Fair enough, perhaps. But in many ways, the episode serves as a case study in how political turf battles and institutional considerations can take precedence over even the most widely supported, logical measures, an outcome that鈥檚 particularly frustrating when benefits for students are on the line.听

The governor鈥檚 decision is disappointing, particularly because this bill represented one of the most cost-neutral, evidence-based opportunities available to improve children鈥檚 health. But in many ways, the veto was also a reminder of just how politically complicated school legislation can become, even when the underlying ideas enjoy broad bipartisan support. 

As it turns out, the recess and fitness provisions in Kansas had already been through the wringer, with competing political, institutional and industry interests swirling around them. They had already survived an unusually turbulent legislative journey 鈥� one deeply entangled with a separate and far more contentious debate 鈥� over pesticides, of all things. 

I should know. In late March, I spent three days on the ground in Kansas, moving between legislative offices, committee rooms and hallway conversations, speaking with lawmakers about improving health outcomes for the state鈥檚 students. At the center of those conversations was a school lunch bill, , originally designed to remove harmful additives from school meals. This was a policy that, on its face, seemed like a clear, bipartisan win.

But by the time I arrived, that bill had been amended to protecting pesticide manufacturers. Suddenly, a straightforward conversation about children鈥檚 health had become entangled in a much larger fight over industry protections and regulatory authority.

Specifically, the amendment introduced provisions shielding pesticide manufacturers from having to comply with state warning or labeling requirements that go beyond federal standards, which many deem to be insufficient. Some pesticides, such as paraquat, have been linked with chronic-disease pathology in epidemiological research 鈥� evidence compelling enough that Vermont lawmakers passed the on paraquat last month, citing growing concerns about neurological harm. Recent  has shown a strong association between paraquat exposure and Parkinson鈥檚 disease risk, for example.

The newly amended bill advanced out of the House Agriculture Committee, and suddenly, a straightforward public-health measure had become something far more complicated.

Over the next several days, I met with lawmakers across both chambers, including legislative leadership, to walk through what had happened and what was at stake. With the help of Republican Senate President Ty Masterson, I talked about the risks of chronic disease 鈥� not as an abstract issue, but as something increasingly affecting children. I connected the dots between food environments, physical activity and long-term health outcomes. And I made the case that the pesticide provisions not only undermined the original intent of the bill but risked derailing it entirely.

Those conversations had an impact. After our chats, lawmakers decided not to continue advancing the bill in its amended form. Instead, they looked for a way to preserve policy concepts that can meaningfully support student health. The solution emerged from negotiations in conference committee: creating a new legislative vehicle that included school lunch reform, daily recess for students and restoration of the Presidential Fitness Test.

conducted on behalf of my organization, End Chronic Disease, 88% of voters support increasing physical activity in schools. And no wonder: It鈥檚 one of the most evidence-based ways to improve children鈥檚 lives.

Regular movement supports cardiovascular health, reduces the risk of obesity and Type 2 diabetes, and has been shown to improve focus, behavior and academic performance. For many children, especially those without access to safe outdoor spaces or structured activities, school may be the only place they consistently get that opportunity.

Yet even with the bill鈥檚 new emphasis, the politics surrounding it never fully disappeared.

As negotiations continued, the school lunch provisions were removed amid pushback tied to the broader pesticide debate. In the final hours before the last legislative deadline of the year, the bill with its focus on recess and physical fitness passed both chambers, only to be rejected in late April by Gov. Kelly鈥檚 veto.

It鈥檚 important to acknowledge what this process revealed. A bill focused on removing harmful additives from school meals, something that should have been a 鈥渘o-brainer,鈥� was effectively derailed once it became entangled with the interests of another industry.

The speed with which unrelated pesticide provisions were inserted and the ripple effects that followed underscore how difficult it can be to advance even widely supported educational policies. Too often, such measures with broad public backing become secondary to institutional turf battles, procedural maneuvering and competing political incentives. 

Luckily, the medical establishment is starting to weigh in more forcefully. Just this month, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued describing recess as essential to children鈥檚 health and development and warning against withholding it for disciplinary or academic reasons. In other words, pediatricians increasingly understand movement not as a luxury, but as preventive medicine. It will be interesting to see how K-12 schools adjust to this guidance. 

Kansas ultimately did not follow suit this year. But if the legislative conversations I witnessed firsthand are any indication 鈥� as well as the new, encouraging guidance from the AAP 鈥� the broader direction of the conversation is changing. Someday, our schools will catch up, and students everywhere will benefit mentally, physically and academically.听聽

In this conservative telling, America grows stronger when it is monocultural, wealthier when it goes it alone, and better when it has fewer immigrants. To make America once again 鈥済reat,鈥� we鈥檝e been told, the country must shelter itself from the world鈥檚 economy and diverse cultures.

Many have noted that this flies in the face of the entirety of American history; our extraordinary national story is, in fact, a tale of a community reliably made stronger, richer and more dynamic through increased diversity. But if the state of present U.S. politics makes this well-established fact seem like the province of soft-hearted left-wingers, that business leaders still know that diversity 鈥� particularly linguistic and cultural 鈥� is key to their bottom line.

In 2025, California nonprofit surveyed 56 Southern California businesses across a range of sizes and sectors to gauge their views on multilingualism at work. Fully 93% of them said they have bilingual staff 鈥� and 32% said that the majority of their staff are bilingual.

Nearly three-quarters of respondents said that bilingual staff allow them 鈥渢o reach more customers,鈥� and 70% responded that it helped them satisfy 鈥� and keep 鈥� the customers they have.

鈥淚n today鈥檚 global economy, language is not just a cultural asset 鈥� it is essential to doing business,鈥� the report states.

Nearly one-quarter of those surveyed conduct business in Latin America, with an additional 12% calling out Mexico specifically. One-fifth said they did business in Europe and the same share reported commerce in Oceania, the area that includes Australia, New Zealand and smaller Pacific islands.

Lead author A.J. Lucas published the results as last month.

鈥淟anguage, for the majority of our existence, has been seen as additional, as something that comes with who a person is, and how they represent ethnically or by place of origin,鈥� he told me. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been seen as surplus to someone鈥檚 identity, rather than being assessed, considered, and compensated 鈥� we should make it clear that if you have this added skill, you鈥檙e worth a lot more than someone who hasn鈥檛 gotten to this level of skill in learning a language.鈥�

UNITE-LA, Lucas explained, acts as an intermediary between schools and the business world to better prepare the future workforce and 鈥渃reate economic opportunities for underserved youth across California.鈥�

Those in-demand multilingual workers of the future exist in California schools today, the report notes, where 40% of the state’s K-12 students speak a non-English language at home and, among children younger than 6, that number grows to 60%.

But, as I鈥檝e noted recently, the Trump administration is determined to force the country along an English-only path as a way of punishing immigrants and their children. This is a path that can only make the United States smaller, weaker, less prosperous and less dynamic.

It鈥檚 also a path that sets the administration at odds with the preferences of American families, regardless of their proximity to the U.S. immigration experience and/or the languages they speak at home. That is, both English-dominant families and families who speak a non-English language at home are enthusiastic about giving their children opportunities to become multilingual. 

Demand for multilingual schooling has, with dual language immersion programs growing by the thousands across states like Texas, Utah, North Carolina, California, Georgia, Delaware, New York and others. All 50 states and the District of Columbia have launched their own versions of the, a credential that recognizes students who can demonstrate proficiency in at least two languages. But efforts to grow these programs are hamstrung by the United States鈥� . 

We should replace the administration鈥檚 current, sustained assault on linguistic and cultural diversity on K鈥�12 campuses with a serious effort to train enough linguistically diverse teachers to be able to meet families鈥� demand for multilingual learning and businesses鈥� need for multilingual workers. 

There are many ways for local, state and federal education leaders to do this. For instance, as the report notes, the Seal of Biliteracy is off to a good start, but is presently 鈥渕ore symbolic than functional in the labor market.鈥� Employers, colleges and universities don鈥檛 yet understand its value. By contrast, has led the way in linking the seal to 鈥� and corresponding cost savings for students. Business leaders and public officials should follow their lead.听

Unlike so much else in education policy, this isn鈥檛 especially complicated. Businesses want multilingual workers. Families want their children to have access to multilingual schools. As Lucas put it in our recent conversation, 鈥淭here鈥檚 this connection between our education system and what our workforce currently needs 鈥� yet it feels like that gap is persisting for some reason.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

The views expressed here are Conor P. Williams鈥檚 alone, and do not reflect those of his employer or any other affiliated organizations.

I knew I wanted to be one of the engineers building this future. But at the end of middle school, the time I spent in class felt stale and unambitious, like just another obstacle separating me from my goals. I wanted to take my education more seriously.

So I transferred to the Academy of Seminole, a charter school in Seminole, Oklahoma that offers more opportunities to move forward faster. 

The new environment took some getting used to, but I thoroughly enjoyed the challenging classes, engaging teachers and new friends during my first two years of high school. The real turning point came at the end of sophomore year, when we all began finalizing our upperclassman plans.

TAOS challenges us to start our postsecondary education early through college or vocational dual enrollment or Vo-Tech. With the contrast of a traditional high school timeline fresh in my mind, I wanted to squeeze as much utility out of the next two years as possible.

I decided to take college courses at Seminole State College to graduate with an associate鈥檚 degree like many other students at TAOS. At the same time, I enrolled in Gordon Cooper Technology Center鈥檚 machining program. 

Machining is the most precise form of mechanical manufacturing, so the trade appealed to my love of mechanical systems. For me as an engineer, it offered a better understanding of how projects are made, giving me a unique perspective to design for manufacturability. 

I also wanted a way to pay for my education to avoid student loans, so developing a valuable technical skill alongside college coursework made perfect sense. Even better, TAOS covered the remaining tuition and fees not paid by the state, removing any financial worry.

The biggest challenge was simply fitting everything into the day. My physics class ran until 1:35 p.m., but my Vo-Tech work started at 1. My college classes stretched into the late afternoon. I missed more class time than I liked and weathered quite a few late nights to make it work. But with the support of all three schools and my family, I graduated high school already four years into my postsecondary education.

For a long time, my post-graduation plan was simple: attend a local university close to home and earn my engineering degree while using my machine training to keep me debt-free. Then, while filling out scholarships in senior year, I discovered the QuestBridge National College Match and applied on a whim. To my surprise, I became a finalist. For the first time, I realized I was a nationally competitive student who could attend an elite university.

While I didn’t match through QuestBridge, I still applied to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and after a few weeks of anxious waiting, I was admitted with financial aid that completely covers my cost of attendance. Without even realizing it, I had been studying under the exact educational philosophy laid out by the MIT motto: 鈥淢ens et Manus鈥� or 鈥淢ind and Hand鈥� by applying myself both academically and technically. 

Looking back, I鈥檝e grown so much since I was that pessimistic eighth grader. I found an ocean of opportunity at my three schools. More importantly, I found a community of people who believed in me and helped me become capable of far more than I once imagined.

Now, I look forward to pursuing a bachelor鈥檚 degree, and hopefully a PhD, in nuclear engineering at MIT. I plan to use my education to help pioneer new methods of producing abundant, safe and clean energy. I鈥檝e already come farther than I once imagined, but I鈥檓 nowhere close to done yet. I can鈥檛 wait to see what challenge my ambition drags me into next and to meet the great people who will help me overcome it.

She got her opportunity four years ago, when a K-8 art teacher position opened up at Dove School of Discovery, at the same time her daughter was preparing to enroll at a school in the network.

Lanning was thrilled that her new curriculum would combine art with STEM. Soon, she was helping students build cars, use a power drill and solder metal.

鈥淚 don’t allow the students second grade and under to use the dangerous stuff by themselves, but for third grade and up, once they’ve had safety lessons, they’re able to use those types of things 鈥� there is no limit to what they have access to,鈥� Lanning said. 鈥淎 lot of them are scared, but I walk them through it. I’ve literally held hands. Once they get that experience of trying it, they’re like, 鈥極h, I kind of like this.鈥� 鈥�

STEM education is one of the of Dove Schools, a with nine campuses in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, plus a statewide virtual program. Educators there credit the presence of STEM in every grade 鈥� from computer science in kindergarten to high school career pathways 鈥� to the schools’ 100% graduation and college acceptance rates, and other measures of academic success.

鈥淭he [students] have grown up with the Dove Schools culture, and in elementary and middle school they already know what the meaning of college is and the importance of college,鈥� said Ibrahim Eskikurt, Dove’s STEM coordinator. 鈥淔rom ninth grade until 12th grade, students already know they have to do something 鈥� go to college and graduate 鈥� and then they will have more opportunities.鈥�

The first Dove School was founded in 2000 in Tulsa by Oklahoma State University graduates. Since then, the network has grown from roughly 200 students to more than 4,700. 

Last year, 157 Dove seniors each had an average of four college acceptances. Nearly 88% of them were the first in their family to attend college. The average scholarships each received topped $95,000.

Maureen Brown, Dove鈥檚 chief outreach and development officer, said she doesn鈥檛 know what the district鈥檚 鈥渟ecret sauce鈥� is, but a few main factors contribute to student success. Besides STEM programming and college preparation that begins in kindergarten, Dove Schools offers , a curriculum that teaches skills like critical thinking, kindness and morality. The district also arranges home visits to keep educators and families connected.

鈥淓very teacher and school administrator, at the beginning of the year, wants families to see that the school is there to partner with them, so they make an appointment to go visit families at their homes,鈥� Brown said. 鈥淭he home visit is not to go check on their house and see their living circumstances 鈥� it鈥檚 providing information and resources they have at school. It’s really about building a relationship, and that’s been a really, really big deal for us.鈥�

About 80% of Dove Schools students are low-income. Because the charter is tuition-free, a lottery system decides which students are accepted if there are more applications than open spots. 

鈥淎nybody can apply as long as they live in city limits,鈥� Brown said. 鈥淚f they want to come to Dove Schools, and if there’s a spot available for them, they come in.鈥�

Students who enter Dove Schools as kindergartners will be immersed in STEM through computer science activities on their Chromebooks. In the higher elementary grades, they learn how to code. Middle schoolers explore hands-on STEM projects in robotics or electronics. 

If students want to continue their STEM education in high school, they can enter a pathway to learn computer science, engineering or biomedical science. These also award college credits and offer specific career-focused courses.

After school, the network offers multiple STEM-based extracurricular clubs. The five-year-old drone program is particularly popular.

It began with one small team of students building and flying drones in local and national competitions. Now, Dove Schools has about 25 drone teams from fourth to 12th grade. Each group has roughly three students.

Eskikurt said students can鈥檛 earn drone aviation licenses from the Federal Aviation Administration through the program, but that鈥檚 something administrators are working to offer in the future. The district also plans to add a high school pathway in aerospace engineering next year, as it鈥檚 one of the in Oklahoma.

While the drone club teaches students to build machines that fly the sky, another program is focused on those that operate underwater. Lanning is one of several teachers who manages the Dove Schools club, part of an international program in which students build aquatic robots that can be entered in competitions against other schools. 

鈥淲e give them the materials, they do all the work, and we just guide them along as they do the engineering design and the science concepts,鈥� Lanning said. 鈥淭hey have to go through an obstacle course, a mission course and an interview stage.鈥�

Lanning鈥檚 program for third through fifth graders used to run for just a semester, but this year she extended the afterschool club to last the entire year. Roughly five students meet for 40 minutes once a week to build their robots. She said her goal for next year is to get 10 students involved at her school. 

The favorite part of Lanning鈥檚 day, she said, is watching her elementary students discover STEM for the first time. 

鈥淭hey see what they can do, because I give them an idea, and the goal is to let them take that idea in any direction they want to,鈥� she said. 鈥淥nce you give them the materials and guidelines, they take off with it and they have no limits to their imagination.鈥�

Sign up for to keep up with the city鈥檚 public school system and Michigan education policy.

Nearly 84% of Detroit district high schoolers were paid for coming to school this year, with far more students in neighborhood schools receiving the payout.

Roughly 12,800 Detroit Public School Community District students received at least one $100 Visa gift card for showing up to each class every school day in five-day cycles from Jan. 5 through March 20, according to the district. The district has 15,247 students enrolled across 26 high schools in the district. Students could earn up to $1,000 total.

The chronic absenteeism rate for the district鈥檚 high schoolers decreased by 10 percentage points this school year compared to 2023-24, before the incentive began. This year鈥檚 rate was 54% by the end of April compared to 64% in 2023-24, according to DPSCD.

The program as part of the district鈥檚 ongoing campaign to curb chronic absenteeism, which is defined as a student missing 10% or more of days in a school year. That鈥檚 18 days of instruction in a typical 180-day school year.

Schools in Detroit and other communities like it have long struggled with kids missing too much school due to systemic issues, such as poverty. Though DPSCD had in 2024-25, the district has since the COVID pandemic.

More students were eligible for the attendance incentive this year in part because eligibility was calculated in one-week cycles, Superintendent Nikoali Vitti said at an April board committee meeting. Last year, students had to have perfect attendance in two-week cycles to receive the money.

DPSCD data shows the incentive reached far more students attending neighborhood high schools, compared to last year when the majority who received the money went to students at application or exam schools.

鈥淭hat was something that was a challenge last year that definitely improved this year,鈥� Vitti said.

For example, only 16% of students at Pershing High School got the incentive at least once in 2024-25. More than 62% of the school did in 2025-26.

Data shows the program largely supported students who already had good attendance, however, and those who were at risk of becoming chronically absent.

鈥淚t鈥檚 still not at scale getting at those students that are dramatically absent,鈥� said Vitti.

DPSCD defines dramatic chronic absence as missing 45 days or more of school.

The district鈥檚 data tracks with what : Such programs do not address demotivating factors like .

Still, Vitti said the incentive has been a success overall in improving high school attendance.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 also creating greater advocacy among their students themselves,鈥� he said, adding that students are making sure their attendance data is correct and following up with their teachers, principals, and the superintendent.

The district next school year in a budget proposal presented to the board last month. If the board votes to adopt the idea, students in grades 6-8 would get $50 for each week of perfect attendance January through March.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at

For many schools, it鈥檚 a race to keep up. Others are leading the pack. And some are unsure what to do with it.

Artificial intelligence is playing an increasingly prominent role in Hawai驶i education, from the recent opening of the state鈥檚 first AI-focused charter school to the development of new coursework teaching students how to navigate rapidly changing technology. Teachers are also coming face-to-face with new technology, whether it鈥檚 using AI avatars to test students鈥� grasp of Mandarin Chinese vocabulary or confronting kids who are submitting assignments written by ChatGPT.

But there鈥檚 wide variation in how much teachers and students are willing to engage with the new technology. Civil Beat spoke with nearly two dozen educators, administrators and students across the state about their experiences with AI in schools and what they expect the future to look like.

A few years ago, the focus of AI in education was preventing students from cheating, said Michael Latham, president of Punahou School. Since then, he said, administrators and teachers at the O驶ahu private school have pivoted to teaching students how to use new tools responsibly, rather than banning them altogether. 

鈥淲e wanted our students to become really thoughtful and critical users,鈥� Latham said, 鈥渢o be able to understand these tools, but do so really with eyes wide open, aware of what some of the challenges would be.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Public schools are piloting their own technology, including MagicSchool, a platform with AI tools like image generators and chatbots that teachers can tailor to their own lessons, said Winston Sakurai, educational administrative services director in the Department of Education鈥檚 Office of Curriculum and Instructional Design.  

While teachers receive training on how to use these platforms, Sakurai acknowledges that some are faster to embrace technology than others. It鈥檚 important for schools to find a balance between innovating with AI and meeting teachers where they鈥檙e at, he said. 

鈥淲e want people to embrace it,鈥� Sakurai said, 鈥渂ut we cannot afford to burn people out with the adoption of it.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Students also have varying levels of enthusiasm for the new technology. Some are emerging as statewide experts in the field, with one Punahou student developing resources to help teachers incorporate AI into their lessons. Others are more skeptical of the technology after they鈥檝e seen their classmates cheat on assignments or receive incorrect information from AI chatbots.  

鈥淚 think personally, AI is a useful and dangerous tool,鈥� said Charwin Irebaria, a junior at McKinley High School. 鈥淧eople should be cautious about what they try to get out of AI, because it can really affect our future.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

McKinley High School

In Cynthia Reves鈥� McKinley High School classroom, an assortment of items litter students鈥� desks: a bear-shaped pencil case, neon highlighters, a manila folder stuffed with papers. 

Laptops and iPads are conspicuously absent from students鈥� workspaces. Teens place their cellphones in mint green containers minutes after the bell rings and leave their devices there for the remainder of class. 

Like many teachers, Reves is questioning if her students are using AI on their assignments 鈥� and whether it鈥檚 appropriate for them to do so. In the past year, she鈥檚 tried to eliminate some of the uncertainty by doubling down on paper and pencil assignments and reducing students鈥� use of laptops and cellphones in her class. 

鈥淲hat is dishonest use of AI?鈥� Reves said. 鈥淭hat implies there鈥檚 an honest use of AI. What is that?鈥� 

On a Friday morning in May, Reves ran her students through a series of short writing exercises to prepare them for their upcoming Advanced Placement English Language and Composition exam. Although the test would be online, Reves tasked her students with annotating passages and writing thesis statements by hand. 

鈥淚t feels like this huge tension,鈥� Reves said. 鈥淚 feel like I鈥檓 walking backwards, and yet there鈥檚 this AI thing that鈥檚 pulling forward.鈥�

Reves went to school in the 1980s, when students used typewriters to complete assignments and Macintosh computers were the newest technology. Reves has constantly adapted to change in her 30 years in education, from teaching remotely to managing cellphones in class, but she鈥檚 worried about how the latest AI tools could impact students鈥� learning. 

In the past, Reves said, she could quickly identify when a student didn鈥檛 write a paper on their own. Just by plugging the opening sentences of a paper into Google, she said, she could tell when students found a copy of a similar assignment online and claimed it as their own. 

Now, Reves doubts herself. While she occasionally questions if students have written an essay on their own, they鈥檒l deny using AI 鈥� and there鈥檚 no way to prove it, Reves said. Many AI detection tools have proven unreliable. 

Reves now confines most of her writing assignments to the classroom, rather than assigning essays as homework. If students want to finish a writing assignment during study hall, she said, she requires their teacher to sign off on the paper at the end of the period, affirming that the student completed the work on their own. 

But Reves also knows she can鈥檛 avoid AI forever. At the end of a recent English class, she assigned her students homework requiring them to read a short passage and answer questions. Once they completed the assignment, she said, they could run the writing prompts through AI to see how their answers compared to what the chatbot suggested.  

She wouldn鈥檛 have offered this option in August, Reves said. But her students have developed stronger writing skills and judgment throughout the year, and she believes they can now evaluate the AI responses鈥� critically.  

鈥淚 trust you,鈥� Reves told her students.  

Mid-Pacific Institute 

Leslie Gleim鈥檚 preschool students at Mid-Pacific Institute are confident they can outsmart ChatGPT.

On a recent Wednesday morning, Gleim led a small group of 5-year-olds in a lively conversation about the observations they made on a recent field trip to Ho驶omaluhia Botanical Garden. She encouraged students to use their imagination to describe the clouds and explain how they came to life during their visit.  

鈥淚t was the happiest cloud!鈥� one boy said. Another student speculated some of the clouds looked sad because the class hadn鈥檛 visited the garden for a few weeks. 

As the children chimed in, ChatGPT transcribed the discussion word for word on Gleim鈥檚 phone. Later, Gleim asked it to summarize the themes that emerged during the students鈥� conversation and compared the notes against her own observations.

The AI tool didn鈥檛 go unnoticed by the kids. 

鈥淲e seem smarter than Chat,鈥� one student, Knox, said as Gleim checked the AI transcription on her phone. 

鈥淎re you?鈥� she asked. The group of kids erupted into cheers and enthusiastic nods. 

A few minutes later, Knox and his classmates put their theory to the test. One by one, they spoke into Gleim鈥檚 phone, asking ChatGPT abstract questions about their field trip to the garden and the personalities they gave the clouds during their discussion. 

After every question, Gleim asked her students to evaluate ChatGPT鈥檚 answers. Students were skeptical of the responses the AI generated 鈥� and Gleim was proud. 

鈥淵ou guys won!鈥� she said as students gave ChatGPT鈥檚 answers a resounding thumbs-down.

Using ChatGPT to record and transcribe her discussions with students has significantly saved her time over the past year, Gleim said. It also increases the stakes for students. When students know ChatGPT is listening to their conversation, she said, they鈥檙e more intentional with their words. 

But Gleim doesn鈥檛 want kids to think AI is the source of all answers. When she uses ChatGPT in front of her students, she said, she鈥檚 not afraid to point out its mistakes, using phrases like, 鈥淐hat didn鈥檛 get it.鈥�&苍产蝉辫; 

鈥淚t鈥檚 not the gospel, but a tool,鈥� she said. 

Hawai驶i Technology Academy

Two years ago, Kingston Collman came to a sombering realization: AI was coming for his dream job.

Collman, a recent graduate from Hawai驶i Technology Academy鈥檚 Waipahu campus, spent his early years of high school studying game development and planned to pursue a career in computer science. But as AI became more advanced, he realized projects taking him a year and a half to complete could be completed in minutes by new technology. 

鈥淚 was like, freshman year, AI is going to take over,鈥� the 18-year-old said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to study for six years ahead and then be jobless.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Collman pivoted to using AI to pursue his passion of producing social media content. For his end-of-year project, Collman developed an AI assistant to expedite the process of creating videos for social media. The assistant can generate scripts, suggest a list of video shots and assist with creating social media posts in a matter of minutes 鈥� a process that previously took him over an hour, Collman said.

The goal is to increase content creators鈥� efficiency, not to remove humans from social media altogether, Collman said, adding that viewers still want to see authentic content. 

It鈥檚 hard to tell what the future will look like for social media creators, however, and he鈥檚 worried more content could become AI-generated. Already, AI slop 鈥� low-quality videos created with AI 鈥� are becoming聽聽on YouTube and other online platforms.听

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 real or not,鈥� he said, 鈥渨hich is very dangerous.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Some of Collman鈥檚 peers are equally skeptical of AI and how it could dominate fields traditionally untouched by technology. 

Adriana Hunt, another recent graduate from Hawai驶i Technology Academy, is still reconciling how she can use AI to promote her artwork without compromising her creativity. For her end-of-year project, the 18-year-old asked ChatGPT to analyze her TikTok and Instagram art accounts and provide feedback on what types of posts were most likely to grow her online following. 

ChatGPT offered her advice she previously hadn鈥檛 considered, Hunt said, like adding more hashtags to her social media posts or posting more about her process of creating drawings. 

Hunt draws the line at using AI to create new art.  

When one of her teachers suggested using AI to generate ideas for her art or assist with her drawings, Hunt immediately rejected the idea. She uses art as a way to express herself and challenge her creativity 鈥� something that can鈥檛 be replicated by a few keystrokes on the computer, Hunt said. She鈥檚 also worried that relying on AI to generate art could set impossibly high standards.听

鈥淚t鈥檚 never going to go away, because it鈥檚 now so woven into the fabric of everything,鈥� Hunt said. 鈥淏ut we can learn how to rely on it less.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

K奴lia Academy

In James Morice鈥檚 data science class, sixth graders throw out phrases like 鈥渂imodal distributions鈥� and 鈥渞ight-skewed graphs鈥� with ease. 

At K奴lia Academy, a charter school in Kalihi, data science and coding are just as important to the curriculum as English and math. K奴lia is Hawai驶i鈥檚  middle and high school, opening in 2024 with ambitious plans to develop a seven-year program specializing in data science and coding.  

Before students can pursue careers in AI engineering and technology, Morice said, they have to learn the basics. 

On a recent Thursday morning, sixth graders at K奴lia were working together to examine graphs and input formulas in Google Sheets that could help them analyze a large dataset on the maximum speeds of roller coasters across the country.    

鈥淲hat does every case represent?鈥� Morice asked the class. 鈥淲hat are the attributes you see?鈥�

The goal is to give students the expertise they need to understand how AI works so they can go on to develop new tools. 

Students still receive plenty of opportunities to work with new technology at K奴lia Academy, executive director Andy Gokce said. In English classes, Gokce said, students work with ChatGPT to receive feedback on their essays under the guidance of their teachers. Others have learned how to train AI models to distinguish between venomous and non-venomous snakes.

But Gokce doesn鈥檛 want his students to simply consume AI 鈥� he expects them to go on to lead the field and develop new technology as engineers or cybersecurity experts.听

鈥淲e want them to know, inside and out, how it actually works,鈥� Gokce said.  

Wai膩kea Intermediate School

Can students beat AI? 

It鈥檚 a challenge sixth graders were eager to tackle in Tyler Kojima鈥檚 world history class at Wai膩kea Intermediate School on the Big Island. 

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Kojima tasked his students with defending a historical invention of their choice to an AI chatbot. He had programmed the chatbot to be skeptical of students鈥� inventions, which ranged from the Mesopotamian wheel to the woodblock printing technique. 

Kojima鈥檚 students could hold a conversation with the chatbot to convince it of the value of their invention, but they had to prove their point in eight messages or fewer. 

鈥淵ou鈥檙e not trying to throw in the towel,鈥� Kojima told his students. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e trying to beat it.鈥�

For the next 30 minutes, students furiously typed on their laptops as they responded to detailed questions from the chatbots. 

鈥淗ow do you know it鈥檚 more comfortable?鈥� the chatbot challenged one student who was trying to sell it on the value of a new camel saddle. 

鈥淲hy should we trust ordinary citizens to make important decisions about our city?鈥� it said in response to a pitch about Athenian democracy. 

It鈥檚 natural for people to be resistant to new innovations and change, Kojima told his sixth graders. When AI emerged a few years ago, he said, many adults were skeptical of the new technology 鈥� and so were his students.听聽

At the start of the year, Kojima said, many students believed AI was taboo. Most sixth graders don鈥檛 seem to use AI in their personal lives, Kojima said, and were wary about using it for the first time. 

Kojima is hoping to change students鈥� perceptions by introducing AI tools like chatbots and image generators that can make abstract topics in world history feel more concrete and exciting. He said he鈥檚 also careful to set clear limitations on how students can use the technology, instructing the chatbots not to give students immediate answers during class activities and occasionally rejecting the feedback kids receive on their essays from AI writing tools.  

鈥淭his tool is not going away,鈥� Kojima recalled telling his students. 鈥淚t鈥檚 up to you guys to know how to use it responsibly.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Civil Beat鈥檚 education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy.

On Friday, New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed into law, which allows retirees taking care of children to access the state鈥檚 childcare assistance program.

For eligible families, the NH Child Care Scholarship Program provides funds for childcare through direct payments to daycare and out鈥搊f鈥搒chool time providers for children up to 13 years old, and through 17 for a child with disabilities.

SB 608 requirement for kinship caregivers who are retired and at federal retirement age. Previously, parents and guardians were required to be working, looking for work, in a training program, or in school. Families still have to meet state income eligibility requirements, which require them to make 85% or less of the state median income to qualify.

The law also requires the state to ask the federal government if family care support services are 鈥渁n allowable service鈥� under the Acquired Brain Disorder, Choices for Independence, and Community-Based Service waiver programs.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com.

Schools have responded with attendance campaigns, tutoring and family outreach. These strategies matter. But they often treat absenteeism primarily as a logistical problem, when for many students it is fundamentally an engagement problem.

Many young people who miss school are struggling with anxiety, social disconnection, academic frustration or a lack of belonging. In other words, they are disengaged long before they become absent.

One overlooked contributor to this disengagement is how young people spend their time outside of school and the kind of boredom they experience there.

Today鈥檚 young people are spending an alarming amount of time in passive, solitary screen use. American teenagers average more than scrolling social feeds, watching videos or gaming alone for hours on end. has heavy passive screen use among adolescents to increased anxiety, sleep disruption and lower well-being.

What young people need more of is the opposite: active, unstructured , time spent walking in and .

Afternoons that once included neighborhood play, outdoor exploration or community activities are increasingly being replaced by solitary time spent on digital devices. Meanwhile, many schools have reduced recess, arts and experiential learning in favor of more instructional time to improve academic performance.

Ironically, that combination may make it harder for some students to stay engaged with school.

This is where afterschool programs, youth organizations and camps can make a meaningful difference. shows that these and other types of out-of-school-time programs can help students develop social and emotional foundations that support school engagement.

Programs run by organizations such as Boys and Girls Clubs of America, YMCA, 4-H, Camp Fire and thousands of local community organizations share several characteristics that appear to matter most.

First, they provide hands-on learning opportunities that differ from the traditional classroom. Whether building a robotics project, cooking together, being exposed to outdoor skills or working on creative arts, these activities allow students to experience curiosity and a sense of accomplishment in low-pressure environments.

Second, they foster meaningful relationships with peers and mentors, including adults who are not grading their academic assignments but supporting their growth. These connections help students build confidence, navigate social challenges and develop a stronger sense of belonging. has found that strong developmental relationships with adults are closely associated with higher school engagement and motivation.

Third, these programs often combine academic support with recreation. Homework help, literacy activities or STEM projects are embedded within collaborative and social settings. This balance allows students to rebuild academic confidence while still experiencing autonomy and enjoyment. For students who feel overwhelmed in traditional academic environments, these programs can provide an important bridge back to engagement.

Yet access to these programs remains uneven. According to the , about 22 million children in the United States would enroll in an afterschool program if one were available to them. Cost, transportation barriers and limited program capacity often prevent participation, particularly in lower-income communities.

If policymakers are serious about addressing chronic absenteeism, expanding access to high-quality youth programs should be .

That means several things. States and districts should treat afterschool and summer programs as a core component of their chronic absenteeism strategies, not an afterthought. Federal Title IV funding under the can be directed toward community-based youth programs, and more districts should use it that way.

Schools can also build formal partnerships with organizations such as Camp Fire, Boys and Girls Clubs and local YMCAs, to help students connect with them rather than relying on parents and guardians to find these programs on their own. Transportation, one of the most stubborn barriers to participation, can be addressed through late bus routes or coordinated ride-sharing arrangements. And in communities where demand far outpaces capacity, philanthropic and corporate investment in program expansion can help close the gap.

These programs should not be treated as simply another academic intervention. Their value lies in offering something different from the classroom. They create environments where young people can explore, collaborate, take healthy risks and experience the kind of unstructured, active time that fuels creativity and resilience.

In a world saturated with digital distractions and constant pressure, students may not need more stimulation. They may need more opportunities to reconnect with curiosity, community and purpose.

Those experiences may happen after school, in a community center, in a makerspace or around a campfire. But they can help students rediscover a reason to show up in the classroom.

Top Takeaways

• The top two candidates will advance to the Nov. 3 general election.
• Millions of mail-in ballots have yet to be counted.
• The next governor will face major decisions about school funding and oversight.

With millions of ballots still to be counted in California, Chino Valley Unified school board President Sonja Shaw has a clear lead in the state superintendent of public instruction primary with 24.9% of the vote, followed by San Diego Unified school board President Richard Barrera with 18.9% of the vote. 

None of the other candidates have more than 10% of the vote at this point.

Although all the polling places have reported, it鈥檚 not over yet. The top two candidates moving on to the Nov. 3 general election won鈥檛 be decided until all the mail-in ballots and provisional ballots are counted. In a state with 23 million registered voters, the process could take up to 30 days, according to the Secretary of State鈥檚 Office.

The late votes are likely to lean Democrat, as they have historically made up the majority of the mail-in voters in the state. This year, that might be even more true, as many Democrats held on to their ballots until a clear Democratic leader emerged in the governor鈥檚 race.

The two candidates at the front of the pack for the state superintendent of public instruction position agree that student test scores are too low and that the proposed restructuring of the California Department of Education , but they disagree about almost everything else.

, who notoriously had state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond ejected from a Chino Valley Unified , wants to end California policies prohibiting school staff from disclosing a student鈥檚 sexual orientation or gender identity. She also wants to prohibit transgender students from participating in girls鈥� sports.

support and to help districts recruit and retain teachers. 

There wasn鈥檛 much excitement around the superintendent鈥檚 race until late April when outside organizations to support their preferred candidates. 

A released in early April found that none of the 10 candidates for had more than 10% of support among likely voters. About a third of the voters surveyed said they didn鈥檛 know who they would vote for in the race.

When education unions began to spend in the race, they did not coalesce behind one candidate. The California Teachers Association鈥檚 independent expenditure committee spent $5 million on the Barrera campaign. The California Federation of Teachers committee spent $200,000, and a political action committee for the California School Employees Association spent $175,000 on the campaign; while a political action committee for the Service Employees International Union spent $250,000 on the campaign. 

Hilton, Becerra lead in governor鈥檚 race

Although education has in the gubernatorial race, the next governor will face major decisions about school funding and may have to execute a plan to move oversight of the California Department of Education from the state superintendent of public instruction to a new , if the plan is approved by the Legislature.

Republican , a political commentator, and Democrat , the former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, are leading the with 27.8% and 25.4% of the votes, respectively.

The front-runners are followed by Democrat Tom Steyer, a billionaire investor, with 19.6% of the vote, and Republican Chad Bianco, Riverside County sheriff, with 11.3% of the vote.

The four top vote-getters emerged from a crowded field of 61 candidates all vying to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will be termed out after eight years.

Hilton has said he would change state policies that prohibit parental notification when students indicate they may be transgender and that allow transgender athletes to participate in girls鈥� sports. He also said he will hold teachers accountable for student performance by rewarding the best and firing the worst. 

During the campaign, Becerra highlighted his efforts to expand early childhood education when he was U.S. Health and Human Services secretary. He has also said he would ensure all California communities and that college is more .

investing more money in public schools and increasing teacher pay to help recruit and retain them. He would like free education from universal preschool at age 3 to community college. He proposes paying for it by raising taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals.

Bianco would like to expand career technical education and high-performing charter schools. His other ideas include increasing the focus on reading, writing, math and science, increasing funding for teacher training and recruitment, promoting mental health supports and ensuring all schools have an assigned law enforcement officer.

This story was originally published by . Sign up for their .

More than 40 years later, students are still fighting to have a voice in their education. But they’re not quietly accepting being silenced or disengaging. When young people feel their voices don’t matter in school decisions, they’re taking their concerns elsewhere: to newspaper editorials, sidewalks and courtrooms that challenge the adults in charge. This generation expects to be heard.

In , after families and students raised attendance and budget concerns through official district channels and were met with silence, they organized a mass sick-out to protest district policies. After the Apalachee High School shooting in Georgia, students from more than 30 schools , demanding action on gun safety after their calls for policy changes through normal school channels went unanswered.

When , were informed the principal would have final say over what could be published in their newspaper, they spent months working through official channels on a policy proposal. But the school board’s proposed update included none of the students’ requested protections. They published a scathing editorial, forcing a delay and, ultimately, a policy revision.

Some students have gone even further to make their voices heard. In Newark, 16- and 17-year-olds successfully advocated for school board elections, arguing that students should have a say in decisions that directly affect their education. And students in Kentucky , arguing that inadequate education funding violates their rights.

These stories represent a fundamental shift in how students view their relationship with educational institutions and what happens when districts fail to create meaningful channels for young people’s input. 

Research confirms the benefits of asking students for their perspectives and listening to what they have to say. The Quaglia Institute鈥檚 of more than 100,000 students in grades 6 to 12 found that those who believe they have a voice in school are 48% more likely to report being academically motivated and 41% more likely to report being engaged in learning. Notably, the sense of having a voice declines steadily as students age鈥攆rom 59% of sixth graders to just 46% of 12th graders 鈥� meaning districts are losing students precisely when the stakes are highest. These outcomes are undermined when students lack an authentic voice in decisions affecting them.

This gap between consultation and genuine engagement is what’s driving students to seek alternative channels for their concerns. But here’s what can happen when districts create authentic engagement opportunities.

At a high school in when students complained that social-emotional learning felt scripted and meaningless, administrators handed the redesign process over to them. Students surveyed their peers, identified what each grade level needed and created a program where seniors mentor younger students through workshops on everything from time management to conflict resolution. The resulting programming resonated with students because it emerged from student experiences, not adult assumptions. In fact, that students given genuine roles in school reform 鈥� reviewing curriculum, advising on instruction, bridging teacher and student perspectives 鈥� helps measurably improve teacher-student relationships.

In , students spent two years rewriting district policy, creating Mental Health Week and organizing community forums with school board candidates. The Student Voice Council operates as a genuine partner in district governance.

In Grandville, Michigan, a meets monthly, and students have shaped everything from classroom furniture to the district鈥檚 artificial intelligence policy and new course offerings including an aeronautics program. In Medford Township, New Jersey, a has students presenting at staff meetings and driving solutions to real policy questions, including the school鈥檚 smartphone policy. 

One of the great shapers of modern K-12 education, John Dewey, saw public school as the key to preparing . But a found that while 68% of students want to help others, only 44% feel confident they can make a difference and just 30% take civic action. That confidence gap closes when students get to shape their environment.

Empowering students with voice doesn鈥檛 mean handing over the keys to the school. It means inviting meaningful input while keeping adult leadership and accountability in place. Schools that provide genuine ways for students to advocate, organize and create change are preparing the next generation for participatory democracy.

This evolution in student voice represents both a challenge and an opportunity for districts. Schools can continue to treat student input as a public relations exercise while making decisions in closed-door meetings, which increasingly leads to external conflicts that damage trust and disrupt learning 鈥� or they can recognize that true student engagement requires genuine power-sharing. This means giving students real roles in policy development, creating transparent processes for addressing their concerns and accepting that this sometimes brings uncomfortable feedback.

Students are finding their voices with or without permission. The question is whether districts will listen before they’re forced to respond.

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A controversial 鈥減ublic Christian school鈥� in southern Colorado has closed permanently after changes in Colorado law cut off state funding, its executive director wrote in a legal filing.

Backers opened the 30-student Riverstone Academy in Pueblo County nine months ago with hopes of sparking a religious liberty lawsuit that would go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Instead, the school faced setbacks 鈥� including that forced it to move and with the parents of a young student 鈥� and the legal effort fizzled.

Citing the new provisions in state law, Riverstone Executive Director Quin Friberg wrote in a legal document that the school鈥檚 efforts 鈥渨ill be directed to winding up its operations and shutting down鈥� after the last day of school last week.

The filing signed by Friberg on Thursday is against the Pueblo 70 school board alleging open meetings violations related to Riverstone鈥檚 launch.

鈥� the one backers hoped would go to the Supreme Court 鈥� came in February when Riverstone and its authorizer sued the state for religious discrimination, citing the possibility that the state could eventually claw back the school鈥檚 public funding.

Emails obtained by Chalkbeat show the school was created to spark such a lawsuit after the Supreme Court deadlocked on a last spring. The firm, Alliance Defending Freedom, asked an education lawyer named Brad Miller if he could 鈥渇ind a way for a parallel case to be initiated out of Colorado.鈥�

The case was short-lived. The school and its authorizer, a public education co-op based in Monument, .

The death knell for Riverstone was in the last few days of this spring鈥檚 legislative session. One bars co-ops like the one that authorized Riverstone from starting schools or programs outside their member school districts. The other bars school districts or co-ops from having brick and mortar schools that are entirely run by contractors.

The new limits effectively put Riverstone鈥檚 authorizer 鈥� Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Educational Services or ERBOCES 鈥� at odds with state law, making Riverstone ineligible for state funding. That鈥檚 because Riverstone is located outside of ERBOCES鈥� two member school districts and is run by a contractor.

Riverstone opened quietly last summer in a former office in an industrial area in Pueblo County. It described itself as a public elementary school that offered a Christian foundation, but its religious affiliation wasn鈥檛 widely known until October. That鈥檚 when Ken Witt, the executive director of ERBOCES, that Riverstone was Colorado鈥檚 first public Christian school, surprising members of the public and some government officials.

The fallout included of Pueblo 70 school board member Anne Ochs after a district parent criticized her for her role in bringing Riverstone into the district and for failing to disclose a conflict of interest.

Friberg and Witt did not respond to requests for comment about Riverstone鈥檚 closure.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at

I grew up hearing that line. However bad things were in Oklahoma 鈥� from teacher pay to life expectancy 鈥� our nation鈥檚 poorest state, Mississippi, was presumed to have it worse. It was a cruel quip, but also a comforting one. At least somebody was behind us.

In education, however, that old prayer of gratitude has become obsolete. Mississippi, for one, has posted impressive gains in student learning, especially in the early grades. Oklahoma has been moving in the opposite direction. According to I conducted of National Assessment of Educational Progress data, the Sooner State now ranks 48th in the nation when fourth and eighth grade math and reading results are combined. Among the dozen states in the region, Oklahoma ranks dead last.

That is bad news for Oklahoma, but it is also a warning to every state that assumes lasting decline can鈥檛 happen there. 

In the 1990s, Oklahoma was not a superstar, but neither was it an educational basketcase. The state generally hovered around the national average and occasionally beat the average. And for years, Oklahoma outperformed Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee on the Nation鈥檚 Report Card. What I found when examining the NAEP scores over time is not just that Oklahoma ranks near the bottom today, but that Oklahoma experienced a generational erosion of performance that unfolded over decades and accelerated after 2015. 

Oklahoma鈥檚 math scores were on the rise until around 2015, when math scores plateaued before steep declines during the COVID-19 era. Because most states鈥� math in the era following the passage of No Child Left Behind, Oklahoma鈥檚 score increases did not translate into rankings increases, and the state fell from 30th to 40th in the nation in math scores from 2000 to 2015. Since then, Oklahoma鈥檚 math scores have dropped sharply, with declines larger than many other states, even as the entire .

In reading, the story is simpler: Oklahoma has experienced both relative and absolute decline over the last decade. In 2024, Oklahoma posted its worst reading scores on record in both fourth grade and eighth grade. In the years since 2015, the state鈥檚 reading rank fell from 34th to 48th.听

These shifts are sobering, but they are also confounding. Oklahoma has not experienced a unique economic shock or demographic shift that obviously accounts for the scale of its educational decline. Indeed, all but one major student group in Oklahoma performs poorly relative to comparable students in other states. 

White students, Hispanic students, Black students, wealthier students and poorer students all significantly underperform the national average. Only Native American students stand out positively, ranking first nationally among the 14 states with sufficient data to report scores. It is common to explain away weak test scores with demographics. But when a state鈥檚 relatively advantaged students also post dismal results compared with their peers elsewhere, demographics are probably not the main story.

The regional picture looks even worse. Oklahoma now ranks last among the 12 states in the region in combined math and reading achievement. Oklahoma鈥檚 current regional ranking is attributable not only to Oklahoma鈥檚 decline, but also to experiencing noteworthy change. Tennessee was the first state in the region to pull ahead of Oklahoma, overtaking it in 2013. Mississippi surpassed Oklahoma in 2019, followed by Louisiana, which passed Oklahoma in 2022. 

It鈥檚 a depressing state of affairs for Oklahoma, but Oklahomans are unlikely to accept this story as final. Public frustration with the state鈥檚 education system is rising, according to . The state鈥檚 schools are , and policymakers are increasingly looking to for ideas. 

The larger lesson is not just for Oklahoma. Educational decline can happen slowly, almost invisibly, until it becomes impossible to ignore. Other states should take note before they find themselves becoming someone else鈥檚 punchline.

The routine offered a helpful reminder of why she鈥檚 stayed in the field for 26 years. 

鈥淚 look at where these babies have started. Some of them might have known two or three alphabet letters,鈥� said Jarvis, who teaches in the Chickasha district, southwest of Oklahoma City. 鈥淣ow, looking at their test scores, I’m sending six to first grade on a third grade reading level.鈥�

But when she looks at her paycheck, she doesn鈥檛 get the same satisfaction.

Her take-home pay has increased about 17% since 2018, about half the rate of inflation. Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill last month raising teacher salaries by $2,000, but when Jarvis calculated the amount after taxes, it translates into less than $6 a day.

鈥淚 definitely don’t do it for the money,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ut that was an eye-opener.鈥澛�

Eight years ago, she was part of a massive, nine-day teacher walkout that saw more than 30,000 educators descend on the state capitol to demand increases in education funding. Then-Gov. Mary Fallin had already signed a $6,100 raise, but teachers wanted $10,000 and increases in the education budget. They also saw raises in and .

But since that historic 鈥淩ed for Ed鈥� movement, teachers like Jarvis say the incremental progress is barely noticeable. Starting teacher pay in the state still hovers near the bottom in the country, while neighboring states have climbed in the rankings. Some districts say they鈥檒l have to come up with to extend the $2,000 increase to non-teaching staff, and teachers are likely to return next year asking for more.

鈥淲e have to have substantial increases annually to catch up,鈥� said Shawn Hime, executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association and a former assistant state superintendent. He applauds lawmakers for increasing teacher pay 37% since 2018, but high numbers of teachers still either leave the field or for better pay. 鈥淲e’re all in the same race, and we started a lap behind.鈥�

Districts can pay higher salaries above the state scale, but there are limits. That鈥檚 because to avoid large gaps in funding between poor and wealthier communities, the state caps how much they can raise .

鈥淚f you’re an equity warrior, in theory, this is like the perfect funding formula,鈥� said Rebecca Sibilia, executive director of EdFund, a nonprofit focusing on school finance. But in a state that鈥檚 reluctant to increase taxes, she said, districts are often 鈥渇orced to decide between hiring more people and giving pay raises.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

To deliver the 2018 salary increase, the legislature overcame a 75% supermajority threshold to increase taxes. But now, in an election year, some lawmakers who voted for it are 鈥済etting hammered鈥� by their opponents as they seek higher office, said Hime, with the school board鈥檚 association. 

One of them is Charles McCall, the former House speaker and now a Republican candidate for governor. , Chip Keating, a challenger in the June August GOP primary, accuses McCall of passing 鈥渢he largest tax increase in Oklahoma history. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why taxes are too high.鈥�

The state needs a long-term plan for funding education, Hime said, but lawmakers鈥� hands are tied because they can鈥檛 obligate money for future years. One former legislator has been arguing that point for years. 

鈥淲e have this year-to-year budgeting and that’s got to stop,鈥� said Mark McBride, a Republican who chaired an education appropriations committee in the House. He recalled voting against a previous $2,000 pay raise prior to the walkout because he preferred to support a substantial hike over several years. Educators, he said, 鈥済ot really irritated with me.鈥�

鈥楧isrespect crept in鈥�

Pay is not the only reason teachers in Oklahoma leave the classroom. Some advocates say mandates like making struggling readers repeat third grade will force more out.

鈥淭his is going to exacerbate our teacher shortage,鈥� said Erika Wright, a community organizer for the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice and the founder of the Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition. 鈥淲ho the hell wants to teach third grade now?鈥� 

When former state Superintendent Joy Hofmeister was in office, she commissioned a of thousands of teachers who were currently certified but not teaching. While pay was a factor, nearly a quarter said their views rested on 鈥渢he inability to make decisions related to instruction鈥� and 鈥渂urdensome standards and curriculum requirements.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Rhetoric that teachers found demeaning hasn鈥檛 helped either. Former state Superintendent Janet Barresi, Hofmeister鈥檚 predecessor, once said she wouldn鈥檛 let the 鈥渆ducation establishment lose another generation of Oklahoma’s children.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

She was the first to remove an educators hall of fame display from the state Department of Education building, former Superintendent Ryan Walters repeated when he took office in 2023. He sought to from educators, publicly criticised them in videos from his car and instituted a to weed out applicants from states he deemed too liberal.

鈥淒isrespect crept in,鈥� said Bryan Duke, dean of the College of Education and Professional Studies at the University of Central Oklahoma. 鈥淛ob creep,鈥� was another factor, he said, as teaching became more complex and behavior problems escalated. 鈥淚t’s like screaming into the wind. I think many teachers felt that their voices weren’t heard.鈥�&苍产蝉辫; 

Lawmakers introduced this year to lower class sizes in the elementary grades, a frequent request from teachers, but it died in committee.

Some years, Jarvis, the Chickasha teacher, has had as many as 28 students in her class. This year, she had 21, but doesn鈥檛 have a classroom aide. With about eight more years until retirement, she feels more fortunate than some of her colleagues who work a second job at a nearby steakhouse because the tips are so good.

But she often puts off vacations and big-ticket purchases now that she鈥檚 paying health and car insurance for her two sons. Eight years ago, they demonstrated with her at the state capitol.听

鈥淚 remember sitting them down and explaining why we were going,鈥� she said. Her youngest made a poster with the names of his teachers. 鈥淚t was very meaningful to see the kids there.鈥�

鈥淲e’re in the middle of an industrial revolution that’s bigger than the dot.com revolution, and the world is not prepared for it,鈥� Weingarten told 社区黑料. 鈥淎nd our country鈥檚 leaders have a laissez-faire attitude about it. So I feel a huge responsibility to try and get it right.鈥澛�

Weingarten has proposed reshaping how U.S. public schools navigate AI in particular and technology more broadly, saying our kids are experiencing a crisis of attention and well-being 鈥� and that teachers are getting precious little guidance on how to help young people navigate these challenges.

Her proposal: Trim tech use, especially for younger kids, and teach all students how to think critically, communicate, collaborate and persist.鈥淥ne of the worst things we’ve done in education was to call collaboration and communication 鈥榮oft skills,鈥欌�� she said, 鈥渂ecause applied learning, problem solving, communication, collaboration, persistence 鈥� all of these 鈥� are the skills that any young adult is going to need in an AI world. In fact, these are the skills that are going to be much more competitive in an AI world.鈥�

In a May 27 at the National Press Club in Washington, she proposed a near-ban on computer screens for students through second grade, including for assessments. She proposed banning student-facing AI in elementary schools, arguing that young children need to build foundational skills without algorithmic shortcuts. 

And she said that young people should not have access to 鈥�social companion鈥� chatbots that simulate human relationships until age 16.

The speech makes Weingarten and AFT, the second-largest teachers union in the nation, new and potentially powerful supporters of a growing parent-powered movement to trim technology from U.S. classrooms, even as the union pushes to train thousands of teachers on how AI works. 

Weingarten proposed that schools redesign their offerings so that 鈥渁ctive learning, including project-based, experiential and career-connected learning,鈥� is the norm across all grade levels. She decried 鈥渄rill-and-kill” rote instruction, saying that in an age when any fact is retrievable with a single prompt, the ability to apply knowledge, think critically, communicate and collaborate matters far more than memorization.

鈥淭o really prepare young people for complex challenges, our true goal is to have students who can work together and problem solve,鈥� she said.

Weingarten noted that 31 states have now adopted some form of phone ban, and that several countries that were early adopters of education technology are pulling back. Sweden, she said, has returned to printed textbooks. Estonia, where research linked higher screen time in young children to weaker language skills, is calling for more human-to-human interaction. And Italy is re-emphasizing handwriting and traditional instruction.

Weingarten also called for establishing a rigorous new national safety and privacy standard for AI products sold to schools and creating an independently funded research consortium to study tech鈥檚 effects on children. And she proposed a new tax on Big Tech companies鈥� earnings to offset the environmental and societal costs of AI-driven disruption, including workers 鈥渂eing displaced by AI.鈥�

In an interview Monday, Weingarten said AFT’s own $23 million AI academy, launched last year in New York City to help teachers understand and shape how AI enters their classrooms, exists in part to provide crucial guidance on how to understand the technology. Over the next five years, the National Academy for AI Instruction is expected to provide hands-on workshops for 400,000 educators, or one in 10 U.S. teachers, effectively reaching the more than 7.2 million students they teach. 

She said the institute鈥檚 mission and her new stance on tech aren鈥檛 incompatible.

鈥淭he AI Institute is really about teachers teaching teachers, and how the tech companies are not in control,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t is a people-first, safety-first focus.鈥�

When she announced the academy in July, Weingarten said teachers face 鈥渉uge challenges,鈥� including navigating AI wisely, ethically and safely. 鈥淭he question was whether we would be chasing it 鈥� or whether we would be trying to harness it.鈥�

Nearly a year later, she said the institute now serves a crucial role in the absence of guidance from the Trump administration, which last week issued a U.S. Surgeon General鈥檚 urging families and schools to reduce children鈥檚 screen time. It suggested that schools limit school computers to computer labs, invest in physical textbooks and 鈥減rioritize pen-and-paper curricula, hands-on activities and social activities for all grade levels.鈥�

In a media appearance last week, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said schools 鈥渘eed to embrace A.I., and to use it .鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Weingarten said it鈥檚 鈥渃razy鈥� that the U.S. Surgeon General鈥檚 office is offering more detailed recommendations than the Education Department. 

鈥淲hen you actually have two-thirds of teachers in the United States having no idea how to use AI in schools, and when you have one-third saying there’s no formal guidance, and then you have the Education Secretary saying they should use it 鈥榓ppropriately,鈥� I mean, this is part of the problem,鈥� she said. 

U.S. Education Department Press Secretary Savannah Newhouse said McMahon 鈥渉as highlighted the many types of schools that are successfully and responsibly integrating AI in the classroom to help our nation鈥檚 students meet the challenges of today.鈥�

Weingarten also took a swipe at Melania Trump鈥檚 recent tech-and-education event, in which the First Lady the White House alongside a humanoid robot to highlight the potential benefits of robots replacing teachers. The stunt, Weingarten said, 鈥渟poke volumes. So did the responses from teachers wondering how a robot was going to build trust with students or know when someone was having a bad day. There鈥檚 no algorithm for that. Students need their teachers 鈥� real human beings, not robots and not chatbots.鈥�

Newhouse didn鈥檛 address Weingarten鈥檚 allegations about the administration鈥檚 leadership on AI, instead criticizing union priorities more broadly: 鈥淚f there鈥檚 finally going to be an honest conversation about the damage done to American students, it should begin with the teachers unions鈥� enthusiastic support for a federal bureaucracy that has spent over $3 trillion only to watch student outcomes decline, along with their relentless push to keep schools shuttered during COVID,鈥� Newhouse said. 

鈥楰ids are getting burned鈥�

The effort to curb tech in schools comes on the heels of a similar one, led in large part by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, to limit cellphone use in schools.

Weingarten on Monday said she has steeped herself in research on educational technology and artificial intelligence. But it wasn鈥檛 until she spoke to Haidt last summer about young people鈥檚 worsening that she knew she had to draw a line. 

鈥淲hat really drove me was the issues around attention,鈥� she said. 

Haidt, author of the best-selling 2024 book The Anxious Generation, has said short-form videos and other social media tools have decimated our kids鈥� ability to pay attention in school, resulting in fewer books read, poorer basic skills and worsening mental health. A more recent book, The Digital Delusion, by the educational neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath, argues that basic classroom technology has had a similar effect on skills.

In her speech, much of Weingarten鈥檚 criticism centered around increasingly widespread fears that our society is losing its way when it comes to young people鈥檚 technology use. She noted that more than half of 11-year-olds already carry smartphones, a figure that climbs to 95% among teenagers. Four in 10 teens report being online almost constantly, she said. 鈥淭he pace of this tech revolution has been blisteringly fast, and kids are getting burned.鈥�

She pointed to Haidt’s research linking heavy smartphone and social media use to rising rates of social isolation, anxiety and depression among young people, with academic consequences as well from the rollout of classroom technology. Scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which had been climbing steadily, have in many cases worsened after widespread digital adoption. Weingarten acknowledged that correlation is not causation, but said the pattern, appearing consistently across states, grade levels and subjects, deserves serious attention.

She also pointed to research showing that 88% of teachers in a survey reported that their students’ attention spans were shrinking, which she attributed in part to the instant-rewards of online platforms such as TikTok and YouTube. Cognitive scientist work, she said, suggests students are not incapable of focusing, but are increasingly unwilling to do so when schoolwork feels dull by comparison to their online lives.

But she cautioned that she鈥檚 not anti-tech.

鈥淚鈥檓 not calling for an AI ban or a Chromebook bonfire,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hat I am calling for is getting the balance right to harness the benefits of technology while mitigating the harms. I鈥檓 wary of the dangers of AI, but it is here to stay. We need enforceable guardrails and help to cushion the disruption to people鈥檚 lives.鈥� 

Alex Kotran, the founder and CEO of , said Weingarten is 鈥渞ight where it counts鈥� about limiting AI for younger students but giving teachers access to the tools. 鈥淚t’s about getting the balance right,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd I really don’t talk to anybody that believes that we shouldn’t have some sort of balance.鈥�

Kotran said he鈥檇 recently spoken at an National Education Association meeting and saw that, like AFT, they鈥檙e focused on understanding AI. 鈥淭here’s this almost-meme, ‘Oh, the unions are getting in the way of AI transformation, AI readiness,’ and I really disagree with that fundamentally. The unions have a very sophisticated understanding of what really matters here.鈥�

Weingarten鈥檚 push to give teachers a better understanding of AI makes sense as well, he said. 鈥淲hen teachers feel like they are the main characters of the story of AI transformation, their willingness to really lean in and learn, it’s a lot more. You see a lot more buy-in.鈥�

More broadly, Kotran said, supporting active learning, project-based and career-connected learning is 鈥渨hat all the smartest people in the field,鈥� including CEOs and labor economists, are recommending. 鈥淲hat everybody’s basically saying is that the skills that matter now are people who can just get shit done, who can work independently and proactively on projects, who can create and build. And so it’s really, really important to hear a union actually naming that.鈥�

On Monday, Weingarten said parents are leading the way on this issue 鈥� and that schools risk being caught between parents who opt their children out of classroom technology and those who want to keep it. 鈥淗ow does a teacher in kindergarten work in a classroom where half the kids opt out of screens and half the kids are on screens?鈥�

The state has revamped both subjects in recent years, starting with the passage of the . New math curricula rolled out two years later. The dual efforts cost more than $130 million in state and federal funding, education officials said, and the work is ongoing.听

State education leaders attribute student and teacher success to the use of high-quality instructional materials, ongoing professional development, robust summer math programs and high-dosage tutoring in both subjects. 

鈥淭ennessee implemented specific high-dosage tutoring requirements which include a minimum of two to three sessions per week for 30-45 minutes delivered by a certified teacher or trained tutor in groups no larger than three students for the entire school year,鈥� explained Kristy Brown, chief academic officer at the state Department of Education. 

According to the Education Scorecard report, which examined both state-level tests and student performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress for grades three through eight, Washington, D.C., made the most gains in math, followed by , Louisiana, Delaware and Maryland. 

The nation鈥檚 capitol also outdid all other states captured in the scorecard in reading. But the report鈥檚 overall findings were bleak. It concluded the U.S. has been in a 鈥渓earning recession鈥� since 2013, a trend that has run alongside kids鈥� skyrocketing use of social media and the decline of school accountability measures.

Math proficiency rates in Tennessee on state assessments between 2021 and 2025, moving from 28% to 42%. But historically underserved students still lagged their peers.

While nearly 51% of white children met that benchmark last year, just 24% of Black students, 32% of Hispanic kids, 26% of English learners and 24% of economically disadvantaged children did the same. Results were similar for  

Still, Tennessee ranked high among dozens of states, according to the Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth researchers who produced the scorecard, now in its fifth year. 

Christy Wall, the state鈥檚 assistant commissioner of academics and instructional strategy, said Tennessee learned much from the successful rollout of its literacy initiative and applied winning strategies to mathematics. The state was sure to include input from school leaders and staff, and provide proper training so they would not feel blindsided 鈥� or unsupported 鈥� in implementing the changes. 

And they were careful to factor in the time it takes to adopt a new strategy, she said. 

鈥淚t didn鈥檛 seem like something new,鈥� Wall said of the updated math curriculum. 鈥淚t was a predictable cadence in terms of tools and resources.鈥�

The scorecard analyzed data from roughly 10,000 school districts: 450 saw improvement in either math or reading and 108 were labeled 鈥渙n the rise鈥� for gains in both subjects. Such districts must serve more than 1,200 students in grades three to eight, have at least four peer districts in their state, and report an increase in achievement of at least 0.3 grade levels in reading and math from scores derived between 2019鈥�2025. Johnson City, Putnam County, White County, and Maury County schools in Tennessee were in the on-the-rise category. 

COVID-era federal relief money 鈥� the state received roughly $3.86 billion in aid for K鈥�12 schools at that time 鈥� supported much of Tennessee’s efforts around both subjects. That money eventually dried up, but the state managed to fund the programs that worked best, including summer learning and tutoring for English and math.  

Brown said, too, state regulations require that students who were retained in any grade between kindergarten through second must be provided a tutor. The same holds true for students who did not score proficient on the reading portion of the state assessments at the end of third grade. 

Chelsea Crawford is the executive director of , an advocacy organization that seeks to ensure every student in that state has access to a high-quality education. 

Crawford served as the state education department鈥檚 chief of staff during the pandemic closures in 2020 and credits another factor for its success: a quick return to in-person learning. 

Most Tennessee students, she said, by fall of that same year. 

鈥淣ot all of our districts opened on that timeline, but the vast majority of them did,鈥� Crawford said.  

And, she said, the state鈥檚 requirements around tutoring meant students received the help they needed, as evidenced by their improvement. 

鈥淭here’s a very specific kind of approach for districts to follow, including things like tutoring for the entirety of a semester focused on a single subject,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o, you’re getting deep intervention in the subject matter where you need it as opposed to a little bit of tutoring across all of your areas.鈥�

And the districts had financial incentives to spur their own investment in education, she said. 

鈥淲e actually created a recognition program where districts would be required to fill out a plan on how they intended to spend their money,鈥� she said of COVID-era funding. 鈥淎nd if they were able to demonstrate to us that they wanted to spend at least 50% of their local allocation on student academic need, tying their investment to the areas where their students needed the most help, then we as a state agency would take a portion of our set aside and gift it to that district.鈥�

The report notes larger gains among the highest-income and the lowest-income school districts in the country with middle-income districts 鈥� those where 30% to 70% of students receive federally subsidized lunches 鈥� seeing the least improvement, on average.

Achievement data was derived from the and produced by  

A dozen states 鈥� Illinois, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Vermont among them 鈥� were not included in the analysis. Some, including New York, had too few state test score results as many students chose to opt-out of those exams, according to the report. 

Before the “learning recession” detailed in the report, researchers noted the academic gains that preceded it. Between 1990 and 2013, math achievement in grades four and eight rose, improving by more than two grade equivalents during that time. 

Fourth graders in 2013 were scoring at a similar level to sixth graders in 1990, according to the analysis.

The school lets students skip traditional classrooms and lectures if they don鈥檛 fit how a student learns best. They can work independently at their own pace, earning credit based on what they learn, not for sitting in a class all year.

Or students can leave school each afternoon to complete a paid internship, earning credit for what they learn in the workplace.

Mayfield High School, with an enrollment of 1,200 students, is one of many high schools across the country increasingly offering students flexibility to shape their class schedules and how they earn credits toward diplomas, as career demands keep shifting and students grapple with family and life challenges.

It鈥檚 an approach that has grown as students mix high school classes with early college courses or seek different ways to try out jobs and train for them, none of which fit neatly into days divided by class periods.

鈥淟et’s be real, our students have many more responsibilities in today’s world than we did back in the day,鈥� said principal Brian Linn added. 鈥淭hey may be working to support their family. They may need that internship, because they need to go right into the world of work.鈥�

Students 鈥渓ive in a personalized world outside of school,鈥� said Linn, 鈥渟o we have to personalize (school) to meet their needs.鈥�

It鈥檚 a shift that has drawn and Battelle for Kids. Personalized learning has also become a greater priority for states, including , Vermont and , while schools that adopt the approach are cropping up from Washington, D.C. to

Two new paths have taken hold at Mayfield High School with this flexibility:

• A Learn and Earn program that offers 127 of the school鈥檚 1,200 students paid internships in fields such as manufacturing and construction. Students often pick the chance to learn on the job over being trained in a trade in a school workshop as part of a career technical education program. 
• An alternative schedule and class experience that gives students more independence, simply called The Option. It鈥檚 a mix of study hall and class time with its own open space as big as a gym where students can do as much math or English as they want each day, as long as they finish all their work each week.

鈥淲e wanted to create a self-paced option for students,鈥� Linn said. 鈥淭o be very frank, we couldn’t think of a better name for it, so we called it The Option.鈥�

It鈥檚 a program about 20% of the school鈥檚 students choose over taking classes the traditional way, with teachers leading a lesson. The Option allows them to do classwork at their own speed, while teachers act as guides instead of lecturers. Students read materials or watch videos, then answer questions or write about the lessons independently, seeking teachers when they need help.

鈥淥ption time, for lack of a better word, is a structured study hall,鈥� said Paige Zenovic, an English teacher who chairs the program. 鈥淚t’s basically the idea that the students are with their teacher for study hall.鈥�

Students study multiple subjects 鈥� such as math, English, history 鈥� all within The Option鈥檚 high-ceilinged study space larger than a basketball court that was once a building trades workshop. It鈥檚 now renovated for tables that seat a handful of students and with a balcony and wide staircase where students can work. 

Teachers for multiple subjects are based there, so they and students can interact whenever they are there about any option classes at any time. Lessons are given to small groups of students and sometimes just in one-on-one sessions, in this version of what some call a 鈥渇lipped classroom.鈥� 

鈥淵ou just will not see a 50-minute specific lecture with 25 students in the class,鈥� Linn said. 鈥淵ou’ll see one 10- to 15-minute mini lesson.鈥�

Superintendent Michael Barnes called The Option a 鈥渇ully customizable鈥� school day that lets students pick what subjects to work on when, so long as regular assessments show they are on track in a limited form of mastery-based learning, in which students work on academic material until they know it and can show competency in it.

鈥淲e allow our students to exercise agency over their own learning so they have voice and choice,鈥� Barnes said. 鈥淭hey set their schedule every single day. They can determine what they want to work on, when they want to work on and when they want to assess.鈥�

That independence helps teach students responsibility to do their work and time management skills.

鈥淭hat’s a really important piece that doesn’t typically happen in the traditional class, because everyone’s supposed to be doing the same thing,鈥� Zenovic said.

Because The Option is voluntary, students can choose to return to traditional classes. Some do, but many continue it all through high school. Senior Giovanna Zahedi has used The Option all four years of high school because she considers lectures unfocused and rambling.

鈥淚 find it really hard to concentrate in classrooms,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 just want to get straight to the point, just finish my schoolwork.鈥�

Sophomore Madilyn Senning splits her classes between traditional classrooms and The Option, but says she prefers The Option.

鈥淚 have a hard time focusing when they’re lecturing the whole class,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 can work ahead, because a lot of the time I get things done faster than some other people in my classroom. It’s just easier for me to get my work done.鈥�

The Option is joined by Learn to Earn as the two most aggressive ways the school gives students choices.

The school belongs to a consortium of 10 suburban school districts that share career technical education classes such as welding and auto repair between them. But those have become so popular that 17 out of 19 CTE programs are oversubscribed and turn students away. Welding, for example, has room for 35 students but had 175 applicants this year. 

鈥淲e don’t want to have to tell a student, no,鈥� said Deanna Elsing, the school鈥檚 director of innovation. 

鈥淎 typical high school isn’t in a position to build a million plus dollar facility鈥o support the needs of our students’ personalized interest,鈥� Elsing said. 鈥淏ut for the bargain price of free, we can partner with local industry, organizations and businesses and they can become the classroom.鈥�

So Elsing started recruiting local businesses to bring in student interns 鈥� and pay them. That鈥檚 rare nationally, with fewer than five percent of high schoolers doing an internship or apprenticeship before graduating, according to federal data and surveys by the American Student Assistance nonprofit, now known as Britebound.

Started with just nine students three years ago, Learn and Earn now has 127 鈥� about 10% of the school 鈥� doing internships in fields that include welding, manufacturing and home construction.

The program is open to juniors and seniors, who spend their first semester learning workplace etiquette, doing tours of companies and hearing presentations from different businesses. They then move on to working about 20 hours a week for businesses over the next year and a half, often including summer work.

That meant the school altering its schedule so the students can take academic classes in the morning, leave by 11:45 a.m. and be at their internships by 12:15. That lets them work all afternoon, often staying after school hours to keep working until the end of the work day, as many employers requested.

The school also added training sessions for employers, not just students, before interns would start at a company.

鈥淚t’s so important for our students to be able to look someone in the eyes, shake their hand, dress appropriately, test drug free, and have those professional skills,鈥� Elsing said. 鈥淏ut we found over the last three years that some of these industries have not quite yet mastered how to properly engage and train a Gen Z or Gen Alpha student. Because they are 16, 17, 18-year-olds, they’re not going to come in as polished as your college graduate is going to come in.鈥�

Jacob Reed, 19, who graduated from the high school last May, started working for nearby Kerek Industries, a manufacturer of parts for municipal transit systems, about 20 hours a week as an intern his junior year, continued as a senior and was hired after. He now works part-time while studying engineering at the local community college.

鈥淚’ve already been in a professional work environment for over two years now, so I know what it’s like working jobs, coming every day, knowing what鈥檚 expected of me,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think that gives me a leg up for sure.鈥�

The company even adjusted his work schedule to accommodate final exams and for practices and games for the school鈥檚 football team. Because he could leave school to start work around noon, he could leave at 3 p.m. for practice.

Company owner John Kerek said he knows he has to train students more than when hiring adults, but he said manufacturing companies need employees and everyone has to start somewhere.

鈥淚 expect from day one I’m going to start at the very ground-level basics of 鈥楾his is a machine shop..this is what this machine is capable of doing鈥his is what we’re using it for. ..this is how we check the parts that it’s making,鈥� Kerek said. 鈥淚鈥檝e learned repetition is key. The more I say something, the better it sticks, and the more I let them fail a little bit, the better it sticks too.鈥�

Senior Mackenzie Lofton has a very different internship learning how to be a project manager for a construction business through the Brookes & Henderson Building Company, a builder of luxury homes. He first tried to do the traditional construction trades program through school, but too many students applied and he was shut out.

He has no regrets. Officially, he is a laborer that does low-skill jobs at houses under construction around the region. But the company is also giving him a look at construction he鈥檇 never see in class 鈥� how to run a project.

Zak Mowry, the company鈥檚 operations manager, said schools are good at teaching students specific trades, such as carpentry, electrical or plumbing work. But schools, he said, don鈥檛 provide an overarching look at how to plan and manage all those trades to finish a home. 

So most days Mackenzie sweeps floors and moves construction materials to help skilled workers. But he is also invited to company meetings to plan houses. And every Thursday, he shadows managers as they oversee different aspects of construction, ranging from foundations to heating and cooling. The company even created a hardcover manual and workbook for interns that explains key terms for each specialty and has questions they answer after each shadowing day.

鈥淵ou see all the trades come into action,鈥� he said. 鈥� So you see the foundation being made, you see the electrical running wires, you see the plumbing coming in, you see all the hardware coming in. All those things that are behind the scenes, you get to see out in the field that they don’t teach you in the classroom.鈥�

Just as importantly, Mackenzie is learning management skills by watching managers navigate disputes between different trades, architects and customers on multi-million dollar homes.

鈥淚 feel like I have way more experience because I’m actually in the field, while they’re just learning in classrooms,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou’re interacting with people, getting your social skills up. You also have to be on time, so you’re becoming more responsible as a man and as a person.鈥�

Disclosure: XQ provides financial support to 社区黑料. 

California is doing something about diaper insecurity for its residents. Gov. Gavin Newsom that the state will provide 400 free diapers to families with newborn babies, beginning with hospitals that predominantly serve low-income households, before expanding more broadly.

Diaper need is a serious challenge for many families. of U.S. households with children under age 4 in diapers report diaper insecurity, according to a nationally representative study from the nonprofit National Diaper Bank Network. An infant typically goes through diapers in a day. At , the annual diaper cost for one baby can run roughly $1,000 during the first year. These costs hit during a period when families are often due to the combination of baby-related costs and employment challenges driven in part by America鈥檚 .听

The consequences can be harmful: When parents can鈥檛 afford enough diapers, they may turn to alternatives like using plastic bags or towels to make their own diapers, or reusing wet or soiled diapers. These practices can lead to severe diaper rash and urinary tract infections. In my work, I have spoken to childcare providers who describe the phenomenon of 鈥淢onday morning rash,鈥� when babies arrive after having diapers stretched over the weekend.

Cloth diapers present an alternative that can save parents a lot of money, but they for many families because they require up front costs, need frequent laundering 鈥� which can increase utility bills 鈥� and importantly, because many center-based childcare programs won鈥檛 allow them.  

In fact, many childcare providers require parents to provide disposable diapers, and if they鈥檙e unable to do so, they may not be allowed to drop their children off. In of Connecticut diaper bank users, more than half of parent participants who relied on childcare programs reported missing work due to a lack of diapers, with an average of four missed days per month.

While the long-term solution to diaper need likely lies in ensuring all families have access to reliable and well-paying jobs, a statewide program like California鈥檚 Golden Gate Start can provide a strong preventative intervention that can set families off on the right foot, helping them leave the hospital with one less worry while they try to figure out how to care for the beloved, squalling creature that鈥檚 coming home without an instruction manual. In practice, the 400 diapers, which come in varying sizes, should cover about a month鈥檚 supply.

California is not the first state to try to tackle diaper insecurity. Illinois has, since 2023, been utilizing Diaper Dollars, a statewide initiative that sends out a monthly $40 e-card to eligible families that can be used to purchase diapers at various stores, and the idea has since spread to Ohio. In 2024, Tennessee to families enrolled in the state鈥檚 Medicaid system, although the program is being as the state legislature tries to shore up healthcare budget holes. 

California鈥檚 model, though, may have the most straightforward delivery system. Diaper Dollars has faced challenges because the stipends can only be used at participating stores and some major retailers don鈥檛 currently accept that form of payment, while Tennessee struggled with coverage because it delivered the benefit via pharmacies, and left many families lacking options. California鈥檚 use of hospitals is innovative, though it does mean only a one-time infusion of diapers versus an ongoing supply.

Despite the fact that California鈥檚 program seems like a clear win, it has . While plausibly driven by animus toward Newsom, a , commentators have focused on the fact that a nonprofit with connections to Newsom鈥檚 wife, Baby2Baby, is involved in the administration of the free diapers. Some see Newsom鈥檚 free diaper program as politically flashy but economically tokenistic, that giving new parents 400 diapers does little to solve the real reason California feels unaffordable 鈥� especially the state鈥檚 severe housing shortage and high cost of living. Others suggest routing diapers through a nonprofit and hospitals may cost taxpayers more than simply handing families cash directly.

This argument almost entirely misses the point. While it鈥檚 always worth watching the implementation of a benefit to make sure the government is working efficiently, the question on the table is whether there is a public interest in helping all parents and babies get off to a strong and healthy start. As conservative analyst Patrick T. Brown in his Family Matters Substack, 鈥渆ven if the program design could theoretically stand to be improved, it hardly deserves the scorn being directed at it. … Sometimes a program can be good without being perfect; and sometimes we should do a better job resisting the temptation to hold our political opponents鈥� ideas to a higher standard than our own side鈥檚.鈥�

Indeed, American families would surely welcome a race among states to figure out how to most effectively support them in securing an adequate diaper supply. Babies need diapers, but especially as the cost of living continues to rise, not every American family is in a position to provide them. California is taking action: That in itself is worthy of praise 鈥� and one way or another, there will be important lessons to learn.

鈥淏lah blah blah.鈥� That’s all I heard during story time, sitting on a colorful checkered carpet in kindergarten, feeling like a stain that didn’t belong, yet somehow stood out. English was not my first language, and mastering it took time. Years later, I became the one other students would ask, 鈥淲hat clicked?鈥� or 鈥淗ow’d you do it?鈥� 

The answer I always heard from upperclassmen was simple: 鈥淛ust do the work.鈥� But as a first-generation student in East Tulsa, I learned that doing the work was not enough. Balancing school, homework, extracurriculars, home responsibilities and applications all before turning 18 is tough. 

Like most of my classmates, fitting in was a priority. Many were Hispanic like me, but they often had siblings or parents who spoke English. I didn’t have that privilege. As the oldest, I became the bridge between home and my community: the translator, the example, the one who had to 鈥渨alk鈥� so my siblings could run. My mom was just as lost as I was, a non-English speaker herself, navigating a school system nothing like the one she grew up in. Nevertheless, she found a way to support me. 

She enrolled me at ReadSmart Learning, a tutoring program in Tulsa. I still remember the big cartoony bluebird at drop-off and the pins I earned for completing lessons. Slowly, my grades rose and I spoke English with more confidence. My mom noticed, rewarding me with packs of Shopkins figurines and saying, 鈥淵a vez? No hay mal que por bien no venga mija, siguele echando ganas.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Every cloud has a silver lining, sweetie. Keep working hard.

Her faith in me made me believe that effort could change everything. For first-generation students like me, programs like ReadSmart aren’t extras. They’re essentials. 

Middle school brought a new challenge, an all-English environment. Although it was intimidating at first, it also brought math. Numbers became a language I could master, and that love followed me into high school. Tulsa Honor Academy鈥檚 College Readiness team was a constant presence, always helping me navigate hands-on opportunities that I wouldn’t have found on my own, including Tulsa Technology Center’s dual enrollment program. Tulsa Tech offers a two-year program that allows students to take classes and get a real view on what engineering or pre-med tracks might look like. It was here that I found that electrical engineering was the career path I wanted. 

I’ll never forget the project in which my team and I used programming sensors to detect a chocolate chip cookie. Our clay “chips” had a mind of their own and tumbled off the conveyor belt, scattering everywhere. Hours of troubleshooting, reshaping and laughing with my team taught me more about perseverance. I learned that pushing through the struggle is what makes the result feel rewarding and worth it. 

That same perseverance carried me through applying for programs and scholarships such as , and Imposter syndrome creeps in sometimes, but I always keep going. 

Perseverance has helped me become a and earned me a full ride to Washington University in St. Louis.

Now, when students come to me and ask 鈥淲hat clicked?鈥� or 鈥淗ow’d you do it?鈥� I don’t tell them to just do the work. I tell them to look for scholarships, apply to summer programs, build their extracurriculars, keep their grades up, and most importantly, take every opportunity in their path. I give them the guidance I had to piece together for myself, because nobody handed it to me. 

My story isn’t about being exceptional. It’s about dreaming big for your future and creating a plan. It’s about dedication to your goals and being relentless, no matter what obstacles stand in your way. It’s about the power of having someone who believes in you and is willing to walk alongside you, even if they don’t have all the answers. 

The truth is, your circumstances do not define your future. With perseverance, hard work and the courage to keep going, kids like me don’t just get by. We succeed academically. We become professionals. We go back and tell the next kid on that carpet: 鈥淵ou belong here, too.鈥�

The school lets students skip traditional classrooms and lectures if they don鈥檛 fit how a student learns best. They can work independently at their own pace, earning credit based on what they learn, not for sitting in a class all year.

Or students can leave school each afternoon to complete a paid internship, earning credit for what they learn in the workplace.

Mayfield High School, with an enrollment of 1,200 students, is one of many high schools across the country increasingly offering students flexibility to shape their class schedules and how they earn credits toward diplomas, as career demands keep shifting and students grapple with family and life challenges.

It鈥檚 an approach that has grown as students mix high school classes with early college courses or seek different ways to try out jobs and train for them, none of which fit neatly into days divided by class periods.

鈥淟et’s be real, our students have many more responsibilities in today’s world than we did back in the day,鈥� said principal Brian Linn added. 鈥淭hey may be working to support their family. They may need that internship, because they need to go right into the world of work.鈥�

Students 鈥渓ive in a personalized world outside of school,鈥� said Linn, 鈥渟o we have to personalize (school) to meet their needs.鈥�

It鈥檚 a shift that has drawn and Battelle for Kids. Personalized learning has also become a greater priority for states, including , Vermont and , while schools that adopt the approach are cropping up from Washington, D.C. to

Two new paths have taken hold at Mayfield High School with this flexibility:

• A Learn and Earn program that offers 127 of the school鈥檚 1,200 students paid internships in fields such as manufacturing and construction. Students often pick the chance to learn on the job over being trained in a trade in a school workshop as part of a career technical education program. 
• An alternative schedule and class experience that gives students more independence, simply called The Option. It鈥檚 a mix of study hall and class time with its own open space as big as a gym where students can do as much math or English as they want each day, as long as they finish all their work each week.

鈥淲e wanted to create a self-paced option for students,鈥� Linn said. 鈥淭o be very frank, we couldn’t think of a better name for it, so we called it The Option.鈥�

It鈥檚 a program about 20% of the school鈥檚 students choose over taking classes the traditional way, with teachers leading a lesson. The Option allows them to do classwork at their own speed, while teachers act as guides instead of lecturers. Students read materials or watch videos, then answer questions or write about the lessons independently, seeking teachers when they need help.

鈥淥ption time, for lack of a better word, is a structured study hall,鈥� said Paige Zenovic, an English teacher who chairs the program. 鈥淚t’s basically the idea that the students are with their teacher for study hall.鈥�

Students study multiple subjects 鈥� such as math, English, history 鈥� all within The Option鈥檚 high-ceilinged study space larger than a basketball court that was once a building trades workshop. It鈥檚 now renovated for tables that seat a handful of students and with a balcony and wide staircase where students can work. 

Teachers for multiple subjects are based there, so they and students can interact whenever they are there about any option classes at any time. Lessons are given to small groups of students and sometimes just in one-on-one sessions, in this version of what some call a 鈥渇lipped classroom.鈥� 

鈥淵ou just will not see a 50-minute specific lecture with 25 students in the class,鈥� Linn said. 鈥淵ou’ll see one 10- to 15-minute mini lesson.鈥�

Superintendent Michael Barnes called The Option a 鈥渇ully customizable鈥� school day that lets students pick what subjects to work on when, so long as regular assessments show they are on track in a limited form of mastery-based learning, in which students work on academic material until they know it and can show competency in it.

鈥淲e allow our students to exercise agency over their own learning so they have voice and choice,鈥� Barnes said. 鈥淭hey set their schedule every single day. They can determine what they want to work on, when they want to work on and when they want to assess.鈥�

That independence helps teach students responsibility to do their work and time management skills.

鈥淭hat’s a really important piece that doesn’t typically happen in the traditional class, because everyone’s supposed to be doing the same thing,鈥� Zenovic said.

Because The Option is voluntary, students can choose to return to traditional classes. Some do, but many continue it all through high school. Senior Giovanna Zahedi has used The Option all four years of high school because she considers lectures unfocused and rambling.

鈥淚 find it really hard to concentrate in classrooms,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 just want to get straight to the point, just finish my schoolwork.鈥�

Sophomore Madilyn Senning splits her classes between traditional classrooms and The Option, but says she prefers The Option.

鈥淚 have a hard time focusing when they’re lecturing the whole class,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 can work ahead, because a lot of the time I get things done faster than some other people in my classroom. It’s just easier for me to get my work done.鈥�

The Option is joined by Learn to Earn as the two most aggressive ways the school gives students choices.

The school belongs to a consortium of 10 suburban school districts that share career technical education classes such as welding and auto repair between them. But those have become so popular that 17 out of 19 CTE programs are oversubscribed and turn students away. Welding, for example, has room for 35 students but had 175 applicants this year. 

鈥淲e don’t want to have to tell a student, no,鈥� said Deanna Elsing, the school鈥檚 director of innovation. 

鈥淎 typical high school isn’t in a position to build a million plus dollar facility鈥o support the needs of our students’ personalized interest,鈥� Elsing said. 鈥淏ut for the bargain price of free, we can partner with local industry, organizations and businesses and they can become the classroom.鈥�

So Elsing started recruiting local businesses to bring in student interns 鈥� and pay them. That鈥檚 rare nationally, with fewer than five percent of high schoolers doing an internship or apprenticeship before graduating, according to federal data and surveys by the American Student Assistance nonprofit, now known as Britebound.

Started with just nine students three years ago, Learn and Earn now has 127 鈥� about 10% of the school 鈥� doing internships in fields that include welding, manufacturing and home construction.

The program is open to juniors and seniors, who spend their first semester learning workplace etiquette, doing tours of companies and hearing presentations from different businesses. They then move on to working about 20 hours a week for businesses over the next year and a half, often including summer work.

That meant the school altering its schedule so the students can take academic classes in the morning, leave by 11:45 a.m. and be at their internships by 12:15. That lets them work all afternoon, often staying after school hours to keep working until the end of the work day, as many employers requested.

The school also added training sessions for employers, not just students, before interns would start at a company.

鈥淚t’s so important for our students to be able to look someone in the eyes, shake their hand, dress appropriately, test drug free, and have those professional skills,鈥� Elsing said. 鈥淏ut we found over the last three years that some of these industries have not quite yet mastered how to properly engage and train a Gen Z or Gen Alpha student. Because they are 16, 17, 18-year-olds, they’re not going to come in as polished as your college graduate is going to come in.鈥�

Jacob Reed, 19, who graduated from the high school last May, started working for nearby Kerek Industries, a manufacturer of parts for municipal transit systems, about 20 hours a week as an intern his junior year, continued as a senior and was hired after. He now works part-time while studying engineering at the local community college.

鈥淚’ve already been in a professional work environment for over two years now, so I know what it’s like working jobs, coming every day, knowing what鈥檚 expected of me,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think that gives me a leg up for sure.鈥�

The company even adjusted his work schedule to accommodate final exams and for practices and games for the school鈥檚 football team. Because he could leave school to start work around noon, he could leave at 3 p.m. for practice.

Company owner John Kerek said he knows he has to train students more than when hiring adults, but he said manufacturing companies need employees and everyone has to start somewhere.

鈥淚 expect from day one I’m going to start at the very ground-level basics of 鈥楾his is a machine shop..this is what this machine is capable of doing鈥his is what we’re using it for. ..this is how we check the parts that it’s making,鈥� Kerek said. 鈥淚鈥檝e learned repetition is key. The more I say something, the better it sticks, and the more I let them fail a little bit, the better it sticks too.鈥�

Senior Mackenzie Lofton has a very different internship learning how to be a project manager for a construction business through the Brookes & Henderson Building Company, a builder of luxury homes. He first tried to do the traditional construction trades program through school, but too many students applied and he was shut out.

He has no regrets. Officially, he is a laborer that does low-skill jobs at houses under construction around the region. But the company is also giving him a look at construction he鈥檇 never see in class 鈥� how to run a project.

Zak Mowry, the company鈥檚 operations manager, said schools are good at teaching students specific trades, such as carpentry, electrical or plumbing work. But schools, he said, don鈥檛 provide an overarching look at how to plan and manage all those trades to finish a home. 

So most days Mackenzie sweeps floors and moves construction materials to help skilled workers. But he is also invited to company meetings to plan houses. And every Thursday, he shadows managers as they oversee different aspects of construction, ranging from foundations to heating and cooling. The company even created a hardcover manual and workbook for interns that explains key terms for each specialty and has questions they answer after each shadowing day.

鈥淵ou see all the trades come into action,鈥� he said. 鈥� So you see the foundation being made, you see the electrical running wires, you see the plumbing coming in, you see all the hardware coming in. All those things that are behind the scenes, you get to see out in the field that they don’t teach you in the classroom.鈥�

Just as importantly, Mackenzie is learning management skills by watching managers navigate disputes between different trades, architects and customers on multi-million dollar homes.

鈥淚 feel like I have way more experience because I’m actually in the field, while they’re just learning in classrooms,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou’re interacting with people, getting your social skills up. You also have to be on time, so you’re becoming more responsible as a man and as a person.鈥�

Disclosure: XQ provides financial support to 社区黑料. 

Listen to the episode below. A full transcript follows.

Michael Horn: Governor, Ryan, welcome to The Future of Education. Thanks for being here.

Governor Bush: Good to be at a Primer school.

Michael Horn: Yes, it is indeed. And the history, Governor, of publicly funded widespread universal school choice, educational choice in Florida really gets its start from your time as Governor. You have laws in 1999, 2001, I鈥檇 say 2003, with funding following the student to Florida Virtual. You have all these milestones. As you look back now, 2026, at the state of educational choice here, how would you describe where we are in Florida? Where in the movement, if you will, are we right now?

Governor Bush: We鈥檙e not completely there, but we certainly got to scale for sure. When we started, I think we had 80 kids in that, parents went to a private school with public money. And that鈥檚 expanded over time. One voucher program, another corporate tax scholar program. Today, over 50% of parents in Florida choose where their kids go to school. It could be we have universal public school choice, we have universal Education Savings Accounts. And so we鈥檙e, we鈥檙e building what I think is the right way to educate our children by empowering parents. It鈥檚 really exciting.

Michael Horn: And as you noted, we鈥檙e sitting in a , literally one of hundreds of microschools, low-cost private schools throughout the state right now. I鈥檓 curious, did you envision this sort of education entrepreneurship that we鈥檝e seen when you were Governor?

Governor Bush: I didn鈥檛 envision anything. I hoped that it would happen. My personal belief is that parents deserve to have this power to choose where their kids go to school and if they do that, that there will be schools like Primer, more tools for homeschool kids. Charter schools will emerge. The religious schools that were in decline in terms of providing education to their students would see growth, all of that. I was hopeful it would happen, and I鈥檓 proud that Florida has been a leader. But it鈥檚 also exciting to see it happen across the country.

Michael Horn: Ryan, you鈥檝e been a direct beneficiary of really the foresight of these policies that I think it鈥檚 fair to say. And you also, as I understand it, have quite an intergenerational connection as well when it comes to microschools, educational choice in Florida. What鈥檚 your family connection to the story that鈥檚 unfolded here that started under Governor Bush?

Ryan Delk: Yeah, it鈥檚 interesting. There鈥檚 a very personal connection, but then there鈥檚 also this sort of interesting macro connection. And the personal connection is my mom was a public school teacher, so she was very pro-public schools. We were zoned for. She took me to kindergarten orientation at the school that we were zoned for. And she quickly realized that it was a failing school. It wasn鈥檛 going to meet, you know, her standards for us. We were living with, in my grandparents house at the time in a low income area outside Orlando.

We didn鈥檛 have, you know, any choice to move. We couldn鈥檛 afford private school. And so she just took matters into her own hands. And so she ended up starting one of the first kinds of homeschool microschools in Florida. She got me and my siblings and then about a dozen other kids together and she just willed this thing into existence. And what鈥檚 interesting, and this is where it kind of connects to the macro. So I, this incredible education that frankly was like, you know, significantly higher quality than, you know, what I would have, you know, deserved, you know, relative to our socioeconomic status or what you would have expected. And what鈥檚 interesting is that she started that right before Governor Bush鈥檚 first term.

Impact of Governor Bush鈥檚 Policies

Ryan Delk: And so, we sort of experienced, you know, what I think of as the before times and it was very contrarian. We got a lot of questions. I think she was frankly judged by a lot of people, you know, for, for doing what she did. And then when Governor Bush took office, he, you know, sort of decided to, to go to the mat for, you know, a lot of these issues and make it a key priority. And so we, we actually sort of experienced the shift where it was, it was you know, not only just normalized but sort of like celebrated and empowered. And so I now feel this frankly like a real weight and responsibility as sort of the first generation to benefit from these policies. And then now, three decades later, you know, getting to spend my life building schools like this that open up those same opportunities to students with the same, you know, structure and work that, that not only, you know, Governor鈥檚 administration, but many, many folks since then have carried the torch to unlock these opportunities for kids. And so the weight of that is not lost on me.

And I think it鈥檚 quite powerful that we鈥檙e sort of seeing the second generation now. The folks that had the, that got these opportunities from, from sort of generation one of these programs now being able to reinvest in the next generation is, is quite exciting.

Michael Horn: Well, and it鈥檚 fascinating, right, that narrative of ostracism almost to norm, to expectation, right, for families. And as I understand it, you all at Primer are thinking a lot about the policy and regulatory landscape and some of the critical questions when it comes to things like microschools and the like, zoning, fire safety codes, things of that nature. I know there have been some big developments over the past couple years in Florida around some of those zoning questions. Can you just update us both on what鈥檚 happened, but also why it matters so much?

Ryan Delk: Yeah, so we are, we鈥檙e one of 鈥� there鈥檚 a lot of people doing great work on this ExcelinEd. There鈥檚 a ton of great, great orgs. And so we are one of many people that are working on this issue. There is one, you know, very narrow and perhaps, I think, very underrated, but maybe, you know, kind of unexciting part of the regulatory landscape that I happen to care a lot about, and that is the regulations around new school supply. So there鈥檚 an enormous amount of energy that鈥檚 gone into what I would articulate as the demand side, unlocking funding for parents, making sure that the funding follows the student. And that鈥檚, you know, as we discussed, many decades in the making. But now that that exists, the reality is that a lot of the regulations around starting new schools, and I learned this firsthand, like the amount of nights and weekends that I spent early on at Primer staring at zoning maps of cities and counties is far more than I ever anticipated.

And the reason for that is that there鈥檚 all these regulations that sort of, you know, take as a sort of starting assumption that every school is still a, you know, 60,000 square foot, $30 million build to serve 2,000 students. And so in that framework where every single school looks like that, of course there鈥檚 traffic studies and school bus parking and very intense building regulations, that all makes sense in that context. But now in this world where you have a great educator who wants to open up a school in a church or a community center or, you know, a facility like this, those regulations are quite arduous. And they鈥檙e arduous, you know, we鈥檙e a fairly sophisticated operation. They鈥檙e arduous at times for us, but, but in many ways they鈥檙e impossible for like a sort of seasoned educator that wants to go serve their community. And so what I care is the sort of common sense, right sizing of these regulations specifically for small schools.

So for the large schools, a lot of what鈥檚 in place is, I think, serving that need really well. It makes a lot of sense. But for small schools, we want to make it much easier for those schools to open up in existing facilities to serve their community. And the reason that I care a lot about this is that I鈥檝e seen firsthand stories of dozens, maybe hundreds of educators who want to start not just primaries, but all sorts of types of schools who reach out to us and say, hey, I got stuck. I have, you know, I鈥檓 trying to get this building permit, I鈥檓 trying to get this code, I can鈥檛 figure out zoning, or I鈥檝e got to do a nine month variance process. All these things that are sort of just, just incredibly arduous for the task at hand. And so we spend a lot of time and a lot of energy from a legislative perspective making sure that we can knock down those barriers.

Michael Horn: Governor, I want to broaden the view now beyond Florida and think about these sorts of questions, supply questions, others, in the context of this sort of nationwide movement right now we鈥檙e seeing toward educational choice. And I鈥檓 curious both of your takes on a couple of items that we can run down. First, it strikes me just thinking about what you said on the zoning side of it. As an onlooker, there鈥檚 a pretty robust demand right now for different options that meet different kids needs. But the supply side that you just described, so you鈥檙e taking some significant steps there, but getting a sustainable supply side that鈥檚 affordable, low cost, private schools like Primer. What鈥檚 holding up the supply side? What else should we be thinking about in terms of that? Or maybe my perspective is wrong on this, but I would love to think about how do we really encourage this robust supply side.

Governor Bush: Ten years ago, the big fight was how do we get charter schools to be able to access, as public schools to access public capital, what we call in Florida pico dollars. And that was a struggle because look, the public schools feel threatened by all these choices. I mean my, my hope and dream is that there鈥檒l be a superintendent in Miami-Dade County or some other place that says every child that goes to school in my county is my responsibility, and I鈥檓 going to create a menu of options for parents, and I鈥檓 going to try to do everything I can to make sure that every child succeeds.

Michael Horn: So really helping them navigate to the right option.

Funding challenges for private schools

Governor Bush: Yeah, but if you had that attitude, you wouldn鈥檛 be, you know, making it impossible for a private school to get a permit or you wouldn鈥檛 have, you wouldn鈥檛 restrict private capital to come in. I mean, there鈥檚 really one institutional source of money for private school capitalists, the Drexel Fund, which is for Catholic schools. The charters have, you know, three or four fundraising operations for their capital growth needs. So that鈥檚 part of it is you need to have more private philanthropy come in. But ultimately this should be a state responsibility as well. I mean, do we, do we do this in Medicaid? Do we have government run doctors and government run nurses and government run clinics? Some, but it鈥檚 not the dominant way that someone that is qualified for Medicaid gets access to healthcare. We should have the same mindset for education. And I think you would have an acceleration of really interesting options both in terms of hybrid learning, you know, where a parent could choose to take care of many much of their healthcare, their education needs, or they could go to Primer and take some of the money maybe and go to do something that accelerates the learning.

This is where we鈥檙e moving and there鈥檚 still, it鈥檚 work in progress. But I鈥檓 really excited that Ryan and others like him, education entrepreneurs, are advancing this at a pace that鈥檚 pretty exciting.

Michael Horn: Ryan, what鈥檚 your take on this in terms of the sustainable supply? What鈥檚 it going to take to get supply to meet the demand that we鈥檙e seeing?

Ryan Delk: I think it鈥檚 all about cost. And we have this core value that acts as the constraint. And so we start from the place of Primer needs to be accessible to every family, regardless of income. We鈥檝e never turned away a student. And so some of the regulatory work that we鈥檝e discussed that to me is all connected to this idea of how do you get these schools open as efficiently as possible and then how do you get the cost to educate down where parents can attend these schools for ideally nothing. Ideally it鈥檚 completely free. They just use their ESA and they can just attend the school. But if there is some out of pocket, it鈥檚 50 bucks a month or 75 bucks a month.

And to me that is the key thing to unlock because then these scholarships are accessible or they鈥檙e unlocking opportunities for the families that need it most. The families that can afford a $15, $20,000 a year school, they don鈥檛 necessarily need these options as desperately as the families that are trapped in schools that are not serving their needs. And so that鈥檚 what we鈥檙e obsessed with. And I think there鈥檚 a kind of growing coalition that鈥檚 really focused on this low cost, high quality private school.

Michael Horn: Second thing I鈥檓 curious about, and we鈥檒l go to my inner wonk here, your inner wonk here, which is there鈥檚 been a big proliferation of Education Savings Accounts across the country right now. But there are subtleties in the policies in different states, and I鈥檒l just name a few of them because I鈥檓 curious what you all think about the impact of these differences. I鈥檓 thinking of the increasing number of states with accreditation requirements for example. Florida, you know, does not. You have some states that require external assessments of students in these low cost private schools. Some don鈥檛. Some states are tuition first ESAs and some are not. Some allow you to roll over dollars even for post secondary education.

So it really creates a savings and value ethos as opposed to others that are not. We in the media often call these all ESA states. Are we sort of masking over these subtleties? Do they matter, the variants? Are we lumping them sort of at expense of understanding what we鈥檙e really trying to create here? What鈥檚 your perspective on these differences?

Importance of State Flexibility

Governor Bush: My perspective is that鈥檚 all good. You know, if we had one size fits all, it鈥檇 probably be driven out of Washington and that would be. It wouldn鈥檛 happen. It would be an unmitigated disaster. So having states have the ability to implement as best they can a version of ESA and then modify it as they go along because someone from another state鈥檚 done something interesting like the Education Savings Account where you can reinvest it if you didn鈥檛 spend the whole amount. I mean that鈥檚 an interesting idea that may catch on for all the states that don鈥檛 have it now. To me, I think the baseline should be there鈥檚 a financial responsibility that if you鈥檙e taking taxpayers money directly or indirectly, you should be a good steward of that money. And there鈥檚 health and safety issues that are really important, particularly for young kids. Beyond that, let鈥檚 let a thousand flowers bloom and come up with the best approach.

The important thing is that we get to scale so that parents demand that no one tries to take it away. That鈥檚 the first mission and that鈥檚 happening. You know, if 50% of all kids in Florida parents choose, it鈥檚 going to be hard to imagine if someone wants to come and try to re regulate this and have it just be traditional schools being the only option. I don鈥檛 think that鈥檚 going to happen. Texas, you know, having a hundred thousand kids to start with and over time that growing is going to create another kind of scalable moment for that state. And so if you try to impose a bunch of rules on top of that, it鈥檚 not going to grow at the speed that I think will make it more effective.

Michael Horn: Ryan, what鈥檚 your take on the variance?

Ryan Delk: I mean, I鈥檓 a personal big fan of federalism so I just have a personal bias towards that. But I think what I鈥檓 encouraged by is the movement is coalescing around the right things. And so when you look at the programs that have launched recently, they have measures to make sure that the providers are delivering for students, they鈥檙e fiscally responsible, the dollars are flowing to low-income, working-class, middle-class families that need them. And so I鈥檓 really encouraged by the way, I think the last four programs that have launched at scale have all had versions of that in place. And I think if that鈥檚 taking the best practices from other states, implementing them into new programs, and if that continues then I鈥檓 quite optimistic.

Improving financial accountability systems

Governor Bush: You know, one of the things that could be done in a federal system, and it鈥檚 happening right now, and ExcelinEd is working on this is to create a coding project because right now the technology isn鈥檛 the same as it would be for a health savings account, for example, or think about your MasterCard or Visa. All this stuff is done, you know, we have no clue how it, at least I don鈥檛 have any clue how it works, but it works really well. Whereas if you think about all the coding that could happen to make sure that there鈥檚 financial accountability and also that parents aren鈥檛 out of pocket making these commitments that they don鈥檛 have the resources to do because of some bureaucratic snafu at the state level. So there are things that could be done, but those are more like private sector enhancements that will make this more effective.

Michael Horn: And I guess it also helps the supply side so that those dollars actually reach the operators. Right. Ryan, you鈥檙e not sitting there waiting for it. Let me ask, Governor Bush, if we zoom out, what do you see as the big flashpoints to come in educational choice? It could be Florida, but also nationwide.

Governor Bush: Well, you can see it happen if there is, I鈥檒l use Florida as an example. We have several hundred thousand, we have half of all the ESA kids are in our state. So you could have 1/10 of 1% of those transactions take place in a way that is inappropriate as they鈥檙e trying to sort out. You know, you鈥檙e dealing with scale, it鈥檚 hard to do all that. And so then you know, Senator Schmidlap will want to say well we need to like regulate this and regulate that. That鈥檚 the biggest danger is Washington getting involved or states trying to re regulate to deal with the tiny fraction of problems that impacts 99.9% of families. So regulate in terms of testing. We should trust parents to make these decisions and then give them the tools to be informed consumers and give them an array of choices.

And we need to protect that. That to me, you can see this happening at the state level. New governor comes in, they feel compelled to do something. And I鈥檓 very fearful of Washington getting involved. I鈥檓 excited about the tax credit program, but I haven鈥檛 seen the rules. And, you know, I鈥檓 paranoid about this stuff because I鈥檝e seen there鈥檚 too many examples of Washington with good intentions getting things wrong.

Michael Horn: Ryan, I鈥檇 love to hear your reflections on the big flashpoints of the moment and both to comment around what the Governor just named, because you鈥檙e operating not just in Florida. So what are you seeing as those big questions or big issues that the field鈥檚 going to really have to think about or protect against in the years to come?

Focus on quality in education

Ryan Delk: I mean, I think a lot of people care a lot about education in this country, and that鈥檚 a good thing overall. And so there鈥檚, you know, people with strong perspectives on both sides. A lot is changing. The world is changing really quickly. And my view on this is there will continue to be flashpoints, there鈥檚 going to continue to be contentious policy debates and accreditation and testing and all these things. But I really believe, I have deep conviction that if we stay focused on delivering high-quality academic outcomes in a way that鈥檚 accessible for every family, that is the winning strategy. And if we can stay laser focused on that and all the inputs to that, from, you know, great rigorous academics to unlocking the regulatory environment for new schools to open, to empowering educators to serve their communities, if we stay just maniacally focused on that, I think everything else falls into place. Because when you unlock those opportunities for those kids, and it鈥檚 not just that family that becomes a huge advocate for this movement, it鈥檚 their city council member, their city commissioner, all these people start to see, wow, this is transforming this community.

And when you do that, I think that is the winning focus. And so I hope that that can be the thing that we all rally around. And obviously these flashpoints will continue to happen. But that鈥檚 what we鈥檙e focused on. We鈥檙e going to stay maniacally focused on that. And I think a lot of other folks will too.

Michael Horn: I was curious about the assessment piece of this.

It seems this is much more of a trust the parents accountability model model that you鈥檇 sign up for as opposed to with traditional public schools. Let鈥檚 test. Is that accurate?

Governor Bush: It鈥檚 accurate, but I think parents 鈥� most states do have norm reference tests as a measurement of how kids are doing. And if you want parents to be empowered to make these choices, they need to be informed about the caliber of the education. So I personally support the idea of norm reference tests, and that鈥檚 the norm across the country. But I鈥檓 respectful of places like Arizona that, you know, want to have a little more libertarian approach. It seems to work well there, and maybe it鈥檚 part of their culture, a little bit more of their culture than it is in another place in the country.

Michael Horn: Final word. Governor, as you reflect over a quarter century of publicly funded choice in Florida, and we sit in a school that probably could not have existed, serving the students, you know, that could not have been in such an environment before if it weren鈥檛 for these policies that you started to put in place. What are your final reflections?

Governor Bush: Look, when you get a chance to serve, it鈥檚 really cool over the long haul to see successive legislatures and Governors embrace this idea and build on it. And I鈥檓 proud that our political leadership over the last 25 years has accelerated this. And my hope is that it stays the course. Look, big ideas take a long time. You could be patient. You got to be stubborn. In some cases you can. You just, you gotta, you know, stick with it.

Parental involvement in education

Governor Bush: And in Florida, that鈥檚 the case, I don鈥檛 think. And I would say there are external issues as well. If we didn鈥檛 have COVID, which allowed parents to really realize that maybe their kids weren鈥檛 getting the education that they thought they were getting because they became the teachers of their kids and they saw the slop that many of them sadly had to deal with, that accelerated it even more. So I鈥檓 excited about this. I think it鈥檚 really important that we stay the course because the world we鈥檙e moving toward at warp speed is exciting, but it鈥檚 also really scary. And you want to make sure that kids can read at the end of third grade in a capable way so that they can learn in a dramatic way, and that parents know what鈥檚 best for their kids to make the right choices. And there鈥檚 an array of them. That鈥檚 the mission, and it seems to be doing quite well right now.

Michael Horn: Governor, Ryan, thank you so much for joining me in this conversation.

Launched in 1967 by the College Board, the nonprofit that also administers Advanced Placement exams, CLEP provides a highly-accessible pathway toward gaining college credits and reducing the time and cost of earning a degree. Yet, it is largely unknown to most American high school students, who are more familiar with AP exams tied to high school-based courses that can also lead to college credit. 

Cruz鈥檚 school had limited AP options, so she took CLEP exams throughout high school with the plan of transferring her college credits to a local university, East Tennessee State, and completing a bachelor鈥檚 degree quickly and at a much lower cost. Then, her plans changed. 鈥淚 found out I got into Harvard, and they gave me really amazing financial aid,鈥� said Cruz, who plans to major in human developmental and regenerative biology. 鈥淚 think having the CLEP exams on my resume showed that I had initiative.鈥�

Unlike AP exams, which are typically tied to semester- or year-long high school courses and are administered only once each year, CLEP exams aren鈥檛 connected to a specific course and can be taken any time at a local testing center or online through remote-proctoring. This flexibility was also a flaw: CLEP was an exam without a course.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 when the light went on,鈥� said New York philanthropist and private equity executive, Steve Klinsky. He founded the in 2017 to offer free, online courses connected to CLEP exam content, as well as to provide testing fee waivers to expand access. 鈥淐LEP exams have been around since the Vietnam War, but everyone had forgotten about them. We reverse-engineered to create the courses for the exams,鈥� he said, adding that it seemed like such a simple and straightforward solution to helping address the college access and affordability challenge. 鈥淚t was so obvious that I felt duty-bound to do it,鈥� he said.

Klinsky has been passionate about education since the early 1990s, when he launched an afterschool program in New York City named after his late brother. He then went on to create the first public charter school in Harlem in 1999, before starting New Mountain Capital, a private equity firm that today has $60 billion in assets under management. 

In the 2010s, Klinsky was intrigued by the rapid rise of massive open online courses or MOOCs that enabled anyone to take free courses, often taught by top professors and subject-matter experts. He appreciated the decentralization of knowledge but felt that MOOCs were missing a key element: course credit. At the same time, he saw that CLEP exams offered credit for content knowledge but without courses. Modern States was built to bridge that gap.

Over the past nine years, some 800,000 students have taken free courses through Modern States in preparation for CLEP exams, which range from 90 to 120 minutes in length. A passing score can lead to course credit at nearly 3,000 colleges and universities, from community colleges to state flagships. For Harvard-bound Cruz, Modern States was especially beneficial. She estimates that about one-third of her college credits came through CLEP.

I first heard about CLEP and Modern States two years ago when my older daughter took the Calculus CLEP exam at Bunker Hill Community College here in Boston, Massachusetts. She was a homeschooled high schooler at the time, taking dual enrollment courses through the community college. Modern States was the resource she used to review material for the CLEP exam, which enabled her to place into Calculus III and an advanced physics course. Those course credits transferred easily to the four-year university she attends, where she is now a pure math major.

Prior to Modern States there were not many options for course preparation or help in covering the $97 exam cost, plus additional testing center fees. These constraints limited the number of students who knew about the exams. Some homeschoolers and other nontraditional students took advantage of CLEP, as did U.S. military personnel who can receive exam fee waivers through the federal government. But it wasn鈥檛 a widely-known tool for acquiring course credit to save on tuition costs. 

At Bunker Hill, CLEP is touted as an opportunity to gain credit for content that students already know, with links to Modern States鈥檚 free courses and exam fee waivers featured prominently on the college鈥檚 website. Adult learners who may be returning to college or entering later in life find the exams particularly valuable, as do native French-, Spanish-, or German-speaking students, who gain credit for their language proficiency. 鈥淐ommunity colleges in general can’t wait to save their students time and money,鈥� said Danielle Tabela, Bunker Hill鈥檚 director of testing services and assessment.

Klinsky can鈥檛 wait either. He sees CLEP and free Modern States courses as a means to make college more affordable for more students 鈥淭his is a paradigm for the way to really reduce the cost of higher or vocational education,鈥� he said, explaining that he would like to see free online courses created for anything that has a credit-bearing exam as an endpoint, whether it鈥檚 for college or career.

鈥淚f Abe Lincoln was reincarnated 鈥� with no money, just brains and ambition 鈥� this is how he would get one year of college paid for, maybe two,鈥� he said. 鈥淎ll you need is access to the internet.鈥� Klinsky and his team at Modern States are eager to see this paradigm for course credit expand, including helping more high school students and their families access CLEP exams.听

He also hopes that more organizations, employers and government agencies that care about expanding access to post-secondary education and reducing the costs of college will recognize the opportunity that Modern States has found, while exploring similar strategies beyond CLEP.听

鈥淢y family is very proud to support this at a full level for many years, but ultimately free courses and exams is a method that could save money and help lots of people,鈥� said Klinsky.

鈥淩esting up from my vacay.鈥�

鈥淣etflix binge last night.鈥�

Those were among the 鈥渓ame excuses鈥� for missing school that Oklahoma鈥檚 Union Public Schools featured during the 2024-25 school year, part of a humorous campaign intended to reduce chronic absenteeism.

Behind the comical posters, however, leaders were troubled by the data. During the 2022-23 school year, 29% of students missed at least 10% of the school year. At Union High School, the rate soared to 43%.

鈥淚 think there have been huge changes in behavior since COVID,鈥� said Chris Payne, spokesman for the Tulsa-area district. He echoed what policy experts and school leaders nationwide have been saying since rates skyrocketed after schools fully reopened. 鈥淚 think people reprioritized and decided, 鈥榊ou know, I’ve got things I need to take care of.鈥� 鈥�

In addition to the attendance campaign, staff met with parents and visited students鈥� homes to find out why they were missing school. But starting in 2027, Oklahoma schools will no longer be judged on whether those chronic absenteeism rates go up or down. The legislature voted last year to remove the indicator from the state鈥檚 education accountability system as a factor that contributes to a school鈥檚 overall grade and can determine whether a school is labeled in need of improvement. 

Among , teachers and administrators, there鈥檚 a sense of relief.

鈥淚’m not sure that it’s fair to evaluate schools based on something that we cannot control,鈥� said Mike Simpson, superintendent of the Guthrie Public Schools, north of Oklahoma City. Originally in favor of making chronic absenteeism a factor in schools鈥� A-F grades, he no longer thinks it鈥檚 a good way to assess schools.

Oklahoma鈥檚 most , for 2024-25, gives the state a D for the percentage of students with good attendance. Its chronic absenteeism rate of 19% is far from the worst in the nation, but it鈥檚 still 5 percentage points above the state鈥檚 pre-pandemic level of 14%. Data from shows the rate stands at about 21%. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 not just an Oklahoma thing,鈥� Simpson said. 鈥淚’ve got colleagues and friends all over the country, and they’re fighting some of the same challenges.鈥�

Oklahoma isn鈥檛 the first state to remove chronic absenteeism from its accountability system. Arkansas took it out in 2024 as part of . Illinois officials have recommended replacing chronic absenteeism with , and now reports broader attendance data rather than just chronic absenteeism.

鈥楽tates already had the data鈥�

The federal Every Student Succeeds Act requires state accountability systems, and the report cards available to the public include indicators of academic performance, graduation rates, progress in learning English and an additional measure of student success. For that last metric, 38 states chose chronic absenteeism.

The U.S. Department of Education confirmed that it鈥檚 currently considering the state鈥檚 request to replace chronic absenteeism with a new measure, but so far, state officials haven鈥檛 said what that鈥檚 going to be. The challenge will be landing on a K-12 data point that is comparable across Oklahoma鈥檚 more than 500 districts, said Paige Kowalski, executive vice president for the Data Quality Campaign. The nonprofit has published reviews of state report cards since 2016.

Chronic absenteeism 鈥渨as an inexpensive indicator to implement because states already had the data,鈥� she said. Adopting a new measure, she said, could require districts to pay for changes to their student information systems and spend time training staff to collect and input the data. In addition, she said, it takes two years to ensure data is reliable enough to use in decisions about school ratings.

But the connections between chronic absenteeism and student achievement are backed by years of research. , for example, showed that a 1% increase in attendance was linked to a 1.5% jump in third graders passing the state reading test. showed that students who were chronically absent in middle school had lower math scores and were less likely to graduate on time than those who didn鈥檛 miss as much school. 

Kowalski said there鈥檚 plenty schools can do to improve attendance. Reducing bullying, increasing teacher retention and challenges, she said, can address some of the reasons students miss school.

Transportation surfaced as a barrier when the Union district surveyed parents, teachers and students on the issue. But teachers were far less likely than parents to say that reliable transportation would improve attendance 鈥� 25% compared to 47%. There were also stark differences between parents and students. Twenty-three percent of students said mental health reasons kept them home, while 12% of parents said that was a common explanation. 

Tulsa makes progress

Some communities in Oklahoma have adopted a tough posture toward parents whose children are frequently absent. Erik Johnson, a Republican district attorney in the southeastern part of the state, has prosecuted and jailed parents to force compliance with the law. 

Prior to the pandemic, Guthrie allowing police to fine parents for their kids鈥� truancy, but Simpson, the superintendent, said those measures didn鈥檛 鈥渕ove the needle.鈥�

In Tulsa, the state鈥檚 largest district, Board Member Stacey Woolley said she鈥檚 glad chronic absenteeism is no longer part of the grading formula because the indicator lowered schools鈥� scores. 

鈥淎t the same time, we have to continue to make it a priority,鈥� she said. When leaders examine student data, they find that students who struggle are chronically absent, regardless of their socioeconomic status. 

The district鈥檚 work shows that reductions are possible. The rate has declined over the past two years from 44% to 37%, and have seen drops of at least 10% compared to last school year. 

Such efforts won鈥檛 go completely unrewarded. Under the to the Education Department, schools that lower chronic absenteeism could still score 鈥渂onus points鈥� toward their grade but the indicator won鈥檛 be used in determining which schools are identified as needing improvement. 

By the end of the Union district鈥檚 campaign, chronic absenteeism had dropped by about 1.4%, well below the goal of 7%. Still, Payne said, the progress equated to 200 fewer chronically absent students. 

Leaders also realized something else: Students in the district鈥檚 career-tech programs, like aerospace and construction, had lower absenteeism rates than those in the general student population. Now, in response to local workforce shortages, the district has launched a healthcare career pathway as well. 

鈥淚 had students that didn鈥檛 really have a direction,鈥� said Jason McMullen, who teaches aviation courses at the district鈥檚 Innovation Lab. 鈥淭hen they see a helicopter land and that lightbulb goes off.鈥�

On a recent Wednesday morning, some students at the lab learned how to secure safety wire to the nuts and bolts that hold planes together, while others patched holes in sheetrock. 

The change to the state鈥檚 accountability system, 鈥渄oesn鈥檛 mean we’re going to quit working on it,鈥� said Payne, the district鈥檚 spokesman. 鈥淭he reality remains that if students are not present, they’re not going to perform and have success in school and life.鈥�

To Lila Byock, one of two California moms suing Curriculum Associates over its product i-Ready, the advisory was the right move. Thousands of school districts use the program, with its animated alien characters, to give students practice in math and reading.

鈥淓xcessive classroom screen use is a public health crisis,鈥� she said, adding that district leaders should 鈥渞educe the use of individual devices, reinvest in paper curricula and stop letting Big Ed Tech exploit our kids for profit.鈥�

Districts like and , are already rethinking their use of i-Ready or in response to growing backlash from parents. , led by the Austin-based EdTech Law Center, could be one reason. The complaint argues that the company gained 鈥渧irtually unfettered access鈥� to children鈥檚 personal information, like birth date, gender, race and disability status, and shared it with 鈥渕yriad third parties.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Curriculum Associates denies the accusations. 

鈥淐urriculum Associates takes student data privacy extremely seriously, and the claims in this litigation are without merit,鈥� a spokesperson told 社区黑料. 鈥淲e do not sell student data, use it for advertising, or create commercial profiles of students. All use of student information is limited to supporting the educational services requested and authorized by schools and districts in compliance with applicable federal and state laws.鈥�

Ed tech vendors rely on long-standing federal that says 鈥渟chools may act as the parent鈥檚 agent,鈥� provided the data they gather is for educational, not commercial, purposes. 

The lawyers taking ed tech companies to court are challenging that guidance. Linnette Attai, a data privacy consultant and founder of Playwell, LLC, said the complaint over i-Ready is based on 鈥渁 lot of speculation,鈥� but it has still put vendors and education leaders on alert.

鈥淐urriculum Associates is facing significant legal bills, but also a public relations and customer retention issue. The industry is sitting up and taking notice,鈥� she said. But she said the issues the complaints raise are 鈥渂etter suited for legislators and not a courtroom.鈥�

鈥楾heories of consent鈥�

Congress passed the in 1998, requiring online sites to verify parents鈥� approval before they collect, use or share information from children under 13. 

Last , the Federal Trade Commission鈥檚 FAQ on the law says that schools 鈥渃an consent under COPPA to the collection of kids鈥� information on the parent鈥檚 behalf.鈥�

But with that put students鈥� privacy at risk and that digital tools benefit kids, the attorneys representing parents like Byock hope to defeat that interpretation of the law. 

鈥淭hese theories of consent that companies rely on in order to bypass actual consent from parents are all bogus,鈥� said Andrew Liddell, one half of the husband-and-wife legal team behind the EdTech Law Center. 鈥淭hey have no basis in the law whatsoever.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

The FTC updated its COPPA regulation in early 2025, but left the school consent issue alone. The agency, however, it was 鈥渃oncerned about the use of and other engagement techniques to keep kids online in ways that could harm their mental health.鈥�

Last summer, the FTC submitted an in support of EdTech Law Center in a separate , an online learning platform used by more than 18 million students. The Liddells sued on behalf of three Kansas families who said the company uses 鈥渄eceptive design techniques鈥� to keep kids hooked and shares their data with a 鈥渉ost of private companies.鈥� The families have asked for monetary damages.  

The law, the FTC wrote, does not create an 鈥渁gency relationship between schools and the parents of school children.鈥�

The Liddells say the brief is the most definitive statement yet that parents, not schools, have the final say over what data ed tech vendors can access. But the FTC hasn鈥檛 changed its existing guidance, and other student privacy experts say schools can continue to it.

A spokesperson for the FTC told 社区黑料 it doesn鈥檛 鈥渉ave anything to add to the amicus brief.鈥�

鈥楾he long game鈥�

Meg Leta Jones, founder of the Center for Digital Ethics at Georgetown University, said there is tension in Washington over this issue. On one hand, the administration is 鈥渢rying to be pro-AI,鈥� she said. First lady Melania Trump entered a White House education summit in April alongside a saying, 鈥淭he future of A.I. is 鈥榩ersonified,鈥� 鈥� 

At the same time, Republicans support parental rights, and a few months earlier, a Senate committee held to examine the harms of ed tech.

鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to move when both of those things are happening,鈥� Jones said. The lawsuits are important, she said, because they take the issue out of federal officials鈥� hands. 鈥淐larity around this consent issue is what will come in the long game.鈥�

Outside the courts, the litigation has inspired more parents to push for restrictions on i-Ready and other ed tech platforms. Parents in New York City鈥檚 District 4, on Manhattan鈥檚 East Side, noted the i-Ready lawsuit in a calling for screen time limits. 

Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, a mom of two who chairs the Community Education Council for District 4, has already opted her kids out of i-Ready and NWEA鈥檚 MAP tests. But she said she remains 鈥渁 thousand percent鈥� concerned about her 14-year-old鈥檚 use of programs like Google Classroom, IXL and JumpRope, a grading platform.

The resolution cited a recent finding 141 data breaches or 鈥渦nauthorized data releases鈥� between 2023 and 2025. The district, the New York comptroller鈥檚 office said, doesn鈥檛 have an 鈥渁ccurate inventory鈥� of all of the software programs schools use or the privacy risks involved. 

鈥淚t’s like ed tech on steroids,鈥� said Salas-Ramirez, also a neuroscientist who trains future doctors. 鈥淲e don’t have the data to validate that these quote unquote tools, instruments or assessments provide us anything worthwhile.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

鈥楢dministrative nightmare鈥�

Ed tech experts say schools wouldn鈥檛 be able to function if vendors had to get consent directly from parents for all the online products students use in the classroom. 

It鈥檚 an 鈥渁dministrative nightmare鈥� said Mark Williams, a California attorney who specializes in ed tech contracts and student privacy. 鈥淭hrow that out the window; it doesn鈥檛 work.鈥�

Vendors share data with third parties. That part isn鈥檛 in dispute. The question is if it鈥檚 being shared, as the FTC says, 鈥渇or the use and benefit of the school鈥� or falling into the hands of companies that use it for marketing or targeted ads based on students鈥� characteristics.  

A last year offered another look into what happens when kids click answers or type personal information into a program. The state board turned to , a nonprofit that tests software products, to investigate 100 apps commonly used in the state鈥檚 schools. 

The review found that over a third shared student information with advertisers. shared data with six advertisers. Others shared data with dozens of advertisers as well as with sites like Google and Microsoft.

The report stressed that the 鈥減resence of sharing alone does not necessarily constitute a contract violation.鈥� Some sharing is necessary for an app to function properly, the authors wrote.

It鈥檚 鈥渃ommon sense鈥� for a vendor to share data they collect to fix bugs or security flaws, said Steve Smith, executive director of , a global network of vendors and schools. But legally, it鈥檚 鈥渁 little bit of a stretch鈥� for a company to create a new program with that information.

Vendors go too far when they share 鈥渋ncredibly sensitive student data鈥� from a school monitoring app to develop a new product, said Amelia Vance, president of the nonprofit Public Interest Privacy Center. Many schools use such programs to monitor for online threats or risks of self harm.

鈥淭he companies have everything the kid has done online, everything that they’ve written in the Google Drive,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou can think about that extremely personal information then being used to create a personalized learning platform that they sell back to schools.鈥�

鈥楶retty opaque鈥�

Inspired by Utah鈥檚 work, Access4Learning is developing a tool that districts can use to track what vendors do with student information. Leaders expect to launch it later this year. 

But that might not satisfy the concerns of some parents leading the charge against ed tech. They often point out that such organizations or have received funding from some of the very companies the screen-free lobby opposes. The growing mistrust surfaced at last December that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration held to discuss kids鈥� 鈥渆xcessive screen time.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

鈥淓d tech is so devious that it’s created dozens of nonprofits cloaked as online safety organizations,鈥� Lisa Cline, a Maryland parent who has advocated against screens in the Montgomery County Public Schools, said at the event. 鈥淪ome of them are here today. Look closely. These guys are bankrolled by big tech and frankly, they mock the work that unpaid people like myself do to educate parents.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

While the lawsuits between parents and vendors could drag on for a while, districts should at least be transparent about the products they鈥檙e using, said Williams, the California attorney. 

Parents are allowing districts 鈥渢o collect and give to a third party data that they would not otherwise be entitled to,鈥� he said. In return, educators should explain what data they take and what they do with it. 鈥淯nfortunately, that process can be pretty opaque.鈥�