Schools
Minnesota high school graduates reflect on challenges in college admissions, financial aid
Mariam Elias, a recent graduate of White Bear Lake Area High School, can’t bank on using her or her family’s money to pay for four years of schooling. For her, working for scholarships and seeing what she qualified for was essential, so she planned to apply for federal student aid as soon as she could. […]
Elementary students fundraise to save classroom after voters reject levies
THIEF RIVER FALLS — On the surface, it looked like any other school fundraiser. The kids at Challenger Elementary in Thief River Falls were selling coffee cups, writing thank-you notes, and partnering with local businesses to drum up interest in their cause. But these kids weren’t fundraising for a class trip, a sports team, or […]
‘Extremely low pay’ cited at U.S. Senate hearing as prime reason for teacher shortage
WASHINGTON — The only reason John Arthur is able to be a public school teacher is because his wife makes much more money than he does. Arthur — the 2021 Utah Teacher of the Year — testified on Thursday at a hearing in the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the […]
Biden Title IX regulation targeted by Republicans in Congress
WASHINGTON — Republicans in Congress got one step further in their efforts to reverse the Biden administration’s final rule for Title IX after the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce approved a measure on Thursday that would overturn the updated regulations. The U.S. Department of Education’s final rule — which seeks to protect […]
Funds for clean school buses coming to hundreds of districts, White House says
WASHINGTON — As part of its ongoing effort to replace diesel-fueled school buses, the Biden administration on Wednesday said it will provide approximately 530 school districts across nearly all states with almost $1 billion to help them purchase clean school buses. Among them: 15 Minnesota districts, including Rochester, St. Paul, Milaca, Crosby-Ironton, Bloomington, Sauk Rapids, […]
An inspiring teacher’s story, and how the MN licensing system prevents diversity of teacher corps
A version of this story was first published by Minneapolis Schools Voices. Rachel Stewart is exactly the type of person who Minneapolis Public Schools says it wants to hire as a teacher. She has a connection to the community and its students, having worked for more than 20 years in the district as an education […]
Brown v. Board litigants, family mark anniversary as Biden decries ongoing school inequality
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is commemorating the 70th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education this week while recognizing that the full potential of the decision “remains unfulfilled.” Friday marks 70 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled racial segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional in […]
Advocates continue push for public investment in early childhood education
Early education providers and teachers from the Iron Range piled on a bus headed south on Monday morning, shuttering their child care centers for the day so they could lobby lawmakers at the state Capitol in the final week of the legislative session. Lawmakers have all but crushed the hopes of child care advocates with […]
Biden administration to roll back the Betsy DeVos Title IX rules
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education on Friday announced a final rule that will update Title IX regulations governing how schools respond to sexual misconduct, undoing changes made under the Trump administration and former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. “For more than 50 years, Title IX has promised an equal opportunity to learn and thrive […]
Proposed child care subsidy program, school districts will not receive major funding
A proposed child care subsidy program that would help Minnesota’s middle class is unlikely to get significant funding this legislative session. The Great Start Child Care Affordability Program, which has been a priority for child care advocates and some DFL lawmakers this session, would cost the state around $500 million. If fully-funded, the program would […]
Why the Minneapolis school district is facing a large budget shortfall
Minneapolis school board members met on Tuesday to discuss how to close a projected $110 million funding gap. The shortfall, which puts the district on the brink of insolvency and state intervention, is driven largely by a long-term decline in enrollment stretching back at least a quarter century. Official state figures from the fall of […]
DFL lawmakers pull Teach for America funding bill despite ongoing teacher shortage
Sen. Omar Fateh, DFL-Minneapolis, this week withdrew a bill (SF4096/HF3832) that would have appropriated $1 million toward Teach for America Twin Cities “to address the challenge of recruiting, training, and retaining teachers in the state.” At the start of the 2023-2024 school year, there were hundreds of vacant teaching positions in the Twin Cities, along […]