Friday News Roundup

Time for the Friday News Roundup!

52 Million U.S. Kids Eligible for New Scholarships, but California Hasn’t Opted In (The 74)

This could be a game changer.

The 74 reported this week that nearly 52 million U.S. kids will be eligible to receive funding under the Education Freedom Tax Credit program so they can choose a different school or learning program. Currently, almost 31 million of those students live in states that have already opted in to the federal program.

Sadly, most states have been less than creative with how they have structured their tax credit or education savings account programs. Instead of allowing families to access this money to build  personalized learning plans for their kids, hire trained adult learning leaders, and pay for learning experiences in and out of school, most states have turned this opportunity into a simple transfer of money from public schools to private schools.

For example, close to 800,000 homeschooled students would be left out of the program even though they meet family income requirements because the states where those homeschoolers reside did not write those learners and their families into their rules. In addition, students working inside learning pods and microschools have been excluded because of state leadership short-sightedness.

States Start to Crack Down on 4-Day School Weeks (EducationWeek)

EducationWeek reported this week that,

“As interest in four-day school weeks grows, more states are enacting laws or considering other measures that limit when schools can shift to the abbreviated schedule.”

“Most recently, an Indiana law that took effect July 1 requires schools to meet new criteria before they can apply and be approved for a four-day week waiver. Among those conditions: Schools must maintain an A rating with the state education department, provide enrichment and remediation opportunities for students when classes aren’t in session, and meet the state’s minimum teacher salary of $45,000 per year. School that use four-day schedules must prove they meet these requirements each year to continue using the shortened week.”

The most important piece of news in the paragraph above? Indiana’s state minimum teacher salary is $45,000? My God.

Regarding the rules around allowing schools to use four-day teaching weeks, “seat time,” or the amount of time students spend in classrooms and schools each day, is a very, very powerful force in traditional K-12 school systems. The idea that we now have the ability to decide which individual students can receive a four-day teaching week, which students need five, and which students might need just three is something our traditional school system just can’t figure out.

Something Weird Is Happening in Math (The Atlantic)

The Atlantic reported this week that,

“One of the winners of this year’s Fields Medal is headed to OpenAI. Last Thursday, Jacob Tsimerman was one of four mathematicians awarded the prestigious honor, which is sometimes called the Nobel Prize of mathematics. The same day that he won the Fields, Tsimerman announced that he would be going on leave from the University of Toronto to work on AI safety.”

“…[T]op AI companies now employ a range of academics, including physicists, philosophers, economists, and, of course, mathematicians.”

Are AI firms becoming the new research universities? Tracking the talent seems to suggest exactly that.

Iowa ACLU SRO Study Finds Black Students Disproportionately Arrested (The Des Moines Register)

It’s tough being a black kid inside Iowa’s public schools. In fact, it’s tough being a black kid inside too many public schools across the country.

The Des Moines Register reported today that Iowa’s,

“Black students are nearly four times more likely to be arrested than their peers in Iowa public schools with a school resource officer, according to a new American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa report.”

Some people will tell you that black kids are arrested because they don’t know how to behave in places called schools. That might be part of the story behind out of whack statistics when it comes to school discipline toward Blacks. But there are other reasons too – not understanding Black culture, biased practices, and outright discrimination.

UI’s Center for Intellectual Freedom Halts Classes During Admin Search (The Des Moines Register)

Friday News Roundup has covered this story before. Now, the University of Iowa’s Center for Intellectual Freedom is pausing planning any new classes, trying to identify a permanent director and meeting a new state law requiring UI students to enroll in two three-credit-hour civics courses, which are supposed to be taught within the Center.

This continues to be an embarrassing story for a fine university. The University would be wise to separate itself from what is clearly a right-wing play to force Iowa students to take civics coursework slanted to a conservative view. But what makes this Center unique is that their leaders and staff do not answer to Barbara Wilson, the University’s president. Instead, the Iowa Board of Regents controls the direction of this Center.

If the Iowa Legislature really wanted University of Iowa students to receive quality civics coursework, the history and political science departments already located within the university would do a fine job.

ABPTL will return August 10^th. Til then. SVB