after laments the death of entry-level hiring, and according to the World Economic Forum, the they鈥檙e building will be out of date by the end of the decade. 

As both a mother of two teenagers and the head of one of the nation鈥檚 largest education , I鈥檓 asked a version of the very same question from both parents and policymakers: How can we ensure that today鈥檚 students are learning things that are actually going to matter?

I found part of the answer in an unexpected place: a high school theater.

My daughter recently performed in her school鈥檚 production of “Legally Blonde: The Musical.” She played Pilar, a scene-stealing member of Elle Woods鈥� sorority. After the show, she cried 鈥� not from exhaustion or stress but from pride. And not pride in the accomplishment, but the learning that came with it.

Of course, what she learned from that play won鈥檛 show up on a standardized test. Colleges won鈥檛 find it on her transcript, either. But like thousands of other theater kids, she鈥檚 building exactly the sort of skills that the labor market is demanding.

In the weeks leading up to the performance, she had to collaborate with a diverse cast, manage her time across competing priorities, take direction and feedback, recover from mistakes in real time and perform under pressure. She built confidence, resilience and the ability to communicate with clarity and presence. We used to call these 鈥渟oft鈥� skills. In the age of AI, they鈥檙e the hard currency of economic mobility. 

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that some kids who participated in the performing arts have landed themselves in positions of significant power and influence, including former Disney CEO and U.S. Supreme Court Justice .

As AI accelerates the automation of routine tasks, a suggests that the uniquely human capabilities are becoming even more valuable, not less. More often than not, these 鈥渄urable skills鈥� are cultivated in places we don鈥檛 traditionally count: theater productions, debate teams, student government, part-time jobs and community-based experiences. 

This raises an urgent question: If the skills that matter most for success in the world of work 鈥� and the world at large 鈥� are developed in unconventional ways, why do we continue to treat those experiences as peripheral?

The simple answer is that our education system is largely oriented around what is easiest to measure over what matters most. If we can鈥檛 measure it, we can鈥檛 evaluate it. And if we can鈥檛 evaluate it, why teach it? But when it comes to high school, what we measure is beginning to change.

In recent months, a growing number of states are changing high school graduation requirements and replacing traditional diplomas with 鈥�,鈥� designed to provide a broader understanding of what students have learned that more holistically captures the skills necessary for success in life. 

The Carnegie Foundation recently a new set of skills progressions designed to complement 鈥渄ecode鈥� the 鈥渟kills genome鈥� by transforming skills like collaboration and critical thinking into their component parts 鈥� a significant step toward developing new forms of assessment, curricula and ultimately teaching methods that bring 鈥渢heater鈥� skills to center stage.

As business leaders begin to question the value of longstanding skills-proxies 鈥� including even the college degree 鈥� they are signaling to young people that skills honed outside the academic context are not optional; they are essential. That includes designing hiring and interview processes that explicitly take human skills into account; assessing those skills as workers progress in their careers; and adopting training programs that focus on those skills alongside technical competencies.

 More and more businesses are recognizing that if the pace of technological advancement isn鈥檛 slowing down, the best way to keep up is to ensure that their employees have the resilience and agility to navigate a world of work defined by change.

And for parents, perhaps most importantly of all, it may mean recognizing that the path to opportunity is not always linear or confined to the classroom. It鈥檚 time to stop thinking of theater, sports and volunteering as ways of burnishing a resume for college. Those activities have always been the places where students learn to work together, navigate uncertainty and step up in scary situations. Reading and math will never stop being important, but without the skills to put academic accomplishments to work, too many of our young people will find those dire headlines starting to come true.

My daughter didn鈥檛 just perform in a musical. She practiced the very skills that will help her navigate a world where change is constant and careers are nonlinear. If we are serious about preparing young people for the future of work, we need to expand our definition of what counts as learning 鈥� and where it happens.

The first step to solving a reading delay is knowing it exists.

Decades of research have found that all children learn to read by developing the same core skills. This applies to children with dyslexia, English language learners and those reading well beyond grade level. Per the science of reading, some kids just need more targeted and explicit instruction 鈥� more time building whichever specific reading skill (and there are several) isn鈥檛 growing as fast.

But to do that, teachers need to figure out which skill is lacking. It takes a particular kind of training and the right tools 鈥� and until recently, many Connecticut schools lacked both.

That started to change with the 2023 Right to Read law, which compels districts to use K-3 literacy curricula aligned with the science of reading. Some are already seeing improvements in their ability to detect and address reading delays.

At the same time, a growing number of parents are seeking to screen their kids for such delays themselves.

The Southport School 鈥� a private school that has used science of reading-based instruction since long before Right to Read 鈥� has for years offered free reading screenings to Connecticut parents through its outreach arm, The Southport CoLAB. This spring, CoLAB partnered with Sacred Heart University to expand capacity for the screenings amid skyrocketing demand.

鈥淚t鈥檚 twice as many as last year,鈥� said Southport Executive Director and CoLAB founder Benjamin Powers.

Powers said it鈥檚 all too common to see kids with reading delays pass undetected through school until fourth or fifth grade. By that point, he said, it鈥檚 much harder for them to catch up to their peers. To make matters worse, fourth grade is typically when kids start 鈥渞eading to learn鈥� 鈥� meaning if they can鈥檛 read, their other learning will suffer, too.

鈥淔rom a developmental standpoint, we are much better off 鈥� exponentially better 鈥� by flagging these kids early,鈥� Powers said.

That鈥檚 where reading screeners come in.

How to screen for a reading delay

Powers said the screener Southport uses lasts between 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the age of the child. It takes place on a tablet and runs kids through activities that gather data on different cognitive processes 鈥� things like 鈥渞apid automatized naming,鈥� which tests how quickly a child can retrieve the names of a variety of familiar objects from their memory.

At the end, the program produces a 鈥渢eacher and parent-friendly report鈥� identifying whether the child in question is at risk for something like dyslexia. Powers said it doesn鈥檛 diagnose the condition itself; rather, it 鈥済ives us an early marker so that we can just be proactive with the child, the teacher and the family.鈥�

Being proactive, he explained, is largely a question of dosage.

鈥淪ome kids just need a lot more exposure and practice,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd we do need to be targeted 鈥� So, if it鈥檚 a child who鈥檚 really struggling with certain letter patterns or sound symbol relationships, we want to make sure we鈥檙e targeting those specific attributes.鈥�

鈥淏ut,鈥� he emphasized, 鈥渆very child really needs the same kind of scope and sequence to build the reading brain.鈥� Some may have to work at it a bit longer than others, but overall, 鈥渢he vast majority 鈥� vast majority 鈥� of kids can learn to read.鈥�

Through Right to Read, that same principle is now being disseminated throughout Connecticut鈥檚 public schools. Although the screeners they use may be shorter 鈥� the popular DIBELS assessment, which many districts employ, takes under 10 minutes 鈥� the strategy is the same: Guide each child through a series of prompts, use the data to flag specific skills they may be struggling to develop, then respond with targeted intervention.

Stratford Assistant Superintendent for PreK-6 Diana DiIorio explained how the DIBELS screener works.

鈥淭he teacher sits one-on-one with the child. It is on a Chromebook. 鈥� It’s very self-explanatory. They hit a button that starts, they have prompts of what to ask the child and the child responds on the Chromebook according to what they feel the answer is. A lot of it is timed,鈥� DiIorio said.

Before Right to Read, DiIorio said, Stratford鈥檚 screening regimen was much more focused on comprehension.

鈥淲hat we were missing was the really systematic and explicit teaching of all of those phonemic awareness and phonics skills, which is the basis and the foundation鈥� of more advanced reading, she said.

Consequently, DiIorio said, they would miss students who arrived in kindergarten already reading but who lacked the building blocks for multisyllabic words 鈥� a deficiency that wouldn鈥檛 become apparent until the students suddenly hit a wall in fourth grade.

New Haven Supervisor of Elementary Reading and Language Arts Jennifer Novelli gave an example of how a teacher might test younger children for 鈥減honeme segmentation fluency,鈥� a skill they develop before they actually learn to read. Phoneme segmentation means breaking down the individual sounds within words kids hear.

鈥淪o, if I say 鈥榤op,鈥� the child would be expected to take that word and segment it鈥� into its discrete sounds, Novelli said 鈥� those being the 鈥渕m鈥� sound, the short 鈥渙鈥� and the 鈥減.鈥�

In this case, 鈥渢hey鈥檙e not looking at letters. We鈥檙e just testing to make sure they understand and know how to break words apart,鈥� Novelli said.

Phoneme segmentation, Novelli explained, falls under the umbrella of phonological awareness, which she described as 鈥渁 precursor skill to reading.鈥�

The schools CT Mirror spoke with all said they screen three times per year, with some employing other forms of progress monitoring in between. Initial results from two very different districts suggest it鈥檚 having an impact.

In relatively affluent Fairfield 鈥� predominantly white, with under one-fifth of students receiving free or reduced price meals 鈥� 74% of kindergarteners in the 2023-24 school year were already proficient in reading. There were concerns that the district鈥檚 new science of reading-aligned curriculum and screening regimen (done through Acadience, not DIBELS) would cause a dip as teachers and administrators got acclimated to the new material, but the opposite happened: By the time those same students left first grade the following year, the number had nudged upward to 78%.

鈥淵ou do expect implementation dips. We did not see them,鈥� said Janine Goss, executive director of PK-12 literacy at Fairfield. That applied to every cohort receiving the new Right to Read instruction.

The story is much different in New Haven 鈥� predominantly Black and Latino, with roughly three quarters of students receiving free or reduced price meals. There, the vast majority of students already have substantial reading delays by the time they start school. In 2024, for example, 61% of first graders were “well below” grade level, according to Novelli.

But the science of reading-aligned programming she helped institute has still had a notable impact: By second grade, only about 51% were still testing “well below,” and the percentage of students in that cohort reading at or above grade level increased.

Novelli said the dreaded 鈥渟ummer slide,鈥� a decline in reading ability that typically occurs over the long vacation, has also diminished.

Nevertheless, the results still leave about half of New Haven鈥檚 second grade class seriously behind in reading. This despite the fact that, per Powers, the vast majority of them can learn.

Much room for improvement

Novelli said one of the reasons many kids in New Haven are still behind in reading is a shortage of pre-kindergarten education.

鈥淥ur students that go to our preschools in the city are definitely better equipped and more ready with the literacy skills,鈥� Novelli said. 鈥淚f we were able to open more classrooms and have more seats 鈥� it would be better.鈥�

She added that New Haven鈥檚 director of early childhood, who joined the district three years ago, has implemented 鈥渁 very strong phonemic awareness and phonics program鈥� for 3- and 4-year-olds.

The kids who don鈥檛 get that early education 鈥� those who begin school in kindergarten and haven鈥檛 built (English) reading skills at home 鈥� are more likely to start at a disadvantage. In theory, they can still catch up, but that requires having enough teachers with the right training and the time to administer the needed interventions.

Therein lies another problem.

Although Connecticut has firmly embraced the science of reading, at least for K-3, few new teachers graduate from college with the skills to interpret and act on the results of a screener. It often falls to individual districts to train these new hires 鈥� not to mention all the existing teachers who were never taught these skills when they started.

Stratford鈥檚 DiIorio said this is where much of the real work of converting a district to the science of reading takes place.

鈥淲e spent all last year looking at the data [from the reading screenings],鈥� DiIorio said. 鈥淗ow to analyze the data, and then what to do with it. And then it was a whole ‘nother module of planning lessons based on what data was in front of you.鈥�

DiIorio said Stratford was in one of the first cohorts to attend state training on the science of reading, meeting about once a month, 鈥渇ive or six times out of the year.鈥� Since then, the district has partnered with HILL for Literacy for online training, in-person coaching and data analysis.

The challenge, DiIorio said, is 鈥渂ringing that knowledge to the entire district.鈥�

鈥淭here鈥檚 eight schools. We only had a handful [of staff] that went to that first cohort,鈥� DiIorio said.

Goss said many of her efforts in Fairfield have also gone toward teacher training. Under her leadership, Fairfield created district and building-level literacy teams across its elementary and middle schools.

With 200 classroom teachers at the elementary level alone, 鈥渢here was no way I, one person, was going to be able to get to each and every teacher,鈥� Goss explained.

She also praised her staff for taking new staff members 鈥渦nder their wings.鈥�

鈥淲e feel really good about knowing that even though they may not have the experience they need coming straight from college, they’re going to get that support when they come into our schools,鈥� Goss said.

DiIorio said getting new teachers into shape is a challenge that extends well beyond the science of reading.

鈥淚 went through it myself,鈥� DiIorio said. 鈥淚 have a teaching degree. Nobody shows you how to handle management of students, the behaviors of the students, the social emotional skills. You learn about it. You learn that there’s trauma in children. 鈥� But the training is not there.鈥�

There is an implicit issue of equity here. Because of , those located in wealthier towns typically have far more resources than those in cities like New Haven or Hartford, where the local tax base is stretched thin (Gov. Ned Lamont initiated a Blue-Ribbon Commission this year to find ways to ). More resources can mean more robust training for new hires.

DiIorio said she experienced this firsthand, too.

鈥淚 started in a very affluent school district, a couple miles away. My training as a new teacher was so different from when I came to Stratford as a principal. It was so eye-opening 鈥� the difference in new teacher training and what they get,鈥� DiIorio said.

Novelli said New Haven has literacy coaches in each building to provide professional development on the science of reading to teachers but would benefit from having more dedicated reading interventionists. A reading interventionist, she explained, spends all day in targeted small group instruction.

鈥淟ast year, we did lose two positions 鈥� and we don’t have enough people as it is,鈥� Novelli said. 鈥淚f we could have a certified reading interventionist at each school, it would be so helpful.鈥�

There鈥檚 a shortage of these certified specialists. That issue came up at of the General Assembly鈥檚 BERGIN Commission, where University of Connecticut literacy professor Rachael Gabriel shared data showing so-called Tier 2 interventions (which includes targeted group instruction) can actually create worse outcomes for kids if done poorly.

鈥淭here was a shortage in this area [of literacy specialists] when I moved to Connecticut 16 years ago, and the programs [to train them] have shrunk, not grown,鈥� Gabriel said.

She told the commission members the program she oversees at UConn has only 11 students, prompting an exclamation of shock from one of the listeners.

鈥淸This kind of training] is largely inaccessible. Our program is 鈥� over 18 months, and it is 21 credits, like the state requires. And so, that鈥檚 almost a master鈥檚 degree,鈥� Gabriel said. 鈥淭hat is super expensive. So, for a practicing teacher to say, 鈥業鈥檓 gonna take my evenings and my weekends and do this for two years and pay $30-$40,000 for it,鈥� is a really significant ask.鈥�

Powers, meanwhile, has his own concerns.

鈥淚f you would ask me 10 years ago, I would have been bullish on the science of reading movement, because it is, you know, it is an important movement,鈥� Powers said. But 鈥渨hen I look at the reading scores, we’re really not moving the needle.鈥�

He said something else now keeps him up at night: a steep decline in students鈥� executive function over the last 10 years or so.

鈥淭en years ago, somebody could focus on the screen for about two and a half minutes before they got distracted. Today, that’s down to about 40 seconds,鈥� Power said. 鈥淲e have kids who can pay less attention, are less focused, you know, just aren’t able to have that same uptake.鈥�

And executive function, Powers said, is directly tied to reading outcomes.

鈥淲hen I go in, especially now, like K-5 schools, what I hear from them is alarming,鈥� Powers said.

As to why kids鈥� executive function is declining, Powers said he has a few ideas.

鈥淨ualitatively speaking, you see, going to the grocery store, parents are just giving kids their phones to keep them occupied. Or even on the playground, you’ll see parents pushing kids on the swing set, and they’re looking at their phone,鈥� Powers said. 鈥淜ids just don’t have the same reading exposure they used to.鈥�

This first appeared on and is republished here under a .

More than a dozen Delaware public schools, mostly in New Castle County, are operating at less than 60% capacity, according to data from . 

Five of those are more than half empty.

The phenomenon of half-empty school buildings has prompted Delaware鈥檚 House Speaker Mimi Minor Brown (D-New Castle) to question whether they 鈥� or other underutilized government facilities 鈥� could be repurposed into different types of community facilities. 

Last week, Minor-Brown introduced  that asks budget officials to develop a framework, along with school districts, that would define an 鈥渦nderutilized鈥� property. They would then outline a process for repurposing it for other community services, such as child care or senior housing. 

In a  earlier this month, Minor-Brown said her resolution would not close any school or take power from local school board members. Instead, she said it starts a 鈥渃oordinated planning conversation.鈥�

The resolution, which awaits consideration in the Senate after passing the House, comes as enrollment in several schools in New Castle County has dwindled even it has surged in some southern Delaware districts.

The phenomenon has been fueled by several factors, including an expansion of charter schools in New Castle County and changes to bus patterns that allow students to attend schools outside of their community.

Among the hardest hit schools are Alexis I. duPont High School in the Red Clay Consolidated School District, which is 53% occupied, and the Colonial School District鈥檚 Castle Hills Elementary School, which is 48% occupied. 

Minor-Brown鈥檚 resolution also comes as Delaware officials work to reform how the state funds individual schools 鈥� moving its funding formula away from one primarily reflects enrollment sizes.  

Empty seats raise questions

While Minor-Brown calls on officials to use enrollment data as a factor in determining underused properties, some school officials say occupancy rates may not actually reflect how much a school is actually being used.

Colonial School District Superintendent Jeff Menzer said capacity numbers are not 鈥渃ut and dry,鈥� because some students need more space than others depending on their individual needs.

One classroom could be designed for 25 students, with one teacher and one paraprofessional. But if five students within the class are struggling with reading, there may be a need for more space to provide tutoring, Menzer said.

As a result, Menzer said some schools that have lower recorded enrollments than others are still overcrowded because of some students鈥� needs for more inclusive settings.

鈥淵ou can鈥檛 necessarily trust that [capacity] number 100%,鈥� he said.

While Minor-Brown鈥檚 proposal also does not define what would qualify as underutilized, one school administrator said officials should take note when certain high schools enroll less than 800 students. 

In an email, Red Clay Director of Secondary Education Mark Pruitt said officials should hold early conversations when a high school that offers academic and career technical programs has an enrollment below 800 students. 

Those early conversations should involve what Pruitt called 鈥渟ustainable programming,鈥� and the staffing needed to support that programming. 

What comes next?

Minor-Brown鈥檚 resolution follows years of questions surrounding what could happen to schools with lower capacities. It also follows a multi-year study into the best way to oversee schools in Wilmington, Delaware鈥檚 largest city.

Last year, a state committee tasked with reworking school district boundaries  the four school districts serving Wilmington. That recommendation  whether it would result in the closure of high schools in the Wilmington area. 

Redding Consortium co-chair State Sen. Elizabeth 鈥淭izzy鈥� Lockman (D-Wilmington)  that low school enrollment is something that 鈥渃an and will be taken in consideration as part of the planning.鈥� 

Questions about how to use school buildings have also surfaced in the Red Clay Consolidated School District, where Alexis I. duPont High School has experienced a steep enrollment decline over the past 14 years and is now the state鈥檚 smallest traditional high school by enrollment.

Community members have pointed to several possible reasons for the decline, including changes to school-choice transportation, limits on choice admissions and growing competition from charter and private schools.

In response, district leaders have explored ways to increase enrollment at the school.

Earlier this spring, the district鈥檚 school board attempted to transform McKean High School into an 鈥渋nnovation campus.鈥� 

If passed, the measure to create McKean innovation center , reducing the number of traditional high schools in the district from three to two, and increasing enrollment numbers at A.I. duPont High School and at The John Dickinson School. 

The plan would also have moved the district鈥檚 Meadowood program for students with intellectual or developmental disabilities from McKean to A.I. duPont.

But the plan drew months of opposition from parents who said the Meadowood program had become overlooked in discussions about enrollment and school planning.

 said Meadowood helps their children work on social skills, such as conversation starters, and learn how to do tasks like washing dishes.

Following the public backlash, the Red Clay school board voted in April to postpone the proposal.

At a Board of Regents meeting Monday, state education officials announced that high school graduates in New York could soon start receiving a new type of diploma 鈥� one that reflects their skills and knowledge, rather than the number of credits they鈥檝e earned.

The new diploma is a central component of , the State Education Department鈥檚 multiyear effort to overhaul graduation requirements to ensure students leave high school ready for modern careers and higher education. If approved by the board, it would replace the current graduation framework, which allows students to earn one of three diplomas depending on how they perform on statewide standardized tests known as Regents exams.

At the meeting, Education Department officials called it the most significant transformation of the state鈥檚 graduation system in generations. The plan would direct school districts to shift away from awarding credits based on the time a student spends in a course and instead adopt a 鈥渃ompetency-based鈥� model with flexibility in how they develop mastery of specific skills.

鈥淭he big idea is that New York is moving away from an outdated factory-style education model toward a model system built for how students actually learn,鈥� said Jeffrey Matteson, the department鈥檚 senior deputy commissioner for education policy.

The Education Department has only shared preliminary plans so far, so many implementation details remain unclear. During and after the meeting, some Board of Regents members and education advocates raised concerns about how schools will maintain academic rigor and support teachers as they adopt flexible models, and whether students across the state will have equal access to opportunities.

Jeff Smink, deputy director at the advocacy group EdTrust-New York, said New York must strengthen K-8 instruction in order for the initiative to succeed, noting that students can only access opportunities like internships and college courses if they are proficient in reading and math.

The department plans to present the final plan to the board for approval once it鈥檚 complete and start a phased rollout in certain grade levels by the end of next school year. Here鈥檚 what we know so far.

What is competency-based education?

The Education Department defines competency-based education as a system in which students get closer to graduating after proving they鈥檝e actually learned material instead of just completing required class time.

Students would still enroll in traditional courses, but would also be able to participate in activities outside of the classroom, such as internships, capstone projects, community service and career and technical education programs, to move toward their degrees. Instead of a single exam, students would have different ways to show what they know in each subject, such as assessments, projects, presentations, or portfolios.

In 2024, the Board of Regents announced plans to eliminate the requirement that students pass the Regents exams to receive a diploma. Currently, they can earn one of three diploma designations: a Regents diploma, an advanced Regents diploma for students who pass additional tests, and a local diploma for students who meet testing requirements a different way. On Monday, state officials explained that the exams would be one of many options students can use to qualify for a diploma.

鈥淲hat will matter moving forward is the quality and substance of the evidence that a student produces, not the particular route that produced it or how long it took,鈥� said Shannon Logan, director of strategic priorities and coordination in the department鈥檚 Office of Cultural Education.

What will the new transcript look like?

Current transcripts include a list of classes and assessments with corresponding grades, which do not 鈥渁dequately reflect what a student knows and what they are able to do,鈥� Angelique Johnson-Dingle, one of the department鈥檚 deputy commissioners, said at the meeting. Under the new framework, graduating students would receive a 鈥渦niversal transcript or learner profile.鈥� 

The transcript would document alignment with state learning standards and the six attributes the state outlined in its graduation blueprint, called the . It鈥檚 unclear exactly what the transcript would look like.

Will it affect college applications?

There is little evidence that competency-based education disadvantages students in the college admissions process. Many colleges have embraced more holistic admissions practices that consider portfolios and other demonstrations of skills that extend beyond GPA and standardized test scores.

Education Department officials said they are working with colleges and universities to ensure every institution that serves the state鈥檚 high school graduates 鈥渦nderstands and trusts鈥� the new diploma.

What does this mean for current students?

Students who started ninth grade in 2023 would be the final cohort to graduate under the state鈥檚 current requirements.

Students starting high school in 2024, 2025, or 2026 would still have to fulfill current credit requirements and take the Regents exams, but they would not have to pass the exams to graduate. For the 2027 and 2028 cohorts only, the state would impose a yet-to-be-determined credit requirement.

The new flexible system introduced Monday, which would eliminate time-based credits, would be fully implemented for students who enter high school in 2029.

What are the next steps?

The state is currently reworking learning standards, competency rubrics, and the universal transcript and will release them within the next year. The department said it will continue to schedule working groups and advisory panels to gather feedback on the changes, and is updating the state鈥檚 data system to track student progress.

The Education Department encouraged school districts to start designing pilot programs for next school year that include hands-on learning outside of traditional classrooms, a wider range of ways to assess student learning beyond standard exams, and expanded career-related opportunities. Schools could hire work-based learning coordinators, for instance, or partner with local employers.

Indiana鈥檚 school choice program leaves its nearly 300,000 rural public school students with fewer options and fewer resources while funding the private education of others. Indiana school students, or 28%, reside in rural areas.

A recent analysis of each of Indiana鈥檚 82 rural counties found that only eight, or fewer than 10%, have a charter or non-religious private school to attend. Families in other rural counties 鈥� such as Brown, Crawford, Newton, Ohio and Union 鈥� have no alternatives at all.

Standing charter schools tend not to open in rural areas because low student enrollment fails to bring in sufficient revenue and geographical isolation prevents cost-sharing among schools. Indiana鈥檚 judiciary 聽as rural any county with a total population less than 40,000, a density of less than 100 people per square mile, and a largest city less than 10,000.

The impact of school choice on the state鈥檚 rural education has raised alarm not only among supporters of public schools but supporters of school choice as well, including the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

鈥淎s choice expands, we must be honest about the challenges facing many smaller and rural school districts. Our focus should remain on ensuring every student 鈥� no matter their ZIP code 鈥� has access to a high-quality education that prepares them for success and economic prosperity,鈥� Indiana Chamber President Vanessa Green Sinders wrote in an email.

In some instances where declining enrollment has forced the closure of rural public schools, local parents have opened their own charter schools. Under state law, public schools must sell their closed and unused facilities to charter schools for just a dollar. Charter schools also have the economic advantage of paying lower salaries and providing fewer benefits to teachers. A request to the Indiana Department of Education for data on how many rural public schools in the state have closed in the last five years and how many were replaced by charter schools went unanswered.

鈥淐ompetition makes you improve. I don鈥檛 think anybody would say that鈥檚 a bad thing,鈥� said Chris Lagoni, executive director of the Indiana Small and Rural Schools Association. 鈥淲e just ask that there be a level playing field鈥� for all schools, public and private.

Seventy-two rural counties offer religious school alternatives, with numbers ranging from a single school in counties like Fulton and Switzerland to as many as 10 in LaGrange where there is a large Amish community. The state鈥檚 universal voucher system will pick up most of the tab for those students and other non-public schools, adding $492 million to the state鈥檚 school expenditures.

Vouchers provide either 90% of a student鈥檚 local public school funding or the full amount of their private school tuition and fees, whichever is less. While the average award in 2024-25 was $6,536, participating private schools reported an average tuition of $8,369. Of the 76,000 students receiving vouchers, only about 28% received full support.

Indiana public schools are primarily state funded.

In the 2022鈥�23 school year, the most recent year of available data, about 57% of Indiana public school funding came from the state. Another 30% was generated locally and the federal government kicked in the remaining 13%. All told, Indiana public schools received $16.7 billion in funds, or $16,200 per student. Indiana ranks 37th of 50 states in education spending per pupil, according to the .

By funding its schools per pupil, Indiana鈥檚 strict 鈥渕oney follows the student鈥� policy is especially hard on rural districts when their enrollment declines. Losing just a few students to private schools or local population decline can dramatically impact their school budgets. That鈥檚 because rural schools usually serve fewer students to begin with, reducing their economies of scale and increasing the cost of instruction per pupil.

As a fixed cost, for instance, schools must still pay one teacher鈥檚 salary whether a grade level has 10 or 15 students. Other fixed costs include transportation, building maintenance, and administrative staff. That leaves staff and educational programs such as extracurricular activities, art and music classes, and after-school programs vulnerable to cuts.

Meanwhile, with few means to increase their local revenue, traditional rural public school districts are being pinched as the state鈥檚 school choice program expands.

If 2022鈥�23 voucher funds were returned to the public education funding pool, South Adams Community Schools would have received nearly $600,000 in additional funding for that year alone, according to an analysis by the left-leaning Center for American Progress, a public policy research organization in Washington, DC. The district鈥檚 annual budget is about $22 million for 1,312 students.

Budget constraints last year forced South Adams to cut two bus routes, five instructional assistants and two custodians, said Superintendent Michelle Clouser-Penrod.

As the cost for student and teacher supplies continue to rise, she said the parent-teacher organization has stepped up its fundraising efforts to make sure 鈥渨e have a fully stocked supply closet鈥� as well as 鈥減roviding many other supports for students and teachers as needed.鈥� Half the students in the district come from families living below the poverty line, she added.

The district鈥檚 1,312 students have no alternative except remote learning through a virtual charter school. When students unhappy with virtual schooling return to the district during the same school year, South Adams often loses the state money that would have followed them, Clouser-Penrod said.

鈥淲e work very hard to be conservative and live within our means,鈥� she said via email, 鈥渂ut costs of operating schools continue to rise. Property casualty insurance has gone from approximately $100,000 in 2021 to $217,000 in 2025. Health insurance and utility costs also have a tremendous impact on budgets.鈥�

To make up the difference in state funding, rural districts can raise local tax revenues through voter referendums, but success is not guaranteed. Farms mean fewer property owners must take on a larger tax burden that can鈥檛 be offset by the value added to their homes through better schools.

鈥淭he cost benefit for the voters is not there,鈥� Lagoni said. And unlike wealthy suburban districts, he noted, rural towns and cities seldom have the strong industrial and commercial property tax base to levy additional operating funds.

Starting this coming school year, Indiana families will be able to qualify for private and religious school vouchers regardless of their income, making Indiana one of the few states in the country to reimburse parents for religious and private school tuition regardless of the family鈥檚 wealth.

鈥淚 think people want their tax dollars to go to their public schools to support public school students, and I think that鈥檚 especially true in rural communities where they rely so heavily on public schools as an important hub in their community,鈥� said Paige Shoemaker DeMio, author of the Center for American Progress鈥檚 2025 report 鈥淗ow the School Choice Agenda Harms Rural Students.鈥�

A found that rural adults were the least likely to support school vouchers.

Clouser-Penrod said in an email that South Adams is already planning cuts for 2027: 鈥淲e are looking at all of our utility expenses and (have) begun deeper monitoring and working with a team to determine ways to reduce costs.鈥� The district is also discussing offering a retirement incentive for higher-salaried veteran teachers next year, she said.

鈥淲e may be forced to increase class sizes in the future if costs continue to rise and funding continues to be inadequate.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com.

Then someone picks up a guitar.

From the first notes, his face transforms, and just like that, he is with us. He sways to the rhythm, eyes alive with an emotion we almost never see in him. In those moments, music gives him something the rest of the world rarely does: the chance to participate and enjoy the moment equally.

I grew up watching this and wondering why. The science, it turns out, is unambiguous. nearly every region of the brain simultaneously. Singing, moving to a beat, even passive listening engages the brain’s centers for emotion, memory and motor function.聽

For people with disabilities, this makes music an unusually powerful tool capable of regulating emotions, rewiring neural pathways and opening channels of communication that language cannot reach.

A of intellectually disabled youth in Senegal found that music therapy improved both fine and gross motor skills and reduced social discrimination by fostering inclusion. Healthcare professionals routinely prescribe it for neurological conditions. The evidence is settled. Not uncertain. 

This begs the question of why it is so hard for people with disabilities to access it. And the answer, the honest answer, is that this is a policy failure, not a scientific one. 

are the professionals assigned to work most closely with disabled students, but are trained in behavior management, not in how rhythm and movement support motor development. Music teachers, meanwhile, receive virtually no instruction in adaptive or inclusive techniques. A found a severe lack of resources and training specifically for inclusive music education. In practice, that means music teachers are rarely trained to adapt lessons for students with motor, cognitive, or communication challenges, and paraeducators are not equipped to use music as part of developmental support. 

The result is a cruel paradox: Even when programs exist, the students who stand to gain the most from music are the least likely to receive it.

Fifty years after the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act promised students with disabilities access to a free and appropriate public education, access still depends on local resources, staffing and training. When budgets are stretched, programs like music and the arts can be treated as optional. But for students with disabilities, music is not enrichment. It can be a pathway to confidence, movement, memory and community.聽

I saw what that access can look like through in New York City. I first encountered DMF when I performed with the Dalton Chorus at the in 2024. During George Dennehy鈥檚 song 鈥淭he Moment,鈥� I was so focused on his voice that only when the song ended did I fully register that he had been playing the guitar with his feet. What stayed with me was not difference, but sameness: the same joy, nerves, pride and hunger for expression that I feel when I sing.聽

DMF is built on the belief that music is a right, not a privilege, and its free online and in-person classes show what that belief looks like in practice. With my family, I later organized Harmony Without Borders, a cross-cultural benefit concert supporting DMF. We brought together Indian and Western music and invited students, teachers, and community members so that more people could see inclusive music not as charity, but as a shared space where everyone can belong equally.

I understood that even more clearly when I volunteered at the DMF in-person classes, sharing Indian and Western solf猫ge and Bollywood dance steps. The response was immediate: Rhythm turned into movement, repetition into confidence, and high-energy music into a room full of attention and connection. Watching that happen made the research feel real. Music engages movement, emotion, memory, and learned patterns all at once. Students with disabilities deserve the same chance to participate in music.

Organizations like DMF have been quietly expanding that access for years. But they were never meant to replace public systems. Their work matters because it shows what is possible. It also shows what is still missing.

This is what brings me back to my uncle. He never received music therapy. He never had adaptive music education. His response to a song is entirely instinctual. I think often about what structured musical support might have unlocked for him or others with cerebral palsy over a lifetime.

That question carries a specific kind of grief, because the support he needed existed. It just never reached him. For my uncle, music is the closest thing he has to a common language with the rest of us. Protecting that connection for my uncle, and making it possible for every student with disabilities in America, requires two things: training teachers to deliver inclusive music education, and defending the funding and oversight that make any of this possible.

Appalled, Jessie turns around to find the twins鈥� discarded toys in the yard, looking worn and weary. 

鈥淲hat happened to you?鈥� Jessie asks them. 

鈥淭ech,鈥� the toys reply in unison. 

These toys explain to Jessie that, for years, technology has been 鈥渋nvading鈥� homes, capturing kids鈥� attention and effectively ending imaginative play. 

鈥淵our kid still plays?鈥� one asks. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 remember play.鈥�

Jessie is skeptical, so they prove it to her: The toys climb to the roof of the twins鈥� house and look across the neighborhood, where they can see the blue light from screens glowing back onto children鈥檚 faces through each window.

鈥淣o wonder she can鈥檛 make a friend,鈥� Jessie says, referring to Bonnie. 鈥淪he鈥檚 the only one out there still playing with toys.鈥� 

It鈥檚 the type of exchange that stays with you 鈥� perhaps because, when depicted in a fictional animation, it鈥檚 clear just how representative it is of our current reality. 

The latest film in Disney-Pixar鈥檚 multibillion-dollar Toy Story franchise, which was released on June 19 and pits traditional toys against digital technology, comes at exactly the right time, multiple child development and media experts said in interviews. Children, even in their early years, are awash in screens and devices, and their overwhelmed parents often don鈥檛 know how to go about establishing guardrails 鈥� or what those guardrails should even be. All of this comes as AI is emerging as a threat to children, now embedded in toys and being used to generate videos that are served to children on YouTube without any real quality checks. Meanwhile, a chorus of critics 鈥� from the to the of one of the largest teachers unions in the country 鈥� are adding their concerns to the conversation.聽

鈥淚 think this is one of the most important issues of our time. I really do,鈥� said Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a professor of psychology at Temple University and senior fellow at Brookings Institution who studies child development. 

鈥淲e are at this inflection point,鈥� she added, 鈥渨here we actually have a technology that has the capability, if used incorrectly, not just to captivate kids鈥� attention but lessen kids鈥� attention. It takes away human-to-human interaction by displacing time and their imaginations.鈥�

Indeed, 鈥淭oy Story 5鈥� addresses exactly that. Soon after Jessie learns what鈥檚 been happening to children all over the neighborhood, 8-year-old Bonnie gets a tablet of her own, a frog-shaped device called Lilypad. 

Lilypad instantly grabs hold of Bonnie鈥檚 attention. Bonnie 鈥� a child who had previously relished in the rich stories and scenes she鈥檇 created with her analog toys using just her imagination 鈥� becomes zoned out, using the device day and night. She forgets about her beloved toys and the worlds she had dreamed up for them. 

Bonnie鈥檚 parents bought her the device in hopes that it would help her make friends. After all, everyone else her age seemed to be using one. While Lilypad does help Bonnie connect with her peers through a group chat, she soon learns that鈥檚 not quite the same thing as finding a true friend. After getting invited to a sleepover that goes all wrong, Bonnie finds out that digital connection is no replacement for authentic human connection. The child becomes more and more despondent and detached as the film progresses, leading her toys 鈥� Jessie, Woody, Buzz and the rest of the gang 鈥� to take charge on her behalf. They want to oust Lilypad and also help Bonnie make a real friend. 

The movie portrays technology as a force that can come at the expense of human relationships, which is often what experts warn about when it comes to children and screens. 

鈥淲e see human displacement as a very real threat,鈥� said Michelle Culver, founder of the Rithm Project, a nonprofit working to reclaim and evolve human connection in the age of AI. So she loved that 鈥淭oy Story 5鈥� was, in many ways, 鈥渁 celebration of friendship.鈥� 

Dana Suskind, a pediatric surgeon and author of the forthcoming book 鈥淗uman Raised: Nurturing Connection, Curiosity and Lifelong Learning in the Age of AI,鈥� felt the movie did a good job of demonstrating 鈥渉ow screen time can erode creativity and connection and lead to bullying.鈥�

鈥淓ven though the movie is about tech,鈥� Suskind said, 鈥渋t鈥檚 probably about something deeper that we鈥檙e all grappling with: the desire and the need for human connection, the important role the early years play in navigating human relationships and learning how to have relationships.鈥�

Suskind saw 鈥淭oy Story 5鈥� the day it came out. She went with two colleagues at the TMW Center for Early Learning and Public Health at the University of Chicago, including Liz Sablich, who brought her two young children along. 

Sablich鈥檚 7-year-old son Jack had some astute questions and observations about the film later that night, after taking some time to process what he鈥檇 seen, his mom said. One of the first things he said, Sablich recalled, was that Bonnie seemed 鈥渉ypnotized鈥� by her device 鈥� that was the word he used. 鈥淚t was like she worshipped it,鈥� Jack told his mother. 

Sablich agreed and explained that some technology is actually designed to do that. Jack wanted to know why. When she told him that, in some cases, the more a person uses the technology, the more money a company makes, he became visibly upset and said, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not right. That鈥檚 not fair. They should care more about the people.鈥� 

Jack was also perplexed that Bonnie kept her device in her bedroom, right next to her bed, at all times. (Jack is only permitted access to his tablet during travel, Sablich said.) He said he never wanted to use his tablet again and didn鈥檛 want his mom to use her phone. Sablich used that opportunity to explain how technology can work for and with us, too. For example, she was able to use her phone to arrange a play date for him the next day. 鈥淲e can use it in limited ways to make it easier to play with friends and do things in the real world,鈥� she told him. 

鈥淚 was pleasantly surprised by how straightforward I thought the message of the film was and that it sparked such an important conversation,鈥� Sablich said. 

That鈥檚 exactly the type of dialogue experts are hoping the film will prompt. 

鈥淲e have to get this in the national conversation,鈥� said Hirsh-Pasek. 鈥淭he group that鈥檚 being left out of the national conversation is little kids, the 0 to 10 crowd.鈥�

The film is giving families and young children an opportunity to 鈥減ause and reflect,鈥� said Sunny Xun Liu, director of research at the Stanford Social Media Lab 鈥� and to ask some important questions.

鈥淲hat are our values as a society for technology, especially for such young children?鈥� Liu said. 鈥淲hat values should we hold together as a community and a culture about technology and screens? It gives us opportunities to think about this topic as families, communities and a society together.鈥�

That Disney, a powerhouse media brand trusted by millions of American families, opted to tackle this topic at all was 鈥渂old,鈥� Suskind said. Michael Levine, an early learning expert with more than two decades in the field of children鈥檚 media, called it 鈥済utsy.鈥�

鈥淭he fact they鈥檝e responded to the cultural moment 鈥� is really smart and, I think, brave,鈥� he said. 鈥淗ats off.鈥�

Culver, at the Rithm Project, was impressed by how much 鈥渄imension鈥� the movie had on the topic of technology, showing that, in addition to the harm devices can do, they can also help bring people together when used appropriately. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 always the opportunity for good,鈥� Suskind noted. 鈥淚t鈥檚 whether or not we make the design choices that actually allow it. I think Disney tried to show that.鈥�

The Texas State Board of Education on Friday adopted new social studies standards for the elementary and middle grades that take an America-first approach to history and feature Christianity more prominently than other faiths.聽

While standards for several high school courses were approved, the board postponed the final votes on U.S, Government, World History and World Geography.聽

In a separate vote, the board adopted a that includes biblical stories like Daniel and the lion鈥檚 den and passages from scripture, like the 23rd Psalm and excerpts from the Book of Exodus.

The Texas State Board of Education will vote Friday on a set of that have drawn fire and fervor for espousing pro-American views and Christian values. 

If approved, the vote would typically mark the beginning of a long, and probably divisive, process to design curriculum based on the standards. But 社区黑料 has learned that Education Commissioner Mike Morath jumpstarted the process a year ago, signing a $67 million contract with a Tampa-based consulting firm for a series of social studies instructional materials. The standards, with topics like the spread of Christianity and the role of religious freedom in America鈥檚 founding, dovetail with the controversial Bluebonnet reading program adopted in 2024, which also came under fire for the perception that it promoted Christian nationalism. A required reading list, including some biblical passages, is also scheduled for a Friday.

The contract, with MGT Impact Solutions, wasn鈥檛 accessible to the public for a year because the Texas Education Agency failed to submit it to the state legislature, as required by law, until April.

In a state where the education chief holds over schools, some board members feel left in the dark.

鈥淥f course, I had no idea,鈥� Staci Childs, a Democrat, told 社区黑料.

鈥淭hose agreements should be public knowledge,鈥� said Evelyn Brooks, a Republican. 鈥淭here should be a considerable amount of transparency because we’re dealing with public money.鈥�

Jake Kobersky, a spokesman for the agency, said MGT has been working from 鈥減ublicly available drafts鈥� of the new standards in preparation for the final approval. The contract wasn鈥檛 submitted to the legislature because officials 鈥渙riginally planned to award multiple contracts鈥� and were still negotiating with other vendors, he said. He declined to state whether officials made additional awards, but said the agency followed the standard contracting process. State law doesn鈥檛 require the board to approve requests for proposals or contracts.

鈥淭he State Board of Education has no role in this solicitation,鈥� he said.

The contract is the latest development in the state鈥檚 four-year quest to overhaul what students learn about history and government. In 2022, the board came close to . But like many red states, Texas had recently passed limiting classroom discussions on race and gender, and conservative groups argued the proposed standards were unpatriotic and violated the new law. The board voted to delay the revision until 2025. Now members have renewed the debate. call the standards 鈥渦nbalanced鈥� and say they lack diversity, while Republicans are pressuring the board not to dilute them with changes.

Kelsey Kling, a government relations specialist and policy analyst with Texas AFT, the teachers union, called the MGT contract 鈥渁 little bit of a cart-before-the-horse scenario.鈥�

鈥淚s this whole vote by the State Board of Education simply a formality for a curriculum that’s already been in the works?鈥� she asked. 

Supporters of the new standards, namely the powerful, right-wing Texas Public Policy Foundation, say they replace a vague in the current standards with a chronological study of history and would allow students to see how ideas and events build over time. 

But Democrats in and on have called for delaying Friday鈥檚 vote because the foundation paid the Texas Center at Schreiner University $70,000 to develop the standards. The center鈥檚 director, Donald Frazier, is a member of a on the rewrite. Robert Koons, a senior fellow at the foundation, is also an adviser.

鈥淕iven the scope and significance of this work, which impacts more than 5.5 million public school students across Texas, it is essential that the process remain transparent, objective, and free from undue influence,鈥� wrote the five Democrats on the 15-member board.

Brian Phillips, spokesman for the think tank, called the Democrats鈥� demand

Critics, like the American Historical Association, say the draft standards exclude major events throughout history from Africa, the Middle East and Asian countries, and minimize the effects of racism and the contributions of women. In April, the board deleted a standard that would require students to learn about Muslims鈥� role in developing astronomy and algebra.

But conservatives, like state Sen. Mayes Middleton, called the statements 鈥渁 clear victory for pro-America, pro-Texas education.鈥�

Students, he wrote in a letter to the board, must 鈥渞eceive an honest understanding of the ideologies and threats that shape the modern world, including the evils of Sharia law, the realities of Islamification, and the documented threat of Islamic terrorism.鈥�

Some in the state are frustrated with Morath鈥檚 outsized role, with support from Gov. Greg Abbott and the state鈥檚 GOP leaders, in directing what students learn. Critics say a top-down approach to curriculum is wrong for such a large, diverse state. 

State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat running to unseat Abbott in November, said that if she wins, one of her first moves would be to , who has served for 10 years. 

鈥楶olitical interests鈥� 

But the legislature in 2023 to enter into contracts with groups like MGT to develop open educational resources and pay districts up to $60 per student if they adopt them. Morath argues the state-owned materials will improve test scores and ground students in 鈥渃lassic works,鈥� including the Bible, he told 社区黑料 in 2024. 

That was the process the state followed when it originally purchased reading materials from Amplify, a curriculum provider, during the pandemic. Under an $84 million contract with Public Consulting Group, a Boston-based firm, the state made sweeping changes to the program, adding biblical passages like the Prodigal Son and the story of Queen Esther. PCG brought in conservative groups, like Hillsdale College and a media company founded by Mike Huckabee, now ambassador to Israel, to work on the materials. 

Some educators argue that Bluebonnet has of the world with lessons on figures like King Solomon and say critics have overreacted to the biblical material. 

The Amarillo Independent School District is among those using the Bluebonnet reading program. Jennifer Wilkerson, assistant superintendent, said she appreciates that the social studies lessons will cover some of the same topics. 

But the top-to-botton revision of the social studies standards, with a planned 2030-31 roll out, was bound to attract controversy and, if adopted, will require major shifts for teachers.

鈥淎ny time you do a complete overhaul of standards, it begins to be about political interests and not about what’s best for kids,鈥� she said. She鈥檚 among the hundreds of educators, parents and advocates who have traveled to Austin to address the board. In April, she said, arguments over the standards 鈥済ot so intense, that there were shouting matches happening outside of the boardroom.鈥�

The temperature of the crowd was similar in 2024 when the board adopted Bluebonnet. And as with the MGT contract, board members were largely unaware the work was underway until the state unveiled drafts of the reading lessons. 

says that an agency can鈥檛 spend money on a contract over $10 million until it notifies the , which provides oversight of state government and develops budget recommendations. That notice is supposed to come within 15 days of when a contract is awarded. 

Whether the agency was still considering other bids 鈥渄oes not have an effect on determining when a contract is to be reported,鈥� said Dushyanth Reddivari, assistant general counsel and the communications officer for the budget board. 

A Texas Education Agency shows that as of Tuesday, the state has paid MGT over $1.8 million on the contract since Nov. 19.

Worth over , MGT has a big footprint in Texas and is represented in the legislature by Daniel Hodge, a who previously served as Abbott鈥檚 . The company has multiple contracts with state agencies and universities for projects ranging from economic impact studies to software services. In K-12 education, the firm specializes in . 

MGT directed questions about the contract to the state agency.

The contract, which includes work on multiple subjects, listed several organizations as potential subcontractors, including TNTP, a New York City-based nonprofit, and Success Academy Charter Schools. Ann Powell, a spokeswoman for Success Academy, said the network, also in New York, is not involved and didn鈥檛 know it was named in the contract. 

Kathryn Zielony, a spokeswoman for TNTP, said there鈥檚 a potential the organization could work on the project, 鈥渂ut there is currently no finalized contract in place.鈥�

Kobersky, the Texas Education Agency spokesman, said MGT is still in the 鈥減lanning phase.鈥�

But Rabbi Joshua Fixler, who has three children in the Houston schools, suggested one reason why supporters of the standards are adamant about the board rejecting any last-minute revisions is because the work is already under way. He spoke to the board on Monday with concerns about items related to Christianity in both the social studies standards and the reading list.

鈥淚f work is already happening behind the scenes using these proposed [standards] that haven鈥檛 even passed yet to build curriculum,鈥� he said, 鈥渋t would make sense that the message would be 鈥楧on’t change this.鈥� 鈥�

In this episode of Class Disrupted, Netflix founder Reed Hastings joins Michael Horn and Diane Tavenner to discuss his decades-long journey through various chapters of education reform and how it鈥檚 shaped his view around artificial intelligence shaping the space. Reflecting on the slow progress and setbacks of past education initiatives, the episode dives into the potential of and urgency for harnessing AI for accelerated, mastery-based learning and global impact. Reed shared what he believes reinventing traditional classrooms means for edtech entrepreneurs.

Listen to the episode below. A full transcript follows.

Michael Horn: Remember how much fun it was to have Reed Hastings join us on Class Disrupted in the beginning of the season to dish on AI and education? So much fun that the ASU + GSV Summit said, why don鈥檛 you invite him back and let鈥檚 do it again. So that鈥檚 what we did. Six months later, Diane Tavenner and I welcomed Reed Hastings live on stage at the ASU + GSV Summit to talk AI, his different chapters in education, lessons he鈥檚 learned, and where he thinks the puck is going. Enjoy all of that on this episode of Class Disrupted live from the ASU + GSV Summit and sponsored by the Learner Studio.

Michael Horn: Welcome everyone to the Class Disrupted podcast. This is our seventh season doing it. Normally we are disembodied voices on a screen talking with each other and a guest, but tonight we鈥檝e got a live audience and we want to thank the ASU + GSV Summit and all of the amazing staff that has put this on. Huge thanks for all of them. Please. And you are all here to make a lot of noise and make this fun, right? Diane?

Diane Tavenner: Indeed. That鈥檚 what we want, is a spirited conversation.

Michael Horn: So who do we鈥檝e got on tap?

Diane Tavenner: Well, tonight, Michael, we have an incredible guest, someone we鈥檝e talked to before, but it is time to do it again. We have Reed Hastings with us. And most people know Reed from Netflix. A lot of people know that he spent time in education. What you might not know is that for the last year, Reed鈥檚 been on the board of Anthropic. He鈥檚 done a deep, deep dive in AI, the recent version, and 40 years ago earned a master鈥檚 in AI.

Michael Horn: So Reed, you鈥檝e also had a long set of experiences with education over the years. You were a Peace Corps member, teaching maths 40 some-odd years ago, I think. And 20 some-odd years ago, you were the chair of the California State Board of Education. A testing period, No Child Left Behind. You had this guy named Roy Romer in Los Angeles as the superintendent for some seven years. What did you learn from that period of time working in education?

Leadership changes in education systems

Reed Hastings: Well, that was a time of great hope. We had No Child Left Behind, Reading First, high school exit exams. We had an accountability system and I was really an administrator of that on the State Board of Education. And we worked hard on all the technical details and there was some real progress. And as you mentioned, Roy Romer was very successful as superintendent. He made it seven years in LA Unified as superintendent, set a record for that and put in a lot of great programs that really raised scores and achievement, learning. And the tragic thing was the next five years after that, I watched it all get dismantled, independent of its results. It sort of, you know, politically wasn鈥檛 in favor.

New administrations elected, they are like, get rid of the old guy stuff and let鈥檚 put in different stuff. And so that was true at the school district level and that was true at the state level. And it really woke me up to the hero syndrome we have. And whether it鈥檚 Tom Pazant鈥檚 great work in Boston now getting dismantled or Houston, Mike Miles is the hero today. And you know, watch what will happen in five or 10 years from now, because that鈥檚 where Rod Page was so great 40 years ago. Of course there was Joel Klein in New York that so many people worked hard on. So we see this cycle of rise and fall. And I have to say, for all the work that I did and all that state board, there鈥檚 very little to show for it.

Diane Tavenner: So in another chapter where we met, was in the charter world, and you鈥檝e been on the board of KIPP national for 20 years now. You have supported countless of us who have been in the work throughout that time, you know, the City Fund. And this is a long-term strategy for you. What are you learning from charters?

Reed Hastings: Well, I would say charters haven鈥檛 failed, but they haven鈥檛 succeeded at driving up NAEP scores in the high charter states, say like Arizona, Texas, Florida. And of course unions have fought us to a draw in deep blue states and then in red states we鈥檙e able to grow and we鈥檙e investing in, again, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Georgia, so lots of states. But even, you know, after 20 years, we have a good success at the city level. So at the city level, it鈥檚 actually the only thing that鈥檚 driven citywide improvement for all kids is high charter share. So if you look, PPI did the graph, the scatter plot showing that cities with low charter share, Portland, Seattle, have had no improvement in closing the gap of achievement between poor kids and all kids over the last 25 years. And then you start walking up the cities that have 10% charter share, more improvement, 20, 30, 40, 50, like Newark, Camden. And then you get to New Orleans, which has the highest gap closure in the nation over the last 25 years. And of course that鈥檚 100% charter.

So charter is still promising, but like grindingly hard and slow. Think trench warfare, but it hasn鈥檛 been reversed. OK, so a lot of positivity and I continue to be a huge donor in that space and continue to believe in it on maybe a half dozen boards of charter networks.

Michael Horn: So the third chapter that you then went in on an education is when I met you, 2010, the very first ASU GSV summit, you were there and you were getting involved in education technology, EdTech and DreamBox Learning, of course. And there鈥檚 been a whole wave, sort of cresting, if you will, with EdTech. What鈥檚 your take on that chapter?

Reed Hastings: Yeah, well, Rocketship was using DreamBox Learning, and I knew it through there, and I thought, OK, here鈥檚 a great opportunity to take this amazing software. And obviously computers transform everything. And so if we could just get some investment in DreamBox and get it bigger, it would surely transform both district schools and charters. And again, grindingly slow. Turns out that selling to school districts is really hard. The only thing harder is selling to charters because they鈥檙e small, so the money鈥檚 on the district side, but grindingly so. And then, you know, DreamBox was one of the early adaptive learning, you know, let kids go at their own pay systems.

But school districts kept telling us to turn that off, please, because they wanted to catch kids up to grade level, but they definitely didn鈥檛 want to get kids ahead because if the kid gets ahead, then they鈥檙e disruptive and bored in the class. So catching kids up to make the machine work better, very much valued. Letting kids get ahead, which sort of threw sand in the machine, not valued. And so it was an early lesson in sort of the depth and strength of the grammar of schooling that we have.

Diane Tavenner: So if I sum up these three chapters, state policy, district work, pop of success gets wiped away. Charters making progress haven鈥檛 failed, grindingly slow ed tech, no real discernible change yet. I know you鈥檙e not trying to depress us. I know you鈥檙e trying to help us know that you鈥檙e learning and still in the game, which we know you are. So let鈥檚 get back to AI. When鈥檚 it going to cure cancer? When is it going to figure out fusion so energy is free? When is it going to autonomously drive us all over the place so we don鈥檛 have to deal with parking lots anymore? When is it going to make our lives better?

Rapid AI advancements predictions

Reed Hastings: By the end of the summer? Predicting AI is tricky because it鈥檚 growing so fast in quality. You know, it was three years ago when ChatGPT came out and it could barely do third grade math. And now all of the major AI systems are very impressive and they鈥檒l continue to improve. And what鈥檚 happening is we鈥檙e on one of these curves where it鈥檚, let鈥檚 call it doubling every year in quality. So it will be twice as good as it is today a year from now, and then twice as good, and then twice as good and then twice as good. So whatever challenge you think AI is not up to, just wait a year. OK? And so that鈥檚 the amazing thing. And there鈥檚 no guarantee that the exponential will continue forever, but it has been the last several years and you know, it鈥檚 getting very, very impressive at many scenarios like the ones you talked about and many others.

So the amount of change that we鈥檙e going to see in our society, mostly positive, but there鈥檒l be some negative, from AI getting better and better is hard to grasp because of this doubling, doubling, doubling. You know, just when you think we鈥檝e got it like situated like how鈥檚 it going to work with society? Then it gets even better again. And so we鈥檙e in for the ride of our lives, both on the positive side. So curing cancer, energy, you know, abundance, these kinds of things and on the stress side of everything is different than it was when we grew up.

Michael Horn: Well, that鈥檚 the question I want to ask you because not only is there this anxiety and stress, as you know, people are also worried, will people get hurt as it gets better? And you know, you can imagine a myriad of ways that could play out. What鈥檚 your take on how do we prevent people from getting hurt?

Reed Hastings: Yeah, and I mean, again, that鈥檚 happened with some tragic cases of, you know, teens and suicide already. And look at the societal level, we make certain choices, sometimes explicitly, sometimes implicitly. And we tend to accept the choices that are already made for us and be scared, scared about new ones. But for example, you know, we lose 40,000 people a year to car accidents in the U.S. and about half a million globally. And if we just ban cars, you know, we wouldn鈥檛 have those deaths. OK, but we鈥檙e not willing to pay the price. So implicitly we鈥檙e making a trade off of 40,000 U.S. deaths a year. So I look at it and say, you know, is it as powerful as a car? And if it is, then I鈥檓 like, I know where society is in making those trade offs.

So I don鈥檛 want to pay that price. I don鈥檛 want to see 400,000 or 40,000 a year deaths. But I think when we get all excited about four deaths, we鈥檙e sort of losing perspective about the size of the prize and the other trade offs that we have and continue to make in society. So, you know, AI, I think will reduce deaths, and in particular with self-driving cars, that should be able to eliminate 90% of those 40,000 US deaths through self driving if we can get that adopted. OK, but then you see the story of the one Tesla death that happens. And again, that death鈥檚 tragic. I鈥檓 not trying to take away from it, of course, but in comparison to all the lives that self driving is already saving, it鈥檚 quite small.

Diane Tavenner: So let鈥檚 take that into education now, because one of the things that I love about you is that you keep learning and you stay in the work when a lot of people leave, and I know that there is a fourth chapter that is going to be written in your work and it鈥檚 going to involve AI. And so what does education look like in the age of AI? What does school look like in the age of AI? What does learning look like in the age of AI?

Improving education over the years

Reed Hastings: Yeah, but in my first 25 years, I鈥檝e spent the time trying to do the better classroom, whether that鈥檚 from the state board level and testing and assessment, how do we make schools and classrooms better, whether that鈥檚 using ed tech like DreamBox Learning to make the classroom better. Charter schools, which have had some progress in making the classroom better. But it reminds me of the story about steam powered factories in the 1800s. So in the 1800s, all of our factories had a big steam plant that burned coal and rotated an engine. And then throughout the factory we had a rotating rod which carried power through the plant. And then we had belts and pulleys and wheels that then spun the individual looms or other machines. And these were highly developed, mechanized, and lots of belts and pulleys throughout the factory. You know, lot of productivity.

Then electricity comes and we replace the big steam engine with a big electric engine. And that saves some money. But real productivity of the factories didn鈥檛 change. And this puzzled economists for a long time. And then people started saying, hey, the power distribution system, all those pulleys and rods spinning, that鈥檚 the problem. And if we get rid of that and then go to individualized electric motors, so each loom has its own motor, then it can be designed sideways because the power is not all in one direction. Then it鈥檚 variable speed. You can turn off some motors and turn on other ones and all of these subtle effects.

Then we had a huge increase in factory productivity from basically using electricity the way it should be used in lots of small, relevant motors, rather than replace the one big motor. And I remember hearing that story and thinking, oh my gosh, that鈥檚 what鈥檚 happening in education. We鈥檙e putting tech into the classroom and the classroom, the sage on a stage, is the power distribution system. The sage on a stage is holding back technology from its natural effects and its ability to teach children directly. And we have to be brave enough to try to do school without sage on a stage at all. OK? To have all of school be learning individually, your daily lesson plan from the system executing.

Experimenting with individualized tutoring

Reed Hastings: We want to maintain the social development so the person in the classroom really becomes a social worker. They鈥檙e specializing in learning and emotional maturity and doing valor-type circles and these kinds of things. But the quote “education learning” stuff all becomes individualized where it鈥檚 mastery based learning. And the question is, how much more would kids learn? So one experimental way to get at this is to think about Bloom 40 years ago, and Bloom said two sigma improvement from individual tutoring, but it hasn鈥檛 been revalidated in a large scale way in a while. And, and so one of the projects we鈥檙e doing is funding that and you know, take 50 random kids, median kids in a median school, and give them a full year of the whole school day individual tutoring and try to figure out, OK, how much more do they learn? And so Ben Rosen, who鈥檚 here at the conference, runs Recess.gg, he鈥檚 running this project and recruiting tutors. And so let鈥檚 see, for second graders in the ideal condition, how much can they learn? What is the rate of learning of typical human 7 year olds? And I think we鈥檙e going to see it鈥檚 a whole lot faster than one grade level in one year, when again, completely individualized tutor, they can do everything moral and legal. They want to help the kid learn more in that year. All kinds of motivational things, all kinds of different teaching techniques.

But again, it鈥檚 one on one, dedicated. And you might say, well look, you know, that鈥檚 so expensive, $100,000 per kid per year. It鈥檚 ridiculous. And I would say that鈥檚 what it is now. But with AI, it gives all the AI developers a target of what they鈥檙e trying to do and how much more learning. And what we want the world to understand is, no, there really is twice as much learning that could be happening per day, per hour than today, because I suspect that we鈥檒l find that it is twice as much, which roughly means by the time you get to eighth grade, you know as much as a typical high schooler today or by the time you get to 11th grade, you know, as much as the typical college student today. OK? Because of the time compression and the learning and the stimulation.

And that would lead to, you know, not just lifting the bottom, which of course it does, but just a tremendous revolution in the possibilities of the human brain. And there鈥檚 a positive example of this. So about 25 years ago, Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in chess. And from then on, AI chess has been better than human chess. And so you might think, well, everyone stopped playing chess and it鈥檚 kind of gotten irrelevant. But in fact, chess has grown. And now the typical 10 year old on Chess.com is scoring way higher than the 10 year olds of 20 years ago on a stable, vertically scored system. And what鈥檚 happening is the 10 year olds are getting tutored by AI and the 12 year olds and 14 year olds.

And so we鈥檙e seeing this rise in chess talent because they鈥檙e individually tutored by AI. And so that鈥檚 true for chess today and could be true for biology and history tomorrow.

Diane Tavenner: I know Michael has a lot of questions, but before we just move, hold, hold. Because I don鈥檛 want this to get lost. And I think people often get confused when we talk about the power of individual tutoring. And they think kids are going to be learning by themselves. And that is not what you鈥檙e saying here. I know that鈥檚 not what you鈥檙e saying.

Reed Hastings: A dark room, nothing there, locked in. We can reuse containers. No, you want all the social development that we have today. So it鈥檚 real.

Diane Tavenner: Because those chess kids are playing chess with other kids.

Reed Hastings: That鈥檚 right. And if you just take the chess, if you just take the school day and say the time that鈥檚 direct instruction, sage on the stage now becomes individualized tutoring. And all the play time and all the time that鈥檚 do a project together stays as that. And in fact you can be. The teachers can then focus on that aspect of the day. And again, social, emotional learning, we all know is important. But imagine if the teacher鈥檚 an expert in it and focuses on that because understanding and doing well on the stuff that鈥檚 tested is done by the software.

Diane Tavenner: And by the way, sage on the stage is a very lonely experience anyway, so let鈥檚 not pretend.

Michael Horn: Speaking from experience. Well, I was gonna say you鈥檙e gonna finally disrupt class, which I鈥檓 thrilled by, but yes. But I鈥檓 curious because I talk to a lot of ed tech entrepreneurs at this conference and elsewhere. What鈥檚 your advice to them? Because they do a lot of times what DreamBox did, right, which is sell to the existing system, the districts, the schools, the sage on the stage. What鈥檚 your advice to them?

Reed Hastings: Yeah, it鈥檚 a great point. The short term is if you want to make money selling to school districts, make teachers鈥� lives easier. OK, don鈥檛 worry about learning too much. But if you make teachers鈥� lives easier, you鈥檒l sell well. If you want to change the world, focus on the homeschoolers. Focus on people who are able to go at their own pace and build systems that are individualized. And as the benefits of that are more and more clear, not meaning 5%, but meaning twice as much learning, school districts will move towards that.

Self-learning education technology

Reed Hastings: And so if you build that now, you鈥檙e skating to where the puck is going, which is this individualized education. And so think of it as trying to do the pure play where you don鈥檛 need a teacher. OK? It is the self driving car where most of the market is like the map in the car to help the human. OK? That鈥檚 where most of our ed tech is. And instead we need to build the self-driving car in terms of innovation, which is the self learning, self teaching. And again, the AI is getting better and better at the emotional motivation.

So when you, you know, the vast majority of people seeking therapy today are getting therapy from chat, not from waiting a week and going and seeing someone at 80 bucks an hour. It vastly expanded the market. And you can say, well, it鈥檚 uncertified and that鈥檚 all true, but it is satisfying to people and it鈥檚 not perfect in any way. It is getting better and better rapidly back to that doubling. OK? And so the understanding, the emotional nuance of humans is something that actually the software is, is quite good at and getting better.

Diane Tavenner: And we could talk for days and days about how this leads to agency and self direction and entrepreneurial spirit and when they鈥檙e getting what they need.

Reed Hastings: Yeah, once you learn how to learn from software and from the interaction, the world鈥檚 your oyster because then you go off and you want to do physics or you want to do history again, a lot of it is there.

Diane Tavenner: So before. Yeah, let鈥檚 take it to the world. So what does this mean to the world you are working globally? CJ is here in the audience with us. Tell us about your work in Africa.

Sharing AI education globally

Reed Hastings: Yeah, it鈥檚 one of the most exciting secondary effects of this AI revolution is it鈥檚 very shareable when we figure out good teaching practices like Success Academy or KIPP, it鈥檚 very hard to export that to a Brazilian or African context. But when you figure out tech, it鈥檚 very easy to share. So, you know, if you think of Kibera outside Nairobi, people live in, you know, hundred or thousand dollar homes, you know, a piece of corrugated tin compared to our, you know, half-million, million dollar homes. So it鈥檚 wildly different, right? But if you think of their phones, it runs basically the same operating system that we run, it鈥檚 the same apps. It鈥檚 like barely any different. And so if we can figure out software based AI teaching that really does all the work, we can share that with the entire world. And so the project that CJ鈥檚 leading is trying to figure out one tablet per child in Rwanda, which is a great test lab. If that works as we hope, we鈥檒l do the hardware and operating system level, and various application developers in the U.S. will do amazing work there.

We鈥檒l put those together, and we鈥檒l see Rwanda rise to be the most successful education state, first in Africa, maybe in the world. And that will then prove at that point, which is the formula is really one tablet per child around the world.

Diane Tavenner: No pressure, CJ, no pressure. Number one in the world.

Michael Horn: We鈥檙e going to get all these people you鈥檙e working with, lots of attention out of this and so that we can multiply these efforts. Live from the ASU GSV Summit. Thank you, Reed, for joining us on Class Disrupted.

Disclosure: Reed Hastings was a founding board member of The City Fund, which provides financial support to 社区黑料.

This episode is sponsored by LearnerStudio.

Kansas City Public Schools teachers will receive a 5% base salary raise after the school board approved a new collective bargaining agreement with the Kansas City Federation of Teachers, the district鈥檚 teachers union. 

Superintendent Jennifer Collier called the raise 鈥渉istoric.鈥� 

鈥淭his is the highest pay increase for KCPS teachers in recent memory and brings our starting teacher salary to a competitive $50,558 annually, maintaining our position as one of the highest-paying school districts for teachers in our region,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his reflects our commitment to attracting, retaining and supporting exceptional educators.鈥�

The board also approved 5% raises for classified and child nutrition staff even though it wasn鈥檛 their normal time to negotiate. 

Carter Taylor, an elementary teacher and legislative chair for the local union, said the raises feel like a 鈥渕assive win鈥� in the current climate of threats to school funding from the local, state and federal levels. 

鈥淚t did feel a bit like a miracle, just because it feels so difficult to ask for anything, especially knowing all the economic uncertainty, knowing all the different cuts that are being thrown our way,鈥� Taylor said. 

Like other Jackson County districts, KCPS faces , a state budget and . 

On June 10, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that inflation for the 12 months ending in May was 4.2%. Inflation affects both schools鈥� expenses and how far teachers鈥� salaries stretch. 

Taylor said there was a sense of agreement between the union and the district that teachers needed more support. The new pay agreements affect more than 1,000 teachers and hundreds of classified and nutritional services staff members.

鈥淣obody disagreed that there needed to be more resources, and there needed to be more pay,鈥� Taylor said. 鈥淚t was just a matter of actually finding a number we could agree on.鈥�

The agreement lasts until July 1, 2029, but it specifies that the union can return to negotiate salary increases annually. 

鈥淲ith the speed at which the financial situation changes, it鈥檚 going to be important that we鈥檙e there to back up our teachers and that we鈥檙e not bound by a contract that was out of date six months earlier,鈥� Taylor said. 

What鈥檚 included in the agreement 

Among other changes, the district agreed to share more information with the union, including about contractors and about noncertified staff filling certified positions. The new agreement also contains many clarifications and small changes. 

For example, it describes teachers鈥� responsibilities for remote learning days and how compensation for extra duties works in more detail. 

Under the agreement, the base salary for a teacher with only a bachelor鈥檚 degree will go up 5%, from $48,150 to a bit more than $50,558. 

鈥淚t will probably put us near, if not leading, districts in our region on the Missouri side,鈥� said Charnissa Holliday-Scott, the KCPS chief human resources officer who presented the agreement to the board. 鈥淲hen budget and finance gave us the OK that we can do it, it is very exciting for us to do.鈥�

That increase to the base also bumps up the salaries for teachers with more experience or education. 

For example, a highly educated beginning teacher could earn close to $53,000 while a very experienced teacher with only a bachelor鈥檚 degree could earn nearly $69,000. A teacher with the maximum experience and education accounted for on the chart would earn about $99,000. 

Resource teachers, librarians and counselors are included in the certified staff agreement but have separate salary schedules. They earn more but also work more days. 

According to a fiscal impact document, the salary and benefits for certified staff 鈥� such as teachers, counselors and librarians 鈥� will cost KCPS an estimated additional $5.6 million compared to the 2025-26 salary schedule. The document says KCPS had 1,138 full-time-equivalent certified staff, including more than 1,000 teachers, as of June 4. 

Overall, KCPS is projected to spend more than $110 million on certified staff salaries and benefits for the upcoming school year.

鈥淥ur teachers are the foundation of student success 鈥� as we just talked about when we saw the academic presentation 鈥� and it鈥檚 important that their compensation reflects that value, their expertise and the dedication that they bring to our classrooms,鈥� Collier said. 

She also noted that the district will be increasing certain stipends, 鈥渋ncluding those allocated for our longest-serving staff members,鈥� and that noncertified staff members will also see a 5% increase to their base pay. 

The district also anticipates spending about $53.9 million 鈥� about $2.8 million more than the previous year 鈥� on salaries and benefits for 730 classified staff members such as paraprofessionals, interpreters, school nurses, secretaries and security staff. 

Many of those positions are paid hourly, ranging from a beginning rate of $17.12 for Head Start teaching assistants with the lowest level of education to $44.57 for a lead interpreter. Other roles, including for some health professionals, are salaried. 

Finally, the district estimates it will spend about $600,000 extra on salaries and benefits to increase the base salary for child nutritional services workers by 5%. 

Pay rates for cafeteria managers will start between $21.16 per hour and $24.68 per hour depending on the size of the school.  

Teacher and board member response to pay increase

The board unanimously approved the changes, but member Jamekia Kendrix asked for future monitoring. 

鈥淧art of the goal (of the agreement) is to help to improve the staff experience and retention, and to ultimately impact student outcomes,鈥� she said. 鈥淎s we make these changes, what evidence is the administration monitoring to determine whether or not the changes that we made were successful in moving us closer towards those ends?鈥�

Holliday-Scott said the district would continue surveying staff, monitoring student achievement and tracking staff attendance. 

Board member Josh Jackaway said he was excited by the changes. 

鈥淚 do think that that鈥檚 going to have a huge impact on our ability to attract and retain the very best educators,鈥� he said, 鈥渁nd that鈥檚 going to lead to those increased results in our students.鈥�

Taylor partially attributes the gains in the agreement to teachers telling their stories. 

鈥淲e had a very clear and dedicated push this year to actually be out in the public and talking about the issues that we were dealing with,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here were a lot of community groups and members of the media who were willing鈥� to tell our stories and discuss what it鈥檚 actually like in a way that we haven鈥檛 been able to do before.鈥� 

One example was The Beacon鈥檚 story on for teachers, Taylor said. 

鈥淭he biggest takeaway people took from that, when you go into the comments on social media and look at it, was, 鈥楬ey, why don鈥檛 we just pay teachers more?鈥� 鈥� she said.聽

Threats to public education, while creating a difficult environment, have also bonded the union and district officials, Taylor said. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 not union versus district right now,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 us versus everything that鈥檚 coming our way. Attacks on education have not stopped. If anything, they鈥檝e gotten louder and more pervasive.鈥� 

Taylor said there is more work to be done to support teachers, but that the raises make a real difference in their lives.

In 2024, the Economic Policy Institute found that the between public school teachers and other college graduates had hit a record high. 

鈥淭his isn鈥檛 like it鈥檚 trying to make us live large, it鈥檚 more like it鈥檚 closer to breaking even,鈥� Taylor said. 鈥淚 think that we still need a lot more because we were already so desperately underpaid, but this gets me closer to being able to actually get my head above water.鈥�

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, a member of the House education committee, filed three articles of impeachment against McMahon, noting the secretary鈥檚 鈥渨illful intent to unilaterally dismantle and eliminate the Department of Education.鈥�

Bonamici a week ago, prompting a swift response from McMahon defending her track record.

鈥淚t speaks volumes that House Democrats think an impeachable offense is working to improve student outcomes and reduce the federal bureaucracy,鈥� she .

The resolution accuses McMahon of compromising the ability of the department to fulfill its duties. That鈥檚 also the conclusion that the department鈥檚 Inspector General reached in released Wednesday detailing how the administration has slashed the agency鈥檚 staff by 40% and canceled billions of dollars in grants and contracts. 

McMahon has been forced to backtrack. The department currently has several job openings posted, including and .

Democrats have introduced articles of impeachment against multiple members of President Donald Trump鈥檚 cabinet, including Health and Human Services Secretary and Defense Secretary . But historically the attempts have rarely succeeded. Two years ago, the House impeached Biden Homeland Security for what members said was a failure to stop migrants from crossing the border, but the Senate dismissed the two articles against him.  Before him, the last cabinet member to be impeached was William W. Belknap, secretary of war under President Ulysses S. Grant, on , in 1876. 

Critics of Betsy DeVos, Trump鈥檚 first education secretary, called for her to and some groups advocating impeachment. But lawmakers never took formal steps to do so. A federal judge, however, held her in 2019 and fined her $100,000 when she continued student debt collections in violation of a court order. The department .

While some Republicans have also been critical of McMahon, Rep. Tim Walberg, the Michigan Republican who chairs the education committee, called the action 鈥減olitical theater.鈥�

鈥淪ecretary McMahon is doing exactly what voters elected President Trump to do: rein in a bloated bureaucracy and put students, parents, and taxpayers first,鈥� he said in a statement.

The effort is also largely 鈥渟ymbolic鈥� and unlikely to succeed, said Jeffrey Henig, a professor emeritus at Teachers College, Columbia University. 

鈥淪ymbolism can be important, and a case can be made for using this as a way to draw attention to the dismantling of the department,鈥� he said.

The resolution says McMahon has 鈥渄ecimated鈥� the agency and 鈥渃reated a culture of fear and chaos鈥� that has harmed education programs.

Specifically, the articles of impeachment are:

1. Willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law

The text cites McMahon鈥檚 actions to transfer responsibilities, which under law rest with the Education Department, to other agencies. Just last week, she announced that the office overseeing special education would move to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Civil Rights would transfer to the Justice Department.

2. False statements before Congress

The resolution accuses McMahon of lying to Congress during her confirmation hearing that she would follow the law in disbursing education funds appropriated by Congress. Instead, the text reads, she has defended the cancellation of several research contracts and discontinued grants for programs like community schools.

3. Breach of public trust

Again focusing on funding, the resolution states that the administration held up payments for services like migrant education and afterschool care and put 鈥渃ritical鈥� K-12 programs at risk.

Bonamici said parents, especially those of students with disabilities are “distraught” over splitting up the department. “They are asking us to take action to stop these illegal transfers,” she said. “To them I say, ‘We hear you.’ “

Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank, suggested McMahon鈥檚 actions aren鈥檛 grounds for impeachment.

鈥淭he race to the bottom continues, in this case regarding the definition of 鈥榟igh crimes and misdemeanors,鈥� ” he said. 鈥淭his is just politics, but I can appreciate that Congressional Democrats don’t feel like they have any other recourse right now.鈥� 

Nestling House typically operated with a dozen staff who served over 30 children from age 6 weeks to 12 years old. But the program had lost almost half of its staff and some families stopped sending their children. 

鈥淲e were operating in pods, there was less staff. The hours were less. Everything felt like less,鈥� said Loryn Denny, the center鈥檚 executive director.

When the acute crisis had subsided and the center reopened, there were fewer children enrolled, but the leadership team decided to reduce rates to make the cost more affordable for remaining families, which resulted in lower revenue. 

Nestling House, like many other programs, was able to stay afloat with federal pandemic relief funding provided through the American Rescue Plan Act. In Wisconsin, the funds were distributed through , a program that sent monthly payments to the state鈥檚 providers. 

In addition to supporting the center鈥檚 operating costs, the additional funding allowed Nestling House to give its staff bonuses, buy new outdoor playground equipment and purchase a gently used school bus which they were able to use to shuttle kids to and from the center. 

When the ARPA funds originally dedicated to Child Care Counts , Wisconsin was able to stretch the funding and continue the payments . The state subsequently created , a temporary 12-month program that sends monthly stipends to providers based on enrollment and staffing, which will end on June 30.聽

After about six years of receiving these monthly payments, the shift will be a stark change for Wisconsin providers and programs, including Nestling House, which receives close to $4,000 a month in bridge payments, split between its two locations, according to Denny. The leadership team doesn鈥檛 have an immediate plan for how to make up the shortfall other than charging families higher rates or paying providers even less, neither of which they want to do. 

Nestling House will lose close to $50,000 per year, Denny said. One way to close the gap would be to add three additional infants to the full-time program, which would bring in about $21,000 a year each, but the program is already at capacity, and they have been as creative as possible with ways to add space. 

鈥淲e aren’t going to make up the money,鈥� said Jannelle Litos, the center鈥檚 enrollment and financial coordinator. 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 given substantial raises, we have held off and then given two bonuses which felt good. It would be nice to pay more 鈥� and hire more qualified people.鈥� Every year, she said, the team talks to a healthcare broker to see if Nestling House can afford to provide health insurance for employees, and every year they don鈥檛 have sufficient funds to do so.

鈥淢y fear is losing highly skilled staff because they can make more money and better benefits elsewhere,鈥� said Betsy Guerrero, a director at one of Nestling House鈥檚 two locations. 

In 2025, the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Wisconsin Department of Children & Families published a highlighting findings from a survey that asked childcare providers about what would happen if the Child Care Counts Stabilization Payments Program expired.

that providers anticipated negative impacts for their childcare programs, including trouble with staffing, lower compensation, higher tuition payments for families and a decrease in their ability to provide high quality care. A quarter of the providers surveyed said they were likely to close. 

At Nestling House, leaders are concerned that many of their staff may leave. 鈥淵ou get what you pay for. 鈥� If I am continually having to replace a quality hire with an untrained person, I am spending more time managing adults than curating the program,鈥� said Denny. 鈥淭he focus in childcare should be on the children in our opinion.鈥�

For Tamara Summerville, a home-based childcare provider in Milwaukee, the Child Care Counts payments have been core to her business model. She opened her program in December 2020, and began receiving the payments the following year. The monthly stipends allowed her to buy supplies, nutritional snacks and pay her staff more through bonuses. Even as her program鈥檚 enrollment fluctuated (as several children have changed residences through the state鈥檚 foster care system), the extra funds allowed her to consistently keep staff on hand. 

鈥淚 love kids. Especially in this community,鈥� Summerville said. 鈥淚 want to provide somewhere safe for them to be.鈥� She estimates that she brings in about $800 a month through bridge payments. 

鈥淐hildcare is not promising. It makes enough money to be sustainable, sometimes,鈥� said Summerville, but she explained that it’s not enough to make ends meet.

Wisconsin has benefitted from an historically large and there is 鈥渉uge discussion about what the dollars will get used on,鈥� said Sara Shaw, deputy research director at the Wisconsin Policy Forum. Shaw posits that the two main suspects for additional dollars would be increasing aid for K-12 schools and lowering property taxes, but an earlier deal and no plan emerged. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not clear where childcare is falling on the list of priorities, but the possibility is there,鈥� she said. 

Some that have gained attention in Wisconsin include expanding employer tax credits and and then directing some of the additional revenue toward early care and education.

Gov. Tony Evers is , so a new governor will be elected this fall. The change in leadership could impact where childcare falls in the list of state budget surplus priorities. But no immediate change is coming, so after June 30, providers will be left to figure out immediate stopgap solutions to stay open. 

鈥淚 don’t know if it’s possible to go back to things pre-COVID,鈥� said Shaw. Childcare has gotten more attention on the national level, and the influx of public funding has been widely proven to have a positive impact. When that funding dries up, the state’s childcare providers 鈥� including Nestling House and Summerville 鈥� will be left to figure out how to balance their budgets and stay open. 鈥淲hat we hear is that in order to continue competing they will need to raise prices, which is pricing out families, or close,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e will have to see what actually happens.鈥�

When she negotiates with school officials, she often leans on a from the federal government that such 鈥渋nformal removals鈥� 鈥� like repeatedly asking a parent to pick up their child early 鈥� could violate a student鈥檚 rights. 

鈥淭hey鈥檙e denying them access to education,鈥� she said. Parents need that guidance, she added, 鈥渂ecause most families can鈥檛 afford attorneys and years of litigation.鈥�

That Biden-era document was a of the two offices within the U.S. Department of Education that oversee special education and civil rights and drew attention to that had long gone under the radar. But with Secretary Linda McMahon鈥檚 announcement last week that staff in those offices will be sent to separate agencies 鈥� special education to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office for Civil Rights to the Department of Justice 鈥� educators and attorneys worry the split will lead to crossed wires for students with disabilities. 

鈥淲hen school districts have to navigate rules from separate federal departments, it will make it even more challenging to manage a single student’s behavior,鈥� said Jessica Saum, a special education administrator in Arkansas鈥� Cabot Public Schools, north of Little Rock. Special education programs and civil rights enforcement 鈥渁re completely intertwined in practice. I do not see how schools and districts can cleanly separate a student’s behavioral needs from their civil rights.鈥�

Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who chairs the education committee, has promised to schedule a vote next month to from moving special education to HHS. Parents say they鈥檙e concerned that their children鈥檚 disabilities would be viewed from a medical perspective. 

鈥淚 don’t want my son to be fixed. I want him to be educated,鈥� said Courtney Hansen, a Colorado mom whose son has Down Syndrome. Like Frohling, she was among the hundreds of parents and advocates who joined a with department staff to voice their opinions on the administration鈥檚 plans to relocate oversight of special education. A medical model, Hansen said, is 鈥渨hat the disability rights movement has been trying to get away from for the past 50 years.鈥�

But Cassidy, who has been critical of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., still wouldn鈥檛 keep special education and civil rights in the same agency. He thinks the Department of Labor is a better home for special education.  

In addition to the guidance on discipline, the department鈥檚 special education officials worked with OCR in 2016 on a clarifying that students with ADHD were eligible for services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Until then, those students were often 鈥渙verlooked because they were bright, quiet, passing classes or not creating obvious discipline problems,鈥� said Jon Thomas, a Fairfax, Virginia, counselor who works with students who have ADHD. The condition, he said, 鈥渞arely shows up as one clean problem. It’s a kid who’s behind in reading, getting written up for impulsivity, leaning on a parent to hold the homework together, and missing instruction because nobody connected the dots. Split the agencies, and you split that dot-connecting job in half.鈥�

鈥楽harper teeth鈥�

The with HHS and DOJ were the latest attempts by the Trump administration to break up and ultimately phase out the Education Department. The DOJ would also handle complaints related to . In her about the move, McMahon said the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services and the Office for Civil Rights will 鈥渃ontinue to partner together.鈥� She promised that the move would 鈥渂reak down the bureaucratic barriers and strengthen the coordination of resources.鈥�

Some advocates agree with her. Marilyn Muller, a whose daughter has dyslexia, is 鈥渃autiously optimistic鈥� that moving oversight of special education and civil rights out of the Education Department would 鈥渇inally deliver real accountability,鈥� she . 鈥淭oo many families have waited years for states and local districts to follow the law.鈥�

The Department of Justice, she wrote, has 鈥渟harper teeth.鈥� 

But that鈥檚 what some parents and advocates worry about. Relationships with district officials over special education services are already adversarial. In the District of Columbia Public Schools, an OCR investigation recently concluded that parents were often forced to sue to get services for their children. Putting DOJ, the federal government鈥檚 primary law enforcement agency, in charge could make the process even less collaborative, Hansen said.

Others say it鈥檚 unlikely that the DOJ will make progress on a backlog of OCR complaints when it, too, has experienced . 

鈥淭here has already been a dramatic drop in the number of cases OCR is taking and resolving,鈥� particularly disability complaints, said Matt Cohen, a Chicago-based civil rights attorney who specializes in cases involving students with disabilities. 鈥淎s would be true when any organization is uncoupled, collaboration, coordination and consistency will be far more difficult.鈥�  

Among the complaints OCR is acting on, officials that it鈥檚 investigating the New Home Independent School District in Texas, south of Lubbock, for canceling a life skills class for students with disabilities. In May, it opened an investigation into the for its plans to move some services for students with disabilities to a central location this fall rather than keep them in general education classrooms. 

OCR also spent a year probing the D.C. Public Schools鈥� special education system, but a from the Government Accountability Office, a watchdog agency, found that OCR dismissed 90% of the 7,000 cases it says it resolved between March and September last year.

OCR鈥檚 most shows it received 22,687 complaints in fiscal year 2024, with more than 8,400 focusing on disabilities. But the public has no way to know how many complaints OCR, under McMahon鈥檚 leadership, is currently investigating because the website with that information since the Trump administration took office. 

鈥楥hange does need to happen鈥�

Even before staff departures, the DOJ鈥檚 civil rights division 鈥渢raditionally handled a much lower volume of cases,鈥� said Johnathan Smith, managing director of education and federal strategic advocacy at the National Center for Youth Law. He previously served as a deputy assistant attorney in that division. 鈥淚t is not clear that there is the infrastructure to meaningfully handle such a high volume of complaints.鈥�

Rob Harris, a Colorado father filed several complaints with OCR during the first Trump and Biden administrations, because his daughter, who is blind, wasn鈥檛 receiving services written into her individualized education program, like a cane and materials in Braille. But OCR never took any action.

He told 社区黑料 that he 鈥渆nded up bailing the school system鈥� and now homeschools his children, while also serving as a 鈥渇acilitator鈥� in meetings between parents and educators to develop students鈥� special education plans, especially those related to job coaching and transition plans after high school.

鈥淚 really want to make sure that students receive the services that they’re entitled to,鈥� he said. 

That鈥檚 what he when he gave his three-minute statement on the January call with parents and advocates. Like several parents and advocates who participated, he said no one voiced support for moving oversight of special education to HHS. 

鈥淚t might not be the change that we wanted,鈥� he said, 鈥渂ut change does need to happen.鈥�

The Los Angeles Unified Board voted unanimously to appoint Andres Chait, a longtime district administrator, as superintendent days after his predecessor resigned. 

鈥娾�淭his board鈥檚 decision reflects the confidence in Mr. Chait鈥檚 leadership, his decades of service to Los Angeles Unified, and his demonstrated ability to guide the district during this period of transition,鈥� said board President Scott Schmerelson.

The board met privately to discuss the district鈥檚 top job three days after . Carvalho wrote in a letter that he was leaving 鈥渂ecause I believe our schools must remain focused on students and learning without distraction.鈥� 

The board placed Carvalho on paid administrative leave following FBI searches of his home and district office in February and appointed Chait acting superintendent. Carvalho has not been charged with a crime and has maintained his innocence.

Who is Andres Chait?

Chait rose through the ranks from teacher to administrator at LAUSD over nearly three decades. The responsibilities of his most recent role, chief of school operations, included overseeing school safety, athletics and the district鈥檚 office of emergency management.

Chait thanked the board, the community and his family after the announcement Wednesday and reflected on his first day as a kindergarten teacher 30 years ago. 鈥溾�奍 was probably more nervous than the kids were, but I knew then that this was a place where I could make a positive difference in the lives of students and families,鈥� Chait said. 鈥淚鈥檝e always known that there is no greater accelerator of change and opportunity than the schoolhouse, and that is still true today.鈥�

What is the superintendent responsible for? 

LAUSD is the country鈥檚 second-largest school district, employs 83,000 people and enrolls more than 400,000 students across more than 1,000 schools. Despite recent , the majority of students are not proficient in reading and math skills for their grade level. The district also faces looming financial challenges from declining enrollment 鈥� which is tied to state funding 鈥� and federal investigations  designed to .

罢丑颈蝉听聽was originally published on聽.

While Washington is generally viewed through a lens of strength in leading the colonies through the American Revolution 250 years ago, a new movie aims to deepen the nation鈥檚 understanding of his evolution as a young work in progress.

鈥淵oung Washington,鈥� directed by Jon Erwin, also will pair nicely with the Bill of Rights Institute鈥檚 to usher in a new type of civics curriculum centered on helping students understand the complexities of adversity in a hero鈥檚 journey.

鈥淚 love when looking at a famous character like George Washington, who’s sort of asking the question, 鈥楬ow is character formed?鈥� 鈥� Erwin said. 鈥淪ometimes you find that they were forged in failure and in hardship and in adventure and in danger, and so I love those stories. I just felt like I wanted the audience to understand 鈥� young people to understand, students [to] understand 鈥� that failure can be their great teacher. Sometimes it’s a choice between comfort and adventure and growth, and Washington chose the frontier.鈥�

To help children across the country better understand these early chapters in Washington鈥檚 saga and legacy, the new civic education initiative is aiming to connect 鈥淵oung Washington鈥� with real classroom use. In theaters July 3, the film focuses on the leader鈥檚 early years 鈥� before the presidency 鈥� highlighting the experiences, mistakes and decisions that shaped his leadership.

Wonder Project and Angel are partnering with Stand Together, the Bill of Rights Institute and Mount Vernon to bring the story into classrooms nationwide with curriculum-aligned lesson plans and discussion guides developed with the Bill of Rights Institute. Materials are being distributed to more than 90,000 educators for use in the classroom this fall in addition to providing a centralized digital hub for classroom access and student engagement.

Bill of Rights Institute CEO David Bobb said he is excited for students to dive into questioning the film itself, going beyond the traditional civics concepts of memorizing dates and places to consider whether Washington made the right decisions.

鈥淚f successful, this will help spark curiosity,鈥� Bobb said. 鈥淐ivics needs a reinvention, and we really are in the business, along with a coalition of many other groups, of reinventing or really starting a kind of category [of learning] and at the heart of that category has to be curiosity.鈥�

Rather than presenting Washington as a finished figure, the film centers on a formative period (1743鈥�1755) using those experiences to explore leadership, decision-making and character in practice, and positioning failure as a critical teacher. 

鈥淪o many times people are so afraid of failing,鈥� Erwin said. 鈥淭hey’re afraid of trying anything new, and therefore they’re afraid of growing, and I hope one of the things that young people who see the movie ask themselves is 鈥榃hat would you attempt if you knew you couldn’t fail?鈥� 鈥�

Bill of Rights鈥� curriculum addressed questions that focused on how stories about Washington鈥檚 early life shape our understanding of leadership, civic virtue and American identity and how stories of setbacks and self-discovery shape who we become.

As a result, the curriculum initiative reflects a shift toward applied civics by using story to help students not just study history, but see it as a playbook for leadership and decision-making.

鈥淭his is someone who made tremendous mistakes, but he learned from them, and the filmmakers were keen to draw those key messages out while still having it wrapped into the narrative of the story,鈥� Stand Together Senior Vice President Nick Dunn said.

鈥淭he messages that really jumped out to us were this idea of failure as a great teacher and the idea that people who do great things weren’t always destined to be great. So, there’s an element of agency in there that I can take it upon myself to build a skill set, find a way to apply it and create value for others, but in messages that naturally are part of the film.鈥�

The curriculum encourages students to critically analyze film as a historical source and apply historical thinking skills through sourcing, contextualization and corroboration. It also encourages students to connect film depictions to real primary sources and reflect on civic virtue or moral lessons tied to the film.

The curriculum outlines specific source material tied to the movie鈥檚 accounts of Washington鈥檚 formative years before his presidency, including his diary of Jumonville Glen in May of 1754, when Washington was sent with men to protect British interests during a time of tensions with France. 

Washington discovered a group of French soldiers advancing on his position when he reached modern-day Pennsylvania and decided to attack out of fear that the French soldiers posed a threat, even though no hostilities had broken out yet between France and England. The event became known as the Battle of Jumonville Glen and was the first skirmish of the French and Indian War 鈥� and the sole surrender of Washington鈥檚 military career.

In 鈥淵oung Washington,鈥� Bobb said examples of Washington鈥檚 rashness in decision making like Jumonville Glen in his early years help paint a more complete picture about what he had to learn to become one of the nation鈥檚 formative leaders.

鈥淭he whole movie shows what happens when you’re rash and you lead too quickly: You haven’t gotten your plan, you haven’t put your things into place,鈥� Bobb said. 鈥淲e think it can translate into looking at the ways that Washington fell short and other leaders in other walks of life throughout American history.

鈥淲e’re not holding up Washington here as the paragon, the be all and end all. What we are saying is that you, an individual student, no matter where you are in your own leadership journey, you can acquire through hard work the civic virtues that might make you a leader.鈥�

Ultimately, Bobb said Bill of Rights Institute鈥檚 curriculum aims for civics to be non-idealogical, nonpartisan and apolitical, and 鈥淵oung Washington鈥� provides a perfect opportunity for students to understand that they can tackle tough questions in history and civics and not fear some disagreement with one another.  

鈥淚 think teachers know that this works 鈥� storytelling and bringing these figures into a place where you can relate to them,鈥� Bobb said. 鈥淭he lessons can land, and it can seem not just like a task that you want to get through. What we’re trying to do is to show them that history, American history, has to do with their life in a very real way. Civics is not this thing that is abstract.鈥�

Disclosure: Stand Together Trust provides financial support to 社区黑料.

Nearly 79% of students who used Iowa鈥檚 funding program for K-12 private schools were 鈥渁lready projected鈥� to attend private schools, according to a report released Wednesday by Iowa Auditor Rob Sand. 

Iowa Department of Education called the report a 鈥減olicy advocacy brief鈥� that critiqued statutory provisions of the Iowa Education Savings Account (ESA) program.

Iowa鈥檚 ESA program provides funding to students to use on tuition and associated costs at private schools and had an estimated appropriation of $329.6 million for fiscal year 2026, according to the . The auditor鈥檚 report said this means the state paid roughly $38,000, per student for the 20% of ESA program users who were not already projected to attend private schools. 

鈥淭he program itself, though, is still paying tuition for the wealthiest families in the state of Iowa, who can barely even feel the check that they write, and a lot of people who don鈥檛 mind doing it at all,鈥� Sand said in a news conference Wednesday. 

Fiscal year 2026 was the first year the ESA program did not have income limits for participants. Previously the program was limited to families with incomes at 300%, then 400% of the federal poverty level, or lower.

According to the auditor鈥檚 report, 8,838 more students attended private schools in the 2025-2026 school year, than what Iowa Department of Education projections from 2022, prior to the implementation of the ESA program, anticipated for the 2025-2026 school year. 

The report says it is 鈥渞easonable to conclude鈥� that the nonpublic enrollment of these 8,838 students is a result of the ESA program, and that the other 78.5% of students who made use of the voucher program 鈥渨ere expected to attend nonpublic schools even if the program never existed.鈥�

鈥淚n other words, taxpayers paid roughly $258.7 million in FY26 to fund private school tuition that otherwise would have been paid privately,鈥� a news release about the report said.

The Iowa Department of Education said in a statement that Sand鈥檚 office did not request data from the department, inform the department about the development of the report or allow the department to review the report for 鈥渄ata accuracy.鈥� It said the report was not an audit, nor did it pertain to 鈥渁ny formal role of the state auditor鈥檚 office.鈥�

鈥淚n Iowa, all families are empowered to make informed educational decisions that best fit their child鈥檚 learning style, interests and talents, whether it鈥檚 a neighborhood public school, a public school outside a family鈥檚 resident district through open enrollment, an innovative public charter school, an accredited nonpublic school or a homeschool learning environment,鈥� the Department of Education said.

The Iowa Department of Education agreed that the number of students enrolled in accredited non-public schools has increased since the start of the ESA program, but said enrollment in other forms of school choice, like public schools outside of resident districts, has also increased. 

The department said public school enrollment was in decline 鈥渓ong before鈥� the ESA program was implemented in 2023. This is supported by Iowa  and national  from the U.S. Department of Education. 

The ESA program sent an average of $1,656, according to the Iowa Department of Education, per program user, to the students鈥� residential public school district during the 2025-2026 school year. The department pointed out that Sand鈥檚 report 鈥渙mits鈥� this public school funding which amounted to more than $37.9 million in fiscal year 2026. 

Sand said his office has asked questions about the ESA program 鈥渕any, many times鈥� but has been 鈥渓imited鈥� in its ability to evaluate the program.

In February 2025, Sand said the Iowa education and revenue departments  certain documents related to the ESA program that his office requested. The departments and Gov. Kim Reynolds disputed Sand鈥檚 claim and said it was a politically motivated attack on the ESA program. Sand eventually received the documents and  of the program from February 2026 did not find any spending issues or irregularities. 

Sand is running as the Democratic nominee for governor and has been critical of the ESA program both in his 聽and as a candidate. He said Wednesday even if his opponents want to call this new report a politically motivated move, he feels 鈥渋t鈥檚 important for Iowa taxpayers to understand鈥� the cost of the program.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Klimesh, R-Spillville, criticized Sand for the report, saying in a statement it was an abuse of his power as auditor in favor of his campaign for governor.

鈥淓ducation savings accounts were implemented to give all students access to the education that is best for them,鈥� Klimesh said. 鈥淚f Rob Sand wants to campaign against competition and innovation in education, his campaign should pay for it, not taxpayers.鈥�

Gov. Kim Reynolds similarly criticized Sand鈥檚 report in a  Wednesday, and said the audit was about 鈥減olitics, not oversight.鈥� Reynolds said Sand鈥檚 office should focus on official duties like public school audits instead of manufacturing a 鈥渃ampaign press conference.鈥�

Reynolds said the ESA program is a commitment to 鈥渄oing what is best for each child鈥� and putting 鈥渟tudents ahead of systems.鈥�

鈥淩ob Sand wants Iowans to believe that if a child is educated in a public school, that child deserves taxpayer support, but if that same child is educated in an accredited nonpublic school, the family is taking something they should not receive,鈥� Reynolds said in the statement. 鈥淭hat is wrong. These are Iowa children. Their parents pay taxes too. Their futures matter too.鈥�

Closures and accreditation

The report also looked at the increase in the number of nonpublic schools opening in the state and the number of schools using independent agencies to receive accreditation. 

The report found that since the ESA program was implemented, there has been an overall increase in the number of nonpublic schools in the state, as well as an increase in the number of private school openings and closing. 

鈥淏ut those schools are smaller and are more likely to shut down on a year-to-year basis,鈥� the report said. 

According to the report, there has been an annual average of 21.7 nonpublic school openings and 5.7 nonpublic school closings since the 2023-2024 school year when the ESA program was implemented. 

A 2013  allowed school districts in Iowa to receive accreditation through approved independent agencies, rather than from the Department of Education. Sand鈥檚 report said nonpublic schools have been 鈥渄ramatically less likely to receive accreditation from the state鈥� since the implementation of the ESA program. 

Per the report, 66% of nonpublic schools that opened prior to 2023 received accreditation from the state and 2% of the nonpublic schools that opened since 2023 received accreditation from the state. 

鈥淚 think that if the vast majority of private schools are now using these other accreditation methods, to the point where now only 2% are accredited by the state, we should be asking questions about why so many have moved in that direction,鈥� Sand said. 

The Iowa Department of Education said the increase of independently accredited nonpublic schools is 鈥減rimarily due to either new schools opening or existing schools choosing to become accredited.鈥�

With Alberto Carvalho鈥檚 resignation now official, Los Angeles Unified faces a new challenge: finding a superintendent to lead the nation鈥檚 second-largest school district through mounting budget deficits, declining enrollment and political uncertainty. 

Acting Superintendent Andr茅s Chait will continue leading the district in the interim, but board members have not yet outlined a timeline or process for selecting a permanent replacement.  

The board said it remains committed to 鈥渆nsuring stability, continuity, and continued progress through strong leadership.鈥� Its focus, according to a , 鈥渞emains unchanged: providing every student with a high-quality education, supporting our dedicated workforce, and maintaining the trust of the communities we serve.鈥�

Carvalho  Sunday night that he would formally step down amid an ongoing FBI investigation that appears to concern his relations with AllHere, a now-defunct company that developed the district鈥檚 AI chatbot with which LAUSD entered a $6.2 million professional services contract. 

In February, two days after the FBI  Carvalho鈥檚 home and LAUSD headquarters and searched a residence in Florida, the school board placed him on  administrative leave. He continued to receive his annual  of $440,000 and other benefits. It remains unclear whether his departure will include a negotiated settlement with the district. 

Around that time, Carvalho  any wrongdoing, and his attorneys at Holland & Knight LLP said they hoped he would be reinstated. 

Now, Carvalho says he鈥檚 stepping down to avoid further disruption to the district and allow LAUSD to focus on serving students.  

In a letter released through his attorneys, Carvalho thanked students, families, educators and community members for their support during his tenure.  

鈥淭he successes we have achieved belong to you. I will miss all of you and will continue to pray for the success, health, and wellbeing of every student and family in our District,鈥� he said. 

Federal authorities have not publicly disclosed details of the investigation, and it remains unclear when additional information may become available. 

What happens now?

Chait will continue to serve as acting superintendent while the school board determines its next steps. 

But John Rogers, the associate dean for research and public scholarship in the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies, said he wishes the announcement of Carvalho鈥檚 resignation had come earlier to give the school board more time to conduct a search to find a new, permanent superintendent before the start of the next academic year. 

Community groups and education advocates say the district cannot afford prolonged instability. 

鈥淎t a time when the district is dealing with federal attacks on public education, declining enrollment, budget pressures, attacks on our most marginalized communities, and persistent inequities, prolonged uncertainty in its leadership has only made it harder to work towards real solutions,鈥� read a statement from Reclaim Our Schools LA, a coalition that works to improve access to Los Angeles public education. 

From fiscal challenges to community and political concerns, the next superintendent will have a lot to navigate. Stability, experts and community members agree, is essential. 

This year, the district is also  two of its academic chiefs: Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Karla Estrada and Chief Academic Officer Frances Baez. 

鈥淩esearch shows that when you have these turnovers, the biggest issue is around organizational instability, when someone new might come in and shift priorities or stop reforms,鈥� said Julie Marsh, a professor of education policy at USC. 鈥淭hat can lead to lower staff morale and challenges to sustaining programs and policies, and that becomes quite disruptive.鈥� 

Rogers said he hopes the district casts a broader net and conducts a nationwide search for the next superintendent. Marsh and other community members feel the board should look within first. 

鈥淥ne of the things we know about new leaders is often they want to make their mark, and be able to put their stamp on an organization,鈥� Marsh said. 鈥淎nd that may not be the time for it right now for us to see someone new come in with all new ideas.鈥�

Nicolle Fefferman, a longtime LAUSD educator and co-founder of the Facebook advocacy group Parents Supporting Teachers, stressed the importance of transparency in a future leader, and said Chait鈥檚 leadership appears to be encouraging 鈥� noting LAUSD doesn鈥檛 鈥渘eed a racehorse. What we need is a workhorse.鈥� 

Finding a superintendent who listens to parent and student voices is also key, said Elena Price, who has two children in district elementary schools. 

鈥淟eadership comes and goes. Our students remain,鈥� Price said. 鈥淎nd my hope is that L.A. Unified uses this transition as an opportunity to strengthen its partnership with parents and stay focused on what matters most: student success.鈥� 

Carvalho鈥檚 report card 

Carvalho became LAUSD鈥檚 superintendent in 2022 after leading Miami-Dade County Public Schools for 14 years. 

Assuming the role as schools were emerging from pandemic-era disruptions, he made recovering learning loss and reducing chronic absenteeism central priorities. 

During his tenure, student test scores  to pre-pandemic levels. Attendance numbers improved and the share of students completing A-G coursework required for admission to the University of California and California State University systems increased, according to district data. 

鈥淚 reflect on Carvalho鈥檚 tenure as a time when there were some improvements laid out across the district, and I credit the entirety of the district for those improvements 鈥� and have to acknowledge that Carvalho was a leader during that time,鈥� said Rogers.

Carvalho also earned praise from many advocates for immigrant students and families, particularly as he publicly challenged policies and actions of the Trump administration that he viewed as harmful to immigrant communities.  

鈥淗e understood the immigrant experience,鈥� said Evelyn Aleman, the founder and CEO of the nonprofit parent group Our Voice/Nuestra Voz, which previously called for Carvalho to be . 

鈥淏eing an advocate at L.A. Unified for four decades now, I have never seen a superintendent take on the cause of immigrant families and vulnerable children. 鈥� He was really trying to raise the bar in terms of the quality education that these children received.鈥� 

As much as LAUSD gained under Carvalho鈥檚 leadership, his tenure was marked by controversy. Critics questioned the  of arts education money, the  of the district鈥檚 former Primary Promise intervention program, several  and data breaches, and aspects of its response to the 2025 L.A. wildfires. 

鈥淭here have been numerous occasions over his tenure where we witnessed what we thought were grave derelictions of responsibility to our children and to our schools,鈥� said Fefferman of Parents Supporting Teachers, which was early to call for Carvalho鈥檚 . 

鈥淔inally we can be done with this part of the LAUSD story, and hopefully move on to something better.鈥�

Rogers added he wasn鈥檛 鈥渟ure that Carvalho always created the most supportive environment for educators in the system.鈥� 

Carvalho鈥檚 fall 

Ultimately, Carvalho鈥檚 downfall came 鈥� at least, in part 鈥� from dealings with AllHere Education. 

The district entered into a $6.2 million contract with AllHere on July 1, 2023, and unveiled a chatbot, Ed, as a virtual assistant designed to help students navigate school resources and services the following year.

The project quickly unraveled. The company鈥檚 founder and CEO, Joanna Smith-Griffin, left and was arrested in November 2024 and charged with securities fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Most employees were furloughed. 

Carvalho announced a task force to examine what went wrong, but no progress or outcomes have been publicly disclosed. 

During the raids, the FBI also searched a residence in Southwest Ranches, Florida, in Broward County. The residence is reportedly linked to Debra Kerr, an AllHere contractor with ties to Carvalho from when he was superintendent in Miami-Dade. Kerr鈥檚 son, a former AllHere employee, told 社区黑料 that he had pitched the company to LAUSD.

鈥淢ost district leaders around California and around the nation are at a little bit of a loss trying to figure out how to navigate this new AI landscape,鈥� said Rogers. 

鈥淭his is not to take responsibility away from Carvalho for the decisions he made, but I do think many educational leaders don鈥檛 have sufficient information and are trying to figure out in a context of rapid change and insufficient information how to move forward.鈥� 

Last week, leaders of the largest LAUSD unions 鈥� United Teachers Los Angeles and SEIU Local 99 鈥� expressed a desire for Carvalho to be replaced, according to the Los Angeles Times.

鈥淎fter months of uncertainty around district leadership, the news of Superintendent Carvalho鈥檚 resignation does not come as a surprise,鈥� UTLA said in a statement. 

鈥淭he next superintendent must ensure that district resources are invested where they matter most: in our schools and classrooms, not in billions of dollars鈥� worth of outside contracts.鈥�

Although Connecticut鈥檚 charter school sector has produced, per-pupil funding has not increased in years, and the pipeline for new charter schools was effectively closed without a clear opening in sight for schools and families.聽

But something incredible happened in this year鈥檚 legislative session: Four new schools won approval, lawmakers provided a special fund specifically for charters, and charter paraprofessionals gained new benefits.  

To accomplish this, it took a coalition of education advocacy organizations showing up together, sharing strategy, coordinating closely with school leaders and families, and trusting each other through the hard moments. 

Currently, Connecticut has 23 operating charter schools serving roughly 12,000 students. Massachusetts, with a similar demographic profile and only modestly larger population, has more than 80 charter schools serving close to 50,000 students. The gap reflects, in part, a system that has made opening new schools unusually difficult, even as waitlists continue to grow. This session began to change that.

and the Alliance for Connecticut Charter Schools, both built specifically to grow and strengthen the state鈥檚 charter sector, came into this session as close partners. and the , with their deep statewide education-policy expertise and relationships across the broader public education landscape, were essential allies, bringing their own statehouse relationships and credibility to bear on behalf of charter families when it mattered.聽

That kind of multi-organization coordination is harder than it sounds in a policy environment where groups often compete for credit or diverge on strategy. This year, these groups didn鈥檛. The result was the most consequential legislative session for Connecticut charter schools in decades.

Now four new schools are on the path to opening, a significant achievement in a state where new launches have been stalled for some time. 

cleared its final legislative hurdle and is fully funded to open. This marks the culmination of years of community organizing, including more than 3,000 letters of support from New Haven families. , already serving students in Stamford, secured full funding, cementing its long-term footing. And three more schools, , in Stamford, and in Ansonia, received planning grants that formally launch their path to opening in the coming years.

PROUD Academy is incubating through the , a joint initiative of The Mind Trust Connecticut and Leaders for Educational Advocacy and Diversity that backs leaders building new charter schools across the state.

The legislature also passed an $8.7 million supplemental grant for charter schools, the largest single-session funding gain the sector has ever seen, adding approximately $685 per student. 

Charter paraprofessionals had been wrongly excluded from a state healthcare subsidy available to their traditional district peers. Legislators adjusted this so that these educators may finally gain access. It鈥檚 the kind of fix that sounds technical until you talk to the people it affects. 

There is still work to do. Two schools with approved charters in hand 鈥� one in Danbury, one in Middletown 鈥� still have no clear path to open. The Mind Trust Connecticut and ACCS will keep showing up for those communities until that changes. Charter schools also still need a long-term structural funding fix, not just supplemental grants, to ensure real financial stability. 

Supplemental grants prove the political will exists to fund charter schools. A permanent change to the funding formula turns a good year into a durable system that fairly funds high-quality charter schools across Connecticut.

But the trajectory is unmistakable. Governor Ned Lamont has convened targeting a school finance overhaul in 2027. State education leaders have committed to releasing a formal charter application process later this year after several years of pausing applications. The pipeline behind it is packed with talented operators who have been waiting a long time for exactly this opening. 

Connecticut has no cap on charter schools, which means the ceiling on growth is set by political will and quality execution, not by statute. The demand is real: thousands of families on waitlists, communities ready to organize, school leaders ready to build.

More importantly, these wins reflect a broader commitment to expanding educational opportunity for students and families who need stronger public school options.

None of this was inevitable. It was built by The Mind Trust Connecticut and ACCS, alongside partners ConnCAN and the School and State Finance Project, and the families and school communities who never stopped showing up. The coalition is still standing. Connecticut’s charter sector is just getting started on its next chapter.

Even more impressively, low-income third graders at Indian River schools scored better than the statewide average for all students. And, perhaps not surprisingly, when we went looking for high-poverty schools that were nevertheless getting good outcomes in reading, we identified three of the district’s schools 鈥� Rosewood Magnet, Fellsmere Elementary and Pelican Island Elementary 鈥� for our 鈥�Bright Spots鈥� list. Fellsmere in particular stood out: Based on its 99% poverty rate, our calculations predicted that it would have a third grade reading rate of just 29%. But its actual rate was much higher, at 53%.

Indian River County was never exactly a failing district, but a decade ago it was performing a bit worse than the state as a whole. It has since begun to pull away, especially in third grade. Coming out of the pandemic, 60% of district third graders scored proficient in reading in 2023. That figure rose to 63% in 2024 and then jumped again, to 69%, in 2025.

The district鈥檚 gains are also widespread. Last year, 100% of Indian River County’s elementary schools earned an A or B rating, with no Cs, Ds or F. In comparison, nearly 1 in 3 elementary schools earned a C or below statewide. As a whole, the district has now earned an A grade from the state for three consecutive years.

So how is Indian River County getting these results?

A 10-part video series produced by the tells what happened. It makes a compelling case that these results are attributable to a distinctive public-private partnership between the district and a nonprofit called The Learning Alliance. The story starts with two moms, Liz Woody-Remington and Barbara Hammond, whose children were struggling to read. In 2010, they asked themselves: What would it take to get 90% of the district’s children reading on grade level by the end of third grade?

In 2012, then-Superintendent Fran Adams bought into the goal and had the district鈥檚 school board officially it. And the moms’ informal advocacy work has morphed into , a nonprofit with $5.8 million in last year. Today, that money provides funding for 25 literacy coaches, free afterschool and summer and a to help parents prepare their children for kindergarten.

The district鈥檚 literacy work is grounded in what鈥檚 known as . Originally by researchers Philip Gough and William Tunmer, this theory suggests that, to read well, children must know how to decode letters into sounds and have enough background knowledge to recognize what those words mean. The district’s afterschool program, for example, employs this method. Funded by The Learning Alliance, it gives students who need extra help with literacy explicit instruction on the letters or sounds they鈥檙e learning during the school day. It also uses stories, art and music as a way to build vocabulary and connect and engage the students.

During the school day, teachers take a similar approach using the curriculum from Amplify. They also receive extensive coaching and regular feedback on their classroom practice. In the videos, district leaders, principals and the local union leader all spoke about the value of that coaching. Mar鈥檚ha Roberts, a teacher at Vero Beach Elementary, noted that, 鈥淏eing under such high expectations, it was a little rough at first. But they helped me to see what I was good at and gave me great feedback, and that really built my confidence.鈥�

The district鈥檚 reading scores really seemed to take off after David Moore was hired as superintendent in 2019. In 2024, he was named the Florida Superintendent of the Year, and he plays a prominent role in the video series, speaking eloquently about the importance of providing teachers with coaching and support and relentlessly using data to drive instruction.

But perhaps most relevant here, Moore understood the importance of the early grades as a  long-term investment. He saw the need to make sure young students never get behind and bemoans the fact that, because state accountability systems typically start with third grade, principals tend to assign their best teachers to those . When principals neglect the earlier grades in this way, Moore cautions, 鈥測ou鈥檙e playing catch-up the entire experience of that child.鈥�

Despite the recent gains mentioned above, Indian River County has not yet reached its ultimate goal of having 90% of students reading proficiently by third grade. That is an ambitious target, but Hammond says she believes in the importance of having that shared goal across the community. Toward the end of the video series, she notes that, 鈥淪uperintendents come and go. School boards come and go. Without the community understanding this and holding the goal, the reform won鈥檛 last.鈥� 

Charters are built on the premise that all kids can learn when a culture of high expectations, great teaching and deep relationships with students and families works together to help each child in the school learn and grow.

This year alone, over 30,000 high school seniors in hundreds of high schools across the country that our fund invests in earned over a billion dollars in college scholarships. And close to 100% of them have been accepted and are going to college.

For individual students, this is an extraordinary outcome.鈥淔or my family, this scholarship means that all of their support and sacrifice over the years has truly paid off,鈥� said Laythan Davis, who is graduating from Uncommon Schools in Rochester, New York, this year, and headed to Cornell University on a QuestBridge Scholarship.

But it is surprisingly ordinary in a subset of public schools that have created an approach that works year after year. Our hope is that this becomes ordinary in all communities across the country. 

I had a chance to ask four great leaders of these extraordinary charter school networks about their 鈥渟ecret sauce,鈥� and this is what I learned:

At Friendship Public Charter School in the heart of Southeast Washington, D.C., CEO Pat Brantley and her veteran team of educators are not only graduating 100% of their senior class, but also helping students earn more than and acceptance to four-year colleges and universities across the country. Friendship leaders credit their success to creating a school environment where students are exposed early to college coursework, career pathways, internships and real-world experiences that help them see new possibilities for their future.聽

From NASA partnerships and architecture mentoring programs to dual-enrollment classes and study abroad opportunities, Friendship students are encouraged to see themselves not only as college students, but as future leaders, engineers, designers and innovators. For many, those pathways are already paying off: Students are leveraging their career training to earn real income while in college, taking on work in their chosen fields that goes well beyond what a fast food job or work-study position might offer. Educators at Friendship often describe the school community as a “village,” one where students are deeply known, challenged and supported long before graduation day.聽

Across the country, public charter schools like Friendship are helping students achieve outcomes that often go unnoticed and therefore uninterrogated. We should be looking to these schools for strategies that work, not only in the charter sector but in public schools across the country with similar needs and student populations. 

For example, at DSST Public Schools in Colorado, seniors have earned more than $48 million in scholarships this year alone, while maintaining a 100% postsecondary placement rate for every graduating class since 2008. Each student averaged more than six college acceptances while earning highly competitive national scholarships, such as QuestBridge, Daniels Fund and Posse Foundation scholarships. This success comes from a that begins long before senior year. Students receive individualized advising, support in navigating financial aid and scholarships and access to counselors and educators who help students see college and career success as attainable and expected.

In Chicago, Noble Schools, which serves roughly 10% of Chicago鈥檚 public school population, consistently account for over $500 million in scholarships, more than 30% of the district’s annual scholarship dollars. More than two-thirds of Noble seniors are first-generation college students, and the network has built a college-going culture where students are surrounded by counselors, mentors and alumni who help make higher education feel attainable rather than out of reach. More than 1,000 Noble seniors enroll in college each year, many the first in their family to navigate the process. Noble to rigorous academics, mentorship and a strong college persistence model that helps students succeed after high school graduation. 

At Uncommon Schools 鈥� a charter network operating in five Northeastern communities 鈥� graduating seniors earned more than $29 million in scholarships, while 95% of students were accepted to four-year colleges, continuing a long-standing culture of academic excellence and college persistence for first-generation students. Overall, Uncommon students graduate from college at nearly four times the national rate of their peers. Leaders to long-term alumni support systems that help first-generation students navigate the challenges of college enrollment, persistence, and completion. 

Students like Laythan represent what becomes possible when schools combine high expectations with real support. During high school, Laythan helped build an AI-powered litter detection program, volunteered in his community and launched an eco-friendly clothing business 鈥� all while preparing for college as the first student from his school to attend Cornell.

Through dedicated coaching and continued engagement after graduation, Uncommon works to ensure students not only get into college but also earn their degrees.

These stories aren’t just about scholarships and college acceptance letters; they are a call to action. These schools prove every day that excellence is possible and that potential isn’t in short supply: opportunity is.

College grads are facing a tough job market, with headlines almost daily declaring their prospects or or call their a

High school students entering college need to think ahead and build work experience and skills as soon as they can, experts say. College is still key to long-term success. Just not on its own. 

It鈥檚 now what some experts refer to as 鈥渃ollege and鈥�: and an internship; and training in at least Artificial Intelligence basics; and a career credential; and some project or passion that demonstrates a student can use the skills learned in class in the real world.

鈥淒urable鈥� or 鈥渟oft鈥� skills such as teamwork, reasoning and collaboration are also considered a must in the workplace.聽聽

 鈥淲e’ve seen a transition into employers wanting a little bit more quantifiable evidence that students actually have skills,鈥� said Scott Fleming, executive director of the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia. 

鈥淓mployers who are looking at first hires out of college鈥� they want to see that they already have work experience,鈥� Fleming told a . 鈥淭he degree is important. But did you also get work integrating the learning, or an internship, project based learning, undergraduate research, something else as part of that education enterprise? That, to an employer, signals as well that you have developed those skills along the way.鈥�

AI which is automating tasks, is also disrupting the job market, experts noted, on top of the increasing demand from employers for more evidence than just a college degree that graduates have the skills they want.

Jeff Strohl, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, said he doesn鈥檛 envy students trying to chart a path toward a career with all the shifting demands of employers and the impact of AI on the economy.

鈥淚n the 1980s, you just got a BA, the employer would train you and everything would be nice,鈥� Strohl said. 鈥淣ow much more of that workforce preparation falls on the student.鈥�

He still urges students to go to college, saying higher education degrees offers the best chance at long-term success. But he and several other career experts and researchers have a few key pieces of advice for young people as they prepare for a career:

• Learn how to use AI as a tool, not be replaced by it. 
• Build resumes while in high school and college with jobs and internships. Internships are scarce, but students still need to seek them out to build skills, contacts and references. 
• College majors can matter a lot, though AI is slashing the value of some once-certain degrees.
• Expect to be nimble and adapt as the job market changes.
• Consider how well a college provides AI training or work experiences when choosing a school.
• Find ways to show mastery of 鈥渟oft鈥� or 鈥渄urable鈥� skills through jobs, projects or new tests that are emerging that can certify mastery of them.

鈥淒on’t get anxious,鈥� Strohl said. 鈥淏ut be purposeful and deliberate鈥� Engage, engage. Be deliberate. Don’t let stuff happen to you.鈥澛�

The data on today鈥檚 job market is bleak, with college graduates finding fewer jobs to launch careers, and many having to take jobs below what their degree would usually allow. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates was 5.7% in the first quarter of 2026, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently reported, the highest rate since the pandemic.聽

A separate study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland found the advantage a college degree has in finding a job over just a high school diploma 鈥� independent of the pandemic and AI. College graduates, researchers found, are now having to search for jobs longer than high school graduates do.

Between 1976 and 2000, high school graduates had to look for a job for 11 weeks before finding one, while college graduates found jobs faster, in just eight weeks. Today, high school graduates are still taking 11 weeks to find a job, but college graduates are now job hunting for 12 weeks.

鈥淭hat鈥� gap is now in favor of high school graduates,鈥� said researcher Bar谋艧 Kaymak.聽

It鈥檚 not clear how much the recent growth of Career Technical Education programs in high schools has affected the difference between high school and college graduates. Though students who earn career credentials in high school can have better job prospects after graduating and could draw some students away from college, the value of credentials varies greatly, and national data hasn鈥檛 shown enough students shifting to CTE to affect the trend.

The New York report also highlighted a larger problem: More than 40% of recent graduates were underemployed 鈥� doing jobs that don鈥檛 require a degree.聽

Underemployment is both costly to graduates and hard to overcome. A by the Strada Education Foundation and Burning Glass Institute found that underemployment gives graduates a 鈥渉eavy financial cost.鈥� Though college graduates earn 25% more than just having a high school diploma, even in jobs that don鈥檛 require a degree, that鈥檚 much less than the 88% more they would earn if they found a job that matched their degree.

鈥淭his leaves underemployed graduates on weaker financial footing as they start their careers, especially those with substantial student loan debt,鈥� the report stated.

It鈥檚 also hard to recover if the first job out of college isn’t a good one. Strada reported that 73% of graduates who started out underemployed after college remained underemployed 10 years later.

Strada identified a few keys to improving odds of finding a good job, with the most important being picking the right major and having job experience before graduating. An internship or job, Strada found, reduces the risk of underemployment more than 49%.

Even STEM degrees, once thought of as a guarantee of success, aren鈥檛 created equal. Strada found that computer science, engineering or mathematics majors were much better off than those in fields like biology.

Degrees in nursing, engineering, architecture and math-intensive business fields such as accounting and finance had the best chances of avoiding underemployment.

A by the Center for an Urban Future offered a snapshot of what underemployment can look like by analyzing how graduates of the City University of New York system fared after leaving school:

That report found that:

• Job postings for applicants with little experience have fallen 37% since 2022
• Internship opportunities for college students are also down 37% since the pandemic.聽
• Ten percent of CUNY graduates were working in retail or food service five years after graduation, rising to 13% for graduates of CUNY鈥檚 community colleges.聽聽
• Surveys show that just 12% of CUNY graduates had a paid internship during college.聽

鈥淚n this challenging hiring environment, CUNY鈥檚 mostly low-income students will struggle to gain access to well-paying jobs unless CUNY develops far stronger connections with employers,鈥� the report stated. 

Merrill Pond, executive vice president of the Partnership for New York City, a leading business organization, also called out a need for more work-based learning.

鈥淚f students are not given the opportunity to put something on their resume that will make them stand out or start to develop that network, they鈥檙e often going to be at a disadvantage,鈥� Pond said as the report was released.  

Though CUNY was praised for progress in connecting students to work, including through partnerships with several nonprofits that train and mentor students and help them find internships, the report found  efforts are still falling short.

Lauren Andersen, CUNY鈥檚 vice chancellor for career engagement and industry partnerships, said some of the report鈥檚 findings were 鈥渟obering.鈥澛�

She said the university鈥檚 own data shows 22% of students have paid internships, data it just started tracking in the 2023-24 school year. The university also started a new effort, CUNY Beyond, in 2025 to improve career advising and make faculty more aware of how they can help students connect to jobs.

Students are three times more likely to have a job at graduation if they do a paid internship, Andersen said, and twice as likely to have an internship or job if they meet with a career advisor.

Many students come to college without family connections to business or clear ideas of how to seek jobs.

鈥淐UNY has to take on the role, and higher education institutions have to take on the role, of building those relationships for their students, and that’s something that we’re not necessarily historically set up to do,鈥� she said.

Western Governor鈥檚 University is another school that has made a deliberate effort to connect students to jobs. It鈥檚 also joining a push by some high schools and nonprofits to evaluate and rate students on their soft skills to validate those skills to employers.

Students need to be able to show employers what they have learned and how they can succeed at work, Western Governors President Scott Pulsipher said at the same panel as Fleming. Colleges need to help them do that, as well as help them try out jobs to see if they like them and find out which skills they might need to do them. 

鈥淓very rising high school graduate should be more intentional about developing their vocational identity 鈥� meaning, how do they see themselves contributing to the world?鈥� Pulsipher said. 鈥淚t feels to me like they defer this too long.鈥�

The emergence of AI has created new complications for young people. Changes are happening so fast, it鈥檚 hard to plan what the job market might look like in a few years.

Georgetown鈥檚 Strohl said new high school graduates might be better off in four years than today鈥檚 college graduates.

鈥淭he shocks that we’re seeing to the labor market today, and are clearly impacting recent college grads鈥� will be better understood,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he education system鈥� will have had a chance to figure out some strategies of response, and actually, to what degree is AI going to be a problem. 鈥�

He also cautioned AI might not be as big a disruption as some fear. Automation had the 鈥渟ame kind of hype that we鈥檙e hearing about AI,鈥� but worries 40 million jobs would be replaced by machines turned into eight million jobs at most just adapted to work with automation, not replaced by it.

Harvard鈥檚 McKittrick urged students entering college not to be caught up in the 鈥渘oise鈥� of a changing job market, with some firms hiring few people, but others hiring many. Along with working jobs while in college to build a resume, she said students need to learn to use AI.

鈥淲hat we’re hearing from employers is that they do want young people with AI skills,鈥� McKittrick said. 鈥淭hey might not exactly know what those skills are, but they want people who are kind of comfortable using the technology. Young people should be thinking about, 鈥楧oes the college have an AI literacy strategy?鈥� 鈥�  

Others said it will be key to also develop 鈥渟oft鈥� or 鈥渄urable鈥� skills such as critical thinking and ingenuity to put AI to best use.聽

鈥淎I still needs the humans to say, 鈥楨ven as I’m using it, how should I be using it?鈥� 鈥� said Pulsipher of Western Governors University. 鈥淎re the outcomes that it’s providing me useful and relevant to what we’re trying to do?鈥�

Laura Ullrich, Director of Economic Research in North America of the job search website Indeed, is telling her three sons to find jobs while in school to explore what they want to do, while also making sure to build soft skills that are becoming more important in job applications.

鈥淚 think a few years ago, you would have seen very few computer science majors feel the need to call out that they were a good writer or maybe had more critical thinking skills, or had taken a bunch of philosophy classes,鈥� Ulrich said. 鈥淏ut today鈥� young job seekers are thinking about this quite differently.鈥�

OKLAHOMA CITY 鈥� Touting his state鈥檚 soaring literacy scores, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves urged Oklahoma leaders to commit to tough reading policies.

This year, Oklahoma as Mississippi, whose fourth-grade reading scores have after decades of ranking near the bottom. The state鈥檚 meteoric rise has been called the 鈥淢ississippi miracle.鈥�

鈥淚t really wasn鈥檛 a miracle at all,鈥� Reeves said during an Oklahoma State Chamber event Wednesday. 鈥淚t was the direct result of very good, strong policy followed by a plan to properly implement, and also 鈥� and perhaps most importantly 鈥� an accountability piece that was built into the statute.鈥�

Mississippi began implementing significant investments and changes in its literacy laws in 2012, Reeves said. That included a controversial requirement that struggling readers repeat third grade.

Oklahoma students will face a similar 鈥渢hird-grade gate鈥� starting in the 2027-28 academic year. Third graders who score below a basic level on the annual state reading test and who fail a second standardized assessment would have to repeat the grade, unless they meet limited criteria for an exemption.

, signed into law in April, also requires Oklahoma public schools to provide extra tutoring, small-group reading lessons, summer academies and transitional classrooms starting in kindergarten to support students who show early signs of falling behind.

The state Legislature invested $5 million to grow a statewide team of literacy coaches, $5 million for reading instruction training for teachers and $840,000 to purchase reading materials to mail to children. Lawmakers also added $26.25 million in school funding for reading instruction.

State Chamber President and CEO Chad Warmington said literacy coaches and teacher training will be essential to improving Oklahoma鈥檚 academic outcomes. The chamber, a powerful collective of Oklahoma鈥檚 business community, has been a .

鈥淚f we don鈥檛 take the science of reading and make sure that teachers have that training so it鈥檚 being taught in the classrooms, none of this meant anything,鈥� Warmington said.

The science of reading emphasizes phonics-based instruction. Focusing on phonics is 鈥渁 good place to start鈥� for a state turnaround, Reeves said.

Mississippi also has raised its standards for how it defines a proficient reader. A state law whenever 75% of students make a proficient score on yearly tests or when 65% of schools or districts make a grade of B or higher on annual A-F evaluations.

鈥淲e have increased that level, by the way, four times since I鈥檝e been in office, and (are) about to increase it again,鈥� Reeves told Oklahoma City news reporters. 鈥淏ecause what鈥檚 going to happen when you raise the bar, when you raise the level of expectations, what鈥檚 happened in Mississippi is exactly what鈥檚 going to happen in Oklahoma.鈥�

Oklahoma鈥檚 proficiency standards . NAEP tests students in all 50 states every two years and compiles the results in the Nation鈥檚 Report Card.

Not only has Mississippi鈥檚 overall fourth-grade reading progress impressed the nation, but the state鈥檚 scores among Black, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students have ranked at or near the top of the country, according to .

Mississippi ranks only 40th in eighth grade reading, though, which has raised questions about the long-term efficacy of the third-grade gate.

Reeves said he signed legislation this year to add reading, math and career coaches focused on grades 5-8 to address the middle-school regression.

鈥淚f we don鈥檛 start seeing better retention of those (reading) gains, then we鈥檙e going to start testing kids when we get towards the seventh grade, just like we test kids in the third grade,鈥� he said.

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