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☆ White House to bolster cybersecurity training for K-12 schools, with help from the FCC, Amazon Web Services and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-08 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

On Tuesday, the White House convened school administrators, educators and companies to explore how best to protect schools and students' information from cyberattacks. At least eight K-12 school districts across the country experienced significant cyberattacks in the last academic year, the White House said, leading to disruptions in learning. The White House announced a series of actions from federal agencies and commitments from companies to help school districts secure their digital information. Amazon Web Services committed $20 million to fund a cyber grant program for school districts and state departments of education. It will also conduct free security reviews for U.S. education technology companies that provide "mission-critical applications" for K-12 schools.

Persons: Biden, Miguel Cardona, Cardona, Cloudflare, PowerSchool Organizations: White, Government, Office, White House, Federal Communications Commission, Universal Service Fund, Infrastructure Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Guard Bureau, CNBC, Web Services, Google Locations: cyberattacks, U.S

☆ High school shop class is back—and it's showing students alternatives to 'traditional college'
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Rebecca Picciotto | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Thirty years ago, high school shop class seemed on track for extinction. And during the 2016-2017 school year, 98% of public school districts offered CTE to high school students, though the types of programs varied widely, according to the Department of Education. Here are two key problems in the workforce that high school CTE seeks to address:Expensive college degreesCollege was the primary postgrad pathway modeled at Rosalyn Jones' high school in New Jersey. "Definitely in high school, they pushed college first like it's kind of the only option," says Jones, 25, who attended high school from 2012 to 2016. She says her high school offered a woodshop class as a course, but she says there was no CTE requirement.

Persons: Nolan Brunn, CTE, Rosalyn Jones, Jones, Tyler Sasse Organizations: Career Tech, National Center of Education Statistics, Association for Career, Department of Education, Corps, Job Corps, The, of Public, Grant Universities, Western Welding Academy Locations: New Jersey, Anoka , Minnesota, Brunn, Wyoming

☆ By striking down affirmative action, the Supreme Court put forth a dangerous and false ideal of 'colorblindness'
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-01 | by ( Trisha Gopal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Sotomayor and Thomas are both the likely beneficiaries of affirmative action. A student at Harvard University at a rally in support of keeping affirmative action policies outside the Supreme Court on October 31, 2022. A young boy at the University of California, Berkeley in 1995 as students and families protested to keep affirmative action policies. In a statement following the ruling, former president Barack Obama wrote, "Like any policy, affirmative action wasn't perfect. Roberts accused the colleges' affirmative action programs of "employ[ing] race in a negative manner" without any "meaningful end points."

Persons: Sotomayor, —, Clarence Thomas, Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, colorblindness, Colorblindness, Howard Schultz, Tomi Lahren, Plessy, Ferguson, John Marshall Harlan, Antonin Scalia, Justice Roberts, Harlan's, David Butow, Roberts, Barack Obama, Michelle, haven't, Evelyn Hockstein, Michelle Obama, Katherine Phillips, Phillips Organizations: Supreme, Service, Harvard University, University of North, Latina, Yale Law School, Starbucks, Washington Post, Getty, Black, Seattle School District, University of California, Harvard, UCLA, UC, REUTERS, Princeton, Scientific, Columbia Business Locations: Berkeley, University of North Carolina, California, Idaho

The Supreme Court ordered the 3rd Circuit to reconsider the matter. The Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, has a track record of expanding religious rights, often siding with Christian plaintiffs. Groff's attorneys had asked the Supreme Court to overturn the Hardison precedent and require companies to show a "significant difficulty or expense" before denying an accommodation. The Postal Service in 2013, in a bid to remain profitable, contracted with Amazon.com to deliver packages, including on Sundays. His absences caused tension among other carriers who had to cover his shifts, the Postal Service said.

Persons: Gerald Groff, Hardison, Groff, Andrew Chung, Will Dunham Organizations: U.S, Supreme, Postal Service, Circuit, Appeals, Civil, VII, Airlines, Amazon.com, Thomson Locations: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's Lancaster, United States, Colorado, Washington

☆ LGBTQ+ rights: New Jersey's attorney general filed civil rights complaints against three school districts alleging discrimination against LGBTQ+ students
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Polo Sandoval | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Just days after three New Jersey public school systems simultaneously enacted policies requiring educators to notify parents of changes in their children’s gender identity, the state is pursuing legal action. New Jersey State Attorney General Matthew Platkin announced the complaints against the Middletown Township, Marlboro Township and Manalapan-Englishtown Regional boards of education, all in Monmouth County. When contacted by phone on Friday, a representative of the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District declined to comment on the matter. CNN has reached out to the Middletown Township Public School District. In May, state officials also filed a civil rights complaint after similar changes were enacted at the Hanover Township Board of Education.

Persons: CNN —, Matthew Platkin, ”, Platkin, Marc H, Zitomer, “, ” Zitomer, Valentina Mendez, Mendez, We’re Organizations: CNN, New, New Jersey Superior Court, Englishtown Regional School, Public School District, Marlboro Townhip Board of Education, Marlboro Public School, “, Marlboro, of Education Locations: Jersey, New Jersey, Middletown Township, Marlboro Township, Manalapan, Monmouth County, Middletown, Marlboro, Hanover Township

The deal ends nearly all of the litigation brought against the tobacco giant over Juul by local government bodies and individuals across the United States. Altria expects to record a pre-tax charge of $235 million in the second quarter of 2023 and intends to exclude it from adjusted earnings per share. As of December, its share of Juul was valued at $250 million, down from $12.8 billion in 2018. They said Altria helped the strategy by letting Juul use its sales force and place its products next to Altria's on shelves. Juul previously settled most of the cases against it, paying more than $1 billion to 48 states and territories and $1.7 billion to individuals and local government entities.

☆ AI is going to offer every student a personalized tutor, founder of Khan Academy says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Will Gendron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, recently gave a TED Talk on AI's potential impact on education. The technology could offer personalized tutors to every student at a large scale, he said. Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, an educational nonprofit that aims to provide free learning resources, is not necessarily fearful of the technology. In a TED Talk that was released this week, Khan explained the potential benefits of AI across the field of education, likening the possibilities to a personalized tutor for every student. Khan said AI could also offer personalized assistance to teachers, by helping with pre-class work like lesson planning, filling out report cards, and general administrative tasks.

☆ Michigan Students Sue School District Over ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Lauren Mccarthy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A mother of two students in Howard City, Mich., filed a lawsuit claiming the public school district violated her sons’ First Amendment rights by asking them to remove sweatshirts with the slogan “Let’s go Brandon” on them. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday against the Michigan Tri County Area Schools district, an assistant principal and a teacher, claims that their school censored her sons’ “peaceful, non-disruptive politics” by having them take off the sweatshirts, causing them “to suffer irreparable injury.”The phrase “Let’s go Brandon,” born of a viral NASCAR race moment in October 2021, is understood to be code for swearing at President Biden, the lawsuit confirms.The slogan conveys the same opposition as saying a four-letter expletive and then “Joe Biden,” just “sanitized to express the sentiment without using profanity or vulgarity,” the suit said. In February of 2022, the mother’s sixth-grade son wore a “Let’s go Brandon” sweatshirt to Tri County Middle School. The assistant principal at the school stopped him in the hallway and asked him to take it off, according to the lawsuit, telling him the slogan was equivalent to “the F-word.” He took it off because he feared getting in trouble.

☆ U.S. Supreme Court backs deaf student who sued Michigan school district
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Andrew Chung | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, March 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed a deaf student in Michigan to sue his public school district for allegedly failing to provide him adequate classroom instruction, a ruling that bolsters the ability of students with disabilities to remedy shortcomings in their education. The 9-0 ruling authored by conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch revived student Miguel Luna Perez's lawsuit seeking monetary damages from the school system in Sturgis, Michigan, as the justices overturned a lower court's decision to dismiss the case. Perez has said the school district assigned him an unqualified classroom aide who did not know sign language, and then misled his parents as to how much progress he was making. After settling an administrative complaint under IDEA with the district promising additional schooling at the Michigan School for the Deaf, Perez filed his lawsuit in federal court under the ADA, seeking compensatory damages. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2021 dismissed the case, agreeing with the school district that Perez could not bring his lawsuit before first exhausting the administrative procedures under IDEA.

☆ How Public Money Goes to Support a Hasidic Village’s Private Schools
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Jay Root | Jonah Markowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For years, Kiryas Joel, a bustling village north of New York City, has run one of the most unusual public school districts in America. The village is almost entirely populated by Hasidic Jews, and the district was created to serve just one group: Hasidic children with disabilities. Most other children attend the community’s private religious schools, which stress the rigorous study of Jewish law and prayer but offer little instruction in secular subjects. Created a little over 30 years ago, the unique public school system immediately drew concerns that a school district created for members of a single faith could never separate itself from their religious institutions. Then, in 2009, New York auditors identified a glaring conflict of interest: Two of the school district’s board members had voted to use tens of millions of tax dollars to lease a building from a private religious school organization that they also helped run.

Persons: Kiryas Joel Locations: New York City, America, New York

☆ The generative AI boom is bringing San Francisco’s tech scene roaring back to life
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Techies fled from San Francisco during the pandemic, and its resurgence stalled for a while. It's just south of Japantown, mere blocks from San Francisco City Hall, and north of the Mission District. Someone even said it would be "irresponsible" to not work on generative AI in San Francisco. There aren't any skeptics in the space yet, and the majority of generative AI investments land in the Bay Area. Email dsiu@insider.com or tweet @diamondnagasiu) Edited by Matt Weinberger (tweet @gamoid) in San Francisco and Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.

☆ Woman, 29, arrested after enrolling at New Jersey high school posing as student, officials say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Marlene Lenthang | Marlene Lenthang Is A Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

A 29-year-old woman was arrested last week after she spent four days fraudulently enrolled in a New Jersey high school as a student, school district officials said. New Brunswick Public School District Superintendent Aubrey Johnson said Tuesday at a Board of Education meeting that Shin had attended New Brunswick High School for several days before she was caught. New Brunswick High School in New Jersey. During her days in school, Shin spent a lot of time with guidance counselors who were trying to find out more information about her, Johnson said. NBC News has asked the school district for comment.

☆ Most U.S. Schools Don’t Feel Fully Prepared for Shootings Despite Adding Security
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Ben Chapman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Most U.S. public school districts don’t feel well-prepared to respond to active shooters, even after putting new safety measures in place, according to a newly released federal survey. Roughly two-thirds of public schools now control access to school grounds during the school day, up from 51% in the 2017-18 school year, according to the new figures published Thursday by the National Center for Education Statistics. Classroom doors have been fitted with locks by 78%, up from 65% five years ago. And 43% of schools now employ panic buttons or silent alarms that connect directly with law enforcement, up from 29%.

☆ Seattle public schools blame tech giants for social media harm in lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The lawsuit says the companies' actions have been a substantial factor in causing a youth mental health crisis. Students with mental health issues perform worse, causing schools to take steps including training teachers to identify and address such symptoms, hire trained personnel, and create additional resources to warn students about the dangers of social media, the complaint said. In 2021, U.S. lawmakers accused Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg of pushing for higher profits at the expense of children's mental health following testimony by whistleblower Frances Haugen. "We make money from ads, and advertisers consistently tell us they don't want their ads next to harmful or angry content. And I don't know any tech company that sets out to build products that make people angry or depressed."

Last year, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, the Human Rights Campaign, labeled 2021 the “worst year” for LGBTQ rights in modern U.S. history, citing a record number of anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in state legislatures across the country. “The LGBTQ+ community is really under siege right now,” said Ricardo Martinez, CEO of LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Texas. One bill that was successfully implemented, and gained national headlines for months, was Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, or what critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The word “grooming” has long been associated with mischaracterizing LGBTQ people, particularly gay men and transgender women, as child sex abusers. Those losses came after some conservative groups ramped up misleading or inflammatory campaign ads targeting transgender rights.

The email went out to students at Knox College, a small liberal arts school in Illinois, on the evening of Dec. 12. But this group had a new wrinkle for Knox students. “We have compromised your collage networks,” the email said, written in the kind of broken English common among international ransomware hackers. For you, its a sad day where everyone will see your personal and private info.”The incident at Knox College marks the first known case in which hackers used their access to contact students directly in order to intimidate them. The hackers’ website lists an entry to download data for Knox College but doesn’t actually lead to any student data.

☆ At least 5 tornadoes confirmed in Texas as storms roll through southwestern US and blizzard conditions mount in the northern Plains
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Amir Vera Jason Hanna Monica Garrett | Amir Vera | Jason Hanna | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

More than 18 million people from Texas to Mississippi are under threat of severe storms Tuesday, including tornadoes. In Mississippi, the Meridian Public School District – which serves over 4,900 students – announced they will be closed Wednesday due to the threat of severe weather. The Lawrence County and McComb School Districts also announced they were closing Wednesday due to the threat of severe weather. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency also noted the severe weather expected in the state and asked residents to prepare. “With severe weather expected throughout Mississippi tonight and tomorrow, please review your severe weather preparedness checklist to make sure you are ready for the storms,” the agency said in a message on Twitter.

☆ District to revive student newspaper axed after LGBTQ issue
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

A Nebraska public school district that shuttered a student newspaper following an LGBTQ-focused edition has agreed to bring it back next year in digital form, according to the teacher who advised the publication. The role of advising the newspaper and teaching journalism in the school “has been offered to another teacher,” she said. An attorney for the ACLU, Rose Godinez, said the school district must do more than simply reinstate the student newspaper. To remedy those violations, Godinez said, the district must also develop and implement policies that protect LGBTQ students and the rights of student journalists. The Nebraska ACLU said Monday that the school district delivered within the past few days some public records it had requested.

☆ I'm a working mom who's had no choice but to homeschool my kid. The government should offer more aid for families like mine.
▼ + stars: | 2022-03-02 | by ( Melissa Petro | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

She's homeschooling her son as their district can't find a public school to meet his special needs. As a child with a disability, he's entitled to services that will support and help him succeed in school. The good news: I found a private school for kids with special needs and they have an immediate opening. Do I put it on a credit card, hire a lawyer, and sue my public school district for reimbursement? I don't have a full-time "job," but I'm literally doing the job of a hundred different people.

☆ Sen. Rick Scott loves hating on New York and its governor, Andrew Cuomo. But new docs show the Florida Republican investing big time in Big Apple bonds.
▼ + stars: | 2020-10-14 | by ( Dave Levinthal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott is a frequent critic of New York Gov. Earlier this year they also disclosed between $1.1 million and $2.25 million worth of New York City Municipal Water Finance Authority bonds. "Cuomo has consistently misused taxpayer dollars and refused to ever cut government waste," Scott in June wrote in a New York Post op-ed. Earlier this year, the Scotts disclosed between $1.1 million and $2.25 million worth of New York City Municipal Water Finance Authority bonds. "Senator and Mrs. Scott have purchased hundreds of municipal bonds over the years from all over the country.

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