Given an opportunity by the Texas Legislature to set aside time each day for students and staff to pray, most school districts appear to have declined the offer.

required Texas school boards to decide by March 1 whether to provide a daily devotional period, which students could attend during noninstructional hours to pray and read the Bible or other religious text, likely before school.

But one of the key lawmakers who guided the bill through the Legislature has identified only 15 school districts that have opted into the prayer period. Many other urban, suburban and rural districts voted against it.

鈥淚 respect their opinion. They know their communities,鈥� said Rep. , R-Jacksboro. 鈥淭hat’s not to say that they can’t come back and revisit it. But this is not a mandate. I’ve said very clearly from the start, this is not a mandate bill. The only thing that’s mandated is if they consider it. They don’t have to adopt it.鈥�

SB 11 is part of a slate of bills approved in recent legislative sessions that aim to promote a conservative brand of Christianity in public education and test the legal limits of church-state separation.

The Texas Legislature has passed laws requiring schools to in classrooms, allowing unlicensed chaplains to offer to students and setting the foundation for an optional filled with references to Christianity.

SB 11 requires school districts that establish the prayer period to obtain signed consent forms from interested families, which waive parents鈥� right to sue the district for alleged violations of state or federal law and acknowledge that students have a choice to attend the religious gathering.

The law prohibits schools from reading religious texts over a public address system, and school leaders must ensure the prayer period does not take place in the physical presence or within earshot of students who lack parental consent.

More than 160 Texas faith leaders , noting the administrative burden, students鈥� existing rights to practice their religion and the potential harm to children who decide not to participate. Civil rights advocates also argued the law .

Texas Attorney General suggested otherwise, not only encouraging students to take advantage of prayer time but also suggesting they engage with

But many of Texas鈥� roughly 1,200 districts and charters, including those in politically conservative communities, declined.

They questioned how schools would manage the parental consent requirements. Some opposed what they saw as state leaders promoting a conservative vision of Christianity. Others pointed to federal, state and school policies that already allow students to organize religious clubs and prayer periods.

鈥淚n reality, there was no need for it,” said Alex Kotara, vice president of the Karnes City school district board, which is located in a conservative town southeast of San Antonio.

鈥淚t passes the buck to local school districts to make that decision, but it also does it in a way that requires them to also opt out 鈥� not just opt in 鈥� which then, from an elected official standpoint, puts you in a position where, when they boil down a convoluted, kind of contradictory bill to a sound bite, it’s going to be that we did not allow prayer in school,鈥� Kotara said.

Spiller, the bill sponsor, acknowledged that federal and state laws already protect students鈥� ability to practice their religion at school. But he believes SB 11 builds on existing protections by requiring participating schools to allow time for prayer each day.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not a gotcha bill,鈥� Spiller said. 鈥淏ut I think if boards just vote this down without forethought, consideration and seeking the will of their public, do I think that they will hear from it? Yes, I do. I think their constituents will let them know that they don’t appreciate them, in many instances, blocking a right that they have when it costs the school nothing.鈥�

The Aledo school district in North Texas opted in, but board members didn鈥檛 necessarily vote in favor of the period because they felt it expanded students鈥� rights, said school board President Forrest Collins.

鈥淏asically, the state Legislature forced us to vote on something schools already support, and our vote was really just to reaffirm the constitutional rights of students,鈥� Collins said. 鈥淚 felt like, personally, the bill was kind of a waste of time.鈥�

This first appeared on .

was originally reported by Nadra Nittle of . .

Faith Fluker鈥檚 cousin was a 14-year-old cheerleader and magnet school student when she became pregnant last year. She didn鈥檛 have to be such a young mom; she just lacked the means to avoid teen parenthood, Fluker said.

鈥淪he fell pregnant because she didn’t have access to reproductive health resources, and she didn’t have transportation to end the pregnancy, which is what she wanted to do,鈥� said Fluker, an Auburn University senior who champions reproductive rights as part of her work with , a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. 鈥淭he lack of sex education in Alabama has led to teen pregnancies, both around me and all over the state.鈥�

After her cousin鈥檚 pregnancy, Fluker saw what happened next: the interruption of the teen鈥檚 education, the depression she suffered and the judgment cast on her in a small town where sex is discussed in whispers.

Recent reports from the national nonprofit organization SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change suggest that youth across the country could find themselves in similar circumstances. The research indicates that the culture wars over comprehensive sex ed are intensifying, a development that could jeopardize the health, safety and future of today鈥檚 students.

This year, tracked more than 650 bills introduced in statehouses, finding that about 25 percent of them aimed to restrict access to quality sex education. That marks a 35 percent increase from the previous year, a surge empowered by a White House under the influence of Project 2025 鈥� the Heritage Foundation鈥檚 controversial . What鈥檚 more is that , which grade states on their sex education policies, paint a bleak picture. Over a quarter of states get Fs because of their failure to provide significant support for sex education.

鈥淪ex education has long been at the forefront of battles within education,鈥� said Alison Macklin, director of public affairs for SIECUS. But sex ed is overwhelmingly popular with the public. SIECUS has found that and 98 percent agree it is in high school, while a 2023 in middle school, and 96 percent support it in high school.

Strong approval for the subject has hindered its foes from seeking to eliminate it outright, prompting them to use more subversive tactics to undermine it, Macklin said. 鈥淚 think the opposition has really had to be more strategic in their attacks and really looking to whittle away components of sex education,鈥� she continued. 鈥淲e’ve seen. . . attacks around specifically LGBTQ+ individuals and more targeted towards transgender young people.鈥�

SIECUS鈥檚 2025 State Report Cards illustrate how fragmented sex education is across states, with some requiring no sex ed at all and others mandating that sex ed be comprehensive, medically accurate and inclusive of LGBTQ+ people. Combined, these factors are widely considered to be the gold standard for this curriculum. This year, SIECUS broadened its analysis to include instruction on issues such as menstrual health. But since their sex ed censors some of these topics or does not cover the subject matter in detail, most states received Cs, Ds and Fs. Just Washington, D.C., and six states 鈥� California, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington 鈥� earned overall grades in the A range, meaning that their sex ed policies are robust, inclusive and scientifically sound.

A student鈥檚 place of residence shouldn鈥檛 determine whether they receive honest and inclusive information about their bodies and relationships, advocates say, but right now, it does. The nationwide is glaring compared with other subjects schools teach, said Christopher Pepper, a sex educator and coauthor of the new book 鈥�: 16 Conversations to Help Tweens and Teens Grow into Confident, Caring Young Men.鈥�

鈥淚f you were to visit an algebra class in Connecticut and then one in Alabama, they鈥檇 look pretty similar,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f you try to visit a sex ed class in different states, it鈥檚 going to look very different from place to place. Some states offer comprehensive sex ed, some offer abstinence-only, and some don鈥檛 offer it at all.鈥�

The gaps in his high school sex ed class stood out to Alfred Vivar Mu帽oz, a political science major at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).

鈥淲e learned about male and female anatomy, STIs and AIDS, but they didn’t really delve into them,鈥� said Mu帽oz, co-lead of the Nevada Youth Activist Alliance, which fights for reproductive justice for young people in affiliation with Advocates for Youth. 鈥淚 did not learn about healthy relationships, and I did not learn about contraceptives.鈥�

in its 2025 State Report Cards. Although the state requires schools to teach sex education and evidence-based HIV/AIDS instruction, the curriculum is not required to cover sexual orientation or gender identity. Also, parents must provide written consent for their children to enroll in this coursework. Nevada lawmakers passed legislation this year that would have instead required parents to opt their children out of the classes, but Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed it.

Mu帽oz wondered whether his fellow college students would have lower rates of STIs 鈥� near dorms last year 鈥� if they had access to better sex ed.

鈥淭here鈥檚 still a lot of misinformation,鈥� he said.

SIECUS contends that omissions in the curriculum contribute to knowledge gaps around LGBTQ+ sexual health and pregnancy.

Many states don鈥檛 . And some, like Florida and Texas, have also passed laws that forbid the discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in schools generally.

, a sex educator at Widener University who taught in New York City schools for over a decade and offers courses through her website, said听sex ed that excludes certain groups harms all students.

鈥淭here’s no way to do sex ed without including LGBTQIA+ people. There’s just no way to do it,鈥� she said. 鈥淔or straight students, it adds a stigma to view queer people in a certain way. … For queer people, it becomes a challenge to live their everyday life, since they have to go to the internet and try to figure out those answers.鈥�

Hart argues that this exclusion is rooted in a system that fears multilayered conversations around sexuality. Opponents to including queer people in the curriculum 鈥渄on’t want to see critical conversations, critical thinking around these issues because that’s what information does,鈥� they said. 鈥淚t helps people think through and make decisions about their own health.鈥�

The mandatory classroom viewings of fetal development videos such as 鈥溾�� 鈥� which critics call medically inaccurate and visually misleading 鈥� also undermine the effort to give young people access to quality sex ed. State legislation has required students as young as third grade to watch the video created by the controversial anti-abortion group Live Action. As of June, seven states 鈥� Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, North Dakota, Tennessee 鈥� had enacted 鈥淏aby Olivia鈥� laws.

鈥淚t鈥檚 completely inappropriate for third graders,鈥� Macklin said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 directly going against what the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends. It鈥檚 got false information about developmental milestones for a fetus. It uses very inflammatory language. It’s a doctored ultrasound, so it’s like an AI-generated ultrasound. In itself, that is disinformation.鈥�

The video, which posits that fetuses can recognize lullabies and stories, preys on the emotions of students who lack the knowledge to question its veracity, Live Action鈥檚 detractors argue. Many of the states that passed laws to require classroom viewings of the video have some of the nation鈥檚 most extreme abortion restrictions.

Overall, the 鈥淏aby Olivia鈥� video is connected to a larger trend of state laws promoting censorship and erasure, often under the guise of 鈥減arental rights.鈥� At the federal level, the Department of Health and Human Services has threatened states with the loss of tens of millions of dollars if they don鈥檛 strike 鈥済ender ideology鈥� from their sex education materials, SIECUS noted. When states give into such pressures, schools and educators are dissuaded from providing an inclusive and accurate curriculum.

鈥淭here’s a lot of fear and misinformation used,鈥� Macklin said. 鈥淭he opposition really uses these tactics to make parents think their rights are being taken away, when, of course, parents have rights when it comes to education; that’s already built into the system.鈥�

Much of the fear parents have about sex ed stems from the idea that the curriculum is focused on the act of intercourse when comprehensive sex ed is largely designed to teach students about sexual health and relationship fundamentals. In countries like Australia and New Zealand, the course is known as 鈥淩elationships and Sexuality Education,鈥� and the young people enrolled learn about safety as well as health.

鈥淲e teach about how to set boundaries. We teach about healthy relationships and how to watch out for warning signs of abusive relationships,鈥� Pepper said of sex educators. 鈥淲e talk a lot about consent 鈥� making sure that people are entering into situations in a consensual way, how to check for consent and how to respond if someone says no.鈥�

Teaching students about consent as part of sex ed, Pepper said, can reduce rates of sexual violence, making communities safer. These lessons are crucial for boys, most of whom are well-meaning, he continued.

鈥淭hey don鈥檛 want to harm anyone else. They don鈥檛 want to be creepy,鈥� Pepper said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e looking for guidance about how to navigate dating and relationships in a way that feels safe and consensual and fun for everyone involved.鈥�

It is also imperative that boys and young men learn about contraception, instead of leaving the issue for young women alone to manage. Pepper teaches the boys in his classes about a wide range of options.

鈥淚f you have a sexual situation that could result in a pregnancy, that should not just be on the female partner,鈥� Pepper said. 鈥淏oth of those people should care about this. And you can’t make informed choices unless you have accurate information.鈥�

Increasingly, state and district policies are requiring schools to not only provide students with basic information about puberty but also about , regardless of gender. Forty-one bills, according to SIECUS, have been introduced to help students obtain .

鈥淚t鈥檚 so great to see these types of menstrual equity bills being passed,鈥� Macklin said. 鈥淚t allows for greater knowledge about the menstrual cycle for everybody.鈥�

Nicole Reksopuro, a high school junior near Portland, Oregon, welcomes these legislative advances. She took her first sex ed course in middle school, describing the materials 鈥渁s pretty high level.鈥� Her state is one of the seven with . Oregon earned the high mark because it offers a comprehensive and LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum that also must teach about consent and not be fear- or shame-based. Moreover, parents must opt their kids out of the content rather than into it.

As grateful as she is to have received quality sex ed before high school, Reksopuro would have liked the course to go into more specifics. She learned about menstruation and healthy relationships, 鈥渂ut I wish they went deeper into personal hygiene,鈥� she said via email. 鈥淚 did appreciate that it helped me think critically about my body and how to take care of it.鈥�

Once she entered high school, she received additional sex ed that reinforced what she learned in middle school and explored healthy relationships in greater detail.

鈥淚 still wish there was more about taking care of our bodies and more time spent on ways to set healthy boundaries with different people in our lives,鈥� she said.

Reksopuro鈥檚 experience does not surprise sex educator Hart, who said that even in progressive states, the training teachers undergo in the subject is often lacking. Plus, the legacy of class and racial segregation means that marginalized students tend to get inferior sex ed, no matter their state.

鈥淎s a Black, queer, nonbinary person, I’m really curious as to what are your politics and your stance and your values beyond being a red or a blue state because a lot of times those colors bleed and start to look very similar,鈥� she said.

As students and advocates in blue states push for refinements to their sex ed courses, activists like Fluker are working to give youth where they live access to basic contraception so they don鈥檛 become teenage parents.

Fluker once worked at an Alabama Walgreens and saw young people scrape together the cash to buy emergency contraceptive Plan B. That experience fuels her current work to get condoms into schools and community centers, but the effort is not without pushback. She has to justify to parents why she鈥檚 providing these products. 鈥淭hey obviously know that pregnancy is a consequence, but they don’t believe that their children are [sexually] active,鈥� she said.

on its 2025 State Report Cards. While the state requires sex ed to be medically accurate and students in grades 5-12 to receive instruction on HIV/AIDS, it does not demand that the curriculum include instruction on consent, sexual orientation or gender identity. Additionally, schools that teach sex ed must focus on abstinence, but parents can still prevent their children from taking the course.

Although Mu帽oz is across the country in Nevada, he can relate to Fluker鈥檚 experiences. He said that sex education has been stigmatized.

鈥淚t has been the villain of the story,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut I think these topics should be addressed before people go to university, just so they know what to watch out for, to know what’s healthy and what’s good.鈥�

Some state lawmakers agree and are introducing legislation to strengthen sex ed rather than weaken the curriculum. They are presenting opt-out policies rather than opt-in ones. A rising number of state bills also focus on consent education, sexual violence prevention and protecting librarians and educators from censorship efforts.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not all doom and gloom,鈥� Macklin said.

At the end of the day, the policies enacted will reflect what kind of future lawmakers and stakeholders want for young people 鈥� one where they enjoy safety, bodily autonomy and healthy relationships or one where they are vulnerable to coercion, infections and misinformation.

鈥淲e would never put one of my teenagers into a car without giving them the education they need to operate that car safely, whether I’m ready for them to operate the car or not,鈥� Macklin said. 鈥淚 think when we think about sexuality or sexual activity from that perspective, we can all agree as parents that we want our young people to be safe and we want them to make good decisions.鈥�

New Jersey鈥檚 gubernatorial candidates both want school districts to consolidate as a cost-saving maneuver, but they differ on whether the state should force districts to merge with their neighbors.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, said during that she would first incentivize mergers but added that compulsory consolidation was an option.

鈥淚鈥檇 start by offering the carrot to help the areas that want to consolidate, but when there are areas that are not putting enough money into students, into educators, into the buildings, and then they are taking a lot of money in property taxes and from the state level, then we鈥檒l have to start to look at compulsory movements,鈥� Sherrill said.

Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a former assemblyman, likewise said he would seek to boost incentives and assistance to municipalities and school districts seeking mergers, but he pledged not to force them.

鈥淚 do not believe that our state government should force consolidation. That鈥檚 up to the locals,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut I鈥檒l tell you what, if you do consolidate or you do regionalize, Governor Ciattarelli will help incentivize that to make it easier.鈥�

Sherrill and Ciattarelli are vying to succeed Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat who cannot seek a third term in November.

Officials have long hailed school consolidation as a means of easing local property taxes by reducing duplicative administrative and facilities costs, but uptake has been slow.

New Jersey had 590 operating school districts during the 2024-2025 school year, according to state data, down from 599 in the 2020-2021 school year.

The number of non-operating districts 鈥� districts that have a board of education but send all their students to schools in outlying districts 鈥� fell from 17 to 16 over that same time period. Sherrill signaled those districts could be the first merged if she wins the governor鈥檚 race.

鈥淲e have some school districts who have the whole administrative cost, all of the buildings, and yet they鈥檙e not even running a K-12 school system, so we do need to merge some of these school districts,鈥� she said.

Schools consume a majority of local property taxes 鈥� 52% of all those collected in 2024, according to property tax tables published by the Department of Community Affairs 鈥� and the more than $15.1 billion in school aid approved in the current state budget accounted for more than a quarter of all spending approved in the annual appropriations bill for the current July-to-June fiscal year. That total includes more than $4 billion in combined special education, transportation, and other categories of aid separate from the state鈥檚 school funding formula.

Ciattarelli suggested school vouchers 鈥� which allow property tax dollars to follow a student to a private school, a public school outside their district, or a charter school 鈥� could be a fix for ailing districts.

鈥淲hen a school system is failing 鈥� and there鈥檚 some reasonable metrics that tell us whether or not a school system is failing 鈥� there鈥檚 got to be choice,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat choice comes in the form of vouchers. That choice comes in the form of charter schools.鈥�

Because vouchers typically draw from school district funding, they could cause funding to decline at in-district public schools as students seek education elsewhere.

New Jersey lawmakers have considered听听or shared service agreements, but to date, such mergers have been entirely voluntary.

Murphy, who has generally favored school mergers, last year said he was 鈥渘ot wild about compulsory鈥� consolidation, cautioning that home rule, a constitutional framework that gives local governments broad authority over the administration of school and other municipal services, could limit forced mergers.

A law he signed in 2022 created grants for districts to study whether consolidation was feasible, though only a handful of districts have explored such mergers since.

Cape May City Elementary School and West Cape May Elementary School are the latest to receive grants to explore a merger. Together, the two Cape May County schools have just 241 students.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence T. McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com.

Four schools took on so much damage during Hurricane Helene that their students needed to relocate. Some temporarily, some permanently.

Public schools in Henderson, McDowell, Watauga, and Yancey counties had to pivot once students returned after the storm. Here are updates on those buildings from the superintendents who oversee the districts.

Henderson County

campus is split by Perry Creek in Henderson County. The facility was built in 1982, and the gym sits on one side of the creek, the school building on the other. Due to unprecedented rainfall from Helene, the creek swelled, and both buildings took on two inches of water.

(HCPS) Superintendent Mark Garrett said the water receded within two hours, but the problem was time and electricity.

School leadership tried to work their way to the building once the storm passed, but with having to cut their way out of homes and unblock roads to the school, doors remained closed and moisture impacted the floors. Compounded by the lack of power to help with air circulation after arriving at the school, Atkinson Elementary would need to replace all the floors before reopening.

Garrett said initially they were going to have to divide Atkinson Elementary students amongst the school district, but a community partner intervened before he had to make that call.

“The coolest thing happened — the local Boys and Girls Club stepped out and asked if we could utilize their space at all,鈥� reflected Garrett.

Kent Parent had been the CEO of the for one week, and immediately welcomed the entirety of Atkinson Elementary staff and students to the building.

Flooring was essentially the only thing that needed to be replaced at Atkinson Elementary. If it wasn鈥檛 on the floor, it wasn鈥檛 impacted, said Garrett. Since the building was from 1982, the majority was carpeted. They ripped that up, replaced some asbestos tiles and drywall, and put in new flooring. Insurance was quick and easy to work with, and FEMA has come to discuss future proofing with mitigation funds for potential other natural events.

Atkinson Elementary students reported to school at the Henderson Boys and Girls Club on Oct. 15. Garrett’s aim was to have the school building ready to reopen by Christmas.

On Dec. 16, students were welcomed back to the Atkinson Elementary campus, a week ahead of Garrett’s goal.

鈥淚 think what I want people to know is our community was very gracious and understanding,” Garret said.  “Our teachers and the principal there worked like crazy to make the Boys and Girls Club feel like home and feel like school to them. Then they had to move it all back.”

Garrett believed it was a “Herculean effort that they put forth,” and he couldn’t be more grateful.

McDowell County

Mill Creek sits behind in McDowell County. The creek was overrun with water, flooding the building and parking lot during Helene. The school building originally opened in 2020 and is still closed due to damage.

Old Fort for the time has merged with . Tracy Grit, superintendent of McDowell County Schools (MCS), said the goal is to open back up in the fall of 2025, and he believes they are on target to meet that timeline.

In early October, Grit assured a church full of Old Fort Elementary families that the building was 鈥�100% salvageable,鈥� but it would take time to get there. The biggest challenges have remained environmental 鈥� dealing with humidity and the impacts of moisture on the building infrastructure. “Part of it is getting a building not just clean, but dried out,” he said. The cleanup happened quickly, and they鈥檝e slowly gotten their HVAC system back up and running.

They hustled to get two feet of mud out of the parking lot, gutters, and drain pipes to mitigate another flooding event inside the building had it started to rain again.

Grit credits the Army Corps of Engineers along with the MCS maintenance department on getting the exterior of the building cleaned so quickly.

Old Fort Elementary’s gym floor had been ripped up and was replaced by the second week of January, and the work to put flooring back in classrooms has just begun.

“There’s a lot of behind the scenes documentation that has to go into this,” Grit remarked. He praised working with the state on insurance, and while the district doesn’t have a lot of wiggle room in terms of money, the deductible is something that FEMA will reimburse.

“Right now we’re just in this documentation phase. If you can imagine itemizing every single item in a school, and then you got to catalog it and get it into a system,” Grit said.

The work is tedious, but Grit understands its how to get this school back up and running.

“When you have that much water in a building, you’re going to see power on, you’re going to see lights on, and you’re going to think, ‘Oh that building (looks open), we should be able to get back in there.’ Well, that’s not the case because you have to have the right climate before you can start putting down floors,” said Grit.

Grit praised the principals of both Old Fort Elementary and Pleasant Gardens Elementary, Jill Ward and Erin Rayfield, who are working together in one school to continue to educate their kids. He said the transition isn’t without its hardships and that the Old Fort Elementary staff are ready to get “home,” but he is so impressed by everyone at MCS.

Watauga County

At 2 a.m. on Sept. 27, Dr. Leslie Alexander, superintendent of , was at with the district’s assistant superintendent, the school’s principal, her husband, and five maintenance workers. They were using five pumps to remove incoming water from the basement of the school.

The school was constructed in 1935 as part of the New Deal Works Progress Administration (WPA) and was prone to taking on small amounts of water. Alexander knew no one would stop working unless she told everyone to go home. Principal Dr. Bonnie Smith wouldn’t leave her school, so her husband and the other maintenance workers stayed on pumping until 7 a.m., and then the power went out.

They had it fairly under control, but then, “the rain really started coming in. And you know, right where we were standing, it got to be about 4 feet of water,鈥� said Alexander.

The historic stone school is 66,000 square feet. Of that, 46,000 square feet took on water. There was already a new school being built for these students a quarter of a mile down the road, but due to construction issues and the hurricane, completion has been delayed. The new Valle Crucis School building will not be completed until summer of 2025. Leadership needed to figure out where it was going to put students for the foreseeable future.

“Bonnie and her staff, they were really pretty adamant. They wanted to keep the kids together as much as they could,” said Alexander.

Three community education institutions stepped in — (ASU), (CCCTI), and — to host the students in need of a temporary home.

ASU happened to have one preschool classroom that was already approved on campus, so it was a perfect fit for the littlest learners. The district has a great relationship with the at the university as well. K-5 students moved to the conference center, which was originally the community school.

The middle school students found a place at the local community college.

“The teachers talk about what a great fit it is when I’m over there. I mean, the kids just obviously feel very comfortable on that campus,” remarked Alexander. A silver lining to the storm.

“It’s just such an invaluable experience for them to be able to see themselves on a college campus with college students, around that whole environment,” said Alexander. “I really want to see what that next step looks like for those sixth, seventh, and eighth graders who’ve had that experience.”

The superintendent is really proud of all the educators from Valle Crucis and their ability to adapt.

“The kids are laughing and they’re engaged in their work, and they’re just very, very happy to be back with other students and their teachers,” Alexander said. “So just I commend that group of teachers and those employees for just really doing what’s best for kids.鈥�

Yancey County

The Busick community sits off of NC-80 in Yancey County. Busick is in the South Toe Township, and 31 inches of rain were recorded there during Helene. Also along NC-80, and below Busick, is Micaville Elementary.

“A wonderful old rock school, a fantastic school for the Micaville community and Yancey County,” reflected district superintendent Kathy Amos.

The rain flowed down from Busick, swelling the creek behind Micaville, and flooded the building to the point of no return. There was already a consolidation plan for the district in place — the WPA school building was constructed in 1936 — and the plan was to close it for students, move them to newer schools, and use it in some way for the district or community. But the storm disrupted the established timeline.

Amos needed to determine where the 198 students and 30 to 40 faculty and staff members would go and for how long.

Three classrooms moved to . The school recently completed a renovation project, so they could take on the load. The other eight classrooms moved to , where they converted the media center into two classrooms, moved a class into the music room, and more to help with the additional students.

“Those teachers have been so helpful and gracious in this transition in just getting everyone settled,鈥� said Amos.

With Micaville Elementary closed permanently, the expansion plans are underway to add 14 classrooms to Burnsville Elementary School and 12 classrooms to .

Burnsville’s new construction should be ready this fall, and Blue Ridge’s in the fall of 2026.

Yancey County has dealt with ongoing issues with weather, water, electricity, and infrastructure. Budgets in small rural counties are strained with the cost of recovery, and even with insurance and FEMA reimbursements, it is challenging to pay for those exorbitant upfront rebuilding costs.

Amos, however, remains ever grateful for all the help they have received, and resilient in the face of a future that may continue to throw her district curve balls.

鈥淵ou just don’t know what the day is going to bring, you know? We are able to see our students, and we’re so blessed to have them back of the building,鈥� Amos said.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Providence public school officials last Friday were about to finalize a credit monitoring agreement to provide protection for district teachers and staff after a recent ransomware attack on the district鈥檚 network.

Then over the weekend, a video preview of selected data allegedly stolen from the Providence Public School Department (PPSD) showed up on a regular website. The site is accessible via any internet browser 鈥� what鈥檚 sometimes called the 鈥渃learnet鈥� 鈥� unlike the dark web ransom page where cybercriminal group Medusa first alleged to .

While a forensic analysis of the breach continues, the credit monitoring agreement with an unspecified vendor was finalized as of Thursday and the district was drafting a letter to go out to the staff 鈥渧ery soon鈥� with information on how to access those services, spokesperson Jay G. W茅gimont said in an email.

鈥淔irst and foremost, the safety and security of our staff members is of utmost importance, and the District continues to make decisions with that in mind,鈥� W茅gimont said.

鈥淲e will also continue to explore any additional services we can offer to protect the security of our staff members and students.鈥�

Meanwhile, the data breach has yet to be formally reported to the Rhode Island Attorney General鈥檚 office, said spokesperson Brian Hodge. requires any municipal or government agency to inform the AG鈥檚 office, credit reporting agencies, and people affected by a breach within 30 days of the breach鈥檚 confirmation.

PPSD first used the wording 鈥渦nauthorized access鈥� to describe the breach in a Sept. 25 letter from Superintendent Javier Monta帽ez, although the Providence School Board had used the term 鈥渂reach鈥� in a public statement on Sept. 18.

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley was 鈥渆ncouraged鈥� the district was advising potentially affected staff and finalizing the credit monitoring agreement, spokesperson Anthony Vega said in a statement emailed Tuesday to Rhode Island Current.

The Providence City Council declined to comment, said spokesperson Roxie Richner in an email. Gov. Dan Mckee鈥檚 office did not respond to a request for comment.

鈥楻obert鈥� makes a video

Ransomware group Medusa first took public credit for the pirated PPSD data on Sept. 16, when it demanded a $1 million ransom to be paid by the morning of Sept. 25.

Rhode Island Current previously reported that the alleged ransom landing page did not provide access to files, but did show file and folder names, as well as partially obscured screenshots of the allegedly stolen data.

The clearnet-hosted leak includes a 24-minute screen recording in which someone clicks through an assortment of the allegedly leaked files and folders on an otherwise empty Windows desktop. The post sports a disclaimer that its author is 鈥渘ot engaged in illegal activities鈥� and showcases leaks only for 鈥減ossible information security problems.鈥�

The author signs off: 鈥淭raditional thanks to The Providence Public School Department for the provided data. Do not skimp on information security. Always yours. Robert.鈥�

While the uploader does not explicitly brand themself as affiliated with Medusa, the 鈥淩obert鈥� source appears to share all the same leaks Medusa does, and both sources use the same encrypted messaging address, according to threat researchers at Bitdefender.

Ransomware attacks, and Medusa鈥檚 methodology as well, have long been associated with social engineering 鈥� like getting people to click phishing links in emails. But it鈥檚 becoming more common that outdated hardware or software are to blame, said Bill Garneau, vice president of operations at CMIT Solutions in Cranston.

鈥淲hat we鈥檝e started to see in terms of ransomware is, it鈥檚 not only business email compromise,鈥� Garneau said. 鈥淭hreat actors out there are really pursuing systems that are out of compliance.鈥�

That could mean equipment at the end of its manufacturer-supported lifespan, or software that needs to be patched. Garneau鈥檚 company uses a crafted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. One of its standards is to patch devices within 30 days of the patch release, before threat actors can exploit the vulnerabilities patches are meant to fix.

鈥淚f there鈥檚 a patch available, it鈥檚 because there鈥檚 a bad guy out there that knows that there鈥檚 a vulnerability, and there鈥檚 somebody that鈥檚 knocking on doors trying to find it,鈥� Garneau said.

To insure or not to insure?

Cyber insurance policies can cover some costs incurred by attacks. But they can鈥檛 prevent future threats or suddenly make insecure networks better, Garneau noted.

鈥淚nsurance is great, right? But that鈥檚 not going to solve any problem,鈥� Garneau said.

PPSD has not responded to requests about whether the district has cyber insurance. According to Lauren Greene, a spokesperson for the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns, no public entity would disclose that information anyway. 鈥淎s you can understand, it poses a security risk for municipalities to disclose if and what type of cybersecurity insurance that they have,鈥� Greene said in an email.

鈥淢unicipalities continue to prioritize training for their staff in order to mitigate risk and draw awareness to the constantly evolving threats,鈥� Greene added, and noted that a community鈥檚 IT staff may work across multiple areas or departments like public safety and schools.

A released Monday, however, showed that states-level IT officials and security officers are not feeling confident about the budgets for their states鈥� IT infrastructure.

鈥淭he attack surface is expanding as state leaders鈥� reliance on information becomes increasingly central to the operation of government itself,鈥� Srini Subramanian, principal of Deloitte & Touche LLP, said in an with States Newsroom. 鈥淎nd CISOs (chief information security officers) have an increasingly challenging mission to make the technology infrastructure resilient against ever-increasing cyber threats.鈥�

Those challenges were reflected in the survey numbers, which found almost half of respondents did not know their state鈥檚 budget for cybersecurity. Roughly 40% of state IT officers said they did not have enough funds to comply with regulations or other legal requirements.

That finding echoes a , which scores and analyzes municipal bonds. 鈥淲hile robust cybersecurity practices can help reduce exposure, initiatives that are costly and require a shift in resources away from core services are a credit challenge,鈥� wrote Gregory Sobel, a Moody鈥檚 analyst and assistant vice president, in the report.

Moody鈥檚 also noted that one survey showed 92% of local governments had cyber insurance, a twofold increase over five years. But that popularity came with higher rates: One county in South Carolina went from paying a $70,000 premium in 2021 to a $210,000 premium in 2022. Those higher costs are also in addition to stricter stipulations on risk management practices before a policy will pay out, like better firewalls, consistent data backups and multi-factor authentication.

Douglas W. Hubbard, the CEO of consulting firm Hubbard Decision Research and coauthor of 鈥淗ow to Measure Anything in Cybersecurity Risk,鈥� told Rhode Island Current in an email that schools should exhaust the low-cost, shared or free resources available to help them manage cyber risk. Examples include (CISA) or a by the Federal Communications Commission for K-12 schools.

鈥淔or specific cybersecurity recommendations鈥here are a few things that are so fundamental that administrators don鈥檛 really even need a risk analysis to get started,鈥� Hubbard said. They include training staff and students on best practices including strong passwords or avoiding mysterious links. Multi-factor authentication is 鈥減robably the single most effective technology a school could implement,鈥� even if it involves an upfront cost, Hubbard said.

鈥淭he fundamental responsibilities of the schools should include at least using the resources which have been made available to them through the programs I mentioned,鈥� Hubbard said. 鈥淚f they aren鈥檛 doing at least that, there is room for blame.鈥�

This article was corrected to show that Rhode Island state law requires municipal agencies to notify affected parties and the state Attorney General within 30 days of a data breach. The article originally stated 45 days, which is the timeframe required for individuals to report a breach. 

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com. Follow Rhode Island Current on and .

However, what would it look like to create a partnership across state lines that is grounded in a community鈥檚 history and needs while also incorporating knowledge and support from another region?

That partnership now exists between two organizations 鈥� one based in Connecticut and the other in Indiana 鈥� to drive an important goal: growing the number of high-quality public charter schools for Connecticut students and families. 

This goal isn鈥檛 new for Connecticut. In fact, the state鈥檚 charter school law is nearly three decades old, and there are a number of dedicated advocates and organizations who work hard to grow and strengthen public school options for Connecticut families. 

This new partnership, between Latinos for Educational Advocacy and Diversity (LEAD) from Connecticut and The Mind Trust from Indianapolis, was created to add to the growing coalition of community members and leaders who want to see more high-quality public school options in the Constitution State.

LEAD鈥檚 work is focused on programs that empower the community, like English as a Second Language classes, youth services, health and financial literacy programs, and more. Its team is passionate about meeting families where they are to give them the resources they need to create a bright future, and LEAD was founded in part to support grassroots advocacy efforts in expanding charter school options 鈥� something its leaders continue to hear is needed from the families they work with. 

There is no time to waste in moving the needle on expanding access to high-quality schools. According to a report from the Connecticut Charter Schools Association, during the 2023-2024 school year, more than 5,000 Connecticut students were waiting to enroll in a charter school. Additionally, in the 2022-2023 school year, 95% of all charter schools out-performed schools that serve the same student population in English Language Arts (ELA) and math on the SBAC, Connecticut鈥檚 annual state standardized assessment. 

The need and desire for change is growing each year. When LEAD looked at how other states have expanded access, its leaders saw how innovation and strategic investment in proven models and leaders could work. That led the organization to Indiana and The Mind Trust. 

The Mind Trust believes there are three essential elements to a great school: autonomy, accountability, and a leader with the talent to bring a vision of educational excellence to life. Since 2006, the organization has supported the launch of 15 education nonprofit organizations and more than 50 public charter and innovation network schools in Indianapolis that will serve more than 21,000 students when they are at full scale. 

When it first started its charter school growth work in Indianapolis, The Mind Trust set out with the belief that to increase the number of public charter schools in the city it should both build up existing local talent and attract new talent to the city from other regions. Over the years, the resulting initiatives have received over 4,000 applications from education entrepreneurs across 48 states and 36 countries. 

Indianapolis is now proudly home to locally grown networks that have been founded by some of the most qualified and effective school leaders in the country. As a result, researchers from Stanford University, the University of Notre Dame, Indiana University, the University of Arkansas, and the University of Washington have all found that Indianapolis charter schools lead their students to significantly more academic progress than local traditional public schools.

In 2022, Stanford University鈥檚 Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) found that Indianapolis charter school students achieved 64 more days of learning in reading and 116 days in math, compared to their district school peers. Black students at Indianapolis charter schools had even more significant gains, with 86 more days of learning reading and 144 days in math relative to their district peers. 

In 2023, the University of Arkansas found that Indianapolis, by far, is home to the most cost-effective charter sector in the country for both reading and math. Indianapolis鈥� charter sector has the largest ROI advantage out of any city in the study. For every dollar invested in Indy charter students鈥� education, they can expect to earn an average of $4.75 more than their traditional public school peers throughout their lifetime.

Through the new partnership, LEAD and The Mind Trust will work together to create a new locally designed fellowship that will give experienced school leaders the time and resources needed to launch new public charter schools in Connecticut. 

The development of this fellowship must be done alongside families, educators, advocates and community members who have a shared vision for better public education in Connecticut. Leaders at both organizations are committed to listening to and working closely with the community to design this initiative, select fellows, and ensure its outcomes are in line with what is best for Connecticut students and families. 

LEAD and The Mind Trust look forward to collaborating with the vibrant education community in Connecticut. Working together, we can all reimagine what is possible through partnership, innovation, and an unstoppable drive to do what is best for students and families. 

Brandon Brown is CEO of The Mind Trust, an education nonprofit focused on transforming K-12 education in Indianapolis and beyond. 

Lucas Pimentel is the CEO of Latinos for Educational Advocacy and Diversity (LEAD), a nonprofit that works to expand educational options and civic engagement in the state of Connecticut. 

Disclosure: The Mind Trust provides financial support to 麻豆精品.

As for its other mission 鈥� to work with state legislators to fix the problem 鈥� founder Rebecca Sibilia now admits that EdBuild did this 鈥渧ery, very poorly.鈥� In 2020, after just five years, the group closed up shop. 

Sibilia, who previously worked on school finance with Washington, D.C., schools and for the education reform group StudentsFirst, remembers that at the time she and others at the organization decided that while they鈥檇 done much to raise consciousness about the problem, they lacked the tools to move the issue forward.

As it turns out, the move coincided with the COVID pandemic, which threw school budgets into chaos nationwide. If anything, the need for clear, actionable information on funding now is greater than ever. 鈥淥ne of the biggest things that has come from the COVID era is that we have realized how much the data sucks,鈥� she said.

Policymakers 鈥渉ave been making guesses in the dark about how to fund our schools.鈥�

So four years later, Sibilia is debuting a new venture, EdFund, which goes live today. She spoke this week with 麻豆精品鈥檚 Greg Toppo about the need for better funding research and dissemination 鈥� and a new model for collaborating not just with legislators and policymakers, but for underwriting researchers, journalists and others to help make sense of the data. Sibilia plans to issue EdFund鈥檚 first request for proposals shortly.

She expects to eventually have 鈥渕any more proposals than what we have money to fund.鈥� At the moment, the new organization has three main funders 鈥� the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation and the Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation 鈥� providing about $1.5 million annually. 

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

麻豆精品: Thinking about EdBuild, you focused so much on unequal funding. I wonder: What’s the evolution? What’s next?

Rebecca Sibilia: EdBuild was really constituted with two missions: The first was to raise national awareness around the problem, which we did pretty well. And the second was to work with legislatures to actually fix it, which we did very, very poorly. And so at the end of the five years, we were like, “I’m not sure there’s much else to tell. We’ve raised the collective consciousness on what the problem is with school funding in terms of local funds. But we certainly aren’t structured, we certainly don’t have the tools to move this forward. And so, we need to shut down.” That was why we shut down.  

Four years later, what鈥檚 your focus? 

We need much more policy-relevant research because for 60 years, we’ve been arguing about whether or not money matters, and it is the dumbest debate of all dumb questions that exist in the world. Because at the end of the day, states exist in a limited-resource environment. What we don’t need is an answer to an ethereal question about endless resources and what they’ll do for student achievement. What we need are answers to practical questions, like “Where should I put a marginal dollar when I have it?” Or, “What are the right tax policies that states should be setting around local dollars in order to create more equitable, but also adequately funded systems?”

This complete disconnect between research and policy has led us to a place where policymakers have been making guesses in the dark about how to fund our schools, and I frankly believe that’s one of the reasons why very few legislators actually understand their funding formula. There’s very little science behind it because we just haven’t provided that.

So who is your audience?

We’re trying to bridge the gap between research and policy. So we see our stakeholders as three groups, with two very different workstreams: the research community, advocates and journalists. I would love to be able to say that policymakers are the endgame on this, but really, advocates and journalists are the ones who are going to be able to interpret this work, and get the overall thrust of what is new and what it means for kids, into the hands of policymakers. I should also mention that we’re a 501(c)3 [nonprofit].

When you talked to 麻豆精品 in 2020, you said the next step wouldn’t be through a 501(c)3. It sounds like you’ve changed your mind.

I have not. I’m just not the one to do it. There is an organization that you may have heard of that recently started up with some seed money from the Gates Foundation called . They are at the Southern Education Foundation and they’re shaping up a litigation strategy for school district borders and school funding and integration. So they’re kind of pulling on both of those strings. I’ve given up on legislators actually making a fundamental change to the system. I really think that that’s going to happen through the courts. But in the meantime, the research has to inform what we’ve got in place right now, because that endgame in the courts is in 10, 15, 20 years.

Your “exit interview” with us happened right as COVID hit. And I wondered: What have the past four years done to this issue?

One of the biggest things that has come from the COVID era is that we have realized how much the data sucks. School finance data sucks. It sucks, it sucks. And it’s one of the biggest restrictions to good research in this field, and certainly timely research that could inform better decisions. We had a focus group of about 40 or so graduate and Phd students, and we asked them if they were studying school finance. They said, “No.” We asked them, 鈥淲hich of these 10 factors would make you more likely to study school finance?鈥� And 80% of them said, “Better data.” 

The second thing is that we’re understanding a lot more that school districts tend to invest in the things that do matter for raising student achievement, and that’s human capital. Whether it’s teachers, tutors, guidance counselors, etc. It’s human capital. This question of whether putting an additional dollar into a school district will raise student achievement 鈥攚hat Kirabo Jackson will tell you is, “Yes, just the dollar will.” What EricHanushek will tell you is, “Well, it depends on how it’s spent.” And the answer that we’ve learned through ESSER funds is that it tends to be spent on the people in the school, which means that everyone’s right. So those are kind of the two things that have come out of COVID.

Let’s go back to the first issue: How can you make the data suck less? Is this what your RFP is about?

Yes, in part. Let me go through the four C’s of who we are: We’re going to curate a policy-relevant research agenda. So instead of letting funders determine what they’re going to fund and making researchers chase that money, we’re instead going to go to policymakers and say, 鈥淲hat are the questions you’re going to have to grapple with in the next five years,鈥� and then fund research to answer those questions. We’re going to curate a policy-relevant research agenda. That was the first thing we did. That’s why we’ve been quiet for the past six months.

The second thing we’re going to do is commission research against that policy agenda. That’s the RFP that we’re releasing this year. We hope to double the size of the investment next year and so on. And what you’ll see in the RFP is that we say: In some cases, we are flying so blind as it relates to school funding, that just putting together a data set will move the entire research field forward. So if students want to do this, if journalists want to do this, if policy organizations want to do this, in some cases collecting better data is just part of the solution. 

O.K. 

And then the third thing that we’re hoping to do is communicate the research that does exist and will come out of these RFPs in a way that it’s friendly for policy audiences 鈥� journalists and advocates primarily. We’re going to do so by white-labeling stuff. What we’re going to try to do is put together interactives and graphics and briefings and that sort of stuff, but it’ll all be available to advocates through an [an embeddable element on a website], and they can just stick it straight on their website. Or we’ll have podcasts that someone can send to a policymaker to listen to. We’re really trying for this to become an opportunity for advocates to learn what the research says, and a way for advocates to actually incorporate that into their everyday work so that everything is just more grounded in research. 

Then the fourth is connect. I got a call just the other day: There is a state that we happen to have been linked to in the past that happens to be moving school funding reform this year. And they were like, “We need somebody who can come down and talk about this one element of our funding formula.” So we sent one of our board members down, because he is an economist and has studied the issue. He can talk about that and educate policymakers on what his research says. We’re hoping to do more of that 鈥� just make those direct connections.

I was struck by something you said a couple years ago. You singled out California, New York and New Jersey, arguably three of the most progressive states in the country, that have “the most shameful set of borders around schools.” And it really made me think that if they can’t budge on this issue, what hope do you have for anybody solving it?

The states where all of the school finance reform mojo is happening are in the South! Tennessee their funding formula and went to a very progressive funding system. The Mississippi House , a very progressive funding system. The two co-chairs in Alabama have been talking about it 鈥� I wouldn’t be surprised to see them move in the next year or two.

It鈥檚 the southern states that are recognizing that the way they’re funding schools through these resource formulas just isn’t aligned with the science. This is one area where we actually can do some bootleg research and it can inform stuff. We used to say all the time at EdBuild that we need to move to a student-based funding formula for two reasons: One, different students have different needs. Two, when you think about how things work in the state capitol, you want advocates to be able to advocate for kids rather than themselves. And so in a resource-based formula, the people who are advocating in the capitol are the nurses association, the teachers association, the superintendents association, the principals. And the people in a weighted-student-formula environment who are lobbying in the capitol are special ed parents and English-language-learner communities and that sort of stuff. That’s really where you start to tilt the system in favor of kids instead of in favor of resources. 

It doesn鈥檛 sound like you’re abandoning the border fight. Taking a new approach maybe?

I’ve given up on borders changing through the legislature. The power dynamic just works against school districts that serve predominantly students of color.

I live in Maryland and we have county schools, which is not to say that they’re equal, but I live in a county that’s pretty diverse. I’d imagine somebody like you would say that’s a step in the right direction. Tell me where a place like Maryland sits in this discussion.

New Jersey has just over a million students, and they have over 600 school districts. Maryland has 850,000 kids, and they’ve got 24. That’s where Maryland fits in the conversation. So here’s the deal: What Maryland can do is they can take these enormous inequities in local funds and pool them because they’re sharing them across a much larger geography. The state has to do less to equalize because it’s equalizing at the local level first.

In New Jersey, the state has an enormous burden to equalize because they have to fix things for the 550 school districts that aren’t the bastions of wealth in the state. We can either move to systems that look like Maryland 鈥� and I believe that has to happen through the courts 鈥� or, short of that, we can change funding formulas to make much more sense as it relates to the way that we’re funding schools. And that’s what we can do through legislatures, policymakers, researchers all talking.

O.K. This is becoming clear to me now.

You can headline it as, “Rebecca Sibilia has given up hope.” [Laughs.]

I’m going to assume that you’re going to be done in five years, because that’s the way you do everything. What would you consider success in 2029? 

You know , right? He’s my ex-husband. And we’re still very good friends. We got engaged trying to change Tennessee’s funding formula 10 years ago. And we got it done last year. We started in 2016 to try to change Mississippi’s funding formula. And this year the House passed something. It takes a decade from the point that you start to educate the legislature and advocates and journalists about how their formula works and what research says for that to translate into policy. I believe that an organization can exist for five years and have a 15-year impact. We are seeing that bear out from the EdBuild time. 

One of the reasons we have these four distinct workstreams is because I think that several can be absorbed in different places. So maybe EdFund continues to run just as a funders’ collaborative. It just takes in money from foundations and puts it out for research, but the people who are curating the research agenda are the National Conference of State Legislatures. And the people who are communicating are at a specialized shop in the Urban Institute. And we’ve already created the bridges. Everyone’s talking and singing “Kumbaya,” so we don’t need to do the connecting anymore.

When you think about the construct of what EdFund could be, it could continue to exist past me. I could peace out and EdFund could continue to exist as it is, or we can start thinking about whether or not it makes more sense for these activities, once they have worked well together for a few years, to be absorbed in different places. Frankly, many other organizations out there in the education space could also afford to think about their work in the same respect.

I couldn’t let you go without asking you about this tweet from you at South by Southwest. Somebody took a picture of you talking to the Education Writers Association and you tweeted, “A bunch of journalists just created a better school funding formula than any current state model. How about them apples? Want more equitable funding? Elect your local reporter.” Thank you, by the way. We won’t take credit for that, but I wonder: Conceptually, is it a simple thing that we are just mucking up, or is it truly a complicated matter? 

There’s a part of every school funding formula called an . If you boil it all down, the state decides how much every school district needs to operate. They subtract out how much they think each community should raise, and then they give the rest. That’s what happens in every state. On the allocation side, people tend to understand how their state allocates: There’s a base amount and then there’s a weight for different kids, etc. That’s a policy that’s kind of easy to understand.

Ohio’s expected local contribution, I’m not kidding, goes for four pages, 12-point font, just in the mathematical equation alone. So if you’re a legislator and you’re looking at your state code and it’s 16 pages worth of, “Divide by, add two, regress four,” you’re just going to be like, “I give up.” But if you boil it down to, “Ohio uses a matrix that starts with the property wealth of every school district and gives a deduction for districts that have lower median household incomes,” I get that. What’s happened in school funding is that we’ve gotten so scared of the way it’s written because the code looks so scary.

It is scary, but we haven’t conveyed the concepts. Why haven’t we conveyed the concepts? Because research is what conveys concepts. And we haven’t had research to do it.

Disclosure: Walton Family Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provide financial support to EdBuild and 麻豆精品.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin on Wednesday filed to expedite his appeal of a circuit court ruling that delays the effective date of the LEARNS Act, the governor鈥檚 signature education legislation. Griffin asked that the state Supreme Court respond by 8 a.m. Friday.

Griffin on July 3 of an order invalidating the law鈥檚 emergency clause, which would allow it go into effect immediately instead of 91 days after the end of the legislative session.

Pulaski County Judge Herbert Wright the law鈥檚 emergency clause is invalid because it was not passed with a separate roll-call vote garnering a two-thirds majority, as required by the Arkansas Constitution.

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Barring the Arkansas Supreme Court overturning the ruling, the LEARNS Act will not go into effect until Aug. 1.

The lawsuit has delayed the pursuit of a 鈥渢ransformation contract鈥� between the Marvell-Elaine School District and Friendship Education Foundation, a charter school management organization. A provision of the LEARNS Act, a 鈥渢ransformation contract鈥� allows a struggling school district to partner with a third-party organization in lieu of a state takeover.

The state took control of Marvell-Elaine of the State Board of Education last Friday. Education Secretary Jacob Oliva said the action was necessary so preparations for the upcoming school year, including hiring teachers and setting an academic calendar, can resume.

Officials plan to continue pursuing a 鈥渢ransformation contract鈥� with Friendship Education Foundation after the law goes into effect on Aug. 1, Oliva said.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com. Follow Arkansas Advocate on and .

Each weekday, more than half of the K-12 students in the U.S. 鈥� 鈥� ride a school bus. Until very recently, nearly all of these ran on diesel fuel.

Nationwide, diesel-powered school buses produce of carbon dioxide emissions. They also generate that are harmful to children鈥檚 health 鈥� especially . Studies show that exposure to diesel tailpipe emissions and can lead to increased hospital admissions and emergency room visits.

Shifting to cleaner buses is especially important for low-income students. Across the U.S., ride the school bus, compared with 45% of other students. School buses often while they are loading or unloading, which exposes children directly to exhaust fumes.

I study issues at the intersection of , including sustainability and equity in transportation. While electrifying school bus fleets requires big investments, I believe the evidence makes clear that it will more than pay off over the long term in health and economic benefits, and I am encouraged to see public and private investments moving in that direction.

Early movers

Decisions about switching from diesel to electric school buses typically lie with cities and school districts, although state governments are getting involved. As of , 415 school districts or contracted fleet operators had committed to deploy 12,275 electric school buses in a wide range of settings, from large cities to rural counties, across 38 states and lands of two Native American tribes.

California, a in clean vehicle policy, acquired its first electric school buses in 2014. Now the state is spending nearly US$70 million to to advance its climate and air-quality goals.

Another notable case is Montgomery County, the largest school district in Maryland, which is and building five charging depots. The district serves a diverse population of .

In Virginia, the utility company Dominion Energy that it would provide 50 electric buses for 16 school districts across the state as one of its initiatives to reduce pollution and promote sustainability. Dominion is paying for infrastructure costs and absorbing the cost difference between a diesel and an electric bus.

The biggest obstacles: Funding and space

As Dominion鈥檚 gesture suggests, converting bus fleets isn鈥檛 an easy step for many school districts. An electric school bus , of a diesel bus.

But electric buses have , so they save districts an estimated $4,000 to $11,000 per bus per year compared with diesel versions. That can make the costs of electric buses comparable over their lifetimes.

Electric bus motors have about 20 parts, compared with 2,000 in a diesel engine, and require far fewer maintenance steps such as regular fluid changes. And because many of their mechanical systems, such as braking and steering, are similar to those in diesel buses, electric buses are relatively easy to service, especially in districts where both bus types operate.

Charging stations also require money and space, especially in areas where bus routes are long and battery range is a constraint. Most buses now on the market have ranges of about to (160-190 kilometers) on a single charge.

In a 2013 study, analysts at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory reviewed school bus drive cycles in Colorado, New York and Washington and found that the average school bus was typically in operation for . Driving distance averaged about 32 miles, (50 kilometers), with some buses traveling over 127 miles (200 kilomaters) daily.

School districts need places to charge buses easily and efficiently, especially between morning and afternoon routes. Building this infrastructure, especially as diesel buses continue to operate concurrently with growing electric fleets, can pose a challenge in school districts where .

Buses as power sources

At the same time, charging infrastructure can make school bus fueling and management more efficient. Today鈥檚 allows districts to plug in a bus whenever it is parked at the depot but have the bus charge only when needed. Chargers can be programmed to function at times of day when energy demand is lowest and power is less expensive.

Manufacturers are introducing buses equipped with that can send stored electricity back to the grid when they are not in service. During summer months, when many school buses are not in use and power usage often peaks, utilities soon may be able to call on school districts to make charged buses available to help ease demand load. These buses can also during power outages and emergencies.

In a 2022 study, researchers at the University of North Carolina analyzed how the state鈥檚 utilities could use school buses with vehicle-to-grid charging to manage peak power demand while taking the buses鈥� schedules into account. They estimated that a fleet of 14,000 buses could on an average winter weekend day in North Carolina, reducing utilities鈥� dependence on natural gas and avoiding up to 1,130 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per day.

Cleaner air is likely to pay off in improved student performance. In a , researchers found that 2,656 diesel buses in Georgia 鈥� adding new components to reduce the buses鈥� emissions 鈥� was associated with positive effects on students鈥� respiratory health, and that districts with retrofitted diesel buses experienced test score gains in English and math. Since even modernized diesel vehicles still generate air pollutants, shifting to electric buses would likely produce even larger increases.

Spreading the benefits

Federal and state agencies are moving to speed up the transition to electric school buses. The American Rescue Plan, enacted in 2021 to provide economic relief during the COVID-19 pandemic, included for school districts in underserved communities, Tribal schools and private fleets serving schools that purchase electric buses.

In March 2022 the Environmental Protection Agency for 23 electric school bus replacement programs and associated charging infrastructure in 11 states. And New York state鈥檚 includes a nation-leading requirement that all new school bus purchases must be electric starting in July 2027, and that all school buses in service must be zero-emission by 2035. The budget allocates $500 million in potential state funding for school bus electrification as part of a larger environmental bond act, which will be on the ballot in November 2022.

Riding the iconic yellow school bus is a formative experience for millions of kids across the U.S. If more districts make the shift away from diesel, I believe it will become a greener and healthier trip and a step toward the zero-emissions future our nation鈥檚 children deserve.

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

Sixty-one percent assigned top grades for how their child鈥檚 school is 鈥渁ddressing any learning challenges related to the pandemic,鈥� and 60 percent gave an A or B for 鈥減roviding resources to support students鈥� mental health.鈥�

Schools get higher marks, however, for keeping parents updated on school policies, assessing where children stand academically and even requirements regarding vaccines, masks and quarantines. Almost three-quarters of parents give schools an A or B in these areas.

Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, which conducted the survey, said the results suggest parents are 鈥渟till in the trenches with teachers鈥� but have less faith in the nation鈥檚 leaders to make bold improvements to schools. Thirty-eight percent of the sample of just over 1,000 parents give President Joe Biden an A or B on handling schools鈥� responses to the pandemic, and thirty-six percent give Education Secretary Miguel Cardona high grades on that question.

Over half of respondents said they鈥檝e heard 鈥渘ot much鈥� or 鈥渘othing at all鈥� about federal relief funds or how they can be used for education.

鈥淲hy does everything look and feel the same?鈥� Rodrigues asked. 鈥淸Parents] are not feeling the impact of this money.鈥�

Conducted 20 times since the beginning of the pandemic, the advocacy organization鈥檚 poll captures parents鈥� opinions on the most pressing COVID-related issues facing schools and families 鈥� from parents鈥� willingness to vaccinate their children to how well they think schools are serving students with special needs. Over time, Rodrigues said she has seen parents consistently say they鈥檙e concerned about their children鈥檚 well-being, but that overall, schools 鈥渇ailed to listen to us.鈥� 

Some district leaders say they鈥檙e hearing the similar concerns about students鈥� emotional and behavior needs from their staff. In the Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota, Superintendent David Law noted that focusing on students鈥� mental health needs is a top priority for teachers.

鈥淪tudents are needier than they were in the past,鈥� he said, adding that in his district of 37,000, the 20 percent that did not return to in-person learning last year are 鈥渞eally struggling with the transition鈥� this year.

But even though schools now have the money to hire more counselors and social workers, 鈥渢he personnel can鈥檛 be had,鈥� said Daniel Domenech, executive director of AASA, the School Superintendents Association. Addressing those behavioral and emotional needs is 鈥渇alling more and more on the shoulders of classroom teachers.鈥�

The latest results, gathered by Echelon Insights, which conducts opinion research, show 40 percent of parents consider staffing shortages to be a major or moderate problem at their child鈥檚 school. Almost the same percentage responded that student behavior issues are affecting learning, and about a third said behavior issues were serious enough to create safety risks. 

While parent protests and disruptions at school board meetings have dominated the news, just 16 percent of parents responding consider conflicts over masks, vaccines or quarantine policies to be a major problem in their children鈥檚 schools. More than half answered that disagreements over these issues are either a minor problem or non-existent.

But in some parts of the country, those debates are more intense, and Domenich said superintendents over mask mandates don鈥檛 view the issues as minor.

鈥淚n [the Houston Independent School District], we definitely saw the divide with parents on mask mandates after Superintendent [Millard] House and the school board voted for mask mandates,鈥� said Wendy Gonzales-Neal, a National Parents Union delegate in Texas and the executive director of advocacy group My Child My Voice. 鈥淧arents are fighting with schools and our elected officials to keep our kids safe.鈥�

Despite districts鈥� increasing use of test-to-stay policies 鈥� which allow close contacts of students who test positive for COVID-19 to avoid quarantine 鈥� just over half of parents, 53 percent, still think students who have been exposed should stay home from school for at least 14 days. 

About a third said schools should allow students to come back to class as long as they test negative multiple times in a week, and 5 percent said schools shouldn鈥檛 do anything if students are exposed.

Parents just want consistency, Rodrigues said. 

鈥淨uarantines are a toss up. They can change from school to school,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 control COVID, but parents need to know what is going to happen.鈥�

Disclosure: The Walton Family Foundation, the City Fund, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York provide financial support to the and .