1. Rethinking the Department of Education
READ/LISTEN: Rick Hess took a closer look at President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to shutter the Department of Education, why it’s unlikely to happen, and what should be done. Hess argues that the abolition of the department would be largely symbolic, but meaningful reforms like downsizing its bureaucracy, fixing student loan programs, or promoting school choice could achieve significant policy victories:
A fruitless push to eliminate the department would be a missed opportunity at a time when it can instead be harnessed to address big problems in K–12 and higher education. After all, we may be about to see something truly new: a Republican Department of Education aggressively exploiting its executive authority, just like the Obama and Biden administrations did. Years of battles over school closures, school choice, CRT, DEI, gender, loan forgiveness, Title IX, and campus antisemitism have birthed a web of right-leaning education groups that now offer a playbook of policies.
Read more here, and listen to my conversation with Hess about the department’s future with Hess on this week’s episode of Lost Debate here.
2. Building Bridges, Not Walls, Between Church and School
READ/LISTEN: Our very own Chris Stewart took to the pages of his substack to advocate for people of faith to see serving and supporting public schools as a profound way to live out their faith. Stewart pointed to research that suggests students who regularly go to church see greater academic outcomes as one reason to integrate faith with advocacy and foster partnerships between churches and public schools:
During his ministry, Jesus consistently focused on "the least of these" (Matthew 25:40). He cared for the marginalized, the overlooked, and the vulnerable. I encourage us to see those same populations sitting in public school classrooms. They are the children of single mothers working multiple jobs, the kids navigating homelessness, and the students facing systemic barriers that make learning an uphill battle. Supporting public education is one of the most tangible ways to embody Christ's love and compassion.
Read more here, and listen to Chris and Kate discuss it further on this week’s episode of The Citizen Stewart Show.
3. U.S. Learning Loss Deepens
READ: American students’ math scores on the global TIMSS exam dropped sharply during the pandemic, wiping out decades of progress and lowering U.S. rankings relative to other countries. Matt Barnum spoke with experts about the results, why they suggest that recovery efforts have been insufficient, and how ongoing challenges like chronic absenteeism and teacher shortages could have even more drastic consequences:
Tom Kane, a Harvard University professor who has tracked learning loss, said recovery efforts—which often have included small-group tutoring, summer and after-school programming, and additional teachers and other staff—were simply too small relative to the scale of the problem.
“It takes a certain amount of time to teach the Pythagorean theorem,” he said. “Teachers can’t just talk faster.”
Read more in The Wall Street Journal here.
4. Child Care’s Profit Puzzle
READ: Elliot Haspel reflected on the implications of KinderCare, the largest private child care provider in the U.S., choosing to go public in a recent op-ed for The 74. Haspel says the company’s decision was in large part due to its need to address its $1.5 billion in debt, raising concerns about financial risk in the child care system, and that its IPO revealed strategies prioritizing profit over service equity, including center closures, a focus on affluent families, and benefiting from systemic shortages. These trends highlight the tension between investor-driven chains and the need for universally accessible, high-quality child care:
The question here isn’t whether it’s inherently a problem for a company to try to make money or to try to identify customers who can pay a premium. Families making over $140,000 need and deserve good child care options, too. The question is whether profit-maximizing investment is an appropriate model for a human-centered service, such as child care, and what a growing investor trend means for efforts to create a universally affordable, accessible and high-quality system with well-compensated educators.
Read more here.
5. New Heights, New Futures
READ: New Heights High School in Fort Worth, Texas, offers a no-cost opportunity for adults who dropped out of high school to earn their diplomas and workforce certifications. Sneha Day reported on the charter school, which aims to address gaps left by traditional education and GED programs, and how its decision to prioritize flexible classes, personalized support, and partnerships with community colleges has helped empower non-traditional students:
[Tiphainne Wright] dropped out of high school her junior year after having a baby. She never liked school anyhow. The hectic environment was not conducive to her learning, she said.
She’s trying again, four years later, so she can get a job that will support her and her son.
The flexibility of afternoon and evening classes at her adult high school “gives me extra time to spend with him and encourage him to finish school and push him to be somebody better than I was,” she said.
Read more in The Texas Tribune here.
6. Opioid Funds Spark Change
READ: Six schools in one of Philadelphia’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods are using opioid settlement funds to address the impacts of the opioid crisis and gun violence on students. The funding, totaling $333,000 per school, is being used for safety improvements like bullet-resistant fencing around play spaces and programs such as mentorship, bilingual support, and parent engagement:
Willard Principal Diana Garcia said that every child across Philadelphia should get 30 minutes of play time outside. But students in Kensington miss out. The neighborhood lacks safe, green spaces. Instead, face-to-face with the city’s opioid crisis in one of its most impoverished neighborhoods, students are surrounded by gun violence, drug use, trash, and used needles.
Garcia has a blunt way of putting the situation: Kids in Kensington “don’t have basic human rights.” But the play space will help “students feel safe, reminding them that they are kids, that they’re special,” she said.
Read more from Emily Rizzo at Chalkbeat here.
7. Bridging Divides on Campus
READ: A new program in Kentucky brings college students together to foster dialogue across lines of race, politics, and culture, and help them develop skills like active listening and navigating difficult conversations. Javeria Salman at The Hechinger Report wrote more about why, despite challenges like political backlash and limited conservative participation, the program reflects a growing hunger among young people to find common ground and combat societal polarization:
[One participant"] said that, on campus, she often talks only to close friends who share her background because she worries her English isn’t good enough or that her experience of immigrating to the United States sets her apart from others.
“This would make me want to reach out and just listen to everybody’s story. I feel like I would be more open to connecting with more people than just the people that I am close to,” she said.
Read more here.