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Teachers: Are you buying school supplies with your own money?
As educators across America prepare to welcome students for the 2024-25 school year, a common practice often goes unseen: Teachers spending their own money on classroom supplies.While this practice is long-standing, the amount teachers spend has risen sharply in recent years, as many school supplies have jumped in price. More than 90% of teachers spend their own money on school supplies, according to the National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the country. Before the pandemic, teachers spent an average of $500 out of pocket per year. The union estimated that number would jump past $800 for the 2023-24...
School leaders of color face high levels of burnout. Here’s what they need to thrive.
As a novice teacher in 1999, I was grateful to have a colleague across the hall who was also new to the profession. We swapped stories, shared strategies, and commiserated about our shared challenges around lesson planning and staying in touch with students’ families.At some point, though, our experiences at the same Florida elementary school diverged. While my colleague was asked to lead a grade-level team, I was tapped to head up the school’s Black History Month programming. After school, she oversaw academic enrichment while I supervised detention. On the weekend, she led a scholars program while I coached the...
More than $400,000 raised so far in Chicago’s 2024 school board elections
Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.The 45 candidates vying for 10 seats in Chicago’s first school board elections this November have raised more than $400,000 collectively for their campaigns, new campaign finance filings show.The money is a mix of small donations from candidates’ friends and family, sizable personal loans, and in-kind and financial support from existing political and labor groups, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of state campaign finance records.The political fundraising arms of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, which has $3 million on hand, and the Chicago Teachers...
Memphis-Shelby County school board candidates discuss Superintendent Marie Feagins’ strategic plan
Early voting has kicked off in Memphis, and five of the nine seats on Memphis-Shelby County Schools board are on the ballot in the Aug. 1 election. Twenty candidates are vying for board seats in Districts 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7.Marie Feagins, the new Memphis superintendent, officially started leading Tennessee’s largest school district in April. Because one of the board’s main responsibilities is to hire, manage, and evaluate the district’s top leader, Feagins’ actions are especially relevant this election cycle.As the school board awaits Feagins’ first strategic plan for the district, candidates to serve on the board have different...
Inside a dyslexia screening program for some of Colorado’s rural students
When teacher Cindy Haralson would point at her preschool class with a stuffed owl named Baby Echo, most children quickly repeated the letter, word, and sound they’d just heard her say. Think “B, bat, b.”But one little girl — a good listener and natural problem-solver — stared blankly at her teacher day after day last year, unable to reproduce what she was hearing and seeing. Haralson recalled the girl looking at her classmates, as if to say, “How do you guys do that? How do you know that?”The girl’s struggle with alphabet lessons was the kind of red flag that...
A 500-plant wall, a 400-gallon aquaponic system: This Brooklyn teacher creates ‘living laboratories’
In the hallway just outside of Dr. Elisa Margarita’s lab at Brooklyn Tech sits an old 20-by-4-foot trophy case that she transformed into a living plant wall.The nearly 500 plants that grow there are not only visually appealing, but they also help clean the air and provide students with ample learning opportunities. One student’s scientific paper on the plant wall is about to be published in the Journal of Emerging Investigators, which features the work of middle and high school scientists.“Students, regardless of whether they are in my classes, are drawn to the plants,” Margarita said. “They research the best...
GOP platform promises funding cuts for ‘woke’ schools, no teacher tenure, school choice for all
Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.Cut federal funding for schools “pushing critical race theory, radical gender ideology, and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children.”That’s among the top 20 promises in the Republican Party’s 2024 platform, alongside pledges to seal the border, conduct the largest deportation operation in American history, make college campuses “patriotic and safe again,” and “keep men out of women’s sports.”Formally adopted Monday by delegates at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, the platform says that Republicans will “stop woke government” and...
NJ will pay $153 million to demolish elementary school, replace a high school in Newark
Sign up for Chalkbeat Newark’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system.The state agency responsible for funding school construction projects in Newark will spend nearly $153 million to build a new South Ward high school and relocate a nearby elementary school.But the Schools Development Authority says the project is in its early stages of development and it’s unclear when the plans will begin as building designs, construction proposals, and timelines have yet to be completed.The plans call for the construction of a new University High School and the relocation of Hawthorne Avenue Elementary School students to...
I’m a teen who has lived through two terrifying school lockdowns. Enough.
“Teachers, the school is currently in lockdown,” our assistant principal said over the loud speaker. “Please lock your doors and close your windows. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill.”It was early in the day, first period. My AP Biology teacher turned off the lights and locked the classroom doors and windows. What I remember most about that day, back in 10th grade, was not the swift actions of the teachers, but the behavior of my fellow students. All of the roughly 1,400 students at Reseda High School in Los Angeles feared what this meant:...
Jeffco will pilot new programs, including a welcome center bus, to better serve immigrant students
Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.An influx of immigrant students last year left the Jeffco school district scrambling to meet their needs. So this fall, officials are piloting new programs and support to help newcomer students.The school district is piloting a series of changes, including new staff, resources, and curriculum materials, as well as a new welcome center bus, after hundreds of immigrant students arrived throughout the past school year. The district is planning for the surge to continue into...
New York schools must notify parents ahead of lockdown drills, under newly amended rules
Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.New York education officials are mandating that schools develop procedures to notify parents at least a week in advance of lockdown drills.The change is part of new regulations set to take effect in 2024-25 requiring that the drills be conducted in “a trauma-informed, developmentally and age-appropriate manner,” according to the amended rules adopted by the state’s Board of Regents on Monday.To some advocates and lawmakers who for years have sought changes in lockdown drill requirements out of concerns about their impact on student mental health,...
Before issuing school cellphone policy, Hochul and Banks seek more input
Top officials in the city and state are still gathering information on how to address cellphones in schools as they consider a possible ban.New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday kicked off a statewide listening tour that will include discussions with administrators, educators, and others over the coming months to inform a policy proposal for the state’s schools on smartphone use expected to be unveiled later this year.At a citywide meeting for principals on Monday, New York City schools Chancellor David Banks told school leaders that the Education Department was still doing its research — signaling an apparent pause after...
Michigan school leaders push lawmakers to reverse cuts to mental health and safety budget
Sign up for Chalkbeat Detroit’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and Michigan education policyMichigan’s school budget season isn’t quite over yet.Though the legislature has approved a school budget for the 2024-25 school year and most districts have approved their own budgets, some of the state’s school leaders say they are buying time as they advocate for a supplemental budget to cover the costs of a 90% cut in state grants they anticipated getting for student mental health and safety initiatives.Administrators are also pushing lawmakers to pass legislation that would make permanent reductions to...
This Indiana educator created a literary journal for Indiana teens. Here’s why.
Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.Once Ben Boruff decided to try teaching, he never looked back.Now, he’s been teaching for 11 years, five of those at Munster High School in northwest Indiana.An English and creative writing teacher who works mostly with juniors and seniors, Boruff also is the sponsor of multiple student clubs, including one focused on poetry and another on Dungeons & Dragons.Every time a student asks him to help with a club, Boruff sees it as an honor. Plus, it gives...
Amid anxiety about Chicago charters’ fate, CPS proposes a slight overall budget boost
Data analysis by Thomas WilburnSign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.Melina Pereyra, a mom at the Acero charter network’s Cisneros campus, heard earlier this summer that her child’s Southwest Side school might cut staff.She’d heard talk of city leaders’ disenchantment with school choice and of looming fiscal deficits tied to the end of federal COVID relief dollars. She worried: Would the district balance its budget on the backs of its charter schools?But in a $9.9 billion proposed budget for next year released this week, Chicago Public Schools has avoided this approach....
Chicago’s Mayor Johnson suggests CPS borrow to cover pension, contract costs
Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration floated a plan for Chicago Public Schools to borrow up to $300 million to help pay for increased salary and some pension costs next year, Chalkbeat has learned.But CPS leadership balked at the idea — calling it a “fictional or phantom revenue source” — and pushed back on City Hall’s request, according to an internal memo obtained by Chalkbeat and multiple sources familiar with their discussions.The internal CPS memo, dated July 8, outlines the risks of borrowing to pay for hypothetical...
Families say a Brooklyn elementary school won’t let students form an LGBTQ+ club
Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.Families at a Brooklyn elementary school say the school’s administration has been resisting their efforts to establish an LGBTQ+ club, despite a city official acknowledging to one parent that students were entitled to the club.Johanna Neufeld, whose daughter recently finished kindergarten at P.S. 139 in Flatbush, said families began advocating more than a year ago for a Rainbow Club. Parents and students sought to establish a space for those who identify as LGBTQ+, or who have family members within the LGBTQ+ community.But those efforts have...
Philadelphia schools will get a $232 million increase in the new state budget
Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system.Pennsylvania’s new $47.6 billion budget includes an historic increase in education funding. But advocates and school officials say it falls short of the transformational change Philadelphia schools need.The new budget, signed by Gov. Josh Shapiro late Thursday night, includes $1.1 billion more for K-12 education — the state’s biggest one-year increase for school spending in history, according to Shapiro. That increase includes $232 million more for Philadelphia schools.The budget also includes funding for solar projects at schools, $20 million more for student-teacher stipends, $17.7 million...
Filing deadline for the school board election is approaching. Here’s what it could mean for DPSCD.
The July 23 filing deadline for three seats on the Detroit school board is fast approaching in what could be a consequential election for the state’s largest district.Current board member Misha Stallworth isn’t running for re-election, meaning at least one new person for the Detroit Public Schools Community District’s seven-member board. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo said she is unsure whether she’ll run to keep her seat. Member Sonya Mays didn’t comment for this story.New members could determine whether Superintendent Nikolai Vitti’s direction for improving student achievement, school climate and culture, and increasing teacher pay will move forward, or be stalled by board...
Here’s some of what’s in Pennsylvania’s new state budget for public education
This story was originally published by The Pennsylvania Capital-Star.Perhaps the most significant number in the 2025 budget, passed and signed Thursday night, is $1.1 billion in new spending on K-12 education.The funding comes after Commonwealth Court declared that Pennsylvania’s current method of funding public schools was unconstitutional, citing inequities between the state’s wealthiest school districts and its poorest.While the general appropriations bill — the legislative centerpiece of the budget — outlines how much money will go towards education in the coming year, it’s another bill that tells the state how it can spend those funds: the public school code bill.Code bills...
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