1. California Schools Face Wildfire Crisis
LISTEN/READ: The devastating California wildfires have disrupted schooling for over 600,000 students in the Los Angeles region. Jonaki Mehta at NPR spoke with families grappling with the dual challenges of closed schools and home evacuations, while districts have scrambled to provide food and virtual learning resources as entire communities grapple with grief and uncertainty. Mehta spoke with one parent, Silvia Garcia, about how struggles with childcare and safety concerns have exacerbated the crisis:
With campuses shuttered, "It's a whole 'nother two extra meals we have to give them at home," Silvia said.
For Garcia, school isn't just a place for her kids to get an education, she said it's like a second home. She wishes schools that weren't directly affected by the fires—like the ones her kids go to—could have remained open. "I thought the safest place where they could be would be in school."
Read more here. I also reflected on the impact of the fires during this week’s Lost Debate. Listen here.
2. The Looming Demographic Cliff
READ: Jon Marcus at The Hechinger Report reported on a growing crisis driven by declining birth rates and waning confidence in the value of college degrees. The “demographic cliff,” fueled by Americans having fewer babies at the advent of the Great Recession in 2007, will lead to an estimated 15% drop in high school graduates by 2039. By that point, experts estimate that there will be more positions in the workforce requiring post-secondary credentials than Americans projected to earn them, leading to significant shortages in teaching, health care, and other fields. Jeff Strohl, the director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, cautioned that the drop in college graduates could lead to significant economic challenges:
“If we don’t keep our edge in innovation and college-level education,” he said, “we’ll have a decline in the economy and ultimately a decline in the living standard.”
A scarcity of labor is already complicating efforts to expand the U.S. semiconductor industry, for instance, the consulting firm McKinsey & Company warns. It’s a major reason that production at a new $40 billion semiconductor processing facility in Arizona has been delayed, according to its parent company.
A worker shortage of this magnitude hasn’t happened since the years immediately after World War II, when the number of young men was reduced by death and disability, said Strohl and others. And this one coincides with a wave of retirements among experienced and well-educated baby boomers.
Read more here.
3. Girls’ Learning Gap Widens
READ: A Wall Street Journal analysis of student test scores found that girls have experienced steeper declines in math, reading, and science since 2019, often hitting the lowest levels in decades. This pattern of learning loss is reflected not just in the U.S. but also globally. Researchers suggest the pandemic’s impact may have disproportionately affected girls:
Shutting down schools might have hurt girls more because they tend to do better in school generally, said David Figlio, a professor of economics and education at the University of Rochester who has studied gender gaps in education. “Girls have a comparative advantage in school and you take schools away, they’ll suffer more,” he added.
Another hypothesis is that girls took on more household duties during the pandemic—including taking care of younger siblings—so were less able to focus on school.
Read more from Matt Barnum in The Wall Street Journal here.
4. Schools Confront Deportation Fears
READ: Dana Goldstein at The New York Times reported on schools’ efforts to protect immigrant students amid concerns over potential deportations under the Trump administration. Goldstein spoke with districts who have trained principals to call district lawyers if immigration agents arrive, hosted legal information sessions for families, and shared information cards with parents outlining their rights. But the most immediate challenge? Convincing anxious families that their students are safe in school:
Now, these schools are facing an additional challenge: convincing parents to send their children to class when some are so anxious about deportation that they are reluctant to separate from their children for even part of the day.
“We have parents who are afraid,” said Adam Clark, superintendent of the Mount Diablo Unified School District, northeast of San Francisco. “We are trying to inform them of what their rights are.”
Read more here.
5. Universal School Choice’s Fiscal Puzzle
READ: Christian Barnard took to the pages of Education Next to take a closer look at the fiscal impact of universal school choice programs. Barnard argued that, despite the price tag, the long-term benefits of the programs are worth it:
Universal school choice programs will likely constitute a net cost to state budgets in the short run. That recognition can set state legislators up to budget wisely and implement universal programs successfully. Even after recognizing the potential state budget impact, the substantial and well-documented benefits of expanding options for all families make the tradeoff worth it. Universal programs allow for large-scale innovation—more educational providers, specialization, and pluralism. More importantly, they exert stronger competitive pressure on the public education monopoly than means-tested choice programs ever did.
Read more here.