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Hit the snooze button: States debate later high school start times
California and Florida have become the first states to require later public school start times, a response to reams of research showing significant advantages for high school students who can get more sleep by beginning their day at 8:30 a.m. or later. But such changes come with difficult ripple effects — upended bus schedules, later starts […]
Plagued by teacher shortages, some states turn to fast-track credentialing
Faced with alarming teacher shortages, Virginia last month agreed to partner with a for-profit online teacher credentialing company, hoping to get more teachers into classrooms faster and without the higher tuition costs of traditional colleges and universities. While some of the Virginia school board members had qualms about the process, they agreed to give it […]
Campus diversity will be a struggle without race-based admissions, history shows
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the list of states that have implemented automatic admission programs for top-performing high school students. States that have tried to enroll more Black and Hispanic students in state universities without using race-based admissions policies have seen the numbers of those students slip — especially at elite […]
Car insurance premiums based on job, education can ding low-wage workers
New Jersey resident Anna “Cuqui” Rivera, a high school graduate who works as a labor and civil rights activist and moonlights as a DJ, was paying almost $3,000 annually for auto insurance with one of the big companies. Now, she pays almost $2,000 less for coverage on her 2016 Jeep. The difference? Her new, smaller insurance company doesn’t take […]
More states use taxpayer dollars to help people pay for private school
In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which parents and educators reevaluated their relationship with public schools, lawmakers across the country have eagerly embraced state-funded voucher programs, giving public money to students to attend private schools. So far this year, at least 10 states have implemented or expanded programs for vouchers and other state […]
Lawmakers try to keep kids from social media, porn
To address the harmful effects of pornography and social media on children, states are passing laws meant to keep kids off certain sites and to block them from adult content. But the efforts face major hurdles — and real questions about whether the proposed solutions would even work. Some of the measures would require parental permission for […]
More states line up to serve free school meals to all kids
During his long career as a high school teacher, New York state Sen. John Mannion often reached into his own pocket to cover the cost of lunches for kids who didn’t have the funds. “I watched kids get to the end of the line and not have enough money on their cards,” the Democrat said […]
State attorneys general unite against robocalls
Nothing has been able to kill scam robocalls — not federal regulation, not individual state lawsuits, not private software. Each effort has made a dent, but the unwanted calls keep on coming, much to the consternation of Americans on the receiving end. Now, all 50 state attorneys general, Republicans and Democrats, have come together through […]