Teachers and Allies March for Public Education on the Eve of the Trump Era

On Thursday morning, the day before Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, parents, teachers, and students gathered in front of schools in over 200 cities to oppose school privatization and support safe and inclusive spaces for all students.
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School Bills Attract a Crowd at Arkansas Capitol

Bill Kopsky, executive director of the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, characterized one bill as allowing the state to "take your tax dollars and send them to a family to allow their kid to go to a private school. They'll come straight out of public education dollars." Kopsky and several members of minority groups also packed into several legislative committee hearings to monitor deliberations on other bills, including the proposal to reinstate the state's voter identification law.
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How to Stop the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Girls of Color

In our webinar earlier this month, “How to Stop the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Girls of Color,” we were joined by Dr. Monique W. Morris, author of Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools, and Aishatu Yusuf, who is currently working on participatory research aimed at interrupting school-to-confinement pathways for girls.

Missed the webinar? Here's the video and a recap!
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Is the Bar Too Low for Special Education?

The federal government never provided the 40 percent of special-education funding that it promised when it passed IDEA; right now, it’s only paying 16 percent of special-education costs. Meanwhile, school budgets keep getting tighter. Thirty-five states decreased per-pupil funding between 2008 and 2014.
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Gov. Cooper Says NC Should Favor Public Education Over More Corporate Tax Cuts

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said he wants higher pay for teachers and principals and to restore some form of college-scholarship program for prospective teachers. The Republican legislature ended the N.C. Teaching Fellows program, which the Public School Forum managed, in 2011. The program had paid college tuition for teachers who committed to teach in state schools for four years. Read more >

New Reports Reveal The Big Charter School ‘Accountability’ Lie

Based on how charter schools operate in states like Florida – Arizona, Ohio, and Pennsylvania also come to mind – and on how Betsy DeVos provided regulatory loopholes for charters in Michigan, there is no reason to believe her claim to support accountability and no reason to believe the charter industry will use her tenure to advance accountability measures.
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Native American Education: What Will It Take To Fix The 'Epitome Of Broken'?

Officials at the Bureau of Indian Education estimate that roughly one-third of their school buildings are in poor condition. To fix them, they say it'll take more than $1.3 billion. That's why a big part of the reform effort is to build new schools and repair old ones.
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