Teaching, Leading, and Social Justice

Idaho teacher ordered to remove “Everyone is welcome here” sign from classroom [Video]

KTVB News 7 (Boise, Idaho)

A West Ada school teacher is being told to remove two signs of inclusion from her middle school classroom because the school district says it violates policy. Sarah Inama has taught world civilization to 6th graders at Lewis and Clark Middle School for the past 4 years, and for the past 4 years, Sarah had these signs up in her classroom, one that said, “Everyone in this room is welcome, important, accepted, respected, encouraged, valued, and equal,” written over the colors of the rainbow.  Another that said. “Everyone is welcome here,” showing hands of various skin tones, hearts in the palm.

[See follow-up news story here.] 

Mass layoffs at Education Department signal Trump’s plan to gut the agency

Joshua Cowen, The Conversation

The Trump administration on Tuesday slashed staff at the Department of Education – firing roughly 1,300 employees – as part of its long-planned effort to eliminate the agency entirely. The move leaves the department with 2,183 employees, down from more than 4,000 at the beginning of the year. The cuts also follow recent leaks that President Donald Trump was planning to sign an executive order calling for the department’s dismantling, based on drafts first obtained by The Wall Street Journal. Although the president has broad executive authority, there are many things he cannot order by himself. And one of those is the dismantling of a Cabinet agency created by law. But he seems determined to hollow the agency out.

Pell Grants and the Future Teachers Relying on Them

Mary Ellen Flannery, NEA Today

When college student Alayna Nance goes to the grocery store, she doesn’t buy fruit. She doesn’t buy chicken. She can’t afford it. “I go in with a list because if I don’t, I know I’ll want too much,” says Nance, a future teacher and junior at Illinois State University. “It’s embarrassing to have to put things back at the grocery store, to have to put back the chicken because I can’t afford to buy chicken. I can’t afford to buy fruit. Sometimes I just really want a cold, crisp glass of lemonade, and I can’t afford it.” Nance lives frugally with three other girls, “shops” for clothes at the free, on-campus clothing pantry, and works three part-time jobs. She also relies heavily on her federal Pell Grant.  “Realistically, if I lost my Pell Grant, I could not continue school,” says Nance, vice chair of the Illinois Education Association Aspiring Educators.

Language, Culture, and Power

“Be calm … You do not have to say anything to somebody who comes up to you.” [Video]

Antero Garcia and Bill Ong Hing, La Cuenta

This week, we share a recent conversation with Bill Ong Hing, Professor of Law and Migration Studies at the University of San Francisco, and Professor of Law and Asian American Studies Emeritus, at UC Davis. From the need to stay calm, to accessing rapid response hotlines, Professor Hing’s guidance is a must-watch for individuals who are currently undocumented or in mixed-status households. Rather than offer snippets, we are offering the entire conversation with Professor Hing below.

Tribes and Native American students file lawsuit over Trump admin’s Bureau of Indian Education firings

CBS News

Three tribal nations and five Native American students say in a lawsuit that the Trump administration has failed its legal obligations to tribes when it cut jobs at Bureau of Indian Education schools. Firings at two colleges as part of the administration’s cuts to federal agencies, with the help of billionaire Elon Musk, have left students and staff with unsafe conditions, canceled classes and delayed financial aid, according to the lawsuit Friday. Lawyers at the Native American Rights Fund filed the suit in federal court in the nation’s capital against the heads of the Interior Department, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Office of Indian Education Programs on behalf of the Pueblo of Isleta, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. The tribes allege they were not consulted when the federal government laid off several employees at the two colleges under the purview of the BIE.

Breonna Taylor’s mother remembers

Errin Haynes, The 19th

Breonna Taylor didn’t play about getting her hair done. An emergency medical technician with dreams of becoming a nurse, Taylor was a vivacious 26-year-old who liked to look good while she worked hard. “She loved just taking care of herself and how she looked,” her mother, Tamika Palmer, said in an interview last week. Palmer laughed as she recalled a photo from her daughter’s beautician that popped up recently as a social media memory, with Taylor proudly showing off a rare short hairstyle. “She just was so happy, she was so just in awe of herself and her hair that day,” Palmer said. “I just remember her energy and her spirit and her smile.”

Five years after Taylor was killed by police officers, her mother is still mourning all that she had to bury, still trying to adjust to the reality that she will never see her daughter walk through the door, full of energy, and eager to show off her latest look.

Whole Children and Strong Communities

USDA ends program that helped schools serve food from local farmers

Annie Ma, AP News

The U.S. Agriculture Department is ending two pandemic-era programs that provided more than $1 billion for schools and food banks to purchase food from local farmers and producers. About $660 million of that went to schools and childcare centers to buy food for meals through the Local Foods for Schools program. A separate program provided money to food banks. In Maine, the money allowed the coastal RSU 23 school district to buy food directly from fisherman, dairy producers and farmers for school meals, said Caroline Trinder, the district’s food and nutrition services director. “I think everyone can say that they want kids at school to receive the healthiest meals possible,” Trinder said. “It’s the least processed, and we’re helping our local economy, we’re helping farmers that may be the parents of our students.” The cuts will hurt school districts with “chronically underfunded” school meal budgets, said Shannon Gleave, president of the School Nutrition Association.

Scrapbooking Summer Camp with Yolande Du Bois

Freeden Blume Oeur & Phillip Luke Sinitiere, Black Perspectives

In the depths of winter, the end of the school year seems far off for families and their children. But that won’t stop people from dreaming about and planning for summer: vacation, trips, and, for some families, summer camp. And leisure is never just fun and games. Since the time of Jim Crow, schooling and recreational activities have been linked to Black political struggles. Yet an emphasis on the fight for equity in education has tended to overlook, as Marcia Chatelain has observed, a similarly vigorous struggle for more recreational opportunities for Black children. As Carolyn Finney describes in Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors, after Emancipation the color line extended to a range of outdoor spaces including pools, beaches, parks, and campgrounds.

‘Lessons for Survival’ explores parenting amid a climate crisis [Audio]

Celeste Headlee and Emily Raboteau, WBUR

Host Celeste Headlee speaks with author, photographer and CUNY professor Emily Raboteau about her essay collection “Lessons for Survival: Mothering against ‘The Apocalypse.’” The book explores the intersection of climate change with issues of racial justice and economic inequality.

Access, Assessment, Advancement

Mahmoud Khalil’s Abduction Is a Red Alert for Universities

Dima Khalidi, The Nation

On Saturday, Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian lawful permanent resident of the US who was active as a negotiator between Columbia University and students protesting Israel’s genocide in Palestine, was abducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at his Columbia housing and in front of his pregnant wife. He was quickly shipped to an infamous detention facility in Louisiana. President Trump celebrated Khalil’s detention, promising that his was the “first arrest of many to come.” On Monday night, a federal judge temporarily blocked any attempt to deport Khalil, but his legal fight is far from over.

Colleges Have No Idea How to Comply With Trump’s Orders

Rose Horowitch, The Atlantic

If the Trump administration’s goal was to sow chaos among America’s colleges, it has definitely succeeded. Last month, the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights sent a letter to universities explaining the agency’s view that, because of the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision striking down affirmative action, any consideration of race—not just in admissions, but in hiring, scholarships, support, “and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life”—is now illegal. Even race-neutral policies intended to increase racial diversity are not allowed, the department stated. It gave schools two weeks to comply with the new guidance or risk losing their federal funding. The reaction from universities could best be described as “panicked bewilderment,” Peter Lake, a law professor at Stetson University, in Florida, told me. “There’s a sense of, Should we run, hide, or counterattack?”

Are Schools Succeeding? Trump Education Department Cuts Could Make It Hard to Know.

Dana Goldstein and Sarah Mervosh, New York Times

Deep cuts to staff and funding in the Department of Education will deal a major blow to the public’s understanding of how American students are performing and what schools can do to improve. On Tuesday evening, at least 100 federal workers who focus on education research, student testing and basic data collection were laid off from the Department of Education, part of a bloodletting of 1,300 staffers. Outside of government, at least 700 people in the field of social science research were laid off or furloughed over the past week, largely as a result of federal cuts to education research. The layoffs came just weeks after the latest federal test scores showed American children’s reading and math skills at record lows. Trump administration officials have pointed to those low scores as evidence that the Department of Education had failed and needed to be cut. But now the extent of those cuts raises questions about how the federal test itself will continue.

Inequality, Poverty, Segregation

Massive Layoffs at the Department of Education Erode Its Civil Rights Division

Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards, ProPublica

With a mass email sharing what it called “difficult news,” the U.S. Department of Education has eroded one of its own key duties, abolishing more than half of the offices that investigate civil rights complaints from students and their families. Civil rights complaints in schools and colleges largely have been investigated through a dozen regional outposts across the country. Now there will be five. The Office for Civil Rights’ locations in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco are being shuttered, ProPublica has learned. Offices will remain in Atlanta, Denver, Kansas City, Seattle and Washington, D.C. The OCR is one of the federal government’s largest enforcers of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, investigating thousands of allegations of discrimination each year. That includes discrimination based on disability, race and gender.

A Play About Segregation Tries to ‘Ride a Fine Line’ in Florida

Jonathan Abrams, New York Times

Given the chance, Arthenia Joyner would have ordered a bacon and egg sandwich with a glass of orange juice. Instead, workers inside an F.W. Woolworth store in Tampa, Fla., declared their lunch counter closed to her and other high school students 65 years ago. The students refused to leave without being served. The protests did not carry the national prominence of the Greensboro sit-ins, Montgomery boycotts or Selma marches. “What I found out is damn near nobody knows what happened,” Joyner, 82, said recently. But the acts of resistance produced results. Within months, Tampa’s counters were desegregated. Other public areas like beaches and movie theaters followed.

Burned Schools. Classrooms Doubling as Shelters. This Is High School in Gaza.

Shahad Ali, Truthout

In Gaza, high school — known as Tawjihi — is highly valued as a gateway to a bright future. It marks a transitional phase from school to university and the labor market, so we strongly believe that it is the most powerful means of transforming our lives for the better, even in the face of Israel’s ongoing siege and Gaza’s limited resources. At this level, students dedicate themselves entirely to their studies, while parents work hard to provide them with extra care, ensuring they receive the support needed to succeed. They arrange private lessons with qualified teachers, purchase all necessary books and closely monitor their children’s academic progress. When talking about high school in Gaza, it is impossible not to mention the day that high school completion exam results are announced — a day that feels like Eid. Students and their families decorate their homes, buy graduation robes and caps, and celebrate their achievements. Families play traditional Palestinian songs, and desserts are shared to spread joy. Universities open their doors to welcome new students and give them insight into the available majors and their demand in the labor market.

Democracy and the Public Interest

The Strange Bedfellows Fighting School Vouchers

Jennifer Berkshire, In These Times

When the Texas state House education committee held a hearing on a proposed voucher bill this Tuesday, parent Hollie Plemons was among the first people to arrive in the committee room. She’d spend much of the next 12 hours in the cramped, crowded space, waiting for her chance at the mic. And when her name was finally called, she didn’t hold back. “I told them exactly how bad this bill is and that we’re being bamboozled by our own party,” recalls Plemons, a Republican Party activist and precinct chair in Tarrant County. ​“Vouchers aren’t conservative. They’re just not.” In recent years, ​“school choice” programs that allow families to use public tax dollars to pay for alternatives to public schools for their kids have been proliferating wildly.

Investigating the Bureau of Indian Education — and Trump’s efforts to turn it into a school choice program

Neal Morton, Hechinger Report

I met Winona Hastings on the basketball court in Supai village. It was a couple hours after perhaps half the tribal community had packed into Havasupai Elementary School for its eighth grade promotion ceremony. Indian fry bread had been served. Family photos were taken. Hastings’ two young daughters, Kyla and Kayleigh, chased each other across the basketball court as she watched from a nearby bench. She fanned herself under the desert sun, already scorching on a May afternoon last year, and talked about sending her oldest, Kyla, to kindergarten in the fall. The 33-year-old single mother of two said she wished there were another school to enroll her daughter.

Third places: Where democracy and inclusion come to life

Lisa Krolak, The Lifelong Learning Blog, UNESCO

Human connection is at the heart of our lives and societies. Being part of an inclusive community – where we engage with diverse perspectives – shapes not just who we are as individuals, but also how we see the world. It influences our values, beliefs, and even political opinions. When nurtured in a democratic space, these connections help build a more inclusive world. ‘Third places’ help to facilitate this process. These spaces create opportunities for social interaction, open dialogue, and meaningful participation in democratic discussions and events. In an age of social isolation and digital polarization, they allow for face-to-face interaction, breaking down stereotypes and assumptions. Sociologist Ray Oldenburg first introduced the concept of third places – informal spaces beyond home (the first place) and work (the second place) where people can connect freely. Third places serve as bridges between different social and economic groups, providing access to resources, cultural activities, and educational opportunities. They also create neutral ground for open discussions, where people from different backgrounds and ages can meet.

Other News of Note

How Underground Schools Across the South Built the Civil Rights Movement [Video]

Michel Martin and Elaine Weiss, Amanpour and Company

The Trump administration has been vocal about protecting free speech, but a recent string of event cancellations at the National Archives suggests otherwise. One cancelled event was intended to honor the award-winning journalist Elaine Weiss, whose new book “Spell Freedom” focuses on four activists who laid the foundation of the Civil Rights Movement. Events about climate change and homelessness were also pulled from programming — a move Weiss believes is a result of budget cuts and new leadership at the National Archives. The author joins Michel Martin to discuss the relevance of her work in today’s America.