As Book Bans Gain Favor, Some Say Libraries Could Go
The number of school libraries and librarians has been dwindling for decades.
L.A. School District Workers Demand Historic Raise During 3-day Strike
Teachers in the nation’s second-largest school district joined bus drivers, cafeteria workers and paraprofessionals in a “sympathy strike,” resulting in over 65,000 personnel absences and bringing classes to a halt.
Kids Eat Free! States Push to Make School Meals Available to All
Lawmakers around the country have passed or are considering bills that would make universal free school meals permanent following the end of a similar federal pandemic-era program.
As Supreme Court Considers Student Loan Forgiveness, States May Expand Their Programs
At least two dozen bills are moving through legislatures this spring.
Schools Struggle With Lead in Water While Awaiting Federal Relief
President Joe Biden said in his State of the Union address that federal funds will pay to replace lead pipes in hundreds of thousands of schools and child care centers. In the meantime, schools are dealing with high lead levels now.
New College Corps Program in California Offers Students Debt-Free Pathways
Working on issues like climate mitigation, education, and food insecurity, students from rural schools help solve some of the most pressing issues rural communities face today.
State & Local Roundup: Republicans Moving to Fund Public School Alternatives
Plus: Court staffing crisis leaves divorce trials suspended; toxic train derailment; a state’s $3.5 billion accounting error; Oregon liquor officials accused of hoarding fancy bourbon; and more news you can use from around the country.
Public School Enrollment Dropped by 1.2M During the Pandemic
COMMENTARY | An expert discusses where the students went and why it matters.
Top State Democrats Outline Legislative Priorities
Where the party has majorities, they hope to focus on issues like housing, voting rights and criminal justice. In GOP-controlled states, they want to hold the line against Republican proposals on abortion, school vouchers and guns.
Has Remote Learning Buried the Snow Day? Depends On Where You Live
COMMENTARY | When communities are buried in snow, more and more schools are staying in session remotely.
Biden Administration Looks for Ways to Provide More Free School Meals
With a pandemic-era program expired and no help from Congress on the horizon, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says his department is considering options for how it can take action.
Can a State Erase Property Taxes Without Wiping out Education?
The long, difficult and ongoing quest to reduce property taxes in Pennsylvania.
Federal Spending on Kids is Up, But Expected to Fall
Pandemic-era programs gave the funding a boost. As it phases out, more costs could shift to states and localities.
How a School’s ‘Bike Bus’ Won Over Students and Charmed the Internet
Nearly 200 kids in Portland, Oregon join a weekly bicycle ride to school, instead of relying on buses or drop-offs. The fun-spirited, pedal-powered convoys have drawn nationwide attention and the teacher behind them says they have many benefits.
How Much Federal Covid Aid are Cities Spending to Help Kids?
New research looks at how local governments are using the money to address the fallout the pandemic has had for children in areas like education and mental health.
Texas has Banned More Books Than Any Other State, New Report Shows
Across the country, more books have been challenged and removed as religious and conservative groups target LGBTQ and race issues.
A Library Struck by Controversy That Began Over a Book It Didn’t Own
In Boundary County, Idaho a local librarian decided to resign citing a “political atmosphere of extremism.” The situation there mirrors a trend affecting libraries around the country.
Republicans Running for Statehouse Seats Sharpen Attacks on Public Education
The strategy, which helped propel Republican Glenn Youngkin into the governor's office in Virginia, is playing out in the blue and purple states that Republicans hope to flip this election cycle.
A Mom’s Campaign to Ban Library Books Divided a Texas Town — and Her Own Family
Weston Brown thought he had fully come to terms with his mother's anti-LGBTQ beliefs. Then he saw the video of her speaking at a school board meeting. “I couldn’t stay quiet about that.”
Electric School Buses are Taking Students Back to School
COMMENTARY | And they're bringing cleaner air and lower maintenance costs to school districts across the country.
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.
Manage Consent Preferences
Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies
Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link
If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.
Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.
Cookie List
A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:
Strictly Necessary Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Functional Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Performance Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Social Media Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Targeting Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Help us tailor content specifically for you: