Category Archives: US education

Teen mental health in US has improved post-pandemic, new CDC data says

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Schools’ investment in social-emotional support appears to pay off, especially for girls, but work is ‘far from complete’

A recently released study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows levels of sadness and hopelessness are improving in some US teenagers, and notably among girls.

However,, the survey and experts said, challenges remain, as some metrics worsened in the most recent report. Of particular concern is a growing group of students who missed school because they did not feel safe.

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Advocates react to Utah ban of 13 books in schools and libraries: ‘It’s a tragedy’

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Utah is first in the US to outlaw titles statewide they deem ‘indecent’ as free speech advocates worry about impact

Library associations, free speech groups and advocates are expressing outrage and concern after the state of Utah ordered 13 books to be removed from public school classrooms and libraries in accordance with a new state law that passed earlier this year.

“It’s a tragedy,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.

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Texas: judge rules against Black high school teen in hair discrimination case

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Darryl George, 18, filed civil rights lawsuit after Barbers Hill school system punished him for refusing to alter hairstyle

A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed most of the claims in a lawsuit filed by a Black high school student who alleged that school officials committed racial and gender discrimination when they punished him for refusing to change his hairstyle.

The ruling in the case of Darryl George was another victory for the Barbers Hill school district near Houston, which has said its policy restricting hair length for male students instills discipline while teaching grooming and respect for authority.

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US governor tells parents kids can ‘not look’ at Ten Commandments in schools

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Louisiana’s Jeff Landry was defending a law requiring display of text in all public schools starting next year

The far-right Louisiana governor, Jeff Landry, has told parents who don’t want the Ten Commandments hung in up classrooms across the state – as now required by law there – to tell their children to “not look at them”.

The Republican’s remarks came at a news conference on Monday defending the mandate, about two months after Louisiana became the first state in the country to order the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all public school classrooms.

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South Carolina implements one of US’s most restrictive public school book bans

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Education superintendent and Moms for Liberty ally drafts law requiring all reading be ‘developmentally appropriate’

South Carolina has implemented one of the most restrictive book ban laws in the US, enabling mass censorship in school classrooms and libraries across the state.

Drafted by Ellen Weaver, the superintendent of education and close ally of the far-right group Moms for Liberty, the law requires all reading material to be “age or developmentally appropriate”. The vague wording of the legislation – open to interpretation and deliberately inviting challenge – could see titles as classic as Romeo and Juliet completely wiped from school shelves.

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Anti-DEI law forces closure of University of Utah LGBT center

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News comes amid anti-diversity legislation that has gutted inclusionary programs at several public universities

After 21 years of service, the University of Utah’s LGBT Resource Center will close on Friday, as the second-largest public university in the state comes into compliance with HB 261, Utah’s version of the anti-DEI legislation that has swept the country and gutted inclusionary programs at several public universities.

“As we’ve evaluated how best to comply with the legislation, I want to be clear that we’ve faced very difficult decisions,” the vice-president for student affairs, Lori McDonald, said in a statement. “The law and subsequent guidance require a foundational change in how we approach student support, and we will follow the law. This isn’t about changing the words we use; we’re changing how we approach the work.”

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Texas Republican vows to pass bill on Ten Commandments in public schools

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Dan Patrick pledges to emulate Louisiana with bill that would force schools to display Ten Commandments

A leading Texas Republican has pledged to emulate Louisiana by passing a bill that would force public schools to display the Ten Commandments.

Dan Patrick, Texas’s lieutenant governor, said on Friday he would pass Bill 1515 mandating the biblical stricture in all classrooms, in the next session of the state senate, the upper legislative chamber over which he presides.

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‘Let kids be kids’: LA becomes largest US school district to ban phones in class

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Measure passes 5-2 as Gavin Newsom calls for statewide ban on cellphones for students during the school day

The Los Angeles unified school board passed a resolution on Tuesday banning cell phones from district classrooms. As the second-largest school district in the US, the vote makes it the largest school district in the US to approve such a ban.

As more educators across the US explore similar policies, California governor Gavin Newsom called on Tuesday for a statewide ban on phones in class. The measure in Los Angeles was introduced by board member Nick Melvoin and will be implemented starting in January 2025 after passing in a 5-2 vote. Melvoin said in a statement the measure is meant to support “students’ academic success and wellbeing”, adding that studies have shown smartphones and social media distract kids from learning and stifle their in-person social connections.

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Texas curriculum overhaul would increase biblical content in elementary schools

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Two million Texas kids could see new curriculum emphasizing Bible stories to instruct them in the ‘American cultural experience’

Texas elementary school students would get a significant dose of Bible knowledge with their reading instruction under a sweeping curriculum redesign unveiled on Wednesday.

From the story of Queen Esther – who convinced her husband, the Persian king, to spare the Jews – to the depiction of Christ’s last supper, the material is designed to draw connections between classroom content and religious texts.

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Dignity, joy, a raised fist: Biden renews pitch to Black voters at Morehouse commencement

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Gaza protesters wore keffiyehs as Biden tried to assure the crowd: ‘Your voices should be heard, I promise you I hear them’

It was, in the end, an artful compromise.

Joe Biden got to speak uninterrupted and renew his pitch to Black voters. Protesters got to make their point by wearing keffiyehs or raising a fist. Even the skies were merciful, hinting at but never quite unleashing rain.

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Biden vows to fight ‘poison of white supremacy’ at Morehouse speech

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Speech warmly received at historically Black college despite backlash from students in weeks leading to address over war

Joe Biden told graduating students of Morehouse College that American democracy has failed the Black community, but vowed to continue fighting “the poison of white supremacy”, in a widely watched speech to a historically Black college during an election year.

Despite a backlash from some students and alumni in the weeks leading up to Biden’s commencement address, including over the Hamas-Israel war and concerns that Biden would use the speech as a campaign event, the president’s address to the all-male school was warmly received. He used his speech to reaffirm his commitment to democracy in the wake of the January 6 insurrection, and to reiterate his call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

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‘Scary’: public-school textbooks the latest target as US book bans intensify

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A school district in Houston has voted to redact chapters on vaccines and climate change, and parents and educators are worried

The wave of book bans sweeping the US, typically reserved for works of fiction deemed controversial, has hit textbooks used in public schools, marking the next step in Republicans’ war on education.

The board of trustees for the Cypress Fairbanks independent school district in Houston voted 6-1 earlier this month to redact certain chapters in science textbooks, including those about vaccines, human growth, diversity, and climate change.

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Tennessee passes bill to allow teachers to carry concealed guns despite protests

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State’s Republicans passed the bill, which the governor is now expected to sign, despite criticism from teachers and parents

Tennessee lawmakers passed a bill on Tuesday that would allow teachers to carry concealed handguns in schools despite protests at the state capitol.

House Republicans passed the bill, one of the biggest gun moves since a mass shooting in a Nashville Christian school left three children and three adults dead last year.

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Student Gaza protests: top Republicans call on Biden to send in federal officers

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Letter from 25 senators including Mitch McConnell says president ‘must act immediately to restore order’ on university campuses

Senior Republican US senators on Tuesday waded into growing tensions at leading universities over the Israel-Gaza war, demanding the Biden administration send in federal law enforcement officers to curb pro-Palestinian protests that have led to hundreds of arrests.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, and John Thune, his deputy, wrote to Merrick Garland, the US attorney general, and Miguel Cardona, the education secretary, calling demonstrators “antisemitic, pro-terrorist mobs”.

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Columbia faculty members walk out after pro-Palestinian protesters arrested

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Hundreds of members of teaching staff demonstrate in solidarity with arrested students as protest tents put back up on campus

Hundreds of faculty members at Columbia University in New York held a mass walkout on Monday to protest against the president’s decision to have police arrest students at a pro-Palestinian encampment protest last week.

The solidarity protest came as students put protest tents back up on campus. They had been torn down last week when the New York police department arrested more than 100 students, who were also suspended by the university.

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Columbia president assailed at highly charged antisemitism Congress hearing

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Minouche Shafik appeared beleaguered as House members grilled her over reported upsurge in antisemitism on campus

The head of a prestigious US university clashed with members of Congress today in highly charged hearings over a reported upsurge in antisemitism on campus in the wake of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Minouche Shafik, the president of Columbia University, appeared beleaguered and uncertain as one Congress member after another assailed her over her institution’s supposed inaction to stop it becoming what one called “a hotbed of antisemitism and hatred”.

This article was amended on 17 April 2024 to correctly identify the school where Elizabeth Magill resigned as president last year. The school was the University of Pennsylvania, not Pennsylvania University.

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Backlash as USC cancels valedictorian’s speech over support for Palestine

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Asna Tabassum says university is ‘succumbing to a campaign of hate meant to silence my voice’ after decision to scrap speech

The University of Southern California is facing intense backlash for the decision to cancel the valedictorian speech of a Muslim student at the commencement ceremony in May, a decision which the student has criticized as being silenced by anti-Palestinian hatred for her views on human rights.

In a missive to the USC community, the university’s provost, Andrew Guzman, wrote that the Los Angeles university took the unprecedented step of canceling Asna Tabassum’s planned speech because the “alarming tenor” of reactions to her selection as valedictorian – along with “the intensity of feelings” surrounding Israel’s ongoing military strikes in Gaza – had created “substantial risks relating to security”.

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University of Maryland halts fraternity and sorority events amid hazing worries

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College announces new member activities are suspended pending investigation of possible activities that threatened people’s safety

Program activities of fraternities and sororities at the University of Maryland have been suspended indefinitely, the university announced.

The University of Maryland’s decision comes after the University of Virginia suspended its Kappa Sigma chapter and all fraternity events following an alleged hazing incident last month which left a student injured.

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In reversal, Nebraska governor accepts federal dollars to feed low-income kids

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Jim Pillen breaks with 14 other Republican governors to enroll in Summer EBT, a new food program for school vacation months

Nebraska’s governor announced this week that the state would accept federal dollars to help feed children from low-income families, breaking away from the more than a dozen other Republican governors around the US who have refused to do so.

Just last month, Jim Pillen joined 14 other Republican governors in opting not to enroll in Summer EBT, a new federal food program that provides low-income families with a monthly payment of $40 per child during summer vacation. In participating states, families with children in free or reduced-price school lunch programs will get $40 per qualifying child on an electronic benefits transfer (EBT) card throughout each of the three summer months. That money can be used to purchase groceries and food from farmers’ markets.

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Florida schoolkids may have to study ‘threat of communism in the US’

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Republican bills likely to reach Governor Ron DeSantis, who has railed against indoctrination of students by ‘liberal elites’

Kindergartners in Florida might soon be compelled to balance learning their ABCs with lectures on the history of communism, if a Republican proposal moving through the state’s legislature becomes law.

House bill 1349 would also create a “history of communism taskforce”, hand-picked by the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, to recommend how the subject is presented in classrooms from elementary to high school starting in 2026.

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