Education
Parents say public health backlash risks their child’s life
Parents of a 6-year-old child with Down syndrome are invoking federal law to ask a northwest Wisconsin school district to reinstate and maintain COVID-19 prevention measures in the child’s school. An attorney for the parents filed a formal request Friday for the Menomonie area school district in Dunn County to institute strong pandemic mitigation policies […]
Congress has a plan for universal pre-K. Will states opt in?
WASHINGTON — Nearly a fifth of President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion sweeping social spending package is dedicated to providing low-cost care for children from birth to kindergarten—investments that would benefit single parents and low-income families. But how the states implement their programs for pre-K for 3-and 4-year-olds — or whether they even decide to accept […]
How our current school board wars started
On Thursday, the National School Boards Association sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking for federal assistance to investigate and stop threats to school board members across the country, comparing the harassment to domestic terrorism. In Wisconsin, several school board members have quit in the middle of their terms; others are facing recalls; and […]
Report finds filing of key college financial aid document dropped during pandemic
The number of Wisconsin high school students filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in the last year took a drastic drop, likely caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum. The drop was most severe in underserved communities, hitting students of color, low-income students and English […]
What the Kenosha school board can teach us about democracy
On Tuesday the Kenosha school board held its regular monthly meeting, and it did so virtually. Just one week had gone by since the takeover of the school district’s in-person annual meeting of electors by anti-maskers who voted to recommend cutting the tax levy for schools by $1.2 million. The angry citizens who took over […]
Congressional panel hears from educators about how to safely reopen schools
WASHINGTON — A school superintendent from a large Nevada district on Wednesday described how schools there have coped with the pandemic and returned to in-person learning, as members of Congress examined best practices for safe reopening. Jesus Jara, superintendent of Clark County School District, which includes Las Vegas, told a virtual panel of the House […]
Welcoming Afghan school children
James Sayavong knows what it’s like to be a refugee in America. His father was a military officer in Laos when the communists overran his country after the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam and the surrounding area. His mother buried documents in the yard for fear that the communist government would come after their family. […]
GOP passes bills ensuring students can write civics papers in cursive but can’t discuss race
Republicans in the Wisconsin State Assembly passed a slate of bills on Tuesday that would reshape curricula in public schools while attempting, again, to wrench control over federal pandemic relief aid from Gov. Tony Evers. The education-related bills passed on total or near party line votes and are almost certain to be vetoed by Evers. […]
State superintendent calls out Republicans’ war on schools in fiery speech
In her first annual State of Education address, Wisconsin’s new state schools superintendent Jill Underly did not hold back. “We’re now failing a generation of kids,” Underly declared. “And we’re failing our state by putting Wisconsin’s economic future at risk.” Standing in front of the bust of Fighting Bob La Follette in the Capitol rotunda, […]
Conservatives, anti-maskers target school boards around the state
A conservative citizens’ group took over the annual Kenosha School Board meeting on Tuesday night, pushing through a cut in school board member salaries and a property tax reduction. “With rage still apparently simmering from a recent school board vote to require face masks in schools, a different crowd outnumbered the regulars Tuesday night,” local […]
Republicans invite critical race theory evangelist for hearing on education bills
Months after they were first introduced, Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature are set to hold a hearing Wednesday on a slate of bills meant to prevent so-called critical race theory from being taught in schools. At the hearing, the activist responsible for injecting the academic theory into the public consciousness this summer is scheduled to […]
After family links child’s death to COVID-19, Fort Atkinson school board approves mask mandate
The Fort Atkinson school board has instituted a mask requirement for the school district after the reported death of a 13-year-old student from COVID-19. During public comments Thursday night, parents in the district pleaded with the board to start requiring masks, the Wisconsin State Journal reported Friday. The board subsequently approved a requirement by a […]