Friday News Roundup

It’s Friday! Time for the News Roundup.

Amid National Voucher Push, Missouri Once Again Turns to Open Enrollment (The 74)

Missouri is trying to establish “open enrollment” statewide.

“Open enrollment” allows a student to enroll in a public school anywhere they choose, so that they aren’t bound to a zoned school based upon the location of their residence.

According to The 74,

“Lawmakers in Missouri are debating a move that could significantly expand families’ educational options. Within the K-12 politics of 2025, however, the proposal has an almost retro feel.”

“In March, the state House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow students to transfer to public school districts outside their community of residence, a policy known as ‘open enrollment.’ If it became law, districts would have the option to decline student transfers from other areas, but could not prevent their own students from leaving. Per-pupil funding from the state, totaling roughly $6,700, would follow each child to his or her destination.”

“It’s a somewhat familiar idea. According to the nonprofit Education Commission of the States, over 40 states explicitly permit some form of interdistrict transfer, whether through voluntary agreements between communities or via statewide mandate…”

Here’s the problem with “open enrollment” inside our current K-12 system. There isn’t enough space in our good schools to allow the number of kids wanting to transfer available space. So, the good schools fill and then cap their enrollment. So, states and districts can promote “open enrollment” as much as they want, but until better schools appear (or another system of learning appears?), too many kids are still stuck in “sucky schools.”

What Might Happen to State Testing Under the Trump Administration? (EducationWeek)

State testing might be going away under this second Trump administration.

EducationWeek reported earlier this month that,

“State tests are a familiar annual ritual – every spring, students in grades 3-8 take exams that assess what they know and are able to do in reading and math.”

“Mandated by federal accountability policy, these tests provide some of the most comprehensive data available on student achievement. They’re also long been a flashpoint in education debates, with many advocates, educators, and parents claiming that preparing students to take them diverts valuable time away from classroom instruction.”

“Now, the role these assessments play may be changing.”

“President Donald Trump has directed his administration to ‘send education back to the states,’ a move that observers say could lead to less federal oversight and looser enforcement of requirements.”

It remains to be seen whether state testing is disappearing, but if it does, its absence begs the question a good friend and former school board member would always ask me, “If we don’t test, then how do we know kids learn?”

Five Years On, COVID-Era Enrollment Declines Decimate L.A. Schools (The 74)

The 74 reported this week that,

“Five years after COVID-19 shut down all the schools in Los Angeles, enrollment declines in the nation’s second largest district are worsening again.”

“Since the pandemic, the Los Angeles Unified School District has lost more than 70,000 students. Enrollment has fallen to 408,083, from a peak of 746,831 in 2002. Losses steepened this year, too, with the district shedding more than 11,000 kids.”

“Nearly half of the district’s 456 zoned elementary schools – 225 campuses – are half-full or worse, and 56 have seen rosters fall by 70% or more, according to a new analysis of more than 30 years of local attendance data.”

The question is where are all of these kids going to learn? Are charters, privates, microschools, learning pods, and homeschooling all increasing their enrollments across Los Angeles?

Is this the beginning of a shift from traditional K-12 learning to more alternative forms of education?

Small and Rural Iowa Schools See 4-Day Weeks as a Way to Compete. But Does It Help Kids? (Des Moines Register)

The four-day school week has arrived in Iowa, along with mixed opinions about its effectiveness.

The Des Moines Register reported this week that,

…

“…retaining and recruiting staff is a big reason why Saydel [a community school district on the outskirts of Des Moines] has joined 17 Iowa school districts in moving to a four-day school week.”

“’We have seen an increase in the number of districts that have moved to four-day school weeks and others that are considering them,’ said Margaret Buckton, a lobbyist for the Urban Education Network and Rural School Advocates of Iowa.”

…

“But do four-day school weeks help learning? On that, experts and educators are divided. And some studies have shown they can actually harm students’ academic performance.”

If we are going to move from a five-day school week to four days, then why can’t we adopt more of a anytime/anywhere approach to learning, where adult learning leaders negotiate learning time with their young learners?

Inside Trump’s Full-Force Approach to Ban Trans Athletes and DEI in Schools (EducationWeek)

Public schools are under attack, not by parents or teacher unions, but by Donald Trump.

EducationWeek reported this week that,

“The administration has already cut off or frozen billions in grant funding at elite universities, including Columbia and Harvard, over their handling of antisemitism on campus. At the University of Pennsylvania, the Trump administration suspended $175 million over a transgender graduate’s participation in women’s swimming in 2021 and 2022.”

“At the K-12 level, schools in Maine are the closest to seeing something similar happen to them as the Trump administration repeatedly hammers the state over the participation of two transgender athletes in girls’ sports.”

…

“Maine has become a test case of the Trump administration’s ability to see though its threats.”

“The state’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, told Trump at a February White House event that she would see him in court after he threatened to cut federal funding if the state didn’t follow his February 5 executive order barring transgender athletes’ participation in girls’ sports.”

“Shortly after, three federal agencies – the departments of Agriculture, Education, and Health and Human Services – opened investigations into the state’s department of education, a school district with a transgender athlete, the association that oversee high school athletics in the state, and the University of Maine System, alleging they were violating Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination at federally funded schools.”

Two transgender athletes in the State of Maine.

Two transgender athletes.

Two.

Til Monday. SVB