Tag Archives: education

The Guardian reports: A school principal in Arkansas has apologized for “political inaccuracies” in a yearbook falsely stating that Donald Trump was not impeached and that last year’s racial protests in the US were “Black Lives Matter riots”. Josh Thompson, principal of Bentonville’s Lincoln junior high school, admitted that some of the contents of the yearbook, which also included a …

The Dallas Morning News reports: Texas is poised to let home-schooled students compete in public school sports and other extracurricular activities, after the Senate advanced the proposal in one of its closest votes this session. The bill passed 16-14 on Saturday and now goes back to the House, where representatives can accept the Senate’s changes or convene a conference committee …

The New York Times reports: New York City will no longer have a remote schooling option come fall, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced during a television appearance on Monday, a major step toward fully reopening the nation’s largest school system. This school year, most of the city’s roughly one million students — about 600,000 — stayed at home for classes. …

The Texas Tribune reports: After hours of passionate debate about how Texas teachers can instruct school children about America’s history of subjugating people of color, the state Senate early Saturday morning advanced a new version of a controversial bill aimed at banning critical race theory in public and open-enrollment charter schools. The Senate approved the bill in an 18-13 vote …

NBC News reports: Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos must testify in a class-action lawsuit about her handling of student loan forgiveness claims, which involved delays in the administration’s decision-making and ultimate denial of a significant number of the applications, a federal judge ruled. In a 12-page ruling, Judge William Alsup denied a motion to quash a subpoena for the Cabinet …

The Birmingham News reports: Gov. Kay Ivey has signed into law a bill allowing Alabama public schools to offer instruction in yoga. The law ends a ban on yoga adopted by the State Board of Education in 1993 because of yoga’s connections to Hinduism. The Senate amended the bill to say that “School personnel may not use any techniques that …

The Texas Tribune reports: The Texas House has given preliminary approval to legislation that takes aim at critical race theory and would limit what public school students can be taught about the United States’ history of subjugating people of color. By a vote of 81-52, the House passed House Bill 3979 by Rep. Steve Toth [photo], early Tuesday morning, following …

The Albany Times Union reports: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Monday that State University of New York campuses will require COVID-19 vaccinations for students starting in the fall semester. The policy will also apply to the City University of New York, and Cuomo said he would encourage private colleges to adopt it as well. It starts by September, and if …

The New Jersey Advance reports: She’s a school nurse who claims face masks are dangerous to kids and do nothing to stop the spread of COVID. After refusing to wear a mask herself, Erin Pein said she was suspended from her job in the Stafford Township school district. Now her supporters are planning a rally and her cause has become …

The Guardian reports: There is $6 million from Donald Trump’s administration sitting on the table in Idaho, and trying to pick it up has caused an extraordinary uproar. In the months since a Republican house of representatives member first brought the grant for early childhood education to the legislature for a vote, far-right opponents have insisted, despite evidence and assurances …

The Hill reports: President Biden in an interview that aired Friday said that schools should all be open for five days a week in-person learning in the fall despite the fact that children likely will not be vaccinated by then. “Based on the science and the CDC, they should probably all be open,” Biden said in an interview that aired …

MetroWeekly reports: Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) has signed a bill into law reforming the state’s sex education standards, removing anti-LGBTQ language that previously required teachers to condemn homosexuality and portray it in a negative light. It removes the requirement that teachers must tell students that homosexuality is “not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public” and that “homosexual conduct …

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports: A bill stating that Arkansas teachers may teach religious beliefs of creation alongside scientific theories failed to advance from the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday. The sponsor, Rep. Mary Bentley [photo], R-Perryville, said many teachers had asked her for the ability to teach “counter-theories” and open up the class for debate among students. Six of the …

The Arizona Republic reports: Gov. Doug Ducey vetoed a controversial sex education bill but issued an executive order requiring public notice of any such curriculum before it can be used in Arizona classrooms. The dual actions appeared to be a compromise between the provisions of Senate Bill 1456 and critics who said it would marginalize LGBTQ children by, among other …

The Grand Forks Herald reports: Gov. Doug Burgum signed legislation Friday, April 16, authorizing North Dakota public schools to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms. The bill cleared the House and Senate by wide margins earlier this session after lawmakers included provisions to gird against possible lawsuits, including one portion requiring that displays of the Judeo-Christian text appear alongside other …

“I think we’ve learned from Zoom, teachers hate teaching, and they hate their students and they hate the students’ parents. I guess everybody complains about their customers, everybody complains about their clients, but it seems like that’s what we learned — at least in California, it seems that it’s always California that the people are the most pissed off at …

Oklahoma City’s ABC News affiliate reports: It was lunchtime at Prairie Vale Elementary School when cafeteria manager Yanet Vilamontes Lopez and her team were preparing chicken nuggets for the young students. An immigrant from Cuba, Lopez moved to Oklahoma from Houston a few years ago with her family for better job opportunities. It was a dream that was fulfilled Monday. …

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 …

Nashville’s ABC News affiliate reports: Tennessee’s Republican-dominant Senate on Monday advanced legislation that would require school districts to alert parents of any instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity, as well as allow them to opt their students out of such instruction. According to the bill, school districts would have 30 days to alert parents or guardians of upcoming instruction …

The Hill reports: The Department of Justice (DOJ) has told federal agencies that gay and transgender students are protected from discrimination under civil rights laws, reversing Trump administration guidance that limited the impact of a landmark Supreme Court decision last year extending employment discrimination protections to LGBT workers. In an memo to federal agencies, Pamela Karlan, the head of the …