Tag: schools

DeWine Administration Lays out Its Work Over the Past Week, from Providing Kids with Books to Implementing School Virus Reporting Requirements

Jason M. Reynolds

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and his administration provided a “Week in Review” for the past week, with actions ranging from providing free books to kids to requiring schools to report coronavirus cases to local health departments.

The week started off Monday with DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted announcing assistance for five projects to create 574 new jobs and retain 1,058 jobs statewide. The Ohio Tax Credit Authority (TCA) reviewed economic development proposals brought to the board by JobsOhio and its regional partners. Collectively, the projects are expected to result in more than $23 million in new payroll and spur more than $68 million in investments across Ohio.

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Minnesota Department of Health COVID-19 Report: All Schools Safe to Reopen

Corinne Murdock

The latest report from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) reveals that all schools are safe to reopen for in-person learning models, according to county case numbers. The MDH released this information as part of an updated report published every Thursday. 
Many elementary and high schools are scheduled to begin their fall semesters in several weeks’ time. Schools are required to submit their learning model plans to families the week before their start date. Models reflect one of three options: in-person learning, distance learning, or a hybrid of the two. All models are subject to change throughout the semester, depending on county case levels.

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Commentary: Michigan Schools Must Reopen

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The coronavirus pandemic has affected every community, every household, and every American. Some of the most indirectly affected by the spread of coronavirus are the youngest among us: our children. Our children in the last four months have been suddenly ripped from their classrooms, teachers, and friends in the wake of the pandemic; forced to undertake isolated online instruction, while parents across the nation are bravely filling the void and fulfilled their new roles as “teachers.”

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Guidance for Masks in Schools Varies Widely Across US States

The Associated Press

School districts that plan to reopen classrooms in the fall are wrestling with whether to require teachers and students to wear face masks — an issue that has divided urban and rural schools and yielded widely varying guidance.

The divide has also taken on political dimensions in Iowa, among other places, where Democratic-leaning cities like Des Moines and Iowa City have required masks to curb the spread of the coronavirus, while smaller, more conservative communities have left the decision to parents.

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Majority of Minnesota Parents Say They Are Comfortable Sending Children Back to School in Fall

Anthony Gockowski

A survey conducted by the Minnesota Department of Education found that the majority of parents would feel comfortable sending their children back to school this fall.

Between June 15 and July 6, the agency collected more than 130,000 responses to the informal survey, which was offered in English, Hmong, Spanish, and Somali. A total of 64 percent of respondents said they would feel comfortable sending their children back to school in September. Of that 64 percent, 94 percent said they would send their children back to school full time.

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Jason Lewis Says Parents Should Be Refunded for Property Taxes If Schools Don’t Reopen

Anthony Gockowski

Republican Senate candidate Jason Lewis said parents should be refunded for property tax payments and tuition if schools aren’t allowed to reopen in the fall.

“The more we learn about COVID, the more it becomes apparent that we have done a huge disservice to our children in the way we have handled this virus. Research has proven that COVID presents minimal risks to young people. But what isn’t minimal is the toll this prolonged lockdown and social isolation has on our kids’ social, mental, and physical well-being,” Lewis said in a statement released Wednesday.

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Michigan Publishes Reopening Guidance for Schools, Allocates $256M

Jordyn Pair

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer released a set of health and safety guidelines on Tuesday for schools returning to in-person classrooms among the pandemic.

The “MI Safe Schools Return to School Roadmap” outlines safety protocols for schools in each stage or reopening and includes information on the proper use of personal protection equipment, disinfecting, spacing in classrooms and identifying symptoms, among other things. Guidance is distinguished by phases and includes both required and recommended protocols.

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Commentary: Minority Communities Stand to Lose the Most Because of Judge’s ESA Decision

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Next time you hear progressives talk about how they are the ones who are sticking up for minority communities, ask them to square their opposition to educational freedom – or the ability for families to customize their child’s education.

Progressives cheered this week as Nashville Chancellor Anne C. Martin ruled that the state’s education savings account program is “unconstitutional” because of an obscure section in our constitution where it talks about “home rule.”

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Hamilton County Mayor Seeks 34 Cent Property Tax Hike to Hire 350 School System Personnel That One Board Member Says Are Unneeded

Jason M. Reynolds

  Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger on Tuesday presented a budget that includes a 34-cent property tax increase for the school system, The Chattanoogan reported. The proposed budget does not include any increase for the county general budget, the publication said. Coppinger had previously talked about including 15 cents for that portion of the budget, for a 49-cent increase. The proposed tax increase of 34 cents would cost the owner of a $100,000 house $85 per year, The Chattanoogan said. The proposed 17 percent property tax increase is meant to hire 350 positions for the school district, The Tennessee Star reported. Proposed new positions include counselors, graduation coaches, a data warehouse programmer, 15 truancy officers and more. School Board member Rhonda Thurman, a critic of the proposed bump in spending for the school system, recently told The Star that even if the 350 personnel do not help to raise test scores, they likely still will keep their jobs. “We never get rid of a program. All we do is keep adding on to them,” said Thurman, who said these positions are unneeded. Coppinger’s proposed budget is $819 million, a $65 million increase from the current year, with almost $60 million…

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Tennessee Star/Triton Poll: What Are the Issues That Matter Most to Nashville Voters?

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traffic jam

  A new Tennessee Star/Triton poll reveals that Nashville voters have three top concerns: Traffic and road congestion, quality of schools and rising crime and violence. When asked their second-biggest concern, survey respondents had the same three issues at the top of their lists. 550 likely voters in Davidson County were asked: What do you think is the most important issue that our community needs to focus upon? 24.7% said traffic and road congestion; 22.9% said the quality of schools and 19% ranked rising crime/violence at the top of their list. Affordable housing was a top concern for 11.6%, with creating more and better jobs (7.6%), illegal immigration (6.9%), and high property/sales taxes (5.2%) rounding out the list. 3.7% were not sure or didn’t know. When asked the second-most important issue the numbers were remarkably similar. 26% said traffic and road congestion; 20% said the quality of schools and 20.2% ranked rising crime/violence as their second top concern. Affordable housing was a major secondary concern for 13.1%, with high property/sales taxes (5.8%), illegal immigration (5.6%) with creating more and better jobs (5.1%) further down the list of issues. 2.6% were not sure or didn’t know. Two other questions in the…

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Steve Gill Commentary: Why are Public School Teachers Avoiding Public Schools for Their Own Children?

Steve Gill

Would you eat at a restaurant that the cooks and wait staff avoided themselves? Wouldn’t that tell you everything you needed to know about the quality of the food they were serving? Likewise, as public school teachers send their own children to private schools at about TWICE the rate of the general public, and at an even HIGHER rate in our urban centers, doesn’t that tell us more about the quality of our schools than a huge stack of glossy, bureaucrat-generated reports about test scores? A survey conducted by EducationNext in 2015 found that 20% of public school teachers had sent their own children to private schools at some point compared to 13% of non-teachers. Those figures don’t include public school teachers who live in another county or district to avoid the schools where they teach. In 2004, an even more comprehensive national study by the Fordham Institute revealed even more disturbing figures. According to that survey, more than 1 in 5 public school teachers sent their children to private schools, which is consistent with the EducationNext study. Nationally, 11% of non-teachers made that same choice. But the Fordham Institute dug more deeply into the choices being made by parents…

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Commentary: Now That School Security is a Multi-Billion Dollar Industry, is There a Better Way to Protect Children?

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by Kerry McDonald   U.S. taxpayers spend nearly $700 billion each year on K-12 public schooling and that eye-popping sum shows no sign of slowing. In fact, as more non-academic programs get adopted in schools across the country, the price-tag for mass schooling continues to swell even as achievement lags. One ballooning school expenditure is the vast amount of money allocated to school safety. U.S. schools now spend an estimated $2.7 billion on security features, from automatically locking doors, to video surveillance and facial recognition software. That amount doesn’t include the additional billions of dollars spent on armed guards at schools. Federal spending on school security is also rising, with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently awarding a $2.3 million grant to train high school students how to act like first responders in the event of a mass casualty, like a school shooting. These enhanced security and training mechanisms may seem justified, particularly in the wake of deadly mass school shootings like the massacre in Parkland, Florida that left 17 people dead. But school shootings are exceedingly rare. As Harvard University instructor, David Ropeik, writes in the Washington Post: “The chance of a child being shot and killed in…

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Half of Young Americans Believe US is ‘Racist’ and ‘Sexist,’ Survey Finds

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by Troy Worden   A basic knowledge of civics and belief in American exceptionalism are in startling decline among younger Americans, a new report suggests. About half of those surveyed under age 38 said they view the United States as a “sexist” or “racist” nation. More than 4 out of 10 Americans under 21 said the nation’s 44th president, Barack Obama, had a “bigger impact” on America than its first president, George Washington. The Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness, a nonprofit that provides civics education and resources to K-12 students, released these and other surprising findings Tuesday in its first annual “State of American Patriotism Report.”The report, based on a survey of 1,078 Americans conducted by the market research and data analytics firm YouGov, found that 49 percent believe the U.S. is “racist” while 50 percent believe the country is “sexist.” “We suspected that we would find decreasing numbers of Americans well-versed in our nation’s most important principles and young people less patriotic than the generations that came before,” said Nick Adams, founder of the organization and a White House surrogate, “but we were totally unprepared for what our national survey reveals: an epidemic of anti-Americanism.”The report also found that 46…

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Commentary: How School Choice is Lifting Up Puerto Rico’s Children After Hurricane Maria

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by Jude Schwalbach   Thirteen months ago on Sept. 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria slammed the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, devastating homes and infrastructure and leading to loss of life across the island. The storm greatly exacerbated the problems of a school system already in crisis: Puerto Rican fourth- and eighth-graders, for example, are roughly five grade levels behind their U.S. mainland peers in mathematics. Out of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria came an opportunity to reform the ailing education system on the island. Notably, the education reforms introduced by the territorial government and supported by Puerto Rico Secretary of Education Julia Keleher, along with Gov. Ricardo Rossello, include a pilot school-voucher option and the introduction of charter schools. The introduction of education choice in Puerto Rico didn’t come without pushback from special-interest groups, however. The Puerto Rican Superior Court initially sided with the teachers union, which had argued that school choice was unconstitutional. However, the Superior Court’s narrow reading of the Puerto Rican Constitution was overturned by the Puerto Rican Supreme Court in Asociacion de Maestros v. Departamento de Educacion, allowing the new charter school and voucher options to proceed. The ability for the island to introduce parental school…

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Commentary: How School Choice is Lifting Up Puerto Rico’s Children After Hurricane Maria

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by Jude Schwalbach   Thirteen months ago on Sept. 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria slammed the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, devastating homes and infrastructure and leading to loss of life across the island. The storm greatly exacerbated the problems of a school system already in crisis: Puerto Rican fourth- and eighth-graders, for example, are roughly five grade levels behind their U.S. mainland peers in mathematics. Out of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria came an opportunity to reform the ailing education system on the island. Notably, the education reforms introduced by the territorial government and supported by Puerto Rico Secretary of Education Julia Keleher, along with Gov. Ricardo Rossello, include a pilot school-voucher option and the introduction of charter schools. The introduction of education choice in Puerto Rico didn’t come without pushback from special-interest groups, however. The Puerto Rican Superior Court initially sided with the teachers union, which had argued that school choice was unconstitutional. However, the Superior Court’s narrow reading of the Puerto Rican Constitution was overturned by the Puerto Rican Supreme Court in Asociacion de Maestros v. Departamento de Educacion, allowing the new charter school and voucher options to proceed. The ability for the island to introduce parental school…

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Williamson County House 61 Voters Almost Unanimously Support School Resource Officers in Every Tennessee School

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security at schools

A new poll conducted among likely GOP voters in the Nashville suburbs of Brentwood and Franklin by Triton Polling shows that voter concerns about traffic congestion, illegal immigration and rising crime are at the top of the list. Recent school shootings have also resulted in over 90% of the Republican voters in the District supporting placement of School Resource Officers (SROs) in each school across the state in order to increase security in our schools. The survey of 361 likely Republican Primary voters was conducted June 18-22, 2018 and has a margin or error of 5.1%. “School shootings across the country are clearly top of mind among parents in Tennessee,” Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill pointed out. “Currently only about half of Tennessee schools have an armed SRO, and 90.5% of the voters in this district support making sure that every school has that protection.” 65.3% of those polled supported state funding to ensure that level of protection of schools. Governor Bill Haslam included some funding for SROs in his final state budget, and several candidates for Governor, including Beth Harwell and Randy Boyd have expressed support for the Governor’s plan and that they intend to expand upon it.…

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Christian Parent Furious After School Instructs Children To Write Out Their Submission To Allah

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Classroom Islam

by Joshua Gill   A West Virginia school has come under fire for instructing junior high students to write the Islamic profession of faith ostensibly to practice calligraphy. Rich Penkoski, a Christian parent and founder of online ministry Warriors for Christ, raised alarms over a packet on Islam his daughter’s seventh grade social studies teacher issued to students, according to Christian Post. The packet, edited from the full version of a world religions workbook, instructed students to practice writing the Shahada, or Islamic profession of faith, in Arabic calligraphy — an assignment that, if left undone, would result in detention, according to Penkoski’s daughter. [ RELATED: ‘Continue The Momentum’ — San Diego Schools Continue Coordinating With CAIR After Rescinding Controversial Anti-Islamophobia Initiative ] The Shahada states: “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” Penkoski called Mountain Ridge Middle School Principal Ron Branch and objected to the packet, saying it disturbed him and had misinformation about the history of calligraphy. “I saw the assignment of writing the Shahada in Arabic. Their excuse was calligraphy,” Penkoski told The Christian Post. “I was like, ‘Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!’ First of all, calligraphy was invented in China 3,000 years prior to Muhammad. The fact that…

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