in compliance next year,” First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg said during a meeting of the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council on Thursday.

Under the law, classes must not exceed between 20 and 25 students depending on the grade level, and they also apply to virtual classrooms. Physical education and other classes involving performing groups are limited to 40 students. The law phases in over time, with 20% of classrooms per year required to comply with the new caps. All classrooms must be within those limits by 2028.

The city appears to be on track to meet the state’s requirements, and officials are requiring that all district superintendents increase the percentage of classrooms that are in compliance with the new caps by 3% next year.

“We are looking to make progress in implementing this law across the city, even as we are close to compliance for next year,” wrote Education Department spokesperson Jenna Lyle. “This includes putting $180 million in new funding into school budgets.”

Few schools signed up to offer virtual learning this year

United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew, who has pushed for class size reductions, has said that virtual options could help with space problems.

“You have less of a problem with programming your regular school day because you have less students in the building at any given time,” Mulgrew told Chalkbeat earlier this year. “It also gives you more classroom space to work with.”

The city’s virtual pilot program, allowing students to take classes from teachers on other campuses, was a boon for small schools that may have struggled to offer a full range of electives and advanced placement classes.

Under the expanded version of the program negotiated last year in the union contract, schools can offer classes during the regular school day or on evenings and weekends, allowing students to catch up on credits, pursue accelerated coursework, or go to school on a non-traditional schedule if they are working or have other responsibilities.

The contract said that 25% of high schools and 6-12 schools were eligible to offer virtual schooling this year, with all schools able to participate by the 2027-28 school year. Schools were required to sign up and neither students nor educators can be required to participate in virtual classes.

But a bureaucratic approval process created obstacles for schools to participate, according to union officials. Only 40 high schools are participating this year, though Education Department officials said 80 schools are approved for this fall with additional campuses still under consideration. (This does not include schools that allow students to attend virtual classes offered by teachers at other campuses.)

“Myself and the chancellor are more hands on now,” Mulgrew said, noting that middle and high schools are eligible to participate next year. “We both are frustrated with it.”

Walking back plan to force principals to prioritize teacher hiring

City officials also indicated that, at least for now, they will not require school leaders with vacant roles to prioritize hiring teachers over other positions — a move officials previously floated that would have constrained principals’ freedom to manage their own hiring decisions.

“We’re not eager to restrict principals’ and communities’ ability to hire who they think is most critical until we need to,” Emma Vadehra, the Education Department’s chief operating officer, said during the Thursday parent council meeting.

Some advocates have expressed worry that the city, which pushed back against the class size mandate, will not ultimately comply with the state’s requirements.

“Any plan worth the paper it is printed on must project how many classes will be reduced each year, using which levers, and with what results,” Leonie Haimson, executive director of the advocacy group Class Size Matters, said in a statement. “This document fails on every account.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney contributed reporting.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

2024 election: Colorado voters, what should the presidential candidates be talking about?

2024-04-08T17:10:04+00:00

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Educators, parents, and all Coloradans: What education issues would you like the 2024 presidential candidates to talk about, prioritize, and eventually take action on?

Tell us in a new statewide survey.

Called Voter Voices, the survey is part of a collaborative effort by newsrooms across the state to understand what Colorado voters want the candidates to focus on.

Why? Because voters are at the heart of every election. Your hopes and concerns will set the agenda for how we report and write about the issues — and the stakes — of the 2024 election.

Please take a few moments to share your thoughts. We will use your contact information only to reach out if a reporter wants to better understand your comments. If you chose to remain anonymous, your name will not appear in any story.

Please do not use autofill when completing this survey. Doing so replaces a key question with the name of your hometown.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Pro-Palestinian educators stage die-in after Chancellor Banks testifies on antisemitism

2024-05-09T03:35:33+00:00

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Dozens of pro-Palestinian educators and parent leaders staged a die-in outside the Education Department’s Lower Manhattan headquarters on Wednesday, just hours after New York City’s schools Chancellor David Banks testified at a congressional hearing focused on antisemitism.

In a nod to the bombardment of the Gaza Strip, a handful of protestors in white jumpsuits splashed with red and gray paint sprawled across the steps of Tweed Courthouse. They laid behind toppled school desks littered with stuffed animals, children’s books, and other classroom materials.

The image was a stark contrast to the congressional hearing earlier in the day that focused almost exclusively on the experiences of Jewish students and educators. Organized by NYC Educators for Palestine, the protest focused on an open letter the group wrote to Banks, raising concerns about the city favoring pro-Israeli perspectives and punishing those who support the Palestinian cause.

“We have seen a constant live stream of dead babies on our social media, this impacts us collectively, and it personally impacts the Palestinian students and educators who have lost family in this genocide,” a protester said, reading from the letter.

The open letter was endorsed by several groups, including the Movement of Rank and File Educators, a social justice-oriented caucus within the teachers union; the parent community education council representing Brooklyn District 14; and, Teachers Unite, a group that focuses on racial justice.

“These hearings, and the culture of intimidation they create,” the reader continued, “make our schools and communities less safe.” (Israel has been accused of genocide in an international court, though the country’s leaders strenuously deny the allegation.)

Wednesday’s hearing was conducted by the same committee that has felled multiple college presidents. Republican members of Congress grilled Banks about how his administration has responded to a handful of specific incidents, including a chaotic student demonstration at Hillcrest High School where students demanded a pro-Israel teacher be fired.

Banks conceded that “there have been unacceptable incidents of antisemitism in our schools” but defended the city’s response to them, noting officials have taken disciplinary action against students and educators.

Still, Banks said that the city’s public schools are also contending with Islamophobia, a point that drew virtually no attention from lawmakers. Out of 281 incidents of religious bias in the city’s schools since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 42% involved antisemitism, while 30% targeted Muslim students, Banks said.

In response to a question from a local lawmaker about whether the city could simultaneously combat many forms of bias, Banks responded: “Not only can we, but we must.”

Banks’ assertion that the city has taken swift disciplinary measures against some students drew concern from the New York Civil Liberties Union. In a statement, Executive Director Donna Lieberman urged Banks to “recognize that both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel speech, including contested political slogans, are protected speech.”

She emphasized that the city should not punish students for speaking out.

Banks believes education can help tackle tensions

In the days leading up to the hearing, Banks said that education is part of the solution, pointing to the curriculums the Education Department is creating focused on Jewish and Muslim history and set to arrive in schools by the end of next school year.

One educator who attended the protest welcomed that approach, though she fears repercussions for talking with students about the Israel-Hamas war. More than 34,000 people have been killed by Israeli bombardments in the Gaza Strip in the wake of Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7 that killed about 1,200 Israelis.

“I would love this conversation to be happening in classrooms because students need to know they’re part of a historical moment,” said Sarah Elshafie, a Manhattan middle school teacher. But she said there is a culture of fear around teaching the subject.

“Principals at large have not supported educators in teaching this as a conflict,” Elshafie said.

The protest included several rounds of chants, including, “how many children have to die before you hear their freedom cry” and “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free” — a controversial message that Banks told lawmakers would not be tolerated in the city’s schools. Some Palestinian activists see it as a call for freedom and equality, while some Jews see it as a call for the elimination of Israel.

Clash at protest between pro-Palestinian group and pro-Israeli parent

The protest proceeded peacefully, with a small group of police officers insisting only that a narrow path along the Education Department’s steps remain passable.

But nearly two hours into the demonstration, a pro-Israel parent sat on the Education Department steps in the middle of a throng of protestors holding a postcard-sized image of a woman with the tagline “murdered by Hamas.”

The parent, Rachel Fremmer, a member of the Citywide Council for High Schools, said she was there to attend a previously scheduled meeting at the Education Department’s headquarters. She said she often carries the image with her.

After the police unsuccessfully tried for several minutes to convince her to leave the protest, three officers grabbed her by the arms and legs and carried her a few feet away, though they did not handcuff or arrest her.

Asked why she sat in the middle of the protest, Fremmer said: “I want them to see it,” referring to the hostage card she carries. “I’ve had people literally cover their eyes when I show them a hostage photo.”

The police then whisked Fremmer into the Education Department building so she could attend the parent council meeting.

Rachel Fremmer, a member of the Citywide Council for High Schools, attempts to sit in the middle of the protest. She holds a photo of someone with the tagline “murdered by Hamas.” Police forcibly remove her but no arrest pic.twitter.com/ymCRml4Uu7
— Alex Zimmerman (@AGZimmerman) May 8, 2024

The group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators immediately drew a comparison to the police response on college campuses that has led to hundreds of arrests and concern among high school students who are preparing to attend college next year.

“Where was that energy on college campuses in New York City?” Tajh Sutton, the president of the District 14 parent council in Brooklyn, said to the assembled crowd. “Why don’t our children elicit the same respect?”

Tensions between parent leaders at the protest offered a glimpse into how intractable the issue may be for Banks and other school leaders. Sutton, for instance, has faced backlash for supporting a student walkout calling for a ceasefire and is being investigated under a relatively new rule regarding the conduct of parent leaders.

Banks is “a district leader that is looking to solve a very unique policy problem, which is to essentially implement peace,” said Jonathan Collins, the associate director of the Center for Educational Equity at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

Collins said the challenges will only multiply if student-oriented protests grow.

“Banks was hesitant to support the idea of students exercising their rights through protest, but that’s a critical form of political expression,” he said of the chancellor’s testimony. “What happens as students want more than structured civil dialogue?”

Julian Shen-Berro contributed reporting.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

On the hot seat in Washington, Chancellor Banks defends NYC schools’ response to antisemitism

2024-05-08T19:42:54+00:00

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New York City schools Chancellor David Banks defended his record on antisemitism during a tense congressional hearing Wednesday, maintaining that schools have consistently responded to troubling incidents with both education and discipline.

Banks joined school leaders from Montgomery Country, Maryland and Berkeley, California, along with an American Civil Liberties Union staff attorney, in a hearing convened by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce about “confronting pervasive antisemitism in K-12 schools.”

Wednesday’s hearing came in the wake of previous high-profile committee hearings with university leaders that helped lead to the resignation of multiple college presidents. Republican members of Congress say the hearings have shown that higher education leaders have failed to adequately address antisemitism on their campuses in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas. They used the hearing to press K-12 leaders like Banks about similar concerns.

When he introduced the panel, GOP Rep. Aaron Bean said that the aftermath of last year’s attack revealed “some of the ugliest” ideas, and that “our education system has failed” to stop those ideas.

“Jewish students fear riding the bus, wearing their kippah to school, or even just eating and breathing as a Jewish student,” Bean said.

Banks, who presides over the nation’s largest school system with more than 900,000 students and roughly 150,000 staff members, acknowledged that the system’s diversity means “our classrooms have not been insulated from the global stage.”

“There have been unacceptable incidents of antisemitism in our schools,” he said.

Banks emphasized both an education-focused response, including the introduction of several new curricula on preventing hate crimes and on the Holocaust and Jewish history. But he also said that Education Department officials have “removed, disciplined, or are in the process of disciplining” 12 staff members related to incidents of antisemitism.

At least 30 students have been suspended for their roles in antisemitic incidents, he said.

The incidents of hate in city schools following the Oct. 7 attack have not just been directed towards Jewish students, Banks noted. Out of a total of 281 incidents of religious bias in city schools since Oct. 7, 42% involved antisemitism, while 30% were directed against Muslim students, he said.

Asked by Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a New York Democrat and former Bronx public school principal, whether the city could combat antisemitism while simultaneously confronting other forms of bias, Banks said: “Not only can we, but we must.”

Banks rebuts claim about antisemitism among school’s students

Several of the most heated exchanges at Wednesday’s hearing focused on the fallout from a raucous student demonstration at Hillcrest High School in Queens — Banks’ alma mater — where students filled the hallway demanding the ouster of a teacher who posted a picture on social media shortly after the Oct. 7 attacks holding a sign that read “I Stand with Israel.”

After the demonstration, Banks called the “the notion … these kids are radicalized and antisemitic” the “height of irresponsibility.”

When Rep. Burgess Owens, a Utah Republican, challenged him about that comment, Banks told Owens he stood by it, and argued that “the entire school was not radicalized.” He added that “the kids who were responsible, who led that effort, engaged, clearly, in an act of antisemitism, and I dealt with that.” A “number” of these students were suspended, the chancellor said.

Banks also stressed that he removed Hillcrest’s principal, Scott Milczewski, midway through the year over concerns about his leadership. Milczewski was moved to a job in the Education Department’s central bureaucracy.

Several representatives grilled Banks on why Milczewski was still employed by the city’s Education Department and accused him of misrepresenting Milczewski’s status.

“How can Jewish students feel safe in New York City schools when you can’t even manage to terminate the principal of ‘Open Season on Jews High School’?” demanded Rep. Brandon Williams, a Republican from New York.

Banks responded that while he didn’t think Milczewski was fit to continue leading Hillcrest, employees have due process, and the chancellor doesn’t have the authority to terminate someone just because he disagrees with what they’ve done.

Banks also faced heat over Hillcrest from New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, who noted that, earlier in the hearing, Banks appeared to answer “yes” to a question about whether staff members about Hillcrest had been fired, despite his continued role working for the department.

“That’s concerning to me that you have him in a senior position,” she said.

(Rep. Lisa McClain, a Michigan Republican, asked Banks, “So, you fired the people?” Banks replied, “Yes, we moved people, absolutely.”)

Emerson Sykes, the ACLU attorney, warned that while schools are required by federal law to respond to “hostile” educational environments, certain criticism of Israel and its government are protected under the First Amendment.

“Firing may be appropriate in certain circumstances,” he said. “But I think we need to think about how we can address antisemitism, change hearts and minds, make children safe, without only looking to the most punitive tool in our toolbox.”

Lawmakers highlight allegations of rampant antisemitism

Lawmakers raised concerns about the climate at other New York City schools in recent months.

For example, they brought up allegations of unchecked student antisemitism at Origins High School in southern Brooklyn that are now the subject of a federal lawsuit.

Among the claims in the lawsuit are that dozens of students marched through the hallways chanting “F*** the Jews.

Banks said Education Department officials found “no evidence” in their investigation of mass marching through the hallways with hateful chants. But he did say they found other “deeply troubling” antisemitic incidents at the school. He said he couldn’t comment further because of the ongoing litigation.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican, asked Banks about a map of the Middle East in an elementary school classroom at P.S. 261 in Brooklyn that omitted Israel. The school’s Arabic arts program receives funding from a foundation tied to the Qatari government, and Foxx expressed concern that the foundation was pushing unvetted materials into city public school classrooms.

Banks, however, said that the map wasn’t provided by the Qatari foundation. The teacher found it on her own during a visit to Jerusalem, he said. And while Banks thought the map was antisemitic and had the map removed, after talking to the teacher, he said that she didn’t intend it to be antisemitic. (The map had been hanging in the classroom for more than a decade.)

Near the end of the hearing, Banks repeated a criticism that he had leveled in the days before his testimony: that the event was designed to produce “viral moments” rather than actual solutions to complex problems.

He also blamed the problem in part on young people’s emotional but misguided responses to what they see on social media.

“Ultimately, if we really care about solving for antisemitism, it’s not about gotcha moments,” he said. “It’s about teaching.”

Bowman and Connecticut Rep. Jahana Hayes, a Democrat and another former educator, emphasized the need to combat other forms of discrimination, including Islamophobia, alongside antisemitism.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

As Chancellor Banks heads to Washington for antisemitism hearing, NYC is on the offensive

2024-05-07T21:09:55+00:00

All eyes will be on New York City schools Chancellor David Banks on Wednesday as he is set to testify before a Republican-led congressional committee about antisemitism in K-12 schools.

It’s the same committee that has skewered college presidents of elite universities— high-profile hearings that led to the resignation of presidents from Harvard and University of Pennsylvania, and marked the start of Columbia University’s encampment.

New York City schools appear to be on the offensive as Banks heads to Washington, D.C., joined by school officials from Maryland’s Montgomery County and Berkeley, California. All three are liberal-leaning districts with sizable Jewish populations that have faced alleged antisemitic incidents since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and their leaders are likely to face heated questioning from the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Some New York City teachers have made national headlines after being targeted by students with antisemitic speech and other threats. Meanwhile some educators who have expressed pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel sentiments have said they’ve faced harsh discipline from school administrators and have been threatened by parents.

In recent days, Banks has emphasized that the Education Department has assembled an interfaith council and developed curricula on Jewish and Muslim history. This fall, the Education Department will launch a Holocaust teaching guide created in partnership with the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Next spring, city schools are expected to expand its “Hidden Voices” series — which celebrates the stories of diverse people often left of history books — to include Jewish and Muslim Americans.

The city has also held training for middle and high school leaders on how to navigate “difficult conversations” and met with all principals to review the disciplinary code, the city’s anti-bullying program, and crisis de-escalation techniques.

Those efforts have won mixed reactions from principals. One Brooklyn high school leader said he appreciated the “difficult conversations” training.

“We talked a lot about norms and community values, taking an inquiry stance, doing a lot of listening,” said the principal, who requested anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak. But he also wondered whether the training would be effective if it isn’t sustained over time.

“There are just so many competing priorities,” he said. “It just depends on what’s in the public eye at the moment.”

Many teens have complained that they’re hungry for information and critical dialogue on the crisis in the Middle East, but their schools are struggling to respond. Earlier this school year, students and staff from some schools in the nation’s largest school system staged a walkout calling for a ceasefire. More than 34,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the Israeli bombardments began after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, according to reports.

Some NYC teachers feel unsafe at their schools

At Origins High School in Brooklyn, a teacher, who is Jewish, alleged that her school was rife with antisemitism, with little response from administrators. After Education Department officials refuted the claims, the teacher, Danielle Kaminsky, filed a federal lawsuit last week claiming that students marched through the campus chanting “F— the Jews,” drawing swastikas on a Jewish student’s property, and exclaiming to a Jewish teacher that they “want to kill all jews.”

Kaminsky has since transferred to another school, according to the New York Post, which reported that she spoke last week at a congressional briefing in advance of Wednesday’s hearing.

“Students and staff deserve to be safe and respected in their school and Origins High School is no different. We will review this lawsuit,” Education Department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer said in a statement.

In another incident that garnered national media attention, a raucous student demonstration erupted at Hillcrest in November after students saw a Jewish teacher’s social media picture with her holding a sign saying “I Stand With Israel.” Karen Marder posted it shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. The students tried to get into her classroom as they called for her to be fired. Marder was elsewhere in the building when that happened, but dealing with the trauma and press coverage around the incident will still take time to heal, she recently wrote in a USA Today piece she penned with American Federation of Teachers head Randi Weingarten.

Although she was given the option to transfer to another school, Marder decided to return to Hillcrest.

“I stayed to use the experience to connect, to listen, learn, debunk misinformation and combat intolerance,” she wrote. “I had to understand what messages they were absorbing and where they were coming from. I had to answer their questions, address their fears and confusions and simply be there.”

On Tuesday, ahead of the hearing, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights sent a letter to school districts around the country reiterating their obligation to protect Jewish and Muslim students from harassment and hostile school environments while also respecting students’ free speech rights. The letter laid out examples and described when political speech might cross the line into attacks targeted at national origin or shared ancestry.

Worries the hearing will focus on ‘viral moments’

Michael Mulgrew, head of New York City’s teachers union, praised the chancellor’s response to the various incidents here, saying any time there’s been an issue, “we have jumped on it very seriously and quickly.”

Ultimately, Mulgurew said, it was up to the adults to step up.

“How do we use this horrendous, horrible situation that’s going on, with all the adults yelling at each other with everything going on in Palestine and in Israel? And how do we try to use this as an educational opportunity to say, we can have a better world,” he said.

Banks told reporters last week he believed that Wednesday’s hearing would focus more on “viral moments and empty soundbites and cheap political talk” than substantive solutions.

“Trying to create gotcha moments is not how you ultimately solve problems that you really, deeply care about,” he said. “I would ask for Congress to figure out a way to bring people together from across the nation to help to solve for this insidious level of hate.”

Erica Meltzer contributed.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Election results: Braun easily wins the Republican primary for governor

2024-05-08T01:37:37+00:00

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This article was originally published by Indiana Capital Chronicle. It was edited by Chalkbeat Indiana and combined with reporting from a voter guide.

U.S. Sen. Mike Braun soundly defeated challenges from five other hopefuls to clinch the Republican nomination in the race for governor on Tuesday, winning just after polls in the Central time zone closed at 6 p.m.

“I intend to be the most entrepreneurial governor the state has ever had; the most accessible,” Braun told the crowds to chants of “I like Mike.”

“We’re going to take this state to a place we’ve never seen before.”

The other candidates running in the Republican primary for governor were: former Secretary of Commerce Brad Chambers, Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Fort Wayne businessman Eric Doden, former Attorney General Curtis Hill and faith-motivated candidate Jamie Reitenour.

In predominantly Republican Indiana, Braun is likely to be Gov. Eric Holcomb’s successor in November but faces a challenge from Democrat Jennifer McCormick and Libertarian Donald Rainwater. McCormick was the only Democrat to qualify for a gubernatorial run, and Rainwater got the Libertarian nod in a private party convention.

McCormick, in a release, called the choice between Braun and her one of “polarization and division” versus “optimism and opportunity.”

“The primary results are in, setting up a clear choice this November,” said McCormick. “As your governor, I will stand firm in my commitment to the values that define us as Hoosiers. I will fight to restore our reproductive rights and freedoms, champion for our kids, and ensure Hoosiers earn the wages they deserve. Indiana values reflect those of common sense, civility, and bipartisanship.”

Braun said three competitors had called him offering their congratulations during the 8 p.m. speech but didn’t provide specifics. Crouch said she left a voicemail.

Braun consistently led in several polls leading up to Tuesday’s primary, though large blocs of voters appeared to be undecided in the final days of the race.

A group seeking to moderate the extremes of Hoosier politics, Recenter Indiana, endorsed Chambers over Braun and paid for billboards ahead of the May election, urging Democrats to pull Republican ballots.

However, only Braun nabbed an endorsement from former President Donald Trump.

In Indiana, the candidate for the lieutenant governor position is filled in a private convention, but Braun said he would submit a recommendation for his future running mate.

Braun’s stances on education in Indiana

Braun previously participated in a Q&A with Indiana Capital Chronicle about education issues that was published in March. Here’s a look back at what Braun said:

Q: Lawmakers are considering moving to education savings accounts for all Indiana students. Do you support this move and, if so, where do we come up with the new dollars to cover this major school choice expansion?

A: School choice is about Hoosier parents having the freedom to make decisions about their kids’ education. Education savings accounts — where a student’s public funds are kept in an account similar to a Health Savings Account with parents in the driver’s seat — will be something I will look at closely. ESA programs have had success in states like Florida that have tried them, and I’m always looking for ways to put more power in parents’ hands when it comes to their children’s education.

Note: In 2023, the General Assembly included in the state budget a voucher buildout that makes Indiana’s current Choice Scholarship program virtually universal. Currently, ESAs in Indiana are limited to students who require special education services, though a law passed earlier this month expands eligibility to the siblings of students who have an ESA, even if those siblings do not have disabilities themselves.

Q: Indiana’s average teacher salary is currently about $58,531. Gov. Eric Holcomb’s goal has been to increase that average to $60,000. What, if anything, should the state do to raise teacher pay and increase recruitment and retention of Hoosier educators?

A: We spend over half of our budget on K-12 education. Are we getting the best results we can from that investment? We need to make sure Hoosiers’ investment in education is being spent wisely on things that will give students’ better outcomes — like attracting and retaining great teachers — and not being gobbled up by administration, waste, or programs that aren’t showing results. I’ll approach our K-12 education the same way I approached solving problems in my business: rolling up my sleeves and making sure every dollar is getting maximum return for Hoosiers.

Note: Currently, Indiana law requires a minimum salary of $40,000 for each full-time teacher. Most, but not all, Hoosier districts currently meet the salary requirement, however. State data released earlier this year showed that — while the Indiana teacher workforce is growing — fewer teachers are being retained. In recent years, multiple initiatives spearheaded by Indiana lawmakers and state education officials intend to boost teacher numbers. That includes scholarships and multiple other incentive programs meant to recruit and retain students in education preparation programs.

Q: The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to significant levels of learning loss for students across Indiana. Recovery efforts are still underway. What more do you want the state to do to get Hoosier kids back on track? What role(s) should parents play in the comeback?

A: It wasn’t the virus that caused learning loss for our kids. It was keeping schools shut down and our kids in masks long after it was clear that it didn’t make sense. My approach to education comes as a parent and from serving on my local school board for 10 years. Parents are the primary stakeholder in their kids’ education. I clashed with the Biden administration’s secretary of education at a Senate hearing when he wouldn’t accept that simple fact, and it will be the centerpiece of my approach to education as governor.

Q: Indiana is in the midst of increasing credentialing and educational attainment among Hoosiers. Much of the prior emphasis has been on college-going and degree attainment, but new initiatives are increasingly focused on career- and skills-based learning. What do you think is most important for Indiana to focus on now as the demand for skilled workers grows?

A: We have not done enough to encourage career and technical education. Every student in Indiana needs to know that a four-year degree is not the only path to a good-paying, fulfilling career. As someone who has employed thousands of Hoosiers, I know that there are many skills that Indiana businesses need right now that are not being addressed at scale. Touring all 92 counties every year, I’ve seen excellent examples of high school programs that partner with Hoosier employers to empower students to work on real world skills like CNC manufacturing where they can hit the ground running on a good-paying career right out of high school. We need to foster and expand these programs.

Note: Indiana is in the midst of a new technical education overhaul for high schoolers across the state that seeks to increase work-based learning opportunities and transform how younger Hoosiers get job-ready. The latest state data showed that only half of Indiana’s 2021 high school graduates pursued some form of college education beyond high school. It marks the state’s lowest college-going rate in recent history, but the decline has been ongoing for the last five years.

Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com. Follow Indiana Capital Chronicle on Facebook and Twitter.

Voter guide: 4 Indiana districts are asking voters for funding in the May primary election

2024-05-01T19:34:29+00:00

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This voter guide was updated May 1 to include Fremont Community Schools’ referendum.

This May, four Indiana school districts will ask voters to approve funding to do things like raise teacher pay, continue programs supported by pandemic relief that will soon expire, and improve school safety.

These ballot measures seeking tax revenue will be on the primary election ballots on May 7 in Blue River Valley Schools, Brown County Schools, Fremont Community Schools, and the Metropolitan School District of Pike Township.

School districts can seek voter approval for referendums to pay for operating costs, as well as construction and safety expenses. They need a simple majority to pass.

The ballot language shows the percentage that school property taxes would increase from the base amount going to schools, not the percentage that property taxes overall would increase.

Additionally, a law enacted last year requires school districts in Marion, St. Joseph, Vanderburg, and Lake counties to share revenue from ballot measures for operating costs with charter schools. That law applies to one district on May 7, Pike Township, which is the first district in Marion County to hold a referendum since this law went into effect.

Here’s what to know about each district’s referendum:

Pike wants to fund pandemic programs, attract teachers

Rate: $0.24 per $100 of assessed property value for eight years

Estimated annual revenue: $14.5 million

For the first time, Pike Township is asking voters to help fund operations. The tax rate would be 24 cents per $100 of net assessed value for eight years.

The ballot measure would fund three key areas: continuing programs and staffing added since the pandemic, attracting and retaining teachers, and school safety and security.

Out of the total funding, $4.5 million would continue programming and keep staff who are supported by federal COVID relief.

The funding would cover everything from 1:1 computing devices and academic interventionists to social workers and a new curriculum to help students cope with traumas outside the classroom. It would support salaries and benefits for nearly 60 staffers.

“The funds are going away, but the needs are still very much there,” said Pike Superintendent Larry Young said.

Another $9 million would help Pike Township offer competitive salaries and attract top educators to the district, Young said. The funding would cover instructional staff, but also custodians and secretaries.

Finally, an estimated $1 million would pay for additional school resource officers and safety personnel to the district, although Young said there’s not a specific number. It would also fund security upgrades, including a security system that multiple people can walk through at once.

Pike must share referendum funds with charter schools that enroll a student living in the district and opt in.

However, 15 charters are seeking to receive money from Pike’s referendum, according to school board documents. If they ultimately do, the schools collectively will receive more than $412,000 annually of the estimated $14.5 million. The largest amounts would go to Indiana Math and Science Academy (roughly $81,000) and Herron Charter (roughly $71,000).

The average assessed value for a homeowner in the school district is $237,200, which means the referendum’s average tax increase would be $295.20 annually.

Property owners can also use this calculator on the Pike Township Schools website to see how much their taxes would change if the ballot measure passes.

Reviving career education, theater in Brown County Schools

Rate: $0.10 per $100 of assessed property value for eight years

Estimated annual revenue: $1,879,051

Brown County schools is seeking a renewal of its 2016 operating referendum, but at a slightly higher rate than before — 10 cents per $100 of assessed property value for eight years, rather than eight cents.

The referendum would generate around $1.9 million in annual revenue for the district, with the bulk of the funding earmarked for salaries, benefits, and programs, according to the district’s spending plan. Around $188,000 will be set aside for programming at a Career Resource Center.

One of the largest expenditures — around $650,000 — is a plan to increase teacher salaries by $5,000 in order to make the district compensation more competitive, according to a district presentation. Their salaries in Brown County schools start at just over $40,000 a year.

Another $255,000 is earmarked for a 5% pay bump for non-certified staff to increase retention, and $356,000 would go to sustaining current and future salary levels.

The remaining $423,000 would fund new positions in special education, career and technical education, arts, and work-based learning. Some of this funding will allow Brown County schools to reinstate career and technical education classes, as well as theater at Brown County High School.

The district enrolled around 1,500 students in 2024 — a drop of over 300 students since 2018. A presentation from the district says that the enrollment drop has meant a loss of $2.3 million in funding, but that costs don’t necessarily decrease when the number of students decreases.

Brown County voters rejected the district’s most recent operating referendum proposal in 2022.

Blue River Valley seeks increase in teacher pay

Property tax rate: $0.19 per $100 of assessed value for eight years

Estimated annual revenue: $359,594

Blue River Valley Schools, which serves a portion of Henry County, plans to make its teacher pay more competitive if the first ballot measure for operating costs it’s ever put to voters gets approved.

Declining student enrollment and a state-mandated limit on property tax revenue has created a financial strain on the district — particularly in its quest to attract and retain high-quality teachers, the district said in a presentation to voters. Recent enrollment figures from Superintendent Trend McCormick indicate about 570 students, compared to the nearly 700 students it had in 2018-19.

Meanwhile, the $40,000 starting salary for teachers is the lowest among school districts in Henry County and neighboring Wayne County, according to the district.

The district’s average salary of $49,995 is also below the state’s average of $58,531 for 2023.

The district plans to use the additional revenue to increase pay for its roughly 41 teachers by at least $5,000 over two years; it would increase starting salaries to $45,000, McCormick said. The district hopes to offer a $2,500 raise in the fall of 2025 and another $2,500 raise in 2026.

The referendum would be an annual tax increase of $111.27 for a property valued at $138,100, the average residential value for homes in the district, according to the district’s referendum calculator.

Fremont Schools want to attract, retain teachers

Rate: $0.15 per $100 of assessed property value for eight years

Estimated annual revenue: $2,384,719

After voters narrowly rejected the district’s attempt to renew its referendum in 2023, the Fremont Community Schools in Steuben County is trying again with a lower rate.

The district received enough signatures from voters to hold another referendum without the waiting period required by Indiana law.

Due to the district’s debt reduction efforts, many voters may actually see a decrease in their property taxes earmarked for schools, said Superintendent William Stitt, who added that his own taxes would decrease by $60 annually.

The bulk of the 2024 referendum — around $1.66 million — is earmarked for retaining and attracting teachers and staff.

That’s the district’s top priority, Stitt said. While many districts have struggled with labor shortages, Stitt said Fremont schools started the last two years with every position, from teachers to bus drivers, filled.

Without those funds, teachers may face layoffs leading to larger class sizes, according to the district’s referendum materials. Science, special education, and English as a second language positions would be at risk, and programs for at-risk students and gifted and talented students would be reduced.

“We want to keep those people, and that means being competitive and having competitive salaries,” Stitt said.

The district enrolls just under 1,000 students and has 158 teachers and staff, according to its website.

Referendum funds will also help the district maintain its after-school and extracurricular programs, and allow schools to hire new teachers.

Approximately $424,000 will go to academic programming, while the remaining $300,000 is needed to enhance school security according to the district’s spending plan and other materials.

Stitt said this may include an emergency alert system for teachers and staff that does not depend on cell service, which can be spotty in Fremont, he said.

Correction May 7, 2024: A previous version of this story gave an incorrect figure for the annual revenue that Brown County schools’ referendum would raise. It would raise around $1.9 million.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Marion County schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. She also covers access to higher education and Warren Township Schools. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

Hillsdale-linked charter group withdraws applications in Tennessee

2022-09-29T20:16:22+00:00

A charter group linked to Michigan’s Hillsdale College on Thursday abruptly pulled its three applications to open schools in Tennessee following public outrage over controversial statements made by the college’s president earlier in the year.

Dolores Gresham, who chairs American Classical Education’s board of directors, notified the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission that the charter network was halting its appeals process before the state this year.

The decision came just days before the commission was to vote on the network’s applications to open independently operated, taxpayer-funded public schools in Madison, Montgomery, and Rutherford counties, after school boards in all three places voted overwhelmingly this summer to reject their proposals.

The retreat puts an end — at least, for now — to the contentious battle over the network’s future in Tennessee.

But in a statement, Gresham suggested the group may apply during another year.

“We believe, with complete conviction, that there will be many future opportunities in Tennessee as there are in most of America,” Gresham said. “We look forward to applying for additional charter schools where local parents, teachers and students desire excellent education alternatives.”

In her withdrawal letter to Commission Chairman Tom Griscom, Gresham noted that the panel had declined to delay its scheduled Oct. 5 vote so American Classical could “address concerns and clarify confusion and misconceptions raised by Commission staff in each of the public hearings earlier this month.”

Dolores Gresham chairs the board of directors of American Classical Education.

Gresham, a former Republican state senator who is one of four Tennesseans on the group’s board of directors, did not specify what those concerns were. However, numerous issues — including questions about the adequacy of local public engagement and the network’s plan for serving students with disabilities — were raised during the hearings, as well as in written public comments from Tennesseans.

She also cited the commission’s Oct. 5 “meeting structure” that “will not allow Commissioners to hear directly from community members whose interests lie at the heart of the Commission’s work.”

Chase Ingle, a spokesman for the commission, declined to comment about discussions between American Classical and the state panel’s staff. “Any applicant has the right to withdraw an application in our process,” he told Chalkbeat.

The commission’s vote was expected to test the independence of the commission’s nine members, all of whom were appointed by Gov. Bill Lee.

Earlier this year, Lee said he wanted the Hillsdale group to open at least 50 charter schools in Tennessee. The Republican governor also pushed for a 2019 law creating the appellate panel, leading some critics to charge that the process was skewed to approve more charter schools, especially those related to the small conservative Christian college in south central Michigan.

But scrutiny of the process was elevated when Hillsdale President Larry Arnn declared in June that teachers are “trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country.” The remarks, caught by a hidden camera and broadcast by Nashville WTVF reporter Phil Williams, sparked public outrage directed at both Arnn and Lee, who was on stage with Arnn and has refused to disavow his words.

A spokeswoman for Lee did not immediately respond when asked Thursday about American Classical’s withdrawal.

However, House Education Committee Chairman Mark White, one of Tennessee’s leading charter advocates, said he was pleased with the development.

“I believe this to be a good decision by Hillsdale charters at this time due to the events this past summer,” the Memphis Republican told Chalkbeat, referring to the fallout over Arnn’s remarks.

In August, White had said Arnn’s highly publicized words had made it harder for American Classical and every would-be charter operator in Tennessee.

“It’s set us back years,” he told Chalkbeat at the time.

This story has been updated with new information.

Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Hundreds of NYC schools have space to reduce class sizes, teachers union contends

2024-05-07T21:02:49+00:00

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New York City’s teachers union released an analysis Tuesday that contends hundreds of schools have enough space to meet the requirements of a state class size mandate.

About 856 schools have sufficient classroom space in their buildings to reduce class sizes under new state caps that were passed into law in 2022, the analysis shows. The union estimates that the city would need to hire about 3,000 additional teachers to reduce class sizes at these schools.

The union’s report only looked at the 1,300 city schools that receive federal dollars that support low-income students. Union officials said they focused on those schools because the state’s class size law requires the city to prioritize high-need campuses, though the law will apply to all schools once it is fully phased in. (The city operates about 1,600 public schools.)

Under the law, classes may not exceed 20 students from kindergarten through third grade, 23 students in grades 4-8, and 25 students in high school (physical education and other classes involving performing groups are limited to 40 students). The law phases in gradually with 20% of classrooms per year required to comply with the new caps until all classrooms are covered in 2028.

The United Federation of Teachers was a key player pushing for the stricter class size caps, pointing to research that shows students benefit from smaller classes, though the union has raised concerns about whether the city intends to comply with the law.

“For the schools that we know have the space, it should be much easier to do this — it really is just a question of hiring additional teachers,” Michael Mulgrew, the union’s president, said during a press conference on Tuesday outside the Education Department’s Manhattan headquarters.

But education officials and experts stress that complying with the new mandate will be a challenging and expensive undertaking that involves difficult tradeoffs. About 40% of classrooms already meet the caps, meaning dramatic changes aren’t needed to comply with the law during the first two years of implementation. Things get more complicated after that.

The city will need to ramp up teacher recruitment, spending between $1.3 billion to $1.9 billion annually to hire thousands of additional teachers on top of the 3,000 to 6,000 educators who are typically hired each year, according to projections by the city and the Independent Budget Office.

“Hiring teachers, and especially in this labor market, isn’t always the easiest thing to do,” said Matthew Chingos, an Urban Institute researcher who has studied the impact of the class size law. Schools that are forced to spend more of their budgets on teachers may be constrained in funding for other programs or roles such as deans, aides, or counselors, he added.

Plus, city officials say about 500 campuses do not have enough space for additional classrooms to comply with the new caps, forcing tradeoffs such as capping enrollment or constructing new buildings at a cost city officials say could reach between $22 billion and $27 billion.

Experts have also noted that the law requires directing resources to schools with relatively lower poverty rates because high-need schools are already more likely to already have lower class sizes. Last summer, the state’s education commissioner raised concerns about the law’s equity implications.

Mulgrew acknowledged that implementing the law will get more challenging after next school year, but downplayed the notion that schools may have to cap enrollment or cut programs.

“We don’t want students being turned away, we don’t want you closing programs that work,” Mulgrew said. The union chief also waved away equity concerns about the law. “All children in New York City should benefit from this,” he said.

City Education Department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer said officials “have been in constant engagement” with the unions that represent teachers and principals, which must both sign off on the city’s class size reduction plans.

“The law required that 20 percent of classes meet the class size mandate this year, and we met that requirement,” Styer wrote. “We will continue to stay in compliance with the law.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

What to know about the upcoming state tests for grades 3-8

2023-03-23T21:50:12+00:00

It’s testing season in New York once again.

Schools across the state will administer standardized reading and math exams for grades 3-8 in April and May, as well as science exams for eighth graders in June.

With the intense attention on the pandemic’s effect on students, some schools might be ramping up their focus on the state tests. Some districts have signed up their schools for computer-based programs for math and reading, according to Nathaniel Styer, a spokesperson for the city education department. It’s part of a learning “acceleration” initiative launched earlier this year by the education department, Gothamist reported.

There might be more attention on this year’s state tests, following the spotlight on last year’s dip in national test scores, which also showed drops in fourth grade math scores in New York City.

But there’s a big caveat with the state tests: This year, the exams are based on new learning standards and can’t be compared to results from the last school year, when nearly half of students passed reading exams and 38% passed math.

Many educators and families argue that testing takes away classroom time and doesn’t tell the full story of how a student is doing — a viewpoint schools Chancellor David Banks has previously echoed. Others believe it is a useful tool.

State officials said the tests are just “one tool” that helps teachers understand their students’ academic needs.

Here are some things you should know about the upcoming exams:

When are the tests and how will they be administered at schools?

Schools will give the state English test over a consecutive, two-day period between April 19-21. If students are absent those days, they can make up the tests between April 24-28.

Two weeks later, students will take math tests from May 2-4 with make-up dates scheduled for May 5-11.

Eighth graders will take a science laboratory exam between May 23 and June 2 and a written exam on June 3. Make-up tests for the lab exam must happen sometime within that testing window, while make-up dates for the written exam take place between June 6-9. There will be no fourth grade science test as the state prepares to transition to a science test for fifth graders, beginning next spring.

Most New York City schools will give the exams on paper. So far, 130 schools plan to use computer-based testing, Styer said — which has sometimes come with technical issues across the state. For computer-based tests, the window for English exams will be April 19-26 and for math will be May 2-9.

While computer-based testing is currently optional, mandated computer-based state testing will begin next spring for grades 5 and 8. All schools will be required to give the exam on computers in the spring of 2026 for all grades.

How will the tests be different this year?

For the first time, this year’s state tests will be based on the “Next Generation Learning Standards,” a set of grade-level learning standards established in 2017 that were revised from the controversial Common Core standards.

The Next Gen standards, as they’re often called, were meant to clarify previously vague language from the Common Core. For example, whereas Common Core geometry standards simply stated that students must be able to “prove theorems about triangles,” Next Gen’s revisions detailed the specific theorems.

When the state’s Board of Regents adopted the new standards, some groups lauded them for not straying too far from Common Core, while other education organizations said the standards were too rigorous for early grades.

What do the new tests mean for scoring them?

New tests also mean that the state will determine new benchmarks of what makes a student proficient in reading, math, and science. This summer, teachers will participate in a process where they will decide what students need to know in order to demonstrate that they’re meeting grade-level standards – otherwise known as being proficient – on state exams. That process will impact scoring for this spring’s tests.

“It’s a matter of judgment to decide, ‘OK, we think a student who’s proficient should be able to answer this question correctly, say, two-thirds of the time,’” said Aaron Pallas, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College, giving an example.

Can we compare scores to last year?

No. Because the tests are new, the results can’t be compared to last year’s scores. Studying scores from year to year is helpful for understanding progress students have made — especially amid the pandemic.

But because state officials have warned against comparing results to previous years whenever the test changes, it’s been impossible to consider trends over the better part of a decade.

In 2016, New York allowed students to have unlimited testing time and cut the number of questions. In 2018 the state went from three testing days to two. The exams were canceled due to the pandemic in 2020, and the following school year, a fraction of students took shortened exams with just a quarter in New York City — far less than 2019.

They advised against comparisons with last year’s scores because looking at a student’s performance in 2022 versus 2019 would “ignore the enormous and, in many cases, grievous impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students, families, teachers, and entire school communities,” a spokesperson for the state education department said in a statement.

That may be frustrating to some educators, families, and researchers because it makes it impossible to see long-term trends of student performance and growth. These exams, however, are just one indicator of how well students are doing in New York, said Pallas, and should be viewed along with other metrics, such as graduation rates and college acceptance rates.

“The state testing system is just one piece of evidence that has to be put into relation to all the other things that are available,” Pallas said.

How are my child’s scores used?

Schools are federally required to administer these exams, and districts are required to assess 95% of their students.

In New York City, the exams are used to see where students are meeting grade-level expectations “as well as students that need academic intervention in literacy and math,” Styer said.

State officials have said that these scores are just one measure of how a student is doing in school. However, the scores don’t come back until the fall – meaning teachers can’t see them the year that children take the exams.

In New York City, high schools and middle schools that screen students for admission can no longer take state test scores into account.

Can I opt my child out?

Yes. While federal officials require schools to administer these tests, parents can pull their children out. New York City’s education department has previously advised parents to speak with their child’s principal if they’re interested in opting out.

Last year, 10% of students opted out of exams compared with 4% in 2019.

Federal law requires states to give assessments to at least 95% of students. If fewer students participate at a school, it could contribute to the school being labeled as struggling – which state officials define as needing “targeted” or “comprehensive” support. But generally, low test participation may only affect a school’s accountability status if it’s combined with bad results on other measures, such as chronic absenteeism, according to state education officials.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools chancellor to student activists: Don’t allow ‘discontent to morph into hatred’

2024-05-02T22:48:58+00:00

New York City schools Chancellor David Banks sought to strike a balance between affirming students’ rights to protest and disavowing hate speech as he responded to college campus unrest and previewed his upcoming testimony before Congress.

Citing his own history of involvement in student activism and social justice — including in the movement to divest from apartheid-era South Africa when he was a college student — Banks told reporters on Thursday that he supports student activism “at the highest level.”

But he urged activists not to “allow that discontent to morph into hatred for anyone.”

Banks was on the scene Tuesday night at Columbia University as police raided a building that demonstrators had occupied. He later made his way to City College of New York, where police cleared a tent encampment and made hundreds of arrests.

He said he was troubled by an experience at City College in which roughly a dozen protesters “surrounded” him when he tried to enter the quad and barred him from entering, telling him, “We own the quad.” He said he was disappointed by graffiti he saw on the campus the next morning that said “Death to America,” and “Death to Israel.”

The protests and police backlash have garnered international attention, and have been closely watched by many city high school students, some of whom are considering attending the colleges at the center of the tumult.

Banks’ comments Thursday previewed the message he intends to deliver next week before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce — the same committee that has grilled college presidents from Columbia, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and MIT in recent months.

Banks is expected to appear alongside district leaders from Maryland’s Montgomery County and Berkeley, California, to share their responses to antisemitism in K-12 schools.

New York City’s school system, the nation’s largest, has seen multiple flare-ups over the Israel-Hamas war, including a raucous student demonstration at Hillcrest High School over a teacher posting a photo with an “I Stand With Israel” sign, a citywide student walkout calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and allegations of unchecked student antisemitism at a Brooklyn High School — allegations officials have denied.

Banks emphasized that his approach has leaned on convening community members, including assembling an interfaith council, while developing curricula on Jewish and Muslim history and reviewing the disciplinary code with city principals.

His own background “as a Black man who is keenly aware of trauma and pain and oppression that my own people have suffered in America” has given him “an affinity for both the Jewish and the Palestinian people,” he added.

Banks expressed concern that the questioning from the Republican-led committee, which includes New York representative Elise Stefanik, would be more focused on “viral moments and empty soundbites and cheap political talk” than substantive solutions.

“Putting a spotlight on any particular individual and sometimes trying to create gotcha moments is not how you ultimately solve problems that you really, deeply care about,” he said. “I would ask for Congress to figure out a way to bring people together from across the nation to help to solve for this insidious level of hate.”

Banks acknowledged that the city’s response to tensions over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict hasn’t been “perfect,” but said he’s proud of the efforts so far.

He also expressed confidence in his own ability to go toe to toe with his congressional questioners, noting that he’s “from New York,” and that squaring off with Brooklyn Councilmember Lincoln Restler, a progressive Democrat, during council hearings was good preparation.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

College campus unrest has some NYC high schoolers rethinking their next steps

2024-05-02T00:48:48+00:00

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As tensions reached a boiling point on college campuses in recent days over pro-Palestinian student protests and encampments, many New York City high schoolers were watching closely.

For juniors and seniors weighing their college plans, the events are offering critical information about the cultures of the campuses they may soon be joining — and in some cases swaying their decisions.

And some have been directly affected by the fallout from the protests and overwhelming police response at City College of New York and Columbia University.

The High School for Math, Science, and Engineering, known at HSMSE, is located on the Harlem campus of the City College of New York, steps away from a student-led tent encampment that NYPD officers raided late Tuesday night, sparking violent clashes with protesters and leading to nearly 200 arrests.

As the tumult arrived at their doorstep, the high school canceled in-person classes Wednesday, following the lead of City College.

“I think the way a college reacts to such a big issue like the protests right now can be kind of indicative of the way they react in the future,” said Gabriela Picazo, an 18-year-old senior at HSMSE, who plans to attend Brown University next year, one of the few colleges that reached a deal with protesters to end its tent encampment.

Students at HSMSE said the pivot to remote classes Wednesday posed some challenges, particularly for last-minute preparation for Advanced Placement exams that start this week. But they understood the decision was meant to keep them safe.

“It’s kind of dystopian seeing this area that’s supposed to be a safe space where we go eat and relax being flooded with cop cars and all the hostility there,” said one senior at the school, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share his opinion on the situation freely.

Students were expected to return to in-person classes Thursday, but were told not to enter the campus quadrangle during the school day, according to a notice from the school’s principal obtained by Chalkbeat.

New York City’s public school system has seen its own controversial student protests, including a raucous demonstration at Hillcrest High School over a teacher posting a photo holding an “I Stand With Israel” sign, and a citywide walkout in support of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Protests and backlash prompt reflection on college plans

The protests on campuses across the country, as well as the response from administrators and law enforcement at colleges, have been top of mind for New York City high schoolers preparing to enroll in college. Many have been particularly gripped by the response at Columbia and City College, prompting some Jewish and Muslim students, as well as other applicants, to reconsider their options.

Seniors at The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology in the Bronx (left to right): Kennedy Betances, Safa Al-Omari, and Hawa Fisiru.

Hawa Fisiru, a senior at The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology in the Bronx, plans to attend Columbia this fall. The university’s history of student activism was a selling point: Fisiru participated in Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 and helped collect food for residents affected by a Bronx apartment building fire that killed 17 people in 2022.

Fisiru decided to enroll before pro-Palestinian student protestors launched an encampment, but said she’s “glad to be part of a student body that is, you know, really doing things.”

Despite the upheaval there, Fisiru is not having second thoughts about committing to Columbia. She received a full scholarship, and remaining in the city will allow her to stay close to family.

Still, Columbia’s response has left her concerned about what the mood on campus will be when she arrives this fall.

“I would have loved to, like, you know, have a calm freshman year, but I can’t help what’s going on, and I support what the students are doing,” she said. “I feel like they’re fighting for humanity and for what is right.”

But Safa Al-Omari, who is also a senior at The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology, is still deciding where to attend college. She has been leaning toward attending City College, though she’s also considering Hunter College.

Al-Omari, who was born in Yemen and came to the United States in 2016, said she wants to do more research about City College’s response to pro-Palestinian protesters before making a final decision.

“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.”

Meanwhile, a Jewish family told CNN they opted against Barnard College, which is affiliated with Columbia, even though it had been their child’s first choice.

Bronx senior Kennedy Betances is also trying to decide between City College, which offered a generous financial aid package, and Fordham University, which she feels might be a better fit, since she hopes to become an environmental engineer.

She wants to learn more about the reaction to student protesters on each campus before making a decision.

“I can also see myself involved in activism on campus, and I wouldn’t want the institution that I committed to, that I’ve worked at, that I’m taking out student loans for, to just like, essentially turn their back on me, and leave me in the dust,” Betances said.

Picazo, the HSMSE senior planning to attend Brown University next year, was disheartened by news that dozens of student protesters were arrested last December at the university. But she was encouraged to learn that Brown struck a deal this week with student protesters to end a recent encampment without police involvement.

“It does kind of reassure me about the community that I’m going to join in the future,” she said.

Her classmate, 17-year-old senior Orlena Fella, said being so close to the City College protests has made her realize she wants to be around some of that same political activism when she’s in college.

“I started to realize that I do hold some value in just having that space for discourse and having students that do take a side or share out their perspective and feel comfortable doing so,” she said.

For some high school juniors getting ready to apply to college next year, watching sharp backlash to pro-Palestinian student protestors at some colleges could also raise uncomfortable questions about how they should approach their own college applications.

One Brooklyn high school junior, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize her college applications, said she’s involved with the Palestine Club at her high school, but is wary of including that on her resume because she fears it will hurt her application.

“Everyone I’ve spoken to said to not because colleges may ‘throw my application out the window,’” she said.

The tumult on college campuses comes as the city school system faces its own ongoing questions about its handling of student protests and antisemitism.

Schools Chancellor David Banks is slated to testify next week before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce — the same Republican-led committee that recently grilled Columbia President Minouche Shafik on her response to campus protests.

In recent days, Banks has touted a number of efforts to address bias and educate students about the conflict, including an anti-hate crime curriculum, initiatives to teach Jewish and Muslim history, and a review of the discipline code with city principals.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC college campus protesters blast ‘brutal’ tactics. City Hall touts ‘precision policing.’

2024-05-01T19:20:07+00:00

This story was originally published on May 1 by THE CITY. Sign up here to get the latest stories from THE CITY delivered to you each morning.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and top police officials continued to blame “outside agitators” for the campus protests against the war in Gaza that have swept the nation.

At a press briefing Wednesday morning, officials confirmed they’d arrested nearly 300 people in back-to-back crackdowns on protests at Columbia University and the City College of New York overnight.

Police officials said they are also keeping tabs on the remaining protest encampments around the city. As of Wednesday, college pro-Palestinian demonstrators calling for divestment from Israel were still camped out at NYU and the Fashion Institute of Technology, while demonstrators at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center Campus began their own encampment Wednesday morning.

At the press briefing, Adams reiterated a claim he and his top officials have made on national television appearances over the past several days: that the demonstrations have been fomented by “outside agitators.”

“There is a movement to radicalize young people and I’m not going to wait until it’s done and all of a sudden acknowledge the existence of it,” Adams said. “I’m not going to allow that to happen as mayor of the city of New York.”

Pressed multiple times during the press briefing to identify those “outside agitators,” officials declined to provide specifics.

“We’re in the process of sorting through all of the data that were covered last night,” said Rebecca Weiner, the department’s deputy commissioner of iIntelligence and counterterrorism who’s also listed as an adjunct professor at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Weiner said it was too early to say how many of the 300 people arrested across two campuses Tuesday evening were directly affiliated with either institution. “So sifting through the names of everybody and whether they are affiliated with school or not, that takes time and we want to make sure that we’re giving you accurate information.”

Later, Fabien Levy, a deputy mayor for Adams, told reporters that Lisa Fithian, a prominent longtime activist not affiliated with Columbia, had been there to back up City Hall’s claim of outside agitators.

NYPD officials also brought in a chain and lock to the press conference, as well as to television appearances throughout the morning, as an example of something students would not have brought to school.

A reporter for the New York Times pointed out on Twitter that Columbia’s own public safety department was advertising the same locks on its website.

‘An incredible scene’

More details emerged from the crackdown that occurred on the City College of New York campus where NYPD used pepper spray and body-slammed some people during arrests. All told police arrested 173 people, officials confirmed Wednesday morning.

In a statement released by the released on X from the CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment, students described an array of injuries they’d suffered during the crackdown: an undergraduate student broke their ankle, two more suffered broken teeth, others were pepper sprayed at close range.

“We will not be intimidated by the brutal and spineless tactics,” the statement read. A spokesperson for the NYPD declined to comment on the students’ statement.

Columbia students and Palestinian-solidarity advocates march outside Columbia University the day after NYPD officers arrested people occupying Hamilton Hall, May 1, 2024.

Columbia student organizers wrote that several students were taken to the hospital, while others were kicked in the face during the arrests.

A FDNY spokesperson confirmed three people with minor injuries were taken to the hospital from a staging area for the demonstrations at Riverside Drive and West 139th Street at around 7 p.m.

One Columbia student organizer wrote on X that the NYPD had removed some students’ hijabs while they were in detention, something the NYPD has had to pay millions for in past settlements. The student organizer who tweeted the account couldn’t be reached for additional comment right away, and the NYPD didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

At Wednesday’s press briefing Adams praised the NYPD’s mass arrests.

“Through the NYPD’s precision policing. We showed that the operation was organized, calm, and there were no injuries or violent clashes,” he said. “National independent journalists acknowledged what the police department did yesterday and they were on the ground to see, and I want to be clear that we will continue to continue to use this level of professionalism.”

But at both raids, however, NYPD officials, as well as Columbia campus security, restricted access to reporters, erecting barriers around both campuses and, making it nearly impossible for those not already on site to observe arrests.

At Columbia, campus, student journalists and a CITY reporter were forced into adjoining buildings and blocked in for several hours, unable to observe officers entering Hamilton Hall, or the arrests of students who’d linked arms to try and block the entryway to the hall. Video of the start of the arrests recorded by FreedomNews.TV showed one protester rolling violently down the stairs.

At City College, where the reporters were also cordoned off, top NYPD officials posted their own video of themselves raising an American flag, proclaiming it “an incredible scene and proud moment.”

‘Left us no choice’

As campus protests against the war in Gaza that’s killed more than 34,000 Palestinians swept the nation, pressure has mounted on universities to clamp down on them. Some Jewish students have said the ongoing demonstrations have made them feel unsafe on campus and Columbia and City College both largely closed their campuses and moved to online classes.

Though Columbia President Minouche Shafik had expressed reluctance to deploy the NYPD on students for a second time, the administration said Tuesday, the occupation of Hamilton Hall, which occurred early that morning, forced the university’s hand.

“The events on campus last night have left us no choice,” a Columbia administrator wrote in a letter to NYPD officials requesting their help clearing the building, which was later shared on X by police officials. The letter also requested NYPD presence on campus through May 17 to assure no additional encampments sprout up.

In a similar letter also shared by the NYPD, officials from City College also requested backup from police saying “protesters have refused to comply with our directives to remove unauthorized structures and/or flags, banners, posters and the like.”

Noah Grady, a CUNY spokesperson, said they called the NYPD for backup after demonstrators attempted to break into one campus building, and successfully broke into an administrative building, vandalizing it and breaking glass.

“Students have a right to demonstrate peacefully and exercise their First Amendment rights. Tuesday night’s actions were taken in response to specific and repeated acts of violence and vandalism, not in response to peaceful protest,” he said. “CUNY will continue working to keep our community free from violence, intimidation and harassment.”

Columbia University has a long history of student-lead occupations. After a violent police crackdown on Vietnam War protests, “fallout dogged Columbia for years,” according to the University’s own account of the era decades later.

In a statement Wednesday from Shafik, she acknowledged “it is going to take a long time to heal.”

“I hope we can use the weeks ahead to restore calm, allow students to complete their academic work, and honor their achievements at Commencement.”

LGBTQ students wonder what’s next as conservative states seek to block new Title IX rules

2024-05-01T01:19:00+00:00

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For LGBTQ youth whose rights have been under attack by Republican state officials, new federal regulations protecting them from discrimination at school were a welcome sign that someone in power had their back.

But within two days of new Title IX rules being published Monday, top officials in 15 states announced they were suing to block the new rules from going into effect. In four separate lawsuits, Republican officials alleged the new rules endangered free speech and represented an attack on the very group Title IX was designed to protect: women.

Officials in many of these states had already warned schools not to implement the new rules, which would protect students’ ability to use restrooms that match their gender identity and use the names and pronouns they prefer.

“Do not comply,” Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley told schools at a Monday press conference announcing his state’s lawsuit. “Allow this process, this legal process to unfold, rely on our office if you need support, but do not comply with these radical rules from the Biden administration.”

The lawsuits highlight an ongoing culture war centered on the rights of trans students at school. Republican states have passed a host of laws limiting trans youth’s participation in sports, which bathrooms these students can use, and which names they can go by. Supporters of these laws say they protect fairness, privacy, and free speech. Advocates for LGBTQ youth say they endanger vulnerable students and actually infringe on privacy and free speech, and that the new Biden Title IX rules give students key legal safeguards.

Some legal experts believe the new Title IX rules — which clarify that gender identity is covered by laws prohibiting sex discrimination — are likely to withstand conservative challenges. In the meantime, teachers and school administrators are caught between federal law, which usually takes precedence, and state law, which can loom larger in the classroom.

And queer youth and their allies say their states’ defiance of federal law reinforces the idea that their existence is a problem and that their government is targeting them.

“You already had kids who literally did not use the bathroom at school,” said A’Niya Robinson, an advocacy strategist at the ACLU of Louisiana. “They were afraid that they would be targeted for just completing a bodily function. These rules are a reprieve from kids having to experience that, and then to have your state want to undo that, it’s just unfortunate.”

States say new Biden rules undermine Title IX

In 2016, under former President Barack Obama, top officials at the Education and Justice departments issued guidance to schools saying that transgender students were protected from discrimination based on their gender identity under Title IX.

But that guidance was quickly rescinded by the Trump administration.

When President Joe Biden took office, officials moved to make the Obama-era interpretation binding by going through nearly two years of formal rule-making. The final rule, which the Biden administration announced April 19 and is slated to take effect Aug. 1, gives LGBTQ students and others explicit protection from sex discrimination “based on sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”

The backlash has been swift. Within days, top education officials in several states told schools to disregard the rule changes. This week, 15 states filed four separate lawsuits seeking to block the rules from taking effect.

At a Monday press conference announcing one of the lawsuits, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said the new regulations sought “to remake American societal norms through classrooms, lunchrooms, bathrooms, and locker rooms of American schools.”

“These rules eviscerate Title IX,” Murrill said.

The following day, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said the text of Title IX refers “over and over again to a sex binary, to men and women, to one sex or the other.”

Though each lawsuit is slightly different, they all essentially argue that the U.S. Department of Education exceeded its authority by expanding the definition of what constitutes sex discrimination, and that the changes run contrary to the original intent of Title IX.

Even though the new rules don’t address sports and the Education Department is working on separate sports guidance, opponents of the new rules have said they believe they open the door to widespread participation by trans athletes in girls’ and women’s sports.

That view was underscored at Tuesday’s joint press conference with the attorneys general of Tennessee and West Virginia, which featured elite swimmer Riley Gaines. Gaines became an outspoken advocate for keeping transgender women out of women’s sports after having to compete against and share a locker room with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas.

Similarly, West Virginia is engaged in ongoing litigation to prevent a 13-year-old from competing in girls’ track.

The bulk of the concerns in the lawsuits focus on trans girls being permitted to use girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms, and that school staff will be compelled to call trans and non-binary students by their preferred names and pronouns.

Skrmetti said the facilities concern is not just about gender identity. He fears that the new Title IX rules could require that any boy be allowed in girls’ restrooms. A girl who expressed discomfort with that could be liable for creating an illegal hostile environment because she questioned that student’s gender, he said.

But the Title IX rules make clear that schools can still maintain single-gender restrooms.

While the new rules bar invasive medical tests or burdensome documentation to establish gender identity, schools can request a written confirmation from the student, a parent, or other adult. Schools can also rely on the child’s consistent self-identification.

Several states’ laws forbid trans students from accessing bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity and permit school staff to use the pronouns and name a student was assigned at birth, even if the student now uses a different name or pronouns.

National surveys have repeatedly found that these kinds of policies negatively affect LGBTQ youth, who often feel unsafe at school, struggle with mental health, and are more likely to consider suicide than their peers. When the Education Department gathered feedback on a draft version of the rules, officials said many students reported that schools ignored bullying, threats, and harassment based on their gender identity, leaving them in constant fear and anxiety.

For Zelda Duitch, who is trans and co-president of the Gender Sexuality Alliance at Benjamin Franklin High School in New Orleans, finding a supportive school has been critical to his educational success.

“When I was socially transitioning, all of my teachers were really supportive,” he said. “That was integral not just for my mental health, but for my education. I would not have been able to learn if I hadn’t been accepted.”

When Florida adopted its “Don’t Say Gay” bill, Zelda felt sorry for queer youth there. Now his own state has a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, and a package of anti-LGBTQ bills is sailing through the Louisiana Legislature.

“It’s hard to describe how much anger and pain there is,” Zelda said. “It made me feel like my state was trying to kill me.”

Why the new Title IX rules matter

Practically, the new rules matter because they give students, families, and advocates sturdier ground to stand on when they file a federal civil rights complaint or a lawsuit seeking to challenge a school’s policy.

The Title IX complaint process can be slow and cumbersome, but it’s a powerful tool for students to protect their rights, said Craig White, who runs the supportive schools program for the Campaign for Southern Equality. That’s especially true for students in small towns who may not have access to attorneys or large advocacy groups.

Students can say: “This discrimination is wrong, and I’m standing up,” White said.

The new rules explicitly state that denying a trans student access to a bathroom or locker room that corresponds with their gender identity causes harm to the student in a way that generally violates Title IX.

If a teacher repeatedly refused to call a student by their preferred name and pronouns, leaving the student feeling unwelcome at school, that could violate Title IX, too.

Suzanne Eckes, a professor of education law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says the big legal question now is whether the definition of sex in Title IX can include sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Supreme Court decided in 2020 in Bostock v. Clayton County that employees are protected from sex discrimination, including based on sexual orientation and gender identity, under Title VII, another federal civil rights law.

And while there are a few outlier cases, plenty of federal courts have already ruled that Title IX should be interpreted the same way, Eckes said.

“The vast majority of federal and state courts have ended in favorable results for trans students,” Eckes said.

But Matt Sharp, senior counsel for conservative legal group the Alliance Defending Freedom believes the Bostock case doesn’t apply in many of the scenarios covered under Title IX, an interpretation shared by many Republican AGs.

Access to bathrooms and locker rooms implicates personal privacy, he said, and courts have found that physiological differences between men and women justify separate facilities.

Protesters chant outside the Indiana House of Representatives during an education committee hearing about that state's so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill. Indiana is among the states suing the federal government to overturn new Title IX rules.

Advocates say anti-LGTBQ laws silence allies, spread fear

White, of the Campaign for Southern Equality, said the climate fostered by states’ policies can send ripple effects through the school day.

A student might be misgendered by a teacher in first period, attract scrutiny for which bathroom they use in second period, be unable to use a locker room in third period, then get bullied at lunch — only to be told by a lunch monitor that other students don’t agree with their “lifestyle.”

“Students do not experience these as isolated incidents,” White said.

But he also noted that such laws can spread fear and silence allies. In Indiana, for example, where a new law requires schools to notify parents if a student wants to go by a different name, Gender Sexuality Alliance clubs have stopped meeting in many schools, as students fear sponsors would be required to out them, said Chris Paulsen, CEO of Indiana Youth Group, which supports GSAs across the state.

Indiana is among the states that have directed schools not to change their policies to comply with the new Title IX rules, and it has joined Tennessee’s lawsuit.

Peyton Rose Michelle, who leads Louisiana Trans Advocates, remembers being bullied as early as first grade and called slurs she didn’t understand. By middle school, she had trained herself not to use the bathroom until she got home around 4:30 p.m.

She hears about students doing the same thing today — as well as skipping school to avoid bullying. The new Title IX protections are about doing the right thing for kids, she said.

“Bathrooms in middle school are for peeing and looking at yourself in the mirror,” Michelle said, “and trans kids should be able to do both of those things without fear of bullying and harassment.”

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Amid growing calls to end legacy admissions, New York considers banning the practice

2024-04-29T15:36:56+00:00

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Some New York lawmakers, students, and advocates are calling for colleges in the state to end the practice of legacy admissions, which grants additional priority to the relatives of alumni.

Proponents of the “Fair College Admissions Act” say giving preference to students whose relatives attended an elite institution overwhelmingly favors white, wealthy families. The bill would prohibit the use of legacy admissions for undergraduates by colleges and universities in New York, while establishing financial penalties for those who refuse to comply with the law.

The push for the bill follows a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that overturned affirmative action, significantly hindering the nation’s colleges and universities’ ability to consider race during admissions.

State Sen. Andrew Gounardes, a sponsor of the bill, called legacy admissions “a form of affirmative action for students of immense privilege.”

“At institutions that do use legacy, the admissions rate at some of the most exclusive schools is four times greater for legacy students versus non-legacy students,” he said. “And 75% of all legacy students come from the top 10% of wealthiest families in the country.”

Nationwide, nearly 30% of higher education institutions consider legacy status — with that figure rising to over 40% in New York, according to a report by the advocacy group Education Reform Now. And in 2022, a study found a growing number of adults believed legacy status should not play a factor in admissions, including more than 70% of both Democrats and Republicans.

At schools where legacy admissions have long been the norm, opposition has continued to surface on campuses. At Cornell University, students have passed multiple resolutions calling for the university to end the practice.

“It’s a fundamentally wrong and unfair practice,” said Claire Tempelman, a senior at Cornell who helped introduce a 2021 resolution urging the university to end legacy admissions. The Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative action last year only added to the urgency around the issue, Tempelman said.

“It’s ridiculous that even though you’re getting rid of affirmative action, you’re still keeping what is essentially affirmative action for the wealthy,” she added. “It’s this hypocrisy that makes legacy admissions just seem even more untenable.”

Jonathan Lam, a freshman at Cornell, said he’s been particularly concerned about the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision. As a child of Vietnamese refugees, he said he received significant help navigating college admissions from Thrive Scholars, a nonprofit organization that supports students of color from low-income communities.

“If we’re going to overturn affirmative action, and say that these DEI academic programs are problematic and controversial, then it also puts a lot of these organizations that supported students like me at risk,” he said. “It adds this urgency to the need to have a conversation about not just temporary solutions to supporting BIPOC and first-gen students, but also understanding the education system.”

It’s a cause that has earned the support of major advocacy groups in the state. The New York Coalition for Fair College Admissions — which includes the NAACP New York State Conference, the New York Civil Liberties Union, Education Reform Now, and other groups — has repeatedly called for the practice to end.

“The gutting of affirmative action makes ending this practice for New York even more of a racial-justice imperative,” said Jake Martinez, deputy director of NYCLU’s Education Policy Center. “When you think about the wealth that these families have … Low-income students, first-generation students don’t have those same resources.

“So wealthy families have not only the resources for college readiness, but also an upper hand through legacy admissions,” he said.

In May, high school and college students from across the state will travel to Albany, urging lawmakers to pass the legislation as part of a youth lobby day, Martinez added.

Other states are also considering changes to the practice. In Virginia, state lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year that barred public universities from giving preferential treatment to the relatives of alumni and donors. Meanwhile, in 2021, Colorado became the first state in the nation to ban legacy admissions — though the broader impact of that change remains unclear.

And in New York and elsewhere, some institutions have voluntarily stopped considering legacy status in admissions. Last year, NYU removed a question asking whether applicants were the children of alumni from its application — with the college affirming that legacy status does not play a role in admissions.

Under the proposed New York law, colleges that continue to consider legacy status in admissions would face a financial penalty — with the money collected being funneled into the state’s tuition assistance program for low-income students.

“All of these institutions benefit from New York state dollars,” Gounardes said. “We should not be funding exclusionary practices.”

With the state budget now enacted, he is hopeful that lawmakers will move to address legacy admissions. There’s been general support for the bill among colleagues in Albany, according to Gounardes.

“It may seem small, but it strikes at the notion of fairness and justice,” Gounardes said. “To allow a student to get into one of the most elite schools in the country just because their parents went there … That just seems inherently unfair.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

An attempt to roll back protections for trans students in sports angers NYC students and families

2024-04-23T16:57:31+00:00

Rebeca moved to New York City a year ago to protect her daughter, now 8, from increasingly trans-restrictive laws in Florida.

So it came as a shock when she received a 7 a.m. text from a parent at her children’s school on March 21. A Manhattan parent-led advisory board had voted 8-3 the night before calling on the Department of Education to revisit guidelines on trans girls’ sports participation.

Rebeca — who asked that we use only her first name and a pseudonym, Sophie, for her daughter, who is transgender — had thought of herself as a political refugee from a state where each legislative session threatened her daughter’s identity.

“It’s very triggering just to see the rhetoric so close,” she said of the largely symbolic resolution passed by the Community Education Council, or CEC, in Manhattan’s District 2, the second largest of the city’s 32 local districts.

NYC schools Chancellor David Banks made it clear that he did not support the CEC’s resolution. But for Rebeca, whose daughter attends school in a nearby district, and other trans youth and allies, the resolution marked a troubling first for New York City, and old fears were awakened.

“You get scared to talk to anybody, because you don’t know if somebody’s supportive or not,” Rebeca says. “Once the rhetoric is there, it’s not just sports, soon it’s bathrooms, soon it’s curriculum.”

The parents who passed the resolution claimed they were seeking to open a dialogue, but many of them are part of or endorsed by PLACE NYC, or Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, a group seen as pushing a pro-screened school and anti-integration agenda. Additionally, Maud Maron, the resolution’s lead sponsor and co-founder of PLACE, has made anti-trans comments.

Last week, Maron received a letter from the Education Department, following an investigation under a new process to address parent leader misconduct allegations, that instructed her to “cease engaging in conduct involving derogatory or offensive comments about any New York City Public School student,” or face suspension or removal from the CEC, as first reported in The 74.

Some experts worry that the resolution itself, even though it’s only advisory, will have a negative impact on trans youth who already experience bullying and harassment.

“I’m a little emotional because this is my community once again being attacked by individuals who have zero idea what it’s like to walk in my very high heels,” Athena Rivera, a trans teen who is a member of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, said at a recent meeting of the citywide board. “I find it utterly appalling that we still today have grown adults making anti-trans or bigoted proposals.”

Tension between NY laws and parent rhetoric

New York state education law prohibits discrimination in physical education classes and athletics, a fact raised repeatedly by speakers at March’s Community Education Council meeting. But the resolution’s co-sponsor was undeterred.

“A lot of our resolutions, whether it’s on issues related to social issues or educational issues, are all geared towards putting parents more front and center,” said Leonard Silverman, who is CEC 2′s president.

Actor Elliot Page (right) with Chase Strangio, deputy director for transgender justice at the ACLU who is also a District 2 parent, at the District 2 CEC meeting on March 20, 2024.

His views echo proponents of parents’ rights bills nationwide that limit educators’ ability to teach about race, gender, and sexuality. PEN America reports that nearly 400 “education intimidation” bills were introduced between January 2021 and June 2023, and 39 are now law.

As of last summer, 23 states had passed laws excluding trans youth from participating in the sport that aligns with their gender, according to ESPN.

“We know that hostile legislation undermines LGBTQ+ young people’s well-being and puts them at higher risk of harassment, so there are good reasons to believe this resolution alone has negatively impacted NYC trans youth,” said Jennifer Jennings, a District 2 resident and Princeton University professor currently teaching a course titled “Schooled: Education, Opportunity, and Inequality.”

Education Department officials said the District 2 CEC resolution would be rejected, and the city does not intend to revise the guidelines. At the March Panel for Educational Policy meeting, held on the same night CEC 2 approved the resolution, Banks condemned the misinformation in the resolution and its intent to target trans youth.

“It’s especially troubling because we know sports build a sense of self-confidence and belonging,” said Banks. “Rather than excluding our trans students, we ought to be working together to wrap our arms around them. They need our love and encouragement, and support, not political attacks.”

Still, despite the Education Department’s assurances, Oliver Duffy, a District 2 seventh grader, said what happens in these meetings could have ramifications across the city.

He and his peers were talking about the CEC’s rhetoric even before the vote. In January, Duffy wrote CEC 2 members a letter after some of their anti-trans internal chat messages leaked to The 74. The messages were particularly upsetting to him, he said.

Maron has become a polarizing figure: At Stuyvesant High School, where Maron is on the Student Leadership Team, a student started a petition asking for her removal. The petition expresses concern that Maron will “alter school policies in more subtle ways that may prove detrimental to students of color and LGBTQ+ students.”

“I wanted the CEC to know that their words have impact,” said Duffy, who started a Gender and Sexuality Alliance, or GSA, in his elementary school. “Maud tweets a lot of anti-trans stuff on social media, which kind of sometimes influences kids. And a lot of kids see it, and it just makes them feel more bad about themselves.”

When asked on last year’s NYC School Survey whether or not students harass, bully, or intimidate each other because of their gender, gender identity, or gender expression, 34% of the students citywide in grades 6-12 who participated said this happens some or most of the time.

Of the 41 students who identified as nonbinary, gender fluid, or gender expansive who took the survey, 66% reported seeing this behavior in their schools.

Tamuira Reid, Duffy’s parent, sees the resolution as an opportunity to strengthen the Education Department’s guidelines on gender inclusion – not just to see whether or not trans and nonbinary students feel safe going out for the sport of their choice, but to ask, “Does every school have a GSA? Does the staff there have the funding to run the programs that actually affirm and keep kids safe?”

Alaina Daniels, executive director of Trans formative Schools, an after-school program centering trans joy and social justice, addresses the District 2's Community Education Council on March 20, 2024.

Though supporters of District 2′s resolution said it wasn’t anti-trans, Maron, also a member of the far-right parent organization Moms For Liberty, has made it clear she would exclude trans girls from playing the sport that aligns with their gender. “When you say trans girl, what you’re talking about is boys,” Maron told Chalkbeat. But Maron said her positions are distinct from the resolution. “My personal opinions and the resolution are two separate things,” she said.

For fellow CEC member, Gavin Healy, making this separation isn’t possible. “If you’re a representative of families on a public body and you say ‘trans kids don’t exist,’ then how can you represent the families of trans kids,” asked Healy, who opposed the resolution. He also noted that the council is supposed to include one student representative. “Could a trans kid or even any queer student be on CEC 2 and feel safe and protected and affirmed? I think that would be really difficult.”

In response to the Education Department’s sanctions against her, Maron wrote, “I have no idea what conduct I’ve been found guilty of.” She said she was never provided copies of any charges. Her statement was included in a lawsuit she and others are filing against the Education Department and other parents over the new parent leader investigation process.

She added, “I have only been accused of exercising my First Amendment rights to criticize transgender theory.”

Potential consequences of District 2′s resolution

Experts say exclusionary policies, whether they are passed or not, can endanger trans youth. Barnard College Professor Rebecca Jordan-Young, who is trained in sociomedical science and co-authored the book “Testosterone: An Unauthorized Biography,” said, “There’s this boogeyman idea that trans girls and women are just going to completely dominate all sports if in fact equity-based policies are opened up. That has not proven to be the case at all.”

Keeping trans girls off girls teams puts them at serious risk, Jordan-Young said. A recent Washington Post analysis found states with laws that exclude or restrict trans students or limit what can be taught about LGBTQ+ topics experienced a massive increase in K-12 hate crimes, including intimidation and assault.

In addition to external violence, LGBTQ+ youth are at risk for self-harm — 41% seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, according to a 2023 The Trevor Project survey. One in four Black transgender and nonbinary youth surveyed said they had attempted suicide.

“There are huge conversations to be had around equity and what it would take to actually truly support girl and women athletes,” Jordan-Young said. “This is all about trying to split this tiny little paltry pie and kick some of the girls out.” Instead, Jordan-Young said, people should be advocating for equal training facilities and focusing on building all girls’ confidence in their physical capabilities.

One byproduct of gender inclusive policies people might not expect is that they create environments where all students are safer, said Travers, a professor of sociology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, who uses only one name and they/them pronouns. “If you want your female child to have a better experience in school, put her in a school with gender inclusive policies,” they said.

Finding a world of difference in New York from Florida

Since Sophie was 3 years old, Rebeca has been protecting her right to live as herself in school. When she was in prekindergarten, parents complained when Sophie, who identified as a boy at the time, went to school in a tutu. While the principal said she supported Sophie’s dress-up choice, the school stopped hosting events where she could dress up, Rebeca said.

This experience coupled with the passage of what’s commonly known as Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill soon afterward made Rebeca nervous about sending her child to a public school. The law, which was challenged in court, was widely interpreted as outlawing lessons or books that mentioned sexual orientation or gender identity. Over the next few years, Rebeca tried different school settings she hoped would affirm, or at least not disparage, Sophie. Once Sophie’s father said he wouldn’t fight Rebeca’s choice to move to New York, Rebeca put her two kids on a plane and had them in a school in NYC by the following week.

Rebeca is not alone in moving out of state as a way to better ensure her child can grow up supported. UCLA’s Williams Institute surveyed 113 LGBTQ+ parents in Florida in 2023 and found 16% had already taken steps to move to another state. More than half were considering doing so. Until March 21, Rebeca hadn’t been feeling the constant fear for Sophie’s safety she’d lived with in Florida.

“When we came here, and she started going to school,” Rebeca said, “all of that was not even an issue anymore.”

Sophie’s activity of choice is dance. Her experience in dance class in New York is quite different from the atmosphere she and Rebeca encountered in Florida, where Rebeca was told Sophie would only be allowed to compete as a boy.

“Now she’s doing modern dance,” said Rebeca. “They’re very supportive. Nobody cares that she’s trans — in a good way.”

She hopes that doesn’t change.

Liz Rosenberg is a New York-based reporter.

Illinois lawmakers push back deadline for drawing Chicago’s elected school board maps

2023-05-26T20:50:13+00:00

Illinois lawmakers are giving themselves more time to divide Chicago into districts ahead of the city’s first school board elections.

Under a measure passed late Thursday night, the deadline for drawing the maps for the city’s school board moves to April 1, 2024 — seven months before the first elections are scheduled to be held. Chicago will move from a seven-member board appointed by the mayor to a 21-member board, with 10 members elected Nov. 5, 2024 and the rest elected in November 2026.

In a statement, Rep. Ann Willliams, who represents parts of Chicago’s north side and chairs the state House Democrats’ Chicago Public Schools Districting Working Group, said conversations have been “extremely productive.” But, “in order to create the strongest possible map and ensure all Chicagaons are able to elect the candidates that best represent their values, our work must continue.”

The delay comes after Chicagoans voiced concerns over whether voting districts would reflect CPS enrollment or the city’s overall population.

They also criticized legislators for rushing to create districts that will determine representation for the next several years before adjourning their spring session to meet a previous July 1 deadline.

Several advocates applauded the decision to delay.

“I’m very glad that the voice of reason prevailed and they did not just ram a flawed map down our throats,” said Valerie Leonard, the leader of the Illinois African Americans For Equitable Redistricting, which submitted a map based largely on existing City Council Ward boundaries.

Leonard urged lawmakers to use the time wisely. So did Miriam Bhimani, a Chicago Public Schools parent who is part of The FOIA Bakery, a group of parents and data advocates pushing for a transparent map-making process.

“The extra time means that we can engage honestly and transparently with communities across the city about what an elected school board should look like and what their responsibilities are,” Bhimani said.

In an effort to spur more public engagement and conversation, The FOIA Bakery published 2,000 computer-generated maps earlier this month they say comply with the Voting Rights Act, and maximize minority representation, as well as take into account where public school students live.

Drawing a representative map in a segregated city, school district

Lawmakers released two drafts in recent weeks. The most recent draft has seven Black majority districts, five majority Latino, two with a Latino plurality, five majority white, and one with a white plurality. The initial proposal had two districts with a white plurality and one with a Latino plurality. Currently, one of seven appointed school board members is white.

Typically, electoral districts are drawn – and redrawn – based on voting-age population or total population after every census. In Chicago, the population is 33% white, 29% Latino, and 29% Black, but the public school district’s student population is 46.5% Latino, 36% Black, 11% white, and 4% Asian American. The city is also one of the country’s most segregated, making that dissonance even more of a challenge to those trying to draw representative maps.

“It’s a segregated city, the North Side doesn’t know what’s going on in the South Side; a parent who doesn’t have a kid in CPS, they don’t know their needs,” said Vanessa Espinoza, a public school parent who’s part of Kids First Chicago, which submitted a map and testimony to state lawmakers. “Even if you have a good intention, you don’t have the knowledge and experience.”

Espinoza said lawmakers should try to draw a map that considers the public school student population.

Leonard, with African Americans for Equitable Redistricting, said she also wants to see a responsive, representative school board with members who have “lived experience with our schools versus people in ivory towers who have never experienced poverty.”

But she said that giving neighborhoods where more Chicago Public School students live more weight could violate the constitution’s equal protection clause.

“It could fly in the face of the one man, one vote, equal protection under the law, even though it’s a noble idea.” Leonard said.

Jianan Shi, executive director of Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education, a parent group that was part of a coalition of community groups that submitted maps in partnership with the Chicago Teachers Union, said he hopes the extended deadline will allow everyone to “get to the table” to find a compromise.

“There’s no perfect map,” Shi said. “How do we take in as much feedback as possible and keep making versions until we get closer?”

New deadline could shorten school board campaign season

The first-ever Chicago school board elections are scheduled to take place on Nov. 5, 2024. So when lawmakers approved the measure to give themselves a new April 1, 2024 deadline, Shi initially thought: “Shoot. I wish I was going to get out this information as soon as possible to our parents.”

“I want as much time as possible to educate people about the maps and where the boundaries are,” Shi said. Raise Your Hand is one of a few community groups that help train parents and community members to run for and serve on Local School Councils in Chicago. The councils are like mini-school boards serving individual campuses that make decisions over school improvement, principal selection, and parts of the budget.

Max Bever, a Chicago Board of Elections spokesman, said Friday the board had been planning to notify voters of their new school board districts through mailers around Labor Day this year, but will now face “a time crunch to get that all done.”

“Our team will be ready, but it’s more just having enough time for people to have awareness of: What’s your district? Who is running?” Bever said. “This also might be a very quick period for candidates.”

Bever said the timeline for candidates to collect the 250 signatures needed to get on the ballot will likely be during summer 2024. Because Chicago’s school board elections are nonpartisan, they will not be on the ballot in the March 2024 primary.

Rep. Ann Williams said the election is still on target for November 2024. The legislature will wrap up their spring session this week, but members are due back for a veto session in the fall when they could take action on a school board map. They could also wait until the next spring session begins in early 2024 to finalize how the city will be divided.

Lawmakers could also decide in the next session to clarify or tweak the law that created the 21-member elected school board for Chicago. There have been questions about whether board members should be compensated or if there should be campaign spending limits that are stricter than Illinois’ broader election limits. Neither exist in the law as it’s currently written.

“I think some of the campaign spending limits that people have talked about would be really helpful to ensure that the everyday Chicago mom and dad could run for the board without having to have either wealth or special interests backing them,” said Daniel Anello, CEO of Kids First Chicago.

Another concern raised by Kids First Chicago and others is that noncitizens will not be allowed to vote or serve on Chicago’s school board. However, the existing law requires a noncitizen advisory committee be created. Leonard said she would like to see something similar for Black families. Her group is proposing the creation of an African American Affairs Committee.

“If, for some reason, we end up with representation that doesn’t necessarily reflect the school population, at least you’ll have those permanent committees in place to make sure the interests of minorities are represented,” she said.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois lawmakers to hold hearing on revised draft map for Chicago elected school board ahead of possible vote

2023-05-18T15:57:34+00:00

Illinois lawmakers released a new draft map for Chicago’s soon-to-be-elected school board at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday ahead of a hearing scheduled for this evening.

Their initial proposal for dividing Chicago into 20 districts for the city’s school board elections that begin in 2024 was met with criticism for underrepresenting Latino families, who make up 46.5% of Chicago Public Schools student population.

The new draft tinkers with three districts where no racial or ethnic group has a 50% majority, tilting two of those in favor of Latinos.

In the latest iteration, seven districts have a population that is 50% or more Black, five where Latinos make up 50% or more of the population, and five where the population is 50% or more white. Two districts have a Latino plurality, where roughly 40% of the population is Latino, and one has a white plurality. Previously, two districts had a white plurality and one had a Latino plurality.

Chicago’s population is 33% white, 29% Latino, and 29% Black, but the school district’s student population is 46.5% Latino, 36% Black, 11% white, and 4% Asian American.

The Senate Special Committee on the Chicago Elected Representative School Board will hold a virtual hearing regarding the updated map at 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 18, where a vote could take place. The House will hold one on Friday, May 19.

Lawmakers face a July 1 deadline to pass a map for Chicago’s elected school board, but their spring session is currently scheduled to wrap up this weekend.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois lawmakers release third draft map for Chicago elected school board

2023-11-01T22:00:04+00:00

As trick-or-treating got underway Tuesday night, Illinois lawmakers released a new draft map for Chicago’s soon-to-be-elected Board of Education.

It’s their third attempt at drawing districts future school board members will represent.

The new map has seven majority Black districts, six where Latinos make up 50% or more of the population, and five where the population is 50% or more white. Two districts — one representing Rogers Park on the North Side and the other representing Portage Park and Old Irving Park on the North West side — are plurality white, with Latinos making up the second-largest population.

Chicago’s Board of Education holds significant power over public schools. School board members approve the district’s annual multi-billion dollar budget, determine how schools are measured and held accountable, authorize contracts with third parties to bus students to and from school, clean classrooms and hallways, and even operate entire schools under charter agreements.

The board has been appointed by the mayor since 1995, when the state legislature gave control of Chicago Public Schools to then-Mayor Richard M. Daley. After former Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed 50 public schools in 2013, community organizations and the Chicago Teachers Union began fighting for an elected school board.

Valerie Leonard, with the Illinois African Americans for Equitable Redistricting, said under mayoral control, school board members were perceived to be not connected to the community.

“People felt — and I was one of them — like they were out of touch with what the community wanted, and they were only responsive to what the mayor wanted,” Leonard said. “It matters to have someone [on the school board] from your community who understands what people in your community are experiencing.”

After many years of advocacy and lobbying, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law in 2021 to create a 21-member elected school board with phased-in elections.

Under state law, Chicagoans will elect 10 school board members from 10 districts in November 2024. The mayor will appoint 10 members from those same districts, and will also appoint a school board president. A 21-member hybrid board will be sworn in January 2025.

Then in November 2026, the 10 appointed members and school board president will be up for election, while the 10 elected in 2024 will continue serving their four-year terms. Going forward, all members will serve four-year terms and elections will be staggered, with half of the seats up for election every two years.

However, the law does not spell out how the map will move from 10 to 20 districts. Lawmakers continue to draw a map with 20 districts and have not made clear how they plan to divide the city into 10 districts for the 2024 election.

Sen. Robert Martwick, a Democrat representing the North West side of Chicago and west suburbs, said that figuring out how to create 10 districts for the 2024 elections and 20 districts for the 2026 elections has been difficult for legislators.

“The original idea was that we would draw ten districts and then after the election we would split them into 20 districts,” Martwick said. “Another variation on that would be to draw 20 districts and combine them for the purposes of the first election. The idea there was that everyone in the city of Chicago would get to pass a vote on this new elected school board.”

State Rep. Ann Williams, who represents parts of the city’s North Side and chairs a special task force of House Democrats working on drawing school board districts, said the transition from 10 districts to 20 is “still under discussion,” but the goal is to vote on a map during next week’s veto session.

“At some point we have to get a map so that people can start looking at the districts and prepare to run for office,” Williams said.

“No map is ever going to be perfect. No map is ever going to make every single person happy,” she added. “But we really truly felt like this is the product that most incorporated the feedback that we got from the communities during all those hearings.”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has been a longtime supporter of an elected school board. But when asked through a spokesperson Wednesday if he supported the latest draft or would weigh in on how school board districts are drawn, the spokesperson wrote back: No comment.

Lawmakers were supposed to draw a map of Chicago school board districts by July 1, 2023, but extended the deadline to April 1, 2024 after pushback from the public for not drawing districts that would be reflective of student enrollment.

That’s a difficult task in a city whose population does not mirror the public school enrollment. Chicago’s population is 33% white, 29% Latino, 29% Black, and 7% Asian, but the school district’s student population is 47% Latino, 36% Black, 11% white, and 4% Asian American.

School board seats are non-partisan so there will be no primary. According to the Chicago Board of Elections calendar, the first day candidates running for nonpartisan school board seats can circulate nominating petitions is March 26, 2024. They must collect 250 signatures from voters in their districts by June 24, 2024, in order to be on the ballot.

Last week, Martwick and state Rep. Kam Buckner, a Democrat, put forward a proposal that would also allow school board members to be compensated.

Mixed reactions to new draft map roll in

Legislators held two public hearings last month to gather additional feedback on their proposed school board districts. On Wednesday, several of the groups who have repeatedly testified and submitted public comment on previous maps reacted to the latest iteration.

Kids First Chicago, a nonprofit education advocacy organization that supports Black and Latino families and has an Elected School Board Task Force, called the latest proposal “more trick than treat.” The group took lawmakers to task for dropping a new draft map on Halloween when “most Chicago families were out celebrating with their children.”

Hal Woods, director of policy for Kids First Chicago, said the map continues to give white Chicagoans “substantial voting power” over a school district that serves just over 10% white students. He said parents see “more work that could be done.”

“Even with redlining, even with segregation, even with discriminatory housing policies that have forced many Chicago neighborhoods to be segregated … we have put forward prototypes that even with those historical inequities still adhere to all relevant election law,” Woods said.

A group of parents and data advocates called The FOIA Bakery released an analysis of the third draft map that looks at the proposed districts through the lens of the 2023 municipal election results. They say only seven districts in the new draft map would have elected a “minority-preferred candidate.”

But others say the new draft districts are much better than previous versions.

Jeff Fielder, executive director of the Chicago Republican Party, previously raised concerns about gerrymandering and argued for an independent commission to draw the maps. He said the third draft is better than the previous two because it has less gerrymandering.

“I’m sure there’s going to be lawsuits as it is but of their efforts, this is probably the best one,” Fielder said.

Cassie Creswell, executive director of Illinois Families for Public Schools, said she’s mostly concerned about not having a map solidified yet.

“The shorter the time between a final map and next year’s election, the worse it is for genuinely grassroots candidates who are trying to decide whether or not to run and then mustering the resources to do so,” Creswell said.

Political consultant Eli Brottman said the new map is “1,000 times better” and called six solid Latino districts a “huge win for our schools and our kids.” He said it took him multiple attempts to draw a map that would have six Latino majority districts.

Brottman said he suspects the lawmakers’ latest draft map has a “significant chance” of passing next week. Whenever that happens, he encourages people to get up to speed on what district they live in and who is running.

“Whoever we elect in these first couple rounds, helps to set a precedent for the future,” Brottman said.

Leonard, whose group Illinois African Americans for Equitable Redistricting put out a 10-district map that tries to align school board districts with City Council wards, said lawmakers are getting closer with this latest iteration. But they need to figure out how their 20 districts become 10 for the 2024 elections, she said.

Corrina Demma, an organizer with Educators for Excellence Chicago that supports the map Leonard’s group proposed, raised concerns that lawmakers could propose residents in only 10 of the 20 districts would vote in 2024, meaning “only half of Chicago will have the privilege to vote … while the other half will lack a voice.”

“We need Illinois lawmakers to get the maps right, for the sake of the 323,000 students that are depending on it,” Demma said.

Samantha Smylie contributed reporting.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois lawmakers propose having half of Chicago voters select school board members in 2024

2023-11-03T23:45:00+00:00

Roughly half of Chicago voters would get to elect school board members in 2024 and the other half would vote in 2026, according to new language proposed by state lawmakers late Friday.

Earlier this week, legislators released a new draft map that divides the city into 20 districts. Each district has roughly 137,000 people in it. The new proposal assigns each district a number and says odd-numbered districts would vote in 2024. The state legislature could vote on the proposal during next week’s veto session.

In addition to outlining how Chicagoans would vote in the 2024 and 2026 election, the proposal includes ethics requirements for elected members and a conflict of interest provision that falls in line with state law.

The proposal also calls for the board of education to create a Black Student Achievement Committee to address the needs of Black students throughout the district and create a strategic plan to close the gap in academic achievement between Black students and their peers.

Valerie Leonard, of Illinois African Americans for Equitable Redistricting, has pushed during public hearings for the Senate’s committee on the elected school board to create a Black Student Achievement Committee.

According to state law passed in 2021, 10 members of the school board are to be elected and 10 are to be appointed by the mayor in 2024. The mayor will also appoint a school board president. In 2026, the districts with appointed members will vote and the entire city will vote for a school board president.

People interested in running for Chicago’s Board of Education must collect 250 signatures from their districts and can begin circulating petitions on March 26, 2024. To get on the ballot, petitions must be filed by June 24, 2024.

Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Who will vote in Chicago’s first school board elections in 2024? Lawmakers are trying to decide.

2023-11-08T00:39:39+00:00

Illinois lawmakers are debating competing proposals that would allow all Chicago voters to cast a ballot in the city’s first school board elections in 2024.

A new proposal put forward by House Democrats pairs up the 20 districts the city is currently divided into under a third draft map released last week.

That plan, filed by Rep. Ann Williams, who chairs the House Democrats’ Chicago Public Schools Districting Working Group, would result in 10 elected school board members and 10 appointed by the mayor from each pairing of districts. A school board president would also be appointed by the mayor.

Meanwhile, following a Senate executive committee meeting, Senate President Don Harmon put forward a plan to have all 20 districts vote in 2024 and let the mayor appoint only the school board president. That came shortly after a senate committee passed an amendment that suggested only 10 of 20 districts vote in 2024.

Harmon said creating an elected school board for Chicago has been “a long journey.”

“Hopefully, we are in the closing chapter in Springfield,” he said.

According to state law passed in 2021, Chicago will move from having a seven-member school board appointed by the mayor to a 21-member elected school board by 2027.

But the transition from an appointed board to a hybrid one to one that’s fully-elected has puzzled lawmakers tasked with dividing the city into electoral districts.

According to the law — and its subsequent trailer bill passed in 2021 — 10 school board members are to be elected on Nov. 5, 2024 from 10 geographic districts. The mayor is to appoint 10 members from those same districts and a school board president at-large. In November 2026, the appointed members would then switch to being elected, including the school board president who would be elected at-large.

By January 2027, all 21 members will be elected. Going forward, elections will be staggered, with half the board up for election every two years.

The senate’s previous proposal to assign each district a number and only have people living in odd-numbered districts vote in 2024 was met with criticism by advocates who spoke during Tuesday’s committee meeting.

Kurt Hilgendorf, special assistant to Chicago Teachers Union’s president Stacy Davis-Gates, said that while the senate’s plan proposes a more representative map and addresses concerns around candidate eligibility and ethics, the union has decided not to take a position because of the proposal to only allow roughly half of the city to vote in 2024.

“That creates a disenfranchisement lawsuit risk and that we think that maximum participation should be done in the first election,” said Hilgendorf. “We think that all the voters in the city of Chicago should have the right to vote in that first year election.”

Valerie Leonard, of Illinois African Americans for Equitable Redistricting, expressed the same concerns as Hilgendorf and suggested all 20 districts vote immediately.

“All districts should be up for election with half the terms being two-year terms and the other half being four years and that would create your stagger,” Leonard said.

At the end of Tuesday’s meeting, Harmon said having only 10 districts vote was the “Achilles’ heel” of the proposal Senate Democrats put forward late last week.

Shortly after the meeting ended, Harmon filed the amendment that would have residents in all 20 districts vote. Members elected in odd-numbered districts would serve four-year terms and members elected in even-numbered districts would serve two-year terms. The mayor would only appoint the school board president and in 2026, that position would be elected at-large by all Chicago voters.

If the House passes its new proposal to pair districts, it would need Senate approval. Similarly, the Senate’s proposal to have all 20 districts vote in 2024 would need House approval. Lawmakers are scheduled to be in session until Thursday.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Albany extends mayoral control for 2 years, tweaking NYC’s education panel

2024-04-20T19:38:18+00:00

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Mayor Eric Adams is set to retain control of the city’s school system for another two years, as part of a finalized budget deal between state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Under the deal, Albany officials will have a hand in selecting the head of a city education panel, and New York City officials will enter into firmer commitments on adhering to a state law requiring smaller class sizes. But observers — including a member of the panel — remain skeptical that changes to that panel will have a significant impact on the city’s schools.

For months, an extension of mayoral control in the budget seemed an unlikely prospect in Albany, as lawmakers repeatedly argued that the future of New York City’s school governance structure should be determined outside of the budget process.

But earlier this week, as last-minute negotiations over the late budget ensued, Hochul continued to push for a mayoral control extension. On Saturday, lawmakers in both houses of the Legislature passed a budget bill including the two-year extension.

“I want stability in the city,” the governor said during a Friday press conference. “I want the parents and children and teachers to know that the governance mechanism that’s been in place for many, many years will not be politicized. It will not be a political football for the next few months.

“Sometimes, you just have to step back and say, ‘We want to get this done,’” she added. “And I have a knack for figuring out who to bring together and what has to happen.”

The $237 billion state budget finally neared completion on Saturday, nearly three weeks after its April 1 deadline. It allocates roughly $36 billion in funding to the state’s schools — as well as $2.4 billion to help New York City support the recent influx of asylum-seekers and other migrant families. Hochul will still need to sign the final budget into law.

For more than 20 years, the city’s mayoral control system has largely relied on the mayor’s power to select a schools chancellor and appoint a majority of members to the Panel for Educational Policy, or PEP, a city board that votes on major policy proposals and contracts.

As part of the deal struck this week, the board will grow by one member — with the chair of the PEP appointed from a set of nominees selected by Albany officials. Senate and Assembly leaders, as well as the chancellor of the state’s Board of Regents, will nominate candidates to oversee the panel, from which the mayor will select a chair.

The city’s Education Department will also be required to make firmer commitments to meeting a state law mandating smaller class sizes — a major priority for many lawmakers that passed as part of the last mayoral control deal. That means the city will be required to construct more school buildings, as well as maintain levels of funding needed for schools to shrink class sizes.

Despite those changes, some lawmakers were displeased with the extension.

“The proper way to do this is a thoughtful deliberation and hearing more voices in the process — taking into account more opinions from education stakeholders — and that’s exactly what we had planned to do immediately after the enactment of the budget,” said state Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Senate’s New York City education committee, on Friday. “As it turns out, the governor was very insistent on including this issue, and the governor has a great deal of influence during the budget making process.

“So this decision making was clearly rushed,” he said. “It’s not best practice, but this is where we are.”

Mayoral control extension follows detailed state report

The agreement comes on the heels of a nearly 300-page state Education Department report on mayoral control, which compiled testimony from five public hearings and detailed the history of New York City school governance.

That report, which City Hall referred to as a “sham,” did not advocate directly for extending or overturning mayoral control. But it noted a majority of speakers at public hearings wanted to see the system reformed, adding they felt unheard and excluded by the current structure.

It also highlighted a series of recommendations that arose during the public’s testimony, including potential tweaks to the makeup of the PEP and a commission to consider longer-term reforms to the city’s school governance structure.

On Friday, Liu hinted that longer-term changes to the system based on the findings of the report could come in 2026 instead, when mayoral control next expires.

“It’s a long-term study over the past 20 years, and the findings and the insight that this report provides are not going to change in the next year or so,” he said. “We are going ahead with a short term extension, so you can read between the lines there.”

Education panel tweak unlikely to have major impact, observers say

The extension comes as a win for Adams, who will now retain control over the city’s schools for the entirety of his first term. In recent weeks, Adams and his administration have made repeated pitches for an extension — with schools Chancellor David Banks lobbying lawmakers in Albany and threatening to resign if the system was overturned.

Still, the PEP will see one change under the deal. Currently, the chair of the panel is elected by its voting members, a majority of which are appointed by the mayor. Under the new system, the panel will grow from 23 to 24 members, though the mayor will still retain a majority. And though the mayor will hold the final decision over who leads that panel, Adams will now choose from a pool of three candidates determined by Albany officials. (If the mayor rejects all three candidates, Albany officials may submit up to two additional sets of three nominees.)

It’s a move lawmakers say could introduce more independence from the mayor to the role.

On Saturday, Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, praised Albany officials “for their work on behalf of the children of New York.”

“Today’s state budget requires New York City to provide every school with the funding it needs to lower class sizes - a critical investment in our public schools,” he said in a statement. “While more work needs to be done on mayoral control, the introduction of independent leadership to the Panel for Educational Policy provides more checks and balances in school governance.”

But some remain skeptical about the potential impact of the PEP change.

Vanessa Leung, who served as chair of the PEP for eight years under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, said having a more independent chair could lead to “a shift in the balance of power.”

But she added it will be especially difficult for that chair to effectively oversee a 24-member PEP, maintaining relationships across its members and with the city’s Education Department.

It’s “a huge lift for one person, who may not have the time and flexibility needed,” she said.

The change to the PEP “in practice is pretty benign,” said David Bloomfield, a professor of education, law, and public policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center. Though the chair holds some power over the panel’s agenda, he believes it’s likely that state officials would be “accommodating to the Mayor.”

“On the other hand, the Regents & Legislature stepping into a direct NYC school governance role is extraordinary, unique in the state and, as far as I know, the country,” he said in an email.

It’s a move that Jonathan Collins, a professor of politics and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College, noted runs counter to the findings of the state Education Department report.

“The report shows us that NYC parents and stakeholders have major concerns about how accessible and responsive the current local governing board is to their concerns and needs,” he said in a Friday email. “They want more local control, and for the time being, they’re likely getting even less.”

Collins added the shift in chair selection could give Albany leaders some influence over the city’s policy agenda.

But skepticism about the impact of the change was shared even among current members of the panel.

“If we keep the same number of mayoral appointees, at the end of the day whoever picks the chair is not going to impact how votes play out,” said Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, a current PEP member appointed by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. “It doesn’t really improve the dynamics of the panel, or respond to the hundreds of people that participated in mayoral control hearings talking about ending mayoral control.”

She expressed disappointment with the rapid nature of recent mayoral control negotiations — particularly in light of the recent state Education Department report.

“It’s just really, really frustrating that folks aren’t looking at the big picture,” Salas-Ramirez said. “Here we had an opportunity to really create some transformative change on how New York City public schools are governed — to create a more democratic structure, to move towards something that people are actually asking for.

“And we’re literally encapsulating it in a one week debate,” she said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

New Title IX rules offer ‘comprehensive coverage’ for LGBTQ+ students and sexual violence survivors

2024-04-19T14:27:26+00:00

This story was originally published by The 19th and is republished under a Creative Commons license. Sign up for The 19th’s newsletter here.

Since President Joe Biden first took office, advocates for sexual violence survivors and the LGBTQ+ community have pressured his administration to update the federal regulations that protect such groups from discrimination in schools and colleges.

Now that day is here.

The Department of Education announced on Friday that it has finalized the rule under Title IX — the historic federal civil rights law — that prevents academic institutions that receive federal funding from discriminating on the basis of sex.

“For over half a century, Title IX has opened doors, expanded access and promised fairness,” Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said on Thursday during a call with reporters. “Before Title IX was passed in 1972, women and girls didn’t have equal access to education in this country. That was unacceptable then, and it’s unfathomable now. Title IX promises that no person experiences sex discrimination including sex-based harassment or sexual violence in federally funded education.”

Advocates have argued the new regulations are necessary after former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in 2020 rolled back safeguards by narrowing the definition of sexual harassment, giving protections to alleged perpetrators, failing to protect LGBTQ+ students and instituting controversial rules for questioning during misconduct hearings. Although Title IX is a federal law, each administration takes a different approach to enforcing its regulations about sex discrimination.

After suggesting updates to the regulations in 2022, the Department of Education fielded over 240,000 public comments that it took under consideration during its rulemaking process. The newly finalized Title IX rule under Cardona not only repeals many of the DeVos-era changes but also represents “the most comprehensive coverage under Title IX since the regulations were first promulgated in 1975,” said Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary for the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education, during Thursday’s call with reporters. “The final regulations encourage reporting of sex discrimination under Title IX and require institutions to respond promptly and effectively.” The 2020 regulations asked little of schools, only tasking them with not deliberately ignoring sexual harassment, she added.

As Biden faces an election rematch with former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, Department of Education officials made a point to contrast the updated Title IX regulations with those of the Trump era. Rather than weaken protections for sexual violence survivors, LGBTQ+ people and pregnant people, their regulations strengthen them, they said.

“These regulations make it crystal clear that everyone can access schools that are safe, welcoming and that respect their rights,” Cardona said. “They clarify that Title IX’s prohibition of sex discrimination includes all forms of sex discrimination. No one should have to give up their dreams of attending or finishing school because they’re pregnant. No one should face bullying or discrimination just because of who they are or who they love. Sadly, this happens all too often.”

The final regulations intend for students and school personnel to get the support needed if they experience sex discrimination and for schools to resolve complaints with fairness and accuracy, according to the Department of Education. Although the newly finalized regulations restore a number of protections that the DeVos era ones gutted, the Department of Education emphasized that it will give schools flexibility to resolve sex discrimination complaints in a way that is appropriate for their school size and administrative processes.

The final rule also describes what sex-based harassment and sex discrimination are, noting that schools must provide an educational environment free of biases “based on sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”

Department of Education officials said that the new regulations could address the disturbing trend of pornographic deepfake images circulating in schools, a phenomenon that was not even a possibility when Title IX was first established in the 1970s. Lhamon said that if deepfake harassment creates a hostile environment in a school setting that it could also constitute sex discrimination under the federal law.

“The school would need to take prompt and effective steps to ensure nondiscrimination for the students on the basis of sex moving forward,” she said.

The regulations acknowledge that stopping someone from experiencing school in a way that’s consistent with their gender identity causes harm, but they do not address whether transgender or nonbinary students qualify to participate on sports teams that align with their identity. They also do not prevent religious institutions from discriminating against LGBTQ+ students or staff.

“The Title IX statute itself exempts religiously controlled institutions, and the regulations are unchanged in tracking that statute,” Lhamon said.

The regulations also stress the rights of parents and guardians to advocate for their children and the needs of individuals who allege they have experienced sex discrimination. They protect students and staff from reprisal, including from peers, related to their rights under Title IX.

Tracey Vitchers, executive director of It’s On Us, a nonprofit that works to end college sexual assault, welcomed the Biden administration’s final Title IX rule. She said that survivors and advocates have fought tirelessly for these reforms dating back to when the Trump administration took office.

“It’s On Us has long advocated for updated Title IX regulations that prioritize the protection of all students and survivors of sexual assault,” she said. “We are glad that the Biden administration finally fulfilled its promise to student survivors to return Title IX to its original intent of protecting their civil rights in the aftermath of sexual violence.”

Half of new state spending on preschool was backed by COVID aid last year, new report finds

2024-04-18T04:01:00+00:00

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After preschool enrollment took a nosedive during the pandemic, a new report offers some encouraging news. A record share of young children enrolled in preschool last school year, and state spending on preschool reached an all-time high.

New universal preschool initiatives in several states contributed to those increases, but federal COVID relief funding also played a crucial role, according to a report released Thursday by the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University.

Half of the new spending on state preschool programs last year was backed by pandemic aid, the researchers found.

That money helped improve access — preschool enrollment was up in nearly every state — but it also raises real questions about whether states will be able to sustain their investments after that federal funding runs out this fall. Some of the 26 states that spent COVID aid on preschool last year have plans to bridge the gap, but others do not.

“It’s important to make sure that they all do, so we don’t move backwards,” said Steven Barnett, the director of the research institute and a co-author of the report. Already, “the nation remains very far away from providing a high-quality preschool education to every child at age 4, much less at age 3.”

The problem of the fiscal cliff isn’t unique to early education — K-12 schools are also grappling with how to fill budget holes left by expiring pandemic aid. State officials and school leaders nationwide are making difficult decisions about whether they can afford to keep many kinds of pandemic-era investments, including school mental health staff, intensive tutoring programs, and expanded summer school. Some districts, such as Chicago and New York City, also expanded preschool access with COVID dollars.

Earlier in the pandemic, COVID aid helped keep preschool teachers employed and child care providers open. But last school year, much of the money was spent to get more kids into preschool. Those strategies included recruiting and training preschool teachers, raising pay for preschool teachers at community-based providers, which typically pay less than schools, and doing more outreach to parents.

States spent at least $571 million in COVID aid on their preschool programs during the 2022-23 school year, the report found, though it’s likely more, as not all of the 26 states were able to say how much pandemic aid they used. That made up a small share of the overall $11.7 billion that states put toward their preschool programs that year. But it accounted for half of the $1.2 billion in new state spending on preschool.

Some states put a large chunk of their COVID dollars toward preschool expansion, but have come up with a plan to at least partially fill that gap.

North Dakota, for example, paid for its Best in Class program for 4-year-olds entirely with COVID relief funds last year. But state lawmakers recently approved putting $12 million in state money toward that program over the next two years, which will more than cover the gap left by expiring pandemic aid.

In Michigan, officials spent $83 million in COVID relief dollars on the state’s Great Start Readiness program, which offers free preschool to 4-year-olds primarily from low-income families. That made up a quarter of all state spending on preschool last year, and helped the program enroll an additional 2,200 children.

For this school year, Michigan lawmakers approved spending an extra $74 million in state funds to help make up for the loss of COVID funding. That investment comes as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer works to fulfill her pledge to make preschool free for all 4-year-olds.

Matt Gillard, the president and CEO of Michigan’s Children, a nonprofit that works on early education policies, said he’s not surprised that Michigan is one of the states that put a lot of COVID aid toward increasing preschool access, and now is using that investment as a springboard to get closer to a universal preschool program.

“Pre-K has been a priority with bipartisan support in Michigan for a long time,” he said. “We have a lot of need in communities, and the COVID relief dollars provided an opportunity for the state to expand that.”

But the picture is less clear elsewhere. Virginia spent around $16.3 million in COVID money last year on the state’s mixed-delivery program, which funds preschool at community-based providers and in other non-school settings. COVID funds make up the bulk of the spending for that program again this school year. Whether the state can sustain that spending will be determined by future budget negotiations, the report notes. (The Virginia Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.)

That states led by both Republican and Democratic governors used federal COVID aid to expand preschool suggests there could be bipartisan support for the federal government to offer more money for this work, Barnett said. That could be especially important as gaps in preschool access and quality continue to grow between states.

“New state initiatives for universal preschool have already started to reshape the preschool landscape,” said Allison Friedman-Krauss, an assistant research professor at Rutgers and the report’s lead author. “Which states will be left behind as all these other states move forward?”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Most NYC high schools lack newspapers. A new journalism curriculum could help change that.

2024-04-18T13:00:00+00:00

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Katelynn Seetaram, a junior at Pace High School in Manhattan, never had much interest in journalism.

But when she was placed in a journalism class her freshman year, she was stunned at just how much the course could teach her. She learned to question narratives that spread on social media. She developed a stronger sense of media literacy. And she became more skeptical and curious about the stories unfolding around her.

Now, it’s a potential career path that Seetaram hopes to pursue after graduation.

“That one class really led me to what I want to do with the rest of my life,” she said.

Seetaram is just one of the many students, journalists, and educators pushing for others to have the same opportunity. On Thursday, the New York City Youth Journalism Coalition will hold a day of action at City Hall, urging City Council members and other city officials to support more journalism programs across the city’s schools. It’s part of their launch of a “Journalism for All” initiative that includes a newly developed high school journalism curriculum that will roll out in the 2025-26 school year.

The day of action — a collaboration with the Council’s Black, Latino & Asian Caucus — will underscore that many students across the city lack access to high school journalism programs, particularly for students who are Black and Latino. And in the afternoon, Council Member Rita Joseph, who chairs the Education Committee, will introduce a resolution supporting the initiative.

Roughly 73% of the city’s high schools do not have school newspapers or student-run websites, according to a 2022 study by Geanne Belton, a journalism professor and director of the high school journalism program at the City University of New York’s Baruch College.

While more than three-quarters of the schools with the highest concentrations of white and Asian American students had student publications, the same was true for just 8% of schools with high concentrations of Black students and 16% of those with large shares of Latino students, according to the study. Schools with higher rates of poverty were also far less likely to have a student publication.

The inequities mirror trends in the broader industry. A 2018 survey found that journalists of color made up just 22% of the workforce.

“This isn’t only a journalism challenge — this really goes to the heart of civics and democracy,” said Jere Hester, the director of editorial projects and partnerships and acting director of the Local Accountability Reporting program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. “What we really want to do is institutionalize journalism instruction in New York City.”

With funding from the Charles H. Revson Foundation, the school has been able to develop a new high school journalism curriculum. The class will teach students the basics of reporting, writing, and producing stories, as well as tackling issues around civics, ethics, misinformation, and more, Hester said. It will also offer opportunities for students to experiment with different reporting mediums, including audio, video, and data journalism. (Revson is supporting a CUNY journalism student summer intern at Chalkbeat.)

Hester hopes students who take the class will be inspired to develop student publications at their high schools — or to participate in ones at schools where they already exist.

“I would love to see all these students become journalists someday,” he said. “Realistically, that’s not going to happen. But we do know that the skills and the inspiration that they get through doing this kind of work at the high school level is going to help them in all kinds of careers.

“Beyond all that, this is a way to help empower students,” he added. “To show them from this age the value of getting involved.”

In the months leading up to the day of action at City Hall, student organizers have been busy reaching out to Council members and raising awareness of the city’s youth journalism gap, said Derry Oliver, a senior at Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill High School.

The hope, she said, is to garner support from Council members and government officials, helping to spread journalism programs to districts and schools across the city. It’s a topic close to home for Oliver, who, despite taking an early interest in journalism, has not had access to a school newspaper.

“One of the things that will make me really happy is to see that other students behind me don’t have to suffer like I have,” Oliver said.

For those without access to journalism classes or publications at their school, the experience can be frustrating.

Fredlove Deshommes, a junior at Brooklyn’s Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice, tried to start a publication at her school, but said her efforts repeatedly stalled due to lack of resources.

Camila Sosa, a junior at Uncommon Collegiate Charter High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, said the absence of a student publication at her school has limited her opportunities to explore her interests in journalism and writing — and for students to amplify their voices more broadly.

“It’s insane to me that a lot of kids don’t have the opportunity to use publications as a way to express themselves,” Sosa said. “I hope that what we’re doing here actually makes a change.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

AOC, Bo Dietl, and advocates for selective schools: Here’s who David Banks met as NYC schools chief

2022-10-24T23:06:47+00:00

David Banks became the leader of New York City’s school system in January at a moment of crisis, with the omicron variant fueling an explosion in coronavirus cases that sent student attendance plunging.

Yet aside from a flurry of COVID briefings that tapered off after a few weeks, Banks’ first three months in office were dominated by introductions with key elected officials (34 meetings), school tours (21 visits), media requests (14 interviews), and meetings with other government, corporate, and nonprofit leaders, according to a copy of his calendar provided through a public records request.

He wasted no time setting up meetings with politicians — from city councilors, state legislators, and borough presidents to national figures. Just days after taking office, he seems to have met with Hillary Clinton, an early supporter of the Eagle Academy schools Banks helped launch in 2004. On Feb. 1 he appears to have met with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, on Zoom. (Those people are listed on Banks’ schedule as AOC and HRC. A department spokesperson declined to confirm their identities; representatives of the two politicians did not respond.)

Banks also sat down with Bo Dietl, a retired police detective who has worked on behalf of longtime Trump advisor Steve Bannon, former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, and shock radio personality Don Imus. During his unsuccessful run for mayor in 2017, Dietl tweeted that the teachers union has “hijacked our classrooms” and educators should be required to pass drug tests.

The chancellor’s calendar does not explain why Dietl landed a meeting with the schools chief on Feb. 7 at the education department’s downtown Manhattan headquarters, though he is friendly with Banks’ boss, Mayor Eric Adams.

Reached by phone, Dietl declined to say what the two spoke about. “Any business I do is my business,” he said, adding a string of expletives before hanging up. (An education department spokesperson declined to say what they discussed.)

The schedule obtained by Chalkbeat reveals who had the chancellor’s ear as he began navigating his first job running a school system. In his first 89 days, from January through March, he met with union officials representing teachers, cafeteria workers, and crossing guards. He kept in touch with his successor at The Eagle Academy Foundation, a nonprofit that supports the Eagle Academy schools.

The records come with some important caveats. The calendar does not include every conversation the chancellor has, including off-the-cuff or impromptu meetings, or discussions over email. It appears to be heavily redacted, with many pages left blank.

City officials said some information was redacted from the schedule for privacy reasons, including details that could reveal parent or student identities. Information that could reflect deliberations about policy were also excluded. Many of the entries do not include meeting descriptions or even the full names of the people who attended.

The schedule also reveals who isn’t meeting with Banks regularly. The mayor, for instance, does not appear on Banks’ schedule for sit-downs. An education department spokesperson said the mayor and chancellor speak one on one “several times a week” and the chancellor participates in a leadership call every morning with the mayor. Officials did not say why those meetings don’t appear on his schedule.

Banks’ calendar does not include any conversations with advocates for school integration, an issue Banks has not prioritized. (Still, he met with some integration advocates before officially becoming chancellor and a spokesperson said he met with advocates after his first three months.) Representatives of the principals union do not make an appearance on the schedule. Nor do any previous chancellors.

“Chancellor Banks keeps a busy schedule of formal meetings with a diverse group of educators, school leaders, parent leaders, elected officials, and community leaders,” education department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer said in a statement. “Additionally, these meetings are augmented with informal calls with leaders from across the city.”

Styer noted that the COVID briefings that appeared didn’t end but were later included as part of a daily call with the mayor.

It also took the agency seven months to respond to Chalkbeat’s request for Bank’s calendar for his first three months in office, longer than it took other agencies to produce the mayor and his chief of staff’s schedules for six months worth of activities.

Still, the records provide some insight into Banks’ early days in office. Here are five other takeaways:

The schedule is a reminder that Adams has elevated members of Banks’ family to key roles. Banks’ fiancé Sheena Wright, who is also deputy mayor for strategic initiatives, appears on the schedule seven times. The reasons for many of Banks’ meetings are not listed, though two meetings with Wright focused on summer school and employment opportunities, which expanded this year to serve thousands more students. Another meeting included Lester Young, the chancellor of the state’s Board of Regents, though the topic is not listed.

Banks met with his brother Phil Banks, the deputy mayor for public safety who was previously named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a corruption case when he was a top police official. The brothers discussed school safety issues at a meeting in January attended by at least one other education department official. They participated in a meeting on “school telehealth” in March with the health commissioner and another deputy mayor — and met to talk about “physical education” in April, according to Phil Banks’ schedule. (David Banks’ calendar does not list any meetings with the police commissioner.)

Parent leaders who favor selective admissions have the chancellor’s ear. On March 10, Banks met virtually with 15 elected community education council members — all of whom were endorsed by Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education or are members of that group. PLACE NYC advocates for policies that sort students by academic ability and Banks recently announced plans to double down on selective admissions at middle and high schools after the city eased up on those policies during the pandemic.

Lucas Liu, president of the parent council in Manhattan’s District 3 who attended the March meeting, said he couldn’t recall what was discussed, but said Banks has generally been more receptive. Banks is “asking for input and what we think the solutions should be,” Liu said, noting that participants attended in their capacity as parent council leaders. “Even getting meetings with [former Chancellor] Carranza’s senior people was a challenge from a PLACE perspective,” he added.

But others haven’t felt as heard. NeQuan McLean, the community education council president in Bedford-Stuyvesant, met with the chancellor on March 30 to pitch a series of community conversations about school and neighborhood violence. Banks has spoken repeatedly about the topic and recently announced an anti-violence initiative, but McLean said the specific community events he envisioned have not come to fruition. “They never followed up on my request,” he said. “I think people need to have a real conversation about safety.”

Banks made an appearance at an exclusive club frequented by the mayor. Adams often spends time at Zero Bond — an exclusive, members-only club in NoHo — and Banks made an appearance there at 7:30 p.m. on March 7. The mayor’s schedule does not show whether he was there that evening and a spokesperson declined to say. The mayor and chancellor were scheduled to visit Adams’ alma mater, Bayside High School, the following morning.

Some union officials are not a regular presence. Banks met with representatives of the teachers union twice, though city and union officials did not say if the union’s chief, Michael Mulgrew, attended. He met twice with Henry Garrido, the head of District Council 37, which represents cafeteria workers, crossing guards, and other school staff.

A notable absence: representatives of the city’s principals union. Mark Cannizzaro, who helms the principals union, wrote that he “talks regularly” with Banks, but wasn’t sure if he had any formal meetings with the chancellor during his first three months in office. A department spokesperson said the chancellor speaks with the principal and teachers union leaders regularly, but did not say why that isn’t reflected on the schedule.

You can find the chancellor’s schedule here. Spot anything interesting on the calendar that we didn’t include? Let us know at ny.tips@chalkbeat.org

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

A ‘universal FAFSA’ law could be adopted in New York as budget negotiations continue

2024-04-17T17:57:25+00:00

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T’Kai Harvey, a sophomore at the City University of New York’s Hunter College, didn’t see college as an option for most of her life.

“I come from a very low-income community in the Bronx,” she said. “So I wasn’t going to go to college and financially burden my family.”

But in her senior year of high school, Harvey learned about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, through her school, working with a counselor at her school who helped her complete the forms and secure the financial support she needed to fund her education.

Now, Harvey, along with other advocates and some lawmakers, is calling for a “universal FAFSA” law requiring all high school students to complete a financial aid application or submit a waiver opting out by the time they graduate.

The push has gained some traction in Albany, where a proposed law seeking to establish the requirement could be included in the state budget expected later this week. Gov. Kathy Hochul included a universal FAFSA policy in her budget proposal earlier this year, and on Monday, Hochul announced her administration would send letters to high school seniors with tips on completing the FAFSA, while urging principals to ensure students have the resources they need to access financial aid.

But some school districts have expressed concerns about taking on the added responsibility without additional resources, complicating the ongoing negotiations.

To Harvey, the proposed law is critical because she saw peers at other schools who were never informed about the FAFSA and missed out on significant financial aid as a result.

“I know I could have been one of the kids that didn’t have the opportunity to go to college, had I not been told,” said Harvey, a student advocate with uAspire, an organization that advocates for college access for students from underrepresented communities. “There’s a lot of federal aid that gets left behind because students aren’t filling it out.”

Calls for Universal FAFSA in New York follow the adoption of the policy in several other states. They come as recent data has shown local students losing out significant federal funding and as the fumbled rollout of a new version of the federal form this year has spurred headaches for students and counselors across the country.

In 2023, graduating students missed out on more than $225 million in potential Pell Grants by not completing the FAFSA, according to an analysis by the National College Attainment Network. And studies have shown students who complete the FAFSA are far more likely to attend college.

“So many students don’t even fill out the FAFSA, and as a result, they don’t even consider the possibility of pursuing higher education, because they think it’s out of reach,” said state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, a sponsor of the bill. “The data that we saw in NY: Leaving $200 million on the table in eligible financial aid grants … That is a staggering number.”

Financial aid forms can be confusing for families

Under language put forward in a bill earlier this year by Gounardes and Assembly Member Jonathan Jacobson, New York would require all public, charter, and private schools to enact “a universal financial aid policy,” meaning all students would be mandated to submit a FAFSA or Tuition Assistance Program, or TAP, application during their senior year. Students would also be able to submit a waiver opting out. (Those who do not complete an application or opt out would not be prevented from graduating.)

Proponents of a universal FAFSA law note that students can encounter barriers to filling out the complex financial aid forms, especially for those whose parents aren’t able to help.

“Many first-generation college students are navigating the financial aid process on their own,” said Anika Van Eaton, vice president of policy at uAspire. “Embedding this key step towards pursuing college and gaining knowledge of one’s financial aid eligibility within the high school experience is so crucial.”

Jacobson, the Assembly sponsor, noted many households haven’t encountered forms like the financial aid applications before.

“FAFSA is difficult — it’s difficult even if you’re a CPA,” he said. “There’s no question that students need help in doing this.”

For Melody Garcia, a senior at Hunter College who graduated from a public high school in Queens, their first experience filling out the form was difficult. Questions about assets, income, and other aspects of their financial situation quickly became confusing to Garcia and their mother, who does not have a college degree.

“There are so many different things that you need to fill out,” said Garcia, who uses they/them pronouns. “It looks like you’re doing taxes, and I just didn’t understand that.”

Garcia was able to get help from counselors at South Asian Youth Action, a community organization that works with schools in Queens and Brooklyn. But without that support, they would have felt lost, they said.

Still, Garcia is hopeful that a universal FAFSA policy would mean more students could find help at school.

“If it was mandatory, schools would have to set aside time for this, and really make sure that students know where to go,” said Garcia, who is an advocate with Young Invincibles, an organization that works to amplify youth voices and has called for New York to adopt a universal FAFSA policy.

Some schools concerned about FAFSA law

Some school districts worry, however, the bill would create an additional burden for them, particularly if it comes without any funding or other support. It’s become one of several issues that lawmakers and Hochul continue to discuss as negotiations over the state budget persist.

Bob Lowry, deputy director for the state’s Council of School Superintendents, said while they have supported voluntary efforts to encourage FAFSA completion, they remained concerned over the specifics of the potential new law.

Proposals from the Senate and Hochul would require school districts to obtain documentation from families that students had completed their financial aid applications or opted out — an added task for schools. Some school districts are also concerned about requirements to notify high school seniors about financial aid applications at least four times during the school year, as well as having to provide access or referrals for additional support in completing the FAFSA.

“Our greatest concern is with the potential expectation that schools will have the capacity to assist students and families with FAFSA completion,” Lowry said in an email.

Lowry instead favored language included in the Assembly’s budget proposal last month that does not make FAFSA completion a requirement, but directs the state to develop additional resources for students, including compiling lists of organizations that offer assistance with the FAFSA. Schools would be required to distribute those resources and conduct an annual presentation to students.

Gounardes said the goal is not to “take a prescriptive approach,” letting school districts determine how to approach the forms with their students.

“A lot of the other states that have done this have not required significant infusion of additional resources,” he added. “Though we are certainly very open to that conversation, were it demonstrated to be a necessity.”

Current FAFSA problems highlight bill’s need, lawmaker says

Gounardes believes the need for the proposed law has been heightened by nationwide issues with the FAFSA this year.

The “Better FAFSA” was intended to simplify the process through which students receive financial aid. But rollout of the new form has been plagued by glitches and errors, stoking fears that a significant portion of the Class of 2024 could ultimately end up not attending college.

Though Gounardes believes the issues will be solved for future application cycles, he added the impact of this year’s problems could be far-reaching.

“This debacle is proof as to why universal FAFSA is so important,” Gounardes said. “How many students are going to hear or assume that because it was a disaster this year, ‘Oh it’s not worth my time anymore. I’m not even going to bother.’

“That could not be further from the truth,” he said.

And while the city’s Education Department did not comment on the proposed law, it emphasized its commitment to ensuring students had adequate postsecondary support — particularly in light of issues this year.

“While there is continued concern about the impact of this year’s FAFSA difficulties, we have bolstered our support for students completing FAFSA,” Education Department spokesperson Chyann Tull said in a statement.

This year, the city has provided additional training to counselors, hosted remote advising sessions for families, partnered with organizations on FAFSA completion events, and distributed multilingual FAFSA guides, Tull said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Ante los problemas del formulario FAFSA, los consejeros quieren que los estudiantes sigan enfocados en sus sueños universitarios

2024-04-16T23:13:31+00:00

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Christian Rojas Linares no puede terminar de rellenar sus formularios de ayuda financiera porque está recibiendo un sinfín de mensajes de error. El estudiante de último curso de secundaria de Nueva York ha recibido incluso correos electrónicos incorrectos que le decían que su solicitud había sido cancelada.

En Filadelfia, Yasmeen Mutan tuvo más suerte: sólo tardó una hora en rellenar el formulario. Pero el gobierno federal ha sido tan lento a la hora de procesar y comunicar sus datos que, cuatro meses después, aún no sabe cuánto recibirá en ayuda financiera. Sin eso, no puede decidir a qué universidad ir. Y eso significa que tampoco puede solicitar ayuda financiera del estado.

“Me conecto cada un par de días, sólo para asegurarme de que no me he perdido nada”, dijo Mutan. “Es que no sé qué hacer”.

Ante la inminente finalización de los plazos para tomar una decisión universitaria, miles de estudiantes de último curso de secundaria se han quedado en un limbo debido al fallido lanzamiento de la nueva Solicitud Gratuita de Ayuda Federal para Estudiantes (FAFSA, por sus siglas en inglés).

Se suponía que la denominada FAFSA Mejorada (Better FAFSA) simplificaría la gestión de la ayuda financiera para los estudiantes. Sin embargo, los errores han sido tantos y tan graves que los consejeros de secundaria y los defensores del acceso a la universidad temen ahora que estudiantes con mucho futuro de la promoción de 2024 acaben por no ir a la universidad.

Desde finales de marzo, un poco más de un tercio de los estudiantes de último curso de secundaria han completado con éxito el formulario FAFSA, según los datos de la Red Nacional de Acceso a la Universidad. En años previos, a esta altura casi la mitad de los estudiantes de último curso ya lo habrían hecho. Los estudiantes que completan el formulario FAFSA tienen muchas más probabilidades de ir a la universidad, por ende los bajos índices de estudiantes que han completado el formulario FAFSA es preocupante por su impacto a largo plazo en la clase que se gradúa este año.

Y la disminución documentada por la red es notablemente mayor en las escuelas que tienen muchos alumnos con familias de bajos ingresos y estudiantes de color.

Restringir las oportunidades de ayuda financiera crea “enormes problemas”, afirmó CJ Powell, director de incidencia política de la Asociación Nacional de Orientación para la Admisión a la Universidad, especialmente para los estudiantes cuyas familias tienen menos recursos. Estos estudiantes, que suelen ser estudiantes de color e hijos de inmigrantes, dependen especialmente de las becas Pell y otras modalidades de ayuda para poder pagar la universidad. Y cuando retrasan la universidad, dijo Powell, tienen menos probabilidades de acudir a ella.

“Que la gente se vaya me mantiene despierto por la noche”, dijo Bill Wozniak, vicepresidente de comunicaciones y servicios estudiantiles de INvestED, una organización sin ánimo de lucro que promueve la educación terciaria en Indiana. “Las personas que son más vulnerables y hacen todo bien y no les está yendo bien, eso sí me preocupa”.

Una avalancha de problemas con el nuevo formulario de FAFSA

No debía ser así.

Completar el formulario de FAFSA es la puerta de entrada a subvenciones, becas y préstamos subvencionados que hacen que la universidad sea asequible para millones de estudiantes. Durante muchos años, los estudiantes y los padres decían que el formulario era complicado y estresante.

En el 2020, el Congreso aprobó una ley para simplificar el formulario, con muchas menos preguntas y mucha información financiera de la familia extraída directamente de las declaraciones de impuestos que el gobierno federal ya tiene. Pero la transición resultó ser mucho más difícil desde el punto de vista técnico de lo previsto y recayó en un Departamento de Educación de Estados Unidos que también tenía la responsabilidad de supervisar unos complejos programas de cancelación de la deuda estudiantil, según varios informes.

El lanzamiento del nuevo formulario se retrasó y, cuando por fin estuvo disponible en línea a finales de diciembre, estaba repleto de fallos técnicos.

Los estudiantes de familias de estatus mixto, familias en las que uno o ambos padres no tienen número de Seguro Social, se enfrentaron a algunos de los obstáculos más grandes. Las alternativas que estos estudiantes han utilizado durante años, como introducir todos los ceros en lugar del número del Seguro Social, ya no funcionaban. Y durante semanas no hubo forma de que estos estudiantes - la mayoría ciudadanos estadounidenses - añadieran la información financiera de sus padres.

En marzo, el departamento de educación anunció que el problema se había solucionado. Pero muchos estudiantes todavía encuentran problemas incluso al intentar verificar la identidad de sus padres.

Es el caso de varias alumnas de Danielle Insel en el Instituto de la Asamblea Urbana de Matemáticas y Ciencias para Mujeres Jóvenes de Brooklyn. Siguen “dando vueltas para conseguir que se reconozca la identidad de sus padres y así poder rellenar la sección de padres de FAFSA”, explica Insel, directora de preparación postsecundaria de la escuela.

“Después de cinco, seis, ocho intentos, quieren darse por vencidas”, dijo. Las estudiantes ya se lo están diciendo, a veces en broma y otras no tanto: “No voy a ir a la universidad, no voy a recibir ayuda financiera”.

“Es desmotivante, frustrante, y sí, puedo ver que tiene una relación directa con una disminución de las inscripciones. Si no la inscripción, sí la matriculación”, añadió.

En grupos de chat y foros, los orientadores universitarios intercambian consejos para que los estudiantes superen los obstáculos técnicos. A veces suenan como trucos de videojuegos retro.

Hace poco, en la escuela secundaria West High School de Denver, Federico Rangel, orientador universitario de la Fundación de Becas de Denver, compartió un truco con el estudiante René Torres, que recibía un mensaje de error cada vez que intentaba añadir a sus padres a su cuenta, un paso necesario.

“Pulsas dos veces el botón de retroceso”, le dijo Rangel a Torres. “Debería llevarte de vuelta a la página original y entonces podrás avanzar. Entonces debería permitirnos hacer la cuenta”.

Al principio, el truco no funcionó, pero entonces a Torres le apareció una pantalla distinta.

“Oh,” dijo Rangel. “Estás en la página de verificación de identidad”.

“Es un paso en la dirección correcta”.

René Torres, de 18 años, prepara su solicitud de ayuda financiera en el Centro del Futuro de la escuela secundaria West High School de Denver.

Muchos estudiantes no tienen paquetes de ayuda financiera

El departamento federal de educación también ha tardado en compartir los datos de los estudiantes con las universidades y recientemente anunció que volvería a procesar muchos formularios para corregir discrepancias en los datos fiscales. La publicación “Crónica de la Educación Superior” informó de que los gestores de ayuda financiera de las universidades están notando muchos errores, lo que provoca más retrasos y frustraciones. Las universidades no quieren enviar paquetes de ayuda financiera que luego tengan que modificar.

En un año normal, los estudiantes recibían los paquetes de ayuda financiera junto con las cartas de admisión de las universidades y tendrían semanas o meses para comparar las ofertas y considerar sus opciones. Este año, los estudiantes reciben cartas de admisión de las universidades, pero en la mayoría de los casos no reciben los paquetes de ayuda financiera.

“Los estudiantes deciden a dónde ir y si ir o no basándose en los paquetes de ayuda financiera”, dijo Bill DeBaun, director senior de datos e iniciativas estratégicas de la Red Nacional de Acceso a la Universidad. “Están mirando estas opciones diferentes sin tener idea de cuáles son accesibles para ellos”.

Para los consejeros, esto significa que todavía están trabajando con los estudiantes de último año en lugar de empezar a trabajar con los estudiantes de tercer año en sus composiciones universitarias como lo harían normalmente. Es más difícil organizar eventos presenciales para “llenar el formulario FAFSA” cuando las familias se marchan frustradas. Y darle el seguimiento a los distintos plazos se ha convertido en un dolor de cabeza.

Para los estudiantes, no poder decidirse por una universidad puede retrasar o complicar otras decisiones.

Mark Stulberg, director de orientación universitaria en la escuela secundaria Lincoln Park de Newark, dijo que los intentos de los estudiantes para conseguir un lugar en donde vivir, pasantías y otros aspectos de la vida universitaria para el próximo año están todos “casi como en pausa en este momento.”

Lincoln Park forma parte del sistema de escuelas chárter de la Academia Estrella del Norte (North Star Academy Charter School system), donde la mayoría de los alumnos son negros y proceden de familias de bajos ingresos. Las escuelas hacen hincapié en el ingreso a la universidad desde el kinder.

Este año, el 85% de los estudiantes han completado el formulario FAFSA, un porcentaje muy por encima del promedio estatal, pero todavía es un 5% a 10% menor que en un año típico de Estrella del Norte.

Stulberg dijo que los maestros y consejeros están haciendo todo lo posible para animar a los estudiantes que sean pacientes y vean los retrasos como un obstáculo relativamente pequeño en un largo viaje. Por ahora, las familias están siguiendo el proceso.

Sin embargo, le preocupa que algunos de sus alumnos “hayan dedicado los últimos 10 a 12 años de su vida para prepararse y tener éxito en la universidad”, sólo para elegir otro camino que no los conducirá al éxito cómo puede hacerlo la educación terciaria.

Los consejeros les dicen a los estudiantes: céntrense en los objetivos a largo plazo

Wozniak, de Indiana, dijo que su equipo de orientadores universitarios, que atienden las líneas directas y participan en eventos, quiere que los padres y los estudiantes sepan que no están solos y que no es culpa suya. Muchas universidades y sistemas estatales de ayuda financiera están retrasando los plazos para adaptarse a los retrasos, y las ofertas de ayuda financiera llegarán luego.

Powell dijo que los consejeros pueden ayudar a los estudiantes a solicitar otras becas mientras esperan, o repasar cómo leer una oferta de ayuda financiera para que puedan comparar opciones en un tiempo reducido.

Rojas Linares intenta ser optimista. Ha sido aceptado a varias universidades públicas y privadas, aunque está en un limbo hasta que pueda enterarse de sus becas Pell, programa de trabajo y estudio, préstamos federales y su beca a través del Programa de Asistencia para Matriculación del Estado de Nueva York.

“¿Cuánto más tenemos que esperar para conocer los resultados de la ayuda financiera?” se pregunta Rojas Linares. “Sólo espero que todo esto termine para no tener que estresarnos más”.

Mutan está decidida a ir a la universidad, pero es posible que tenga que esperar un año si no recibe pronto información sobre la ayuda financiera. Sus padres son inmigrantes palestinos que hablan árabe y poco inglés, y su padre es el único sustento de la familia. No quiere presionar económicamente a sus padres ni endeudarse.

“Quiero ser capaz de poder pagar la universidad, y FAFSA es gran parte de ello”, dijo.

Traducido por Flavia Melisa Franco

Amy Zimmer y Michael Elsen-Rooney, ambos periodistas de Chalkbeat, basados en Nueva York, Catherine Carrera, basada en Newark, Carly Sitrin, basada en Filadelfia, y Jason Gonzales, basado en Colorado, contribuyeron a la redacción de este artículo.

Erica Meltzer es la editora nacional de Chalkbeat y está basada en Colorado. Puede ponerse en contacto con ella enviando un mensaje a emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Un grupo vinculado a Trump elabora un plan para negar la educación gratuita a los estudiantes indocumentados

2024-04-12T19:55:02+00:00

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Un grupo conservador influyente publicó recientemente un informe en el que pide a los estados que exijan a las escuelas públicas que cobren a los niños migrantes no acompañados y a los niños con padres indocumentados para inscribirse. La Fundación Heritage está gastando decenas de millones de dólares para elaborar un conjunto de políticas para un segundo mandato presidencial de Trump.

Esta medida “atraería una demanda de la izquierda”, afirma el informe, “lo que probablemente llevaría al Tribunal Supremo a reconsiderar su desacertada decisión en el caso Plyler v. Doe”, haciendo referencia a la sentencia de 1982 que consideraba inconstitucional negar a los niños la educación pública por su estatus migratorio.

Plyler ha sobrevivido ataques durante más de 40 años. Pero algunos expertos legales y defensores de los niños inmigrantes dicen que la nueva propuesta para debilitarla debe ser tomada en serio, dada la extrema retórica anti-inmigrante de Trump, el constante bombardeo de titulares sobre la “crisis de los migrantes” y la predisposición reciente de la Corte Suprema liderada por los conservadores a derogar precedentes legales establecidos.

Las políticas actuales de inmigración ilegal y la imagen que los conservadores, e incluso algunos liberales, han pintado de sobrecargar los recursos de los estados y las localidades, creo que es un factor enorme”, dijo Brett Geier, un profesor de la Universidad del Oeste de Michigan (Michigan Western University) que escribió un libro sobre las escuelas K-12 y el Tribunal Supremo. “Creo que este tribunal tiene el descaro de decir: Vamos a encargarnos de ello y derogarlo”.

Pero otros dicen que la verdadera intención es agitar a los votantes en un año electoral, y que el caso Plyler v. Doe realmente no corre peligro.

“Cada vez que hay elecciones, de repente el tema de la inmigración se convierte en un gran problema, y [oímos]: ‘Tenemos que hacer algo con estos inmigrantes, y deshacernos de ellos, y no pagar por su educación’”, dijo Patricia Gándara, profesora de investigación en la Escuela de Posgrado de Educación de la UCLA, que ha escrito mucho acerca de cómo la aplicación de las leyes migratorias afecta a los niños y las escuelas. “Después de las elecciones, el tema se esfuma”.

Cobrar la matriculación escolar en Texas condujo al fallo Plyler

Una proporción cada vez mayor de estadounidenses, y sobre todo republicanos, afirman que las políticas de inmigración son una de sus mayores preocupaciones en estos momentos. Y las cuestiones de inmigración están acaparando mucha atención en las elecciones presidenciales de este año.

Trump había hecho su campaña con una serie de políticas de inmigración de mano dura y restrictivas, como la deportación masiva de inmigrantes indocumentados y el fin del reasentamiento de refugiados. También ha asegurado falsamente que los niños inmigrantes han desplazado a otros niños en las escuelas públicas de Nueva York.

El enfoque en materia de inmigración se debe a que el país está viendo un aumento importante del número de inmigrantes que llegan a la frontera entre Estados Unidos y México. Las autoridades federales contabilizaron casi 2,5 millones de personas que llegaron a la frontera sur el año pasado. Esto representa un aumento del 43% en comparación con dos años antes, aunque no todos fueron admitidos. Una cantidad cada vez mayor corresponde a familias con niños.

Más de tres cuartas partes de los estadounidenses consideran que lo que está ocurriendo en la frontera es un problema grave o una crisis, según una encuesta reciente del Centro de Investigaciones Pew. Casi una cuarta parte de los adultos estadounidenses dijeron que les preocupaba que el aumento de inmigrantes podría ser una carga económica para el país.

La Fundación Heritage (The Heritage Foundation) ha abordado estas preocupaciones en su informe reciente, titulado “Las consecuencias de la inmigración ilegal desenfrenada en las escuelas públicas de Estados Unidos”. En él, la organización critica el enfoque del Presidente Biden a las políticas de inmigración, diciendo que ha dado lugar a “un gran número de niños que no hablan inglés” que se matriculan en las escuelas públicas.

El documento cita ejemplos de escuelas de Texas que daban clases en los pasillos, y de una escuela secundaria de Brooklyn que hizo que los alumnos aprendieran virtualmente durante un día después de que la escuela alojara a familias migrantes toda la noche durante una tormenta.

En respuesta, la Fundación Heritage le está pidiendo a los estados que prohíban a las escuelas el alojamiento de inmigrantes indocumentados y que exijan a las escuelas que recopilen datos de matriculación de estudiantes por estatus migratorio “para que se puedan hacer unos análisis de costos con precisión”. Los estados deberían exigir a los distritos escolares que cobren a los niños indocumentados la matriculación para asistir a la escuela pública, sostiene el informe.

Fue precisamente esta práctica hace casi medio siglo -en el mismo estado que desobedece al gobierno federal al ocuparse de la aplicación de las leyes de inmigración- la que condujo al fallo del caso Plyler v. Doe.

Texas aprobó en 1975 una ley que impedía que las escuelas públicas recibieran financiación estatal para la educación de niños indocumentados y que los distritos podían prohibir a estos estudiantes que asistieran gratuitamente a la escuela pública.

Dos años más tarde, el distrito escolar independiente de Tyler empezó a cobrarle a los niños indocumentados mil dólares al año por asistir a la escuela — una suma que los funcionarios del distrito sabían que sería inasequible para las familias inmigrantes de la zona, que a menudo trabajaban en la famosa industria de rosas de Tyler, en plantas procesadoras de carne y en granjas.

“Creo que ninguna familia podría haber pagado eso”, dijo James Plyler, superintendente del distrito, a un periodista de Education Week en 2007. “Mil dólares en 1977 era muchísimo dinero, y la mayoría de esas familias que llegaron trabajaban por el salario mínimo”.

Cuatro familias cuyos hijos no pudieron asistir a la escuela demandaron a Plyler y al distrito escolar, y finalmente ganaron ante el Tribunal Supremo. En la opinión de 5-4 de la mayoría, el juez William Brennan escribió que no permitir a los niños indocumentados aprender a leer y escribir tendría un " impacto incalculable” en su “bienestar social, económico, intelectual y psicológico”. (Los jueces que disentían estaban de acuerdo en que era incorrecto que se negara la educación a los niños indocumentados, pero argumentaron que no era una violación constitucional).

Actualmente, la Fundación Heritage sostiene que los costos de la educación han aumentado demasiado y que los estados y las escuelas deberían poder recuperarlos. El gobierno federal podría ayudar, dijo Madison Marino, una investigadora asociada senior que es coautora del informe de la Fundación Heritage, o los padres o patrocinadores de los estudiantes indocumentados podrían pagar.

“Realmente no buscamos privar a estos niños de su educación”, dijo Marino. “Hacemos un llamado para que todos contribuyan”.

La mayor parte de las familias indocumentadas de hoy probablemente tendrían dificultades para pagar la matrícula escolar, al igual que en 1977. Y la ayuda federal parece poco probable. El Congreso está profundamente dividido sobre cómo financiar políticas de inmigración y si las escuelas necesitan más fondos a raíz de la pandemia, y el Departamento de Educación de EE.UU. ha destinado históricamente una pequeña fracción de su presupuesto a la educación de estudiantes que aprenden inglés y de estudiantes inmigrantes.

La campaña de Trump no respondió a una solicitud de comentarios sobre las propuestas de la Fundación Heritage para impugnar el caso Plyler, pero hay observadores que creen que el think tank(gabinete estratégico) desempeñaría un papel crucial en una segunda administración de Trump. Por otra parte, la campaña ha dicho que los grupos externos no hablan en nombre de Trump ni de su campaña, y que las recomendaciones políticas son sólo eso.

Veintiún años después del fallo del Tribunal Supremo en el caso Plyler v. Doe, el Distrito Escolar Independiente de Tyler en Texas, ofrecía un programa bilingüe español-inglés para alumnos de preescolar y de primer grado.

El traslado en autobús de inmigrantes a ciudades impulsa pedidos de ayuda federal

Quién se hace cargo de la responsabilidad financiera de la educación de los niños indocumentados ha sido un tema polémico de debate, especialmente en los últimos dos años.

En mayo de 2022, el gobernador de Texas, Greg Abbott, dijo que quería impugnar el caso Plyler v. Doe “porque los gastos son exorbitantes y los tiempos son diferentes” que en 1982. Le pidió al gobierno federal que cubriera los gastos educativos de los estudiantes indocumentados.

Desde entonces, Abbott ha enviado en autobús a más de 75.000 inmigrantes a seis ciudades dirigidas por demócratas que tienen ciertas políticas “santuario” que protegen a los inmigrantes.

Los estudiantes recién llegados pueden aportar muchas cualidades, desde la diversidad lingüística hasta el conocimiento de la vida en otros lugares del mundo, dicen los educadores, y algunas escuelas se han adaptado con éxito para satisfacer las necesidades de los recién llegados.

Pero muchas escuelas han tenido dificultades para hacerlo. Los estudiantes recién llegados no suelen hablar inglés y a veces han pasado meses o incluso años sin ir a la escuela. Muchos han sufrido traumas en su viaje a Estados Unidos o en su país de origen que pueden afectar a su formación escolar. Las escuelas carecen a menudo de profesores bilingües y de personal de salud mental para proporcionar ayuda. Y cuando llegan muchos estudiantes a mitad de año, la financiación estatal no siempre llega de inmediato, por lo que las escuelas tienen que arreglárselas con los recursos disponibles.

Muchos educadores y funcionarios locales han pedido a sus estados y al gobierno federal que proporcionen fondos adicionales para ayudar, con un escaso éxito. El proyecto de presupuesto del gobernador de Illinois no incluía fondos adicionales para estudiantes inmigrantes, y los fondos adicionales asignados en Colorado equivalen a menos de la mitad de lo que el estado gastaría normalmente por estudiante.

La impugnación de Plyler podría depender de cuestiones de gastos

Desafiar a Plyler sería difícil, dijo Thomas A. Sáenz, presidente y consejero general jurídico del Fondo Educativo y de Defensa Legal México-Estadounidense, que representó a las familias en el caso Plyler original. El fallo está ahora vinculado a otras leyes federales, así como a la protección de la privacidad de los alumnos de primaria y secundaria.

“No es como: ‘Oh, simplemente preparémonos para Plyler, y aprobemos una ley, e inmediatamente este Tribunal Supremo más conservador anulará la decisión del 82′”, dijo. “Ese análisis es demasiado sencillo”.

Pero hay formas en que Plyler podría ser vulnerable, dijo Amanda Warner, candidata a doctorado en la Universidad George Mason que analizó las impugnaciones anteriores al fallo. El Tribunal Supremo actual ha favorecido los derechos de los estados y una lectura originalista de la Constitución. Y en 1973, el Tribunal Supremo sostuvo que no existe un derecho constitucional a la educación.

Según Warner, se trata de una “deficiencia evidente” que podría ser aprovechada.

Otra vía para impugnar el fallo podría centrarse en las condiciones y los costos de la educación, y si éstos han cambiado lo suficiente como para justificar que se niegue a los niños indocumentados una educación pública gratuita.

En 1982, Texas argumentó que necesitaba hacerlo para proteger los recursos destinados a la educación de sus “residentes legales”. Pero el Tribunal Supremo rechazó ese argumento. Brennan escribió que los estudiantes indocumentados no imponían “cargas especiales” al sistema educativo de Texas, y que excluirlos de la escuela probablemente no mejoraría la calidad general de la educación.

El informe de la Fundación Heritage sostiene que la inmigración no autorizada, especialmente entre los niños que llegan sin sus padres, ha llegado a un punto en el que “se justifica un replanteamiento”.

El fallo original parece implicar que “existe un umbral” para que un estado demuestre que educar a estudiantes indocumentados es una carga financiera excesiva, dijo Warner. Pero no bastaría con demostrar que el costo de la educación es más alto.

Todo el dinero ahorrado por excluir a los niños indocumentados de la escuela tendría que contrastarse con el efecto dominó sobre las viviendas, los servicios sociales y el sistema de justicia penal. “Los costos se pueden asumir de muchas maneras”, dijo Warner. “¿Cuáles son los costos de tener a todas estas personas sin educación en Estados Unidos?”.

Queda por ver si se planteará un cuestionamiento serio. Marino dijo que ningún funcionario del estado se ha puesto en contacto con la Fundación Heritage para hacer realidad su propuesta.

Después de que Abbott planteara la posibilidad de impugnar a Plyler hace dos años, un legislador de Texas presentó un proyecto de ley que habría negado a los estudiantes indocumentados una educación pública gratuita, a menos que la pagara el gobierno federal. Pero a diferencia de 1975, la propuesta no llegó a ninguna parte.

Nicholas Espíritu, subdirector jurídico del National Immigration Law Center, dijo que si una propuesta de este tipo no podía avanzar en Texas, eso debería desanimar a otros estados a intentarlo.

“Tenemos la esperanza de que, aunque haya algunos murmullos por parte de la Fundación Heritage y de estados como Texas”, dijo, “al final los políticos lleguen a la misma conclusión y se den cuenta de que esta no es una postura que al fin y al cabo cuente con apoyo.”

Traducido por Flavia Melisa Franco

Kalyn Belsha es periodista nacional de educación con residencia en Chicago. Puede ponerse en contacto con ella: kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Board of Education 2024 election results: Voters pick incumbents backed by mayor

2024-04-17T05:16:00+00:00

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Incumbents Dawn Haynes and Vereliz Santana and their running mates, Helena Vinhas and Kanileah Anderson, appeared headed to victory in Tuesday’s Newark school board election, in which fewer than 2.8% of voters participated, according to preliminary results.

All four candidates are part of the mayoral-backed “Moving Newark Schools Forward” slate, whose candidates have won every school board election since 2016. Santana and Vinhas each received 22% of the vote, according to preliminary results, while Haynes received roughly 20%. Anderson ran unopposed in her bid to complete the rest of her one-year term.

If the leading candidates hold on to win, the nine-member board would be composed entirely of members who ran for election as part of the “Moving Newark Schools Forward” slate.

First-time candidate Debra Salters trailed the four-member slate with 11.3%. Returning candidate Che’ J.T. Colter ran alongside newcomer Muta El-Amin on the “It Takes a Village” slate, a duo of community advocates who each received roughly 3%. Returning candidate Latoya Jackson received 6.3%, while two-time candidates Sheila Montague and Jimmie White garnered 8.3% and 2.7%, respectively.

Voters were choosing three candidates to serve three-year terms on the school board, along with Anderson, who was appointed to the board to fill a vacant seat and running to stay for the rest of her term.

As of 9:34 p.m. on Tuesday, Essex County results showed that out of 163,713 registered voters in Newark, just 4,626 voted in the school board election, which determines who sets policies for New Jersey’s largest school system, and its roughly 40,000 students. The board is also tasked with holding the superintendent accountable and, last month, approved a $1.5 billion budget.

During the day, residents reported low turnout at polling sites across the city’s five wards. Historically, voter turnout for the annual school board election has been low, typically around 3% to 4%. In last year’s election, just over 3% of Newark voters participated.

The Oliver Street Elementary School polling site was quiet at noon on Tues., April 16, 2024 in Newark, New Jersey.

At Oliver Street Elementary School, in the Ironbound section of Newark, few people turned up to vote early in the day. Poll workers at the school said fewer than five people had shown up to vote by 2 p.m.

“I had no idea that was happening,” said parent Patricia Miraflor in Spanish, as she looked at a candidate flyer taped to a pole across the street.

Outside the school, signs that read “vote here” in English and Spanish hung outside a black gate leading people up a ramp and to the entrance of the voting site.

More than 90 churches, senior centers, and schools across the city’s five wards opened their doors at 6 a.m. on Election Day to serve as polling places. Despite being open until 8 p.m. on Tuesday, many sites only saw a slow trickle of voters throughout the day.

Lifelong Newark resident Barbara Howell knows the stakes are high for the school board race but feels disappointed with voter turnout every year. Howell said she mailed in her ballot last week.

“I saw a few of the candidates stop by senior centers but I didn’t really know them or what they’ve done here,” said Howell on Tuesday.

Newark anticipated a new wave of voters this year after the City Council unanimously approved an ordinance to lower the voting age to 16 for school board elections. But those voters will not participate until next year’s election due to state and county delays in getting voter registration machines ready by April.

Candidate signs hang outside Mt. Zion Baptist Church, a polling site on Tuesday in Newark.

In the North Ward, the polling site located in the basement of Roberto Clemente Elementary School saw four voters by 12:45 p.m. A few blocks away, Mount Zion Baptist Church saw 14 voters as of 1 p.m. as poll workers passed the time by knitting, having lunch, and chatting about the day.

“If nobody votes, nobody can complain about what’s wrong with the schools,” Howell added on Tuesday.

Maggie Freeman, who ran for a seat on the school board in 2022, said she was the 10th person to vote at Good Neighbor Baptist Church in the South Ward as of 2:20 p.m. Every year, she wonders why voter turnout is low.

Nonprofit groups such as Project Ready, The Gem Project, and the Newark branch of the NAACP held candidate forums to increase voter turnout this year. Each group has stressed the importance of participating in the election by canvassing, sharing information on social media, and hosting voter events. Project Ready also hired a truck with an LED message board to drive around the city and encourage people to vote.

Sol Salazar was driving that truck down Bergen Street on Election Day.

“People took pictures by the truck, but the goal is to get them to the polls,” said Salazar before she drove up to the North Ward.

At a polling site inside Newark School of Global Studies, only one person had voted by 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Ester Perez, a poll worker for a school in the Central Ward on Tuesday, attended McKinley Elementary School and remembers how hard it was to learn English as a second language when she was a student. Perez remembers her parents and others in the city advocating for more services for bilingual students and hopes today’s parents learn to voice their concerns too.

That starts by “going out to vote,” Perez said.

“I remember way back when I went to school that parents were more involved with education,” Perez said. “It was a big topic for the city back then.”

Irvington also held school board elections Tuesday.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Albany to send $35.9B to NY schools as negotiations over mayoral control continue, Hochul says

2024-04-15T23:41:42+00:00

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Gov. Kathy Hochul said a preliminary budget agreement would allocate roughly $35.9 billion to New York schools — a record high — as state lawmakers closed in on a deal on Monday.

Though Hochul announced “the parameters of a conceptual agreement” on a $237 billion state budget, she said that Albany leaders had not yet finalized negotiations over mayoral control. Hochul told reporters she was pushing to extend New York City’s 20-year-old governance model — a move that would keep Mayor Eric Adams at the helm of the nation’s largest school system.

“There’s still time to see if we can get this worked out,” she said. “There’s a lot of complications with that.”

The city’s school governance structure, which expires on June 30, gives the mayor the power to select a schools chancellor and appoint a majority of members to the Panel for Educational Policy, or PEP, a city board that votes on major policy proposals and contracts. In a budget proposal earlier this year, Hochul had called for a four-year extension of mayoral control.

In 2022, lawmakers struck a deal to extend mayoral control for two years, despite Hochul pushing for a longer extension.

For months, lawmakers have argued the future of the city’s polarizing school governance structure should be determined outside of the budget process. But during last-minute negotiations on the two-weeks-late budget, the possibility of extending mayoral control reentered discussions.

“We have had some very positive conversations, but obviously, the devil’s in the details,” Hochul said. “So that’s why I’m being very careful and saying that this is a conceptual agreement, not the entire budget.”

In a statement, State Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Senate’s New York City education committee, said, “The governor is pushing the issue in budget negotiations and a short-term extension of mayoral control may be included along with stronger accountability measures for meeting class size requirements.

“The mayor wants what he calls mayoral accountability,” he said. “So he should agree to being held accountable.”

Adams praised the preliminary budget agreement in a statement and said, “We will continue to fight for New Yorkers on crucial issues, especially preserving mayoral accountability as we advocate to support public school children and families.”

Schools to see $1.3 billion increase in funding

The looming budget agreement would represent a $1.3 billion increase in school aid, allocating roughly $500 million more to New York’s schools than Hochul proposed earlier this year, according to figures she shared on Monday.

It’s the highest level of school aid in history, and comes as the governor and lawmakers have clashed over the state’s funding formula.

Hochul’s earlier proposal included two controversial changes to Foundation Aid, the state formula that calculates how much funding each school district receives and sends more dollars to higher-need districts. The adjustments proposed altering how the formula accounted for inflation and modifying a provision that prevented districts who saw enrollment drops from losing money.

That prompted pushback from some lawmakers and advocates who argued against changing the formulas at a time when the city’s schools and districts across the state face the end of billions of dollars in one-time federal COVID relief funds, which are set to dry up in September.

Hochul noted Monday that the budget deal would include an adjustment to how the formula accounts for inflation, but added the latter of her proposed changes would not go into effect.

“If left unchecked, the formula would have grown roughly 5%,” said Blake Washington, the state’s budget director. “Instead, it’s going to grow approximately 2.8%.

Meanwhile, the state’s Education Department will partner with the Rockefeller Institute to conduct a longer term examination of Foundation Aid with hopes of changing the formula next year, Hochul said.

“State law requires us to keep everybody at the same level every year, regardless of whether they’ve had population loss or whether their needs have changed,” she said. “There’s got to be a better way.”

The state budget will also allocate $19 million to new mental health supports for children and expand the state’s Tuition Assistance Program, according to Hochul.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

A civics roadmap for teens: New online clearinghouse created ‘by youth, for youth’ aims to help

2024-04-12T22:17:31+00:00

Looking to run a voter registration drive at your school? Want to learn how to earn a high school diploma with a “seal of civic readiness,” demonstrating civic skills and knowledge? Trying to find out more about the NYC Mayor’s Office internship program?

Or maybe you want to get a head start on registering for the upcoming election, whether you’re 18 or not. (Those who are 16-17 can now pre-register so they are automatically registered when they turn 18.)

This information and more can be found on the “Youth Civic Hub,” an online portal launched on Friday, designed “by youth, for youth,” to increase youth civic engagement and electoral participation.

Led by the NYC Youth Agenda and Civic Coalition, this one-stop clearinghouse includes a wealth of information, ranging from internships and volunteer opportunities to voter registration tools and an elections portal with scorecards rating candidates on young people’s issues. It will soon have a “power map” explaining the different roles of elected officials, a glossary outlining the language commonly used in civic spaces, and a directory of various local organizations for young people to connect with.

The young people behind the portal are hoping to get it in the hands of New York City teachers, so they can share it with their students and expose them to “high-quality” civic opportunities across the five boroughs.

Creating the hub has been a yearslong project spearheaded by YVote, a teen-focused civic engagement nonprofit that is helping lead the larger NYC Civic Coalition.

“We’re not just helping voters, we’re trying to make the connections — who oversees what,” said Mia Payne, a 2022 graduate of Manhattan’s Talent Unlimited High School, alumnus of YVote, and a youth co-chair on the education transition team for Mayor Eric Adams.

“We just want to connect the dots of the roles and responsibilities [of government officials],” she said. Though young people often “just see whoever’s on the TV,” which is often the mayor or governor, it might make more sense to reach out to their city council member for school community issues, she said.

When Payne joined YVote in her sophomore year of high school, she asked why it was so hard to find out who represents you and what they do and believe. It turned out the organization was already working on solving this problem by building the hub. She believes the work they’re doing can serve as a blueprint for other states.

The portal comes at a pivotal moment, just months before November’s presidential election. In the 2022 midterm elections, just 7.6% of eligible Bronx voters ages 18-29 cast ballots and 15.3% of Queens young people voted, according to CIRCLE, an independent youth civic engagement research organization based at Tufts University. About 18% of Brooklyn voters in this age group cast ballots along with 18.8% in Manhattan and 23.4% in Staten Island. The statewide average, 19.8%, was lower than the national average of 23%.

The nation’s political polarization can turn young people off from wanting to be civically involved, Payne said, but she also believes that the hub can help provide different points of access for young people to feel more empowered.

“There’s a lot of mistrust and misinformation. We want to make this as cross-partisan as possible and straight facts,” Payne said. “The goal of the hub: You may not agree or be proud of your elected officials, but at the end of the day, the power is in the people’s hand. You have the ability to hold them accountable and elect someone else.”

Written in “teen-friendly” language the hub aims to reach young people, especially those in “civic deserts,” where there’s less broadband access and less exposure to election-related news and information.

Through the portal, young people can learn about various opportunities to get involved with communities: You can find out how to volunteer at a farm in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, apply for an internship at a design museum in Manhattan, or try and land a civics-focused fellowship centered on such issues as criminal justice, voting rights, and media literacy.

“Many youth don’t know of any opportunities besides the ones in their schools, and the hub aims to change that,” said Afsana Rahman, a member of the hub youth working group and senior at the Queens High School for the Sciences at York College. (She became involved in the hub through her work in CUNY’s Intergenerational Change Initiative.)

The hub will be officially unveiled on Monday at the NYC Youth Agenda Policy Party, where young people will also share their policy recommendations for how to make the city more equitable for youth, based on thousands of surveys of teens across the city.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools Chancellor David Banks to testify at U.S. House hearing on antisemitism

2024-04-11T21:56:41+00:00

New York City schools Chancellor David Banks will testify at a U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing on antisemitism next month, he told reporters Thursday.

Banks said that he received a letter from the committee, which conducted high-profile hearings last year with the presidents of elite colleges, asking him to testify at a May 8 hearing under the threat of subpoena.

The committee, chaired by North Carolina Republican Virginia Foxx, also invited two other school districts that Banks declined to name. A spokesperson for the committee confirmed Banks was invited but didn’t immediately provide other information about the hearing.

“We look forward to joining the committee and sharing how New York City Public Schools continue to deliver an environment of tolerance and respect for the largest and most diverse school district in the nation,” Banks said at a Thursday roundtable with reporters.

The nation’s largest school system, like districts across the country, has dealt with a surge in tensions following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

The city’s Education Department is currently under investigation by the federal Education Department for its response to incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia.

Hillcrest High School in Queens, Banks’ alma mater, made national news in November after students staged a raucous protest calling for the ouster of a teacher who posted a picture of herself on social media holding a sign that read “I Stand With Israel.”

Banks condemned the protest and said several students were disciplined for their part in the affair. But he stressed that many teens at the school, which has a large Muslim population, were seeing images on social media “on a daily basis” of “children and young people in Palestine … being blown up” and struggling to cope with their grief and anger. He vowed to turn the incident a “teaching moment” and ultimately replaced the school’s principal.

Staff at Origins High School in southern Brooklyn recently alleged that rampant antisemitism from students was going unchecked by administrators — an accusation that city Education Department officials strongly disputed.

In January, following complaints from some students and educators about a lack of opportunities to talk productively about the Israel-Hamas war in school, Banks committed to offering new training for school leaders on holding difficult conversations and responding to incidents of bias and discrimination.

On Thursday, as he reflected on the city’s response to the tumult in schools around the Israel-Hamas war, Banks said “I wouldn’t say that I’m proud of what we’ve done.”

But “I think we’ve done what we’re supposed to do,” he said.

The war has stirred up “all kinds of emotions in kids as well as adults, and we’ve got to manage all of that. For an entire system, that is not easy to do,” he added. “But I believe that our team has demonstrated a level of leadership that I am more than willing to be at the table and to express what we have done.”

The House committee that Banks will appear before made headlines in December for a marathon hearing with the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, spawning viral clips of representatives grilling the administrators on their definitions of and policies for antisemitism on campus. Two of those presidents subsequently resigned.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Should kids learn about LGBTQ issues at school? Many teachers and teens say no, new surveys find.

2024-02-23T21:21:25+00:00

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Should elementary schoolers learn that people of the same gender can love each other? Do teens want to learn about how slavery’s legacy matters today? Should parents be able to opt their kids out of lessons they disagree with?

As Republican-dominated state legislatures limit how teachers talk about race and restrict transgender children’s access to bathrooms and sports, and as school board elections turn on book bans and parents’ rights, three new national studies from the Pew Research Center, the research corporation RAND, and the University of Southern California’s Center for Applied Research in Education shed light on how teachers, parents, and students themselves think about these questions.

For all the attention LGBTQ issues receive in national politics, teachers said topics related to gender identity and sexual orientation rarely come up. And many said they don’t believe these topics should be taught in school.

In fact, large swaths of the public also don’t think gender and sexuality should be discussed in school, the studies found. However, there were wide partisan divides, as well as differences along racial and ethnic lines.

Adults and teens felt more comfortable with teachers teaching about racism than LGBTQ issues. They were also more comfortable with teachers talking about past injustices than present-day inequality, and more comfortable with gay rights than trans rights. And they were more comfortable with any of these topics coming up at the high school level — though many teens reported their own discomfort.

So it is perhaps unsurprising that two-thirds of teachers in one study said they decided on their own to limit how they talked about potentially contentious issues. One reason: They feared confrontations with upset parents.

“The topics of race and LGBTQ issues are often lumped together in discussions about these so-called ‘culture wars’ and how that’s playing out in K-12 education,” said Luona Lin, a research associate at Pew. But teachers and students actually “feel very different about these two topics.”

Here are some of the major takeaways of the three new reports:

Many teachers are censoring themselves

More than a third of American teachers work in states with laws restricting how teachers talk about issues that are considered divisive or controversial. But a study released this month by the research organization RAND found local restrictions and teachers’ own fears are having an effect as well.

In a survey of 1,500 teachers taken last year, two-thirds reported deciding on their own to limit how they talked about social and political issues in the classroom. Meanwhile, about half of teachers told RAND they were subject to either a state or local restriction. These limits could be formal, such as a school board policy, or informal, such as a principal’s comments.

More than 80% of those who were subject to a local restriction said they had made changes to their teaching, regardless of state law. That should not be surprising, said Ashley Woo, an assistant policy researcher at RAND.

“If your principal is telling you to do something, that is the person who is there with you at the school and can see what is happening in your classroom,” she said.

At the same time, more than half of teachers who were not subject to any restrictions said they had limited how they talked about certain topics, with self-censoring more common in conservative communities but still widespread in liberal ones.

A major reason teachers cited for limiting instruction, especially in communities with local restrictions, was a fear of confrontation with upset parents and that their administration would not support them if they faced a challenge.

LGBTQ issues raised less often than racism in classrooms

Though LGBTQ issues are prominent in local and national politics, a report released this week reveals a striking finding: Most teachers say gender identity and sexual orientation hardly get discussed in class — and many teachers say they shouldn’t be.

According to a nationally representative survey conducted last fall by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, more than two-thirds of K-12 public school teachers said topics related to sexual orientation and gender identity rarely or never came up in their classroom last school year. Around 3 in 10 said the topics came up sometimes or often.

Half of teachers, meanwhile, said they thought students shouldn’t learn about gender identity at school, with an even higher share of elementary school teachers agreeing with that view.

The findings come as anti-trans legislation creates a more hostile environment for gender non-conforming youth in many states.

In contrast, more than half of teachers said they discussed topics related to racism or racial inequality at least sometimes. Around 4 in 10 teachers said the issues rarely or never came up.

Nearly two-thirds of teachers said students should learn about slavery and how it affects the lives of Black Americans today, while just under a quarter said slavery should be taught only as a component of history — without any bearing on the present.

Lin, the Pew report’s lead author, says it’s likely that school board policies, local politics, and state laws are influencing what teachers discuss, though the survey doesn’t measure those factors.

What should young kids learn about gender and sexuality?

In Searching for Common Ground, a study released this week by a team at the University of Southern California, researchers surveyed a representative sample of 3,900 adults, about half of them parents of school-aged children, and asked them about dozens of scenarios related to race, sexuality, and gender.

Democrats were more comfortable than Republicans with almost every scenario, with independents and others roughly in the middle. But even Democrats were less supportive of discussing gender identity or asking students’ pronouns in elementary school than discussing racism or different family structures.

Nearly half of all respondents thought it was appropriate for an elementary teacher to have a picture of their same-sex spouse on their desk. And almost as many were OK with elementary students reading a book about two male penguins adopting a baby penguin.

But just 30% of respondents and only half of Democrats thought it was appropriate for an elementary classroom to display LGBTQ-friendly decorations, such as a Pride flag.

Democrats were far more likely to want gay or trans children to see themselves reflected at school, while Republicans were far more likely to fear discussing these topics would change children, leading to them thinking they are gay or trans.

“The largest partisan examples seem to have to do with LGBTQ and family issues in elementary school,” said Morgan Polikoff, a USC education professor and one of the study’s lead authors. “Democrats think that kids can handle that and Republicans do not.”

The rollout of Advanced Placement African American Studies reflects widespread interest among some students and teachers in learning more diverse history, but some conservatives have targeted the course.

More students feel comfortable discussing racism than LGBTQ issues

Students in grades 8-12 also tend to feel less comfortable discussing LGBTQ issues than issues of race and racism at school, and are more likely to say they shouldn’t be learning about them, the Pew report found.

In a nationally representative survey of 13- to 17-year-olds conducted last fall, around 4 in 10 teens said they felt comfortable when topics related to racism or racial inequality came up in class.

But only around 3 in 10 said the same about topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity. And just under half of teens said they shouldn’t learn about gender identity at school. That rate was somewhat higher for teens who identified as Republicans than Democrats.

Only 11% of teens, meanwhile, said they shouldn’t learn about slavery. Around half said they should learn about slavery and how it affects the lives of Black Americans today, while 40% said they should learn about slavery only in a historical context.

Black teens and teens who identify as Democrats were much more likely than white, Hispanic, or Republican teens to say they want to learn about how the legacy of slavery affects Black people today — a finding echoed among Black parents and Black teachers in other surveys.

Bridging these divides is tricky

The University of Southern California study found strong support for public education across the political spectrum.

But there’s a gap of nearly 39 percentage points between Democrats and Republicans on whether public schools should teach children to embrace differences. Nearly three-quarters of Democrats said yes, compared with just over a third of Republicans.

This underlying belief was a strong predictor of responses to specific scenarios. Those who said kids shouldn’t be taught to embrace differences also expressed more discomfort with race, gender, and sexuality being discussed in the classroom.

“Democrats on average think schools are exactly the place to do this — it’s one of the last places where everyone comes together regardless of their differences,” Polikoff said. “And Republicans don’t think that is an appropriate role for schools. And they think that because they perceive, in part correctly, that schools are a liberalizing force.”

There was broad support for parents having the right to opt their child out of certain lessons, but when researchers prompted respondents to consider downsides, such as their child missing out on the opportunity to learn critical thinking skills, support fell.

Understanding the values that drive differences and building on common ground, such as agreement that children should read books by authors of color and learn about historic injustices, could lead to a healthier conversation than what’s happening now.

“We need to have this conversation,” he said. “Instead we have Ron DeSantis saying we’ll ban everything, and Democrats sticking their fingers in their ears and saying you’re all bigots.”

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Newark 2024 school board election: Meet the candidates

2024-04-11T21:30:08+00:00

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Before this year’s presidential and New Jersey senatorial races, Newark residents will vote in the April school board election on Tuesday.

The city’s 160,000-plus registered voters will head to the polls and see a pool of nine candidates on their ballot vying for three full-term seats and one unopposed incumbent looking to reclaim her seat for a one-year, unexpired term.

Low reading and math test scores, aging facilities, chronic absenteeism, and calls to expand bilingual education services are among the top issues facing the district. In the upcoming year, the board will be tasked with addressing these concerns using its recently approved $1.5 billion budget as federal COVID relief funds are set to expire in September.

How do I vote in the April school board election?

Registered voters can vote in person at their polling place from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on April 16. There are 97 polling locations citywide and they are listed by ward in English and Spanish on the Essex County Board of Elections website.

If you’re a registered voter but don’t want to vote in person or can’t make it, you can vote by mail. Voters were able to apply by mail for a mail-in ballot up until April 9. For those who missed that deadline and still want this option, visit the Essex County Clerk’s Office to apply in person before the cutoff time of 3 p.m. on Monday, the day before the election. The county clerk’s office is located at 495 Dr Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard in Newark.

Be sure to follow the instructions on the ballot to deliver it before polls close on Tuesday to the county elections board, located in the same building as the county clerk. If mailing the ballot, it must be postmarked no later than April 16 and received by the elections board no later than six days after polls close.

The voter registration deadline for this election was March 26. Voters for this election must be at least 18 years old but starting next year, the minimum age to vote in the school board election will be 16 in Newark. To check on voter registration status, visit the state Division of Elections website.

Who’s running?

Nine candidates are running for three three-year terms, including Che’ Colter, Muta El-Amin, Dawn Haynes, Latoya Jackson, Sheila Montague, Debra Salters, Vereliz Santana, Helena Vinhas, and Jimmie White. Kanileah Anderson is running unopposed for a one-year unexpired term.

Anderson and Vinhas were appointed by the board in January to fill seats vacated by former board members.

To better understand each candidate’s views on key issues, Chalkbeat Newark sent all 10 candidates five questions, including two submitted by readers. Nine candidates responded.

Here’s what they said in their own words. Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length. Grammatical errors in candidate responses were not corrected.

Florida settlement’s limits on ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law may give teachers and students breathing room

2024-03-13T20:50:30+00:00

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Florida teachers can place a photo of their spouse on their desk. School libraries can stock books featuring LGBTQ characters. And anti-bullying efforts can protect LGBTQ students. But restrictions on classroom instruction related to sexuality and gender identity remain.

Those are the terms of a settlement agreement that puts an end to a lawsuit challenging what’s commonly known as Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. Advocates are hailing the lifting of a “shadow” that had fallen over the state’s schools. Gov. Ron DeSantis, who made challenging “woke” ideas in schools a cornerstone of his political brand, also declared victory.

The resolution calls attention to the enormous gray areas created by laws restricting how teachers talk about gender, sexuality, race, and history. These laws simultaneously touch on issues of personal identity where federal law protects students and teachers, and issues of curriculum and instruction where states have broad authority.

Fearful of lawsuits and state investigations, teachers have emptied out classroom libraries, taken down Pride flags, and quit their jobs. A high school class president was told he couldn’t mention being gay in his graduation speech. State officials have blamed local leaders for going beyond the requirements of the law, but never formally clarified what was and wasn’t covered — until the settlement agreement was signed Monday.

Essentially, the agreement means that the law won’t force teachers back into the closet or prevent students from talking about who they are.

Under the agreement, the Florida Department of Education will also disseminate guidance about the law to all 67 school districts.

“The vagueness of this law was intentional,” said Joe Saunders, senior political director at Equality Florida, a statewide LGBTQ rights group and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “At any point, [state officials] could have offered deeper guidance and didn’t. The only reason they’ve done it now is because we sued them in federal court and forced them to end the most harmful aspects of this law.”

Laws restricting teaching have wide-ranging impacts

As classroom restrictions proliferate, a survey by the research group RAND found that two-thirds of teachers reported self-censoring how they talk about certain social and political issues in the classroom, whether they lived in a state with formal restrictions or not. RAND also found — in a study released this week — that a majority of teachers thought these restrictions harmed learning and made students feel less welcome and less empathetic.

Teachers in Florida were the most likely to be aware of their state’s restrictions, and the most likely to report having changed instruction in response, RAND found. Florida also had more laws restricting instruction than other states.

A recent Washington Post analysis of FBI data found that school-based hate crimes against LGBTQ students quadrupled in states that passed restrictive laws, which include laws governing teaching as well as which bathrooms and sports teams transgender children have access to.

The relationship between state policies and bullying has been in the national spotlight after the death of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary student who died in February after a fight in their Oklahoma high school.

Related: ‘Am I not allowed to mention myself?’ Schools grapple with new restrictions on teaching about gender and sexuality

Some state laws ban discussion of certain topics or require that lessons be “age appropriate” or avoid “divisive” framings, while others require parental notification and the opportunity for parents to opt students out of lessons. Many states leave enforcement to school districts and provide little guidance.

Advocates of these laws say parents have a right to know what their children are being taught, especially on issues that might conflict with their own values, and that schools should focus on core academic subjects.

Students and teachers in states with teaching restrictions told Chalkbeat about LGTBQ student clubs receiving less support, and lessons in literature and history being scaled back to avoid talking about queer references in literature or the movement for gay civil rights.

Legal challenges to these laws are underway in a number of states, but how courts will rule could depend on specifics in individual states. Arizona’s teaching restrictions were struck down, for example, because lawmakers had wedged them into the state budget.

Keira McNett, staff counsel for the National Education Association, said the settlement is important in Florida and “for the national tenor.”

“Many states modeled their law after Florida’s and many are facing lawsuits of their own,” she said. “In many cases, they are overly broad. And when the state is required to actually explain what these vague laws mean, they explain it in a way that is a lot more narrow.”

Settlement provides clarity for classrooms, activities

Roberta Kaplan, the lead attorney for the lawsuit, said the settlement provides immediate relief to Florida students, parents, and teachers who were living under a cloud of uncertainty.

“Every kid should be able to go to public school and have their dignity respected and their family respected,” Kaplan said.

The settlement lays out examples of what’s allowed under Florida law, known formally as the Parental Rights in Education Act:

Teachers can respond to students who choose to discuss their own families or identities and can grade essays that include LGBTQ topics.
Teachers can make reference to LGBTQ people in literature or history.
Student-to-student speech and classroom debates can touch on LGBTQ issues.
Schools can explicitly protect LGBTQ students in anti-bullying efforts, and teachers can have “safe space” stickers in their classroom.
Students of the same gender can dance together at school dances and wear clothing considered inconsistent with their gender assigned at birth.

The settlement clarifies that restrictions on classroom instruction apply “regardless of viewpoint.” In other words, teachers can’t teach a lesson on modern gender theory to elementary students, nor can they teach those students that gender identity is immutable and determined by biological traits.

Kaplan said states have significant authority over curriculum, and that the part of the law specifying such restrictions was unlikely to be overturned on further appeal.

DeSantis’ office in a press release emphasized that the law as written remains intact and “children will be protected from radical gender and sexual ideology in the classroom.”

“We fought hard to ensure this law couldn’t be maligned in court, as it was in the public arena by the media and large corporate actors,” Florida General Counsel Ryan Newman said in the press release. “We are victorious, and Florida’s classrooms will remain a safe place under the Parental Rights in Education Act.”

Settlement ‘allows for a reasonable conversation’ on instruction

Suzanne Eckes, a professor of educational law and policy at the University of Wisconsin, said Florida’s law and others that are vague and broad potentially violate federal laws and protections.

As employees, teachers have limited free speech rights in the classroom, but states cannot discriminate against them on the basis of sex, which forms the basis of many legal protections for LGBTQ people. For example, they can’t penalize a teacher for having a picture of a same-sex spouse on their desk while allowing a colleague to have a picture of her husband. The federal Equal Access Act says that schools can’t limit extracurricular clubs based on their content. Bible study groups, future homemakers, and gay-straight alliance clubs all have the right to meet in school, Eckes said.

Eckes said the settlement suggests the challengers had viable claims on equal protection grounds, even as the state maintains the right to regulate curriculum and prevent teachers from offering personal opinions to a captive audience.

While the settlement creates no legal precedent, it could encourage some school district lawyers, even in other states, to reach less restrictive interpretations of their states’ laws. At the same time, even in Florida, there may be disagreements about what exactly constitutes instruction.

“If a teacher does give an opinion in class, there is this overall idea that teacher speech can be curtailed,” she said. “That is a grayer area than banning the gay-straight alliance or pulling all the books off the shelves due to your own ideology.”

Derek Black, a professor of constitutional law at the University of South Carolina, said the settlement could change the political and cultural calculus around sweeping prohibitions, even though it doesn’t set a precedent for other lawsuits.

“If DeSantis is willing to settle, maybe it’s OK for the governor of Oklahoma to settle,” Black said. “Maybe it denies cultural conservatives the ability to say that some governor or AG in another state is weak.”

The settlement also offers teachers important clarity, Black said: “This type of settlement rebalances things so you don’t have to be so afraid and that allows for a reasonable conversation about what’s instruction and what’s not.”

Michael Woods, a high school teacher in Palm Beach County who leads the Florida Education Association’s LGBTQ caucus, said he’s thrilled with the settlement even as he fears it will take decades to get back to the level of inclusion teachers and students experienced just a few years ago.

His school district’s guide for supporting LGBTQ students shrunk from 140 pages to 14 under Florida’s law, he said. And he stopped leading his school’s GSA club because he would have needed to send permission slips home, which led him to worry about outing students. He’s not sure that’s changed.

Woods also worries about colleagues in smaller, more conservative communities, and about trans educators who often face even more hostility than gay and lesbian teachers.

Still, he hopes teachers in other states feel inspired.

“One of the most hateful states in the nation for LGBTQ rights reached a settlement,” he said. “You have to fight, but it can happen.”

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Newark school board candidates discuss key issues ahead of election

2024-04-10T22:37:53+00:00

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Eight candidates running for a seat on the Newark Board of Education took part in a candidate forum on Tuesday to discuss key election issues, including academic performance, district transparency, and chronic absenteeism.

But after tension escalated between an audience member and a candidate, a key takeaway was ultimately a call for the school community to unite in its efforts to find remedies to some of those issues.

About 50 people attended the forum held a week before the April 16 election at the Newark Museum of Art and co-hosted by Chalkbeat Newark, Project Ready, The Gem Project, and New Jersey Black Empowerment Coalition. This was the third forum held this election cycle.

Nine out of 10 total candidates — including three incumbents — are competing for three full-term seats on the nine-member nonpartisan board. One incumbent, Kanileah Anderson, is running unopposed to reclaim her seat on a one-year unexpired term. She was appointed to that seat in January after it was vacated.

Shennell McCloud, the chief executive officer at Project Ready, co-moderated the discussion alongside Chalkbeat Newark reporter Jessie Gomez, and Emmanuela Awuah, a fellow from The Gem Project and student at Newark’s Technology High School.

Incumbents Anderson, Dawn Haynes and Helena Vinhas — part of the Moving Newark Schools Forward slate — participated in the event, along with five other candidates who are vying to unseat them, including Che Colter, Muta El-Amin, Latoya Jackson, Sheila Montague, and Debra Salters. Vereliz Santana, another incumbent on the Moving Newark Schools Forward slate, did not attend, nor did candidate Jimmie White.

Colter and El-Amin are running on the It Takes a Village slate. Montague’s platform is called Open the Door, and Salters’ platform is called Saving Our Children.

Candidates shared their visions for change in Newark Public Schools, including diverting more resources to classrooms, increasing transparency with line-by-line items in the budget, and teaming up with community organizations to empower attendance counselors, among other ideas.

During closing remarks from the candidates, an outburst with shouting between an audience member and a candidate caused the event to pause for a few minutes before it continued and wrapped up. A few weeks earlier, at another community candidate forum, a different disruption occurred that caused that forum to end abruptly.

With an aim to unify the crowd, McCloud brought Tuesday’s event to a close by sharing that she’s been attending Newark school board meetings for about 20 years, since she was 16.

“I go to the meetings and all I see is a lot of fighting among the community,” McCloud said. “We’re at a place where it’s time for us to come together — every single last one of us. Imagine the schools we can build together. Imagine the success our children can achieve. Imagine our pride knowing that we stood up, and most importantly, stood together to make our voices heard.”

Polling locations will be open 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on April 16.

Watch the full video of the forum below:

Catherine Carrera is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Newark. Reach Catherine at ccarrera@chalkbeat.org.

NY state education officials unveil 300-page report on mayoral control. Here’s what they found.

2024-04-09T21:29:22+00:00

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State education officials unveiled a highly anticipated report on New York City’s polarizing school governance structure on Tuesday — compiling months of public testimony and decades of the city’s history into a nearly 300-page document.

In the report, state officials did not directly advocate for or against extending Mayor Eric Adams’ control of the city’s schools, instead outlining a series of broader findings and recommendations from the public.

Those findings could have major implications for ongoing negotiations in Albany about mayoral control. The report comes as part of a deal state lawmakers struck in 2022 — extending Adams’ control for two years, while giving Albany time to assess the effectiveness of the long-standing system.

Since September, the state’s Education Department has worked with the CUNY School of Law to conduct a study of school governance models. The department also held a series of public hearings across the five boroughs, soliciting feedback from the public. The results of both efforts were included in the report.

At a press conference hours before the release of the report, Adams questioned the methods employed by the state’s Education Department. He took particular issue with the involvement of the CUNY School of Law, suggesting the school was biased against him due to an incident last year when graduates turned their backs on him during a commencement speech.

“So I’m concerned: Is this more political?” Adams said. “Or is it about the way we have done it and what Chancellor [David] Banks has done?”

He also questioned whether the testimony at public hearings was truly reflective of a city as large as New York.

In response to the mayor’s comments, JP O’Hare, a spokesperson for the state’s Education Department, said “we believe the report speaks for itself.”

“This report is a thorough, research-based presentation of school governance models in New York City and elsewhere that meets the law’s requirements with fidelity,” he said. “As intended by the legislature, the report provides thoughtful information and testimony concerning mayoral control of schools.”

Later in the day, after the release of the report, Education Department First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg called the report “disappointing” and a “missed opportunity” for failing to adequately highlight the city’s progress in closing achievement gaps compared to the rest of the state during the period of mayoral control.

Here are some of the key findings of the state’s report:

NYC model unlike most others in nation, according to report

Mayoral control, which centralizes power over the city’s schools in the hands of the mayor, has been regularly extended since 2002. The system gives the mayor the power to choose a schools chancellor and appoint a majority of members to the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, or PEP, a city board that votes on major policy proposals and contracts.

That model is unlike most others in the country, according to the state report.

Nationwide, a majority of public schools are governed by elected school boards or superintendents, rather than those appointed by a mayor. But even among cities with similar school governance structures, New York City’s model grants more power to the mayor, according to the report.

In other U.S. cities with mayoral control systems, appointments are in some cases picked from a list of names designated by a nominating panel, or require the approval of a city council. The report looked at school governance structures in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, and Yonkers — finding New York City’s model granted the most power to the mayor, followed closely by Yonkers’ system.

Calls for reform in public testimony

Over the past two decades, mayoral control has faced both fierce critics and ardent defenders.

In the report, state officials noted that a majority of speakers at public hearings sought reforms to the current system — expressing that they felt unheard or excluded by the current school governance structure. Further, speakers felt that centralizing authority in the hands of the mayor and chancellor resulted in an ill-suited “one-size-fits-all” approach to the nation’s largest school system.

Many members of the public pointed to the PEP, arguing that the disproportionate number of mayoral appointees created a system that lacks sufficient “checks and balances.” Others raised concerns over a lack of continuity in programs and policies whenever a new mayor comes into office.

But the report also acknowledged that few people have called for a return to the local school board model that predated mayoral control. Defenders of mayoral control have argued that the current structure allows for more effective and accountable leadership than the previous school board system.

Research ‘inconclusive’ on school governance

Research, meanwhile, remains unclear when it comes to school governance models, according to the report. While some studies suggest that mayoral control can garner more resources for schools and increase efficiency, others found “persistent issues with inefficiency and the misuse of resources.”

The report stated research has found “no conclusive relationship between school governance structures and student achievement,” as well as “little evidence that any governance structure has reduced longstanding inequities in educational access and attainment among students.”

Still, Adams, Banks, and other officials have pointed to test scores and other metrics in defending the current system.

“Clearly, what you see is sustained improvement in graduation rates and proficiency rates for our students,” Weisberg said Tuesday.

He pointed specifically to shrinking gaps between New York City students and the rest of the state on standardized exams over the past two decades and called it a “missed opportunity that the report didn’t compare and contrast.”

The report does, however, have an extensive section on the test score gaps between city students and the rest of the state’s, which have shrunk significantly since 2005, according to data in the report. But researchers were cautious to draw any kind of causal link between mayoral control and the shrinking gaps, noting that there are a number of other factors that influence test scores and that it’s nearly impossible to distinguish the effects of a specific education policy from the effects of mayoral control as a whole.

Weisberg countered that it’s valid to compare the results of city students to kids in the rest of the state taking the same test as long as you take demographics into account.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for City Hall also emphasized graduation rates and test scores had risen in the years since mayoral control was adopted and called the report a “sham.”

After report, debate over mayoral control will continue

In recent weeks, as lawmakers continued deliberations over the state budget, Banks ramped up his arguments for extending mayoral control. In meetings with lawmakers and public comments, he argued that his track record over the past two years warranted an extension.

But lawmakers have repeatedly pushed back on efforts to include an extension in the upcoming state budget. Some had also refrained from weighing in on the future of the city’s school governance structure before the release of the report.

In a statement Tuesday, State Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Senate’s New York City education committee, noted the report would be “invaluable in legislative deliberations and decision-making.”

“We are highly appreciative of Commissioner Betty Rosa and her team of educational professionals at the State Education Department and look forward to thoroughly digesting their findings and recommendations as we take up the important matter of school governance in NYC once the state budget is enacted,” he said.

In addition to its findings, the state report highlighted a series of recommendations from the public’s testimony — including potential tweaks to the makeup of the PEP, and to the roles of Community Education Councils and School Leadership Teams, in order to strengthen the input of local communities in the city’s decision-making process. Members of the public also called for a commission to consider longer-term reforms to the city’s school governance structure.

David Bloomfield, a professor of education, law, and public policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, called the report “a mild reprimand of the current system,” adding it “is careful to couch its recommendations as what came out of the hearings, rather than some sort of independent consensus for what should be done.”

Still, “the three-word summary of the report is: ‘We want change,’” he said. “What that change is, is left out.”

Meanwhile, the recommendation to establish a commission to study longer-term reforms could actually offer mayoral control “a reprieve,” Bloomfield said, noting “it has the effect of extending mayoral control in the near term.”

And as discussions over the future of the city’s school governance structure continue, the precise impact of the report remains unclear, said Jonathan Collins, a professor of politics and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

“If you were looking for a clear referendum on the impact of mayoral control, you’re looking for the wrong thing,” he said, adding the report showed widespread feelings of a disconnect between the needs of kids and the city’s decision-making processes. “But, if you read this report as a clear rejection of mayoral control, I would temper expectations. While we can see at-length the issues with public engagement, there isn’t clear evidence that NYC schools are doing poorly as a result of being under mayoral control.

“Ultimately, though, Governor [Kathy] Hochul and the state legislature will have to decide if the juice is worth what’s been a major squeeze,” Collins added.

Michael Elsen-Rooney contributed reporting.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Elecciones 2024: Votantes de Colorado, ¿de qué deberían hablar los candidatos presidenciales?

2024-04-09T21:06:51+00:00

Read in English.

Maestros y padres: ¿Creen que los candidatos presidenciales de 2024 deberían hablar acerca de educación y priorizar el tema? ¿Qué temas te preocupan más?

Cuéntanos en una nueva encuesta estatal.

La encuesta, llamada Voter Voices, es parte de un esfuerzo colaborativo de reporteros de todo Colorado para comprender en qué quieren los votantes que se centren los candidatos.

Los votantes son el corazón de cada elección. Queremos saber qué temas son más importantes para ti. Tus esperanzas e inquietudes marcarán la agenda sobre cómo informamos y escribimos sobre los temas, y las implicaciones, de las elecciones de 2024.

Por favor, tómate unos momentos para decirnos qué crees que los candidatos deberían estar discutiendo mientras compiten por tu voto. Utilizaremos tu información de contacto solo para comunicarnos contigo si un periodista desea comprender mejor tus comentarios.

Si decides permanecer en el anonimato, tu nombre no aparecerá en ninguna historia.

Melanie Asmar es la corresponsal jefa de Chalkbeat Colorado. Comunícate con Melanie por correo electrónico a masmar@chalkbeat.org.

As budget deadline looms, NYC chancellor visits Albany to pitch mayoral control

2024-04-03T00:02:06+00:00

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Schools Chancellor David Banks traveled to Albany on Tuesday, meeting with state legislators to make a last-minute pitch for including an extension of mayoral control in the upcoming state budget.

The visit came just days ahead of a looming state budget deadline, and the release of a highly anticipated report on the city’s school governance system.

For more than two decades, control over the city’s school system has been centralized in the hands of the mayor. That system, which is set to expire on June 30, has been hotly debated in recent months, with a series of public hearings offering New Yorkers the chance to weigh in on the city’s school governance structure.

Critics of the status quo have argued that the current system places too much power in the hands of a single figure and diminishes local community input. Defenders of the system, like Banks, often argue that centralizing decision-making allows for a more effective and accountable system than the fractured school boards that preceded it.

Some educators who spoke at the hearings pointed to Mayor Eric Adams’ budget cuts to the city’s Education Department in arguing against the current system.

Still, Banks said in Albany that he based his case largely on his own record — arguing that he and Adams have earned an extension after their two years at the helm of the nation’s largest school system. He pointed to his sweeping literacy curriculum initiative, how the city’s schools have handled an influx of migrant students, as well as other major policy initiatives during meetings with lawmakers, including Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and Sen. John Liu, who chairs the New York City Education Committee.

It’s the second time in recent months that Banks has made the case in Albany for extending mayoral control. He appeared at a budget hearing in February. Last month, he told reporters he had “no interest” in continuing in his role if state lawmakers overturn mayoral control.

During a press briefing Tuesday evening, Banks acknowledged that the visit had been partially spurred by the approaching state budget deadline.

Gov. Kathy Hochul included a four-year extension of mayoral control in her initial budget proposal, but that prompted criticism from some lawmakers, who argue the city’s school governance structure should be determined outside the budgeting process. State lawmakers also omitted mayoral control from their budget resolution.

Lawmakers and Hochul have until Thursday to reach a budget agreement, though the deadline has already been extended once and can be pushed back again.

“I’m certainly hopeful that they can get it in the executive budget,” Banks said. “It may be a long shot, but it’s certainly part of the reason why I decided to come up here.”

His conversations with lawmakers frequently turned to an unreleased state Education Department report on the effectiveness of New York City’s mayoral control system, Banks said. That report, initially expected by March 31, is now expected to be released next week.

Some lawmakers have said deliberations on mayoral control should wait until after the release of the report.

On Tuesday, Banks said he was “anxious to see the report.” He added that during discussions, lawmakers did not suggest alternatives to the current system or advocate for a dramatic overturning of it.

“They’re ultimately going to have to make their decision,” he said. “I’m not saying that I’m confident one way or the other. I just feel good that we had an opportunity to come up and state our case.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Plans for first religious charter school in the U.S. considered by Oklahoma Supreme Court

2024-04-02T21:29:29+00:00

This story was originally published by Oklahoma Voice and is republished under a Creative Commons license.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Three months before the nation’s first religious charter school is scheduled to open in Oklahoma, the state’s attorney general urged the state Supreme Court to void the school’s founding documents, contending its existence “eviscerates the separation of church and state.”

Attorney General Gentner Drummond argued before the state’s nine justices on Tuesday that permitting a Catholic charter school would violate state law and the Oklahoma Constitution, both of which require that public schools be “free of sectarian control.”

Attorneys representing the school’s interests contend charter schools are privately run entities that aren’t subject to the same laws that govern public schools.

St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School would be the first state-funded charter school in the country to teach and abide by a specific religious faith. It plans to open July 1 and have its first day of school Aug. 12 with enrollment up to 500 students.

The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa created the school to provide a free, online Catholic education throughout the state. Students would be required to attend mass, learn Catholic doctrine, and follow school rules informed by Christian beliefs.

The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted 3-2 in June to approve the school’s creation.

Drummond said the board members who voted in favor of the school “betrayed their oath of office.” He asked the state Supreme Court to overturn the decision.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond speaks during Public Schools Day on Feb. 28, 2024, at the Oklahoma Capitol.

The attorney general said after the hearing he expects the Court to rule in the case before St. Isidore opens July 1. If the justices decide against him, Drummond said he “would be committed to appealing it to the United States Supreme Court.”

Attorneys representing the school and the state board said charter schools, including St. Isidore, aren’t public entities subject to the state Constitution, though they chiefly rely on state funding.

State law defines a charter school as a “public school established by contract” with a state agency, a higher education institution or a local school district. It also mandates that charter schools be nonsectarian.

But the state doesn’t operate St. Isidore, said Philip Sechler, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, a national Christian law firm representing the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board.

He said the school is “privately operated” and self-sufficient with its own bylaws, staff and curriculum.

“They’re a Catholic school, but they welcome everyone,” Sechler said. “Nobody is required to go to St. Isidore. That’s very important. It’s an option among many.”

Private entities who want to establish a charter school shouldn’t be excluded from state funding on account of religion, Sechler said.

Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings affirmed that publicly funded programs, like vouchers to private schools and public grants, can’t leave out certain private organizations just because they’re religious.

Drummond said there’s “an ocean between those two issues.” Religious entities often receive taxpayer funds to help them offer a public benefit, such as a church-affiliated hospital, but he said public education is a core service the state provides.

Related: Could religious charter schools upend American education? A Chalkbeat explainer.

St. Isidore is a joint venture between the church and the state — two entities who agreed to enter into a charter contract with each other to found the school, Drummond said.

“My sense of it is that it will be difficult for the Court to not grant my request,” the attorney general said after the hearing.

Justice Noma Gurich seemed skeptical of the idea that a state-funded charter school is free of constitutional obligations.

“Where is the choice for Oklahoma taxpayers not to support the Catholic Church?” she asked during the hearing.

In a similar line of inquiry, Vice-Chief Justice Dustin P. Rowe asked whether taxpayers are not “indirectly supporting the Catholic Church” by funding the school and questioned how this wouldn’t violate the state Constitution.

The Court’s most experienced justice, Yvonne Kauger, asked bluntly, “Are we a test case?”

Many, including Drummond, have assumed St. Isidore’s backers hoped from the start that the case would land in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

“It sure looks like it,” Kauger said.

Sechler and Michael McGinley, a D.C.-based attorney representing St. Isidore, told the justices the Oklahoma school isn’t intended that way.

Justice Dana Kuehn appeared to be more receptive to the school’s stance.

She interjected during the hearing to ask whether public schools are “establishing a type of religion” by teaching about concepts, like evolution, that contradict some religious beliefs.

“Do you have to give parents a choice on the other side?” she asked. “Does that open the door for a charter school to have a religious component?”

Despite arguments that the school is private, St. Isidore’s teachers will qualify for a public pension and state-funded insurance benefits. The school agreed to follow state laws requiring open records, open meetings, yearly academic testing and a minimum number of days in the school year, among other regulations.

“They are a public school,” Drummond said after the hearing. “If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it’s a duck. It’s a public school. I think that they were hoping that the Supreme Court would bite on that distinction. I just don’t see the majority of the Court buying that argument.”

Sechler said the school abides by those state regulations only because it agreed to do so in its charter contract, not because it is legally obligated to like traditional public schools.

The chairperson of the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, Robert Franklin, said he has always believed charter schools to be public.

Franklin and William Pearson were the only two board members to vote against opening St. Isidore. They also were the only two board members present at Tuesday’s hearing.

Robert Franklin, chair of the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, leads a meeting on Oct. 9, 2024, at the Oklahoma History Center.

The three others who voted in favor of St. Isidore — Brian Bobek, Scott Strawn, and Nellie Tayloe Sanders — have vacated their seats on the board.

Franklin said it was an “odd position” for him and Pearson to listen to attorneys arguing for a school they opposed.

“At the end of the day, these questions need to be resolved,” he said afterward. “And once the questions are resolved, then we can move forward.”

A separate lawsuit filed by Oklahoma faith leaders, education advocates and parents is challenging the Catholic charter school. That case is pending in Oklahoma County District Court.

Nuria Martinez-Keel covers education for Oklahoma Voice.

Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

I’m stepping down from the Chicago Board of Education. With change coming, some thoughts on its future.

2022-12-07T18:38:16+00:00

When I was appointed to the Chicago Board of Education in June 2019, I knew my prior experiences — as a teacher, a Chicago Public Schools employee, an educator collaborating with over 30 districts, a CPS parent, and a member of a Local School Council — still might not prepare me for the duties of effectively governing our large and complex district. What I didn’t know was what awaited us in the months and years to come, including a global pandemic.

The heroic efforts of educators and district leadership have kept our district running, and we’ve even made progress in some important areas. CPS launched its equity framework. The Office of Safety & Security reimagined an approach to whole school safety. The board livestreamed and recorded its meetings, and opened new and revised policies to public comment. We’ve engaged community members to inform policy on school programming, funding, and accountability.

Sendhil Revuluri

Today is my final board meeting. As I step away from the toughest and most rewarding volunteer role I’ve ever held, I want to share some reflections I have about the changes and challenges our district has in store.

Our educators focus on student learning outcomes. Our school board should, too.

School systems exist to improve student outcomes. Having great buildings, happy parents, balanced budgets, or satisfied teachers are incredibly important and valuable. But they are the means, not the ends.

Over the last few years, my fellow school board members and I have committed many, many hours to the role, far beyond those visible in public, holding office hours, attending events, visiting schools, talking with stakeholders. But the current reality is that much of our time, attention, and energy is spent not on student outcomes — what matters most to our students and their families — but on the methods used to get there.

Our educators focus on our students to guide their practice. But in some of our most contentious board discussions, on topics such as school reopening, COVID mitigation, or the role of School Resource Officers, the loudest voices often centered adult interests, values, or concerns.

The school board should represent the voice of our community.

Our role as a board is to represent the vision and values of the community. Our main duty as a board is to listen to the community, form a coherent vision, then set, resource, and monitor focused goals that advance that vision.

So while discussions and decisions about effective methods are essential, they’re not our job as a board, but the domain of district leadership. For example, if we hear our community say “it is important that our students read well,” our role is to set a clear goal about student literacy outcomes. What approach or curriculum to use, selecting staff, and so on — that’s the responsibility of district leadership. Then the board must monitor the progress toward that goal.

Our community has varied ideas about which student outcomes matter most, and which means should be used to achieve them. As board members, we have different experiences, opinions, and priorities. We may not agree on everything, including which student outcomes are the most important. As a fellow board member once told me, “if we all agree, then some of us are superfluous.” But when we find areas of broad agreement, we will know where to set our goals.

Whoever is on the board, however they’re selected, what matters most is how they work.

Many Chicagoans have (and have shared) strong opinions about how board members are selected. These discussions often focus on beliefs about what is more democratic, but it’s far less frequent that people ask what will most benefit student outcomes. I believe that the composition of the school board or the method of its selection is far less important than whether it is governing effectively.

Advocates of an elected board have embraced democracy and argued for parity with other Illinois school districts. One can agree with them on these beliefs — as I do — and yet push further, to ensure that the board, however it is selected, governs the district in a way that delivers educational experiences that work better for all of our students.

This is especially crucial right now. Recent results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress show that our students’ current achievement has been set back by the multiple effects of the pandemic. We must ensure this unfinished learning does not lead to a loss of future opportunity, especially given the challenges many of our students face accessing post-secondary education.

Our students need us to govern effectively, and there are tangible, evidence-based, and feasible steps to move in this direction. The steps are both well-defined and adaptable to local context, and with commitment and focus, can be accomplished in six months or less. We owe it to our students not to be distracted from these steps toward effectiveness by political preference, power dynamics, or adult needs.

Just as a classroom teacher assesses their students’ learning, the school board and the public will be able to see and monitor progress towards these outcomes in the whole district, allowing for adjustment and improvement along the way to deliver our students what they deserve.

We must ensure that board members, regardless of the selection process, are informed about their role, and skilled in how to govern to get results for our students. They must be ready to listen to the community, set clear goals, and be held accountable for student outcomes.

And the community must engage on the desired results — and not just at election time. Whether appointed or elected, I hope future board members will be selected based on their commitment, focus, energy, and ability to keep student outcomes first and foremost, rather than the opinions they embrace, the allies they bring, or promises to adopt specific methods.

If we don’t face facts about our buildings and budget, we will shortchange our students.

Like many large urban districts, our student enrollment has changed significantly — including an almost 20% drop in the last decade. While it’s helpful to understand the reasons for this decline, I believe it’s most important to best serve the students who are enrolled in the district now.

That won’t be easy with a finite and inadequate budget, as measured by the evidence-based funding methodology adopted by the state of Illinois. Data compiled by the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University shows that in some schools we spend far more per student while providing neither strong learning outcomes nor the rich and broad experiences they deserve. Our budget is currently balanced, thanks to a once-in-a-generation infusion of federal COVID relief. But as a recent report shows, in just a few years, continuing to do what we’ve always done will lead to annual deficits of hundreds of millions of dollars.

It is a time to choose: between preserving features of how the district has worked in the past and ensuring that our students’ futures are secure. We can’t move our buildings, but we can choose policies and spending to give our students the best possible educational experience we can with the resources and population we have.

At some point, choices to keep our existing buildings, addresses, or school names will impede the quality of students’ educational experience and their learning outcomes. While those spaces may have value to a person or a community, we can’t put that in front of whether our students are safe, learning, and thriving. We must look forward to their future.

One key lever that CPS could apply is making budget projections more visible. This form of long-term financial planning is a best practice recommended by the Government Finance Officers Association and is used by both the City of Chicago, under the direction of both Mayor Emanuel and Mayor Lightfoot, and Cook County.

When each of our students may be with our district for 14 years, a long-term perspective is essential. We are in a car heading for a fiscal cliff. While turning the car off our well-traveled road may be a bit bumpy, the reality of our finite resources means that the only alternative to making changes now is to turn abruptly in several years — causing nausea or injury.

Our choices will determine how well we deliver what our students need and deserve.

Like any big event in our own lives — a graduation, a wedding, or the birth of a child — this moment of governance transition may bring stress, but it also brings the joy of possibility. This is another opportunity to deliver what our students need and deserve. But if we don’t face and accept our current reality, it will be hard for us to change it.

To change, to adapt, to grow is hard — so hard most people don’t even try. But we can do hard things. And we owe it to our students to do so. Their futures, especially those most vulnerable and who are currently furthest from opportunity, are in the balance.

Sendhil Revuluri is a parent of two CPS students, a former teacher, and has served as vice president of the Chicago Board of Education since June 2019. He is stepping down this month.

Voter guide: Indiana’s GOP candidates for governor give their stances on education

2024-03-29T14:15:25+00:00

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This article was originally published by Indiana Capital Chronicle.

Where do Indiana’s six Republican gubernatorial candidates stand on school choice, teacher pay, learning loss recovery, and the state’s push to better prepare graduates for the workforce?

With a competitive primary just weeks away, the Indiana Capital Chronicle asked the six GOP hopefuls to weigh in. It’s part of four issue-based question-and-answers to be published ahead of the May election.

The following four questions on various Indiana education issues were distributed to: U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, Brad Chambers, Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Eric Doden, former Attorney General Curtis Hill, and Jamie Reitenour.

Each candidate was asked to limit their responses to 150 words, and answers were printed as submitted with only minor edits, like spacing or full names, for clarity.

Former Superintendent for Public Instruction Jennifer McCormick is the only Democrat on the primary ballot for governor. Additionally, one Libertarian, Donald Rainwater, was selected in a private convention process.

Lawmakers are considering moving to education savings accounts for all Indiana students. Do you support this move and if so, where do we come up with the new dollars to cover this major school choice expansion?

Braun: School choice is about Hoosier parents having the freedom to make decisions about their kids’ education. Education savings accounts — where a student’s public funds are kept in an account similar to a Health Savings Account with parents in the driver’s seat — will be something I will look at closely. ESA programs have had success in states like Florida that have tried them, and I’m always looking for ways to put more power in parents’ hands when it comes to their children’s education.
Chambers: Education is one of our greatest challenges but also one of our greatest opportunities. To take full advantage of this opportunity, we must give parents the ability to send their children to the type of school that best fits their individual needs. The state legislature has rightly made that ability nearly universal and eliminated unnecessary eligibility “pathways.” Additionally, buildings are getting bigger and administrative salaries are increasing, yet teacher salaries and classroom funding have remained relatively flat. That’s why we must first ensure current funding truly follows the student. From there, we’ll use the proceeds of a growing economy, paired with savings created by increased government efficiency, to further invest in education. We must make these investments to ensure that our third graders can read before moving on to fourth grade, and that our sixth graders are proficient in critical math skills.
Crouch: Hoosier parents should have the maximum amount of choice and control possible when it comes to their children’s education. It is past time for us to have an honest and critical discussion about how we are going to educate our children in the 21st century, and to do that we need to reform education. By reforming I will take the five agencies that deal with education and workforce development and reduce them to one. We will concentrate the state’s efforts to prepare children for enlistment, enrollment, employment, or apprenticeship. By modernizing education, we will implement efficiencies and cost savings that will help offset any additional costs associated with educational choice. The investment will be worth it.
Doden: Parents and students must have the freedom of school choice. That means charter schools, opportunity scholarships, education savings accounts, and vouchers — anything that breaks the government monopoly on schools and allows parents to make the best education decision for their child. Indiana has been a leader in school choice, and as governor, I will protect and promote educational freedom for Indiana families, especially for disadvantaged students trapped in failing schools.
Hill: My education plan includes a major overhaul of the Indiana Department of Education. There is an unnecessary bloat of state administrators, and I plan to cut this in half freeing up money to be redirected to Hoosier students. This reduction in overhead will allow more dollars to flow to students and parents to make the best school choice for their situation. If strong options are limited, many students have no meaningful choice. That is why I will buck the status quo and ensure that schools and students have the resources they need to be successful.
Reitenour: K-12 education is first and foremost for our kids to be focused on achieving their dreams. Test scores reveal we are getting an “F” in education. We cannot throw money or programs at problems expecting things to change – we need to address what is happening in the classroom. I will introduce a back-to-basics overhaul of our public education learning objectives. We will remove technology and devices from K-5 classrooms while kids focus on educational foundations: reading writing, and arithmetic. Private sector partners will adopt-a-classroom of 6th graders to introduce technology, AI, and workforce opportunities of the future, and will teach trades classes to 7th and 8th graders. School Improvement Programs will no longer be littered with DEI, SEL, and social justice goals, but solely on academics. I support vouchers and school choice, which provide once-unheard-of opportunities for families of all socio-economic statuses, while putting positive competitive pressure on public schools.

Note: State lawmakers approved a massive literacy overhaul measure during the 2024 session that will require reading-deficient third graders to be held back a year in school. In 2023, the General Assembly included in the state budget a voucher buildout that makes Indiana’s current Choice Scholarship program virtually universal.

Currently, ESAs in Indiana are limited to students who require special education services, though a law passed earlier this month expands eligibility to the siblings of students who have an ESA, even if those siblings do not have disabilities themselves.

The six Republican candidates for governor at a Carmel debate on March 11, 2024. From left to right: U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, Brad Chambers, Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Eric Doden, former Attorney General Curtis Hill and Jamie Reitenour.

Indiana’s average teacher salary is currently about $58,531. Gov. Eric Holcomb’s goal has been to increase that average to $60,000. What, if anything, should the state do to raise teacher pay and increase recruitment and retention of Hoosier educators?

Braun: We spend over half of our budget on K-12 education. Are we getting the best results we can from that investment? We need to make sure Hoosiers’ investment in education is being spent wisely on things that will give students’ better outcomes — like attracting and retaining great teachers — and not being gobbled up by administration, waste, or programs that aren’t showing results. I’ll approach our K-12 education the same way I approached solving problems in my business: rolling up my sleeves and making sure every dollar is getting maximum return for Hoosiers.
Chambers: Teaching is a noble profession — one that is essential to our social and economic futures. But for decades, it hasn’t been treated as such. Teachers must be paid more than they earn today, and their pay should be based on their performance in the classroom and the outcome of their efforts, not simply on the length of their tenure. Teachers who work hard and improve education outcomes must be able to earn a higher salary faster and earlier in their careers. Additionally, teachers in high-demand subjects, such as STEM subjects, should be able to earn higher salaries so schools can compete with other employment opportunities for the best talent.
Crouch: I support the goal to increase the average teacher salary to $60,000 (which will bring Indiana closer to the national average). Beyond the mere financial benefits of increased pay, a greater investment will value our teachers and their crucial role in preparing our children for the future. Beyond pay, however, our teachers must have a seat at the table as we create a lifetime education model for Hoosiers. As governor, I will ask teachers and parents for their advice, counsel, and ideas as it relates to preparing our children for college, the military, their careers, or workforce training. As a result of my education reforms, we will be able to direct more money to the classroom and less to administration.
Doden: I am the only candidate for Governor with a plan to address Indiana’s teacher shortage. Education is enshrined in Indiana’s Constitution as a priority for very good reasons. Any state that strives for excellence must invest in educating its population. Unfortunately, many of our best teachers are moving on. Currently, there are thousands of teaching vacancies across Indiana and fewer than 15% of our teachers are under the age of 30. Our Teacher Investment Program would attract and retain teaching talent by eliminating the state income tax for Hoosier educators. This approach will put money back in the pockets of teachers, where it is intended, rather than in the hands of bureaucrats or teachers unions.
Hill: As the husband of a public school teacher, I understand many of the challenges facing Hoosier teachers. I believe we can implement my statewide policy at the local level, reviewing unnecessary overhead and eliminating useless bureaucratic costs. If each school district reduced its costs this way, it could allocate those funds to attracting the best trained teachers through competitive salaries. Our educators play a crucial role in the success of our students, and we owe it to them to ensure they have what they need to keep our kids in school.
Reitenour: I want the teachers in Indiana to know that I see them, I appreciate all that they do, and hard work pays off for our kids as well as the teacher. Excellent educators must be compensated for retention and starting pay must be competitive to attract young talent. Across-the-board pay increases do not improve our children’s educational outcomes. We will set incentive pay standards for teachers and districts meeting their School Improvement Plan goals. These opportunities are normalized on the unique starting points and challenges of each school. The Indiana Goodness Education plan includes the CCC (College? Career? Or Calling?) high school initiative, and senior year apprenticeships. These will drive our ability to close workforce shortage gaps, like pilots and trades, with the students who have worked toward those professions. Providing vision to the next generation shapes Indiana’s future workforce, and saves secondary education spending that can be reallocated to incentive pay.

In recent years, multiple initiatives spearheaded by Indiana lawmakers and state education officials intend to boost teacher numbers. That includes scholarships and multiple other incentive programs meant to recruit and retain students in education preparation programs.

The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to significant levels of learning loss for students across Indiana. Recovery efforts are still underway. What more do you want the state to do to get Hoosier kids back on track? What role(s) should parents play in the comeback?

Braun: It wasn’t the virus that caused learning loss for our kids, it was keeping schools shut down and our kids in masks long after it was clear that it didn’t make sense. My approach to education comes as a parent and from serving on my local school board for 10 years. Parents are the primary stakeholder in their kids’ education. I clashed with the Biden administration’s Secretary of Education at a Senate hearing when he wouldn’t accept that simple fact, and it will be the centerpiece of my approach to education as governor.
Chambers: We simply can’t close our schools again, which only exacerbated unacceptable educational trends of Hoosier students underachieving in math and reading. We must ensure that third graders can read before moving on to fourth grade, as those who can’t are four times more likely to drop out of school altogether, and I applaud the state legislature for their work on that this past legislative session. We also need to utilize new technology to individualize education to meet each student’s needs, increase the focus on skill-based education and combat chronic absenteeism. Parental engagement is vital in getting all of this done.
Crouch: As a result of COVID, depression is up 60% among our young people — and, sadly, suicide is now the second leading cause of death for our youth. As governor, I will not allow a repeat of the school closings, mask mandates, or lockdowns that marked the height of the pandemic. COVID re-awakened parents regarding their children’s education and involved parents will guarantee successful outcomes. I join parents in calling on schools to teach kids how to think — not what to think. We will concentrate on the Four Rs: reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmatic, and reasoning with an emphasis on civic education to develop strong citizens.
Doden: This isn’t just a question about COVID learning loss recovery. It’s about tackling the challenges and opportunities Indiana’s education system faces. Our education system simply isn’t doing enough for our kids. As a conservative, I believe there are common-sense solutions that can turn this around and give every child access to a quality education. We all want what’s best for Hoosier students. In a Doden administration, we promise to keep politics out of the classroom, ensure parents must have the freedom of school choice, recruit and retain the best teachers, and expand access to pre-K and put a renewed focus on the transition from high school to college or work.
Hill: We must get back to the basics. Instead of social and emotional learning through a political lens, we need to focus on core competencies like reading, writing, arithmetic, and civics. Let’s remove the politically charged curriculum at the elementary and middle school levels so that more third graders can read. Parents should play an integral role in ensuring their children receive the best education possible. Any efforts to distance parents from their children are doing a disservice to the quality of their child’s education. The pandemic gave parents a front-row seat to the crazy curriculum that many educators were using, and they should continue to identify and protest these unnecessary and dangerous lessons.
Reitenour: Back-to-basics education, teacher incentives, parent engagement, learning-loss assessments, targeted remedies, and School Improvement Plans are all going to play an important role in impacting the COVID learning loss, which leaders never should have allowed to happen in the first place. Parents are the “Forever Teacher” and there is no greater supporter, encourager, or advocate for any child. We will make it easier for parents to be involved in their children’s education, and forbid teachers from introducing non-educational concepts that are kept secret from parents. We want students to know Indiana Goodness believes in “making a way” for every child to achieve his or her God-given ability. Gifted & talented programs are essential for our top learners to be pushed and reach their full potential. Evaluations will become standardized, not Indiana-specific, so that they are useful for driving improvements and eliminate ambiguity with where we stack up.

Indiana is in the midst of increasing credentialing and educational attainment among Hoosiers. Much of the prior emphasis has been on college-going and degree attainment, but new initiatives are increasingly focused on career- and skills-based learning. What do you think is most important for Indiana to focus on now as the demand for skilled workers grows?

Braun: We have not done enough to encourage career and technical education. Every student in Indiana needs to know that a four-year degree is not the only path to a good-paying, fulfilling career. As someone who has employed thousands of Hoosiers, I know that there are many skills that Indiana businesses need right now that are not being addressed at scale. Touring all 92 counties every year, I’ve seen excellent examples of high school programs that partner with Hoosier employers to empower students to work on real world skills like CNC manufacturing where they can hit the ground running on a good-paying career right out of high school. We need to foster and expand these programs.
Chambers: The high-wage careers of an economy of the future will not only be for Hoosiers with a four-year degree, but Hoosiers with a two-year degree, credential or certificate, too. That’s why Indiana must continue to promote the traditional college-going path. But we must also equally promote the two-year college path, as well as skills-based continuing education. To help Hoosier students understand which path they should take, we must better communicate clear career pathways to them, including the type of postsecondary education they need to pursue. For some careers, that’ll be a four-year degree. However, for many others, that’ll be a two-year degree, a credential or a certificate. And to help those students pursing the latter, we should expand the scope of Indiana’s financial aid programs to support them. Regardless of which pathway a student decides is best for them, it’s important that we support it so they can maximize their earning potential right here in Indiana.
Crouch: I will create a lifetime education strategy and reduce the state bureaucracy by taking five agencies — early childhood education at FSSA, K-12 education, higher education, workforce development at DWD, and part of IEDC— and merging them into one system dedicated to providing the talent and workforce to meet Indiana’s economic development goals. This will include measures such as discontinuing or restructuring the Department of Workforce Development (DWD), removing career education responsibilities from the Commission for Higher Education (CHE), and reforming the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) to realign with its original framework. We will merge state agencies — not local school districts. The plan is tailored to Indiana’s specific economic context, addressing current gaps in workforce skills and education. This alignment ensures we will be preparing students to fill the jobs of today and tomorrow — not only jobs in advanced manufacturing, defense technology, and biosciences, but also careers in infrastructure and skilled laborers that will help build our state.
Doden: Conservatives should make the beginning and end of public school the next focus of education reform by providing innovative and local approaches to early education and the transition out of high school. Studies show that the state of Indiana saves $4 in future costs for every dollar invested in education opportunities for children ages three to five. As governor, we will provide state matching funds for any community that wants to create high quality pre-K programs for four-year-olds. By incentivizing local collaboration, innovation, and investment, we will foster community-based solutions that will neither break our state’s budget nor dictate one-size-fits-all approaches to local communities.
Hill: We need to continue to invest in trade and vocational programs for high schoolers and young adults. I have met with school and labor leaders across the state to understand how to support trade workers so that young Hoosiers will continue to see prosperity in these fields. We need to create a culture of celebration for trade and vocational programs similar to that we give college students. Investing in education and supporting the industry will strengthen our support of all career paths for young Hoosiers. College is not for every Hoosier, and we should be giving every child the tools and resources the need to live a successful life.
Reitenour: I am ALL IN for our kids’ unique giftedness to be harnessed into a vision for their futures, whether it is skilled work, advanced education, military service, or other creative endeavors. A one-size-fits-all approach is not the educational solution to students achieving their own personal bests. Our students need to learn from the cherished Hoosiers who have been in their shoes. U.S. Veterans will have opportunities to speak about freedom, patriotism, and military service to our students. Private sector leaders, entrepreneurs, and business owners have much to offer our students, and much to gain from our state’s future workforce. They will engage from 6th grade technology and innovation “adopt-a-classroom” to approved senior year apprenticeship programs. With this vision for Indiana’s public education, we will become the training capital of the United States! Now is the time for every child to reach his or her potential – that is Indiana Goodness!

The latest state data showed that only half of Indiana’s 2021 high school graduates pursued some form of college education beyond high school. It marks the state’s lowest college-going rate in recent history, but the decline has been ongoing for the last five years.

The Indiana Capital Chronicle will be sharing two more stories in this same format on taxes and the environment — for which questions have already been shared with the candidates — and publishing next week. The GOP hopefuls have already shared their thoughts and positions on the economy.

Newark schools would get $1.25 billion in aid under Gov. Phil Murphy’s 2025 budget plan

2024-03-01T14:57:05+00:00

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For decades, Newark Public Schools hasn’t received the full amount of state funding it’s due from New Jersey to provide a “thorough and efficient education” for all students, as mandated by the state constitution.

But that could change in 2025, with a record-high $1.25 billion in aid earmarked for the state’s largest school district in Gov. Phil Murphy’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1. He announced earlier this week that this budget plan would fully fund the state’s K-12 districts.

The governor’s office on Thursday released state aid allocation estimates for every district, which showed Newark would get an 8.8% increase in aid over the current year.

Earlier this week, Murphy highlighted an investment of $11.6 billion for public schools next year. The proposed state aid — a $908 million increase over this year — would be Murphy’s final payment into the seven-year plan stipulated in legislation enacted in 2018 that aimed to fix inequities with the state’s school funding formula and redirected money to underfunded districts, including Newark.

Murphy’s $55.9 billion proposed spending plan will go through negotiations with lawmakers, in public forums and privately, before it gets finalized by the June 30 deadline.

During a news conference on Thursday at Charles and Anna Booker Elementary School in Plainfield to tout the proposed school aid, Murphy hinted that the funds set aside for schools could remain safe during the next few months of negotiations.

The proposed budget is at a “very good starting place,” Murphy said. “Things always move around between now and June 30, but a couple things won’t move around — I can say this with confidence — fully funding K-12 and expanding pre-K are there and they are in cement.”

His spending plan includes $124 million for preschool aid, as well as funding for other educational-related initiatives, such as expanding the free school meals program, allocating $2.5 million allocation for a literacy screening grant program, and providing additional money for student-teacher stipends.

Under the School Funding Reform Act of 2008, the state has used a weighted student formula to give districts financial support in addition to local taxes to address inequities in education seen statewide. That calculation changes year-to-year considering enrollment shifts and other factors. In the 15 years since the school funding formula was established, the state has not provided the full amount owed to underfunded districts.

Over the last several years, the Murphy administration has incrementally increased Newark’s state aid, with this proposed funding being the highest. This year, the district received $1.15 billion in state aid – up from 2023 when the district received $1 billion, and the year before that when the district received $915 million.

Newark Teachers Union President John Abeigon said in a statement late Thursday that he hopes the proposed increase in state aid for the district goes “a long way in helping the district respond in a meaningful way” to recruiting and retaining teachers. The teachers union and district have been negotiating a new contract as the current one expires in June.

The state aid for next year would include $8.5 million set aside for transportation and $66 million set aside for special education.

Valerie Wilson, the district’s school business administrator, noted last March that the increase in state aid for 2024 was still $27.7 million short of the amount the district was owed under the school funding formula. Roughly 86% of the district’s budget for the 2023-24 school year came from state aid.

The district is scheduled to present its own budget to the community on March 27. The proposed historic-high state aid would come as the district faces the end of its federal COVID relief aid and confronts costly demands in 2025 — such as a new teachers union contract and aging infrastructure.

Catherine Carrera is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Newark. Reach Catherine at ccarrera@chalkbeat.org.

Para el 2025, las escuelas de Newark recibirían $1,250 millones en ayuda según el plan presupuestario del Gobernador Phil Murphy

2024-03-08T16:32:17+00:00

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Durante décadas, las Escuelas Públicas de Newark no han recibido la cantidad total de fondos estatales que Nueva Jersey les debe para brindar una “educación exhaustiva y eficiente” a todos los estudiantes, como lo exige la constitución estatal.

Pero eso podría cambiar en 2025, con una cifra récord de $1,250 millones en ayuda destinada al distrito escolar más grande del estado en el presupuesto propuesto por el gobernador Phil Murphy para el año fiscal que comienza el 1 de julio. La semana pasada, Murphy anunció que este plan presupuestario podría financiar completamente los distritos K-12 del estado.

La oficina del gobernador publicó el jueves 29 de febrero estimaciones de asignación de ayuda estatal para cada distrito, que mostraron que Newark obtendría un aumento del 8.8% en la ayuda durante el año en curso.

La semana pasada, Murphy destacó una inversión de $11.6 mil millones para las escuelas públicas el próximo año. La ayuda estatal propuesta, un aumento de $908 millones con respecto a este año, sería el pago final de Murphy al plan de siete años estipulado en la legislación promulgada en 2018 que tenía como objetivo corregir las desigualdades con la fórmula de financiamiento escolar del estado y redirigir el dinero a distritos con fondos insuficientes, incluido Newark.

El plan de gastos propuesto por Murphy de $55.9 mil millones pasará por negociaciones con los legisladores, en foros públicos y en privado, antes de finalizarse antes de la fecha límite del 30 de junio.

Durante una conferencia de prensa el jueves 29 de febrero en la escuela primaria Charles and Anna Booker en Plainfield para promocionar la ayuda escolar propuesta, Murphy insinuó que los fondos reservados para las escuelas podrían permanecer seguros durante los próximos meses de negociaciones.

El presupuesto propuesto se encuentra en un “muy buen punto de partida”, señaló Murphy. “Las cosas siempre cambian entre ahora y el 30 de junio, pero un par de cosas no cambiarán —puedo decir esto con confianza— la financiación total de K-12 y la expansión de pre-K están ahí y están en cemento”.

Su plan de gastos incluye $124 millones para ayuda preescolar, así como financiamiento para otras iniciativas relacionadas con la educación, como expandir el programa de comidas escolares gratuitas, asignar $2.5 millones para un programa de subvenciones para evaluación de alfabetización y proporcionar dinero adicional para estipendios de estudiantes y maestros.

Según la Ley de Reforma de Financiamiento Escolar de 2008, el estado ha utilizado una fórmula estudiantil ponderada para brindar a los distritos apoyo financiero además de los impuestos locales para abordar las desigualdades en la educación observadas en todo el estado. Ese cálculo cambia año tras año considerando los cambios de inscripción y otros factores. En los 15 años transcurridos desde que se estableció la fórmula de financiación escolar, el estado no ha proporcionado el monto total adeudado a los distritos con fondos insuficientes.

En los últimos años, la administración Murphy ha aumentado gradualmente la ayuda estatal de Newark, siendo esta financiación propuesta la más alta. Este año, el distrito recibió $1.15 mil millones en ayuda estatal, en comparación con 2023, cuando el distrito recibió $1,000 millones, y el año anterior, cuando el distrito recibió $915 millones.

El presidente del Sindicato de Maestros de Newark, John Abeigon, manifestó en un comunicado el jueves por la noche que espera que el aumento propuesto en la ayuda estatal para el distrito contribuya “en gran medida a ayudar al distrito a responder de manera significativa” a la contratación y retención de maestros. El sindicato de docentes y el distrito han estado negociando un nuevo contrato ya que el actual expira en junio.

La ayuda estatal para el próximo año incluiría $8.5 millones reservados para transporte y $66 millones reservados para educación especial. Valerie Wilson, administradora de negocios escolares del distrito, señaló en marzo pasado que el aumento en la ayuda estatal para 2024 todavía estaba $27.7 millones por debajo de la cantidad que se le debía al distrito según la fórmula de financiamiento escolar. Aproximadamente el 86% del presupuesto del distrito para el año escolar 2023-24 provino de ayuda estatal.

Está previsto que el distrito presente su propio presupuesto a la comunidad el 27 de marzo. La ayuda estatal propuesta, un nivel históricamente alto, se produciría cuando el distrito enfrenta el fin de su ayuda federal de ayuda por COVID y enfrenta demandas costosas en 2025, como un nuevo contrato para el sindicato de maestros e infraestructura obsoleta.

Esta traducción fue proporcionada por El Latino Newspaper, en asociación con el Centro de Medios Cooperativos de la Universidad Estatal de Montclair, y cuenta con el apoyo financiero del Consorcio de Información Cívica de NJ. La historia fue escrita originalmente en inglés por Chalkbeat Newark y se vuelve a publicar en virtud de un acuerdo especial para compartir contenido a través del Servicio de noticias de traducción al español de NJ News Commons.

This translation was provided by El Latino Newspaper, in association with the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University and is financially supported by the NJ Civic Information Consortium. The story was originally written in English by Chalkbeat Newark and is republished under a special content sharing agreement through the NJ News Commons Spanish Translation News Service.

Catherine Carrera is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Newark. Reach Catherine at ccarrera@chalkbeat.org.

Biden announces $6 billion in student debt relief for teachers, other public service workers

2024-03-22T20:31:50+00:00

This story was originally published by The 19th and is republished under a Creative Commons license. Sign up for The 19th’s newsletter here.

President Joe Biden has good news for public service workers with outstanding student loan debt. He announced Thursday that he would forgive roughly $6 billion for 78,000 borrowers such as teachers, nurses, or social workers enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, a track designed for employees of government agencies or nonprofit organizations.

This wave of relief brings the Biden administration’s total loan forgiveness to $144 billion for approximately 4 million borrowers. Just a month ago, Biden announced that he would forgive $1.2 billion for 150,000 borrowers eligible for a special benefit in the new affordable repayment plan his administration developed.

“For too long, our nation’s teachers, nurses, social workers, firefighters, and other public servants faced logistical troubles and trap doors when they tried to access the debt relief they were entitled to under the law,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “With this announcement, the Biden-Harris administration is showing how we’re taking further steps not only to fix those trap doors, but also to expand opportunity to many more Americans.”

The recent offers of debt relief come with the presidential election just over seven months away. Borrowers have said that student debt has prevented them from homeownership, hurt their credit, and hampered their plans to start families, among other milestones. Women hold an estimated two-thirds of student loan debt, with Black women borrowing the most to pay for higher education.

Providing debt relief, Cardona said, benefits the entire U.S. economy. He met with educators in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday who told him that loan forgiveness has changed their lives, he said. One of them was an 18-year teaching veteran who revealed that she will now be able to buy her first home. Debt relief, Cardona said, puts money back into the local economy, in part by freeing up people to make major financial investments.

“Keep in mind that we’re trying to prevent people from going into default,” he told The 19th in an interview. “That’s part of [Biden’s] plan here. So we’re doing it, we’re proud of it. The president is not just talking about it, he’s walking the walk.”

As long as he and Biden remain in office, Cardona said, “We’re going to keep trying to push for debt relief in this country, and we’re going to be bold about it. And we’re going to be unapologetic about it.”

During the Trump administration, Cardona told The 19th, just 7,000 borrowers had all their student debt relieved under the PSLF, prompting debt cancellation advocates to declare that the program and the student loan system generally were broken. The Biden administration has made adjustments to the program. Since then, up to Thursday’s announcement, more than 871,000 borrowers enrolled in PSLF had their loan debt canceled.

The public service workers selected to get relief should expect to receive emails as early as next week informing them of this development. Also, about 380,000 other PSLF borrowers who are not yet eligible for forgiveness will get emails letting them know that they will qualify for cancellation within one or two years if they stay employed in public service jobs.

“The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program is an important way to bring more Americans into public service and help them get out from under the burden of student loan debt,” Biden’s email to these workers states. “But for too long, the program failed to live up to its commitments – and public service workers like you never got the relief you are entitled to under the law because of errors and administrative failures. I vowed to fix that, and I’m proud that my administration has delivered on that promise.”

While campaigning for president, Biden promised to address the student debt crisis that now tops $1.7 trillion and the soaring costs of obtaining a higher education. His administration has raised the maximum amount of the Pell grant, a need-based financial award for college, to $7,395 during the 2023-24 school year from $6,895 the prior school year. Earlier this month, the Biden administration proposed increasing the grant by an additional 10%.

During his State of the Union address on March 7, Biden highlighted these efforts and others to forgive student debt and improve the college experience.

“Let’s continue increasing the Pell grants to working- and middle-class families and increase record investments in HBCUs [historically Black colleges and universities], minority-serving institutions, including Hispanic institutions,” he said then. “I was told I couldn’t universally just change the way in which you dealt with student loans. I fixed two student loan programs that already existed to reduce the burden of student debt for nearly 4 million Americans including nurses, firefighters and public servants.”

Recent polls indicate that Biden’s approval rating hovers in the high 30s and low 40s and that former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has a narrow lead over him. Trump opposed Biden’s plan to broadly forgive up to $20,000 in student debt for borrowers earning under $125,000 annually. The Supreme Court blocked that plan in June.

The forgiveness plans Biden has offered since then have faced legal challenges. On Thursday, the New Civil Liberties Alliance presented its oral argument at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in a lawsuit urging the judges to stop the Department of Education from canceling $39 billion of student loan debt under the income-driven repayment program. At particular issue is that the Biden administration credited non-payments during forbearance periods as monthly payments with one-time account adjustments, the lawsuit argues.

Cardona said that the Department of Education is on strong legal ground. He stressed that the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program was a bipartisan effort.

“Everything that we’re doing to protect borrowers and to provide access to college is being challenged by people who prefer to make profits instead of putting students first,” Cardona said.

Cardona characterized accusations from Republicans that student debt relief is a ploy to buy votes as “silly talk.” Since Biden first became president, his administration has worked to address student debt, Cardona said.

“They’ve been blocking us for three years, and now they realize the American people want this, Republican and Democrat,” he said. “This is an American issue. This is a student issue, so we’re proud of it.”

New Jersey educators plead for changes in state aid formula, additional funds as cuts loom

2024-03-21T21:08:51+00:00

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For more than three hours, school superintendents and leaders of key education groups lined up one after the other last week to tell lawmakers there need to be significant changes to how schools are funded in New Jersey.

Speakers proposed a wide variety of changes for the Legislature to consider, from raising the cap on property-tax increases to changing how special education funding is calculated. A big target was the state’s school funding formula that calculates how nearly $12 billion in state aid is distributed to schools.

But while there was general agreement in the Senate Education Committee room on March 14 about the problems at hand, what happens next was less certain.

One proposed next step was to create a task force or commission to study the formula and propose recommendations, a lengthy process.

But first, the senators, several of whom missed part of the hearing, said they need to digest the hours of verbal testimony, not to mention written comments from some of the 60 superintendents who requested to appear but were not invited due to time constraints.

“It’s critical we start taking the steps to modernize the formula,” said state Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth), chair of the committee.

He noted, for instance, that special education and mental health services are now taking up a far larger portion of school budgets than ever before.

“The core of the formula established under the 2008 [School Funding Reform Act] has not changed since the legislation was signed into law, while New Jersey has changed dramatically since 2008,” he said.

Potential cuts in staffing loom for some districts

Gov. Phil Murphy and the Legislature’s Democratic leadership agreed six years ago to fully fund the formula for the first time, leading to around $3 billion in new state aid over that time, culminating in the fiscal year that begins in July.

But in doing so, the formula has brought different results for different districts. A majority of districts have seen significant gains in state aid, but others have faced dramatic cuts.

Superintendents said this volatility from year to year makes it difficult to support students, staff and essential school programs.

“The state sets expectations on students’ performance but doesn’t provide the necessary funding for us to meet them,” said Thomas Farrell of Brick Township. Major reductions in state aid have made it difficult to support the district’s growing population of English language learners, he noted.

In Gopal’s legislative district, Long Branch gained $600,000 in the current fiscal year but is slated to lose $10 million in fiscal year 2025. The school system must submit its budget next week, giving leaders about three weeks to determine how to trim $10 million.

“The impact of [the 2008 reform] has been incredibly uneven among districts,” Gopal said. “It’s also forced a significant portion of the state’s districts to wrestle with unsustainable fiscal volatility.”

Long Branch Superintendent Francisco Rodriguez said everything is on the table for cuts. Class sizes will increase and there will be layoffs, he said. Other superintendents facing cuts said the same.

District leaders seek legislative relief

Gopal and state Sen. Andrew Zwicker (D-Middlesex) on March 18 introduced a bill that would restore 100% of aid — or about $100 million — to school districts facing cuts under Murphy’s latest proposed state budget for fiscal 2025.

The measure is similar to one that restored 66% of aid to districts in the form of supplementary stabilization aid last year. Zwicker said the bill needs to move quickly before districts start cutting programs or laying off staff.

The two senators have also introduced legislation that would raise the 2% cap on how much property taxes can be raised without voter approval in districts facing aid cuts. In fiscal year 2024, 46 districts lost more funding than they were allowed to make up for in local taxes, according to the state School Boards Association. The legislation appeared to have widespread support among speakers at the hearing.

Speakers also suggested a multiyear rolling average of property-tax values be used to calculate local fair share rather than data from a single year to limit volatility. Under the existing formula, the local fair share is combined with state aid to make the so-called adequacy budget for each district. That is the amount of money deemed to be required to provide each student with a “thorough and efficient” education, as demanded by the state’s Constitution.

Jesse Young, the School Boards Association’s legislative advocate, said one-year changes in property values can have dramatic impacts on a district’s state aid. In fiscal year 2021, 21 school districts saw an increase in their equalized valuation of 10% or more. For this year, the number was 322 districts.

River Edge’s interim superintendent, Matthew Murphy, suggested an online calculator to help districts forecast gains and losses in state aid. He and other superintendents also said the budget calendar should be revised so districts have more time between the governor’s budget address in February and when budgets must be submitted in March.

School business administrators said they have about three weeks to prepare their budgets, often grappling with state aid amounts that are significantly different from what they anticipated.

Proposals to factor fluctuating needs

Speakers also emphasized the changes in school operations since the formula became law 15 years ago, such as increased costs for security and mental health. Young said increased security costs, especially for high schools, should be factored into the formula.

Susan Young, executive director of the state Association of School Business Officers, said that while the governor proposed to fully fund the main bucket of equalization aid for general education, other costs — such as special education aid, extraordinary aid, and security aid — are not fully funded.

Special education funding is perennially contentious, and many speakers called for the state to move away from its current census-based method for estimating the number of special education students. The process bases funding on an average percent of special education students, not the exact number of special education students in each district.

This means that some districts receive more money than they need, while others do not receive enough, advocates said. Julie Borst, executive director of the Save Our Schools advocacy group, suggested a tiered system with different weights for different disabilities.

Danielle Farrie, research director at the Education Law Center, the legal advocacy group that has carried the Abbott v. Burke litigation that led to the current funding formula, came with several suggestions.

She said creating floors and ceilings for changes in state aid would reduce volatility and make it easier for school districts to create their budgets. This is already happening in many other states, she said.

Farrie also called for the formula to be reviewed every few years, as required under the law. She proposed a $1 million to $2 million appropriation in the fiscal year 2025 budget for such a review.

Whatever happens next, superintendents asked to be included.

“Moving forward, if you want, form a committee: senators and assembly, bipartisan,” said Scott Feder of South Brunswick. “And please include the people on the ground, and of course, the experts that are here today.”

Hannah Gross covers education and child welfare for NJ Spotlight News via a partnership with Report for America. She covers the full spectrum of education and children’s services in New Jersey and looks especially through the lens of equity and opportunity. This story was first published on NJ Spotlight News, a content partner of Chalkbeat Newark.

Supreme Court ruling could give school board members more freedom to block critics on social media

2024-03-20T16:26:09+00:00

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Can a school board member block a parent who criticizes them on Facebook?

Does it matter if the parent posts one negative comment or 100? Does it matter if the school board member just sticks to official business or if they mix posts about hiring a superintendent with posts about their kids’ birthdays?

In recent years, a number of courts have found that when public officials talk about public business on personal social media accounts, those accounts become public forums — and blocking someone from a public forum because you don’t like their speech violates the First Amendment. The most prominent case involved former President Donald Trump, who was barred from blocking critics from his @realDonaldTrump account on X, then known as Twitter.

But a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision lays out a new standard. The most important question, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in a unanimous opinion released Friday, is not whether a public official is discussing public business. It’s whether the public official is posting on social media in their official capacity. The key question is: Are they authorized to speak on behalf of the government and are they exercising that authority in their posts?

If they aren’t operating in their official capacity, then their posts about public business are like those of any private citizen posting about their job. Their personal social media accounts aren’t public forums — and they can block and ban who they like without violating anyone else’s First Amendment rights.

The decision seems to give more leeway to school board members and other officials who want to block critics on social media. It comes at a time when school board officials sometimes face personal attacks and harassment from members of the public they represent, and as laws and norms have struggled to keep up with the ways technology is transforming the public sphere.

But the justices also cautioned that each case requires careful consideration of the facts. Public officials who are acting in their official capacity in their social media posts can still be sued for blocking people, even if those official posts appear on a personal page next to family photos and cat videos.

“We think the rule is as plainly stated as we could have asked for, but that doesn’t mean it will be clearly applied,” said Sonja Trainor, managing director for school law and legal programming for the National School Boards Association. “It leaves open many questions that will have to be resolved by the lower courts one fact scenario at a time.”

Cases deal with public officials and personal accounts

The scenarios that drove the Supreme Court ruling are common ones.

In Port Huron, Michigan, Kevin Lindke was upset about how his city was handling COVID. He posted many comments on the public Facebook page of City Manager James Freed. Freed used his page, where he identified himself as the city manager, to post a mix of personal and professional information. Freed first deleted Lindke’s comments, then blocked him.

Lindke sued, arguing that Freed’s page constituted a public forum. But the U.S. District Court and then the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Freed because posting on Facebook was not part of his official job duties.

In Poway Unified School District in San Diego, parents Christopher and Kimberly Garnier were unhappy with their school board. They posted numerous comments about racial disparities in the district and allegations of financial misconduct by the superintendent on the Facebook pages of school trustees Michelle O’Connor-Ratcliff and T.J. Zane, as well as on O’Connor-Ratcliff’s Twitter posts.

Like Freed, the school trustees first deleted these comments, then blocked the Garniers, who sued. Unlike Freed, the trustees described themselves as government officials in their public Facebook pages and posted exclusively about school business — encouraging people to attend school board meetings or offer feedback on proposals.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Garniers. They looked at the appearance and function of the social media accounts and concluded they functioned like “an organ of official business.”

Because the two appeals courts reached different conclusions using different reasoning, the Supreme Court took up the case and heard arguments in the fall. The decision uses the facts of the Lindke case to develop the new standard and asks the appeals courts to apply it to their decisions in Lindke and in Garnier.

Questions about whether pages appear official or personal might still be relevant, Barrett wrote, but only if the person doing the posting is operating in his official capacity. “If the public employee does not use his speech in furtherance of his official responsibilities, he is speaking in his own voice,” Barrett wrote.

What it means for school board members and the public

Katie Fallow, who represented the plaintiffs in the Trump Twitter lawsuit as senior counsel at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said the new standard is much murkier and “doesn’t take into account how government officials use their personal accounts.”

Many officials want to use one account for everything because that account represents their brand or they have a lot of followers. These accounts are “essentially public forums where members of the public go to find out information about their government and discuss and criticize and praise policy,” Fallow said. “It’s important that the government not be able to block people from participating based on viewpoint.”

Colorado last year gave public officials sweeping ability to ban people from personal accounts. These are defined as any account not supported by public resources or that the official is not required to operate. That’s a much broader definition of personal account, said Cat Ordóñez, policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, and officials following state law could still violate someone’s First Amendment rights.

A Denver parent sued a school board member who blocked her last year but recently settled the case, putting an end to that challenge.

It remains unclear how the new standard would apply to Colorado’s law, which is the first of its kind in the nation — or even to the Poway trustees.

Fallow and Trainor both said school board members should strongly consider keeping conversations about school business on official accounts and keeping their personal accounts personal. That advice hasn’t changed.

But when it comes to mixed-use accounts, the court ruling draws new lines. Accounts that are labeled personal or contain disclaimers such as “the views expressed are strictly my own” are probably personal, the court found.

That means officials can more freely block and ban users, and community members face a higher bar to prove their rights were violated.

But officials can’t just label an account personal, use it for official business, then ban critics, Barrett wrote.

And the blunter the blocking tool, the more likely that a public official might violate someone’s rights, Barrett wrote. She noted, for example, that users blocked on X can’t see any posts from that account.

Trainor said school board members should talk to their lawyers about setting clear policies. Denver is in the process of doing this. Officials can disable comments entirely so they don’t have to worry about moderation, or they can set rules that apply equally to everyone.

Still, Trainor said these distinctions between the personal and official aren’t intuitive in offline life.

A school board member who ran into someone at the grocery store “wouldn’t think twice about talking about the price of milk and the new math curriculum in the same conversation,” she said. “It’s part of the give and take. And now online there is some new guidance, and you have to try to keep those two worlds separate.”

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago student homelessness is rising. Could a tax change backed by the mayor help fix that?

2024-03-14T19:55:36+00:00

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Derrianna Ford lived with her grandmother on Chicago’s north side growing up, but when the older woman lost her home, Ford and her siblings had to relocate to the south side for about a year.

They moved from the city’s West Ridge neighborhood to the South Side during her freshman year at Mather High School. Ford said she had to wake up at 4 a.m., take a bus to the southernmost stop on Chicago’s Red Line, ride almost the entire 26-mile route north, and then get on another bus in order to get to school by 8 a.m.

During the week, she would occasionally stay with a friend closer to school to avoid the long commute.

“This is so normal to us,” Ford said. “You don’t see yourself as struggling because you’re used to it. You don’t see it as homelessness.”

These days, Ford, now 20, is searching for a place of her own. But she has another goal. She’s knocking on doors to help pass a ballot referendum in Chicago on March 19 that advocates say could put a real dent in reducing homelessness.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former teachers union organizer and middle school teacher, promised in his education platform and transition plan to house the city’s homeless, with a focus on more than 20,000 students in Chicago Public Schools currently facing housing instability. In the last year, the number of CPS students in unstable housing situations — which can disrupt or derail students’ academic progress — has risen by roughly 50%.

To address that, Johnson and his allies are pushing to increase a real estate transfer tax on sales of property sales worth more than $1 million to generate an estimated $100 million annually to fund services for the homeless and affordable housing.

Some progressive groups, including the Chicago Teachers Union which helped propel Johnson to office, have been advocating to increase the city’s real estate transfer tax to help the homeless since Rahm Emanuel was mayor. The effort — dubbed Bring Chicago Home — is something Johnson emphasized often on the campaign trail last year.

“The people of Chicago voted for me because I said that I’m going to address homelessness,” Johnson said Wednesday. “Bring Chicago Home is an opportunity to address homelessness.”

A document obtained by Chalkbeat outlining Johnson’s first-term goals suggested his administration hopes to help house 10,000 students and their families.

But opponents of the initiative challenged the ballot question’s legality in the courts, even asking the Illinois Supreme Court to block the measure, which the court declined to do Wednesday. Still, some groups, including the nonpartisan budget watchdog Civic Federation, are concerned the mayor and City Council have not been specific enough about how the money would be used.

“This is the mayor’s signature item,” said Ald. Brendan Reilly, who represents much of downtown and opposes the referendum because it lacks specifics and could have unintended consequences on rental property and commercial real estate. “He’s put a lot of political capital into it and right now the Chicago electorate gets to give him a report card. I think this is as much about the policy as it is about a commentary on his agenda.”

Chicago Public Schools would not directly get any of the estimated $100 million in revenue that a change to the real estate transfer tax would generate. CPS officials did not comment on the ballot initiative, but said the district will continue to support homeless students and protect their rights under federal law.

More Chicago Public Schools students identified as homeless

The number of students in temporary living situations enrolled at Chicago Public Schools has hovered around 5% for at least the last decade — twice the national average. Recent data indicates the problem is getting more acute as the numbers climb.

District data shared with Chalkbeat from the end of February indicated 21,855 students currently enrolled at CPS were considered Students in Temporary Living Situations, or STLS. That’s up from more than 14,317 such students last February. CPS data includes any student categorized this way at any time during the school year, and once a student is marked as such, they keep that status for the remainder of the year.

The vast majority — around 16,000 students — are classified as “doubled up,” meaning they are living with another family temporarily, like Ford was while a freshman in high school.

But the number of CPS students listed as living in a shelter, hotel or motel, or living out of a car, park, or other public place more than tripled in the last year — from about 2,000 last February to nearly 8,000 as of Feb. 29. The jump has coincided with the ongoing influx of migrants arriving from the southern border.

Chicago grappled with students facing homelessness or housing instability long before the COVID pandemic and recent wave of migrants. A 2021 study from the University of Chicago Inclusive Economy Lab analyzed nine years of district data between 2009 and 2018 and found that, over the course of their K-12 experience, about 13% of CPS students experienced housing instability.

The report noted that research shows homeless students come to school less often, have lower academic achievement, and are more likely to drop out. At the same time, school districts like CPS “have limited capacity to connect students to housing supports.”

Cook County Commissioner Tara Stamps, the daughter of a longtime housing activist, saw this “heartbreaking” reality up close during the more than two decades she spent as a classroom teacher, including working alongside Johnson at a school serving the Cabrini Green public housing complex.

One time, she said, a single mom of one of her students had no place to stay, so Stamps and the school’s security guard “called and called and called around” to help them find housing.

Stamps, who now also works for the Chicago Teachers Union, said past administrations have emphasized academic achievement and improving test scores without prioritizing the conditions students faced that affected those scores: “There is no [academic] progress … if a baby doesn’t know where they’re going to sleep at night, if they don’t know where they’re going to eat.”.

Federal law requires school districts to support students facing housing insecurity. Some districts also get money through competitive grants to support homeless students. Students identified as such are entitled to transportation, the right to enroll without a permanent address, and the right to continue attending the same school through the end of the academic year even if they move.

But few districts have been directly involved in finding families housing.

With the help of federal COVID money, some schools across the country have added staff to help families with housing, others have provided emergency hotel stays and even propped up shelters inside schools.

Alyssa Phillips, an education attorney with the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, which has been advocating for Bring Chicago Home for several years, said the city needs a consistent revenue stream to tackle homelessness, along with input about what works from people experiencing homelessness and service providers.

“I think the most important thing is having that continuous funding,” Phillips said.

Federal COVID money for homeless set to expire

During the COVID pandemic, housing instability rose across the country. Homeless students were disconnected from schools and districts struggled to identify how many students were entitled to additional support and resources.

Chicago Public Schools received about $10.1 million in federal pandemic aid to serve homeless students, as part of roughly $800 million distributed nationally to states and school districts.

The city and school district created a program to give $500 stipends to families in Students in Temporary Living Situations, using money from the initial 2020 wave of federal COVID relief dollars. It’s not clear how many families received the money, and district officials deferred to the city, which administered the program.

Ald. Maria Hadden, who represents Chicago’s north lakefront and is a supporter of the Bring Chicago Home initiative, said the city also used some of its share of federal COVID dollars to provide rental assistance to thousands of people. She recounted helping one family in her ward with a CPS student with epilepsy avoid an eviction because they were able to get six months of rental assistance.

But soon, federal COVID money is drying up. Expenditure data obtained by Chalkbeat shows most of the school district’s share of federal COVID money has been spent, primarily for school staff.

If the ballot initiative to raise the real estate transfer tax on property over a $1 million is approved, Hadden said, the city could revive, continue, or expand pandemic-era programs, like rental and mortgage assistance and rapid rehousing efforts for people living in tent encampments.

Mayor Brandon Johnson is greeted by supporters after he spoke while dozens rally for the Bring Chicago Home resolution outside the Thompson Center before a City Council meeting on Nov. 7, 2023.

Political ‘slush fund’ or nimble revenue stream?

Ford and others continue to knock on doors to garner support from voters who will ultimately decide whether Chicago should have a graduated real estate transfer tax.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Teachers Union is gearing up for another round of contract negotiations with a mayor more amenable to their views than his two predecessors. During contract negotiations in 2019, the union pushed to include provisions around affordable housing. But then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the union contract was “not the appropriate place for the City to legislate its affordable housing policy.”

Leaked contract proposals for upcoming contract talks include two focused on affordable housing: mortgage and rental assistance for teachers, and a vocational program that would have students build affordable housing.

Whatever happens with the teachers union contract, Johnson is forging ahead with a plan to borrow $1.25 billion dollars to fund affordable housing and other development. On Wednesday, the mayor said he’ll soon name a new chief homelessness officer. And he directed the city’s Department of Family Support Services to work with CPS to match the district’s most vulnerable students with housing. The two agencies meet weekly, a spokesperson confirmed.

If voters approve the ballot initiative, the City Council would still need to pass an ordinance spelling out how to appropriate the revenue.

Reilly, the downtown alderman, said that “anyone who has a soul” cares about the homeless and wants to find solutions. But he worries that if the tax is approved, the revenue could quickly turn into a “slush fund” for political allies of whomever is mayor.

“There’s no guarantee that any of this money lands with helping the homeless people,” Reilly said. “It’s just going to be a big stack of money that a whole lot of people are gonna wanna fight over.”

Emma Tai, campaign director for the Bring Chicago Home Ballot Initiative, said the revenue would be legally dedicated to fund affordable housing and services for the homeless. A draft ordinance for implementing the change to the transfer tax would create a 15-member panel appointed by the mayor and approved by City Council to make recommendations annually based on the “most pressing needs.”

“The idea is for the funds to be nimble,” Tai said, noting that during the height of the pandemic, there was a critical need to provide housing to domestic violence victims, whereas now that pandemic-era eviction moratoriums have ended, there’s a need for emergency rental assistance. The idea is that the panel’s recommendations would take such shifts into account.

For young people like Derrianna Ford, who experienced housing insecurity as a student and is searching for an affordable apartment now, the issue boils down to one thing: “stability.”

This story has been updated to more accurately characterize Tai’s comments about how housing needs have shifted in Chicago.

Chalkbeat reporter Reema Amin contributed reporting.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

As tensions flare in parent councils, NYC sees a surge in misconduct complaints

2024-03-13T19:19:25+00:00

Fierce debates and in-fighting within New York City’s parent education councils are hardly new.

But as tensions escalated during the pandemic, the Education Department created its first formal process to investigate complaints of harassment and discrimination among these parent leaders and issue sanctions.

That process, after getting off to a slow start, is now facing its first major test amid a surge of misconduct allegations against parents on these boards.

A total of 36 grievances have been filed this school year against parents elected to the city’s Community Education Councils, according to the Education Department. That’s up from five such complaints last year.

Debates in the councils have simmered for years over proposals to strip selective admissions criteria in an effort to racially integrate schools. Conflicts exploded during the pandemic, both locally and across the country, over school closures and masking requirements. And sharp divides have continued this year over rhetoric about LGBTQ youth and the Israel-Hamas war.

“I think what we’re seeing now is a national political fight that has found its way into education,” said Tracy Jordan, the president of Community Education Council 22 in southern Brooklyn, who recently faced accusations of antisemitism from a local City Council member and some parents over a decision to hold a meeting on a Friday night. (Jordan said she cleared the meeting time in advance with all the members of the council, including Jewish members, and that it was a special meeting that didn’t have a public comment portion, so no one was excluded from speaking.)

Jordan doesn’t know for sure if any complaints have been filed against her, but said even the threat of them can “cause concern.”

The spike in grievances, called D-210 complaints, is also a sign that parent leaders are finally making use of the disciplinary process, which was rolled out in December 2021, at the height of the pandemic, and met with deeply divided reactions. Some parents at the time shared personal accounts of racism, harassment, and doxxing at the hands of fellow parent leaders, and they argued it was long past time for city officials to take a stronger role in enforcing behavior norms.

But other parents, including members of PLACE NYC, or Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, a group that supports selective school admissions, argued that the regulation is overly broad, could have a chilling effect on political speech, and gives the Education Department too much power to regulate independent parent leaders.

The resolution ultimately passed, but the process has taken years to get up and running.

City has yet to share outcomes of investigations

When the Education Department receives a complaint, an “equity compliance officer” is supposed to investigate, and within 60 days must turn over their findings to a council of parent leaders elected by their fellow CEC members. That council must then issue recommendations to schools Chancellor David Banks.

The Education Department only hired the equity compliance officer in February 2023, more than a year after the position was created.

Education Department officials said parent leaders recently elected representatives from their home boroughs to the council responsible for reviewing the investigations, though a spokesperson declined to name its members.

Many parents didn’t know about the grievance process or trust that it would yield any results, said NeQuan McLean, the president of District 16′s CEC in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and head of the Education Council Consortium, a group of parent leaders who pushed for the regulation.

“Now that those elements are in place, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the number of discrimination complaints increased,” he said. “The fact that people are filing complaints demonstrates that the regulation and civil rights protections were needed.”

But how the disciplinary process will play out in practice largely remains to be seen.

Potential disciplinary outcomes range from an order from the chancellor to stop the behavior in question to immediate removal if the behavior is criminal, poses a danger to students, or “is contrary to the best interest of the New York City school district.” For lower level offenses, sanctioned council members get an opportunity to reconcile with their colleagues.

An Education Department spokesperson declined to share whether any of the probes have led to discipline.

Camille Casaretti, a member of the Citywide Council on High Schools, said the process “takes too long,” adding that she knows of complaints made during the CEC elections last spring that are still pending.

Meanwhile, some parents are losing their patience.

At a February meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy, multiple parents implored Education Department officials to remove members of the CEC on Manhattan’s District 2 who made comments in a private group text chat that denied the existence of transgender kids and referred in graphic terms to the genitalia of a gay state lawmaker, according to The 74. Maud Maron, one of the CEC 2 members in the private chat, declined to answer questions about whether she is the target of any complaints, but told Chalkbeat that “defending the rights of girls and women is not anti-trans.”

Separately, some students and parents at Stuyvesant High School are pushing for Maron to be removed from the School Leadership Team.

Banks, who makes the final call on discipline for elected parent leaders, called the comments “despicable” and “not in line with our values.”

“One of the things I will tell you in the two years I have been chancellor that has been the greatest disappointment to me is to see on a daily basis an example of parents behaving badly,” Banks said. “I’ve tried to give this some time to allow adults to be adults. But when you realize they refuse to do that … we are going to begin to take action.”

Tensions continue to flare in CECs

The conflict in CEC 2 isn’t the only one to draw significant attention this year.

CEC 14 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, has been locked in a dispute over whether to resume in-person meetings, following a backlash to CEC President Tajh Sutton’s support for a student walkout calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Sutton and other CEC members say they’ve received violent threats, including a package containing feces mailed to the council’s office, and don’t feel safe meeting in person. Critics have accused CEC members of blocking pro-Israel speakers from participating in online meetings – an allegation the CEC members deny.

Sutton said she’s filed D-210 complaints, and she knows she’s the target of multiple complaints. She was initially supportive of the disciplinary process, but doesn’t believe it’s working as intended. She faulted the Education Department for watering down language in the original proposal that referenced specific forms of discrimination, including against transgender people. She said it also took too long to get the process in motion, which caused some parents to lose trust in the process.

“They’re going to have to contend with the fact that this regulation written by parent leaders under attack at the time is now being weaponized against parent leaders under attack,” she said.

Education Department spokesperson Chyann Tull said “parent input has been considered at every stage of developing this process, which helps us ensure an inclusive and respectful environment for all members of our school communities.”

It’s not just the high-profile conflicts garnering media attention that are spurring D-210 complaints. Parent leaders and Education Department officials said the grievances are coming from a wide range of districts.

“In other councils, yes we have D-210 complaints that have been filed, many of which over the last several months,” said Deputy Chancellor Kenita Lloyd in a February meeting. “That process is ongoing.”

In District 22, CEC president Jordan said she’s still managing the fallout from media coverage of her Friday night meeting flap with local City Council member Inna Vernikov, a vocal supporter of Israel who recently made headlines for bringing a gun to a pro-Palestine student rally.

“It was really disappointing and deflating,” Jordan said of the experience. “When you’re accused of something it’s a blemish and doesn’t go away easily.” The whole process has made her question whether getting involved in her CEC was worth it.

She said she supports the idea of a code of conduct for parent leaders, but worries that the Education Department hasn’t done enough to train CEC members on what the code entails and what accountability would look like.

Still, she hopes that the Education Department can distinguish between frivolous complaints and ones that target clearly out-of-bounds behavior.

“At the end of the day, we should be open-minded,” she said. “But when we start causing harm, that is a problem.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

New Jersey lawmakers trying to get — and keep — teachers in schools

2024-03-12T19:02:20+00:00

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More measures designed to fight the teacher shortage in New Jersey schools moved closer to becoming law after the Assembly Education Committee recently cleared five bills that focus on teacher recruitment and retention.

The bills were introduced during the last legislative session but did not make it across the finish line. The measures, moved last week, include removing obstacles to teacher certification, providing scholarships for student teachers and creating a task force to study how and when teachers are evaluated. The bills had widespread support among legislators and representatives of leading education stakeholder groups, who said solving the teacher shortage is a priority.

“Shortages in our educator workforce are damaging to our districts and to the children they serve. It is so important that we fill our educator training pipeline with qualified, motivated individuals who want to become teachers, and want to stay teachers,” Assemblywoman and education committee Chair Pamela Lampitt (D-Camden) said in a statement. “These bills will help school districts and newly certified teachers make meaningful connections, while alleviating some of the financial strain caused by student loans, enabling these educators to focus on their students and giving our youth the education they deserve.”

A survey by the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association found that in August, just before the start of the current school year, only 16.3% of members had fully staffed their classrooms, said Jennie Lamon, assistant director of government relations for the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association.

“School staffing shortages continues to be one of the most significant challenges facing school districts, continues to be one of the most significant obstacles preventing districts from developing or expanding high quality school programs that meet the academic, social, emotional, mental-health needs of their students,” said Jesse Young, a legislative advocate for the New Jersey School Boards Association.

Establish teacher database, ‘Grow Your Own’ program, and more

Here is a look at the teacher shortage bills that moved forward last week:

A-1676 would require the Department of Education and the Department of Labor and Workforce Development to create a database of teachers who are eligible to work, including their employment status, certificates, endorsements, and contact information.

The Department of Education would also be required to host three job fairs each year to connect school districts with novice teachers. The fairs would take place in the north, south and central parts of the state.

The bill does not have a Senate counterpart in the current legislative session.

A-1669 would remove the requirement for teacher candidates to take a basic skills test of reading, writing, and math to obtain a certification of eligibility. This would include removing the Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators test, which critics believe is a poor measure of teacher qualifications.

“This is being viewed as dumbing down requirements for teachers and that could not be any further from the truth,” said Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia (R-Sussex), who has been in public education for 18 years. “This bill will eliminate a majorly duplicative test. I know from my teaching certifications.”

An identical bill was introduced in the Senate and referred to the Senate Education Committee.

A-1619 would establish a “Grow Your Own” Teacher Loan Redemption program, which would encourage high school graduates from communities facing teacher shortages to return to their home districts to teach. The Higher Education Assistance Authority would offer loan redemption of up to $10,000 per year for up to five years.

“We’re very concerned not only about staffing shortages but also about the pipeline of educators going forward and this bill package will help address both those issues,” said Fran Pfeffer, associate director of governmental relations at the New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union.

An identical bill was reported from the Senate Education Committee and referred to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee in January.

A-3413 would establish a task force to revisit rules for how and when teachers and principals are evaluated in public schools. The 13-member body would offer recommendations for improvements and changes to the current tenure law. The collection of student growth objectives would be limited while the task force is studying the matter. Student growth objectives, known as SGOs, are long-term academic goals set by teachers in consultation with their supervisors; they’re used as part of the summative evaluation process for teachers.

The bill already passed the Senate. It’s a watered-down version of a bill from the last legislative session that would have extended the time between evaluations.

“This piece of legislation did a one-eighty, I would venture to say, in terms of where we were with the idea of teacher evaluation. I’m really appreciative of the great work we all did to get it to where it is in terms of trying to create a task force to do the evaluation and the real nitty-gritty work to provide the data back to us to determine what is the best next step,” Lampitt said.

A-2362 would establish the New Jersey Student Teacher Scholarship to reduce financial barriers to teacher certification. It would provide scholarships of up to $7,200 to eligible students for each semester of full-time clinical practice completed in a school in the state.

The bill garnered a lot of support from lawmakers and stakeholders, with two groups proposing amendments. Representatives from the New Jersey Speech Language and Hearing Association urged lawmakers to amend the bill to include speech language specialists who are doing student teaching. The College of New Jersey also asked for an amendment to remove the language “in the state” from the bill to include students who do their student teaching in neighboring states or internationally through a global teaching program.

An identical bill was introduced in the Senate and referred to the Senate Higher Education committee.

Hannah Gross covers education and child welfare for NJ Spotlight News via a partnership with Report for America. She covers the full spectrum of education and children’s services in New Jersey and looks especially through the lens of equity and opportunity. This story was first published on NJ Spotlight News, a content partner of Chalkbeat Newark.

El programa de preescolar universal de Colorado podría prohibir la enseñanza religiosa el próximo año

2023-12-11T23:49:26+00:00

Read in English.

Cuando la maestra Corrie Haynes les preguntó a los estudiantes de preescolar sentados sobre la alfombra verde frente a ella lo que era un pecado, un niño pequeño contestó muy seguro: “Todas las cosas malas que hacemos”.

“Muy bien”, Haynes contestó.

Luego, los 13 niños, la mayoría de ellos vestidos con una camisa tipo polo de color rojo granate o azul y faldas o pantalones oscuros, aprendieron que todos pecamos—hasta los maestros, las mamás y los papás y el pastor de la iglesia—y que aunque Dios odia el pecado, no odia a las personas que cometen pecados.

“Él nos sigue queriendo mucho, hasta cuando pecamos”, Haynes dijo.

Un minuto después, Haynes guio a los niños de 4 años para que cantaran una canción sobre los modales: “Siempre digan ‘gracias’, siempre digan ‘por favor’. Cuando no somos agradecidos, Dios no queda complacido”.

Este tipo de contenido religioso por mucho tiempo se ha integrado en las lecciones de Landmark Preschool, un programa de educación preescolar ubicado en la Iglesia Bautista Landmark en la ciudad de Grand Junction en el oeste de Colorado. Lo que es diferente este año es que las personas que pagan impuestos en el estado están cubriendo los costos—más de $100,000—para que 20 estudiantes en edad preescolar asistan a este programa.

Colorado invitó explícitamente a los preescolares religiosos para que participaran en su nuevo programa de preescolar universal valuado en $322 millones, el cual, a pesar de tener un lanzamiento dificultoso ha sido popular entre las familias. Pero los representantes estatales han enviado mensajes confusos sobre si los preescolares pueden ofrecer una enseñanza religiosa durante el horario de clases financiado por el estado. Antes del lanzamiento, dijeron que se prohibía. Ahora dicen que no, pero que el próximo año quizás se prohíba.

Debates sobre si usar o no fondos públicos para financiar la educación religiosa surgen en un entorno en el que hay presiones conservadoras para desarmar ideas históricas sobre la separación de la iglesia y el estado.

Para participar en el programa preescolar universal de Colorado, los centros preescolares, incluido Landmark, tuvieron que firmar un contrato aceptando cumplir varios requisitos, como que no discriminarían debido a la orientación sexual ni la identidad de género. Ese requisito ahora está sujeto a dos demandas legales—uno de una escuela preescolar cristiana en el Condado de Chaffee y el otro de dos parroquias católicas que administran programas preescolares cerca de Denver.

El contrato que los proveedores firmaron no mencionó la enseñanza religiosa.

Lauren Weber, la directora de Landmark Preschool, dijo que esa enseñanza se “incluye en casi todo lo que hacemos”.

Pero algunos expertos dicen que mezclar el dinero público y la educación religiosa va en contra de los cimientos históricos del país.

“Si el dinero de nuestros contribuyentes está financiando el ejercicio religioso … entonces nos estamos poniendo en una posición [en la que] el estado y la iglesia se enredan de tal forma que los fundadores estaban tratando de evitar”, dijo Kevin Welner, director del Centro Nacional de Políticas Educativas en la Universidad de Colorado en Boulder.

El estado planea limitar las lecciones religiosas en el preescolar universal

Los funcionarios dedicados a la infancia temprana en Colorado propusieron prohibir la enseñanza religiosa en una serie de reglas que planean aprobar la próxima primavera. No se sabe bien en qué situación eso deje a los programas como el de Landmark, en el cual los líderes esperan abrir dos salones más para la enseñanza preescolar universal el año que viene.

Históricamente, los jueces en Estados Unidos han mantenido una separación entre la iglesia y el estado, pero la actual Suprema Corte de EE. UU. emitió un fallo el año pasado diciendo que el estado de Maine no puede excluir a escuelas que ofrecen enseñanza religiosa de un programa estatal que paga por la educación privada.

Michael Bindas, un abogado principal con el Instituto para la Justicia, un despacho legal libertario de interés público, representó a los demandantes en el caso de Maine. Bindas dijo que ese fallo deja en claro que pedirles a las escuelas religiosas que eliminen la enseñanza religiosa durante el horario de clases financiado por el estado equivale a discriminación religiosa.

Si Colorado adopta las reglas propuestas que prohíben la enseñanza religiosa durante el horario de preescolar financiado por el estado, dijo, “sospecho que quedará atrapado en años de litigación”.

A Welner le preocupa que algunas enseñanzas religiosas en programas preescolares estén enviando mensajes dañinos a los niños, como por ejemplo si un niño que está cuestionando su identidad de género asiste a un preescolar religioso.

“Existe algo inquietante, por lo menos para mí, sobre el uso de dinero de los contribuyentes para subsidiar la educación de un niño en un entorno que esencialmente está atacando la identidad de ese niño”, dijo.

Parte de la visión del preescolar universal era que los padres eligieran

Desde el principio, los líderes estatales planearon ofrecer preescolar universal en todo tipo de entornos—en escuelas públicas, en centros religiosos y en hogares autorizados por el estado. La idea era darles a los padres muchas opciones, más de las que se ofrecían en programas estatales anteriores.

Casi 50,000 niños en Colorado, la mayoría de 4 años de edad, están obteniendo una educación preescolar gratis a través del programa de preescolar universal. De los más de 1,900 preescolares que se unieron al programa universal, 39 son religiosos, según datos del estado. En conjunto, atienden a alrededor de 930 niños.

Muchos programas preescolares financiados con fondos públicos permiten que los preescolares religiosos participen siempre y cuando la enseñanza religiosa ocurra durante el horario cubierto por mensualidades privadas.

Colorado también planeó tener ese requisito—pero nunca puso las reglas que limitan la enseñanza religiosa por escrito.

Landmark Preschool en Grand Junction, Colorado.

¿Se usará este plan de estudios cristiano en preescolares el próximo año?

Landmark Preschool abrió sus puertas en 2012 y atiende a niños desde bebés hasta en edad preescolar. Cerca de la mitad de ellos son niños con familias de bajos ingresos. Tiene la segunda calificación más alta por la calidad de sus cuidados infantiles según el sistema estatal de cinco niveles.

El programa cuenta con dos salones de preescolar universal, uno que se basa en el juego y otro que es más estructurado, donde enseñan habilidades como la escritura en letra cursiva. Ambos salones usan el plan de estudios Abeka, un plan popular entre las escuelas cristianas y familias que educan a sus hijos en el hogar y que describe a la Biblia como la base de todo aprendizaje.

Actualmente, no hay reglas estatales que rijan los planes de estudios en el preescolar universal, pero representantes estatales planean crear una lista de planes aceptables antes que empiece el segundo año del programa. No se sabe bien cuáles serán los parámetros o si los planes como el de Abeka cumplirán con los requisitos.

Weber, la directora del centro, y Christy Barrows, una administradora en la escuela de kindergarten a 12º grado adyacente a Landmark, dicen que recibieron confirmaciones repetidas de representantes locales del preescolar universal diciendo que su programa y el plan de estudios son aceptables.

“Somos muy abiertos sobre quiénes somos y lo que enseñamos”, Weber dijo. “Les digo a todos [los participantes] de visitas guiadas: ‘Encuentren lo que mejor se adapte a ustedes, y si no es [aquí], está bien‘”.

El centro preescolar acepta a todos los niños, incluidos aquellos con familias LGBTQ, dijo. Pero las decisiones de contratación no son igual de sencillas.

“Tenemos los valores cristianos y la moral y las creencias”, Weber dijo. “Esa [persona contratada] quizás no encaje bien en nuestro centro, porque estaremos enseñando estos valores y si no crees en estos valores, es muy difícil que te contratemos”.

En Landmark Preschool, lecciones sobre la Biblia influyen en la hora de cuentacuentos

Adentro del salón preescolar de Haynes, llegó la hora de contar una historia bíblica sobre la obediencia—específicamente, la obediencia a Dios. Entre pausas para que niños ansiosos se calmaran, Haynes contó la historia de una pequeña niña a quien la robaron de su familia y obligaron a trabajar para el poderoso general Naaman, quien tenía lepra.

“Había enormes llagas por toda la piel de Naaman, y todas estas llagas seguía empeorando y empeorando”, Haynes explicó. Pero la niña intervino para ayudar, sugiriéndole a Naaman que visitara a un profeta.

“La pequeña niña pudo haber dicho: ‘Naaman se merece tener lepra. A mí me robaron de mi hogar y me obligan a trabajar como sirvienta’”, Haynes dijo.

En lugar de eso, “la niña eligió hacer lo correcto y perdonar aunque nadie le dijera que lo hiciera”.

Weber, sentada observando la clase de cerca, está esperando ver qué nuevas reglas los líderes del preescolar universal impondrán y si Abeka formará parte de la lista de planes de estudios aprobados.

“En este momento, está funcionando bien, pero en el futuro, ¿cómo será?” dijo. “Vamos a proceder año con año y ver lo que hacemos”.

Ann Schimke es una reportera principal para Chalkbeat, cubriendo temas sobre la primera infancia y lectoescritura temprana. Comunícate con Ann por correo electrónico a aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Traducido por Alejandra X. Castañeda

How many layoffs at your CPS school?

2018-06-08T02:19:18+00:00

Chicago Public Schools announced Wednesday that the district will lay off 156 teachers and 382 support personnel at the end of the school year. The impact will be felt at 271 schools; 399 district-run schools are not affected.

The number of job cuts represents less than 1 percent of the teacher workforce.

Below are the 10 categories of support personnel that sustained the most cuts. The district starred the categories of “teacher assistant II” and “teacher assistant,” noting they may be moved back into full-time positions in the fall once class sizes are set.

The district will start holding job fairs June 9. Last year, CPS laid off 356 teachers but rehired 64 percent of them in other full-time positions.

On Thursday, the district released the list of cuts by individual schools — identifying the numbers of teachers and educational support personnel facing layoffs. To find your school, type it into the search field below.

Deadline extended for NYC summer youth jobs program. What families should know

2024-02-29T17:01:12+00:00

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This story was updated to reflect the new deadline, March 15.

Sixteen-year-old Martha Martin’s reason for applying to last year’s New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program was simple.

“I had nothing to do over the summer,” she said.

But to her surprise, she loved the work.

Through the program, Martha was employed as a teacher’s aide in Bay Ridge, taking care of 3-year-olds. With the extra income, Martha was able to pay for her books and school supplies for the upcoming school year, while giving some extra money to her mom to help her family.

Now, Martha, an 11th grader at Pace High School in Manhattan, is considering a career in early childhood education.

“I realized that I like working with kids, and probably see that in my future,” she said. “I never expected myself to actually be working with kids, but I’m so glad that I did.”

What Martha experienced last summer mirrors that of thousands of other young people across the five boroughs. The Summer Youth Employment Program, also known as SYEP, has for decades provided the city’s youth with paid opportunities to explore potential career pathways.

But for those who want a chance to participate this year, the deadline is fast approaching: Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, March 15. The city extended the deadline by two weeks.

The application period was moved up from last year’s mid-April due date to allow for earlier enrollment and to give community-based providers and worksites more time to prepare, according to officials.

In recent years, the program has expanded, with Mayor Eric Adams adding 25,000 seats in 2022 — bringing it up to 100,000 spots in total. Last year, the program also made a commitment to matching LGBTQ+ youth with “supportive work opportunities.”

City officials have praised the program, noting participation can improve school attendance, reduce incarceration rates, and help keep young people safe over the course of the summer.

Applicants are asked to indicate three areas of career interest among a wide range of industries, as well as three providers they want to work with.

Where can I apply?

Young people can apply online at: https://application.nycsyep.com/ApplicationPages/NYCIDLogin

Who is eligible?

The program is open to New York City residents between the ages of 14 and 24 who are legally eligible to work in the United States.

Participation in the program is not based on income, and applicants are not required to submit any documentation related to parental income.

Though undocumented youth aren’t eligible for the program, they and others who face enrollment obstacles are eligible for a smaller Department of Youth and Community Development program known as SYEP Pathways. It offers summer project-based learning to a number of young people.

That program, which had more than 800 spots last year, recruits through local community-based organizations, and young people interested in participating can check with their local organizations, according to officials.

The SYEP Pathways program has been praised for offering opportunities to undocumented youth, but has also raised some concerns that pay is inequitable compared with SYEP. Last year, the program provided participants with a stipend of about $500 for 60 hours of project-based learning.

How much will I earn? What will I be doing?

Programming and pay for the Summer Youth Employment Program vary based on the individual participant’s age.

Participants aged 16 and older will be assigned to work 25 hours per week for six weeks, earning $16 per hour. Meanwhile, younger participants will work about half as many weekly hours and earn up to $700 over the course of the program.

Younger participants are assigned projects by one of the more than 40 participating community-based providers, offering them a chance to explore future career opportunities and develop leadership and other skills over the course of the program.

Older participants are matched to a worksite based on their interests. Work sites can range between public, private, and nonprofit organizations. Last year, the program saw youth placed across nearly 18,000 worksites in industries that included finance, fashion, philanthropy, technology, arts, engineering, health care, legal services, real estate, transportation, advertising, hospitality, media, retail, and more.

Some young people who face particular barriers to employment — like those who are justice-involved, NYCHA residents, experiencing homelessness, attending District 75 schools, and more — also qualify for tailored experiences.

Am I guaranteed a spot?

The program has 100,000 spots, but applications typically exceed that number. The city fills the majority of seats by random lottery, according to DYCD. As of March 1, more than 140,000 people had applied.

Last year, more than 176,000 people applied for a spot in the program.

How long does the program run?

The program runs for six weeks in July and August.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy’s 2025 budget proposal outlines plan to fully fund school aid formula

2024-02-27T22:58:00+00:00

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Gov. Phil Murphy proposed $11.6 billion for New Jersey’s public schools in his fiscal year 2025 budget address on Tuesday — a historic investment that would, for the first time, fully fund K-12 schools.

The proposed aid, a $908 million increase from the current year, would be Murphy’s final payment into the seven-year plan, outlined by a law he signed in 2018, to fully fund the state’s school aid formula and redirect money to underfunded districts, including Newark Public Schools.

“We will be the first administration in our state’s history to fully fund New Jersey’s school funding formula,” Murphy said to a standing ovation in the Assembly Chambers at the statehouse in Trenton. The speech was streamed on the governor’s social media channels.

Before a room full of lawmakers, former governors, and community advocates, Murphy outlined his $55.9 billion proposed spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1. The plan includes major investments in schools, the public transit system, and public worker pensions, in addition to a proposed surplus of $6.1 billion, he said.

But a shortfall in tax revenues, a looming forecast of steep deficits, and other economic hardships could present challenges to fund this plan. Lawmakers will be negotiating and making changes to the proposed budget over the next few months before the deadline of June 30.

“There’s a simple reason why we’re keeping this promise,” Murphy said of the proposed boost in state school aid. “It’s because we need to cultivate the potential of every student anyway we can, whether they live in Cranbury or Camden — and that also means equipping our state’s educators with every tool they need to help our children learn and grow.”

Murphy also proposed other educational investments in the budget. He wants $124 million to go to preschool aid, which would include $20 million to expand preschool programs into new districts and create 1,000 new seats. He also wants an additional $30 million to expand the free school meals program, and to join 34 other states to take part in the Summer EBT program, which aims to combat child hunger during the summer with the help of $60 million in federal funds.

In addition, his plan includes a $2.5 million allocation for a grant program to help school districts acquire literacy screening tools to help children in need of support, a promise he made in his State of the State address last month.

While the proposed budget outlined major funding to support education, there was no sign of funding for the Schools Development Authority, a severely underfunded program meant to help high-poverty districts pay for projects to repair dilapidated school buildings.

A historic boost for school aid

Since 2008, New Jersey has used a weighted student formula created under the School Funding Reform Act to give districts financial support in addition to local taxes to provide every student a “thorough and efficient” education, as stipulated in the state constitution. However, in the 15 years since that formula was established, the state has not provided the full amount owed to underfunded districts.

During his campaign for governor in 2017, Murphy promised to prioritize fully funding the formula. Though his annual efforts to follow through on that promise have received much praise, education advocates say key updates and revisions to the formula are urgent to meet today’s educational needs.

Still, the last seven years of funding increases in state aid has been a marked shift from former Gov. Chris Christie’s administration, which mostly kept state aid flat.

In the state’s 2024 budget, Murphy allotted $10.8 billion for school aid – an $832 million increase from the prior year, as well as $103 million in additional aid approved for school districts seeing reductions in funding based on adjustments to the formula. That budget also included $109 million for the state’s universal pre-K program and $40 million to expand other programs, such as workforce development.

Newark, the state’s largest school district, received $1.2 billion in state aid for the current fiscal year, which was an extra $114 million over last year. Valerie Wilson, the district’s school business administrator, noted last March that the increase in state aid was still $27.7 million short of the amount the district was owed under the formula. Roughly 86% of the district’s budget for the 2023-24 school year came from state aid.

Typically, in the days following the governor’s budget address, the state will send districts the estimated state aid they can expect based on the proposed spending plan. Districts use those estimates to finalize their own budget proposals for next school year.

More funding needed for school buildings

Murphy received a mix of praise and criticism from education organization leaders on his proposed spending plan for next year.

“His efforts to fully fund New Jersey’s education formula, including the proposed $11.7 billion in his FY2025 budget plan, have gone a long way towards meeting the educational needs of students across the state,” said Harry Lee, president and CEO of the New Jersey Public Charter Schools Association, in an emailed statement.

Still, Lee added, public charter schools are in “desperate need of facilities upgrades and renovations,” and he urged lawmakers to consider earmarking funding for the recently established Charter School and Renaissance School Project Facilities Loan Program.

Education Law Center research director Danielle Farrie pressed lawmakers to support Murphy’s school funding formula infusion during negotiations and to consider adding $1 million to support efforts to update the formula. In an emailed statement, she also noted the lack of funding for the Schools Development Authority.

“Reaching full state funding and supporting preschool are just a part of what’s needed to make sure all public schools have the resources to provide a thorough and efficient education for their students,” Farrie said.

The New Jersey Education Association, in a prepared statement, had high marks for the governor’s proposal, but the teachers union also called on legislators to institute “transition aid” for school districts that will see a reduction in funding due to various changes with enrollment or other factors.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Catherine Carrera is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Newark, covering the city’s K-12 schools with a focus on English language learners. Contact Catherine at ccarrera@chalkbeat.org.

Partial FAFSA fix lets students from immigrant families apply for financial aid

2024-02-21T01:24:04+00:00

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Students whose parents lack a Social Security number can finally fill out federal financial aid forms after the Biden administration announced a workaround Tuesday for one of the most glaring problems with what was supposed to be a simpler, easier form.

U.S. Department of Education officials say these students can leave their parent or spouse’s Social Security number blank for now, and manually enter the person’s income and tax information. The department provided details about the workaround to Chalkbeat, and plans to post them online Wednesday.

Chalkbeat first reported in January that the Social Security glitch was preventing potentially tens of thousands of eligible U.S. citizen students from applying for financial aid.

The workaround is meant to help students meet fast-approaching deadlines for certain state, college, or scholarship applications. The department promised a permanent fix is coming next month. It is also urging students who don’t have an urgent submission deadline to wait until then. Those who use the workaround will need to take additional steps in March to fully submit their application.

This puts significant pressure on school counselors and college access organizations to guide families through the process on a compressed timeline.

The Better FAFSA, as the new version of the Free Application for Federal Financial Aid is known, was supposed to make it easier for students to apply for aid for college. While more than 4 million students have completed the form successfully, the rollout has been plagued by glitches and delays. Far fewer students have completed the form than in previous years, and frustration and anxiety is mounting among parents, counselors, and college administrators.

Department officials said they intend to fully resolve FAFSA submission issues for parents without Social Security numbers “in the first half of March.” After that, students won’t need the workaround.

The education department is also working to fix a separate problem that’s made it difficult for parents without Social Security numbers to create a login for the FAFSA website. Officials said they will automate that process this month and add more Spanish-speaking staff to the call center that’s helping families navigate that issue.

Department officials estimate that 2% of federal financial aid applicants are experiencing issues due to the Social Security number glitch.

The announcement came the same day that over 90 Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives, led by U.S. Reps. Jesus “Chuy” García of Illinois, Colin Allred of Texas, and Jared Huffman and Nanette Barragán of California, sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona expressing concerns about the “flawed rollout” of the FAFSA.

They urged the department to quickly resolve the technical issues preventing students whose parents don’t have Social Security numbers from submitting their applications.

“Students eligible for financial aid have the right to access that aid, regardless of their parents’ citizenship status,” García wrote in a press release. “But because of a technical error in the new FAFSA form, many of my constituents from immigrant and mixed-status families were left without answers and no path forward as college financial aid deadlines crept up.”

García added that he and other lawmakers “spent weeks” urging the department to fix the issue, and that while the temporary fix was a good first step, “The Department must continue to rectify these errors in rollout so no student is blocked from the aid they need.”

The letter notes that federal officials identified the issue affecting parents without Social Security numbers on Jan. 4. Tuesday marked the first update. On past calls with reporters, top education department officials said only that they were working to fix the problem.

A paper version of the FAFSA still exists, but officials have not widely publicized it and there are downsides to using it, such as greater chance of making mistakes.

The letter writers also call on the department “to conduct outreach to proactively inform students, counselors, and other stakeholders about when families with undocumented parents can expect a solution and how to submit their forms once it’s resolved.”

Department officials said Tuesday evening that they would set up a new email list to keep students and families who’ve been affected by this issue in the loop on updates.

Without a fix, American high school students whose parents are undocumented could end up at the back of the line for financial aid, especially in the states — including Illinois, Indiana, and Tennessee — that distribute aid on a first-come, first-served basis, the lawmakers note.

Justin Draeger, who heads the nonprofit National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said in a statement that he worried the temporary solution would be “confusing and burdensome” to many students and families and that it was imperative that the department met its mid-March deadline for a permanent fix.

“Any further delays would be disastrous for both students and schools,” Draeger wrote.

The Better FAFSA’s brief, rocky history

The rollout of the new federal financial aid process has been troubled from the start.

The form didn’t become available to families until January, which cut months off the normal timeline for students to fill out the form. Students experiencing homelessness, students in foster care, and students whose parents are undocumented immigrants — all students for whom financial support is critical to their college decisions — have faced major problems even completing the form.

As of mid-February, just 22% of high school seniors had completed the FAFSA, according to an analysis of federal data by the National College Attainment Network, compared with 41% of the Class of 2023 by this same time last year. Completion rates are down more than 50% at high schools serving large numbers of low-income students and students of color.

Spurred by Republican lawmakers, the Government Accountability Office has opened two investigations into the FAFSA launch, Politico reported.

Meanwhile, the education department has said it won’t be able to share student information with colleges until mid-March, a delay that means colleges aren’t able to share financial aid packages with students until later in the spring. That’s left school staff and advocates worried that students will rush to make decisions before they have all the financial information they need.

Already, a slew of colleges have announced they’re pushing back their deadlines for students to commit, a delay that has implications for those institutions’ own planning for the next academic year.

Advocates for first-generation college students and those from low-income backgrounds fear that a lack of accurate information about financial aid will cause many students to put off higher education or opt for community college.

Recent data suggests fewer than half of students who transfer from a community college to a four-year program go on to complete their bachelor’s degree, and the rate is lower among students from vulnerable backgrounds.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Supreme Court will not hear case involving racial diversity at selective high school

2024-02-20T21:56:42+00:00

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The Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it will not hear a case challenging the constitutionality of a highly selective Virginia high school’s admissions policy on the grounds that it discriminates against Asian American students.

The high court’s decision not to take the case means that last year’s ruling by an appeals court upholding the admissions policy will stand. The case, known as Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board, looked at whether the school board was legally allowed to change the entrance criteria for a prestigious magnet high school in Alexandria, Virginia, with the intent of enrolling a more diverse class.

The Supreme Court has long held that school districts can consider race-neutral factors to create more diverse schools. But the plaintiffs in this case alleged the school board used certain criteria as “proxies” for race, with the intent of reducing the share of Asian American students who were admitted to the school.

The case was closely watched because many school districts use similar methods to create diverse student bodies. If the Supreme Court had taken the case, it could have had sweeping consequences for magnet schools and other selective K-12 programs, legal experts say.

Still, observers say it likely won’t be the end of legal challenges to selective K-12 admissions. The same law firm that brought this case, for example, has challenged similar admissions policies for selective schools in Boston, New York City, and New York state.

“I do think given the number of cases that are percolating through different districts and courts of appeals, that it’s probably true that there will be additional attempts to revisit this issue before the Supreme Court,” said Cara McClellan, a practice associate professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania, who has written about legal challenges to race-conscious admissions. “It continues to be a hotly contested issue.”

In a Tuesday statement, the chair of the Fairfax County School Board said the decision put to rest a three-year legal battle over the fairness of the admissions policy change.

“We have long believed that the new admissions process is both constitutional and in the best interest of all of our students,” Karl Frisch said. “It guarantees that all qualified students from all neighborhoods in Fairfax County have a fair shot at attending this exceptional high school.”

In a statement, the Pacific Legal Foundation, the libertarian law firm representing the plaintiffs, said by choosing not to hear the case, “the Supreme Court missed an important opportunity to end race-based discrimination in K-12 admissions.”

Admissions policy changed to include student ‘experience factors’

While the Supreme Court has shown a willingness to overturn years of legal precedent in other cases — notably by prohibiting colleges and universities from considering race as a factor in higher education admissions last year — it was apparently not willing to revisit its earlier decisions here. Notably, the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that school districts can take certain steps to racially diversify their student bodies, so long as they do not explicitly consider the race of individual students.

In this case, the Coalition for TJ alleged that the Fairfax County School Board violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution in 2020 when it changed its policy to get into Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a top high school that draws from five Virginia school districts.

Known as TJ, the high school offers advanced math and science classes that put its graduates on the path for elite colleges and careers. Historically, to get in, applicants needed to do well on a series of standardized tests and essays, and obtain high grades and teacher recommendations. Typically, students from just a few middle schools won most of the slots.

In 2020, shortly after the murder of George Floyd prompted a racial reckoning at many schools, school leaders sought to change the enrollment policy, pointing out that very few Black and Hispanic students gained entrance. During the 2019-20 school year, the school of around 1,800 students was 71% Asian American, 19% white, 5% multiracial, 3% Hispanic, and 2% Black, state data shows.

After months of debate, the Fairfax County School Board approved a new enrollment policy that set aside a certain share of seats at TJ from each middle school in the attendance area.

Students eligible for those seats were evaluated based on their grades, an essay, a description of their skills, and a set of “experience factors,” including whether they came from a low-income family, were an English learner, had a special education plan, or attended a middle school that had historically sent few students to TJ.

In 2021, the Coalition for TJ, which includes parents of students who had applied to TJ or planned to, sued the school board. The group argued that the middle school seat set-aside and experience factors were being used as “proxies” to “racially balance” the school, with the goal of reducing the share of Asian American students.

The appeals court disagreed, and said the school board had used enrollment methods permissible under prior Supreme Court rulings.

According to Fairfax County Public Schools, in the most recent freshman class, which started last fall, Asian American students received 62% of offers to attend TJ, while white students received 19%, Black students received 7% and Hispanic students received 6%. Students from low-income families made up 12% of the incoming class, up from 2% in recent years.

In a dissent issued Tuesday, Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, said that the Supreme Court should have heard the Coalition for TJ’s case. Letting the appeals court decision stand, he wrote, was akin to agreeing that “intentional racial discrimination is constitutional so long as it is not too severe.”

“This reasoning is indefensible, and it cries out for correction,” Alito wrote.

Figuring out ‘the goals of public education’

Colleges and universities are still trying to respond to last year’s Supreme Court ruling banning affirmative action in higher education admissions. And K-12 schools are evaluating what they can and should do to address high levels of racial and socioeconomic segregation — on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board decision.

“K-12 and higher ed is trying to figure out what to do,” said Erica Frankenberg, a Penn State education professor who studies school segregation. “There’s all of these things for us to really think about: What are the goals of public education in our society, and what [do] we want to allow school districts to take into account?”

Several other school districts with selective schools have come under scrutiny for admitting few students from low-income families or few Black and Hispanic students in recent years. Some of them changed admissions policies — only to face pushback from some parents and others who say those changes are unfair.

Chicago, for example, considers the demographics of the area where a student lives as part of the city’s selective high school admissions process, and takes steps to ensure high-performing students from both affluent and low-income areas have access. The city has taken steps to revamp that process to make it more fair for low-income students — and has signaled a desire to move away from the current selective schools system.

Philadelphia, similarly, overhauled its selective high school process to provide greater access to the city’s most coveted magnet schools, and moved to a lottery system that boosted the share of Black and Latino students who gained admission.

New York City, meanwhile, has come under fire from integration advocates for its selective high school admissions, particularly for eight prestigious high schools where a test is the sole basis for admissions. Some advocates have long criticized the test as a barrier for Black and Latino students. But other families have fought to keep the status quo, and parents in areas that are more affluent and have higher numbers of Asian American students have mobilized around the issue.

The University of Pennsylvania’s McClellan said the Supreme Court’s decision should encourage school districts that use methods like Fairfax County’s to create diverse schools to stay the course, regardless of future court challenges.

“School districts that are committed to diversity and inclusion shouldn’t become overly cautious,” McClellan said, pointing to examples of how colleges have rolled back diversity efforts that go beyond the text of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling. “Part of the effect of having ongoing challenges to existing precedent is that there feels like there is a lot of uncertainty — even when the law is clear.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

This NYC teen wants therapy. Her mom isn’t so sure.

2024-02-10T05:00:00+00:00

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A version of this story is being co-published by the Associated Press.

Derry Oliver was in fifth grade when she first talked to her mom about seeing a therapist.

She was living in Georgia with her uncle and grandparents while her mom was in New York scoping out jobs and apartments ahead of moving the family. It was a rough year apart. Oliver, now 17 and a senior at Cobble Hill School for American Studies in Brooklyn, was feeling depressed. A school staffer raised the idea of a therapist.

Oliver’s mom, also named Derry Oliver, questioned the school’s assessment and didn’t give consent for therapy. “You’re so young,” the mom recalled thinking. “There’s nothing wrong with you. These are growing pains.”

The issue boiled over again during the COVID-19 pandemic when the younger Oliver, struggling with the isolation of remote learning, reached out to her school for help. School-based mental health professionals like social workers can provide some counseling without parent permission. But in New York, referring a student to more intensive therapy almost always requires a parent’s agreement. In Oliver’s case, that led to more conflict.

“It was very emotional for both of us because I understood her frustrations and fears,” the younger Oliver recalled. “But at the same time it’s sometimes best for your child to be able to access this rather than hold it away from them.”

As schools across the country respond to a youth mental health crisis accelerated by the pandemic, many are confronting the thorny legal, ethical, and practical challenges of getting parents on board with treatment. The issue has become politicized, with some states looking to streamline access as conservative politicians elsewhere propose further restrictions, accusing schools of trying to indoctrinate students and cut out parents.

But for families like the Olivers, the decision to start a child in therapy is often deeply personal – bringing up cultural and generational divides, as well as diverging understandings of mental health.

Derry Oliver, 17, believes that therapy could be helpful.

Differing perspectives on mental health aren’t new for parents and kids, but more conflicts are emerging as young people get more comfortable talking openly about mental health and treatment becomes more readily available, especially with the growth of telehealth and online counseling.

“It’s this disconnect,” said Chelsea Trout, a graduate student in social work at NYU doing her training at a charter school in Brooklyn. “The kids are all on TikTok or the internet and understand therapy speak and that this is something that could be helpful for their mental health and are interested in, but don’t have the explicit buy-in from their parents.”

Research suggests that having to obtain parental permission can be a significant barrier to teens accessing treatment.

Access to therapy can be critical, particularly for LGBTQ youth, who are significantly more likely than their peers to attempt suicide, and whose parents may not know about or approve of their sexual orientations or gender identities. Dr. Jessica Chock-Goldman, a social worker at Bard Early College High School in Manhattan, said she’s seen many cases where mental health issues turn severe in part because teens didn’t get earlier access to therapy.

“A lot of kids would be hospitalized because of suicidal ideations or intent because the preventative work didn’t come into fruition,” she said.

Laws about consent vary widely by state

The question of when young people can consent to mental health treatment is getting increasing attention from policymakers. States like California and Colorado have recently lowered the age of consent for treatment to 12. But in some states like North Carolina, the issue has been swept up into larger political debates about parents’ input on curriculum and the rights of transgender students.

There’s also a huge obstacle outside the law: Therapy is rarely free, and paying for it or submitting insurance claims often requires parental support.

Teens in New York can consent to therapy starting at age 16, and a provision allows doctors to authorize treatment for younger children if they deem it in their best interest. But there are caveats: The consent laws only apply in outpatient settings licensed by the state, and they don’t extend to the prescription of medications.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently announced a partnership with the platform Talkspace to provide free online counseling to all city teens, through a program known as NYC Teenspace. It doesn’t ask for insurance, but parental consent is required, “except in the case of special circumstances,” according to the program’s website.

Apart from the legal and ethical considerations, clinicians noted that mental health treatment for teens is almost always more effective when parents are on board.

“In an ideal world, absolutely I would love more access to therapy for these kids with the hope they can talk to their parents about what’s happening,” said Chock-Goldman. “Because I believe nothing changes unless you change a family system.”

A mom and daughter split on therapy

For the two generations of Oliver women, their divergent views of therapy are rooted in very different upbringings.

The elder Oliver, 36, was raised in Georgia in the 1980s and ‘90s, when people “didn’t speak on mental health a lot.”

As a kid, Oliver knew some people in therapy, but mainly because “they experienced something extremely traumatic.”

Derry Oliver, 36, is wary of her daughter doing therapy.

As she got older, Oliver had her own encounters with therapists. She was diagnosed with depression and prescribed medication that made her feel like a “zombie,” she said.

Oliver has also felt the sting of being labeled as “aggressive” simply for expressing her emotions as a Black woman – a reality that’s made her reluctant to confide in therapists who aren’t themselves Black women.

She’s concerned that allowing her daughter to see a therapist might lead to a diagnosis that brings the same kind of medication she so despised.

“Baby, there’s nothing wrong with you,” Oliver tells her daughter. “You don’t have any mental issues. You don’t need to be put on anyone’s medication.”

The younger Oliver sees things very differently. She grew up with friends who saw therapists without experiencing acute trauma. And she found numerous examples on platforms like TikTok and Instagram of teens with similar stories who had benefited tremendously from therapy.

“You don’t even have to have anxiety or depression and I don’t even know if I do or not,” she said. “But if you feel as if something isn’t right or okay with you, then I think that’s when a person should be able” to access therapy.

For Oliver and her mom, years of conversations have yielded some progress, but not as much access to therapy as the younger Oliver wants.

Several years ago, the Olivers agreed on a compromise. They found a Black female therapist, and the elder Oliver agreed her daughter could start therapy – as long as she sat in on the sessions. But the therapist changed jobs after about a month, and Oliver hasn’t seen another therapist since.

“It has to be someone trustworthy,” the elder Oliver said of a potential therapist for her daughter.

New initiatives are in the works

Trout, the school social worker in training at the Brooklyn charter school, said she’s encountered a number of parents who, like Oliver, don’t trust the school’s recommendations, and wonder why their child would need therapy if they’re succeeding academically and socially.

“If we’re thinking about predominantly Black and brown communities, if your interactions with social workers or mental health services or anything in that realm thus far have not been positive,” she said, “how could you trust them with your kids?”

Derry Oliver, 36, said her own experience has shaped her views on therapy. Her daughter, Derry Oliver, 17, wants more access to therapy.

Statistics do show a racial divide. In 2021, 14% of white children reported seeing a therapist at some point during that year, compared to 9% of Black children, 8% of Hispanic kids, and only 3% of Asian American children, according to a survey from the Centers for Disease Control.

The barriers are often particularly high in immigrant communities, where there can be a strong stigma, or simply a lack of knowledge about “what therapy or counseling looks like or means,” said Cindy Huang, a child psychologist and professor at Columbia University Teachers College. Huang was recently awarded a grant to launch a pilot program to increase access to mental health treatment for youth at risk of suicide in Manhattan’s Chinatown.

Advocates and experts are continuing to push policymakers to give young people more freedom to consent to therapy without parental approval.

There’s a bill pending in New York’s state Assembly that would give minors more freedom to consent to their own health care, including therapy.

Without access to therapy, the younger Oliver has sought advice about managing her emotions through friends, school social workers, and the internet. But she’s convinced she could do a lot more with consistent professional help.

Oliver has already gotten into a number of colleges — to her mom’s enormous pride — and is weighing her options for next year.

One thing she’s considering: how much access they offer to therapists.

Correction: A previous version of this story said the younger Derry Oliver was living with her brother in Georgia while her mom was in New York. She was actually living with her uncle and grandparents. The story was also corrected to reflect the fact that Chelsea Trout is a social worker in training at a Brooklyn charter school, but hasn’t yet completed her degree.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

White students need more information about race and racism, not less

2023-04-10T20:30:36+00:00

As an assistant professor of education at Howard University, I have watched over the past two years as state lawmakers and governors have made it harder to teach public school students about American racial history.

These “anti-CRT” and “divisive concept” laws make teachers afraid to talk openly about the history of race and racism in this country, which will leave gaps to fill in years to come. As many have pointed out, a lack of accurate history harms all students. I want to offer my perspective as a white woman who, like many other white people, grew up without exposure to accurate information about race and American history until later in life. I use it to underscore why white children, in particular, need more information about race and American history, not less.

I went to high school in a blue-collar, midwestern city where the automobile industry fed the local economy. I attended a mostly white high school and had no idea that just a few miles away, the schools were mostly Black. In fact, we lived in one of the most segregated cities in the nation during the 1980s.

In high school, we read Maya Angelou and Mildred Taylor, and learned about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. But we did not learn how racial segregation laws had shaped the schools we attended, nor how redlining and racial covenants had shaped the surrounding neighborhoods.

We did not learn why it was that our school had so few Black students or so few Black teachers. Each day, the ebb and flow of mostly white students and teachers went unquestioned, leading me, and likely other white students, to assume it was perfectly normal. At home, we did not talk about race, history, or politics. Maybe it was because, like other working-class families, we went to work and did not ask questions. Or maybe it was because, like many white families, talking about race explicitly is taboo.

It wasn’t until graduate school at a predominantly white university at the age of 25 that I began to learn about the history of race in America. And, importantly, it wasn’t by choice. I was not a “race and ethnicity” or “ethnic studies” or “Black studies” major. I was an education major. Making the difference were my professors, who integrated information about race, racism, and the histories and contributions of Asian Americans, Black Americans, Indigenous peoples, and Mexican Americans into the class curriculum.

As a result, my entire understanding of this country changed. And in fact, it improved. I understood more about laws and civics and social movements, and the history of the United States and the colonies. I gained significant respect and reverence for communities of color and a new understanding of my own history as a white person. It opened my worldview and expanded my perspectives and relationships. It made me more committed to our democratic ideals and to building community.

Learning about race and American history fundamentally changed my entire trajectory, and for the better. It shaped each personal and professional decision that I made thereafter.

It wasn’t until graduate school that I began to learn about the history of race in America.

But what if, instead of learning this in my late 20s, I had learned this history as a child? It was only by accident, to some extent, as a first-generation college student, that I attended the graduate program that I did. And it was only through the work of my professors, many of them faculty of color, that I was exposed to anything different. Think of all the other white students in my high school who have proceeded through life, casting votes and making decisions that impact the lives of other people, without an understanding of this nation’s past.

Many white people that I talk to from my own generation, even now, do not know much about America’s racial history. Just this past year, I’ve talked with white people about the ways white lawmakers segregated schools and universities, how Klan members held public offices in the 1920s and 30s, and how Massive Resistance unfolded during desegregation. And it is new to them. When they hear this, it’s like a light bulb goes off. Suddenly, anti-racism and diversity efforts make more sense.

Opponents of addressing this history are afraid that it will make white children feel bad. And yes, I did learn of the brutality and violence of white people. I know that we have the potential to act with malice and disregard for the lives of people of color. But did this make me feel bad? No. It made me feel a healthy sense of responsibility to those different from myself. Teaching our children about the harms white people have perpetrated will not make them feel bad; it will keep them from doing the same thing in the future. And importantly, we must teach them how white people can contribute responsibly and with reverence to the work of racial justice.

White children notice race and internalize prejudice and superiority early on. If we do not inoculate our children from these ideas, we leave them vulnerable to the rising tide of prejudice and race-related hate. Today we are seeing the political impact of my generation, who went through school without enough information about race, racism, and American history to make better decisions in the interest of democracy. We will continue to pay a collective price as a nation if we censor this information in schools.

As white people, we have a lot to learn about the history of race and racism in America. As adults, we have our own gaps, and those of our children, to fill. We need to learn the accurate history of white people, the bad and the good. We need it to better understand ourselves and the world and human dignity. We need it to be better members of our community and to make informed policy decisions and to inoculate our children against racial extremism and xenophobia.

Learning about race, racism, and American history has fundamentally changed my life, and for the better. What I needed as a young white student — what so many of us need still today — was more information about race, racism, and American history, not less.

Kathryn Wiley is an assistant professor on educational policy and leadership at Howard University.

NYC schools would lose $131 million under proposed changes to state funding formula, officials say

2024-02-01T23:26:29+00:00

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New York City schools could lose out on $131 million under proposed changes to the state’s school funding formula, officials said Thursday at a budget hearing in Albany.

Because of a change Gov. Kathy Hochul included in her proposed budget last month, the city could see less money than anticipated. Schools Chancellor David Banks expressed concerns at the hearing.

“This does not help us at the level that we expect,” he said. “There’s certainly now additional adjustments we’re going to have to make at the loss of revenue.”

Overall, the city’s schools are poised to receive roughly $13.3 billion from the state for the upcoming fiscal year, representing a more than $340 million increase in state aid from last year. But city officials were caught off guard that the number was lower than they expected.

Typically, state funding accounts for more than a third of the city’s Education Department budget.

Concerns over the state funding formula come as Mayor Eric Adams has significantly cut the budget for New York City schools, chopping nearly $550 million from the city’s Education Department budget for this fiscal year, as well as another $100 million for next fiscal year.

At Thursday’s hearing, which focused on the K-12 education portion of the state’s budget, several lawmakers questioned the governor’s decision to alter the state’s Foundation Aid formula, particularly as school districts across the state prepare for the expiration of billions of dollars in federal pandemic relief funds later this year.

The formula calculates how much funding each school district receives and sends more dollars to higher-need districts. Lawmakers committed to fully funding it for the first time in 2021 — a decision applauded by education officials and advocates.

Hochul’s budget proposal introduced two controversial changes to Foundation Aid. The first would alter how the formula accounts for inflation, shifting to using a 10-year average rate in calculations instead of a single, recent year. It would also modify a “save harmless” provision that prevented districts that saw enrollment drops from losing money.

In total, the state’s education budget would increase by roughly $825 million under Hochul’s proposal, short of the $1.3 billion increase previously anticipated. Her proposal marked the start of negotiations with lawmakers over how the state should allocate its funding in the next fiscal year, which begins in April.

Much of Thursday’s hearing centered on how the Foundation Aid changes could impact districts across the state.

State Sen. Shelley Mayer, of Westchester, who chairs the Senate’s general education committee, noted the change to how the formula accounts for inflation meant the city’s schools would receive approximately $131 million less in funding.

State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa said the funding changes that compensate for enrollment losses could harm 337 school districts, including many in rural parts of the state.

“We do not support this decision,” she said. “It’s been so abrupt and the conversations have not taken place. Our position has been that in order to do this, we really should have a three- to five-year plan, where we have opportunities to get a new formula, where we have opportunities to look at the impact across the entire state.”

Rosa and the state’s Board of Regents have called for revisions to the formula, including the funding of a $1 million study on how the formula can be improved.

Concerns over Foundation Aid also surfaced at a Wednesday meeting of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, a board that votes on major policy proposals and contracts.

“Everyone here should write to their state legislators and urge them to reject this change in the formula for Foundation Aid to ensure that not just NYC but every district in the state receives the Foundation Aid that they deserve,” said Lara Lai, a senior education policy and organizing manager from the office of city Comptroller Brad Lander.

But Hochul and her staff have defended the proposed changes.

“There has been a significant loss in population for certain school districts,” Hochul said last month. “For us to be wed to the same formulas based on population from 2008 without adjusting for either need or population increase or decrease — it doesn’t make sense.”

On Thursday, Budget Director Blake Washington argued the governor’s approach had “a sense of urgency.”

“Kicking the can for another three to five years is a very easy way to address this issue,” he said.

During the hearing, state Sen. Jabari Brisport, of Brooklyn, floated the idea of raising taxes on the wealthy in order to increase funding for the state’s schools — something Hochul previously told reporters she would not consider.

Other controversial topics addressed by lawmakers at the hearing included whether to continue the city’s mayoral control system and how the city’s schools were preparing to meet the state’s mandate to reduce class sizes.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Pennsylvania’s budget impasse ends, but ‘Level Up’ funding gets left behind

2023-12-14T17:28:42+00:00

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HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s budget impasse ended Wednesday after the divided state legislature agreed to send millions of dollars to community colleges and libraries, fund public legal defense, and create a student teacher stipend.

Three budget-enabling code bills, plus dozens of other pieces of legislation, passed with broad bipartisan support during a swirl of late-night votes and were sent to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk.

The flurry of action marked a sudden end to five-and-a-half months of deadlock that divided the Democratic-controlled state House and the Republican-controlled state Senate and ground the gears of government to a halt.

The budget bills create a handful of new programs, many of which had been prioritized by state House Democrats, including ones that would more than triple the size of Pennsylvania’s child care tax credit and add preventative dental care to the state’s Medicaid program.

“We are collectively showing that we can move past the partisan politics, have real conversations and get a lot done for the good people of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro, a Democrat, said Wednesday night shortly before signing the bills.

Negotiations over these parts of the budget broke down this summer after Shapiro agreed to veto $100 million for private school vouchers favored by Republicans in order to win support from state House Democrats for the main budget bill.

At the time, the Shapiro administration said it would hold off on spending about $1.1 billion until it received additional authorization from the legislature.

This week’s deal leaves out some high-profile programs lawmakers had initially agreed to in their summer agreement, which had been caught in the spending delay.

Most prominently, the popular Whole-Home Repairs Program — which provides grants to property owners who need to fund expensive maintenance projects like fixing leaky roofs — was not given the $50 million lawmakers agreed to spend earlier this year.

Other programs caught in the code bill delay — such as the stipends, indigent defense funding, and state allocations to community colleges and libraries — ultimately received funding, though the delay caused hardships. Some nonprofits that benefit from the PA Workwear program and provide clothing to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients had to lay off staff while they waited for the code fight to resolve.

Wednesday’s deal marks the conclusion of months of talks, a resolution that lawmakers in both major parties celebrated.

State House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D., Philadelphia) said she is grateful the budget is finished and looks forward to the next one, “because the good news is we’re just getting started.”

The programs that didn’t make it into the final deal, like Whole-Home Repairs, were often casualties of last-minute horse-trading rather than concerted opposition.

Despite being swamped with demand since it was created last year using federal stimulus dollars, funding for Whole-Home Repairs will “lapse” until lawmakers return to the budget negotiating table next year, state Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) told reporters Wednesday night.

It could make a comeback then. State Sen. David Argall (R., Schuylkill), who helped champion the proposal last year, said he supports the repair grants and is looking ahead to next year’s budget talks to restore funding.

“It just got lost in the shuffle with all of the other competing programs,” Argall told Spotlight PA.

The final deal also does not route $100 million in additional state aid to Pennsylvania’s poorest school districts, a program known as “Level Up.” Instead, the legislature reallocated those dollars to a state board to fund school construction projects. Another $75 million was allocated to remove lead, asbestos, and other toxins from schools.

State Rep. Pete Schweyer (D., Lehigh) said in a statement that the $175 million marks “the first time in nearly a decade” that “funding passed by the House will give school districts the necessary resources to make the building upgrades.”

Supporters of alternatives to public schools also got a win, as the final education code added $150 million to two related state tax credits for businesses that fund private school scholarships. But for the first time, schools will be required to report data on scholarship recipients’ grade level, disability status, and original public school district, among other data points.

Some of the new proposals that made it into the final code deal were unexpected.

One of the biggest changes, which emerged publicly late in lawmakers’ talks, was the expansion of the state tax credit created last year that allows parents to deduct child care costs from their state taxable income.

The current state credit is capped at 30% of the value of the federal credit, which means it can give caregivers a maximum of $315 annually for a single dependent under 13 or $630 for two or more children, depending on income level.

Under the new law, parents can receive a refundable tax credit equal to their federal child care deduction starting in 2024. That amount can be up to $1,050 for one dependent under 13 and $2,100 for two or more, depending on income.

Child care costs vary by location and the child’s age, but according to federal Department of Labor data, amounts can range from $6,000 to $14,000 a year for Pennsylvania families.

The deal also restarts dental care for hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians receiving medical assistance. These benefits had been stripped down to only medically necessary care for adults, such as exams, X-rays, and tooth extractions, but usually excluded other surgeries like root canals.

“As the saying goes, when you smile, the whole world smiles back at you,” state Rep. Valerie Gaydos (R., Allegheny) said on the state House floor Tuesday, when the chamber passed a standalone proposal to reintroduce dental care.

The deal also increases a surcharge on phone bills to pay for 911 dispatching infrastructure. The fee will increase by 30 cents in 2024 to $1.95 before it disappears in 2026.

The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania called the increase “far short of properly funding” the service.

One last budget item remains unfinished. A bill that would give $31.6 million to the University of Pennsylvania’s veterinary school, the commonwealth’s only such school, fell 12 votes short of the two-thirds vote needed to approve the allocation.

The bill was sunk by GOP opposition, which state House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler (R., Lancaster) attributed to the school’s recent controversy. The university’s former president, Liz Magill, resigned after testifying before Congress regarding antisemitism on college campuses. Members of Congress and alumni called for Magill’s resignation after she defended allowing genocidal language on campus, saying that such language was allowed as free speech.

“Our institutions of higher education have become an unfortunate home for hate,” Cutler said.

Other unfinished business may have to wait until next year.

For instance, the final package did not contain a boost to state public transit funding through a sales tax transfer, a measure backed by both Democrats and Republicans. SEPTA had pushed for such a measure throughout the fall to avoid reducing service, citing dwindling federal stimulus dollars and low ridership.

“We have the ability to keep advocating for this transit system,” state Rep. Morgan Cephas (D., Philadelphia) and chair of the city’s delegation told Spotlight PA. “And that’s something that we’ll be focusing on in the next fiscal cycle.”

Spotlight PA’s Kate Huangpu contributed reporting.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Pennsylvania’s current child care tax credit is worth 30% of the federal credit, and that the just-passed budget code will increase its value to match 100% of that federal credit, for a maximum value of $2,100 annually.

BEFORE YOU GO… If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at spotlightpa.org/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.

Educators railed against mayoral control at hearings. What comes next?

2024-01-30T23:26:05+00:00

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As the state’s Education Department studies the effectiveness of New York City’s 20-year-old system of mayoral control, locals aired their views at five hearings held across the boroughs over the past two months.

Over the hours of testimony, a clear theme emerged: Most of the educators, parents, and other community members wanted to see it revised or overturned.

Many voiced grievances against the educational policies of Mayor Eric Adams and his predecessors, arguing the current system places too much power in the hands of the mayor and diminishes the voice of local communities. Meanwhile, defenders of the system, like schools Chancellor David Banks, contended that centralizing decision-making allows for a more effective and accountable system than the fractured school board approach that the city once relied on.

Mayoral control is set to expire on June 30, and the speakers hope their words might influence lawmakers who will soon determine who gets control over city schools. Some observers remain skeptical about whether the hearings will sway negotiations over the city’s school governance structure — particularly as Gov. Kathy Hochul has already called for a four-year extension of the current system.

Troy McGhie, a teacher at Curtis High School in Staten Island, called for further limitations on the mayor’s power over schools during a Monday night hearing in Staten Island. He cited Adams’ recent education budget cuts and his pushback on the state’s mandate to reduce class sizes in New York City schools.

“It’s become quite evident over the years that mayoral control — the way that it is now — is out of control,” McGhie said.

But though dissatisfaction with the current system has been consistent across the hearings, speakers have voiced a range of opinions on how state lawmakers should alter it.

“There’s lots of folks who don’t like some aspects of the current system,” said Jeffrey Henig, a professor of political science and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College. “But there’s way less consensus about what the alternative should be.”

Future of mayoral control remains unclear

Adams questioned whether the testimony was representative while speaking to reporters on Tuesday.

“I’m not a mathematical genius, but having five testimonies or hearings and at most you got 500 people, that’s not a reflection of our school system,” he said. “We have a public school-reared chancellor, public school-reared mayor. We have transformed the school system in what we are doing, and I think we need to continue the success.”

The current school governance system — and critiques of it — predate Adams by decades. Driven by feelings of dissatisfaction with elected school boards in the 1990s, the push to establish mayoral control took hold in a handful of major cities across the country, including New York and Chicago.

In New York City, the system began under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2002, and has been regularly extended in the years since. In Chicago, where mayoral control of schools was established in 1995, the city will transition to a fully elected school board by 2027.

But even with years to look back upon, it can be difficult to determine the impact of the school governance structure.

“That’s been very difficult to decipher empirically,” Henig said. “Partly because of the variation in forms it takes, partly because it’s been hard to separate mayoral control from the particular individuals who had mayoral control.”

There are an enormous number of factors influencing how students perform in school, said Sandra Vergari, a professor of education policy at the University at Albany.

“I would question anybody who claims mayoral control doesn’t work, or traditional school boards don’t work,” she said. “How do you isolate governance as being the thing that really explains student achievement?”

The governance system has largely relied on the mayor’s power to choose a schools chancellor and appoint a majority of members to the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, or PEP, a city board that votes on major policy proposals and contracts.

Over time, tweaks to the system have lessened the mayor’s degree of control. When lawmakers extended it in 2022, for example, they adjusted the system so that PEP members could no longer be removed for voting against their appointer’s wishes, making it harder to remove a panelist for opposing proposals from City Hall. At the same time, the board also expanded from 15 to 23 members, with the mayor appointing 13 of them and retaining the majority.

Calling for deeper changes in school governance

A number of the speakers at the recent public hearings have called for adjusting the PEP’s makeup so the mayor no longer appoints a majority of its members — alleging the panel has served as a “rubber stamp” for the mayor and schools chancellor.

Having a system where a board has “an oppositional mindset to the chancellor,” however, might not be most effective, said David Bloomfield, a professor of education, law, and public policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

“There will always be a substantial number of opponents to controversial decisions,” he said. “You do want an effective and broadly representational decision-making process, but how that plays out in terms of the decisions themselves is, I think, wholly based on individual circumstances and not predictable through the governance system.”

Bloomfield has instead advocated for the City Council to take on an oversight role in the city’s school governance system.

Some have called for a longer term approach to changing the city’s school governance structure. The Education Council Consortium, a grassroots group of parents, advocates, and other community members, has urged the state to form a commission made up of parents, students, educators, researchers, and advocates to develop recommendations for a new system.

“It’s a very complicated system, and those who have been involved in this work for a long time know that sometimes changes are made, and there are unintended consequences,” said Jonathan Greenberg, a parent leader who serves on the group’s board. “It’s really important to get a wide swath of people in the room over time to see what we can do to balance out the various needs that different stakeholders have, and learn from the mistakes of the past.

“But the one guiding principle for us is this idea of a more democratic system,” he added.

A school governance overhaul may be unlikely, some observers say

Though Monday marked the conclusion of the public hearings, it will still be some time before the state’s findings are released. The state Education Department’s forthcoming report is expected to be finished in March — and in the meantime, some lawmakers have stressed deliberations should wait until after the release of the report.

State Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who chairs the senate’s New York City education committee, said the study would examine 20 years of mayoral control in the city, as well as the experiences of other school systems that have reversed course.

“I heard a tremendous amount of opinion and insight from a wide range of stakeholders about how to improve our system of school governance at the public hearings, and look forward to receiving SED’s final report in the Spring,” he said in a statement.

Some observers remain skeptical that lawmakers will implement sweeping changes.

Bloomfield said he expects mayoral control to persist largely as it exists now, with potential tweaks to lessen the mayor’s degree of control.

“I don’t see the appetite in the legislature for any massive change in school governance,” Bloomfield said. “Certainly nothing that the governor says shows that she wants any large change.”

Regardless of which governance structure the city adopts moving forward, Henig noted a longer-term system could benefit the city’s schools.

“No matter how you feel about the existing structure or its earlier iterations in New York, the fact that the rules of the game are constantly up in the air and awaiting what the legislature is going to do this time,” he said, “I think there’s a cost to that kind of uncertainty.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Moms for Liberty came to the Upper East Side. Protesters may have outnumbered guests.

2024-01-19T04:14:35+00:00

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Protesters may have outnumbered participants in Moms for Liberty’s Thursday night town hall on the Upper East Side.

The right-wing organization’s event, which according to organizers was sold out, attracted ire from politicians and parent activists across the city. As about 100 people rallied outside toting signs reading “Mom against fascism,” “Queer people have kids too,” and “Read banned books,” many of the speakers on the panel rehashed national issues like the influence of teachers unions, the teaching of anti-racism and “gender ideology,” and school choice.

Several speakers stood before the crowd of about 75 people and took digs at New York City’s class size mandate, its cap on charter schools, and its high spending and low rates of reading proficiency.

Moms for Liberty bills itself as a “parents rights” group. It was founded in Florida in 2021 and quickly made national headlines for its calls to restrict access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth and block LGBTQ-focused books and curriculum, as well as limit lessons about race.

The organization has swiftly made inroads across the country, raising $2.1 million in 2022 from the conservative Heritage Foundation and Republican donors, after raising just $370,000 the year before, according to the Associated Press. The organization has become influential in GOP politics and recently started a chapter in Queens.

It was named an “extremist” group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its divisive tactics and efforts to undermine public education.

The question-and-answer session after the panel turned fiery. Several parents and teachers challenged the panelists on culturally responsive education, their views on transgender children, and what specific curriculum proposals they recommended to boost reading scores.

Moms for Liberty event attracts familiar education names

Moms for Liberty’s town hall in a staunchly blue pocket of the city caused a stir. But for close watchers of local education politics, many of the panelists were likely familiar.

They included Maud Maron, who sits on the Community Education Council, or CEC, for Manhattan’s District 2, and has been sparring for years with other parents.

CECs are largely advisory parent-led boards that approve or reject school zoning proposals and issue resolutions about such topics as admissions and curriculum.

Maron is a co-founder of the group PLACE (Parents Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Learning), which has organized in support of selective admissions at a time when integration advocates had been gaining traction in their efforts to desegregate many schools.

Maron, who recently said in a private chat that transgender children don’t exist, faced a barrage of criticism Wednesday night at the District 2 CEC meeting for her participation in the Thursday panel.

She doubled down on her decision Thursday night, accusing her critics of being “illiberal” and shying away from arguments. She singled out one young woman who recently challenged her stance on transgender children.

“She identified herself as a proud queer woman,” Maron recalled. “Which I think means she’s a straight girl without a boyfriend.” A parent at Thursday’s event subsequently challenged Maron on the comment, calling it “unnecessary and spiteful.”

Charles Love, another District 2 CEC member who spoke on Thursday’s panel, said he hasn’t yet found any evidence that Moms For Liberty is racist or homophobic.

The flier promoting the event listed Maron’s affiliation with the education council, along with Love’s. The city’s conflict of interest rules say council members may only use their titles along with a written disclaimer on materials and a verbal disclaimer that they are speaking in their personal capacity.

Education Department officials said before the event they would follow up with CEC members to remind them of this rule. Love acknowledged he’d been warned and said he agreed not to use his title, but neither he nor Maron offered an actual disclaimer.

Other panelists included Wai Wah Chin, the head of an Asian American parent advocacy group, Natalya Murakhver, an advocate against closing schools during the pandemic, and Mona Davids, who leads a group pushing for more school safety agents and metal detectors.

Some opponents expressed concern that the group was starting to exert influence in city education circles. Abby Stein, a rabbi and transgender advocate, raised the group’s use of a Hitler quote in a newsletter in Indiana. “When you put a quote of Hitler on your newsletter and you’re trying to make your way into New York City, on to education councils, I am terrified,” she said. (The group later apologized for quoting Hitler.)

The conversation did at times center on city-specific issues. When Chin criticized the class size cap, which she said would force the city to hire more teachers of lower quality, several audience members piped up that they were former teachers fired because of the city’s COVID vaccine mandate.

Tiffany Justice, the co-founder of Moms for Liberty and the moderator of the town hall, said she didn’t think education in the city’s public schools could get “much worse.”

Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice opens up the organization's town hall on the Upper East Side on Thursday.

Still, speakers offered few specific prescriptions. One parent asked after the panel what precise curriculum suggestions the panelists had. Maron criticized the city’s long-time reliance on a Teachers College reading curriculum that has largely been discredited. The city is already midway through a two-year effort to move away from that curriculum.

It’s unclear how large Moms for Liberty’s presence actually is in New York City, and event organizers didn’t give specifics about expansion plans.

Several elected officials spoke out before the event, including Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, who called the group a “bunch of hypocrites.”

“You don’t believe in liberty if you ban books,” he said. “If you attack trans kids and the parents of trans kids, that’s not liberty. That’s fascism.”

Jo Macellaro, a trans teacher in a Bronx District 75 program serving students with disabilities, was holding a sign that read: “I’m the trans teacher you’re scared of.”

Macellaro, who uses they/them pronouns, said they were called a “groomer” several times Thursday night. They felt it was important to speak out as Moms for Liberty has made inroads in Queens.

“I think we need to make it very loud and clear they are not welcome here,” Macellaro said.

“[Kids] can see what’s going on. If they can see these people are coming here and spewing their hatred, what message does that send?”

(A Moms for Liberty supporter wearing a “Protect Our Children” sweatshirt did yell at the group’s opponents, “You’re absolutely disgusting, you’re grooming our children.”)

Some protesters tried to convince the event’s venue, the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association, to cancel ahead of time, but the nonprofit concluded it couldn’t do so.

“We are a completely apolitical organization concentrating on cultural performances, and – this particular group clearly does not fit our strong non-political stance,” Joseph Balaz, the organization’s president, wrote in a lengthy statement online explaining his rationale.

He said he planned to personally match the rental fee for the event and donate it to “one of our organizations which actively supports young, future leaders.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

New Jersey Children’s Foundation commissions legal memo, recommends seating Thomas Luna to school board

2024-01-18T11:00:00+00:00

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A new legal memo commissioned by the New Jersey Children’s Foundation concludes that there is no legal basis for the delay in seating a charter school teacher to Newark’s school board nearly three months after he was chosen to fill a seat.

The six-page memo, sent to the Newark Board of Education last Thursday, is a review and analysis of the unanimous vote in October for Thomas Luna to fill a vacancy and details the “current legal precedent” of his delay in being sworn onto the board. It outlines seven findings and concludes that “not seating Mr. Luna would violate the board’s legal authority and Board policy.”

The memo, drafted by William F. Koy, a partner at the Morristown-based William Koy law firm and former Mountain Lakes superintendent of schools, is meant to address questions Newark school board members may have about seating board members, said Barbara Martinez, executive director of the Children’s Foundation, a charter school-aligned nonprofit advocating for the improvement of public education systems. The memo does not signal a lawsuit against the district, Martinez added.

“We hope that this assists the Board in fulfilling their duties to fill open board seats,” Martinez said.

Since Luna was unanimously chosen to fill the vacancy, neither district officials nor board members have spelled out the reasons for not seating him. The only indication of why he has not assumed the seat came during November’s school board meeting when Board President Hasani Council attributed the delay to information the board received from a public records request and a review of School Ethics Commission opinions regarding conflicts of interest for board members.

Luna, who has twice run for the school board, said that he had not heard from the board or district about his role since the December school board meeting, when a motion to swear him in failed by a 4-2 vote, with two abstentions.

“I have yet to be placed on the agenda to be sworn in,” Luna added last week. “It is unclear, to myself or any member of the public, what exactly is warranting the lack of due process. What is clear is that this situation is incongruent with precedence, process, and protocol.”

The vacancy slated for Luna was left by former president Asia Norton and has been unfilled since Sept. 18, 2023, when Norton announced her resignation two weeks after the start of the school year. Council was sworn in as president shortly after her departure.

The new memo comes as district spokesperson Nancy Deering said last week that there are two vacancies on the school board, including the seat slated for Luna and an opening created when former member A’Dorian Murray-Thomas won a seat on the Essex County Board of Commissioners in November. There are no plans to swear in Luna at school board meetings in January, Deering added.

She did not respond to a request for comment about the legal memo sent to the board last week.

Memo provides ‘legal background’ for seating members

Koy’s analysis cites legal precedent that Luna should have been sworn in November, a month after board members unanimously voted for him to fill a vacancy. It further says that neither state law nor board policies allow the board “to refuse to seat a person appointed by a majority vote.”

It also addresses ethical issues concerning board members and conflicts of interest.

Under state law, the School Ethics Commission has the sole jurisdiction to investigate ethics complaints against school board members in New Jersey. If the Newark board believes Luna’s employment with a KIPP charter school could violate the School Ethics Act, they should seek an advisory opinion from the commission or file a complaint with them after seating Luna, according to the memo.

Additionally, the memo found that the commission “would not penalize” the Newark board or any actions it takes with Luna as a sitting board member. It would only do so if a board member “participated in the voting or deliberation” of a specific action they would benefit personally from, according to the memo.

The state’s School Ethics Commission has not received any complaints against Luna, said Mike Yaple, spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Education in an email to Chalkbeat Newark in December. He added that ethics complaints can only be filed against sitting board members or school members.

“If the person has not been sworn into the board of education the School Ethics Commission would not have jurisdiction until such time the individual is considered a board member,” Yaple wrote.

Koy’s memo also compared past cases where the commission determined that board members cannot serve in two roles without a conflict of interest but only in certain circumstances, such as when the board member holds a dual leadership role, or when the member’s regular employment requires them to answer to district administrators. Luna does not serve in a leadership role at KIPP Rise Academy but he is an employee of the school.

“Although he perhaps should recuse himself from certain issues, such as labor negotiations or certain decisions regarding charter schools, he is not disqualified from board membership,” the memo reads.

Koy, in his legal memo, also pointed to school board members who have previously served and had ties to the KIPP charter school network.

Former board member Rashied McCreary was also a teacher at KIPP Rise Academy when he was elected to the board in 2012. Norton, who was first elected in 2018, was a kindergarten teacher at KIPP Life Academy charter school when she ran for a seat on the school board. She left that position in June 2018 according to her LinkedIn profile. In 2021, Murray-Thomas’s appointment to the board of directors of the KIPP Foundation, a nonprofit that assists KIPP charter schools through training and fundraising, sparked ethics questions.

“We are aware of no prior concerns expressed by the Board concerning these former members’ employment with local charter schools,” the memo read.

School board members argue for Luna’s seat on the board

Board members have also expressed confusion by the delay in seating Luna and raised questions after the motion to swear him in, introduced by member Allison James-Frison, was shot down during the December school board meeting.

“It’s crazy because he was unanimously voted in as a board member in October so how do we not want to swear him in? This is the reason why we were under state control because we did not know how to operate and function,” said board member Crystal Williams, who voted in favor of swearing Luna in December.

Former member Murray-Thomas, whose last meeting was in December and abstained from voting for the motion to swear in Luna, said it would be “a distinguished honor” to have him and would be “disappointed as a voter in this city if he’s not on the board within the next couple of days, weeks.” She added that current members had not been briefed about the delay of his swearing-in.

“Personally, I think that we should have some kind of executive session for us to be informed on the full nature of it,” Murray-Thomas added.

The board is currently accepting applications to fill Murray-Thomas’s vacant seat until Jan. 18, according to Deering, when asked about the district’s post on Facebook. Deering, the district’s spokesperson, said “interested and qualified candidates should apply” and interviews are tentatively scheduled to happen during the February board meeting. Under New Jersey law, the board has 65 days to fill a vacancy.

This year’s school board race will be held on April 16 where the city’s 16- and 17-year-olds will be allowed to vote for the first time in history. Residents interested in running for a seat on the school board must submit their applications to the Newark Board of Education by Feb. 26

The voter registration deadline for the election is March 26.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Hochul proposes more than $800 million funding increase for NY schools, 4-year extension of mayoral control

2024-01-16T19:03:49+00:00

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Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed a more than $800 million increase in funding for the state’s public schools, while also calling for a four-year extension of New York City’s polarizing mayoral control system.

The proposals came Tuesday as Hochul presented her $233 billion 2025 state budget, building on the hundreds of policy initiatives announced last week in her State of the State address. Her budget proposal also set aside $10 million for teacher training to support a statewide literacy initiative that Hochul hopes will encourage schools to adopt new curriculums.

The governor’s call to extend New York City’s centralized school governance structure is in some ways unsurprising. She advocated for the same extension in 2022, though lawmakers eventually approved only a two-year extension and tasked the state’s Education Department with compiling a report on how effective the system has been.

But her support for mayoral control comes just months before the release of that report, and follows a series of public hearings in New York City where the status quo has been hotly contested. Scores of educators have flocked to the hearings to call for the system to be revised or overturned, citing grievances with the educational policies of Mayor Eric Adams and his predecessors.

Outside of the education budget, Hochul’s proposal also called for $2.4 billion to provide shelter and other basic services to migrants and asylum seekers — including providing humanitarian aid to New York City. That funding would draw $500 million from the state’s reserves, Hochul said. She also proposed millions to support mental health programs and services.

Hochul’s budget proposal marks the start of negotiations with lawmakers over how the state should allocate its funding in the next fiscal year, which begins in April. During a press conference after her budget presentation, Hochul affirmed to reporters that she would not consider raising income taxes to increase spending on schools or other issues, regardless of what lawmakers propose.

Here are the education highlights from Hochul’s budget presentation:

Increase to school aid, though smaller than previous years

Hochul wants to spend $825 million more on the state’s schools — a 2.4% funding jump from last year’s budget. That increase would bring the state’s total education tab to more than $35.3 billion — the highest level of state aid in history.

New York City would receive $13.3 billion under the proposal — a funding increase of roughly $341 million, or about 2.5%, according to figures released by the state.

The bulk of the spending jump comes from a proposed $507 million increase to Foundation Aid, the state formula that calculates how much funding each school district receives and sends more dollars to higher-need districts. Lawmakers committed to fully funding the formula for the first time in 2021, with districts seeing the additional funding phased in over three years.

The proposed increase to Foundation Aid was driven largely by inflation, but came as a smaller jump than previously anticipated.

Hochul’s budget proposal included two changes to Foundation Aid, according to the state’s budget director, Blake Washington. The first would alter how the formula accounts for inflation, shifting to using a 10-year average rate in calculations. It would also modify a provision that prevented districts who saw enrollment drops from losing money.

“Seventy-five percent of the districts that would experience a change under this recommendation have lost more than 20% of their pupil count since the Foundation Aid formula was adopted,” Washington said.

Hochul’s Tuesday proposal represented a more modest increase in school funding than in recent budgets — and less than the $1.3 billion increase that the state’s Board of Regents called for last month. Last year, for example, the state budget increased school aid by $3 billion.

“As much as we may want to, we are not going to be able to replicate the massive increases of the past two years,” Hochul said in her budget presentation. “No one could have expected the extraordinary jumps in aid to recur annually.”

An additional $20 billion had been funneled to schools over the course of the pandemic between federal and state aid, Hochul said, noting that K-12 enrollment had declined over the past decade.

In a statement, Alliance for Quality Education, a school funding advocacy group, questioned the governor’s decision to change the Foundation Aid formula, noting the budget proposal contained $475 million less in school aid than previously anticipated.

“We agree there needs to be an update to the Foundation Aid formula, but it must be a process involving the State Education Department and engaging communities, with the goal of more accurately capturing students’ growing needs, not as a penny-pinching budgeting strategy,” said Marina Marcou-O’Malley, the group’s interim co-executive director. “What now remains to be seen is which districts the nearly half a billion dollars that we expected to see in the Governor’s proposal for schools were taken from.”

Hochul’s proposal also comes as the city’s schools and districts across the state face the end of billions of dollars in one-time federal COVID relief funds, which are set to dry up in September.

Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children of New York, urged the state to commit further funding to support school districts that have relied on those funds to prop up essential programs.

“New York City alone is spending around $1 billion per year in expiring federal funding to pay for 450 school social workers, 3-K expansion, legally mandated preschool special education programs, 75 shelter-based community coordinators, community schools, 60 psychologists, bilingual programming, literacy initiatives, and more,” she said in a statement. “While we appreciate that the Governor is proposing to increase overall education funding, this moment in time demands more.”

Call to extend mayoral control

With the current New York City school governance structure set to expire on June 30, Adams will return to Albany this legislative session to make his case for retaining control of the city’s schools. With Hochul’s budget proposal Tuesday, it appears the governor remains the mayor’s ally in that effort.

Her budget called for a four-year extension of the current school governance structure, which gives the mayor the power to select the schools chancellor and appoint a majority of members to the city’s Panel on Educational Policy, or PEP, which votes on major policy proposals and contracts.

But that system has faced heavy critique at public hearings held by state education officials across four boroughs in recent months. Speakers who have called for the current system to be amended have repeatedly asked for further checks and balances to be placed on the mayor’s power, particularly when it comes to the PEP.

At a hearing in the Bronx last month, Naveed Hasan, one of five PEP members elected by the city’s parent councils, alleged his own role on the panel was “a farce.”

“The majority of the members on the PEP are appointed by the mayor and never act independently, always approving whatever City Hall finds politically expedient,” said Hasan, who represents Manhattan. “My role on the PEP is rendered meaningless under a rubber-stamp panel under mayoral control.”

Meanwhile, defenders of the current system — like schools Chancellor David Banks — have argued it creates accountability by centralizing decisions. They say it represents an improvement over the previous system, which relied on a fractured and sometimes corrupt collection of school boards across the city.

If enacted, the proposed four-year extension would represent the longest one-time extension of mayoral control since former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s time in office. Though the system has been renewed regularly (with some tweaks) over the past two decades, former Mayor Bill de Blasio repeatedly failed to secure the lengthy extension deals that had been given to his predecessor. (Bloomberg received extensions of six and seven years.)

In a statement Tuesday, state Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Senate’s New York City education committee, criticized the governor’s decision to weigh in on mayoral control in her budget proposal.

“School governance and whether mayoral control should be continued or replaced by a more effective system must be informed by the [state Education Department] study,” he said. “It’s simply premature and senseless to lump mayoral control in with the state budget.”

Regardless of how the city’s school governance structure moves forward, Liu previously told Chalkbeat that lawmakers should seek to establish a more permanent system this year.

Reevaluating it at two- or four-year intervals is “destabilizing for the school system,” he said, adding, “There needs to be more certainty in the eyes of educators as well as families.”

Higher education, swimming instruction, and other initiatives

Hochul’s budget proposal also earmarked millions of dollars to support several policy initiatives that would impact the state’s young people.

It provides more than $200 million in new, recurring funding for state- and city-operated college campuses, commits $150 million to creating equitable opportunities for swimming instruction, and invests millions of additional dollars across multiple mental health initiatives.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

2024 Colorado General Assembly: The people’s guide to following education issues

2024-01-13T00:16:33+00:00

Every January, 100 men and women elected to the Colorado General Assembly gather in Denver for 120 days and make decisions that affect students and teachers in the classroom, university administrators trying to balance their budgets, and parents and students having to make tuition payments.

Legislators only have to pass two bills before they adjourn in May: a balanced budget and the school finance act. Both have profound implications for educational opportunity.

They also tackle many more education issues, from student discipline to teacher shortages, from standardized tests to career training.

But it can be hard for ordinary citizens to understand how ideas turn into laws.

To explain the lawmaking process and the opportunities for public input, we’ve prepared this guide to the legislative session.

Here’s how you can get involved:

How a bill becomes a law

Think Schoolhouse Rock’s “I’m Just a Bill.”

Legislators get ideas for bills from a lot of places. A legislator might have a passion for a particular topic. The governor’s office or state department leaders might request a policy change. An interest group or concerned parents might ask a lawmaker to help solve a problem.

Lawmakers work with bill drafters — nonpartisan legislative staff — to write a bill. Once a lawmaker introduces it, leaders in either the House or the Senate assign it to a committee, usually one with relevant expertise.

Most education bills go to the education committee, but a bill on youth mental health might land first in the health committee or one on police in schools might be heard by the judiciary committee.

A few committees — most infamously the State Affairs committees — are known as “kill” committees, where leadership can send controversial bills, especially those from the opposing parties, to ensure they don’t reach the floor.

A bill must win committee approval to proceed to the full House or Senate. Some bills might need to go through more than one committee.

Bills must get approved twice in the first chamber, before heading to the next chamber and doing it all over again. Bills can be amended at any point in the process, and both chambers must sign off on the same final form of a bill.

Then the governor must sign it into law.

Who has a vote on the Colorado education committees

The House Education Committee has 11 members, seven Democrats and four Republicans. Find the committee schedule, documents, and live and archived audio at the committee website. Members are:

Chair Rep. Barbara McLachlan, a Durango Democrat
Vice Chair Rep. Matthew Martinez, a Monte Vista Democrat
Rep. Jennifer Bacon, a Denver Democrat
Rep. Mary Bradfield, ranking member, a Colorado Springs Republican
Rep. Eliza Hamrick, a Centennial Democrat
Rep. Anthony Hartsook, a Parker Republican
Rep. Meghan Lukens, a Steamboat Springs Democrat
Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, a Commerce City Democrat
Rep. Rose Pugliese, a Colorado Springs Republican and assistant minority leader
Rep. Don Wilson, a Monument Republican
Rep. Mary Young, a Greeley Democrat

The Senate Education Committee has seven members, four Democrats and three Republicans. Find the committee schedule, documents, and live and archived audio at the committee website.

Chair Sen. Janet Buckner, a Denver Democrat
Vice Chair Sen. Janice Marchman, a Loveland Democrat
Sen. Rhonda Fields, an Aurora Democrat
Sen. Chris Kolker, a Centennial Democrat
Sen. Paul Lundeen, ranking member, a Monument Republican
Sen. Mark Baisley, a Woodland Park Republican
Sen. Janice Rich, a Grand Junction Republican

Find the names and contact information of all current Colorado lawmakers here. And find maps of current legislative districts here.

Can you speak on a bill or submit testimony?

If you’re interested in having your perspective heard, there are a few ways to get involved.

You can speak on the bill in person or remotely, or submit a written statement to the committee. The sign-up process is not difficult. Just fill out this online form.

Speakers are generally limited to two to three minutes, so think about how to make your point quickly and clearly.

Want to know the schedule?

The full schedule of the House and Representatives can typically be found on the Colorado General Assembly’s landing page.

The session schedule should be posted daily and gets updated as bills move through the process.

Here’s how to look up Colorado General Assembly bills

You can go to the Colorado General Assembly’s bill search page. There you can search by a bill number, the sponsor, or a topic.

When you click on a bill, you’ll see information such as a summary of what the bill does, the full text of the bill, and other relevant information, such as a fiscal note that explains how much passing the law would cost the state. Often the description of a bill in the fiscal note is easier to understand than the bill language itself.

You can also search through tabs near the bottom of the page that include the bill’s history, when it’s scheduled to be heard again, any amendments, and a summary of the committee votes.

What’s the Joint Budget Committee and why is it so important?

The six-member Joint Budget Committee is the most influential committee in the Colorado General Assembly. Why? Because it writes the budget that guides the state’s priorities. The committee members this year are four Democrats and two Republicans. The chair is state Rep. Shannon Bird, a Westminster Democrat.

Yes, Gov. Jared Polis does submit a budget every November. And those priorities guide the Joint Budget Committee’s work. But the committee ultimately writes the budget that gets submitted to the Colorado General Assembly for approval.

Other lawmakers also have a chance to submit budget amendments that reflect their own spending priorities — but lawmakers need to pass a balanced budget and the Joint Budget Committee will strip out amendments that endanger that goal.

The budget shapes every facet of state government, including K-12 and higher education spending.

Learn more about the budget process here.

Need a refresher on what happened last year? We rounded up the most important education issues of the 2023 session.

Want to know more about how lobbying affects the legislative process? Check out our deep dive on education lobbying from 2022 in collaboration with data reporter Sandra Fish.

Have questions? We’re listening at co.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Watch Chalkbeat Colorado’s 2024 Legislative Preview

Watch Chalkbeat Colorado’s annual discussion of key education topics likely to surface during the upcoming legislative session.

We were joined by:

Sen. Janet Buckner, an Aurora Democrat and chair of the Senate Education Committee
Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, an Arvada Democrat and vice chair of Joint Budget Committee
Rep. Jennifer Bacon, a Denver Democrat and House Assistant Majority Leader
Rep. Barbara McLachlan, a Durango Democrat and chair of the House Education Committee
Rep. Rose Pugliese, a Colorado Springs Republican and House Assistant Minority Leader

A special thanks to our event sponsor, the Colorado Education Association. And thank you to our event partners, Young Invincibles and the Morgridge College of Education at the University of Denver.

Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee senators’ report highlights risks of rejecting federal education funding

2024-01-09T21:28:53+00:00

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Senate members of a joint legislative panel that looked into whether Tennessee should reject more than $1 billion in federal education funding released their own report Tuesday, citing disagreements with House colleagues.

The 12-page report said Tennessee could not make new investments toward other needs if it opts out of federal education funding and tries to fill the gap with state revenues.

The report also noted numerous other avenues for Tennessee to pursue to resolve conflicts between federal and state interests, and it brought up uncertainties created by taking the unprecedented step of saying no to U.S. money.

“Many federal requirements could still apply to Tennessee schools even if the state rejected federal K-12 dollars, creating questions that would likely be resolved in court,” the report said.

In essence, the senators’ report laid out why no state has ever taken the step of rejecting federal funding for its students and schools, even though several such as Oklahoma and Utah have considered it.

The U.S. contribution, for which Tennessee citizens pay taxes, makes up about a tenth of the state’s budget for education — about the same as with other states. Most federal money supports low-income students, English language learners, and students with disabilities.

Sen. Jon Lundberg, the Bristol Republican who co-chaired the 10-member panel, called the report “preliminary” as he and four other senators submitted the document to Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and House Speaker Cameron Sexton.

“At this time, the House and Senate have not agreed to mutual recommendations,” they wrote in an accompanying letter.

Rep. Debra Moody, the Covington Republican who co-chaired the panel with Lundberg, did not immediately respond when asked whether the House members would submit their own report or comment on any disagreements.

Rep. Debra Moody and Sen. Jon Lundberg, both Republicans, co-chaired the joint legislative panel that conducted hearings in November.

But Sexton, who floated the idea nearly a year ago for Tennessee to look into the possibilities, said through an aide that a separate House report is coming.

“The House agreed with [the] Senate’s options for consideration. However, the Senate would not agree with the House’s actionable recommendations moving forward,” said a statement from Sexton’s office.

The Crossville Republican, who is a likely candidate for governor in 2026, had complained about testing requirements and other federal strings attached to acceptance of federal dollars, but has yet to provide a list of the other strings he finds objectionable.

Education advocates have suggested that objections from Sexton and the legislature’s GOP supermajority are related to current “culture wars” about curriculum and the rights of transgender students to use school bathrooms or join sports teams consistent with their gender identity, which may not correspond with their sex assigned at birth.

A year ago, Sexton said Tennessee could tap into $3.2 billion in new recurring state revenues, which would more than cover any lost federal funds for education. But those numbers were based on budget information at that time. State revenues have since flattened.

“Tennessee likely has room in the budget to reject and replace recurring federal funding in K-12 education, but at the expense of other potential investments,” the report said.

The senators also noted that the amount of federal money that Tennessee receives totals more than any of the recurring increases for education over the last decade. It’s also larger than the budgets of all but just a few state agencies, such as TennCare, transportation, education, and corrections.

Lundberg released the report just as the General Assembly reconvened its 2024 session, meeting a Jan. 9 deadline set by Sexton and McNally when they appointed the joint panel in September.

RELATED: Key education issues to watch as Tennessee lawmakers return

He told Chalkbeat later Tuesday that he stands by the report and refused to make changes requested by Sexton’s office.

“We determined it was best to release a Senate report that was solid, based on the testimony we heard and the information we were given,” said Lundberg, who declined to detail the points of contention.

Lundberg, who also chairs the Senate Education Committee, praised the work of the joint legislative panel for clearly identifying the state’s funding sources for education and their related mandates.

“Frankly there are fewer federal strings than I anticipated,” he said.

During four days of testimony in November, the panel heard mostly fact-finding presentations from established nonpartisan researchers, school district leaders, and state officials.

On the fifth day, at the request of House members, the group also heard from representatives of two conservative groups who urged the state to pursue forgoing federal funding. None of the Senate members were present for that final testimony. They said scheduling conflicts prevented them from attending.

The legislative panel declined to hear from Tennessee parents or advocacy groups about how federally funded education programs are run or affect their children.

Last week, several legislative leaders told Chalkbeat they did not expect any new legislation this year out of last year’s hearings.

Below, you can read the full Senate report, with the accompanying letter.

This story has been updated from a previous version.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org

How many out-of-school, out-of-work youth did Chicago reengage last school year?

2024-01-10T11:00:00+00:00

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About 1 in 5 of roughly 2,300 out-of-school, out-of-work youth contacted to participate in a new reengagement program in Chicago took part during the first year, according to a new policy brief from the University of Chicago Crime Lab.

In Chicago, roughly 45,000 teens and young adults are disconnected from school and work. With $18 million from the state, the city launched Back to Our Future in May 2022 to reach 1,000 young people ages 14 to 21 in 15 neighborhoods on the South and West sides. Data indicates fewer than 500 have participated so far.

The findings released today illustrate how difficult it is to reconnect with these young people — often referred to as “opportunity youth” — once they’ve disengaged.

“If it was easy, somebody would have already done it,” said Jadine Chou, chief safety and security officer at Chicago Public Schools. “We knew going into this that it was going to be really hard.”

The Back to Our Future program is a partnership between the Crime Lab, Chicago Public Schools, and the three community organizations tasked with doing the on-the-ground reengagement: Breakthrough, UCAN, and Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), Inc.

Kim Smith, director of programs for the University of Chicago Crime Lab and Education Lab, said the low uptake is not entirely surprising. Back to Our Future is “a very ambitious program” to reach young people that have not been “served well by status quo services,” she said.

“This group of young people are not just going to kind of show up after a phone call,” Smith said. “There is an incredible need to tailor programming, to tailor services, even to tailor outreach strategies.”

The 12-week Back to Our Future program costs roughly $18,000 per young person to run. It includes 20 hours a week of mentoring, mental health services, job training, credit recovery to earn a CPS diploma or GED programming, and a stipend for youth participants.

However, the policy brief found many teens did not engage for the full 20 hours of programming each week. On average, participants attended nearly seven hours each week.

The policy brief analyzed referral and participation data, but was not a full evaluation of the program.

Chou said the district has a database of former students who left school before earning their diploma that they have used and shared with partner organizations in order to track down students. But often phone numbers and home addresses are no longer current or they have left Chicago. A lot of them have also aged out and would not be eligible for Back to Our Future.

“Once you do reach them, you have to really build trust,” Chou added.

She said the district is also learning a lot from the young people in Back to Our Future about how to prevent disconnection before it happens.

“They all have very important information, very important experiences that they are very happy to share,” she said, “which then I bring back to (colleagues at) CPS and say, ‘How can we work on this so that we essentially stem these young people from leaving us in the first place?’”

Chou highlighted school transfers as a signal for a student eventually dropping out.

“Once they do that transfer, that is so disruptive and destabilizing to their experience and to their sense of well-being because now they have to make new friends, now they have to navigate a new path to school,” she said. “And so, if possible, how do we support them in place?”

Smith said prevention is important so the numbers of out-of-school, out-of-work youth do not grow.

“At the point where a young person has not attended their school for 6, 12, 18 months, something has gone really wrong,” Smith said. “But it’s not ever too late, in our opinion, to try to re-engage young people and get them back on a good track.”

The brief only looked at data through May 2023. According to Chou, 346 young people are currently participating in Back to Our Future and outreach continues every day. She said 103 youth have successfully completed the program and of those, 32 earned their high school diplomas and 71 are re-enrolled in school.

“They would not have been able to do that without this program,” Chou said.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Mental health, literacy, college access: Hochul’s 2024 education agenda

2024-01-09T20:11:06+00:00

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Improving student mental health services, urging school districts to adopt new literacy curriculums, and expanding access to the state’s public colleges and universities are among the education initiatives that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul hopes to accomplish this year.

Hochul outlined her priorities for the year on Tuesday during her annual State of the State address — a speech that governors deliver each January. She pointed to a series of key policy proposals, including those that could impact children across the state, while emphasizing the need to strengthen public safety and mental health services in particular.

But some critical education issues were absent from the more than 200 initiatives outlined by state officials on Tuesday. Hochul noted her plans for addressing “the toughest fiscal issues” facing the state — including providing care for the influx of asylum-seeking and other migrant families — would come when she presents her budget proposal next week.

Here are the education policy highlights from Hochul’s State of the State address:

More school-based clinics and limits on social media

On Tuesday, Hochul referred to mental health as “the defining challenge of our time,” blaming pandemic isolation and the “toxic algorithms that govern social media” for fueling a crisis among the state’s young people.

“When schools closed during the pandemic, kids turned to social media to stay connected with friends and families,” she said. “But a darkness lives on those platforms.”

Hochul’s proposed initiatives would take a two-pronged approach to addressing student mental health — bolstering access to resources at schools, while seeking to limit the potential negative impacts of social media.

The governor wants to make on-site mental health clinics available to any school that desires one. The clinics offer students a place to receive services from mental health professionals. The proposal would build on past efforts by her administration to increase the availability of such clinics. In November, Hochul announced more than $5 million had been awarded to support 137 school-based mental health clinics across the state, including more than 80 at high-needs schools.

Hochul has also called for expanded funding for youth-driven peer support programs, as well as intensive care programs that support students who need daily treatment.

State officials, including Hochul, have also pushed for legislation that would impose restrictions on how social media companies interact with minors. Under two proposed bills, social media companies would be unable to offer algorithmically devised “addictive” content to minors by default, while giving parents the ability to block access to the sites between certain hours, and limiting the companies’ ability to collect and sell the personal data of minors.

Guaranteed college admissions for top students

To expand access to higher education across the state, Hochul has proposed automatically admitting top-performing high school students to the state’s public colleges and universities.

Under the proposal, students graduating in the top 10% of their high schools would be guaranteed admission to one or more selective colleges in the State University of New York system. A similar proposed program at City University of New York campuses would further expand access.

Other higher education priorities included increasing completion rates of federal financial aid applications, broadening outreach around food stamp benefits at public colleges, and driving up voter participation on college campuses.

A reading curriculum shakeup

During her Tuesday speech, Hochul referred to her recently announced plan to change how students across the state learn to read. The governor hopes to move schools toward embracing the “science of reading,” an established body of research about how children learn to read.

As part of her plan, the state will support programs that emphasize phonics lessons, which explicitly teach the relationships between sounds and letters and are backed by research.

Hochul has also proposed investing $10 million to partner with the state’s teachers union, training 20,000 educators and expanding efforts from the city and state university systems to help educators learn about the science of reading.

New York City has already adopted its own sweeping literacy curriculum mandate that is largely in line with Hochul’s proposal. Curriculum overhauls can be difficult to enact, and it remains unclear whether the governor’s proposal will prompt significant changes statewide.

Swimming safety, food insecurity, and other initiatives

Outside of the classroom, Hochul has also prioritized programs that seek to support families and young people across the state — including efforts to prevent drownings, tackle food insecurity, and expand access to child care.

State officials said drownings have reached record highs in recent years, becoming one of the leading causes of death among children. Racial disparities have persisted in drowning deaths, with Black children experiencing drowning death rates roughly three times higher than their white peers, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To address this, the state will provide funding to renovate and construct pools in high-need neighborhoods, build “pop-up pools” during the summer months, and offer reimbursements to municipalities for costs related to hiring and staffing lifeguards, among other initiatives.

The city has also aimed to expand access to swimming facilities and programs, with a “floating pool” set to open next year.

The state has also opted into a federal meals program that provides families who usually receive free meals at school with funds to help cover food costs during the summer. That program is estimated to provide more than $200 million in federal benefits to about 2 million children in the state, officials said.

Hochul also called for continued investments in child care programs, noting the state will continue to use underutilized federal pandemic funds to provide grants to help such programs retain and hire staff.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Biden vs. GOP states: Where will the battle over transgender rights leave students?

2022-08-10T11:00:00+00:00

The Biden administration and Republican lawmakers are locked in a rancorous battle over a high-stakes question: What rights do transgender students have?

Biden and other Democrats argue that federal civil rights law protects trans students, and schools must respect students’ gender identity. Republican legislators and governors in a growing number of states argue the exact opposite: Federal law doesn’t protect trans students, and school policies — covering everything from bathrooms to sports teams and pronouns — should stick to students’ sex assigned at birth.

The most recent round of this dispute began in June when President Joe Biden signed an executive order that the White House said will protect LGBTQ people from “harmful, hateful, and discriminatory attacks” by state legislatures.

“We’re in a battle for the very soul of this nation,” Biden said at the signing ceremony.

Shortly after, the U.S. education department proposed new rules to protect LGBTQ students from discrimination. Conservatives quickly slammed the proposed regulations as an example of Democrats’ “woke agenda,” and, last month, officials in Florida — a hotbed of the current culture wars — ordered school districts to ignore the guidance.

The Florida education department “will not stand idly by as federal agencies attempt to impose a sexual ideology on Florida schools,” state Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. wrote in a memo.

Republicans have seized on the clash over transgender rights as a way to galvanize voters in a midterm election year, but the debate is about much more than politics. State lawmakers have proposed hundreds of measures this year targeting LGBTQ Americans, and trans youth in particular, even as the federal government tries to cement protections for LGBTQ students.

The opposing efforts have set the stage for a monumental legal showdown, with the rights of transgender students hanging in the balance.

“There’s so much at stake,” said Alexis Rangel, policy counsel at the National Center for Transgender Equality. “It’s about being able to live our lives in a way that feels authentic and to share our true selves with the people around us.”

As this fast-moving conflict unfolds, here’s a guide to how it started and where it’s headed next.

A showdown years in the making

The current standoff is the culmination of a yearslong cat-and-mouse game between federal officials and state lawmakers over LGBTQ rights.

In 2016, North Carolina passed a law that limited transgender people’s access to bathrooms in schools and other public facilities, provoking a nationwide backlash.

Less than two months later, the Obama administration issued guidance saying that Title IX, the landmark civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools, also applies to gender identity. Schools must allow transgender students to participate in sports, adopt pronouns, and use bathrooms “consistent with their gender identity,” the guidance said.

In 2017, former President Trump rescinded the guidance. That year, at least 15 states introduced bathroom restrictions targeting transgender students and adults.

Subsequent measures moved beyond bathrooms. Arguing that LGBTQ-inclusive books and lessons push students to question their identities, Republicans in several states introduced legislation prohibiting classroom discussions about gender or sexual orientation in certain grades. Florida and Alabama passed such laws this year.

Other laws impose restrictions directly on transgender students, banning them from locker rooms and sports teams that match their gender identity. A new law in Tennessee will withhold funding from schools that fail to enforce the state’s restriction on trans athletes.

“Regardless of the radical propaganda being pushed by the left, God created men and women differently from a physical standpoint, and that’s a biological fact,” Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee told Fox News Digital.

After Biden took office in 2021, federal officials reiterated that Title IX does protect LGBTQ students and said federal agencies would investigate reports of discrimination, such as a school excluding a transgender girl from a girls team or bathroom.

Yet some state legislatures ignored the warning. This year, two more states passed school bathroom laws and eight more passed restrictions on transgender student-athletes.

“This is part of the traditional push-pull of civil rights advancements,” said Elizabeth Meyer, an associate professor at the University of Colorado Boulder who has written about transgender students. “When you see advancements and you see more people being visible and standing up and demanding recognition and support, then you see the pushback and the backlash.”

Biden’s bid to protect trans students

President Biden has vowed to defend LGBTQ Americans, whose rights he says “are under relentless attack.”

On his first day in office, Biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies to combat discrimination against LGBTQ people, including in schools. “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports,” read the January 2021 order.

Advocates in Texas last year protested against a bill that would restrict transgender students’ participation in school sports.

The justice and education departments followed up with guidance stating that Title IX forbids discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. The agencies based their interpretation of the law on a 2020 Supreme Court ruling that said the federal statute prohibiting workplace discrimination also protects LGBTQ employees.

The administration is in the process of turning its Title IX interpretation into a formal rule, which would be harder to overturn than non-binding guidance, hold more weight in court, and strengthen federal agencies’ enforcement power.

States like Florida that have rejected Biden’s Title IX guidance would find it harder to flout a regulation, said Suzanne Eckes, an education law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Once the formal rule-making process is complete,” she said, “good luck.”

Meanwhile, the Education Department under Biden has investigated complaints of harassment and discrimination against LGBTQ students. And the Justice Department has backed legal challenges to several anti-LGBTQ state laws, including one in West Virginia that prohibits transgender girls from competing on female sports teams.

“The United States has a significant interest in ensuring that all students, including students who are transgender, can participate in an educational environment free of unlawful discrimination,” the agency wrote.

States attack federal ‘overreach’

At every turn, Republican-dominated states have resisted the Biden administration’s efforts.

Last year, a group of 20 state attorneys general sued the U.S. Education Department and another agency, challenging the guidance that said federal anti-discrimination laws protect transgender people. The lawsuit called the guidance an “overreach” that infringed upon states’ right to legislate thorny issues, such as whether trans girls can compete on girls sports teams.

The federal agencies “have no authority to resolve those sensitive questions, let alone to do so by executive fiat without providing any opportunity for public participation,” the lawsuit said.

Last month, a Trump-appointed federal judge sided with the attorneys general, temporarily blocking enforcement of the federal guidance in those states.

Some of the same attorneys general filed a complaint last month challenging a similar directive issued by the Agriculture Department.

The Education Department’s proposed Title IX changes must still be finalized, and officials are considering separate changes related to school sports. But once the new rules are adopted, they almost certainly will be challenged in court.

In a letter to the U.S. education secretary in June, 18 conservative state attorneys general said that using Title IX to also protect transgender people from discrimination “is an attack on the rights of girls and women.”

“[W]e will fight your proposed changes to Title IX with every available tool in our arsenal,” they wrote.

The courts step in

The courts have become a key battleground in the clash over transgender students’ rights — and are the venue where the issue will most likely be settled.

Trans students in several states have gone to court to fight athletic restrictions. In Idaho, a college track and cross-country runner filed a lawsuit in 2020 challenging the state’s ban on transgender athletes in kindergarten through college from competing on female sports teams. A federal judge agreed to block enforcement of the law while litigation continues.

A federal judge in West Virginia temporarily halted that state’s law after advocates sued on behalf of an 11-year-old transgender girl who was stopped from joining girls sports teams.

“The right not to be discriminated against by the government belongs to all of us in equal measure,” the judge wrote.

Similar court cases are pending in Florida, Indiana, Tennessee, and Utah.

Other lawsuits have taken aim at school bathroom policies. In at least 11 cases in state or federal courts, transgender students have challenged policies that prevent them from using bathrooms or locker rooms consistent with their gender identity, according to Eckes, the education law professor, who has tracked the litigation. In each case, the students prevailed.

“These judges run the gamut in terms of ideology,” said Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ advocacy group. Yet “they keep coming to the same conclusion: that it’s a violation of federal law and the U.S. Constitution to discriminate against transgender students.”

The Supreme Court is expected to eventually weigh in on the question of transgender students’ rights. But experts say that might not happen for years, leaving lower courts across the country to issue potentially contradictory rulings.

There’s a “tremendous opportunity for conflict, for uncertainty, for quite an extended period of time,” said R. Shep Melnick, a politics professor at Boston College.

Schools stuck in the middle

For now, schools are caught in the legal and political crossfire.

On July 1, the day Florida schools were to begin enforcing the state’s new ban on lessons about sexuality or gender in grades K-3, Biden’s press secretary called the law “discrimination” and urged families to file civil rights complaints if necessary. Florida’s education commissioner shot back later that month, warning districts that they “risk violating Florida law” if they act on federal guidance related to LGBTQ students.

At a recent event, Catherine Lhamon, the head of the U.S. education department’s Office for Civil Rights, was asked how schools should navigate the conflicting messages. She noted that federal law takes precedence over state law when the two are opposed.

“So a discriminatory state law is no defense to a federal legal civil rights violation,” Lhamon said at the Education Writers Association conference in Orlando. “Full stop.”

It’s true that Title IX would trump state laws like Florida’s, Melnick said — if, as the Biden administration argues, the federal anti-discrimination law applies to LGBTQ students.

“But here’s the big caveat,” he said. “Would courts agree that this is a valid interpretation of the federal law?”

If the administration’s proposed Title IX regulation is finalized and upheld by the courts, the education department could withhold funding from states with laws that violate the rule, said Shep, who has written a book about Title IX. But considering the agency has never cut off funding due to a Title IX violation, that would be a drastic move, he added.

A more likely scenario, he said, is that the department’s Office for Civil Rights will investigate complaints of discrimination against students based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, which the office considers a violation of Title IX. In response, a school might agree to change its practices even if doing so contradicts state law.

“If the OCR is dealing with schools that are sympathetic to their point of view and dubious about state law,” Shep said, “then they can probably negotiate agreements.”

Warbelow, of the Human Rights Campaign, said a school district could even sue the state over a law it considers discriminatory.

“So there really are options for schools that are caught in this untenable situation,” she said. “They can stand by their transgender students.”

Patrick Wall is a senior reporter covering national education issues. Contact him at pwall@chalkbeat.org.

Rising tide of censorship and scrutiny has schools scrambling to avoid backlash

2022-09-23T11:00:00+00:00

The culture war engulfing schools has subjected educators like Richard Clifton to unfamiliar scrutiny — including, in his case, a public records request.

In Savannah, Georgia, where Clifton is a longtime English teacher, a group of conservative activists earlier this year began calling for the school board to “purge” books with sexual content from school libraries. After Clifton took a personal stand against book banning, someone submitted a records request to learn what texts he assigns to students.

Around the same time, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed new laws that he said would protect students from what he views as obscene materials and divisive concepts. In response, an official in Clifton’s district advised against using the term “white privilege” in the classroom.

Clifton didn’t change the content of the screenwriting class he’s teaching this school year, his 29th in the district. But as the political combat around education escalates, he is more cautious about the topics he discusses and the language he uses in class.

“I am a little more gun-shy than I might have been in the past,” he said.

The conservative backlash against anti-racism and LGBTQ inclusion in schools has put intense pressure on many educators. And that is causing schools to change, in ways obvious and subtle, as laws like Georgia’s take effect across the country.

Some of the moves are public, as when districts review challenged books or make it easier for parents to lodge complaints. But other shifts are happening behind the scenes — books quietly pulled from shelves, classroom discussions cut short — as teachers and school leaders seek to avoid blowback. Often it is students of color and LGBTQ young people who feel these effects most acutely as signals of inclusivity fade or vanish.

That was the case in an Alabama school district where a superintendent, facing pressure from some parents and a new state law restricting lessons about sexuality, ordered the removal of LGBTQ pride flags from classrooms, according to a teacher who requested anonymity to avoid retaliation. As the teacher took down her flags at the request of her principal, a queer student in the room began to cry.

“Once you ban a symbol that shows you love and support them,” the teacher said, “it looks like you are no longer supporting them.”

Conservative critics view the push to confront racism and champion inclusion in schools as a pretext for exposing students to liberal ideas and inappropriate content. That backlash has fueled efforts to rein in teachers and censor books.

Three-dozen state legislatures have considered bills this year to restrict teaching about contested topics, which six states passed, while schools in nearly 140 districts have removed or limited students’ access to books that parents or community members opposed, according to two recent reports by PEN America, a free-speech advocacy group. Other legislation makes it easier for parents to see what’s taught in school and raise objections.

The combined efforts have had a chilling effect, according to analysts and educators. While there have been a few high-profile instances of districts being penalized or teachers investigated for violating the new rules, just the threat of controversy or punishment has been enough to prompt preemptive changes.

School and district leaders are “taking it upon themselves to do the censors’ work for them,” said Jeremy C. Young, senior manager of free expression and education at PEN America. “In some ways that’s the goal of the legislation: to make everyone afraid of their own shadows so they simply stay away from this material.”

The legislation, almost all of which has been introduced by Republicans, has increasingly included the threat of sanctions ranging from professional discipline to loss of state funding and even criminal charges. Some laws enlist parents as enforcers.

For instance, Florida’s new Parental Rights in Education law allows parents to report and potentially sue school districts if they believe a teacher discussed sexuality or gender identity with students in grades K-3.

“The overall feeling that I get is fear,” said Raegan Miller, a parent in St. Petersburg and member of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, which opposes the new restrictions.

The laws have unleashed a flurry of censorship, much of it aimed at books featuring Black or LGBTQ characters and driven by conservative activists. The group has tracked more than 580 titles that faced challenges across Florida over the past year, resulting in dozens of books being removed or made less accessible.

In her own children’s district, Miller has seen schools only allow older students to check out picture books with LGBTQ characters, which she considers an indirect ban. Recently, her son’s fifth-grade teacher sent home a form asking parents to indicate whether their children may use the classroom library.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever gotten a letter like that,” Miller said.

With only limited state guidance, Florida school districts have taken steps to forestall potential violations of the new laws. Some critics say they’ve gone overboard.

The Orange County school district, which educates more than 200,000 students in the Orlando area, forbade schools from adding new library books until media specialists complete a required training next year. The Miami-Dade County school board recently rejected a proposal to recognize October as “LGBTQ History Month.” And the superintendent of the more than 80,000-student Pasco County school district told employees this month to remove “Safe Space” stickers, which are meant to signal support for LGBTQ students.

“People are being very cautious,” said Dr. Sue Woltanski, a retired pediatrician and member of the Monroe County school board in Key West. “My concern is that caution will prevent people from standing up for teachers who are trying to do the right thing in their classrooms.”

Schools in her district are putting their library catalogs online in compliance with the new laws, she added, but are not removing Safe Space stickers.

Many schools’ fear of controversy or censure is surfacing in inconspicuous ways.

In Missouri, where Republican lawmakers proposed more than 20 bills this year seeking to limit what students learn about racism and other “divisive concepts,” Aimee Robertson has noticed her children’s teachers sending home more permission slips. Already this school year, her daughter’s 11th grade AP English teacher has sought parents’ consent before allowing students to choose which memoir to study or showing them a documentary about humanity’s impact on the environment.

“Clearly districts and educators are going above and beyond to cover their butts,” she said.

Students have also noticed teachers’ newfound apprehension.

Kennedy Young is an 11th grader in Georgia, where a new law limits what teachers can say about racism and U.S. history.

During a recent lesson at her school in Cobb County, Kennedy’s English teacher started to share her thoughts about why a Black and a Latina character in “A Streetcar Named Desire” weren’t given names, but she stopped herself. The teacher said students could discuss the topic, but she wasn’t allowed to participate. No one spoke up.

Kennedy, who is Black and has been helping other students talk about race under the new law, said she wanted to bring up how women of color, and Black women in particular, are often marginalized in literature. But it can be isolating for students of color to lead classroom discussions about race without teachers’ support.

“Sometimes I can feel like my voice is quieter, that it doesn’t matter,” she said, “because there isn’t that adult or other people of color to help me and guide the conversation along.”

Back in Richard Clifton’s district, Savannah-Chatham County, officials have taken steps to obey the new laws.

The school board adopted policies allowing parents to object to teaching materials used in their children’s classes, and report teachers who they believe discussed prohibited topics. At a training for administrators, a board attorney urged “caution and discretion” when using the phrase white privilege in classrooms, according to district spokesperson Sheila Blanco.

Despite pressure from activists who urged the board to “protect our children from pornography,” the district has not removed any books from school libraries this year, Blanco said.

For his part, Clifton said he believes parents have a right to know what’s taught in school, and he’s always tried to avoid promoting his personal beliefs in class. He still welcomes robust debate in his classroom, but now if a student were to raise a politically charged topic, he might think twice before engaging.

“I wouldn’t delve into it deeply,” he said, “because of the climate we are in.”

Kalyn Belsha contributed reporting.

Patrick Wall is a senior reporter covering national education issues. Contact him at pwall@chalkbeat.org.

More than politics: New studies help explain why some schools reopened while others stayed virtual

2022-10-12T16:20:26+00:00

To critics, keeping schools closed during the pandemic was not only a colossal blunder — it was pure politics.

According to many Republicans and some liberals, some school districts’ decision to extend remote learning for well over a year owed more to partisan politics and pressure by teachers unions than the data on COVID’s health risks. In short, they say, politics prevailed over science.

That argument was supported by early studies, which found that a community’s party affiliation and teachers union strength better predicted whether schools would reopen than local COVID conditions. But later research found that in-person learning was less common in counties with high COVID rates, challenging the view that reopening decisions were divorced from public health data.

Now, two additional studies provide even greater insight into districts’ choices during the first full school year of the pandemic about whether to reopen classrooms or continue remote learning — decisions that proved to be as consequential as they were contentious.

Together, the studies indicate that districts responded to evolving conditions on the ground during a period of intense uncertainty, basing their actions on COVID spread, health guidelines, teacher demands, and parent preferences. As to whether politics or science guided decision-making, the emerging research suggests, the answer is both/and.

“The decisions were not as black and white as the popular discourse made it out to be, and which some of the early research studies fit into,” said Jeremy Singer, a postdoctoral researcher at Michigan State University who co-authored one of the recent studies. “It’s a much more nuanced story.”

Early research on school opening decisions focused largely on the start of the 2020-21 school year, when districts faced pressure by the Trump administration to resume in-person learning even as COVID rates surged. School buildings were less likely to reopen that fall in communities with strong teachers unions and more Democratic voters, several studies found.

Such research fueled the popular perception that “politics, far more than science, shaped school district decision-making,” as one early study put it. But a new working paper, released this month, reaches the opposite conclusion: Perceived health risks, more than politics, drove most reopening decisions.

The new study examined the reopening choices of Ohio’s more than 600 school districts throughout that school year — not just in the fall. Since a community’s political preferences and union strength tend to remain constant, districts that opened or closed schools during the year were likely responding to changing health conditions, the researchers theorized. And that’s what they found.

About two-thirds of Ohio districts switched between in-person and remote learning over the course of the school year, some multiple times, the study shows. In those districts, local COVID rates were a better predictor of reopening than politics. (By contrast, districts that kept schools open all year tended to be in rural and Republican areas, while those that stayed virtual were mostly in urban, Democratic areas — trends consistent with prior research.)

By looking at districts’ weekly COVID data, the researchers found that rising case counts during in-person learning made districts less likely to keep schools open the following week. The effect waned over time, a sign that officials came to rely less on infection rates as they learned more about COVID spread and risks, the researchers propose. The study also found that districts were more likely to open schools when neighboring districts did so.

Taken together, the findings suggest that district leaders “were acting like rational decision-makers facing uncertainty,” said Brian Jacob, an education policy professor at the University of Michigan, who co-authored the study with Alvin Christian and John Singleton. “That’s a very different picture of school districts and school boards than, ‘They’re only focused on political partisanship.’”

The second recent working paper, released in July, is a qualitative study of five cities where schools started the 2020-21 school year virtually: Denver; Detroit; New Orleans; Portland, Oregon; and Washington, D.C. Based on dozens of interviews with district and charter school administrators, union leaders, advocates, and parents, the study sheds new light on how and why districts made their reopening decisions.

Not surprisingly, officials in those heavily Democratic cities closely adhered to public health guidance around COVID, which former President Donald Trump and his allies often attacked as too cautious. While the district leaders tended to agree with the guidance, they also used it strategically as a source of legitimacy and political cover, according to the study conducted by researchers at several universities.

“I don’t need the community thinking that I am unilaterally deciding what’s safe or what’s healthy,” a district official told the researchers. “I need professionals and subject matter experts to tell us, ‘These are the guidelines.’”

Teachers unions influenced the process by highlighting the health risks of reopening and demanding certain safety precautions, the study found. But district officials also worried that reopening too quickly would lead to teacher resignations and staff shortages.

Families generally embraced the districts’ gradual return to in-person learning, the researchers found, in line with national polling data that showed, compared with white parents, fewer Black and Latino parents favored reopening schools in fall 2020. Based on opinion polls and the higher COVID death rate among people of color, leaders of these districts “came to believe non-white families were not strongly demanding in-person learning,” the study says.

The debate over whether schools should have reopened sooner shows no sign of abating, especially as new data reveals how much student learning suffered during the pandemic. While the new studies won’t settle that debate, they do provide a better understanding of how district officials made their decisions, which were about far more than just politics, said Singer, one of the study’s authors.

“I think evidence like this helps reinforce the idea that district leadership and school leadership were trying to navigate a really difficult context,” he said, “and it wasn’t just a gut reflex based on national partisanship.”

Patrick Wall is a senior reporter covering national education issues. Contact him at pwall@chalkbeat.org.

Three things to know about the Chicago Board of Education’s resolution on school choice

2024-01-03T12:00:00+00:00

Chicago’s Board of Education made waves last month when officials revealed a vision to move away from its school choice system and boost neighborhood schools.

The declaration, included in a resolution the board passed in December, lays out priorities for the district’s five-year strategic plan, which will be finalized this summer. Any resulting changes will depend on feedback from the community, board members said.

But the board’s new vision immediately sparked misinformation. Here are three things to know about the board’s resolution.

Will schools close?

No. Not yet, at least.

The resolution does not say anything about closing schools. State law put a moratorium on school closures in Chicago until Jan. 15, 2025, the same day a new 21-member, partially-elected school is set to be sworn in. The current seven-member school board, appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, would not be able to close schools of any type – charters, magnets, or neighborhood schools – until that time.

School board member Elizabeth Todd-Breland did indicate the board is scrutinizing charter school performance through the usual renewal process and questioned whether poor-performing operators should “continue to exist.”

But even a recent board decision to revoke a charter agreement with Urban Prep did not ultimately mean those schools closed. First, the district proposed operating the two campuses as district-run schools. But after a court order, the board extended Urban Prep’s charter until June 2024.

Will I have to go to my neighborhood school?

No. The resolution does not say anything about requiring families to attend their neighborhood schools.

The closest it comes to addressing enrollment policies is a bullet point about a “reimagined vision” that includes a “transition away from privatization and admissions/enrollment policies and approaches that further stratification and inequity in CPS and drive student enrollment away from neighborhood schools.”

Any school-aged child living in Chicago is guaranteed a spot at their zoned neighborhood school. Additionally, board policy amended as recently as last summer, allows families to apply to a myriad of selective, magnet, charter, or other speciality programs that admit students from across the city. Some schools require a test for admission, while others are a straight lottery.

These policies have not changed, but could after community feedback sessions.

“There likely will be policies that need to be revised and changed,” Todd-Breland said. “The admissions and enrollment policy is on the table.”

Data shows half of elementary school students attend their zoned neighborhood school and only a quarter of high school students do. These numbers shifted over the course of the past 20 years, when roughly 75% of elementary school students went to their local school and half of high schoolers did.

What do parents and students think?

It varies greatly.

Chalkbeat Chicago asked readers for their thoughts on school choice and got nearly 80 responses from families across the city about how they’ve navigated the system. Five families shared more about how — and why — they chose their schools.

The wide range of responses could be a bellwether for the kind of debate or disagreement that could emerge during community feedback sessions.

The Board of Education was awarded a $500,000 federal grant to create socioeconomically diverse schools. The district said it plans to use the money to engage the community on how to draw more families into neighborhood schools. Their application included a goal to reduce the percentage of families attending a school outside of their regions by at least 3%. The district did not answer questions to clarify their definition of region or why 3% was their goal.

The district is already collecting feedback on the next five-year strategic plan through an online survey and community meetings for the next Educational Facilities Master Plan. Officials have said they will host in-person and online meetings in February to gather feedback on the strategic plan.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Adams 14 se resiste a la reorganización; distritos vecinos dan su apoyo

2022-05-20T20:36:03+00:00

Read in English.

Los líderes de Adams 14 tienen planes de resistir los esfuerzos del estado por reorganizar el distrito escolar (que lleva años teniendo dificultades), y están recibiendo el apoyo de los distritos vecinos, un frente unido que sugiere que el estado está a punto de entablar una batalla cuesta arriba en sus esfuerzos por obligar un cambio en la comunidad.

“Creo que en esto vamos a tener más aliados que la Junta Estatal”, dijo Joe Salazar, uno de los abogados de Adams 14.

Adams 14, un distrito escolar al norte de Denver, ha probado el poder de la ley de responsabilidad del estado porque ha tenido que enfrentarse a muchas cosas que nunca habían ocurrido. A diferencia de otros estados, Colorado no tiene autoridad para adueñarse directamente de las operaciones de los distritos escolares.

En 2018, cuando el estado ordenó que el distrito contratara un administrador externo después de años de desempeño académico deficiente, la junta escolar local permaneció. Y en 2021, cuando esa junta contrató su propia superintendente, Karla Loria, ella no tardó en deshacerse de la compañía externa de administración, MGT Consulting.

Ahora, con la preocupación de que los líderes del distrito no tienen lo que hace falta para dirigir los planes nuevos para mejorar el desempeño de los estudiantes y que no están dispuestos a compartir suficiente responsabilidad con asistencia externa para hacerlo, la Junta Estatal de Educación le quitó la acreditación al distrito y ordenó que fuera reorganizado, una movida que pudiera resultar en la disolución del distrito, cierres de escuelas, y que los estudiantes tengan que asistir a distritos vecinos.

Pero Colorado nunca había hecho esto, y deja muchas preguntas sin contestar con respecto a cómo funcionará el proceso. Mientras tanto, la ley les da a las comunidades locales bastantes opciones para resistir al estado.

Líderes de distritos vecinos se unen para apoyar a Adams 14

Aunque Adams 14 tuvo una relación débil con algunos de sus vecinos en el pasado, este año Loria logró convocar a sus colegas y ha recibido su apoyo. Los líderes del distrito tienen la esperanza de que otros se unan, aunque sea solamente para defender el control local.

El estado ha dicho que los distritos Mapleton, 27J y Adams 12 Five Star también participarán en el proceso de reorganización junto con Adams 14. De conformidad con la ley, un comité compuesto por miembros designados por las juntas escolares y los comités de responsabilidad de cada distrito redactará un plan para los nuevos límites geográficos del distrito. Cuando el comité y la comisionada de educación hayan aprobado un plan, éste debe ser aprobado por votación de los electores en los distritos afectados.

Y en cuanto a qué tan nuevo e incierto el proceso es, el departamento de educación originalmente publicó una hoja de información en la que se indicaba que las juntas escolares mismas necesitarían aprobar el plan. Sin embargo, ese requisito en actualidad se trata de un proceso de reorganización distinto incluido en otra sección de la ley estatal.

Mientras hablaba ante la junta escolar de Adams 14 la semana pasada, Salazar también indicó que entendía que las juntas locales necesitarán tener una votación por el plan. Eso significa que los funcionarios estatales tienen un problema, dijo él.

“Quieren pelear con el Condado de Adams, y vamos a unirnos como el Condado de Adams”, dijo.

Aunque el proceso no requiere la aprobación de las juntas escolares, éstas pueden influir en el resultado porque son las que nombran a los miembros del comité.

Y si no quieren crear un plan, el estado no puede hacer mucho para obligarlos a hacerlo. Haber eliminado la acreditación es algo mayormente simbólico — pero ha sido la amenaza detrás de las órdenes del estado en el pasado. Su propósito es hacerles saber a los padres que el distrito lleva mucho tiempo teniendo un desempeño deficiente. Pero los padres ya saben que el distrito tiene retos, y muchos se han expresado abiertamente para apoyar el liderazgo local y creen que el sistema de responsabilidad del estado los juzga injustamente.

Decisión “en las manos de la comunidad”

La Comisionada de Educación Katy Anthes dijo que la reorganización de Adams 14 no es algo seguro, y que los resultados realmente dependen de la comunidad.

“Mi esperanza es que hagan un esfuerzo de buena fe, y estoy segura de que así lo harán”, dijo Anthes. “Si deciden que no quieren reorganizarse o que un plan no tiene sentido, o no pueden definir un plan, entonces tendremos que reevaluar todo en ese momento. La decisión está en las manos de la comunidad”.

Chris Fiedler, Superintendente del Distrito 27J, dijo que apoya a Adams 14. Su distrito, basado en Brighton, cubre partes de Commerce City y estará incluido en el comité de reorganización.

“Entiendo que debemos participar según la ley. No puedo optar por no participar, aunque me gustaría”, dijo Fiedler. “De todos modos creo que lo que se necesita para el éxito de los estudiantes de Adams 14, está en Adams 14. Sé que Karla es una superintendente excepcional, realmente una de las mejores que he visto mientras he ocupado este puesto”.

Aparte de creer en el liderazgo actual del distrito, Fiedler dijo que en su opinión esto se trata del control local y confiar que los líderes del distrito conocen sus necesidades mejor que el estado.

Charlotte Ciancio, Superintendente de Mapleton, también dijo que apoyo a Adams 14 y criticó al sistema de responsabilidad del estado, que le ha dado calificaciones bajas a Adams 14.

“Lo que le está pasando a Adams 14 es resultado directo de un sistema que no asegura que a todas las comunidades se les trate de manera justa y equitativa”, dijo Ciancio en una declaración. “El sistema de responsabilidad y acreditación en Colorado tiene bastantes deficiencias. Un ejemplo de la injusticia es que para calificar a las escuelas usa los resultados de un examen administrado únicamente en inglés en una comunidad que predominantemente habla español. Mientras continuamos identificando la mejor ruta a seguir para Adams 14, ¡también continuaremos pidiendo un sistema de acreditación nuevo para las escuelas de Colorado!”

Los legisladores han ordenado una auditoría del sistema de responsabilidad del estado para determinar si está funcionando como se supone, lo cual incluye determinar si está perjudicando a los estudiantes de minorías raciales y bajos ingresos que se supone que proteja. Los resultados de esa auditoría deben estar listos en noviembre.

Les pedimos comentarios a los representantes de Adams 12 pero no recibimos respuesta. El distrito de Denver, que también colinda con Adams 14, no es parte del proceso porque una enmienda a la constitución estatal en la década de los 70 impide que los límites geográficos del distrito de Denver crezcan excepto si los límites de la ciudad cambian también.

Decisión de la junta estatal: “desestabilizante”

Jason Malmberg, presidente de la unión de maestros de Adams 14, dijo que en las escuelas la semana pasada lo que se percibía era una tristeza profunda. Muchas personas estaban confundidas por no saber cuál es el próximo paso, mientras que a otras les entristecía que el estado hubiese ido tan lejos, dijo.

Malmberg dijo que la decisión de la Junta Estatal era desestabilizante y que los miembros de la junta no lo entienden. “Las soluciones que sugieren no están ayudando”, dijo. “Están empeorando las cosas, no mejorándolas”.

Malmberg dijo que también le preocupa lo que las órdenes significan para el control local.

“¿La Junta Estatal de Educación tiene derecho, en el siglo 21 y en una democracia, para disolver un organismo elegido democráticamente?”, preguntó.

Si el comité de reorganización prepara un plan que disuelve el distrito completo, dándole las áreas a otros distritos, la junta escolar local de Adams 14 quedará disuelta.

Salazar dijo que este es un aspecto de la ley que le preocupa.

También le preocupa que reorganizar el distrito será una manera para traer más escuelas chárter, aunque Anthes dijo que ella no cree que eso esté dentro del alcance del comité de reorganización.

Otros escenarios posibles incluyen disolver a Adams 14 y crear otro distrito con nombre nuevo en los mismos límites geográficos (una manera de cambiar de marca y empezar desde cero), o dejar que los distritos vecinos absorban partes de Adams 14 para que el distrito se enfoque en menos escuelas.

Mientras tanto, los líderes de Adams 14 dicen que todavía están dedicados a educar estudiantes. Los líderes están continuando las negociaciones para trabajar con TNTP, una empresa de consultoría sin fines de lucro. Según el plan que el distrito le presentó al estado, TNTP trabajaría ‘hombro con hombro’ con la superintendente para hacer recomendaciones.

El distrito también tiene que ir ante el estado el próximo mes para presentar su plan para la Escuela Primaria Central. El distrito está pidiendo más autonomía para convertir a la Central en una escuela de la comunidad que ofrezca varios servicios de apoyo.

El estado había permitido que el distrito procediera con el plan el mes pasado, pero los Miembros de la Junta Estatal tienen que dar la aprobación final en junio o emitir otra orden de acción, que podría todavía incluir su cierre.

Anthes señaló la posibilidad de que, si los esfuerzos de mejorar del distrito tienen éxito antes de que se cree el plan de reorganización, quizás la Junta Estatal cambie de parecer.

“Es posible que el distrito implemente estos planes, que veamos que los resultados empiezan a cambiar, y que la junta entonces reevalúe su decisión”, dijo. “Quizás la orden de reorganización se cancele. Mientras tanto, las escuelas están abiertas, los niños están asistiendo a clases, y nosotros queremos que esas escuelas mejoren.”

Yesenia Robles es reportera para Chalkbeat Colorado y cubre asuntos relacionados con los distritos escolares K-12 y la educación multilingüe. Comunícate con Yesenia escribiendo a yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

La vida es dura para los estudiantes de intermedia y secundaria que tienen dificultad para leer. Esta escuela pública de Colorado quiere ayudar.

2022-05-26T16:26:08+00:00

Read in English.

Kaylee, estudiante de octavo grado vestida con un hoodie azul claro, le leyó una lista de palabras (una por una) a la maestra Jessica Thurby. Batalló un poco con algunas: Leyó ‘debate’ como “deblate”, sacred como “secret” y defend como “define.”

Ambas repasaron las palabras que Kaylee no leyó bien. Cuando intentó leer la palabra sacred otra vez, Kaylee dijo “Se ve como la palabra scared”.

“Así es,” dijo Thurby. “Por eso el cerebro adivinó automáticamente. Pero estamos tratando de no hacer eso, ¿recuerdas?”

Para los estudiantes que llegan a la escuela intermedia sin contar con buenas destrezas de lectura, estas palabras se convierten en barreras que les impiden entender y dificultan el aprendizaje. Un programa nuevo en la escuela Alameda International Junior/Senior High School de Lakewood está tratando de ayudar.

El programa Bright MINDS, lanzado el otoño pasado, ofrece tutorías intensivas de lectura para ayudar a 14 estudiantes de séptimo y octavo grado que tienen dislexia u otras dificultades para leer. Los líderes escolares tienen planes de agregar un grado cada año hasta que Bright MINDS incluya hasta el 12mo grado, y el objetivo final es que sirva de modelo para otras escuelas en el distrito Jeffco (cuya matrícula es de 78,000 estudiantes) y el resto del estado.

Bright MINDS ha surgido en un momento en que los líderes de educación de están bastante enfocados en mejorar la enseñanza de lectura en la primaria, con iniciativas que incluyen requisitos nuevos de capacitación para los maestros de Kinder hasta tercer grado, y límites más estrictos en el currículo de lectura. Pero aparte de ser un modesto programa de lectura subsidiado, quienes establecen las políticas en el estado le han dado muy poca atención a las decenas de miles de estudiantes de secundaria que tienen problemas para leer.

La especialista en aprendizaje/lectura Jessica Thurby trabaja con un estudiante del programa Bright MINDS. El programa comenzó con 14 estudiantes de séptimo y octavo grado, pero agregará un grado adicional cada año hasta llegar al duodécimo.

Los estudiantes que no saben leer bien enfrentan consecuencias a largo plazo. Están en mayor riesgo de abandonar la escuela, ganar menos ingresos como adultos, y de terminar en el sistema de justicia criminal.

Los líderes del departamento de educación estatal dicen que el rol de ellos es mínimo en cuanto a resolver el problema de estudiantes mayores que no saben leer, ya que no existe ley equivalente a la Ley READ de 2012, que los obliga a ayudar a los estudiantes más pequeños que estén batallando para leer.

“Como no hay una ley similar a la Ley READ, no existe estructura en cuanto a la lectura y escritura en [los grados] cuarto hasta 12”, dijo Floyd Cobb, director ejecutivo de enseñanza y aprendizaje en el Departamento de Educación de Colorado. “Esa responsabilidad recae mayormente en los distritos”.

Los expertos dicen que el panorama de control local de Colorado significa que hay una amplia variedad en los tipos de ayuda adicional provista a los estudiantes de secundaria que no leen bien — si es que hay alguna.

“Siempre somos honestos con las familias sobre el hecho de que, a medida que los estudiantes siguen subiendo de grado, a menudo hay menos recursos para el tipo de intervención recomendada”, dijo Laura Santerre-Lemmon, que dirige la clínica de neurosicología de desarrollo en la Universidad de Denver, un centro que frecuentemente hace evaluaciones de dislexia en niños.

Si bien los líderes educativos de Colorado han trabajado para mejorar la instrucción de lectura en la primaria, han prestado menos atención a los estudiantes de secundaria que tienen dificultades con la lectura.

Enemigo de la seguridad en sí mismos

La dislexia, una discapacidad de aprendizaje que afecta entre un 15% y 20% de la población, tiene la capacidad de ser devastadora para los estudiantes y hacer que las tareas escolares de rutina les causen estrés y vergüenza.

Elise, estudiante de 13 años y participante en el programa Bright MINDS, tartamudeaba al leer en voz alta en la primaria y los otros niños la llamaron estúpida porque leía lentamente y no sabía deletrear bien.

La niña de séptimo grado, que tiene dificultad para escuchar los sonidos de las palabras, recuerda cómo finalmente se memorizó la palabra “people” porque la maestra estaba bastante frustrada con ella.

“Memoricé muchas palabras de esa manera porque temía que ella se enojara conmigo”, dijo.

Aun después de identificar que un estudiante tiene dislexia, los problemas pueden persistir si no reciben el tipo adecuado de ayuda. Brody, otro estudiante de Bright MINDS, fue diagnosticado en quinto grado con dislexia y calificó para recibir servicios de educación especial. Su mamá, Kristina Trudeau, dijo que sin embargo no estaba teniendo progreso en su escuela en el condado de Adams.

Estaba leyendo a nivel de Kinder, y reconocía únicamente palabras básicas como “cat” y “dog”. En un momento, ella descubrió que el programa de lectura que los maestros de Brody estaban usando no era recomendado para estudiantes con dislexia.

Trudeau ha visto el impacto real de las dificultades para leer de Brody. Una noche lo encontró llorando solo en el cuarto de lavandería. Se había propuesto hacerse cena, pero no podía leer las instrucciones en el paquete de pasta china.

“Me rompió el corazón”, dijo Trudeau. “Él piensa de manera diferente. Aprende de manera diferente. Y merece que esas necesidades sean atendidas”.

¿Qué tan grande es el problema?

La escasez de datos hace difícil cuantificar cuántos estudiantes de intermedia y secundaria están teniendo problemas para leer en Colorado.

Más de la mitad de los estudiantes de intermedia en Colorado tuvieron puntuaciones de poco rendimiento en los exámenes de lectura y escritura del estado en 2019, el último año en que los estudiantes de sexto, séptimo y octavo grado tomaron el examen. Es una medida aproximada, sin embargo, en parte porque el estado no separa los resultados de lectura y de escritura.

El alcance de los problemas de lectura es más claro para los estudiantes más pequeños porque la ley de lectura de Colorado de 2012 requiere que las escuelas identifiquen a los estudiantes con problemas significativos de lectura desde Kinder hasta tercer grado y que definan planes para ayudarlos a mejorar. De hecho, el estado ha separado fondos para ayudar a este grupo de estudiantes.

La Asistente del Director de Alameda, Andrea Arguello (a la izquierda), diseñó el programa Bright MINDS junto con el sicólogo de la escuela, Todd Ognibene (a la derecha) y las maestras Jessica Thurby y Sarah Richards.

En contraste, para los estudiantes de cuarto hasta 12mo grado no existe ese requisito — y tampoco los fondos — aunque algunos estudiantes continúan sus planes de la ley READ por más tiempo después del tercer grado. Unos 48,000 estudiantes de Colorado en los grados cuarto hasta 12mo estaban en planes de la ley READ en 2021, lo cual representa un 8% de los estudiantes en esos grados.

Grado	No cumple las expectativas	Cumplio parcialmente	Se acercó a las expectativas	Total que no cumplieron
6	9.8%	18.3%	28.3%	56.4%
7	13.3%	16.9%	23.2%	53.4%
8	15.0%	16.2%	21.9%	53.1%

Porcentaje de estudiantes que no cumplieron expectativas en las pruebas de lectura CMAS

Estos datos vienen de las pruebas CMAS de literatura del 2019. Los estudiantes de secundaria toman las pruebas PSAT o SAT y no están representados.

Grado	Estudiantes
6	14.7%
7	11.7%
8	8.4%
9	6.1%
10	4.2%
11	2.6%

Porcentaje de estudiantes secundarios con plan de la ley READ en 2021

Pero muchos estudiantes con dificultad para leer nunca son identificados para tener un plan de lectura porque sus problemas no son lo suficientemente graves en los primeros grados o porque ellos ocultan sus debilidades con vocabulario avanzado, excelentes destrezas verbales, y otras estrategias de compensación. Esos estudiantes a menudo se las ingenian para seguir subiendo de grado con las calificaciones mínimas aunque no hayan captado gran parte de lo que leían.

Ese fue el caso de Collin, estudiante de séptimo grado y aficionado al lacrosse que vive en el distrito Jeffco y está matriculado en el programa Bright MINDS.

Su mamá, Leslie Dennis, dijo que hasta el segundo grado Collin podía tomar exámenes de lectura usando una herramienta que le leía los pasajes. A su hijo siempre le fue bien en los exámenes, pero en tercer grado tuvo que leer los pasajes por sí solo y sus puntuaciones bajaron drásticamente. Sin embargo, Collin no recibió un Plan de la ley READ; solamente recibió sesiones de ayuda para ayudarle a ser más fluido al leer — es decir, poder leer rápido, sin errores, y con la expresión apropiada.

Las sesiones no fueron suficiente. Collin obtuvo calificaciones promedio en toda la primaria, pero todavía titubeaba al leer algunas palabras, odiaba leer en voz alta, y se llamaba “tonto” a sí mismo.

Dennis sabía que el problema tenía que ser mayor, y dijo “pero no sabía exactamente cuál era”.

Finalmente, en quinto grado y siguiendo el consejo de otra mamá, llevó a su hijo a hacerse una prueba privada y descubrió que tenía dislexia.

Equidad y acceso

El programa Bright MINDS — donde ‘MINDS’ es la sigla de Multisensory Intensive Dyslexia Support — fue una idea de Jason Glass, pasado Superintendente del Distrito Jeffco, nos dijo Todd Ognibene, sicólogo escolar de Alameda y coordinador de Bright MINDS. Cuando Glass dejó de ser superintendente en 2020, otros administradores continuaron el plan.

“Salté de la alegría porque esto era algo que el distrito… finalmente reconoció que se necesitaba”, dijo Ognibene.

Alameda, donde casi tres cuartas partes de los estudiantes califican para comidas con subsidio, fue seleccionada para ser la sede del programa por su ubicación centralizada. Ognibene y Andrea Arguello, Asistente del Director de la escuela, diseñaron Bright MINDS junto con Thurby, maestra de educación especial, y Sarah Richards, maestra de inglés como segundo idioma y cuya hija tiene dislexia.

Para asegurar accesibilidad, no requieren un diagnóstico de dislexia, cuya prueba privada puede costar cientos de dólares. En su lugar, el equipo evalúa a los solicitantes del Distrito Jeffco y otros distritos del área metropolitana de Denver para detectar características asociadas con dislexia u otros problemas de lectura relacionados.

Encontrar un programa de dislexia estructurado dentro de una escuela pública es una agradable sorpresa para muchas familias. Las escuelas privadas que ofrecen servicios similares son bastante caras.

Algunos padres le han dicho a Ognibene, “Esto fue más difícil que encontrar una aguja en un pajar”.

Los estudiantes del programa reciben 80 minutos de lectura diarios. Aproximadamente la mitad recibe la ayuda más intensa, un programa de intervención aprobado por el estado llamado Wilson Reading System. La otra mitad, que cuenta con destrezas de lectura un poco mejores, usan Just Words, otro programa de Wilson.

Bright MINDS está apenas empezando, pero los primeros resultados son prometedores. Desde el otoño hasta el invierno, los estudiantes que participaron mejoraron un 68% más de lo esperado típicamente en lectura.

“Estoy agradecida… Por esto es que yo estaba exactamente peleando”, dijo Trudeau, la mamá de Brody. “No es justo asumir una deuda de $30,000 al año simplemente para que tu hijo reciba la educación correcta”,

Este año, Bright MINDS incluye algunos estudiantes que están en el programa de educación especial, algunos que tienen otros planes de aprendizaje, y otros que no tienen ningún plan. Algunos estudiantes hablan inglés como segundo idioma.

Los estudiantes del programa también reciben ayuda con destrezas como planificación y organización, ya que es común que otros trastornos ocurran junto con la dislexia, como por ejemplo déficit de atención/hiperactividad.

Los estudiantes de Bright MINDS no tienen que faltar a sus clases básicas para asistir a su clase diaria de lectura. En su lugar, simplemente no se matriculan en una de las clases electivas. Además, Thurby o Richards los acompañan en sus clases básicas para asegurar que estén recibiendo la ayuda necesaria para absorber el contenido.

Arguello, que también tiene dislexia, recuerda el impacto que tenía ser sacada de las clases generales en la escuela para recibir ayuda con la lectura.

“Me tomó mucho tiempo ponerme al día”, dijo.

La especialista en lectura Sarah Richards (a la derecha) mide un minuto durante un descanso del programa Bright MINDS. El programa ha tenido resultados prometedores hasta ahora, y los estudiantes han mostrado una mejora 68% mayor desde el otoño al invierno de la que normalmente se anticiparía.

Cambio en la atención

Hay señales de que pronto habrá más ayuda para los estudiantes de los grados mayores.

En 2020, el gobierno federal le otorgó $16 millones en grants a los distritos de Colorado para ser destinados a iniciativas de lectura y escritura que cubran desde la niñez temprana hasta la secundaria. Hasta ahora diez distritos han recibido los grants, y estos incluyen Aurora, Cherry Creek, St. Vrain Valley, Harrison, Lewis-Palmer y Sheridan.

Además, esta primavera se aprobará una ley para requerir que los directores de primaria y los intervencionistas que trabajan con estudiantes de cuarto hasta 12mo grado completen una capacitación en enseñanza de lectura similar a la que ya se les requiere a los maestros de los grados K-3.

Jill Youngren, consultora que está ayudando a los distritos St. Vrain y Sheridan con sus grants, aboga por una estrategia sistémica para ayudar a los estudiantes que están batallando con la lectura — asegurar que los educadores usen las evaluaciones correctas, identifiquen el problema raíz, y sepan cómo impartir enseñanza que resuelva la brecha.

“Si se empieza temprano todo eso se puede evitar, pero no podemos tirar la toalla por un niño que no recibió la instrucción correcta y decir, ah pues, lo sentimos, así es la vida, qué pena”.

Los estudiantes de Bright MINDS y sus padres dicen que este año el programa los ha ayudado con mucho más que lectura, deletreo y redacción. Ha logrado que la experiencia de tener dislexia se siente menos aislante.

“Ha sido excelente”, dijo Elise, “Es como tener un montón de hermanos y más padres que te están cuidando”.

Una encuesta rápida de las metas profesionales entre los estudiantes de Bright MINDS demostró una gran variedad: Astronomía, medicina, guardabosque, ingeniería y jugador de béisbol. Ognibene dijo que la prioridad es empoderar a los estudiantes para que logren sus metas.

“Queremos que se gradúen de Alameda sabiendo que esencialmente no existe opción que no puedan perseguir”, dijo.

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Ann Schimke es reportera senior en Chalkbeat y cubre temas de niñez temprana y de lectura y escritura en la niñez temprana. Comunícate con Ann escribiéndole a aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado cuenta con grandes brechas de quién termina la universidad. ¿Puede un esfuerzo pospandémico cambiar esta tendencia?

2022-09-15T11:59:00+00:00

Read in English.

Reginaldo Haro-Flores sabía que terminar la universidad iba a ser una batalla cuesta arriba.

Ya que fue el primero en su familia en asistir a la universidad, enfrentó desafíos para pagar la colegiatura, comprar libros y otros materiales y balancear un trabajo mientras seguía ayudando a mantener a sus padres, quienes cuestionaban el valor de una educación universitaria.

Haro-Flores se inscribió en la Universidad del Norte de Colorado (UNC, por sus siglas en inglés) en 2016, junto con una creciente cantidad de coloradenses latinos que se encaminaron a la universidad en la última década. Pero como muchos en su generación, Haro-Flores nunca completó sus estudios, lo cual contribuyó a una brecha persistente en la graduación universitaria.

Aunque un grupo más diverso de estudiantes se inscribió en la universidad, las brechas étnicas y raciales de Colorado entre los estudiantes con licenciaturas y estudios de posgrado casi no cambió entre 2010 y 2020, según datos del Censo.

Las brechas son aún mayores entre las personas que están cursando estudios superiores. En 2020, casi el 60 por ciento de los residentes blancos tenía algún tipo de certificación universitaria, incluidos certificados industriales. Pero solo el 38 por ciento de los residentes negros y 25 por ciento de los residentes latinos lo tenían.

Aunque otros estados también muestran brechas, el Estado Centenario cuenta con algunas de las mayores en el país entre los estudiantes negros y latinos y sus compañeros blancos.

La diferencia probablemente aumentará cuando el impacto total de la pandemia se entienda claramente debido a que estudiantes se salieron de la escuela o eligieron no seguir asistiendo a la universidad. Un mercado laboral próspero también ha causado que las personas se cuestionen si vale la pena endeudarse a largo plazo por un título universitario.

Haro-Flores nunca pensó que su experiencia imitaría estas tendencias estatales. En 2018, enfrentando dificultades para pagar la colegiatura, dejó de asistir a la universidad. El estatus migratorio de sus padres significaba que tenía pocas opciones para obtener asistencia financiera. Se volvió a inscribir en UNC en 2019, pero la pandemia lo obligó a salirse otra vez. No le gustaban las clases virtuales y quería encontrar un trabajo de tiempo completo para ayudar a sus padres, quienes habían perdido sus trabajos temporales en bodegas y viveros por recortes de personal.

Durante cierto tiempo, Colorado ha querido cambiar su estrategia de importar una gran cantidad de trabajadores con estudios universitarios para producirlos aquí mismo. Parte de su estrategia este año incluye invertir $49 millones de fondos de asistencia federal por la pandemia con el objetivo de ayudar a los residentes que nunca completaron sus estudios para que regresen a la universidad y se gradúen.

La necesidad es urgente, ya que la demanda de más trabajadores con capacitación universitaria, junto con el creciente costo de vida en Colorado, han complicado los esfuerzos de los empleadores para contratar y retener empleados.

El exsenador estatal Mike Johnston dijo que el estado ha dependido por mucho tiempo de atraer talento de otros lugares.

“Le hemos sacado provecho a esta estrategia lo más posible”, Johnston dijo. Johnston es presidente y director ejecutivo de Gary Ventures, una organización filantrópica dedicada a promover una mejor preparación escolar, el éxito entre los jóvenes y la movilidad económica.

“Ahora vamos a tener que equipar a nuestros propios jóvenes con las habilidades que necesitan para ingresar a los trabajos que tenemos, que les darán el ingreso que necesitan para pagar por la vivienda que tenemos”, dijo.

Reginaldo Haro-Flores levanta la mano durante una clase sobre administración deportiva este mes en la Universidad del Norte de Colorado en Greeley.

Los antiguos desafíos chocan con los nuevos

Chalkbeat Colorado examinó las tendencias de la asistencia a la universidad como parte de Chasing Progress, un proyecto de Colorado News Collaborative sobre la equidad social, económica y en salud de los coloradenses negros y latinos.

Las bajas tasas de asistencia a la universidad en Colorado tienen antecedentes profundos y causas complicadas. En general, solo la mitad de todos los graduados de high school se inscriben en la universidad. Los estudiantes negros y latinos que se gradúan de high school, quienes con frecuencia asisten a escuelas con menos recursos y reciben menos apoyo, asisten en porcentajes mucho menores. Cuando sí van a la universidad, muchos no completan sus estudios. Y, por años, el estado no ha invertido suficientes fondos en la educación superior, lo que significa que las universidades tienen menos dinero para apoyar a los estudiantes hasta que se gradúan.

Datos censales publicados este año muestran que en 2020 el 48 por ciento de los residentes blancos tenían una licenciatura o estudios de posgrado. Ese porcentaje es 21 puntos porcentuales mayor que el porcentaje de adultos negros y 31 puntos porcentuales mayor que el de los latinos.

Datos estatales muestran que esas desigualdades aumentan cuando se comparan otros tipos de estudios superiores, como los certificados industriales y títulos asociados.

Colorado está buscando apoyar a 700,000 residentes con estudios universitarios parciales pero sin un título para que regresen a la universidad.

La pandemia todavía presenta desafíos. A nivel nacional, la tasa de inscripciones en universidades se redujo en casi 1 millón de estudiantes desde que COVID empezó.

El estado necesitará convencer a más residentes de que los estudios universitarios importan, aunque trabajos de nivel básico ahora ofrecen salarios más altos que nunca.

Más gente se cuestiona si un título universitario vale la pena y el riesgo de endeudarse mucho para pagarlo, dijo Iris Palmer, subdirectora de colegios comunitarios en New America. Este instituto de investigaciones aboga a favor del acceso equitativo a la educación.

“Eso está empezando a degradar lo que la gente piensa sobre la educación superior”, dijo.

El estado busca equipar al 66 por ciento de los residentes con un certificado universitario o superior para 2025, pero la combinación de problemas hace que este objetivo parezca más difícil de alcanzar que nunca.

Sin acceso a trabajos que paguen más, se está dejando atrás a la mayoría de los residentes negros, hispanos e indoamericanos de Colorado, dijo Courtney Brown, vicepresidenta de impacto y planeación con Lumina Foundation. La fundación promueve el acceso más equitativo a la enseñanza superior y ha ayudado a estados para que fijen metas. (Lumina proporciona respaldo financiero a Chalkbeat. Haz clic aquí para ver una lista de otras entidades que nos respaldan y lee nuestra norma de ética.)

Reginaldo Haro-Flores se despide de Alexis Vallejos-Diaz después de una sesión de mentoría en la biblioteca de la Universidad del Norte de Colorado.

Cómo hacer que los estudiantes terminen lo que empezaron

Líderes en Colorado están dando pasos para crear más oportunidades.

El estado ha estado animando a las escuelas de high school para que agreguen cursos de nivel universitario que ayuden a sus estudiantes a obtener certificados. Creó una beca en 2014 para ofrecer asistencia con la colegiatura y otros recursos para estudiantes que los necesitan.

En los últimos dos años, el estado nombró a un director estatal de equidad para que se enfoque en reducir las brechas persistentes y reunir a los legisladores y líderes comunitarios en la creación de un plan que aproveche fondos de asistencia por la pandemia para conectar a estudiantes universitarios con oportunidades laborales.

Aunque esos programas han tenido éxito, el estado sigue quedándose corto, dijo Angie Paccione, directora ejecutiva del Departamento de Educación Superior de Colorado.

Por eso el estado agregó más programas. Parecen prometedores, Palmer dijo. Por ejemplo, 30 universidades y colegios comunitarios adoptaron el programa Termina lo que Empezaste, el cual se diseñó con base en una exitosa iniciativa del Colegio Comunitario de Pueblo. El estado busca beneficiar a más de 9,000 estudiantes para 2026.

El programa proporciona ayuda financiera para que los estudiantes regresen a la escuela y asesoría para crear planes individuales, además de maneras de cumplir con los planes y encontrar un trabajo después de que terminen sus estudios. Los asesores también ayudan a los estudiantes para que encuentren ayuda en el colegio o universidad, o fuera de ellos, que ofrezca apoyo para poner comida sobre la mesa o cuidar a sus hijos.

Aunque el dinero es un enorme incentivo, es crucial ayudar a los estudiantes para que crean que pueden terminar la universidad, dijo Richie Ince, director del programa de Pueblo: Regreso para Ganar. Él y su equipo se comunican con cada estudiante cada dos semanas para aconsejarlo, animarlo o conectarlo con recursos.

“Creo que somos muy exitosos debido a ese toque personal y solo porque estamos pendientes de ellos, realmente desde el momento en que regresan hasta el momento en que terminan”, Ince dijo.

El programa de Termina lo que Empezaste hizo que Haro-Flores, ahora de 24 años, regresara a la escuela. Se enteró del programa a través de uno de sus exconsejeros de high school. La asistencia financiera y asesoría que ha recibido casi parecen demasiadas buenas para ser verdad, dijo.

No hubiera regresado a la escuela por tercera vez sin el programa y sus fondos, dijo. Los coordinadores de Termina lo que Empezaste en UNC le dijeron que lo ayudarían con lo que necesitara. Así ha sido, Haro-Flores dijo. Ahora se siente seguro de que podrá terminar su licenciatura en ciencias del deporte.

“Este es el momento”, dijo.

Espera graduarse en 2024 y trabajar en la industria del deporte o en administración.

La ayuda que Reginaldo Haro-Flores ha recibido a través del programa Termina lo que Empezaste en UNC lo ha motivado a terminar su licenciatura en ciencias del deporte.

¿Puede mantener Colorado este esfuerzo?

Quienes abogan a favor de la educación superior dicen que Colorado también debe terminar lo que empezó al promover que los estudiantes terminen la universidad. El estado, el cual subfinancia seriamente la educación superior en comparación con otros estados, según demuestran estudios, debe seguir invirtiendo más dinero para mantener el buen camino.

A Paccione, la directora ejecutiva de educación superior del estado, le gusta decirles a los legisladores que “inviertan en los estudiantes ahora o páguenles después”.

“Si no inviertes en los estudiantes ahora, estos son los mismos estudiantes que terminarán en nuestro sistema público de seguridad social”, dijo. Estudios confirman esto.

Estudios también demuestran que vale la pena que un estudiante invierta en una educación universitaria. Michael Itzkowitz, quien trabaja para el centro intelectual de izquierda Third Way, dijo que los datos en años recientes permiten que las escuelas destaquen qué tan buenos son sus programas para que los estudiantes obtengan un trabajo y cuánto valen la pena. Cerca del 86 por ciento de todos los programas universitarios públicos producen, en cinco años, una ganancia en lo que los estudiantes gastan en su educación, dijo.

Y también hay beneficios sociales. Alfred Tatum, vicepresidente de asuntos académicos en la Universidad Estatal Metropolitana de Denver (MSU Denver, por sus siglas en inglés), dijo que la universidad ayuda a los estudiantes a conectarse con servicios de salud, participar más cívicamente y contribuir más a los impuestos estatales. En lugar del objetivo general de educar a la población en general, los líderes estatales deben tomar en cuenta cómo las personas que se gradúan de la universidad mejoran sus comunidades, dijo.

Pero comunicar esos beneficios a los estudiantes puede ser difícil cuando a algunos les preocupa el costo.

Durante las últimas dos décadas, la carga de pagar por la educación universitaria en Colorado se ha transferido más a los estudiantes y sus familias. Los ingresos de la colegiatura financian el 74 por ciento de los presupuestos universitarios para títulos de cuatro años y el 38 por ciento de los presupuestos de los títulos de dos años. Esos porcentajes son más altos, en promedio, que en la mayoría de los estados.

Janine Davidson, presidenta de MSU Denver, y John Marshall, presidente de Colorado Mesa University, dijeron que los legisladores deben invertir adecuadamente en las universidades para que puedan reducir los costos de sus estudiantes y mejorar los servicios de apoyo para aquellos estudiantes que necesitan más ayuda para terminar la universidad.

Sin una fuente constante de ingresos, a los administradores y al personal de las universidades les preocupa que los esfuerzos de Colorado se debiliten cuando los fondos federales únicos se acaben.

Esperan que las historias de éxito, como la de Darryl Sharpton, destaquen la importancia de seguir invirtiendo.

Sharpton, de 46 años, ha intentado varias veces en tres estados terminar la universidad. Ahora piensa que finalmente lo logrará. En el Colegio Comunitario de Aurora, ha encontrado más apoyo que nunca.

Está estudiando para obtener su título en ciencias de la computación. La educación superior le ha permitido desarrollar una perspectiva diferente, sobre su propio potencial y lo que vale.

“Quiero [tener] una carrera, no solo un trabajo”, Sharpton dijo, quien anteriormente trabajó entregando productos farmacéuticos.

“Hay tanta gente que quiere que triunfes”, dijo. “Mi escuela realmente me está cuidando ahora”.

Tina Griego, una periodista de Colorado News Collaborative, contribuyó a este reportaje.

Jason Gonzales es un reportero que cubre la enseñanza superior y la legislatura de Colorado. Chalkbeat Colorado se asocia con Open Campus para su cobertura sobre la educación superior. Comunícate con Jason a jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

Comisionada dice que el distrito escolar de Adams 14 no tiene que reorganizarse

2023-09-08T19:45:03+00:00

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El distrito escolar de Adams 14 no se verá obligado a reorganizarse.

Al aceptar una recomendación presentada en agosto por un comité, la comisionada de educación para Colorado, Susana Córdova, liberó al distrito escolar de una orden del Consejo de Educación del Estado que lo obligaba a reorganizarse. Este proceso pudo haber resultado en cierres de escuelas o que distritos vecinos integraran partes del distrito.

La decisión del estado se envió al comité de reorganización el 30 de agosto.

En ella, la comisionada señala que la ley no permite una reorganización cuando los distritos circundantes no están dispuestos a replantear sus límites geográficos.

“No beneficiaría los intereses de ningún distrito involucrado invertir más recursos o tiempo en este asunto si no existe un interés básico entre los distritos circundantes”, la respuesta declara. “No habrá más expectativas de que el proceso de reorganización continúe”.

Los representantes de Adams 14 celebraron la derrota del intento del estado.

“La Ley de Reorganización de Distritos Escolares en Colorado es un proceso anticuado y no comprobado que no funciona y que no debería incluirse en el sistema para rendir cuentas”, dijo Reneé Lovato, presidenta del consejo escolar de Adams 14 y presidenta del comité de reorganización, en una declaración publicada el 1º de septiembre. “No hizo más que causar miedo e incertidumbre entre los estudiantes, el personal y la comunidad”.

La superintendenta Karla Loría agradeció la ayuda de los distritos vecinos y dijo en una declaración que “es nuestra ferviente esperanza que el Consejo Estatal deje de implementar medidas negativas contra Adams 14 y nos permita enfocarnos en nuestros estudiantes”.

El Consejo Estatal ordenó que Adams 14 se reorganizara en mayo de 2022. En noviembre de 2018, el Consejo Estatal había ordenado que el distrito, basado en la comunidad de clase trabajadora de Commerce City, cediera el control a una gerencia externa, lo cual se inició en 2019. La orden de reorganización de 2022 sucedió después de que una nueva superintendenta expulsara al grupo gerencial externo, MGT, del distrito.

Esta semana, los líderes de Adams 14 publicitaron avances en sus calificaciones como prueba de que van por buen camino. Las mejoras todavía no son suficientes como para que el distrito deje de seguir lo que se conoce como el “reloj para rendir cuentas”. Según la ley estatal, a las escuelas o los distritos que reciben una de las dos calificaciones más bajas se los coloca “bajo el reloj” y tienen cinco años para demostrar mejoras antes de enfrentarse a órdenes del Consejo de Educación del Estado.

Adams 14 fue el primer distrito escolar en Colorado a quien le ordenaron reorganizarse como una consecuencia de múltiples años con bajas calificaciones en su desempeño. El distrito ha desafiado la orden de reorganización en los tribunales. Queda pendiente una decisión de la Corte Suprema de Colorado sobre si el estado tiene la autoridad de forzar a un distrito para que se reorganice.

Mientras tanto, Adams 14 formó un comité con integrantes de los distritos vecinos—el primer paso necesario hacia la organización. El grupo se reunió cuatro veces, pero en lugar de diseñar un plan borrador para cerrar escuelas, cambiar límites geográficos o disolver el distrito, adoptó una recomendación de 40 páginas que encontró que la reorganización no beneficiaría los intereses del distrito.

La carta con la decisión de Córdova señala: “El comité busca una autorización para dar por terminado el proceso antes de [realizar] audiencias con la comunidad porque no hay nuevos límites [geográficos] que presentarle a la comunidad”. Debido a que el estado entregó el proceso para que la comunidad lo liderara, el estado ahora tiene la opción de decir que el proceso se completó, Córdova escribió.

Córdova también señala que si partes del distrito de Adams 14 tuvieran que votar para decidir que las integre o no un distrito escolar vecino con un mayor impuesto sobre la propiedad, también tendrían que votar para aprobar ese impuesto mayor—algo que probablemente no suceda en el distrito con bajos ingresos donde han fracasado múltiples veces medidas relacionadas con aumentar los impuestos.

Aunque el distrito ya no estará obligado a reorganizarse, sigue estando obligado bajo una segunda orden del Consejo Estatal de contratar a un gerente parcial para que lo ayude con su trabajo de mejoras, la decisión dice.

“Desafortunadamente, el Consejo Estatal recibió una notificación esta semana de que Adams 14 no renovará su contrato con TNTP, y el trabajo de TNTP se ha suspendido en el distrito”, la decisión estatal menciona. “Esto es una sorpresa”.

Los líderes del distrito dicen que el costo del contrato de TNTP es una de las principales razones por las que suspendieron su trabajo, y en su notificación al estado dijeron que tanto la organización sin fines de lucro como el distrito acordaron suspender el trabajo mientras llegan a un acuerdo.

Adams 14 había firmado un contrato con TNTP en el verano de 2022. El contrato iba a ser por tres años con un valor total de $5 millones durante ese período.

Representantes del estado le dijeron a Chalkbeat que habían ofrecido aumentar los fondos para las mejoras del distrito en $350,000, para un total de $1.2 millones este año. “Esperamos que esto ayude a que el distrito continúe su trabajo con TNTP”, dice una declaración del departamento.

Yesenia Robles es una reportera para Chalkbeat Colorado, cubriendo distritos escolares de kindergarten a 12º grado y la educación multilingüe. Comunícate con Yesenia por correo electrónico a yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Maestros en Denver tratan de ayudar a estudiantes migrantes con la vivienda

2023-10-03T19:55:41+00:00

Chalkbeat Colorado es un noticiero local sin fines de lucro que informa sobre las escuelas públicas en Denver y otros distritos. Suscríbete a nuestro boletín gratis por email en español para recibir lo último en noticias sobre educación dos veces al mes.

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Conforme aumenta la cantidad de migrantes que llegan a diario a Denver, las escuelas están empezando a ver una cantidad significativa de estudiantes nuevos. Y a los educadores les preocupa cómo ayudar a las familias migrantes que alcanzan el límite del apoyo oficial.

En la Escuela de Lenguaje Dual Bryant Webster en Denver, algunos maestros dicen tener salones con 38 estudiantes—una cantidad mucho mayor que el año pasado. Un maestro que evalúa a estudiantes cuya lengua materna no es el inglés ha tenido que evaluar a 60 estudiantes este año, un aumento en comparación con un puñado en años típicos. Y están tratando de ayudar a estudiantes que han vivido experiencias traumáticas, aprendiendo a guiarse en un nuevo país y en un nuevo sistema escolar.

“Trabajas todo el día y solo quieres asegurarte de hacer todo lo posible con los recursos que tienes así que estableces relaciones con los niños, y tienes la conexión con ellos”, dijo Alex Nelson, un maestro de cuarto grado en Byrant Webster. “Luego te enteras de su historia”.

Los estudiantes que llegaron alrededor del comienzo del año escolar y estaban empezando a adaptarse están enfrentando un nuevo obstáculo y una nueva experiencia traumática. Las familias reciben solo 30 días de estadía en un hotel o albergue que la ciudad paga—para las familias que lleguen a partir del 4 de octubre el plazo será de 37 días. Pero luego tienen que encontrar otro lugar para vivir. En una ciudad con alquileres desorbitados donde muchos residentes antiguos también enfrentan dificultades para encontrar vivienda, los recién llegados a veces terminan sin un lugar donde vivir.

La primera vez que una familia migrante con niños en Bryant Webster alcanzó el límite de su cupón de vivienda, los maestros y una pasante de la escuela invirtieron horas llamando a albergues y a cualquier otro lugar imaginable para tratar de encontrar un lugar donde la familia pudiera quedarse. Se encontraron con listas de espera y muchas opciones que no llevaron a nada.

“No sabíamos lo que pasaba después de que el cupón [para la vivienda] se acababa hasta que una de las nuevas familias dijo: ‘Nuestra estadía se acabó y no sabemos a dónde ir esta noche’”, Nelson dijo. “Nunca habíamos estado preparados así que no sabíamos cómo manejarlo”.

La familia terminó yéndose a pasar la noche en un automóvil, aunque Nelson dijo que los representantes del distrito lograron conectar con ellos más tarde esa noche. Sin embargo, Nelson dijo que fue muy difícil para toda la escuela terminar el día así.

Como en la escuelas de la ciudad de Nueva York y otros distritos escolares alrededor del país, los representantes de las escuelas de Denver son de los primeros en recibir solicitudes de ayuda de las familias migrantes. En Denver, algunos maestros apenas empiezan a conectar sus esfuerzos con agencias sin fines de lucro, a través del sindicato de maestros, y con otras organizaciones, pero la coordinación sigue siendo esporádica.

Y hasta cuando trabajan juntos, hay obstáculos intimidantes. Después de la duración limitada de los cupones de vivienda que la ciudad les ofrece a los migrantes, los varios servicios sociales disponibles tienen diferentes reglas que pueden crear confusión sobre lo que pone en peligro o no el estatus legal de los migrantes. Y la posible coincidencia entre la ayuda para migrantes y el apoyo para las personas sin hogar en la ciudad es algo que los funcionarios de Denver están tratando de evitar.

Después de ayudar a la primera familia de Bryant Webster, los maestros se enteraron de que había más familias en la misma situación. Algunas organizaciones están ayudando, pero cada vez que una nueva familia se presenta, a los maestros les preocupa si podrán encontrar ayuda. Por lo menos tres más enfrentan la pérdida de su vivienda este fin de semana.

“Realmente puedes sentir el estrés de los niños. Altera todo”, dijo Cecilia Quintanilla, una maestra de educación temprana en la escuela.

Migrantes recién llegados esperan para que los procesen en el centro de admisiones para migrantes en Denver el 28 de septiembre de 2023.

Las escuelas se unen al esfuerzo de Denver de ayudar a los migrantes para que encuentren la estabilidad

En este momento, es difícil saber qué tan generalizado es el aumento de migrantes en las escuelas.

Los representantes del distrito escolar en Denver no respondieron a solicitudes de sus comentarios. Los maestros en Bryant Webster creen que han llegado alrededor de 60 estudiantes migrantes nuevos después del primer día de clases y siguen llegando. Otros distritos escolares en el estado están reportando grandes aumentos de recién llegados, el término que las escuelas usan para hablar sobre estudiantes que están llegando a Estados Unidos provenientes de otros países en los últimos meses.

El Departamento de Educación de Colorado no da seguimiento a esas cifras, y sus representantes dijeron que las escuelas no les han pedido apoyo para lidiar con esos aumentos.

Los representantes de la ciudad de Denver dijeron que hasta la semana pasada la ciudad estaba dando albergue a 456 niños menores de 16 años. La ciudad ha observado hasta 250 migrantes nuevos que llegan por día, pero las cantidades de niños esta semana no están disponibles.

En otra escuela de Denver, Escuela Valdez, la maestra Jessica Dominguez calcula que han recibido alrededor de 20 estudiantes recién llegados este año. Esta semana, se enteraron de una familia que había estado durmiendo afuera después de perder su albergue. Los educadores se quedaron despiertos hasta tarde tratando de encontrarles un lugar donde quedarse y lo lograron. Pero eso no siempre es así.

“Los niños son parte de esto ahora”, dijo. “Eso pone una cara diferente a lo que quizás pensemos es la falta de hogar”.

Dominguez no es la única persona que se siente así. El alcalde de Denver Mike Johnston, un exmaestro, dijo en una conferencia de prensa el jueves que ha visto a niños durmiendo bajo mantas con familias afuera del edificio Wellington Webb de la ciudad mientras esperan a que lleguen los empleados para pedirles ayuda.

“Ningún niño debería estar en ese contexto”, Johnston dijo.

Más temprano ese mismo día, en una centro de admisiones para migrantes en el nordeste de Denver, una cantidad constante de hombres, mujeres y niños llegaron para que los procesaran. El horario oficial es de 8 de la mañana a 5 de la tarde, pero el personal con frecuencia empieza antes y se queda hasta que todos tienen un lugar donde ir.

Algunos de los recién llegados tienen familia en el área de Denver y piden venir aquí o hasta se abren camino por sí solos. Otros se suben en autobuses que vienen de El Paso sin importar su destino y luego necesitan hacer un plan.

Ya hicieron un viaje riesgoso y superaron muchos obstáculos para escapar de situaciones peligrosas en sus países de origen.

Jon Ewing, un vocero con el departamento de Servicios Humanos de Denver, dijo que los recién llegados son inteligentes, habilidosos y bien organizados.

Los empleados de la ciudad obtienen datos básicos sobre los recién llegados, proporcionan información de contacto para servicios sociales relevantes, y los orientan a un albergue. Las personas solas podrían recibir 21 días de albergue gratis, y las familias podían recibir 30 días. Ahora las familias recibirán 37 días de albergue gratis, pero con más personas llegando cada día, las personas solas solo recibirán 14 días. La ciudad no está monitoreando lo que sucede después de eso.

“Treinta días no es mucho tiempo para organizar tu vida, y lo entendemos”, Ewing dijo en una entrevista antes del cambio. “Pero tenemos que mover a la gente. Hay un límite en lo que podemos hacer”.

Ewing dijo que el personal de la ciudad está trabajando para coordinar lo mejor posible las agencias sin fines de lucro, los servicios de la ciudad y el distrito escolar—hay chats de grupos grandes sonando todo el día.

Ewing dijo que la ciudad trata de asegurar que las personas entiendan lo costoso que Denver es para poder tomar decisiones informadas. Pero quizás tengan buenas razones para quedarse aquí.

Ewing dijo que los grupos de migrantes y de personas sin hogar son muy diferentes y enfrentan diferentes desafíos. A los recién llegados nunca los mandan a refugios para personas sin hogar, y muchos de los servicios se proporcionan por diferentes medio para responder a las diversas necesidades de cada grupo.

También hay diferentes fuentes financieras con diferentes reglas, en lo relacionado con proporcionar servicios a ciudadanos y residentes de EE. UU. sin hogar, en comparación con migrantes solicitando asilo u otro estatus migratorio protegido.

Y luego existen las inquietudes legales. Cathy Alderman, directora de comunicaciones y presidenta de políticas públicas en la Coalición para Personas sin Hogar en Colorado, dijo que a organizaciones como la suya también les preocupa que, sin querer, se proporcionen recursos que puedan afectar la habilidad de las personas de obtener un estatus legal. Esta es una preocupación común que escuchan entre los migrantes, y una sobre la cual Alderman y su equipo no tienen suficiente experiencia para manejar.

Sin embargo, Alderman dijo que algunas de las familias migrantes quizás puedan obtener ayuda con la vivienda a través de la coalición, pero cumplir los requisitos toma tiempo.

“El problema es que en este momento tenemos a [muchas personas] en el sistema esperando obtener vivienda”, Alderman dijo. “Ese sistema conecta [a personas] con vivienda basado en vulnerabilidades. Es un proceso. Indudablemente no se mueve rápido”.

Dijo que otro problema para las familias es encontrar vivienda asequible con varias habitaciones. Los cupones para la vivienda a largo plazo, como los de la Sección 8, con frecuencia no cubren una gran parte de los alquileres que la gente quizás encuentre en Denver.

“En Denver específicamente tenemos un cantidad muy, muy, muy mínima de vivienda realmente asequible”, dijo. “Tenemos muchas unidades a precio de mercado y de lujo que están vacías”.

Con todos los desafíos que los estudiantes migrantes y sus familias están enfrentando, los maestros dicen que agradecen que tantas personas estén trabajando para proporcionar ayuda. Pero también desearían estar mejor preparados para ayudar a los estudiantes y las familias que acuden a ellos con preocupaciones tan grandes.

“No tenemos lo que necesitamos para darles la bienvenida a estas familias a la mejor vida que estaban buscando”, Nelson dijo. “Realmente es difícil ver las consecuencias de eso”.

Erica Meltzer, la corresponsal jefa, cubre temas de leyes y políticas educativas y supervisa la cobertura sobre educación de Chalkbeat Colorado. Comunícate con Erica por correo electrónico a emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

¿Los padres quieren que Colorado tenga exámenes estandarizados? Depende a quién se le pregunte

2021-02-17T20:07:48+00:00

Uno de los debates que está tomando importancia en la sesión legislativa de Colorado en 2021 es si se deben tener exámenes estandarizados en medio de una pandemia, y está dividiendo las opiniones de los defensores de la educación y también de los funcionarios electos.

¿Pero qué quieren los padres? Para indicar que el público general está de acuerdo con ellos, los grupos de defensa han publicado resultados de encuestas que han llegado a conclusiones opuestas.

Una encuesta de 600 votantes registrados comisionada por la organización Democrats for Education Reform (el grupo afiliado con Colorado Succeeds) y el grupo conservador de defensa Ready Colorado encontró que un 62% de los encuestados apoya dar exámenes estandarizados si no se usarán para sancionar a las escuelas o maestros cuando el desempeño estudiantil sea deficiente.

“A los padres les preocupa mucho la pérdida de aprendizaje este año y la calidad de enseñanza que están recibiendo sus hijos”, dijo Leslie Colwell de la Colorado Children’s Campaign. La organización no estuvo involucrada en la encuesta, pero citó los resultados en un comunicado de prensa pidiendo que el estado mantenga los exámenes este año.

Otra encuesta de más de 700 votantes activos comisionada por la Colorado Education Association (el sindicato de maestros más grande del estado), la Colorado Association of School Executives (que representa a los superintendentes), la Colorado Association of School Boards, y la Colorado Rural Schools Alliance encontró que un 58% de los encuestados quiere que este año se cancelen los exámenes, conocidos como CMAS.

“Como madre y educadora, sé que muchos padres quieren saber cómo les está yendo a sus hijos en la escuela”, dijo Amie Baca-Oehlert, presidenta de la Colorado Education Association. “Pero los exámenes CMAS no nos darán la respuesta”.

Para suspender los exámenes, Colorado necesitará un permiso del gobierno federal o se arriesga a perder millones en fondos federales. Una de las primeras decisiones importantes de Miguel Cardona, el nominado a Secretario de Educación del Presidente Biden, será si se emitirán esos permisos o no. En su audiencia de confirmación esta semana, Cardona dio señales mixtas, diciendo que no tiene sentido traer a los estudiantes de enseñanza a remoto a la escuela solamente para darles un examen, pero que es importante tomar en cuenta la pérdida de aprendizaje.

Ese es el mismo debate que se está dando en Colorado.

La Senadora Estatal Rachel Zenzinger, demócrata de Arvada, tiene planes de presentar una legislación para que el Departamento de Educación de Colorado pida un permiso del gobierno federal. Obtener ese permiso pondría a la legislatura “al volante”, dijo ella, y espera que sus colegas estén de acuerdo en cancelar los exámenes.

“Si uno analiza bien por qué queremos dar este examen, qué información estamos buscando, la respuesta más común que escuchará es que la gente quiere saber lo siguiente: ¿Hubo pérdida de aprendizaje?” dijo ella. “Pero cuando recibamos los resultados de ese examen, ¿qué tan útiles nos resultarán?”

Los exámenes están programados este año para abril y mayo, más tarde de lo acostumbrado, y hasta en años normales los distritos escolares no reciben los resultados hasta el verano. Los presupuestos del estado y los distritos escolares ya estarán definidos para esa fecha, dijo Zenzinger, y los estudiantes del próximo año se ubicarán en grupos de lectura y matemáticas basándose en su desempeño al empezar el año escolar, no en los resultados de los CMAS de la primavera anterior.

Los distritos escolares de Colorado han dicho que será sumamente difícil administrar los exámenes, ya que requerirá que recuperen y preparen las miles de computadoras portátiles enviadas a la casas de los estudiantes para poder aprender a remoto. Los requisitos de distanciamiento social y cuarentena también podrían hacer que tome más tiempo administrar los exámenes. Y ellos anticipan que menos estudiantes tomen el examen (especialmente aquellos que estén todavía aprendiendo a remoto debido a las inquietudes de salud de las familias), lo cual hará que los datos no sean fiables.

Quienes apoyan continuar con los exámenes dicen que es esencial hacerlo para evaluar la pérdida de aprendizaje y que los padres puedan tomar decisiones informadas, y para que los funcionarios estatales designen recursos a las comunidades más fuertemente afectadas.

Katy Anthes, Comisionada de Educación de Colorado, ha prometido $52 millones de la última ronda de fondos federales de alivio por el coronavirus para programas como tutorías, programas después de la escuela y escuelas de verano, pero los detalles no se han definido todavía.

Los exámenes estandarizados fueron cancelados el año pasado, y por lo tanto la información más reciente es del 2019.

“¿Por qué no saber en qué nivel están los estudiantes en lectura y matemáticas y decir que no nos molesta estar tres años sin información?” Preguntó Colwell. “A mí eso me parece una falta de consciencia.”

A fines del último mes, una mayoría de ambos partidos en la Junta de Educación del Estado estuvo a favor de dar los exámenes estandarizados este año.

“Si nos importa la equidad, nos tiene que importar la información”, dijo Rebecca McClellan, demócrata de Littleton y miembro de la junta. “Si no podemos definir dónde estamos atrasados, no podremos enfocar la ayuda donde se necesita”.

El Gobernador Jared Polis también parece apoyar los exámenes, y un portavoz de su oficina escribió que Polis “cree que es crítico que los padres, educadores, comunidades y formuladores de política entiendan cómo el virus de COVID-19 ha afectado el aprendizaje de los estudiantes en todo el estado, especialmente los estudiantes en desventaja económica”.

La opinión pública varía dependiendo de cómo se haga la pregunta. La encuesta de Keating Research (comisionada por personas que apoyan lo exámenes) inicialmente preguntó si los exámenes se debían administrar “dadas las interrupciones que han enfrentado las escuelas”, y encontró que un 46% de los encuestados dijeron que sí, un 41% dijeron que no, y un 13% dijeron no estar seguros. Si el examen fuera explícitamente separado de la responsabilidad de las escuelas y los maestros, el apoyo aumentó a un 62%.

Amplias mayorías estuvieron de acuerdo con la idea de que es importante tener una prueba a fin de año para determinar cuánta fue la pérdida de aprendizaje, enfocar la ayuda a quienes la necesiten más, reducir las brechas académicas por raza e ingresos, y ayudar a los padres y formuladores de políticas a tomar decisiones informadas.

Al preguntar otra vez si los exámenes se deben usar este año, el apoyo fue aún mayor.

La encuesta de Harstad Strategic Research, respaldada por el sindicato y el distrito, preguntó a qué cosas las escuelas les deben dar la mayor prioridad. Cincuenta y tres por ciento de los encuestados dijeron que lo más importante es la instrucción en un salón de clases, otro 37% dijo que es la salud social y emocional, y solamente un 7% dijo que lo más importante son los exámenes estandarizados.

Luego se les preguntó: “Debido a los retos que ha presentado el coronavirus, ¿cómo debe el estado manejar los exámenes estandarizados esta primavera?” Cuando la pregunta se hizo de esa manera, 58% de los encuestados dijeron que los exámenes se deben cancelar y 38% dijo que se deben tomar como de costumbre. Entre los padres de las escuelas públicas, un 77% de las madres quiere cancelar los exámenes, mientras que solamente un 52% de los padres quiere lo mismo.

Keating y Harstad son compañías de encuestas en Colorado, y ambas han recibido calificaciones de B/C de FiveThirtyEight.

En una conferencia de prensa organizada por los que se oponen a los exámenes, Laura Martinez (madre de Adams 14 y líder de la organización comunitaria Coloradans for the Common Good) dijo que sus hijos batallaron por el atraso en el comienzo del año escolar y tuvieron dificultades para tomar las clases a remoto, pero ella no piensa que la respuesta está en un examen estandarizado.

“Considerando todo lo que ocurrió este año, yo pongo en duda los beneficios de reemplazar el tiempo de instrucción con otro examen,” dijo Martinez.

Nota de redacción: Esta noticia fue actualizada para reflejar mejor el orden de las preguntas en las encuestas.

Milly Suazo ha traducido este reportaje.

La importancia de las elecciones de consejos escolares y por qué debes votar

2023-10-11T14:40:17+00:00

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Chalkbeat Colorado es un noticiero local sin fines de lucro que informa sobre las escuelas públicas en Denver y otros distritos. Suscríbete a nuestro boletín gratis por email en español para recibir lo último en noticias sobre educación dos veces al mes.

Cada dos años en noviembre, la gente que vota en Colorado elige a quienes toman decisiones importantes sobre sus escuelas locales. Pero en la mayoría de los distritos escolares, muy pocas personas votan en estas elecciones de consejos escolares—y la mayoría de ellas no son padres de familia.

¿Qué es exactamente un consejo escolar? ¿Y por qué es importante que votes en estas elecciones que se realizan en años impares?

En esta historia:

¿Por qué importan las elecciones de consejos escolares y por qué debes votar?

¿Qué hace un consejo escolar?

Ejemplos de responsabilidades de los consejos escolares

¿Cuál es la diferencia entre un integrante de un consejo escolar y un superintendente u otros administradores escolares?

¿Cómo se eligen a los integrantes de los consejos escolares en Colorado?

¿A quién representan los integrantes del consejo escolar?

¿Reciben un salario los integrantes de los consejos escolares en Colorado?

¿Dónde puedes encontrar más información sobre tu consejo escolar y los candidatos al consejo escolar?

¿Cuándo son las próximas elecciones de los consejos escolares en Colorado?

¿Por qué importan las elecciones de consejos escolares y por qué debes votar?

Cuando votas para elegir a integrantes de tu consejo escolar que comparten tus valores y tu perspectiva, eso resulta en que sea más probable que las escuelas se administren de una manera que piensas es buena para los niños y tu comunidad. Si no votas, les das ese poder a otras personas. En muchas elecciones de distritos escolares, menos de un tercio de las personas que pueden votar lo hacen. A veces solo un par de cientos o hasta un par de docenas de votos separan a los ganadores de los perdedores. Eso significa que cada voto importa.

¿Qué hace un consejo escolar?

En Colorado, funcionarios electos que forman parte del consejo escolar se encargan de operar los distritos escolares. Los consejos escolares usualmente tienen entre cinco y siete integrantes. La función principal de un consejo escolar es contratar al superintendente, quien es como el director ejecutivo del distrito escolar y responsable de la gestión diaria de las escuelas locales. Los integrantes del consejo escolar supervisan y evalúan al superintendente. Además, votan sobre el presupuesto y aumento de los salarios de los maestros y otro personal escolar, y también establecen las normas que controlan lo que sucede en las escuelas.

Ejemplos de responsabilidades de los consejos escolares

Un consejo escolar quizás tenga el voto final sobre si se debe cerrar o no una escuela con bajos resultados en las pruebas de los estudiantes o con muy pocos estudiantes—o vote para cambiar las prioridades del presupuesto para que esas escuelas tengan más dinero. O un consejo escolar quizás vote para adoptar un nuevo plan de estudios si el antiguo no está funcionando bien para educar a los estudiantes.

Los consejos escolares también tienen la última palabra sobre asuntos contenciosos. Si a un estudiante lo expulsan y la familia presenta una apelación para que el estudiante permanezca en la escuela, o si a un maestro lo despiden y presenta una apelación para mantener su puesto, el consejo escolar toma la decisión final. Los consejos escolares han votado para no participar en los estándares de educación sexual integral de Colorado, para sacar a los policías de las escuelas y para que los policías regresen.

La manera como funcionan exactamente los consejos escolares puede variar entre un distrito y otro. Por ejemplo, en 2020, consejos escolares en algunos distritos votaron sobre el cambio al aprendizaje virtual, mientras que en otros distritos el superintendente tomó esa decisión.

¿Cuál es la diferencia entre un integrante de un consejo escolar y un superintendente u otros administradores escolares?

Los integrantes de un consejo escolar usualmente no participan en los detalles de cómo administrar el distrito. Ese es el trabajo del superintendente.

Los integrantes del consejo no pueden disciplinar a un maestro o director ni decirle directamente lo que debe hacer. No establecen las rutas de los autobuses escolares ni deciden qué rutas se deben eliminar si no hay suficientes conductores. Los integrantes del consejo escolar no eligen directamente qué escuelas deben cerrarse.

En la mayoría de los casos, el superintendente presenta una recomendación ante el consejo escolar. El consejo escolar puede votar para aprobar o rechazar la recomendación o solicitar otras opciones.

Los integrantes del consejo también pueden crear conciencia y solicitar que se cambien ciertas normas. Si suficientes integrantes del consejo están de acuerdo, el superintendente trabajará en esa idea.

¿Cómo se eligen a los integrantes de los consejos escolares en Colorado?

En la mayoría de los consejos escolares, las personas registradas para votar en el distrito correspondiente eligen a sus integrantes.

Los integrantes del consejo escolar ocupan su puesto durante plazos escalonados de cuatro años. En un consejo con cinco integrantes, tres de los puestos están sujetos a elecciones un año y, dos años después, los otros dos puestos están sujeto a elecciones. El consejo escolar de las Escuelas Públicas de Denver tiene siete integrantes, con cuatro de los puestos sujetos a elecciones un año y los otros tres puestos sujetos a elecciones dos años después.

La mayoría de los consejos escolares imponen límites en la cantidad de plazos o mandatos que los integrantes pueden cumplir para que no superen los ocho años en total.

Los consejos escolares siempre tienen una cantidad impar de integrantes para que no terminen en un empate—aunque los empates igual pueden suceder si alguien falta a una reunión o se abstiene de votar.

A veces el integrante de un consejo escolar renuncia a su puesto a mitad de su mandato. En ese caso, los otros integrantes del consejo eligen a alguien para que complete el plazo.

A veces los distritos escolares cancelan las elecciones de su consejo escolar porque no hay suficientes candidatos para realizar una votación competitiva. Eso ahorra algo de dinero pero significa que los votantes no tienen la opción de elegir quién dirige sus escuelas. Quien se haya ofrecido voluntariamente se convierte en el integrante del consejo escolar.

¿A quién representan los integrantes del consejo escolar?

Algunos distritos escolares eligen a integrantes “at large”. Esto significa que cada integrante del consejo representa a todo el distrito, en lugar de a una región específica en el distrito.

Si tu distrito elige a sus integrantes at large, verás a todos los candidatos en la boleta electoral y podrás votar por tantos candidatos como haya puestos vacantes. Si hay dos puestos vacantes, puedes votar por dos candidatos. Si hay tres puestos vacantes, puedes votar por tres candidatos, y así sucesivamente. Las tres personas que reciban más votos se convierten en integrantes del consejo escolar.

Otros distritos escolares se dividen en regiones geográficas, y cada integrante del consejo escolar representa una región. Estos integrantes del consejo escolar deben vivir en esa región.

En algunos distritos escolares, solo las personas registradas para votar que también vivan en esa región pueden votar en esas elecciones para el consejo. Si ese es el caso en tu distrito, solo aparecerán en tu boleta electoral los candidatos para tu área. Solo puedes votar por un candidato, y el candidato que obtenga más votos representará la región.

En otros distritos escolares, como los de Jeffco y Adams 12, los integrantes del consejo escolar deben vivir en una región específica, pero deben ganar las elecciones en todo el distrito. En la boleta electoral de todas las personas que votan en el distrito aparecerán múltiples contiendas para el consejo escolar, y los votantes deben elegir un candidato por cada contienda electoral.

¿Reciben un salario los integrantes de los consejos escolares en Colorado?

La mayoría de los integrantes de los consejos escolares en Colorado son voluntarios no pagados. La ley estatal permite que los integrantes de consejos escolares reciban un pago de hasta $150 al día para asuntos oficiales, y algunos consejos escolares, como los de Denver y Sheridan, han decidido pagarles una pequeña cantidad a sus integrantes.

Un consejo escolar que quiera pagarles a sus integrantes debe realizar una reunión pública sobre la idea y luego una votación sobre el paquete de pago. Sin embargo, la compensación no entra en vigor hasta las siguientes elecciones. Los integrantes del consejo actual no pueden votar para pagarse a sí mismos y solo recibirían la compensación si ganan su reelección.

¿Dónde puedes encontrar más información sobre tu consejo escolar y los candidatos al consejo escolar?

Organizaciones noticieras como Chalkbeat escriben sobre las elecciones de muchos consejos escolares.

Tu diario o canal de televisión locales quizás tengan información sobre los candidatos. También puedes consultar el sitio web de tu distrito escolar. Haz una búsqueda con las palabras “consejo escolar” o “reuniones del consejo” o “elecciones” (en inglés: school board, board meetings y election, respectivamente). Muchos distritos escolares tienen una lista de quiénes son los candidatos y las fechas y el horario de los foros locales de candidatos. Grupos comunitarios como la Liga de Mujeres Votantes (en inglés: League of Women Voters) y organizaciones educativas sin fines de lucro con frecuencia organizan foros o paneles donde puedes escuchar directamente a los candidatos o hasta hacerles preguntas. También puedes visitar los sitios web de los candidatos y ver cómo se describen a sí mismos y comunican sus prioridades.

Lee sobre los candidatos y observa cómo responden a preguntas. Piensa sobre cómo sus perspectivas se comparan con las tuyas y cómo las experiencias que han vivido los han preparado para el puesto. ¿Qué conexión tienen con las escuelas locales? ¿Qué tipo de trabajo han realizado?

Al mismo tiempo, toma en cuenta que los candidatos a consejos escolares—como cualquier político—a veces usan palabras que a todos les suenan bien pero pueden significar diferentes cosas para diferentes personas. Si un candidato habla sobre escuelas exitosas en los vecindarios, sobre escuchar a los padres o apoyar a los maestros, trata de obtener más información sobre lo que quiere decir.

¿Cuándo son las próximas elecciones de los consejos escolares en Colorado?

Las elecciones de consejos escolares en Colorado se realizan en años impares el primer martes en noviembre. Las próximas elecciones son el 7 de noviembre, 2023. Si ya te registraste para votar, debes recibir tu boleta electoral por correo la semana del 16 de octubre. Si no te has registrado para votar, puedes encontrar más información sobre cómo hacerlo aquí.

Los líderes de Adams 14 prometen mejorar la educación vocacional y ayudar más a los estudiantes de inglés

2022-12-15T23:50:26+00:00

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Antes de la pandemia, la Escuela Primaria Rose Hill del distrito Adams 14 llevaba cuatro años teniendo malas calificaciones. Eso cambió este otoño cuando los estudiantes de Rose Hill demostraron una mejora en los exámenes del estado, y fue la única escuela primaria de Adams 14 en lograrlo.

Los cambios fueron el resultado de un liderazgo consistente y de un experto equipo de maestros que se esforzó arduamente para mejorar cómo atienden las necesidades de los estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés.

“No hemos tenido una cantidad masiva de gente yéndose de Rose Hill,” dijo el director Luis Camas. “Este es mi quinto año, y la mayoría de los maestros está todavía aquí. Está marcando una diferencia”.

Los líderes de Adams 14 están ahora compartiendo planes de cómo esperan apoyar que más escuelas progresen como la Rose Hill, que lo logró a pesar de haber tenido años de desempeño deficiente y una intervención del estado que no funcionó.

Ellos también insisten en que a sus estudiantes les está yendo mucho mejor de lo que sugieren las puntuaciones en los exámenes estatales, y continúan resistiendo la intervención externa en los tribunales.

Los planes del distrito incluyen asegurar que los directores tengan el tiempo y las destrezas necesarias para trabajar con los maestros en temas de instrucción, desarrollar una escuela de la comunidad en la Escuela Primaria Central que les preste servicios a toda la familia, establecer academias vocacionales en la Escuela Secundaria Adams City, y brindarles más recursos a los estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés, que representan la mitad de la matrícula.

Algunos de esos planes son nuevos — como el de la escuela en la comunidad — mientras que otros fueron propuestos o intentados antes, pero con seguimiento limitado. Los líderes del distrito dicen que esta vez es diferente porque están trabajando con la comunidad y desarrollando una estrategia completa, no solamente una ‘lista de tareas’ con programas nuevos.

María Zubia, miembro de la junta escolar, dijo que en esta ocasión está viendo acción real para cambiar y cree que los planes subsistirán más que la administración actual, y por lo tanto el trabajo no tendrá que volver a comenzar con cada cambio de administración.

“Eso es lo que nos entusiasma”, dijo Zubia. “Son las cosas que vemos. Estoy cansada de la gente que habla, habla y habla, pero no hay acción. Yo soy realista; necesito verlo”.

Algunos miembros de la comunidad y expertos todavía se muestran dudosos. Nicholas Martinez, que dirige el grupo local Transform Education Now, dijo que los líderes no le han explicado claramente a la comunidad lo que está pasando ni por qué.

“Desde mi punto de vista, no mucho ha cambiado”, dijo Martinez. “Los datos del estado se publicaron, y no hay muchos que se salgan de la norma. No hay un montón de gente diciendo, ‘Ahí se ve un punto brillante’. Me encantaría saber cuál ha sido la estrategia del distrito”.

Cómo Adams 14 llegó aquí

Hace ocho meses, la Junta de Educación del Estado ordenó la reorganización del distrito escolar Adams 14 — la medida más drástica disponible según las leyes del estado. El distrito había batallado con puntuaciones bajas en los exámenes del estado por más de una década. La reorganización podría resultar en cierres de escuela o en la pérdida de control de algunas partes de Adams 14 a los distritos vecinos, pero el plan sería dirigido por miembros de la comunidad de Adams 14 y personas de distritos cercanos que apoyan al distrito.

El distrito ha dedicado bastante tiempo y esfuerzo a resistir las órdenes del estado. Un comité de reorganización se reunió una sola vez, y el grupo ahora está buscando un facilitador.

Mientras tanto, la Superintendente Karla Loría ha formado un equipo nuevo de líderes mayormente compuesto de personas que ella conoce de empleos anteriores. El distrito también tiene un contrato de tres años y $5 millones con TNTP, una entidad sin fines de lucro, para que ayude con la mejora a las escuelas.

De todos modos, muchos en la comunidad se preguntan qué está haciendo el distrito para mejorar el desempeño de los estudiantes.

Los maestros en Rose Hill dicen que las mejoras de los estudiantes se deben a un liderazgo consistente y al aumento en apoyo para los que están aprendiendo inglés.

Con el tiempo, los estudiantes de inglés han tenido más apoyo

Adams 14 tiene una matrícula de un poco más de 6,000 estudiantes al norte de Denver, y más o menos la mitad están clasificados como estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés o linguistically gifted, como el distrito los llama ahora. Una queja ante el gobierno federal y una investigación iniciada en 2010 con el tiempo indicó que el distrito estaba violando los derechos civiles de esos estudiantes y discriminando contra sus familias. Una orden federal obligó a Adams 14 a mejorar sus servicios para los estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés.

El distrito está agregando más instrucción bilingüe y ha traído maestros bilingües de otros países.

“Me parece excelente contar con instrucción en dos idiomas que apoyará no solamente a los estudiantes que quieran aprender un segundo idioma, sino también a los que quieran fortalecer su primer idioma”, dijo Loría. “Estamos viendo progreso en esa área, pero creo que todavía quedan cosas por mejorar”.

Este año el distrito agregó maestros dedicados al desarrollo del idioma inglés a cada escuela primaria.

Raven-Syamone Wattley, maestra en la primaria Rose Hill, dijo que esto ha marcado una gran diferencia, aunque muchos maestros en la escuela han recibido capacitación especial también. Antes, los maestros en Rose Hill tenían que dividir sus clases y clasificar a los estudiantes según su dominio de inglés cuando llegaba la hora de la clase de inglés.

Esto significaba que ella recibía estudiantes adicionales que tenía que atender además de sus clases regulares.

Ahora al tener un maestro o maestra de desarrollo del idioma de inglés asignado, ella se puede enfocar en sus estudiantes y en cómo incorporar la instrucción de inglés en el resto del día.

“Ha sido una diferencia enorme al momento de planificar. Ahora es una materia menos” dijo Wattley. “El desarrollo del idioma inglés ha mejorado drásticamente”.

Mientras los líderes del distrito trabajan para mejorar la instrucción de los estudiantes bilingües, ellos creen que el sistema estatal los juzga injustamente porque muchos de esos estudiantes todavía no dominan el inglés. Cuando los estudiantes de primer y segundo grado tomaron este año el ampliamente usado examen STAR, casi un 60% de los estudiantes que lo tomaron en español cumplieron las normas, en comparación con solo un 23.5% de los que lo tomaron en inglés.

Luis Camas, director de Rose Hill (en el centro), asegura que los niños se suban a los autos de sus padres después de la escuela. Sus cinco años en la escuela han ayudado a tener consistencia y crecimiento académico.

Enfoque del distrito en el liderazgo de los directores

Antes de la pandemia, Rose Hill enfrentaba la posibilidad de una intervención estatal si recibía otra mala calificación de desempeño.

Pero este otoño la calificación estatal de Rose Hill subió a nivel de Improvement (mejoró), el segundo nivel más alto. Este nivel de mejora necesita continuar el próximo año para que la escuela no tenga una intervención por el estado.

Camas dijo que su tiempo en la escuela le ha permitido establecer una cultura y sistemas en los que los maestros saben cómo analizar los datos y hablar sobre la planificación de lecciones. Él también es uno de siete directores de Adams 14 que asistieron a un programa de liderazgo en la Universidad de Virginia.

Loría dijo que le ha dado prioridad a que el personal del distrito apoye a los directores para que ellos puedan enfocarse, como Camas, en dirigir la labor educativa de los maestros en vez de tener cargas administrativas pesadas o asistir a largas juntas sobre los aspectos de administrar una escuela que no están relacionados con instrucción.

En Rose Hill, Camas ha agregado un periodo nuevo de planificación para los maestros, que ahora tienen dos cada día. Aunque él hubiese preferido no darles más tareas a los ya sobrecargados maestros, ellos se le acercaron y pidieron que empezara un programa de tutoría en las tardes.

Los estudiantes de Rose Hill tienen acceso a programas en las tardes, entre ellos un club de competencias para apilar vasos.

Se acercan programas vocacionales en Adams City

La Escuela Secundaria Adams City es la única secundaria de programa completo en el distrito. Ha obtenido calificaciones deficientes del estado desde 2010, y tiene su propio plan de mejoras.

Por más de una década, los líderes del distrito han hablado acerca de crear programas vocacionales más estructurados, o academias, en adición a las clases vocacionales que la escuela ya ofrece.

Muchos padres quieren estos programas, y los educadores piensan que motivaría a los estudiantes y les abriría puertas después de graduarse. Los estudiantes que participan en programas vocacionales tienen más probabilidad de graduarse, pero en 2019 solamente una cuarta parte de ellos estaban participando.

Ahora el distrito quiere crear programas integrados que conecten el enfoque vocacional de cada academia durante todo el día en materias como matemáticas, lectura, y otras. Las cuatro academias serán: ciencias de salud y servicios humanos; arquitectura, construcción, ingeniería y diseño; negocios, hospitalidad y turismo; y finalmente, información y tecnología.

El próximo año, los estudiantes de noveno grado explorarán todas las cuatro durante el primer semestre y luego seleccionarán una para el resto de sus años en la secundaria.

“No importa si esa será su profesión o no, de todos modos estarán preparados para entrar el mundo laboral”, dijo Ron Hruby, el director de educación vocacional y técnica del distrito. “Por ejemplo, nuestros estudiantes van a poder trabajar a tiempo parcial como flebotomistas — imagínense la cantidad de dinero adicional que podrían recibir”.

Una subvención estatal de $900,000 pagará por parte de las modificaciones a la secundaria.

Misael Díaz (al centro), en décimo grado en la Secundaria Adams City, elabora un plato durante una clase de cocina 2019 ProStart en la escuela.

Escuela de la comunidad es parte clave de los esfuerzos del distrito

La Escuela Primaria Central también tiene su propio plan de mejoras después de haber tenido calificaciones deficientes desde 2012. La escuela está destinada a ser la primera escuela de la comunidad en el distrito — un modelo que trata de resolver factores externos al salón de clases que afectan el aprendizaje.

Un coordinador a tiempo completo está trabajando con la escuela para determinar las necesidades de las familias e identificar qué servicios se necesitan. Esos servicios podrían incluir un banco de alimentos, una clínica, o un programa de ayuda para encontrar empleo para los padres. Es un modelo que algunas personas quisieran expandir a otras escuelas aparte de la Primaria Central. Más de un 71% de los estudiantes de Adams 14 califican para comidas gratuitas o a precio reducido (una medida de pobreza) y muchas familias tienen problemas de salud que ellos entienden están relacionados con factores ambientales.

El distrito también ha creado incentivos especiales para que las personas trabajen en la primaria Central.

Jason Malmberg, presidente de la unión de maestros del distrito, dice que a su entender, esta es la mayor diferencia en estos planes de mejora del distrito.

“El distrito ahora ha asignado el dinero donde lo han prometido” dijo Malmberg. “Esto es como todo — no se puede simplemente comprar una etiqueta para ponérsela al edificio. La idea es que se estaría respondiendo a las barreras de aprendizaje específicas para esa comunidad. Hay un contexto importante en las vidas de los niños. Y ya no es algo que opinan solo los maestros o las familias. Es una idea que viene desde arriba, es un cambio en la cultura”.

Yesenia Robles es reportera para Chalkbeat Colorado y cubre asuntos relacionados con los distritos escolares K-12 y la educación multilingüe. Para comunicarte con Yesenia, envíale un mensaje a yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Pruebas de plomo en agua son requisito ahora para escuelas y centros de cuidado

2022-08-23T21:05:55+00:00

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Una ley estatal nueva requerirá que aproximadamente 5,800 escuelas primarias y centros para cuidado de niños en Colorado hagan pruebas de plomo en el agua e instalen filtros, o que hagan las reparaciones correspondientes si encuentran niveles altos de plomo.

Las escuelas y los centros para cuidado de niños tendrán hasta el 31 de mayo para hacerle pruebas al agua, y tendrán que hacer reparaciones si el nivel de plomo es más de 5 partes por mil millones. Ese límite es el mismo límite establecido por el gobierno federal para el agua embotellada, pero menos que el usado previamente por la mayoría de los distritos escolares de Colorado.

Esta ley, que incluye unos $21 millones para pruebas y reparaciones, representa la primera vez que Colorado ha establecido regulaciones para los niveles de plomo en el agua potable de las escuelas y los centros para cuidado de niños. Fue aprobada a la misma vez que un número creciente de estados han aprobado leyes para resolver el problema de exposición a plomo en los niños después de la crisis de agua potable que ocurrió en el 2014 en Flint, Michigan.

Lo que debes saber acerca de la ley de plomo en Colorado

• Las escuelas primarias y los centros de cuidado de niños de Colorado tendrán que hacerle pruebas de plomo a todas las fuentes de agua potable antes del 31 de mayo de 2023.

• Si el nivel de plomo supera 5 partes por mil millones — un límite nuevo y más estricto — las escuelas y los proveedores de cuidado de niños tendrán que reparar la plomería o instalar filtros.

• Las escuelas y los centros de cuidado de niños tendrán que notificarles los resultados de las pruebas a los padres, y decir qué van a hacer para corregir los problemas.

• La ley incluye unos $21 millones para pagar por pruebas y reparaciones en las escuelas y los centros de cuidado de niños. Las escuelas Intermedias serán elegibles para obtener fondos si queda algún restante.

• La exposición al plomo puede causar problemas de habla, atención y conducta en los niños, y el agua potable es solo una de las fuentes de exposición a plomo posibles.

• Otras fuentes son las pinturas que tienen plomo, el polvo de pinturas que tienen plomo, y artículos importados como ollas de cocina, especias, dulces o joyería.

El plomo es una neurotoxina dañina que puede causar discapacidades de aprendizaje y problemas de comportamiento, y hasta un nivel bajo de exposición puede afectar el coeficiente de inteligencia (IQ) de un niño. Los niveles de plomo en los niños de Estados Unidos han bajado drásticamente desde la década de 1970, pero hay estudios que han demostrado que en muchos niños todavía se puede detectar la presencia de plomo.

Un estudio de 2021 publicado en la revista médica JAMA Pediatrics encontró que un 72% de los niños menores de 6 años en Colorado que pasaron por pruebas tenían niveles detectables de plomo en la sangre — pero a muchos niños del estado nunca se les hacen pruebas.

Generalmente, los legisladores, funcionarios escolares y defensores de Colorado alabaron la ley nueva por tomar medidas para asegurar que los estudiantes tengan agua potable segura en la escuela o el centro de cuidado, pero para algunas personas la ley no llegó tan lejos como ellas esperaban.

Jaquikeyah Fields, directora de comunicaciones en Colorado People’s Alliance (un grupo de justicia racial que ayudó a darle forma al proyecto de ley), describió la ley como un gran logro que puede servir como puerta a otras leyes futuras sobre el mismo tema.

“Pienso que el objetivo era lograr más”, dijo ella, pero de todos modos “es bastante buena”.

Bob Lawson, director ejecutivo de manejo de instalaciones y construcción en el Distrito Escolar Pueblo 60 (de 15,000 estudiantes), dijo que está complacido porque la ley establece un límite claro de plomo para agua en las escuelas.

“Al menos han hecho algo para establecer la norma que debemos seguir”, dijo él. “Eso es grande porque Colorado no tenía nada”.

Elin Betanzo, especialista en agua que ayudó a descubrir la crisis en Flint, dijo que es bueno tener legislación para asegurar que las escuelas tengan agua potable segura, pero que instalar filtros inmediatamente es mejor estrategia que hacerle pruebas a las fuentes de agua para luego corregir cualquier problema. Ella dijo que es de amplio conocimiento que el agua potable de las escuelas a menudo contiene niveles de plomo detectables.

Eso se debe en parte a que las plomerías vendidas como “libres de plomo” todavía tienen permitido contener una pequeña cantidad de plomo.

“El agua es un solvente universal. Cuando tiene contacto con plomo, ese plomo entra al agua”, dijo Betanzo, fundadora de la empresa consultora Safe Water Engineering, de Detroit.

“Quizás no sea hoy ni mañana... pero si hay plomo presente, tarde o temprano estará en el agua”.

Leyes en evolución

La nueva ley sobre plomo de Colorado cambió bastante desde que fue introducida, en parte por la resistencia de algunos lideres de escuelas y educación temprana. La versión final tiene menos requisitos, tanto en cantidad como en rigurosidad, que las primeras versiones.

El proyecto de ley original hubiese requerido que las escuelas y los programas de cuidado de niños instalaran filto en todas las fuentes de agua potable, instalaran una estación para llenar botellas de agua filtrada por cada 100 estudiantes, y condujeran pruebas de plomo anuales en el agua potable. Todas las fuentes de agua con un nivel de plomo más alto de 1 parte por mil millones tendrían que ser corregidas, y se hubiesen requerido letreros nuevos y otras notificaciones.

El límite de 1 parte por cada mil millones es el recomendado por la Academia Americana de Pediatria para las fuentes de agua, pero pocos estados lo han adoptado. En vez de eso, la mayoría que ha aprobado leyes recientes ha establecido el límite en 5 o 10 partes por mil millones. El límite de Maine es 4 partes por cada mil millones.

Los grupos que representan a proveedores de cuidado de niños opusieron el proyecto de ley, diciendo que las reglas propuestas serían onerosas y demasiado costosas.

Dawn Alexander, directora ejecutiva de Early Childhood Education Association of Colorado, dijo que sería injusto imponerle estándares estrictos a los establecimientos de cuidado de niños, porque muchos casos de envenenamiento con plomo se originan en los hogares de los niños, que no están sujetos a esas reglas. Durante su trabajo anterior en el departamento de salud del condado de Wed, ella encontró que los investigadores usualmente descubrían que los altos niveles de plomo eran causados por pintura de plomo en la residencia de los niños.

“Simplemente no tiene sentido tener estas… imposiciones en negocios que ya están teniendo dificultades, ya que realmente no son la fuente que está generando esos problemas extremos de salud en los niños de nuestro estado”.

Alexander dijo que está complacida con la versión final de la ley: “Realmente es una ley mucho más razonable”.

Los proveedores de cuidado de niños en el hogar con licencia podrán optar por no cumplir los requisitos nuevos.

Mark Anderson, pediatra en Denver Health, piensa que la ley es buena, especialmente cuando se trata de los fondos para ayudar a las escuelas y a los centros de cuidado a cubrir el costo de las pruebas y las reparaciones.

“Si el costo ya no es una inquietud, no veo ninguna razón para no eliminar el plomo del agua”, dijo.

Por otro lado, Anderson señaló que el agua no es la fuente principal del alto nivel de plomo en los niños de Colorado.

“Uno tendría que tomar muchísima agua para exponerse si la concentración es 15 [partes por mil millones] o menos”, él dijo.

Anderson, que es parte de una red regional de expertos en salud ambiental de los niños, dijo que en su mayoría, los niveles altos de plomo en niños surgen de exposición a pintura con plomo, polvo de pinturas con plomo, o una categoría que el llama “productos importados” y que incluye ollas y artículos para cocinar, especias o dulces de otros países.

Los investigadores han encontrado que los niños que viven en códigos postales con poblaciones predominantemente negras o hispanas tienen más probabilidad de tener un nivel de plomo alto que los niños que viven en códigos postales cuyos residentes son predominantemente de raza blanca.

Esfuerzos en las escuelas después del caso de Flint

Después de la crisis de agua en Flint, algunos distritos escolares de Colorado empezaron voluntariamente a hacerle pruebas al agua y corregir cuando los niveles de plomo alcanzaban 15 o más partes por mil millones — el nivel usado en ese momento por la Agencia de Protección Ambiental para que las compañías de agua tomaran acción.

A partir de 2017, algunos distritos de Colorado aprovecharon un programa estatal voluntario de grants que paga por pruebas de plomo en las escuelas, pero el programa no cubría los costos de reparación y no fue usado ampliamente.

Los funcionarios del distrito escolar de Denver, el más grande de Colorado, empezaron a usar el estándar de 15 partes por mil millones, y luego cambiaron a un límite de 10 partes por mil millones en 2019. Durante los últimos seis años, el distrito reemplazó 264 sistemas de plomería, e instaló 83 filtros en fuentes de agua.

Sin embargo, la ley nueva requerirá trabajo adicional porque hubo pruebas anteriores que encontraron unas 150 fuentes de agua con niveles por encima del límite nuevo, pero por debajo del anterior.

Joni Rix, gerente del programa ambiental del distrito, dijo que aunque algunas de esas fuentes están en escuelas intermedias y secundarias (que no son el enfoque de la ley nueva), el distrito les va a instalar filtros.

Esas reparaciones, dijo ella, costarán “bastante dinero” — aproximadamente $1,000 cada una para instalarles un filtro inicialmente, y luego $70 en mantenimiento anual.

La Representante del Estado Emily Sirota, demócrata de Denver y una de las auspiciadoras de la legislación, dijo que quienes prepararon la ley usaron estimados altos al momento de asignar los fondos de recuperación de COVID a la ley nueva. Los funcionarios de salud del estado dijeron que esperan cubrir la mayor parte posible de los costos de pruebas y remediación, pero que los detalles están por verse.

En el distrito Pueblo 60, cinco escuelas obtendrán reparaciones este mes para cumplir con el límite nuevo de 5 partes por mil millones. Aunque los funcionarios del distrito les hicieron pruebas a todas las fuentes de agua en el 2017 y 2018, usaron el límite de 10 partes por mil millones para determinar dónde se harían reparaciones.

Los funcionarios en el distrito Mesa County Valley, en el oeste de Colorado, hicieron reparaciones en cinco de las 42 escuelas después de participar en el programa estatal voluntario de grants hace varios años. Aparte de los edificios en los que se instalaron plomerías nuevas o estaciones para llenar botellas, ninguna escuela tuvo un nivel de plomo más alto del límite nuevo de 5 partes por mil millones.

Desde entonces, el distrito ha construido dos escuelas nuevas pero no ha recibido instrucciones de los funcionarios de salud del estado en cuanto a si se requiere hacer pruebas de plomo.

“Si ellos quieren que hagamos pruebas en esos lugares nosotros con mucho gusto lo haremos, pero no veo por qué nosotros debamos hacerlo”, dijo Eddie Mort, coordinador de mantenimiento del distrito.

Una portavoz del Departamento de Salud Pública y Ambiente de Colorado, que supervisa la implementación de la ley nueva, dijo que no se ha decidido todavía si las escuelas o centros de cuidado de niños que hicieron pruebas de agua en los años recientes tendrán que hacer una serie nueva de pruebas.

“La decisión final podría ser que no habrá una solución ‘unitalla’ para todas las escuelas del estado que hicieron pruebas previamente”, dijo en un email.

Ann Schimke es reportera senior en Chalkbeat y cubre temas de niñez temprana y alfabetización temprana. Para comunicarte con Ann, envíale un mensaje a aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Lo que necesitas saber sobre una reorganización de Adams 14

2022-05-20T20:19:20+00:00

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El distrito escolar Adams 14 será el primero de Colorado obligado a comenzar un proceso de reorganización después de años de rendimiento académico deficiente en el sistema de contabilidad del sistema.

Como es la primera vez que la ley se usará de esta manera, hay muchas preguntas sobre cómo funcionará y qué significa. Aquí intentaremos contestar algunas preguntas importantes de las familias.

¿Se afectarán o tendrán menos valor los diplomas de los estudiantes porque el distrito perdió su acreditación?

No. El estado acredita los distritos como parte de su sistema de evaluación, pero perder la acreditación no tiene impacto en los fondos del distrito, los diplomas de los estudiantes ni la elegibilidad de los estudiantes para ir a la universidad o recibir becas. La comisionada del departamento de educación Katy Anthes dijo que la pérdida de acreditación no debe perjudicar a los estudiantes de ninguna manera. Tampoco tiene impacto en ninguna de las operaciones diarias de las escuelas.

En vez de eso, su propósito es avisarle a la comunidad que este distrito escolar lleva “demasiado tiempo” teniendo un desempeño deficiente según las calificaciones del estado, dijo ella.

¿Qué es una reorganización, y cuándo comenzará?

Hay dos leyes estatales que describen cómo iniciar una reorganización, un proceso para consolidar, anexar o crear distritos escolares. La que seleccionó la junta estatal requerirá una votación para ser aprobada por los electores del estado.

El proceso comienza con la creación de un comité compuesto por miembros de la junta y padres de los distritos afectados y que determinará los límites geográficos del distrito. Ese plan puede tener muchas formas, lo cual incluye crear un distrito nuevo con los mismos límites geográficos de Adams 14 (es decir, volver a crear el mismo distrito), o permitir que otros distritos vecinos adopten partes del distrito Adams 14 actual.

El comité sería formado después de redactar y finalizar las órdenes de la junta estatal, algo que podría tomar un par de semanas.

¿Van a cerrar las escuelas?

Por ahora no se cerrará ninguna escuela como resultado de la decisión de la junta estatal. Cuando el comité de reorganización se reúna para crear el plan a seguir, puede cerrar escuelas como parte de los cambios pero no tiene que hacerlo. Se anticipa que el proceso tome mucho tiempo, y no se completará antes de que comience el próximo año.

Adams 14 como tal, sin embargo, está considerando cerrar algunas escuelas en sus propios planes. El lunes, después de protestas de los padres, el superintendente retiró un plan para cerrar la Elemental Hanson y transferir a los estudiantes existentes a la Mónaco en el otoño. Los líderes dijeron que el cierre propuesto se necesitaba debido a una reducción en la matrícula, y para mover estudiantes de la escuela secundaria alternativa al edificio Hanson, que tiene una cafetería y espacio para más programas (algo que el edificio actual no tiene). Ramona Lewis, presidente de la junta, les dijo a los padres que ellos van a dedicar más tiempo a considerar otras opciones.

La clausura de Hanson es solo uno de los muchos cierres o combinaciones de escuelas sugeridos en una evaluación de las instalaciones de Adams 14 hecha en enero de 2020.

¿Qué tal con los padres que quieren enviar a sus hijos a otras escuelas?

Colorado permite inscripción abierta, y los padres siempre tienen el derecho de enviar a sus hijos a cualquier escuela que tenga espacio. Más de 3,000 estudiantes que viven dentro de los límites geográficos de Adams 14 ya están asistiendo a las escuelas de distritos vecinos.

A partir del próximo año escolar, algunas familias podrían recibir asistencia del estado para el transporte. Los detalles todavía se están definiendo, pero la Junta Estatal de Educación aprobó planes para desarrollar un programa de subvenciones para cubrir los costos de transporte de las familias de las escuelas con desempeño más deficiente.

¿Cómo participará la comunidad en los planes de reorganización?

Primero, se requiere que al menos un padre de cada uno de los distritos afectados — Adams 14, Mapleton, Adams 12 y 27J — sea parte del comité. Los padres serán seleccionados por los comités de responsabilidad de los distritos. Luego, las reuniones del comité de reorganización tienen que estar abiertas al público. Cuando el comité tenga un borrador del plan, se requiere que tenga reuniones con la comunidad para presentarlo y recibir comentarios y retroalimentación. El comité debe entonces tomar esa retroalimentación en cuenta para finalizar el plan y luego presentarlo al estado para que lo aprueben.

Una vez el plan sea aprobado por el comisionado, entonces será presentado a los votantes. Finalmente, los votantes de los distritos afectados tendrán la última voz para aprobar o rechazar el plan.

¿El distrito puede apelar la decisión del estado de iniciar una reorganización?

Aunque no hay un proceso formal de apelación, se espera que el distrito desafíe las órdenes del estado ante los tribunales. Joe Salazar, uno de los abogados de Adams 14, dice que cree que al estado se le requería tener un proceso de apelación para las órdenes de la junta fuera de los tribunales. Los funcionarios de educación del estado dijeron que a su entender, ese requisito no existe.

¿El distrito tendrá una nueva compañía de administración?

Como el proceso para reorganizar el distrito tomará mucho tiempo, la junta estatal también aprobó una orden que requiere que Adams 14 nuevamente contrate una compañía de administración externa. La junta estatal quiere que el distrito esté bajo administración completa, igual que cuando era administrado por MGT Consulting, pero esta vez está permitiendo que el distrito retenga control de sus propias finanzas.

Sin embargo, los líderes de Adams 14 están procediendo con negociaciones para contratar a la empresa sin fines de lucro TNTP como administradores, pero bajo el plan existente de que sean administradores parciales. El abogado del distrito y otros líderes del distrito ahora piensan que la orden del estado en 2018 para que el superintendente renunciara su autoridad es ilegal. En el plan de administración parcial, ellos le darían a TNTP completa autoridad sobre el departamento de recursos humanos, pero no la autoridad para contratar o despedir empleados.

Esta fue una inquietud de los miembros de la junta estatal durante la audiencia de esta semana. Los líderes de Adams 14 todavía alegan que el plan es suficiente para cumplir la orden del estado. Se anticipa que esta sea otra área en la que el estado y el distrito podrían no estar de acuerdo.

Almuerzo escolar gratuito: Entérate de qué distritos escolares de Colorado tienen planes para ofrecerlo

2023-03-02T22:03:34+00:00

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La mayoría de los distritos escolares de Colorado, entre ellos los 10 más grandes del estado, planifican ofrecerles comidas gratuitas a todos los estudiantes el próximo año a través de un nuevo programa estatal aprobado por los votantes el pasado noviembre.

Tres distritos grandes que estaban indecisos a principios de diciembre — Denver, Douglas County y Academy 20 — le informaron a Chalkbeat que participarán en el programa, llamado Healthy School Meals For All.

El programa nuevo, financiado con un impuesto para las personas con ingresos altos, hará que Colorado sea uno de los pocos estados que les ofrecerán comidas escolares gratuitas a todos los estudiantes, una medida que, según sus defensores, alimentará a más niños hambrientos y eliminará el estigma actual asociado con recibir comidas escolares gratuitas. California y Maine pusieron en marcha programas universales de comida permanentes este año escolar, y algunos otros estados, como Nevada, Vermont y Massachusetts, están ofreciendo este tipo de programa al menos hasta el final del año escolar actual.

La creciente demanda de comidas gratuitas en las escuelas empezó después de dos años escolares en los que el gobierno federal eliminó temporalmente los requisitos de ingresos para recibir comidas a precio reducido, lo cual permitió que las escuelas de todo el país ofrecieran desayunos y almuerzos gratuitos a todos los estudiantes durante gran parte de la pandemia. Los requisitos volvieron a entrar en vigor el pasado verano.

Aunque el programa de comidas universales de Colorado es voluntario para los distritos escolares, la mayoría ha informado que optará por participar. Una encuesta realizada por Chalkbeat en dos docenas de distritos, en su mayoría grandes y medianos, reveló que 21 tienen planes de participar, y uno de ellos (Colorado Springs 11) tiene planes de ofrecer comidas escolares gratuitas el próximo año a través de un mecanismo de financiamiento diferente. Dos distritos, Mesa County Valley 51, basado en Grand Junction, y el Distrito 49, en Peyton, todavía no han decidido.

Otra encuesta reciente de los 178 distritos escolares del estado hecha por la Colorado School Nutrition Association reveló que unos 130 de los 140 distritos que contestaron la encuesta tienen planes de ofrecer comidas gratuitas el año que viene.

“De todos ellos, unos 10 han dicho que no están seguros”, dijo Erika Edwards, presidente de política pública y legislativa de la asociación. “Creo que nos estamos acercando bastante a que la gran mayoría diga que sí”.

En noviembre, los electores de Colorado aprobaron fácilmente la Propuesta FF, una nueva medida tributaria que recaudará más de $100 millones al año para pagar por comidas escolares gratuitas reduciendo las deducciones de impuestos disponibles para los hogares que ganan $300,000 dólares o más.

Para participar en el programa universal de comidas gratuitas, los distritos escolares de Colorado tendrán que maximizar la cantidad de dólares federales para comidas que reciben solicitando un programa llamado Community Eligibility Provision. Este programa nacional ayuda a cubrir el costo de las comidas gratuitas universales en las escuelas que tienen una gran proporción de estudiantes cuyas familias reciben ciertos beneficios del gobierno, como por ejemplo asistencia alimentaria o Asistencia Temporal a Familias Necesitadas (TANF). Las familias de esas escuelas no tienen que llenar solicitudes para obtener comidas gratuitas o a precio reducido.

Pero incluso las escuelas de Colorado que no califiquen para el programa Community Eligibility Provision podrán ofrecerles comidas gratuitas a todos los estudiantes aprovechando los fondos de la Propuesta FF. Las familias en esas escuelas seguirán teniendo que llenar solicitudes para recibir comidas con subsidio.

Edwards dijo que los distritos escolares que no han decidido si van a ofrecer comidas gratis el próximo año tienden a estar en una de dos categorías. Los distritos rurales más pequeños tienen preguntas sobre la logística del programa Community Eligibility, mientras que los distritos metropolitanos más grandes tienen preguntas sobre cómo Colorado planifica darles fondos adicionales a las escuelas con grandes poblaciones de estudiantes de hogares de pocos ingresos, dijo.

Conocido como financiamiento de riesgo (at-risk funding), el dinero se ha distribuido según el número de estudiantes que llenan formularios para recibir comidas con subsidio federal. Colorado está avanzando hacia otras medidas, pero hasta que se complete el cambio, a los distritos les preocupa perder dinero si menos familias llenan los formularios cuando el almuerzo sea gratuito para todos los estudiantes.

Edwards dijo que la asociación de nutrición apoya el programa nuevo y planifica ofrecer capacitación y otras opciones para ayudar a los distritos que quieran participar.

“Creo que es la culminación de todo lo que un profesional de alimentación escolar desea que ocurra”, dijo.

Ann Schimke es reportera senior de Chalkbeat y cubre temas relacionados con la niñez y la alfabetización tempranas. Para comunicarte con Ann, envíale un mensaje a aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Gobernador Jared Polis firma proyecto de ley para reducir los exámenes estandarizados. Ahora el gobierno federal tiene que dar su opinión.

2021-03-24T21:09:46+00:00

Es posible que los estudiantes de Colorado tomen mucho menos exámenes estandarizados este año — esto es, si los funcionarios de educación federales firman un acuerdo aprobado el martes en la Asamblea General de Colorado y firmado por el Gob. Jared Polis.

En vez de administrar el grupo completo de exámenes estandarizados que los estudiantes usualmente toman, los funcionarios de educación de Colorado buscarán un permiso para no tener que cumplir los requisitos federales. Si lo logran, este año no habrá exámenes de ciencia ni de estudios sociales, y los estudiantes tomarán un examen de matemáticas o de lectura/escritura, pero no ambos. Los exámenes no se usarán para evaluar el desempeño de los maestros ni para calificar a las escuelas.

Este proyecto de ley representa un acuerdo entre los sindicatos de maestros y distritos escolares, quienes querían cancelar los exámenes por completo, y los grupos de defensores de la educación, que querían que todos los estudiantes tomaran los exámenes de matemáticas y de lectura/escritura.

Los expertos nacionales en el tema de los exámenes dijeron que no saben de ningún otro estado que vaya a seguir la estrategia de Colorado. Y aunque algunos dijeron que este acuerdo proporcionaría suficiente información sobre el desempeño escolar — y quizás del aprendizaje individual de los estudiantes — otros dudan que el gobierno federal lo apruebe.

“El estado de Massachusetts le dará a cada estudiante la mitad de cada uno de los exámenes. Nueva York también está considerando eliminar una parte. Pero que yo sepa, Colorado es el único que está tratando de eliminar el examen completamente en ciertos grados/materias,” escribió en un email Marianne Perie, consultora de exámenes que ha trabajado con varios estados. “Me sorprendería que los federales lo permitan.”

Conseguir ese permiso federal es crítico para Colorado. En una carta enviada en febrero, los más altos funcionarios de educación federales dijeron que los estados deberán administrar los exámenes estandarizados pero ofrecieron flexibilidad para acortar el tamaño de los exámenes o expandir el periodo para tomarlos. Las directrices no mencionaron nada parecido al plan de Colorado.

El proyecto de ley pasó por la Asamblea General en menos de dos semanas. Los legisladores se movieron rápidamente porque la fecha límite para solicitar un permiso está muy cerca, dijo el viernes la Senadora Rachel Zenzinger, auspiciadora del proyecto y presidenta del Comité de Educación del Senado, y demócrata de Arvada.

Los legisladores demócratas originalmente tenían esperanzas de cancelar los exámenes del todo, pero llegaron a un acuerdo cuando quedó claro que tanto la administración de Biden como la de Polis estaban en oposición a ese esfuerzo.

Zenzinger aplaudió a la coalición que respaldó el proyecto de ley, y que incluyó a legisladores republicanos.

“Aparte de qué tan peligroso o impráctico sea administrar este examen, necesitamos de cierta manera limitada incluirlo (el examen) como parte de nuestra solicitud del permiso,” Zenzinger dijo.

Los estudiantes de Colorado típicamente toman exámenes estandarizados de matemáticas y de lectura/escritura en los grados tercero hasta octavo, y también un examen de ciencias o de estudios sociales, dependiendo de su grado. En Colorado, estos exámenes se llaman Colorado Measures of Academic Success, o CMAS.

Si el gobierno federal aprueba el plan de Colorado, los estudiantes en los grados tercero, quinto y séptimo tomarán el examen de lectura/escritura, y los de cuarto, sexto y octavo tomarán el de matemáticas. Los padres tendrían la opción de firmar para que sus hijos no los tomen. Y también podrían optar por que sus hijos tomen ambos.

El Senador Paul Lundeen, republicano de Monument, apoyó firmemente el proyecto de ley durante la sesión del senado el viernes. El acuerdo fue difícil para todos, dijo él, pero también retiene los exámenes para poder medir el aprendizaje de los estudiantes.

“Este proyecto de ley representa lo mejor de ambos mundos,” dijo Lundeen.

Él les pidió a los legisladores que animaran a los padres a pedir que sus hijos tomen ambos exámenes.

“Un niño tiene años de educación académica por venir, y es importante entender dónde están,” dijo él.

Un pequeño número de personas opuestas al proyecto de ley provenientes de ambos lados testificó en la Cámara y el Senado, y dijeron que ellos quieren una de dos cosas: que los exámenes se cancelen completamente o que se continúen sin cambios.

Algunos legisladores tampoco estuvieron de acuerdo. El Senador Bob Rankin, republicano de Carbondale, se opuso al proyecto de ley porque no incluye un examen de inglés en cuarto grado. Colorado está en medio de un esfuerzo más grande para mejorar la enseñanza de lectura, y las interrupciones de este año han causado más preocupación.

El Senador Jeff Bridges, líder de la mayoría y demócrata de Greenwood, dijo que los legisladores encontraron juntos la solución apropiada.

“Este no es el ideal de nadie, sino exactamente lo que Colorado necesita este año,” dijo Bridges.

Los funcionarios de educación del estado esperan presentar la solicitud del permiso esta semana. El Departamento de Educación de Estados Unidos no ha establecido un plazo para contestar las solicitudes. El periodo de exámenes de Colorado comienza la próxima semana.

Las directrices federales no mencionan eliminar materias básicas de grados alternos como una posibilidad, pero un informe sobre métodos de evaluación alternativos preparado a principios de este año por el Center for Assessment para el Council of Chief State School Officers explora la idea.

Hasta ahora Colorado es el primer estado en proponer la eliminación de exámenes en materias básicas, según el Collaborative for Student Success, un grupo de defensa nacional que quiere ver que la mayor cantidad posible de estudiantes tome los exámenes y cree que éstos se pueden usar para dirigir recursos a los estudiantes que necesiten ayuda.

“Tenemos algunas inquietudes en cuanto a si el plan de Colorado podrá lograr eso y estamos observando la situación de cerca,” dijo el grupo en una declaración. “Todavía está por verse si el Departamento de Educación aprobará lo que el estado está pidiendo.”

Joyce Zurkowski, jefa de evaluaciones del Departamento de Educación de Colorado, dijo que las opciones como hacer el examen más corto no son viables en Colorado porque ya el estado acortó bastante los exámenes CMAS en el 2018. Administrar el examen completo en grados alternos dará más datos válidos de qué tan bien los estudiantes están cumpliendo las expectativas académicas.

“Esto es un acuerdo razonable que ojalá resuelva la necesidad de tener datos de los estudiantes y a la misma vez reconocer los muchos, muchos intereses en competencia que las escuelas tienen que cumplir para satisfacer las necesidades académicas, sociales y emocionales de sus estudiantes — y de sus maestros,” dijo ella.

Cómo el estado usa la información dependerá en gran parte de quién participe, dijo Zurkowski, no solamente de cuántos estudiantes, sino también si representan bien todos los trasfondos raciales y étnicos de Colorado, a los discapacitados, y a quieres provienen de hogares bajo el índice de pobreza.

Andrew Ho, profesor y experto en exámenes de la Escuela Graduada de Educación de Harvard, dijo que darles exámenes a los estudiantes en cada materia en años alternos es un balance adecuado entre el deseo de tener información sobre el aprendizaje y el deseo de reducir un poco la carga de dar exámenes.

Una estrategia así proporcionaría suficiente información para saber cuáles escuelas están batallando más ahora que hace dos años, dijo él, lo cual debería ser el propósito principal de los exámenes ahora. Los padres perderían la oportunidad de ver un cuadro más completo sobre el desempeño de sus hijos, pero los que formulan políticas podrían ver dónde se necesita más ayuda.

Ho enfatizó que para tener una idea precisa de eso, los estados necesitan cambiar cómo analizan y reportan los datos de los exámenes, en particular porque el porcentaje de estudiantes que no los tomarán será mayor y decenas de miles de estudiantes no están en los sistemas escolares.

Al mismo tiempo, dijo Ho, Colorado debe determinar cómo resolverá las brechas de aprendizaje identificadas por los exámenes, especialmente con los $1,200 millones en fondos federales que recibirán las escuelas K-12 del estado mediante el último plan de alivio del Congreso por el coronavirus. Las escuelas que estén teniendo dificultades podrían recibir mucho más apoyo financiero.

Sin un plan así, Ho dijo que él no ve el punto de dar exámenes.

“Esta es una situación de ‘o lo aceptas o te callas’ para los defensores de los exámenes educativos,” dijo Ho. “La teoría es convincente y la oportunidad está ahí, pero ellos necesitan un plan porque hay mucha desconfianza.”

El reportero nacional de Chalkbeat Matt Barnum aportó a este reportaje.

Traducción por Milly Suazo.

Te presentamos a los ocho candidatos al consejo escolar de Denver

2023-10-12T09:54:44+00:00

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Ocho candidatos se están postulando para tres puestos vacantes en el consejo escolar de las Escuelas Públicas de Denver (DPS, por sus siglas en inglés).

Las elecciones llegan en un momento en el que muchos integrantes de la comunidad están preocupados por la seguridad en las escuelas y la violencia con armas de fuego, y en el que el distrito enfrenta la posibilidad de cerrar escuelas debido a que pocos estudiantes se están inscribiendo.

Los integrantes actuales del consejo han tenido dificultades para llevarse bien, y encuestas muestran que muchos residentes en Denver no confían en el consejo escolar.

Hay siete puestos en el consejo escolar, así que la mayoría no cambiará. Pero las elecciones podrían traer nuevas voces o resultar en que dos de los directores actuales, Scott Baldermann y Charmaine Lindsay, regresen para ocupar su puesto por un segundo plazo. Ninguno de los directores actuales se está postulando para el puesto at-large, en el cual se representa a todo el distrito.

Los tres puestos vacantes incluyen un puesto at-large, un puesto para el 1er Distrito, el cual representa al sudeste de Denver, y un puesto para el 5º Distrito, el cual representa al noroeste de Denver.

Les hicimos algunas preguntas a cada candidato al consejo escolar para que los votantes puedan informarse más sobre cada uno de los candidatos antes de votar. Lee las respuestas a continuación.

Para obtener más detalles sobre qué hacen los integrantes del consejo escolar, lee nuestra historia aquí.

Cuéntanos un poco sobre ti y cómo estás conectado/a con el distrito. ¿Cuánto tiempo has vivido en el distrito escolar? ¿Cuál es tu profesión?

Candidatos al puesto at-large (para representar a todo el distrito escolar)

Brittni Johnson: No respondió.

Kwame Spearman: La educación va más allá de un compromiso en nuestra familia; es un legado que empezó hace tres generaciones, con mi bisabuelo, director de una escuela en [el estado] segregado de Texas, y continuó con mi mamá, una educadora por 38 años aquí mismo en DPS. Como el hijo de una maestra de DPS y un [estudiante] graduado de DPS, sé personalmente dos cosas sobre DPS: su papel es apoyar a nuestros estudiantes, maestros y comunidad, y, en su mejor papel, DPS puede transformar vidas y resultados positivamente. Esto último es lo que me pasó a mí. DPS está en un momento decisivo. Necesitamos un tipo de experiencia diferente para ayudarnos a abordar la seguridad, la compensación de los maestros y nuestra brecha de logros. Veo un futuro donde el 100 por ciento de nuestros estudiantes de tercer grado puedan leer a nivel de grado, el 100 por ciento de nuestros estudiantes de high school se puedan graduar, y el 100 por ciento de nuestros estudiantes se sientan seguros en la escuela. Tengo la experiencia de vida, la visión y la determinación para guiar a DPS por los desafíos que enfrenta actualmente. Debido a mi postura política y método a favor de los maestros, también me respalda la Asociación de Maestros de Salones en Denver [(DCTA, por sus siglas en inglés)] y el sindicato AFL-CIO. Cuando eres el hijo de una maestra, abogar a favor de los estudiantes y maestros no es solo una promesa política; es profundamente personal. Creo que cada niño se merece una escuela en su vecindario que sea segura y garantice la excelencia de todos.

John Youngquist: Soy un [estudiante] graduado de DPS y un educador de toda la vida con 35 años de experiencia en DPS y distritos escolares en el área de Denver. He vivido en Denver por 46 años y tengo dos hijas que van a East High. Actualmente soy el director ejecutivo de operaciones para el Proyecto de Rescate y Apoyo para Pandillas y soy el presidente de PrincipalEd Consulting, donde apoyo a distritos y asesoro a líderes escolares y distritales.

1er Distrito

Scott Baldermann: Tengo dos estudiantes que van a su escuela de DPS en [nuestro] vecindario. He vivido en el distrito escolar desde 2002 y me crie en Aurora, Colorado. Este trayecto empezó para mí en 2016 cuando fui el presidente de la [Asociación de Padres y Maestros] en la Escuela Primaria Lincoln, y estuve muy involucrado en la huelga laboral de maestros en 2019. Mi título universitario es en arquitectura, y actualmente dirijo una pequeña compañía de software [enfocada] en la industria del ejercicio.

Kimberlee Sia: He sido educadora toda mi vida y apasionada por abogar a favor de la educación de calidad. Traigo más de 25 años de experiencia profesional, un sólido liderazgo ejecutivo y un profundo entendimiento sobre las diversas necesidades de los estudiantes, y una fuerte creencia en el poder de las colaboraciones. He interactuado con el distrito escolar como líder de una red escolar, como líder de organizaciones sin fines de lucro y como integrante de comités distritales y de los Consejos Colaborativos Escolares. También soy madre de dos estudiantes de DPS, un [estudiante de] cuarto grado y uno de séptimo grado, con diferentes necesidades de aprendizaje e intereses educativos, quienes han ido a escuelas de DPS desde el principio de sus trayectorias escolares. Mi familia y yo hemos vivido en Denver por 10 años. Profesionalmente, he sido maestra, directora, administradora a nivel distrito y la líder de una organización sin fines de lucro dedicada al desarrollo de los jóvenes. Actualmente, soy una asesora ejecutiva y consultora estratégica que trabaja en espacios educativos y sin fines de lucro.

5º Distrito

Marlene De La Rosa: Soy parte de la 4ª generación [de mi familia] en Denver, he vivido en el distrito la mayor parte de mi vida, y soy madre orgullosa de dos [estudiantes] graduados de DPS. He trabajado por más de tres décadas en los Tribunales de Inmigración del Departamento de Justicia de EE. UU. y recientemente me retiré como especialista en tribunales legales. Esto me ha ofrecido una extensa experiencia trabajando en una agencia que atiende al público [y] que trabaja con personas de diferentes orígenes culturales y socioeconómicos. Además, tengo décadas de experiencia participando en mi comunidad ofreciendo servicios en North e East High School, el Consejo Asesor de Educación Hispana de DPS, el Consejo Asesor de Padres de DPS, el Círculo de Líderes Latinas y, más recientemente, como la persona nombrada por el alcalde al consejo asesor del [Departamento de] Parques y Actividades Recreativas. Mis más de 20 años como voluntaria en DPS siempre se han enfocado en mejorar los resultados académicos de cada estudiante de DPS, al igual que en dedicarme a la participación de los padres y la comunidad.

Charmaine Lindsay: He vivido en el vecindario de Baker por 28 años. En junio de 2022, tuve el honor de ser elegida para representar al 5º Distrito como integrante del consejo de las Escuelas Públicas de Denver. Ser elegida por encima de los otros candidatos, altamente calificados e impresionantes, me otorga una gran responsabilidad hacia las padres y estudiantes del 5º Distrito y de todo DPS. Mi única motivación era y es promover el éxito de los niños de DPS. He sido una abogada practicante en Colorado desde 1996. Mi enfoque principal es en leyes familiares, y la mayoría de mis clientes son [personas con] bajos ingresos. He pasado mi carrera legal lidiando con el sistema de servicios sociales y tengo experiencia representando a niños y padres en tribunales familiares y [en casos] de negligencia. También defiendo en casos de desalojos y cobranzas, principalmente sin cobrar. Tengo un certificado en Resoluciones Alternativas de Disputas de la Universidad de Denver, y soy mediadora certificada y tengo experiencia y creo en la justicia reparadora.

Adam Slutzker: Soy padre de tres niños en edad escolar (3 años, 6 años y 8 años). He vivido en el noroeste de Denver desde 2019, pero he sido residente de Denver desde 2009. Tengo una maestría en educación (énfasis en matemáticas y ciencias en educación primaria) de la Universidad de Colorado en Denver y enseñé en escuelas primarias del Condado de Jefferson de 2010 a 2014. Me desempeñé los 2 últimos años como presidente del CSC. Entre 2014 y 2022, trabajé independientemente como agente de bienes raíces, carpintero y contratista y enfoqué gran parte de mi tiempo en ser el padre principal ya que mi esposa estaba cursando estudios graduados y ha seguido trabajando como enfermera practicante. Actualmente soy gerente de proyectos en un estudio de diseño en arquitectura. Nota de la editora: CSC significa Comité Colaborativo Escolar, por sus siglas en inglés, el cual es un grupo de padres, maestros e integrantes de la comunidad que ayuda en el proceso para tomar decisiones en una escuela.

¿Cuál crees que es el mayor problema que las Escuelas Públicas de Denver enfrentan y cómo esperas tener un impacto en ese problema como integrante del consejo escolar?

Candidatos al puesto at-large (para representar a todo el distrito escolar)

Brittni Johnson: No respondió.

Kwame Spearman: La seguridad es nuestro mayor problema singular—pero nuestras inquietudes de seguridad corren paralelas a un problema igualmente grande: tenemos una crisis de confianza en nuestro consejo actual y los líderes de DPS. Este problema naturalmente influye en todos los asuntos en cuestión en DPS, y presenta una amenaza para nuestra habilidad de tener escuelas seguras. Para recobrar la confianza, DPS debe demostrar que podemos enfocarnos en los logros de los estudiantes y el éxito de los maestros en lugar de las peleas internas, la arrogancia política y las redes sociales. Debemos innovar para resolver la epidemia de la salud mental juvenil, contratar maestros dedicados a la educación especial y negros, indígenas y personas de color [(BIPOC, por sus siglas en inglés]] y reducir el tamaño de las clases, para que nuestros maestros puedan apoyar mejor a los estudiantes. Este nivel de innovación en todo el distrito solo puede lograrse con un liderazgo cohesivo. Ayudaré a construir un consejo cohesivo para que podamos reemplazar los carteles que dicen “Renuncien DPS” con el optimismo de que podemos tener un distrito que nuevamente sea líder en el país.

John Youngquist: El rediseño de los sistemas de seguridad y salud mental es el problema más apremiante que DPS enfrenta actualmente. Como un director [escolar] con 18 años de experiencia, sé que abordar las inquietudes de seguridad y salud mental es vital para la participación de nuestros niños, y que debemos implementar medidas ahora. Tendré un impacto en [este problema] al obligar al superintendente a que: cree un acuerdo formal con la Policía de Denver y otros colaboradores de seguridad en mis primeros 60 días en el consejo; requiera que las voces de los estudiantes, padres y directores estén presentes en un rediseño completo de las pautas disciplinarias de DPS; indique que se aumenten significativamente los servicios para la salud mental en las escuelas y recomiende que se tripliquen las Clínicas de Salud Escolares; y, requiera un rediseño de los servicios para la salud mental en el distrito con medidas innovadoras como una adaptación de los sistemas de Respuesta de Apoyo Asistido en Equipo [(STAR, por sus siglas en inglés)] de Denver en las instalaciones escolares.

1er Distrito

Scott Baldermann: El mayor problema que el distrito enfrenta es la reducción en los estudiantes inscritos. Está causando que se desvíen fondos de los salones de clases en todo el distrito. El problema nace por la reducción en las tasas de nacimiento a partir de 2014. Cuando los edificios no se usan eficientemente, el tamaño de las clases aumenta, y los fondos se invierten en la administración duplicada. También hace que otros programas y servicios, como el transporte en autobuses amarillos, sean más costos y menos eficientes. Estas ineficiencias inevitablemente resultan en recortes del presupuesto en todo el distrito.

Kimberlee Sia: Mi prioridad principal para el distrito es implementar iniciativas relacionadas con la seguridad y el bienestar de los estudiantes, incluidos recursos para la enseñanza socioemocional, tener niveles de personal dedicado a servicios para la salud mental que cubran las necesidades de todos los estudiantes, asegurar que medidas preventivas como la implementación de prácticas reparadoras reciban fondos completos y tengan empleados en todas las escuelas, y asegurar que los protocolos y las prioridades de seguridad se implementen y monitoreen completamente para asegurar el éxito e identificar las brechas. Los resultados académicos de los estudiantes mejorarán si nos centramos en apoyar la salud mental, crear un sentido de pertenencia en la escuela, y abordar proactivamente las inquietudes de seguridad. La seguridad de los estudiantes es de suma importancia e incluye la seguridad social y emocional además de la seguridad física.

5o Distrito

Marlene De La Rosa: El rendimiento académico según se ve reflejado en la brecha de logros es el mayor problema que el distrito enfrenta actualmente. Denver tiene la brecha de logros más amplia entre todas las ciudades en el estado y eso es algo que no podemos aceptar. Casi un tercio de los estudiantes en el 5º Distrito son estudiantes multilingües, y el distrito debería tomar en consideración el crecimiento académico a lo largo del tiempo al igual que cubrir las necesidades específicas del niño completo. Aseguraré que estemos examinando el crecimiento académico, al igual que el rendimiento. Además, aseguraré que estemos proporcionando los recursos necesarios para las necesidades del niño completo, incluidos aquellos con desafíos en el aprendizaje. También tenemos que avanzar en la identificación de estudiantes que se puedan colocar en clases de educación avanzada.

Charmaine Lindsay: Durante las más de 20 visitas a escuelas que realicé este último año, la mayor inquietud que los líderes escolares expresaron fue cómo la pandemia había afectado las habilidades básicas de lectura y matemáticas. Como integrante del consejo escolar, planeo hacer que esto sea una prioridad al identificar áreas donde se necesitan más recursos y al continuar visitando las escuelas y colaborando con los maestros y padres. Necesitamos cerrar la brecha de logros para que nuestros estudiantes más marginados puedan triunfar.

Adam Slutzker: abordar la disminución de estudiantes inscritos y los cierres de las escuelas: Trabajaría para asegurar que los cierres de escuelas sean bien pensados y que estemos examinando cuidadosamente cuáles son las comunidades afectadas y tratemos de tomar esas decisiones difíciles de la manera más equitativa posible en todo el distrito.

El consejo escolar volvió a poner agentes armados en las escuelas de DPS después de un tiroteo adentro de East High este año. ¿Estás de acuerdo con esa decisión? ¿Cómo debe DPS garantizar que los estudiantes estén seguros?

Nota de la editora: En sus respuestas, muchos candidatos mencionan “SRO”. SRO son las siglas en inglés que se usan para describir a agentes armados de seguridad. Los SRO son agentes de la policía de la ciudad asignados adentro de las escuelas.

Candidatos al puesto at-large (para representar a todo el distrito escolar)

Brittni Johnson: No respondió.

Kwame Spearman: Nunca debimos haber sacado a los SRO de las escuelas sin un plan claro sobre cómo asegurar que los estudiantes y maestros estuvieran seguros sin ellos. Apoyo [la presencia de] SRO en las escuelas en este momento, como lo hacen el 70 por ciento de nuestros residentes. Para seguir avanzando, debemos reimaginar el papel que los SRO desempeñan para prevenir la criminalización y acoso injusto de estudiantes negros y latinos. A la vez que creamos estrategias para asegurar que nuestras escuelas sean [lugares] seguros, también creo que debemos esforzarnos por sacar todas las armas de fuego de las escuelas y trabajar para [crear] una realidad donde podamos mantener seguras nuestras escuelas sin agentes armados de seguridad. También necesitamos reinvertir en entornos alternativos de aprendizaje para los estudiantes de DPS que no están creando problemas serios de disciplina ni enfrentando cargos penales. Cada estudiante se merece una educación maravillosa en DPS, pero debemos aceptar que se necesitan diferentes entornos de aprendizaje para apoyar individualmente a los estudiantes y a nuestras escuelas en general.

John Youngquist: En noviembre, 2021, le escribí mi primer mensaje electrónico al superintendente porque no había una respuesta a las muchas amenazas en mi escuela y otras. Se ignoraron cuatro cartas más hasta que, después de más de un año, a un niño le dispararon y después murió. Después de que a dos más integrantes del personal les dispararan, la única medida tomada fue que regresaran los SRO. Sí, estoy de acuerdo con la decisión de que regresen los SRO porque el consejo y el superintendente siguen fracasando para tomar otras medidas. Hasta un nuevo “Plan de seguridad a largo plazo” incluye pocas ideas nuevas y está fracasando en su implementación inicial. Con SRO presentes como socios necesarios, debemos obligar a DPS para que cree e implemente finalmente un plan de seguridad que incluya: un acuerdo sólido con nuestros socios externos de seguridad; el fortalecimiento de la cultura, el comportamiento y los sistemas de salud mental en las escuelas; la capacitación y el apoyo de nuestros profesionales que atienden a nuestros estudiantes cada día.

1er Distrito

Scott Baldermann: Desarrollé [la versión] borrador de la norma para el regreso de los agentes armados de seguridad, la cual se aprobó en 2023. Sí, apoyo que regresen con un énfasis en que los SRO establezcan relaciones positivas con los estudiantes y seguridad—no la disciplina que la administración escolar puede abordar. Debemos priorizar el desarrollo del carácter a temprana edad y proporcionar más servicios integrales para los estudiantes que se desvían del camino. Necesitamos que el estado y la ciudad aumenten los fondos para ayudar a lograr esto. En el caso en el que a un estudiante lo acusen de un crimen violento, el estudiante debería recibir aún más servicios integrales y se debería colocar al estudiante en un entorno de aprendizaje alternativo, como asistir a clases por Zoom, a una escuela virtual o a una de las escuelas pathway del distrito, para que continúe su educación y retome el camino. (Nota de la editora: DPS tiene 22 escuelas pathway. Estas escuelas de educación media y high schools ofrecen a los estudiantes que no están avanzando para graduarse una opción diferente para que logren hacerlo.)

Kimberlee Sia: Estoy de acuerdo con la decisión del consejo de volver a colocar agentes armados de seguridad (SRO) en algunas escuelas de DPS. Los SRO tienen la oportunidad de ser integrantes clave de la comunidad escolar, y deben participar en capacitación en las escuelas relacionada con la cultura escolar y del personal, medidas de seguridad escolar, participación familiar y comunitaria y procedimientos y expectativas escolares. DPS debe asegurar que los estudiantes estén seguros al crear entornos acogedores y alentadores y promover un sentido de pertenencia entre todos los integrantes de la comunidad. Esto se puede hacer al proporcionarle al personal escolar capacitación en prácticas reparadoras y la escalera y matriz disciplinarias, proporcionar apoyos fuertes para la salud mental en cada escuela que ayuden a identificar y abordar los riesgos potenciales y creen un entorno favorable para los estudiantes, y designar recursos para financiar y contratar personal de programas socioemocionales que aseguren medidas preventivas más sólidas en cada escuela.

5º Distrito

Marlene De La Rosa: Apoyo la decisión actual del consejo de que regresen los SRO a las escuelas. DPS debe continuar monitoreando un plan integral de seguridad para incluir la intervención temprana en las necesidades de la salud socioemocional de los estudiantes, fortaleciendo las medidas de seguridad, cámaras, puntos de acceso, un programa de Safe2Tell y capacitación regular sobre seguridad para los empleados, los estudiantes y las familias. Monitorear las modificaciones que el distrito hizo en la matriz disciplinaria para enfocarse en la intervención temprana y en alternativas a infracciones por ciertas ofensas. Examinar los informes trimestrales de infracciones para asegurar que no haya desigualdades raciales/étnicas. DPS debe asegurar que toda la comunidad escolar sepa sobre el plan de seguridad integral, también interactuar con la comunidad para que los padres sepan que sus hijos están y se sienten tan seguros como sea posible. La decisión actual del Consejo de organizar una reunión crucial sobre seguridad ocultándola como una Sesión Ejecutiva, al igual que su decisión de limitar los comentarios del público, fueron simplemente malas [decisiones] y resultan en que se confíe menos en nuestras escuelas.

Charmaine Lindsay: La seguridad de los maestros, los niños y el personal es mi prioridad. Me siento orgullosa de haber liderado la votación para que regresaran los agentes armados de seguridad a las escuelas. Las pláticas iniciales fueron de 6 a 1 que se oponían a que regresaran permanentemente los SRO. El voto final para que regresaran fue 4 a 3. Mi título en justicia penal combinado con mi experiencia como abogada en leyes familiares abogando a favor de niños con bajos ingresos me ayudan a examinar todas las partes de un problema de seguridad. Trabajaré de cerca con DPS para monitorear a los SRO y prevenir los abusos que han ocurrido en el pasado. Soy una defensora de los derechos de los estudiantes y reconozco el impacto desproporcionado que esas normas han tenido en los estudiantes de color.

Adam Slutzker: Si sigue[n] siendo financiado[s] por la oficina del alcalde, estoy dispuesto a colaborar con los SRO siempre y cuando estén bien capacitados en el trabajo que se espera de ellos. Generalmente hablando, no creo que sean la mejor fuente para mantener seguros a nuestros estudiantes y preferiría ver que se invierta más dinero en servicios sociales y para la salud mental.

Melanie Asmar es reportera senior de Chalkbeat Colorado y cubre las Escuelas Públicas de Denver. Para comunicarte con Melanie, escríbele a masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Cierre de escuelas: Cómo Denver, Jeffco y Aurora están abordando la decisión

2022-11-10T13:54:01+00:00

Read in English.

Tres de los distritos escolares más grandes de Colorado — Denver, Jeffco y Aurora — están enfrentando el mismo problema: reducción en el número de estudiantes. Pero cada uno está manejando las decisiones de cuáles escuelas cerrar de manera diferente.

El distrito de Aurora ya ha cerrado ocho escuelas en los últimos dos años, y algunas todavía están en proceso de cierre. Los miembros de la junta escolar han luchado con las decisiones, votando inicialmente en contra de dos recomendaciones de cierre este año antes de cambiar su voto.

Ahora el distrito está iniciando un proceso para averiguar qué hacer con los edificios vacíos, incluso cuando es posible que haya más cierres.

En Jeffco, después de cerrar dos escuelas abruptamente en los últimos dos años, una nueva administración recomendó cerrar 16 escuelas primarias todas a la vez al final de este año escolar. La junta escolar de Jeffco tiene prevista una votación sobre esta recomendación el jueves. Es probable que el distrito también recomiende el cierre de escuelas intermedias o secundarias el próximo año.

Denver ha iniciado, pausado y reiniciado un proceso de cierre de escuelas en los últimos dos años. Finalmente, el superintendente recomendó cerrar 10 escuelas primarias y secundarias al final de este año escolar. La junta escolar de Denver tiene previsto votar el 17 de noviembre.

Los padres tienen muchas preguntas sobre estas decisiones: ¿Cómo se selecciona cuál escuela cerrar? ¿Por qué algunos distritos están cerrando tantas escuelas a la vez? ¿Por qué los distritos escolares no tienen en cuenta los aspectos académicos o el papel que desempeñan las escuelas en sus comunidades?

A continuación, contestamos algunas de las preguntas más comunes y explicamos las diferencias de enfoque entre los tres distritos.

¿Qué factores tuvieron en cuenta los distritos a la hora de seleccionar las escuelas que iban a cerrar?

Denver y Jeffco basaron su decisión mayormente en el número de estudiantes, mientras que Aurora tuvo en cuenta una serie de factores, entre ellos de qué manera se podrían reutilizar los edificios escolares.

En Denver y Jeffco, se consideraron para cierre las escuelas con muy pocos estudiantes: menos de 215 en Denver y menos de 220 en Jeffco.

Los líderes de ambos distritos también consideraron si otra escuela o escuelas situadas a pocas millas de distancia podrían acoger a los estudiantes de la escuela cerrada. Por ejemplo, Denver decidió no cerrar cuatro escuelas pequeñas porque los funcionarios dijeron que no hay ninguna escuela en un radio de 2 millas que pueda recibir a sus estudiantes.

También se consideraron otros factores. En Denver, los administradores querían asegurar que los estudiantes que hablan español pudieran continuar su educación bilingüe o en dos idiomas. Y en Jeffco, los administradores también tuvieron en cuenta la cantidad de espacio del edificio que se está utilizando.

Aurora, que inició su proceso de cierre de escuelas en 2018, adoptó un enfoque diferente. El distrito creó siete regiones y se fijó en las tendencias de matrícula en cada zona, cuántos edificios el distrito podría necesitar, y qué edificios podrían albergar nuevos programas magnet o utilizarse para otros fines.

Una de las razones por las que la comunidad y la junta escolar ayudaron a Aurora a seleccionar este método es porque el distrito está perdiendo estudiantes en algunas regiones, mientras que está añadiendo nuevas subdivisiones en el este de la ciudad. Los líderes vieron una oportunidad de combinar el cierre de escuelas con un plan estratégico más amplio.

¿Por qué Denver y Jeffco están cerrando tantas escuelas a la vez?

La baja en matrícula no es un problema nuevo. Los líderes de Denver y Jeffco dicen que retrasar las decisiones en el pasado ha llevado a las escuelas a carecer de los recursos necesarios para atender bien a los estudiantes, a pesar de contar con subsidios presupuestarios substanciales. Jeffco también quiere evitar decisiones de emergencia que dejen a las familias en apuros, como ocurrió en las escuelas primarias Allendale y Fitzmorris.

Tanto en Denver como en Jeffco, los superintendentes le han pedido a la junta escolar que haga una votación de las recomendaciones de cierre como un paquete: todas las escuelas o ninguna.

“Creemos que resolver esto rápidamente apoyará a nuestra comunidad escolar para que haga algo realmente difícil y luego siga adelante para crear experiencias más prósperas para nuestros estudiantes”, dijo la Superintendente de Jeffco, Tracy Dorland.

Los líderes de Jeffco también dijeron que querían evitar tomar decisiones de cierre cada año, dejando a las familias preocupadas durante mucho tiempo. En Aurora, un proceso más largo con años de participación de la comunidad todavía dejó a las familias frustradas y sorprendidas por las recomendaciones de cierre.

Sin embargo, el superintendente de Aurora, Rico Munn, dijo que trabajar en fases permite que el distrito lleve cuenta del impacto.

“Es un campo muy dinámico en el que estamos hablando sobre matrícula y cambios demográficos, en particular después de la pandemia”, dijo Munn. “Queríamos detenernos y reflexionar durante el proceso”.

Este otoño, el distrito reabrió dos escuelas como escuelas magnet y está comenzando a llevar cuenta de cómo el interés en esas escuelas podría afectar la matrícula en toda la región y el distrito. Pero es demasiado pronto para saberlo, dijo Munn.

¿Por qué no se ha tenido en cuenta el aspecto académico?

El cierre de escuelas basado en los resultados académicos y de los exámenes ya no cuenta con el visto bueno político, y ninguno de los distritos tuvo en cuenta el desempeño para decidir qué escuelas cerrar y cuáles salvar.

En Aurora, el superintendente Munn dijo que el estado ya tiene un sistema de rendición de cuentas que registra el desempeño académico de las escuelas y puede emitir órdenes, entre ellas el cierre, como consecuencia cuando una escuela no mejora. “Pero no había interés en crear un segundo sistema”, dijo.

Sin embargo, eso ha hecho que los padres y la comunidad tengan preguntas: ¿Por qué cerrar escuelas que están funcionando para los estudiantes?

¿Qué pueden hacer las comunidades escolares para frenar los cierres?

No mucho, parece.

En los tres distritos, los administradores han tratado de evitar situaciones en las que los padres, los maestros y los miembros de la comunidad se unan para salvar sus escuelas.

En Aurora, los miembros de la junta escolar cedieron ante la presión pública y rechazaron dos recomendaciones de cierre, aunque cambiaron de parecer dos meses después.

Los miembros de la junta, cuya mayoría aún no habían sido elegidos cuando se puso en marcha el plan Blueprint de Aurora, se preguntaron por qué el distrito no tenía en cuenta la participación de los padres en su escuela o cómo una escuela encajaba en su comunidad al momento de hacer recomendaciones de cierre.

Munn dijo que no sería justo considerar la participación de la comunidad. Los padres que tienen varios trabajos pueden amar su escuela, pero no pueden asistir a las reuniones. Las escuelas más grandes pueden lograr que más padres luchen contra el cierre.

“Todos queríamos evitar que las comunidades escolares pelearan entre sí”, dijo Munn. “No conviene crear una competencia de popularidad”

Denver y Jeffco han seguido en gran medida el ejemplo de Aurora en este sentido, y es una de las razones por las a los miembros de la junta se les está pidiendo que aprueben los cierres como un paquete de escuelas, en vez de una por una.

Dorland, superintendente de Jeffco, llegó a decir que la participación de la comunidad no cambiará el resultado. En Denver, sin embargo, algunos miembros de la junta escolar parecieron sentirse preocupados por la falta de oportunidades para que las comunidades se involucraran en las decisiones para cerrar una escuela individual.

¿Cómo ha influido la comunidad en la toma de decisiones?

De los tres distritos, Aurora tuvo el proceso de participación comunitaria más amplio. Pero en los tres, los administradores tuvieron la última decisión de qué escuelas recomendar para el cierre.

Ahora los líderes de Denver y Jeffco están pidiendo la opinión de los padres y maestros sobre cómo ayudar a que la transición ocurra sin problemas, un enfoque que ha causado ira y frustración.

Aurora inició en 2018 la planificación de lo que se convirtió en Blueprint con consultores que ayudaron con encuestas, grupos de discusión y reuniones en la comunidad. El distrito concluyó que las familias querían más opciones escolares, pero que esas opciones debían ser escuelas del distrito, no escuelas chárter.

El distrito creó regiones con especializaciones únicas y está desarrollando nuevas escuelas magnet que se ajusten a esos temas. La necesidad de cerrar escuelas (o de usarlas con otros fines) estuvo presente en este proceso desde el principio, aunque no todos los miembros de la comunidad lo entendieron así. El distrito no tuvo mucha resistencia en las primeras rondas de cierres de escuelas. Este año los padres resistieron, pero finalmente no tuvieron éxito.

Denver convocó a grupos comunitarios a partir de 2017. El Strengthening Neighborhoods Committee se reunió con la meta de combatir la segregación en las escuelas y abordar los efectos de la gentrificación. Una de sus recomendaciones fue tener un “proceso transparente de consolidación de escuelas” que les permitiera a las comunidades “reimaginar” sus propias escuelas.

Un segundo comité formado este año, llamado Declining Enrollment Advisory Committe, estableció criterios de cierre de escuelas que fueron aplicados a la recomendación más reciente. Pero los miembros del comité estaban divididos porque muchos querían hablar de evitar la necesidad de cerrar escuelas, un tema que los administradores del distrito dijeron que no estaba sobre la mesa.

Ahora la participación de la comunidad de Denver se ha transferido a las escuelas individuales. Cada director de escuela está explicándole la recomendación a su comunidad escolar y haciendo todo lo posible por contestar las preguntas, una estrategia que el Superintendente Alex Marrero describió como “íntima e intensa”

“Creo que la gente que conocen, quieren y adoran, y que siguen, es la que puede decirles: ‘Ok, este es el plan y se necesita por esta razón”, dijo Marrero.

La junta escolar de Denver también organizará una sesión de comentarios públicos el 14 de noviembre.

En Jeffco, Dorland dejó claro que los comentarios de la comunidad no cambiarán las recomendaciones. El propósito de la participación de la comunidad era para determinar qué necesitan las familias para superar la transición.

De todos modos, cada escuela que se va a cerrar ha tenido una sesión de comentarios públicos de una hora con la junta escolar, lo cual es un total de por lo menos 16 horas de comentarios públicos.

Pero en un informe del grupo de consultores que dirige ese trabajo, quedó claro que las familias no estaban contentas. Muchos todavía querían hablar de las recomendaciones y obtener más respuestas a sus preguntas, y el Keystone Policy Center dijo que habían encontrado mucha desinformación y falta de confianza en el proceso.

¿Cómo decidieron los distritos el plazo para informar a los padres?

De los tres distritos, el proceso de Denver es el más breve, con poco más de tres semanas entre el anuncio de la recomendación el 25 de octubre y la votación programada para el 17 de noviembre. Si la junta vota que sí, las 10 escuelas cerrarían al final de este año escolar.

Pero Marrero, superintendente de Denver, argumentó que el proceso en realidad comenzó en junio de 2021 cuando la junta escolar aprobó una resolución que le ordena al superintendente consolidar las escuelas pequeñas.

La junta necesita votar este mes para que haya tiempo suficiente para poner en marcha el plan del próximo otoño, dijo Marrero. También dijo que detener el proceso haría que los estudiantes y el personal huyeran de las escuelas recomendadas para el cierre, empeorando la pérdida de matrícula.

En Jeffco, las familias tendrán más tiempo que en cierres de emergencia anteriores.

Por ejemplo, cuando el distrito cerró Allendale y Fitzmorris, las familias se les informó a las familias en la primavera, cuando faltaban pocas semanas para que terminara el año escolar y la escuela cerrara.

Las familias se perdieron la primera ronda para inscribirse en la escuela de su preferencia, y el distrito trabajó individualmente con las familias para asignar a los estudiantes a otra escuela para el próximo año escolar. Esta vez, la votación de la junta el 10 de noviembre está programada antes de que el distrito empiece su proceso del año para matricularse en la escuela de preferencia. Si las familias quieren elegir una escuela diferente a la que recomienda el distrito, pueden hacerlo.

Aurora también ha aumentado el plazo entre las recomendaciones y los cierres.

En la primera ronda de cierres que se decidió por votación en enero de 2021, la primera escuela cerró en junio de 2021 y las demás se irán eliminando poco a poco. En la segunda ronda de cierres, la junta votó en la primavera de 2022 y las escuelas cerrarán al final del año escolar 2022-23.

¿Los distritos han tenido en cuenta cuántos estudiantes podrían tener en el futuro?

Sí. Los tres distritos usaron un análisis que incluye factores como tasas de natalidad, desarrollo de vivienda y movilidad para pronosticar las tendencias en la población en edad escolar.

En Denver, el análisis más reciente, hecho esta última primavera, muestra que la ciudad tiene menos niños ahora que hace una década. La tasa de nacimientos está bajando más rápido entre las familias hispanas, y el distrito pronostica que eso “tendrá un impacto negativo significativo” en la matrícula. Actualmente, un poco más de la mitad de los casi 90,000 estudiantes de las escuelas públicas de Denver son hispanos.

El análisis también señala que la mayoría de las viviendas planificadas o permitidas son condominios, apartamentos y townhomes, que históricamente representan menos estudiantes que las casas de familia. Sin embargo, algunos miembros de la comunidad y hasta organizaciones como la casi municipal Autoridad de la Vivienda de Denver están cuestionando las proyecciones de Denver.

En Jeffco, un análisis similar presentado ante la junta escolar el miércoles demostró que los estudiantes que proceden de familias en pobreza están abandonando el distrito en mayor proporción que los estudiantes más acomodados. Los dos códigos de salida más comunes que registra el distrito muestran que los estudiantes se están mudando a otros distritos o a otro estado. Los líderes del distrito dijeron que sospechan que la falta de vivienda asequible está expulsando a las familias.

En Aurora, se proyecta que la cantidad de estudiantes crecerá de nuevo, pero no necesariamente en las mismas comunidades que antes.

En el este del distrito están surgiendo nuevas áreas de vivienda, que podrían requerir nuevas escuelas. Las escuelas en el oeste del distrito, más cerca de Denver, siguen experimentando un fuerte descenso porque el alto costo de la vivienda hace que las familias se vayan.

Originalmente, los líderes de Aurora esperaban que la matrícula comenzara a aumentar en 2021, pero el superintendente Munn dijo que la pandemia aceleró las bajas en el oeste, cambiando la expectativa. Todavía se espera un crecimiento, pero el distrito está observando de cerca los datos para analizar cuándo podría ocurrir.

Melanie Asmar es reportera senior de Chalkbeat Colorado, y cubre las Escuelas Públicas de Denver. Para comunicarte con Melanie, escríbele a masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Yesenia Robles es reportera para Chalkbeat Colorado y cubre asuntos relacionados con los distritos escolares K-12 y la educación multilingüe. Para comunicarte con Yesenia, envíale un mensaje a yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

El superintendente del DPS propone un plan para invertir en cuatro iniciativas

2022-05-12T17:35:22+00:00

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Los millones de dólares que las Escuelas Públicas de Denver (DPS) ahorrarán al recortar los empleados de la oficina central se gastarán en cuatro iniciativas, incluyendo la creación de “centros comunitarios” para proporcionar servicios a las familias, tales como clases de GED, apoyo a la salud mental y ayuda con la colocación de empleo.

Eso es lo que dice el plan presentado por el superintendente Alex Marrero en una reunión del consejo escolar el 5 de mayo. Dos días antes, el 3 de mayo, el distrito dijo a 131 empleados de la oficina central que sus puestos de trabajo iban a ser recortados. Debido a que algunos puestos están siendo reubicados, en algunos casos con nuevos títulos de trabajo, la reducción neta de los puestos de la oficina central es de 76, dijo un portavoz del distrito.

La eliminación de esos 76 puestos ahorrará al distrito 9 millones de dólares el próximo año, dijeron los funcionarios. El presupuesto total del distrito es de unos 1.200 millones de dólares.

Marrero dijo a la junta escolar que planea invertir esos 9 millones de dólares en:

Abrir seis centros comunitarios este otoño en asociación con la ciudad de Denver y organizaciones comunitarias, incluyendo la Autoridad de Vivienda de Denver, el Comité Organizador de Montbello, Westwood Unidos, y otros. Los centros comunitarios utilizarían un enfoque de dos generaciones, prestando servicios a los jóvenes estudiantes y a sus familias.

Estos servicios podrían incluir asistencia para cubrir necesidades básicas como la alimentación, la ropa y la vivienda; ayuda para el desarrollo de la mano de obra, como la elaboración de currículos y la preparación de entrevistas; clases de GED, ciudadanía e inglés; y servicios de salud mental para adultos, entre otras cosas.

Marrero dijo que aún no se ha decidido la ubicación de los centros comunitarios, pero espera que haya uno en cada región de la ciudad. Las ubicaciones serán probablemente temporales, ya que el distrito pilotará los centros el próximo año escolar, dijo.

Aumentar los salarios de los trabajadores por hora, incluidos los paraprofesionales, los trabajadores del servicio de alimentos, los conserjes, los técnicos de salud que ayudan en las oficinas de las enfermeras escolares, y otros. Marrero dijo que alrededor de 1.200 empleados del distrito ganan actualmente el salario mínimo de la ciudad de $ 15,87, y esta inversión aumentaría eso, aunque no dijo por cuánto. El objetivo, dijo, es aumentar los salarios con el tiempo a 20 dólares por hora, una prioridad del vicepresidente de la junta Tay Anderson.

Compensar el aumento de los gastos de salud de todos los empleados del distrito. Las primas de los planes de salud más grandes del distrito aumentaron un 10% este año, dijo Marrero. El distrito tiene la intención de utilizar algunos de los ahorros de la oficina central para pagar eso para que los empleados no tengan que asumir el costo total.

Apoyar a las escuelas con disminución de la matrícula complementando sus presupuestos. Las escuelas de Denver se financian por estudiante, y menos estudiantes significan menos dinero para contratar a profesores y otro personal. Mientras el distrito debate cómo cerrar o consolidar las escuelas pequeñas, Marrero dijo que este dinero ayudaría a las escuelas a capear los descensos de financiación.

La presentación de Marrero no especificó cómo se dividirán los 9 millones de dólares entre las cuatro iniciativas. La junta escolar está programada para votar el presupuesto del próximo año a principios de junio.

Melanie Asmar es reportera senior de Chalkbeat Colorado, y cubre las escuelas públicas de Denver. Para comunicarte con Melanie, envíale un mensaje a masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Traducido por Juan Carlos Uribe, The Weekly Issue/El Semanario.

El próximo año habrá comidas gratis en la mayoría de los distritos escolares de Colorado. ¿El tuyo será uno de ellos?

2022-12-19T18:09:11+00:00

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Muchos distritos escolares de Colorado, entre ellos Jeffco, Cherry Creek, Aurora y Adams 14, tienen planes de ofrecer comidas gratis a todos los estudiantes a partir del otoño de 2023 con un programa estatal nuevo. Este programa será financiado con un impuesto aprobado por los electores y que afectará solamente a las personas con un alto nivel de ingresos.

Chalkbeat hizo una encuesta entre dos docenas de distritos, y 16 de ellos planean tener un plan universal de comidas gratis para todos los estudiantes el próximo año. Algunos distritos todavía no han decidido, y estos incluyen dos de los más grandes de Colorado — Denver y Douglas County.

Brehan Riley, director de nutrición escolar del Departamento de Educación de Colorado, dijo lo siguiente acerca de los funcionarios de los distritos escolares: “Parece que a muchos les interesa, pero todavía no están seguros. Quieren entender el programa un poco más.”

El programa, llamado Healthy School Meals for All, tiene como propósito asegurar que los estudiantes obtengan la nutrición necesaria para aprender y eliminar el estigma que a veces se asocia con el método actual que se usa para determinar quién recibirá comidas gratuitas (según los ingresos).

La iniciativa fue aprobada justo después de dos años en los que el gobierno federal eliminó los requisitos de elegibilidad basada en ingresos, y ahora permite que las escuelas les ofrezcan desayunos y almuerzos gratuitos a todos los estudiantes. Los requisitos volverían a aplicarse este otoño, pero los legisladores y defensores encontraron una manera de volver a tener comidas gratuitas el próximo año pidiéndoles a los electores de Colorado que aprobaran una asignación de fondos nueva con la Propuesta FF.

Los electores dijeron que sí.

La medida generará más de $100 millones al año reduciendo las deducciones de impuestos disponibles para las familias con ingresos de $300,000 o más.

A muchos funcionarios de distrito les entusiasma la idea de alimentar más estudiantes, tal como lo hicieron durante los dos primeros años de la pandemia. Cuando las comidas eran gratis gracias a la eliminación de los requisitos de elegibilidad, los administradores de Boulder Valley vieron un 40% de aumento en la cantidad de estudiantes que comían en la cafetería escolar, el Distrito 27J vio un aumento de 20-30%, y Aurora tuvo un aumento de 7-10%.

Beth Wallace, directora ejecutiva de servicios de comidas y nutrición, dijo que durante la pandemia 30% más estudiantes estaban comiendo en la escuela.

“Estamos atendiendo a esas familias que simplemente necesitan esa ayudita adicional”, dijo ella. “Quizás no califican para comidas gratis o a precio reducido, pero son familias trabajadoras que están teniendo dificultad para afrontar todos sus gastos.”

Algunos padres le han dicho que solamente permiten que sus hijos coman en la escuela dos veces a la semana, cuando el menú incluye sus platos favoritos, porque ellos simplemente no pueden pagar el costo de comer todos los días.

“Estoy sumamente contenta de poder ayudar a esas familias”, nos dijo.

Wallace también dijo que, aunque en el sistema actual no hay manera de que los estudiantes sepan quién está comiendo gratis, es fácil notarlo. Cuando su hijo era más pequeño, ella lo alentaba a comer desayuno en la escuela, pero él se negaba diciendo, ‘mamá, no voy a comer desayuno en la escuela. Eso es para los niños que comen gratis.”

Algunos defensores dicen que ese estigma afecta también a los padres.

En comunidades pequeñas, conoces a la gente que trabaja en la escuela y quizás no quieras decir, ‘necesitamos esta ayuda’ ”, dijo Ashley Wheeland, directora de política pública de la organización sin fines de lucro Hunger Free Colorado.

Para participar en el programa universal de comidas gratis, los distritos escolares de Colorado tendrán que maximizar la cantidad de dólares federales que obtienen solicitando un programa llamado Community Eligibility Provision. Este programa nacional ayuda a cubrir el costo de los programas universales de comidas gratis en las escuelas donde una gran proporción de estudiantes proviene de familias que reciben ciertos beneficios del gobierno, por ejemplo, cupones de alimentos o asistencia financiera con un programa TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families). Las familias en esas escuelas no tendrán que llenar solicitudes para obtener comidas gratis o a precio reducido.

Actualmente, 107 escuelas de Colorado en 26 distritos ofrecen programas universales de comidas gratis a través del programa Community Eligibility Provision. En distritos como Harrison y Pueblo 60, que participan a nivel de distrito, muy poco cambiará para el próximo año. Esos distritos continuarán ofreciéndoles comidas gratis a todos sus estudiantes.

No obstante, hasta las escuelas de Colorado que no califican para el programa Community Eligibility Provision podrán ofrecerles comidas gratis a todos los estudiantes el próximo año porque podrán acceder a los fondos provenientes de la Propuesta FF. Las familias todavía tendrán que llenar solicitudes para obtener comidas gratis o a precio reducido.

Algunos funcionarios de distritos dicen que les preocupa que las familias se confundan si tienen que llenar una solicitud de comida para un hijo, pero no para otro que asiste a una escuela elegible para el programa Community Eligibility Provision.

“Me imagino a un padre pensando ‘no lo entiendo’”, dijo Riley.

La idea, dijo ella, es que ambas escuelas están maximizando los fondos federales que reciben para las comidas. El detalle es que lo están haciendo de dos maneras distintas.

Algunos líderes de los servicios de comidas escolares dicen que les preocupa la falta de personal, las interrupciones en la cadena de suministro, y la necesidad de equipo nuevo para acomodar el aumento en la demanda.

Wallace, que está en Jeffco, dijo que siempre es preocupante tener suficiente espacio para almacenar alimentos y capacidad para cocinar, pero que confía que el distrito podrá hacer que todo funcione porque lo hizo durante la pandemia, cuando había más estudiantes comiendo más comidas en la escuela.

Ella dijo que, al aumentar el volumen de comidas, los distritos pueden obtener mejores precios en los alimentos. Esto puede resultar en que, aunque aumenten los precios un poco, se pueda tener mejores frutas, como por ejemplo fresas, por más semanas en el año.

Riley dijo que, con el programa universal de comidas, los distritos también podrán eliminar el inconveniente administrativo de tratar de tratar de cobrar las cuentas sin pagar — cargos incurridos cuando los estudiantes comen en la escuela pero no son elegibles para comidas gratis y no tienen dinero para pagar en ese momento. Desde que volvieron a aplicarse los requisitos de elegibilidad por ingresos, ella dice que ha escuchado de los administradores de comedores escolares que la deuda está aumentando otra vez.

Ann Schimke es reportera senior en Chalkbeat y cubre temas de niñez temprana y alfabetización temprana. Para comunicarte con Ann, envíale un mensaje a aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Comunidad frustrada con las reuniones cerradas de DPS, el debate limitado

2022-04-14T02:03:27+00:00

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A medida que Denver avanza hacia un tenso debate sobre el cierre de escuelas con baja matrícula, los críticos están atacando un proceso de comité asesor que dicen ha sido empañado por el secreto y la frustración.

Algunos miembros del comité y de la comunidad se quejan de las reuniones cerradas, de la escasa traducción para los padres de habla hispana, de las preguntas ignoradas, del debate sofocado y de los comentarios filtrados.

“Cada vez que alguien hace una pregunta, se le dice que no va a ser respondida y que no hay tiempo suficiente, que vamos a seguir adelante”, dijo Karimme Quintana, una madre hispanohablante de dos estudiantes que forma parte del comité asesor del distrito sobre la disminución de la matrícula.

“Parece que todo está ya hecho, todo está ya decidido”, dijo. “Sólo nos tienen ahí para que al final puedan decir que estos miembros del comité decidieron”.

La falta de participación de la comunidad y la sensación de que las decisiones ya están tomadas en el momento en que el distrito pide su opinión son críticas frecuentes a las Escuelas Públicas de Denver (DPS). El consejo escolar dejó claro que esta vez quería escuchar las voces de la comunidad. En junio, la junta aprobó una resolución diciendo que la comunidad debe liderar, y el distrito apoyar, el proceso de producción de opciones para gestionar la reducción de la matrícula - aunque la resolución implicaba que los cierres de escuelas eran inevitables.

Pero algunas de las personas que participaron en el proceso dijeron que adolece de los mismos defectos de siempre.

“No se siente auténtico”, dijo Cynthia Trinidad-Sheahan, el director ejecutivo de la Asociación de Colorado para la Educación Bilingüe y otro miembro del comité. “Sólo se siente como una cosa de cumplimiento - marcarlo, tuvimos los comités”.

Después de algunas polémicas, el distrito nombró un comité asesor sobre la disminución de la matrícula que comenzó a reunirse a principios del mes pasado. El propósito declarado del comité es recomendar criterios al Superintendente Alex Marrero para cerrar o consolidar escuelas. Las recomendaciones deben presentarse el mes que viene, pero el distrito dice que no se cerrarán escuelas hasta 2024.

Los cierres de escuelas son muy impopulares y a menudo injustos. Denver corre el riesgo de repetirlo. Sus escuelas más pequeñas atienden a un alto porcentaje de estudiantes de color procedentes de familias con bajos ingresos, según los datos del distrito. Varios miembros del comité han expresado su frustración por no poder cuestionar la justicia del cierre de escuelas o discutir otras soluciones para abordar la disminución de la matrícula.

“Cuando dicen ‘comité de disminución de la matrícula’, pienso: ‘¿Qué ideas tenemos para abordarlo? No sólo, ‘¿Cuáles son las recomendaciones para cerrar y consolidar?’” dijo Gene Fashaw, un padre y ex maestro de Denver en el comité. “Eso es lo único que quieren oír”.

‘Un poco desarticulado’

Grant Guyer, jefe de estrategia y servicios de cartera del distrito, dijo que el enfoque estrecho es intencional. “Aunque entiendo que este es un tema increíblemente complicado con muchas capas y perspectivas, el comité se centra en los criterios”, dijo Guyer. “Si la gente quiere abogar por otros enfoques, tenemos que dirigirlos a través de otros canales”.

Mientras tanto, los padres y los defensores de la educación que no están en el comité se sienten frustrados por lo que dicen que ha sido un proceso secreto. Las reuniones de los miércoles del comité no están abiertas al público, ni las sesiones virtuales se graban y se comparten después - lo que Guyer dijo es para asegurar que el comité tenga un espacio seguro para discutir un tema complicado.

Después de que las organizaciones de la comunidad plantearan su preocupación por la falta de transparencia, el distrito comenzó a organizar reuniones separadas los viernes para algunas organizaciones. Los participantes dijeron que el distrito les muestra los mismos materiales y datos que dice que muestra al comité el miércoles y luego pide a las organizaciones sus comentarios que promete transmitir al comité.

Pero los participantes también tienen dudas sobre ese proceso, que según algunos parece un juego telefónico: ellos dan su opinión al personal del distrito, que se la da a los miembros del comité.

“DPS está controlando la información que se transmite”, dijo Shantelle Mulliniks, una madre de Denver que fue invitada a las reuniones del viernes como representante de la Asociación de Vecinos de West Colfax, una asociación de vecinos en una parte de la ciudad que ha perdido estudiantes.

El distrito también contrató a una organización de compromiso cívico, Warm Cookies of the Revolution, para que recogiera las opiniones de las familias y las entregara al comité.

Warm Cookies subcontrató a otra organización, Community Organizing for Radical Empathy, que contrató a enlaces para realizar el trabajo a mediados de abril. Uno de los enlaces dijo que el proceso se siente apresurado, con los enlaces luchando para establecer reuniones en las bibliotecas, las escuelas y en línea.

“La participación de la comunidad, en mi opinión, debería ser reflexiva y consciente y debería llevar todo el tiempo que sea necesario”, dijo Erin Phelan, una madre de Denver que fue contratada como enlace. “En esta situación en la que nos encontramos, sólo estamos tratando de obtener la retroalimentación que podemos en el corto plazo que tenemos”.

El proceso “parece estar un poco desarticulado”, dijo Ambar Suero, que antes trabajaba en la oficina de participación comunitaria del distrito y ahora está a cargo de las asociaciones en RootEd, una organización de Denver que financia escuelas autónomas, grupos comunitarios e iniciativas de equidad.

Aunque Suero ha seguido de cerca este asunto, dijo que sólo se enteró de los enlaces porque vio una publicación que solicitaba comentarios en Facebook.

‘Nos están dejando de lado’

Un director de escuela ya ha renunciado al comité asesor sobre la disminución de la matrícula.

Dominique Jefferson es directora de la Academia Hallett, una escuela primaria del distrito con menos de 300 alumnos. Dijo que se presentó al comité para asegurarse de que los criterios evitarían el cierre de Hallett, pero que se desanimó rápidamente por las reuniones virtuales en las que el distrito cortó a los miembros que intentaban discutir los factores que llevaron a la disminución de la matrícula.

“No creo intrínsecamente en el cierre o la consolidación de escuelas”, dijo Jefferson. “Si nos han amonestado para que no hablemos de las razones por las que llegamos aquí, no permitiré que se pierda mi tiempo”.

No todos los miembros del comité están frustrados. Onsi Fakhouri, padre de tres estudiantes de Denver, dijo que se unió al comité con pocas expectativas más allá de querer ayudar. Antiguo ejecutivo de una empresa de tecnología, Fakhouri dijo que el proceso se está desarrollando como lo haría cualquier proceso en el que un grupo diverso de personas intenta llegar a un consenso sobre un tema complicado.

“Estoy viendo esto y es como, ‘Esto es totalmente normal’”, dijo Fakhouri.

Mientras que las primeras reuniones del comité se centraron en proporcionar los antecedentes del problema de la matriculación -explicando cómo la disminución de las tasas de natalidad y los altos costos de la vivienda están llevando a un menor número de niños en Denver- Guyer dijo que la reunión de la semana pasada fue la primera en la que los miembros comenzaron a hacer una lluvia de ideas.

Después de haber planeado inicialmente publicar las notas de la sesión en el sitio web del distrito para recibir comentarios, los funcionarios del distrito dijeron que los miembros del comité no habían llegado a un acuerdo suficiente para compartir nada públicamente. Sin embargo, el distrito tiene previsto publicar una encuesta para recabar más opiniones.

Pero algunos miembros de la comunidad siguen siendo escépticos. Sostienen que la desconfianza en el proceso llevará a la desconfianza en las recomendaciones. La comunidad latina se siente particularmente excluida, lo que es preocupante dado que el cierre de escuelas probablemente afectará de manera desproporcionada a los estudiantes latinos.

La matriculación en barrios como el que vive Quintana, miembro del comité, está disminuyendo rápidamente debido en parte al aburguesamiento. Quintana dijo que se unió al comité para discutir soluciones, pero que ahora está desanimada. La traducción al español en las primeras reuniones fue la peor que ha experimentado, dijo. Guyer dijo que los problemas de traducción se han solucionado.

Milo Márquez, un padre de Denver y copresidente de un grupo comunitario llamado Coalición de Educación Latina, dijo que parece que el distrito está suprimiendo intencionadamente las voces latinas.

“DPS ha dicho una y otra vez que quieren que las voces de la comunidad sean escuchadas”, dijo, “y una y otra vez vemos que nos están dejando fuera”.

Melanie Asmar es reportera principal de Chalkbeat Colorado, y cubre las escuelas públicas de Denver. Para comunicarte con Melanie, envíale un mensaje a masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Traducido por Juan Carlos Uribe, The Weekly Issue/El Semanario.

Special education data and the teacher pipeline: NY education officials share budget priorities

2023-12-12T17:10:53+00:00

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New York’s Board of Regents has called for increased investments in the state’s information technology infrastructure, a bolstered educator pipeline, and additional money to update the state’s learning standards.

As part of its annual state budget proposal, members of the board outlined its priorities for the upcoming fiscal year, before lawmakers return to Albany for the next legislative session. The proposal, unanimously approved Monday by the Regents, provides a set of recommendations for Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state legislature. Hochul is due to issue her own budget recommendations in January and ask lawmakers to approve a 2024-25 fiscal budget later in the spring.

As its top priority, the Regents asked for $4.3 million to update the state education department’s aging IT infrastructure, as well as an additional $16 million for state data systems — much of which would support a special education data system to help identify where certain programs were lacking or had extra capacity, officials said.

The infrastructure investments are critical in order to maintain secure and stable systems that will facilitate the department’s work across all other education issues, officials said.

The Regents also sought to address teacher shortages that have impacted New York and other states by seeking nearly $4 million over three years to bolster and diversify its educator recruitment pipeline.

Though New York City hasn’t endured the kind of severe teacher shortages that have hit other parts of the state and the country, its pool of educators shrunk by roughly 2,000 last year, according to city data as of September.

The Regents asked lawmakers to devote an additional $1.4 million to update the state’s learning standards, particularly in literacy and health, and to better align them with culturally responsive-sustaining education practices. The proposed funding comes after a state commission tasked with rethinking the state’s graduation requirements included updated learning standards among its proposed changes.

The board also called for more than $250 million in funding to modernize Foundation Aid, a formula that sends state money to its roughly 700 school districts. While the formula already sends more money for schools with high-need students, proposed revisions would update how students in poverty are counted, among other changes.

Other priorities included:

funding expanded access to career and technical education and early college programs;
ensuring special education services are fulfilled;
creating statewide hybrid high school programming for students in juvenile justice settings;
supporting library construction;
assisting the state’s long-term transition to zero-emission buses;
translating assessments for students who are English-language learners.

New York City budget concerns prompt discussion

During the board’s Monday discussion of its priorities for the next legislative session, Regent Shino Tanikawa raised concerns over the looming financial challenges many school districts face, as federal pandemic aid is set to dry up next year.

With that fiscal cliff on the horizon, Mayor Eric Adams has directed the city’s Education Department to cut its budget by nearly $550 million.

“In New York City alone, there are going to be many critical programs that will be eliminated,” Tanikawa said, pointing to social workers, expanded pre-school and summer enrichment programs. “If we don’t ask the state to step in to continue some of those programs, our students are at risk of slipping back to where they were three years ago.”

Regent Roger Tilles also emphasized that concern. He expressed fears over how the influx of asylum-seeking students in New York City would continue to impact New York’s schools.

“I’m at a loss,” he said. “I don’t know what the answer is. I have no idea what we should be doing, but I know the state should be doing something.”

State officials noted that while the current state funding model does not account for enrollment spikes during the school year, the budget proposal recommends adding additional midyear funding to support schools experiencing rapid growth.

“We have got to be careful, because it isn’t just, ‘How do we replace the federal funds?’” said State Education Chancellor Lester Young. “It is also in the context of: How were those funds used?

“Part of what we want to do is have a more informed approach,” he added. “It’s not going to be solved just having one meeting.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.