It’s Friday. Time for the News Roundup.
Measles Has Come Back in Force. Is Your School Ready? (EducationWeek)
It’s hard to believe this is a school headline in the year 2026. As a country, we had basically eradicated measles from public school. Now the disease is back.
Individual choice is not more important than public health.
Just Aren’t Enough Kids: Choice Schools Feel Effects of Low Birth Rates, Too (The 74)
Earlier in the week ABPTL reported that Los Angeles Unified School District has dipped below 400,000 kids enrolled.
Atlanta Public Schools announced last year that it would close 16 schools with declining enrollment.
Public school staffing across the country has dropped by about 29,000 employees over last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Closing public schools is happening all across the nation.
Now, it’s not just public schools but charter schools and private schools that are losing enrollment.
Declining birth rates, increased school choice and learner choice, and families voting with their feet by walking away from traditional school are all reasons for this enrollment loss.
Is this the beginning of the end for our traditional K-12 system? Is there another system of learning ready to take its place?
Texas Won’t Say Which Private Schools and Vendors are Profiting from State Vouchers (Houston Chronicle)
This news story ran before the “Blue Tsunami” hit Texas earlier this week, and it’s safe to say the answer to the question in the above title will be the least of voucher proponent’s focus moving forward. More than likely, Texas education savings account cheerleaders will be fighting to maintain the current program as is.
One of the first promises Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa made after her victory Tuesday night was to fire Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath, a big proponent of vouchers in the Lone Star State.
Dual Enrollment Is Surging. Here’s How High Schools Can Get It Right (EducationWeek)
Read the article if you wish, but here’s the answer how today’s high schools can get dual enrollment right:
Give decision-making power to your partner community college or four-year college or university, and let them direct learning for those kids interested in taking advanced coursework.
A Conservative Senator Reshaped Texas Colleges. He Wants the Rest of the Country to Follow. (The Texas Tribune)
Here’s another pre-Election Day story, and it focuses on Texas Tech chancellor Brandon Creighton.
Creighton, and other state legislators turned higher education leaders in then red states, were proud of their laws passed to restrict DEI on campuses and were attempting to put limits on what professors teach.
Until this past Tuesday.
It’s probably fair to say that there will be some corrections made inside higher education systems that moved farther to the right over the past years. What’s interesting is to see exactly how far they move, if at all.
How Much Time Should Elementary Teachers Spend Reading Aloud? (EducationWeek)
The answer?
As much time as it takes for every kid inside that elementary teacher’s classroom to learn to be proficient and powerful readers.
End of story.
ABPTL will be away until Tuesday, November 17th. Until then. SVB
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