Friday News Roundup

It’s Friday. Time for The Roundup.

With No New Funding From the State, Texas Schools are Breaking the Bank to Pay for Teacher Raises (The Texas Tribune)

Earlier this week The Texas Tribune reported that,

“Texas lawmakers ended this year’s regular legislative session without giving public schools any money for employee raises – so school districts are finding ways to give their workers modest raises, even if it means digging into their savings accounts.”

“’We’ve taken the position that in the absence of state leadership, we’re going to take care of our staff, even if it means that we have a deficit budget,’ said Bobby Ott, superintendent of the Temple Independent School District.”

Why we still think Republican-led state legislatures are interested in our young learners is beyond me.

And, this story is part of a continuing saga of how dysfunctional our public school system has become. If you can’t even compensate your most important talent commodity, why would anyone think the system can provide deep learning for all kids?

Education’s Long COVID: New Data Shows Recovery Stalled for Most Students (The 74)

More bad news regarding student achievement post-COVID.

According to The 74 this week,

“Pandemic recovery has essentially stalled for most of the nation’s students, new data shows, and upper elementary and middle school students actually lost ground this year in reading and math.

On average, students need four more months in school to catch up to pre-pandemic levels, according to the results from NWEA, a K-12 assessment provider. This fall’s ninth graders need far more – roughly a full extra school year.”

So maybe the traditionalists are wrong. Maybe all of this learning loss is because of a old, worn out delivery system instead of a worldwide pandemic? It’s time to the traditionalists to look themselves in the mirror and admit that more, longer, and better of the same isn’t working any longer.

Oh, and one last thing. The way NWEA and others measure learning is wrong. Kids don’t learn incrementally. Learning is a breakthrough experience, so all of this measuring in months leaves me skeptical of the data presented.

Here’s How the Nation’s Largest Teachers’ Union Is Spending Its Money (EducationWeek)

Don’t think for a minute that today’s teacher unions aren’t part of the traditional public school system that is suffering so much trauma when it comes to delivering quality student achievement across the board.

If you doubt that, take a look at how the National Education Association spends it money when it comes to their annual priorities. According to an article in EducationWeek this week,

“The NEA will spend about $2.7 million on promoting community schools and supporting their implementation.”

“The union will spend nearly $50 million to ‘advance and protect’ the rights of educators and public schools. That includes advocacy in federal, state, and local political campaigns, litigation, and building capacity among members to bargain and organize.”

“The NEA wil spend $1.1 million to try to expand the number of supporters and community allies (the non-educator membership category), including in communities of color and conservative communities.”

Other than spending $2.7 million for community schools, from an overall budget of $379 million, it doesn’t appear the NEA is interested in doing anything other than “business as usual.”

That’s disappointing, especially when teacher unions used to be the drivers of change inside our public school system. Seems like they’ve moved over to the more traditional side.

Youth Risk Behavior Survey Reports Poor Mental Health for Vermont Students (Burlington Free Press)

This isn’t a new story, either for Vermont or the country.

The Burlington Free Press reported this week that,

“More than a third of Vermont high school students and one-fifth of middle school students have reported recently experiencing poor mental health, according to a recent survey. LGBTQ+, students of color, and female students were even more likely to be depressed or anxious compared to their heterosexual, cisgender, and male counterparts.”

Even though the news above is disheartening, it doesn’t compare to how abysmal the reaction to this news was coming from Heather Bouchey, deputy secretary of the Agency of Education.

Here’s what Bouchey said when confronted with the data:

“’We did not anticipate the extent of the mental health crisis and associated challenges our youth would face,’ Bouchey said.”

Really?

You didn’t anticipate? Even though kids in Vermont and across the nation have been screaming out about their mental health conditions since 2020 and before?

This is why kids are facing an uphill challenge when they expect help from traditional schools and districts. Traditional schools and districts aren’t built to provide the type of mental health assistance needed right now in this country. They can try, but most will not succeed.

Sadly, most will respond the way Heather Bouchey did.

Heading into Chicago to catch a game at Wrigley. Til Monday. SVB