Just News 2.20.26

Teaching, Leading, and Social Justice

Why Public School Families Are Protesting Linda McMahon’s Visits

Jessica Grosse, New York Times

After spending nearly a year gutting her own department — a policy choice that was ripped from the pages of Project 2025 — the secretary of education, Linda McMahon, has launched a cross-country tour called “History Rocks!” The tour, which is meant to highlight civics education and celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary, is made possible by the Education Department’s leftover funds from the 2025 fiscal year (perhaps when you fire over 1,300 people, you have some money lying around). McMahon’s involvement includes visiting classrooms, speaking to students, delivering a speech and hosting American history-themed games. “The History Rocks! initiative is a key component of the U.S. Department of Education’s America 250 celebrations, coordinated with the America 250 Civics Education Coalition, a national partnership with the America First Policy Institute, Turning Point USA, Hillsdale College, and more than 50 national and state organizations,” according to a news release from the Department of Education.

LAUSD approves reduction in force that could affect 3,200 employees

Mallika Seshadri, EdSource

The Los Angeles Unified School District board voted Tuesday to approve a reduction-in-force plan that could send notices of a possible layoff to roughly 3,200 employees, administrators, central office and centrally funded positions, though roughly 650 layoffs are expected. Employees, representing less than 1% of LAUSD’s roughly 83,000-person workforce, will be notified of pending layoffs on March 15, per state law, according to Tuesday’s board materials. Los Angeles is the second-largest school district in the country. To a chorus of cheers and boos, the 4-3 decision comes amid the district’s financial difficulties, including a projected deficit of $877 million for the 2026-27 academic year and $443 million for the following year, according to board materials. The reduction in force is supposed to help save roughly $250 million as part of LAUSD’s Fiscal Stabilization Plan.

The greatest risk of AI in higher education isn’t cheating – it’s the erosion of learning itself 

Nir Eisikovits and Jacob Burley, The Conversation 

Public debate about artificial intelligence in higher education has largely orbited a familiar worry: cheating. Will students use chatbots to write essays? Can instructors tell? Should universities ban the tech? Embrace it? These concerns are understandable. But focusing so much on cheating misses the larger transformation already underway, one that extends far beyond student misconduct and even the classroom. Universities are adopting AI across many areas of institutional life. Some uses are largely invisible, like systems that help allocate resources, flag “at-risk” students, optimize course scheduling or automate routine administrative decisions. Other uses are more noticeable. Students use AI tools to summarize and study, instructors use them to build assignments and syllabuses and researchers use them to write code, scan literature and compress hours of tedious work into minutes.

Language, Culture, and Power

NAEd Sends Letter to DHS and ICE Addressing Educational Implications of Immigration Enforcement Actions

National Academy of Education

The National Academy of Education’s Board of Directors sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement urging them to enact practices to ensure that all students feel safe and secure attending school and all parents and guardians feel safe bringing their children to and from school. Education has long been recognized as the backbone of our American democracy, and we have a strong legal and moral tradition of educating all children, regardless of their or their family’s immigration status. Historically, schools have been protected spaces in our society designed to nurture healthy development and educate and socialize future generations to democratic values. Grounded in research on child development, school climate, and student well-being, the letter summarizes evidence showing that heightened enforcement activity negatively affects student attendance, achievement, engagement, and mental health. Research documents increases in absenteeism following enforcement raids, as well as long-term harms associated with fear of family separation including toxic stress. Moreover, these effects extend beyond students in immigrant families and impact entire school communities.

In the Fight Against ICE, Kids Are on the Front Lines

Madeline Lane-McKinley, In These Times

On Saturday, January 31, my partner, Kyle, and our 14-year-old, Zinnia, joined a union-organized rally dubbed ​“Labor Against ICE” in Portland. Packed with union members and local groups, as well as families, children and elders, there were thousands of people and all the markings of a ​“peaceful protest.” After speeches from city councilmembers, immigration lawyers and community members, the rally then formed into a march to the ICE facility several blocks away. Within minutes, they were tear-gassed by federal agents. That night, I was at an event in Seattle, reading the messages pouring in. When they could safely call, Zinnia told me about a six-year-old child standing next to them, asking her mother about the loud sounds. As soon as the chemical cloud reached them, the child’s sibling fell behind them. 

Students Across the U.S. Are Protesting ICE. Texas Wants to Punish Their Schools. 

J. David GoodmanMary Beth Gahan and Callie Holtermann, New York Times

Students in more than three dozen states have walked out of class to protest the Trump administration’s deportation tactics in recent weeks, a wave of defiant demonstrations that continues as some officials have vowed to crack down. Teenagers in Utah carried backpacks and bullhorns as they walked out of eight schools in Salt Lake County. In Maine, students in mittens convened on a bridge over the Kennebec River. Scores of students were seen stopping highway traffic in Maryland. Classmates at a high school in Sunnyside, Wash., lined a parking lot carrying hand-drawn posters. “We are skipping our lesson to teach you one,” read one. But in Texas, where more than half of all public school students are Hispanic, Republican leaders have tried teaching a very different lesson of their own, threatening students, teachers and school districts with severe consequences for taking part in demonstrations.

Whole Children and Strong Communities

The teacher who won $1m for turning India’s slums into open-air classrooms

Cherylann Mollan, BBC News

A narrow lane in Mumbai city’s upmarket Colaba area opens up to a patch of land filled with small concrete cubicles – nooks washermen use to clean and dry the city’s laundry.

Surrounding the area are shanties painted in bright hues – red, blue, green and yellow – which sit one on top of the other like puzzle blocks in a lopsided Tetris game. The settlement is largely inhabited by washermen and their families, many of whom live and work there.

Tucked within the maze is a small learning centre offering free lessons in basic math and language skills, helping their children get a formal education for the first time, or return to it after dropping out from school. The centre is run by a non-profit founded by Rouble Nagi, a 45-year-old artist who for three decades has worked to bring education to some of the city’s most marginalised communities.

When after-school programs are out of reach, kids miss more than activities

Daniel Gage, Wisconsin Examiner

I have visited many after-school and summer programs across Wisconsin, from large urban sites to small rural schools, and what I’ve seen has stayed with me. I’ve watched students immersed in creative writing, acting and robotics. I’ve observed staff working one-on-one with kids navigating intense emotional challenges. And I’ve seen the smiles on middle schoolers’ faces as they reconnect with trusted mentors at the end of the school day. These programs are not “extras”; they provide crucial support to kids, families, and entire communities. And yet, for far too many Wisconsin families, these opportunities remain out of reach. According to the latest America After 3PM report, nearly 275,000 Wisconsin children who would participate in after-school programs are not enrolled because none are available. Four in five children who could benefit from these supports are missing out. Parents cite cost, lack of transportation, and a simple lack of local programming as the biggest barriers.

Hawaii Bill Would Turn Kids Into Published Authors At Kalihi Schools 

Tia Lewis, AP News

The challenges facing students at Kalihi Waena Elementary School in Kalihi are significant: nearly 75% of students come from low-income households, more than a third are English language learners, and 41% of students were performing below grade level last year. Yet inside the century-old campus, Principal Daniel Larkin says students are resilient, eager to learn, and capable of remarkable growth. He smiles as he recalls a former English language learner who, despite coming from a family with limited schooling and a different country, went on to graduate from Stanford. Helping students at Kalihi Waena build self-esteem and literacy skills is the goal of a pilot program being pushed this year by state Sen. Donna Kim, chair of the Senate Education Committee. 

Access, Assessment, Advancement

What Universal Childcare Should Look Like

Nathan Gusdorf and Josh Wallack, Jacobin

Earlier this month, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hochul unveiled the initial stages of a plan for universal childcare. To discuss the recent history of childcare policy in New York City, and the lessons it may hold for the Mamdani administration, Nathan Gusdorf spoke with Josh Wallack, an early childhood policy expert who served as legislative director to then New York City Council member Bill de Blasio from 2002 to 2006 and later as the city’s deputy chancellor for early childhood, where he helped implement de Blasio’s signature “Pre-K for All” program. In the following interview, edited for length and clarity, Gusdorf and Wallack discuss the meaning of “universal childcare,” why merely providing vouchers is insufficient to ensure that every family has access to high quality childcare, the importance of home-based providers, and the significance of the Hochul-Mamdani childcare agenda.

College fundraising faces scrutiny after latest batch of Epstein Files

Lexi Lonas Cochran, The Hill

The latest batch of Epstein files is casting an unflattering light on the world of college fundraising, with multiple professors named in the records saying they were looking for donations. College fundraising, especially for individual professors, is typically done through government contracts or foundations, but multiple academics are shown to have exchanged emails or met with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to raise money for their work. Yale professor Nicholas Christak said he arranged a meeting and corresponded with Epstein from 2013 to 2016 to get funding for his lab. “Like many other scientists who crossed his path, I was appalled by the revelations about Mr. Epstein that emerged after my very limited interactions with him in 2013 in the context of fundraising for my lab at Yale,” Christakis told Yale’s student newspaper. 

Colleges quietly cut ties with organizations that help people of color

Todd Wallack, Washington Post

The Trump administration’s objection to a program that helps people of color pursue doctorate degrees has prompted colleges to cut ties with a range of organizations associated with racial minority groups, a Post investigation has found. Since last year, more than 100 schools have ended partnerships with the PhD Project, a group founded in 1994 to diversify the pipeline of students who aspire to become business school professors. That came after the U.S. Department of Education last March announced probes into 45 universities that partnered with the group.

More than a dozen of those schools have quietly reached agreements with the administration to resolve the investigations. As part of the pacts, the universities promised to identify partnerships with any organization that may “restrict participation based on race” and either sever those relationships or explain why they won’t, according to documents obtained by The Post.

Inequality, Poverty, Segregation

Advancing LCFF Equity and Accountability

Michelle Renée Valladares, Jonathon Sawyer, and Kevin G. Welner, NEPC 

When California lawmakers enacted the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) in 2013, they took ambitious steps to advance educational equity. More than a decade later, and amid declining federal support for public education, it is time to refine the policy. Drawing on recommendations from education leaders, advocates, and community members, this policy memo outlines key changes to strengthen equity and accountability and to address persistent opportunity gaps inside and outside schools. 

A Kenyan school like no other may be an African education blueprint

Jack Denton and Desmond Tiro, AP News

At a special school in Kenya, the classrooms look like few others. Instead of standing and lecturing at Rare Gem Talent School, teachers use hands-on lessons focused on sights, sounds, and feelings designed for a unique type of learner: students with dyslexia. Despite increasing access to public education in Kenya, students with learning disabilities are frequently left behind. Requiring only tweaks to core curriculums, Rare Gem is one of a handful of schools in the country tailored to children with dyslexia and other learning challenges. Dyslexia affects around 10% of learners and represents a stumbling block to literacy. A lack of accommodation threatens to leave behind a vast swathe of a booming youth population in Kenya — and across the continent. 

Prime incentives, ethical dilemmas: The case of Amazon gift cards and lessons for integrity in social research

Agata Soroko, Qualitative Research

This research note presents a critical moment during a doctoral research project in which I was faced with the decision of whether to offer Amazon gift cards to participants. Issues of ethics and justice were at the forefront of this research given its focus on teaching critical economics and the broader political context in which it was undertaken. I begin by contextualizing the critical incident within the research study and detailing the ethical dilemma it raised. Next, I outline the ways in which the dominant literature on research design and methods deals with ethical considerations in social research. I argue that most accounts overlook the potentially serious and lasting harm that may affect individuals and contexts beyond those directly implicated in the study, as illustrated by the Amazon gift card dilemma. I suggest that researchers ought to consider the research integrity of a project in which ethical decision-making is an integral part of the research process. I also propose a more collectivist approach to ethical decision-making in the research community, ending with specific recommendations.

Democracy and the Public Interest

Kentucky Supreme Court rules that charter schools law is unconstitutional

Dylan Lovan, AP News

The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a measure establishing public funding for charter schools is unconstitutional, affirming that state funds “are for common schools and for nothing else.” The 2022 measure was enacted by the state’s Republican-dominated legislature over Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto. It was struck down the next year by a lower court.

The state’s high court ruled the “Constitution as it stands is clear that it does not permit funneling public education funds outside the common public school system,” Justice Michelle M. Keller wrote in a unanimous opinion. In 2024, Kentucky voters rejected a ballot measure that would have allowed state lawmakers to allocate public tax dollars to support students attending private or charter schools.

How to Disagree Better: Strategies for Constructive Conversations [Audio]

Jill Anderson and Julia Minson, The Harvard EdCast

Disagreement is a part of everyday life, yet most of us avoid it whenever possible. Harvard Kennedy School Professor Julia Minson knows where and why our conversations often go wrong and how we can learn to disagree better. Minson, whose research focuses on how people engage with opposing viewpoints, says fear drives avoidance. “Most of these conversations are a pleasant surprise, but people don’t expect that. And so they just continue going around with the worst-case scenario in their heads, instead of exploring the reality that’s out there,” she says. People worry that disagreements will be unpleasant, fruitless, or that the other person’s perspective will be shocking or even “crazy.” Research shows these assumptions are often wrong: when we actually engage, opposing views are usually more reasonable, moderate, and defensible than expected. The problem isn’t only avoidance. Many conversations fail because participants focus on persuasion, treating arguments like battles to be won. 

The Kids are Alright (Audio)

Have You Heard

Decades before high school students were walking out of school to protest ICE, they embraced political activism against the Vietnam War and in favor of school desegregation and expanding civil rights. In a new book, scholar Aaron G. Fountain Jr. unearths the largely forgotten history of high school student activism, locating student groups, and underground newspapers, in every part of the country. And just like today, adults often reacted with suspicion, warning that ‘outside agitators’ were manipulating children, even calling upon the FBI to surveil their own children. 

Other News of Note

I am somebody (Video)

Jesse Jackson, Sesame Street