Education

Axios reports: Nearly 90% of college students say they probably or absolutely will get vaccinated, according to a Beat The Virus poll exclusive to Axios. Why it matters: College students have contributed to the nationwide spread of the virus, and their vaccination is necessary in bringing the pandemic under control before variants spread any further. More than 120,000 cases of …

Orlando’s NBC News affiliate reports: The raffling of an assault rifle to raise money for a Central Florida high school’s graduation event is raising concern from some people and support from others. Flyers for the raffle have been spread on campus and made their way online. Brevard County School District officials said a message was sent home to parents to …

Knoxville’s NBC News affiliate reports: A bill in the Tennessee legislature would prohibit the state from approving textbooks and instructional materials that contain LGBTQ+ content. The bill, H.B. 0800, was introduced by Representative Bruce Griffey [photo] and will be considered by the Education Instruction Subcommittee on March 30. It says that public schools should focus on teaching subjects like reading, …

Via press release from Rutgers University: Rutgers University will require the COVID-19 vaccine for students who are enrolled for the 2021 fall semester. Assurances from the federal government that vaccines will be available for all Americans by the end of May and assessments by public health experts prompted university leaders to adjust the vaccine requirements for the fall semester. “We …

The Associated Press reports: Thousands of students defrauded by for-profit schools will have their federal loans fully erased, the Biden administration announced Thursday, reversing a Trump administration policy that had given them only partial relief. The change could lead to $1 billion in loans being canceled for 72,000 borrowers, all of whom attended for-profit schools, the Education Department said. “Borrowers …

The New Jersey Advance reports: A former New Jersey teacher who alleged her bosses conspired to blame her for editing a Donald Trump T-shirt out of the school yearbook will receive a $325,000 settlement from the district. Susan Parsons, who has since retired from the Wall Township School District, sued the school system in 2019 saying she was scapegoated and …

Florida Politics reports: Rep. Sam Garrison wants to put the salary of school board members on the ballot in the next General Election, turning the elected positions from paid to volunteer. On Friday at the the House Secondary Education & Career Development Subcommittee meeting, members voted along party lines to move forward with a proposed constitutional amendment (HJR 1461) that …

NBC New York reports: Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday that New York City’s public high schools will reopen for in-person instruction on Monday, March 22, while high-risk sports return citywide in mid-April — the latest signs of sustained progress as the vaccine rollout kicks into an ever-higher gear. Core COVID precautions like masks and social distancing apply to both …

The Washington Post reports: President Biden is directing the Education Department to review a controversial regulation governing how colleges and universities handle allegations of sexual assault, with an eye toward unraveling a new system put into place by former education secretary Betsy DeVos. The DeVos regulation released last May spells out due process rights for those accused of harassment or …

USA Today reports: The Senate confirmed Miguel Cardona as President Joe Biden’s education secretary Monday. Cardona, confirmed in a 64-33 vote, will oversee an Education Department that employs thousands and has an annual budget of more than $60 billion. He would also oversee the agency’s $1.5 trillion student loan portfolio. He takes the helm of American schooling at a fraught …

“I’ve got plenty of ideas. You could save taxpayers $246 billion by canceling unemployment benefits that even the CBO is warning could result in more joblessness. How about this? No funds for schools that do not reopen immediately. Period. My sincerest apologies, President Biden, that we didn’t have time to go through the entire bill but those Ingraham Angle cuts …

The Wall Street Journal reports: Federal health and education officials urged the nation’s elementary and secondary schools on Friday to reopen safely as soon as possible, saying they can operate by strictly adhering to safety precautions to reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission in classrooms and in their communities. In new guidelines for schools, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control …

The New York Times reports: President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is expected to nominate Miguel A. Cardona, Connecticut’s education commissioner, to serve as his education secretary, tapping a Latino to be the nation’s highest education policymaker, according to two officials familiar with his plans. Dr. Cardona, if confirmed by the Senate, would be tasked with bringing the elementary, secondary and …

Politico reports: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos urged career employees at the Education Department on Tuesday to “be the resistance” when the Biden administration comes into power next month. During a department-wide virtual meeting to discuss the shift to the new administration, DeVos acknowledged that most of the agency’s thousands of career employees “will be here through the coming transition and …

The New York Daily News reports: In what could prove to be the most controversial statement of his tenure, Mayor de Blasio declared Tuesday that snow days for New York City school kids are a thing of the past. Students taking in-person classes can blame that cold, cold new reality on remote learning, which has become necessary and almost universal …

Gothamist reports: As parents wait to hear from the city and state over when public schools will reopen amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, Mayor Bill de Blasio issued a mea culpa at a news conference on Wednesday, admitting he should have crafted a reopening redux plan before shutting down the entire school system last week. De Blasio said he …

The New York Times reports: New York City’s entire public school system will shutter on Thursday, Chancellor Richard A. Carranza wrote in an email to school principals, in a worrisome signal that a second wave of the coronavirus has arrived. Schools have been open for in-person instruction for just under eight weeks. The shutdown — which was prompted by the …

AM New York reports: New York City parents should prepare for school closures due to a citywide spike in COVID-19 cases as early as Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Friday. For weeks, the number of new cases of the virus has been steadily increasing across the five boroughs pushing the city’s overall positivity rate closer to the de …

The New York Times reports: A school attended by some of the children of Amy Coney Barrett, the Supreme Court nominee who brought her family to a Rose Garden celebration at the White House on Sept. 26, notified parents on Thursday that one teacher and two high school students had tested positive for the coronavirus. The outbreak at Trinity School, …

CNBC reports: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday ordered schools in certain New York City neighborhoods closed within a day in an attempt to halt flare-ups of the coronavirus. The governor took the action a day after the city’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, asked the state for permission to reinstate restrictions schools and businesses in nine ZIP codes in …