NATIONAL NEWS

For-profit online charter school growth under the spotlight

In the 2019-20 school year, more than 330,000 students attended virtual schools, roughly 60% of them at for-profits. At Stride Inc., the nation’s biggest for-profit operator of charters, enrollment grew by 45%, to almost 157,000, and revenue in its general education division rose 37%. Equipped with big advertising budgets, the schools have stepped up their marketing during the pandemic, often advertising on social media or other children’s web channels. Overall however, about 63% of virtual for-profit schools — most of which are charter schools — were rated unacceptable by their states in the latest year for which data was available, according to a May report by the University of Colorado’s National Education Policy Center. Online charters also typically lag other schools on measures including student academic outcomes and graduation rates, and have historically experienced high student turnover. Some education advocates are now calling for states do more to hold for-profit charters accountable. A few states, including Texas, have now begun moving toward performance-based funding mechanisms for virtual schools.

Washington Post 

STATE NEWS

Lawmakers fast-track property tax cut proposal

With the renewed backing of Gov. Greg Abbott, legislation to cut property tax rates is on a fast track through the Texas Legislature. Backers have pointed to the $19bn in federal stimulus money that has been set aside for Texas public schools, along with a nearly $8bn surplus sitting in state coffers, as an opportunity for the state to provide some temporary property tax relief. “The obvious is that when you have excess funds, you should be giving some of it back to the taxpayers,” said state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican and author of the property tax legislation. His bill now heads to the House, where Speaker Dade Phelan has signaled an eagerness to tackle the matter. Separately, the Texas House has the votes to pass legislation that would restrict transgender student athlete participation in school sports, House Speaker Dade Phelan said in an interview Friday. Three times this year — in the regular session and in two subsequent special sessions — legislation targeting transgender student athletes sailed through the Senate only to falter in the House.

The Texas Tribune  The Texas Tribune 

DISTRICTS

Austin school board hikes taxes

The Austin school board unanimously approved a tax rate estimated to increase taxes for homeowners by 2% at the end of last week. The new rate of $1.0617 is lower than last year's and the district's lowest in 20 years, but it will translate to an average tax increase of $276.12 for the average home valued at $472,823, according to district estimates. The district expects to collect almost $1.5bn from local taxes for the upcoming fiscal year, but it is expected to send 49% of its revenue to the state under the state's long-standing school finance formula.

Austin American-Statesman 

Christie Whitbeck reflects on Bryan ISD tenure

As now-former Bryan ISD Superintendent Christie Whitbeck prepares to step into the superintendent seat in the Fort Bend school district next month, she leaves behind a legacy in Bryan of "listening, doing and developing character." One of the greatest challenges in her four and a half year tenure, she said, was not the transportation overhaul in 2017 or the COVID-19 pandemic, but the community's "outdated perception of Bryan," with some concerns dating back decades. “You just have to get the story out and let people know, so I spent a lot of time talking with groups, visiting, telling the story,” she says of her morale-boosting narrative.

Bryan-College Station Eagle 

WORKFORCE

Teacher vacancies up as new school year begins

A Chalkbeat survey of 20 large U.S. school districts has found that in 18 of them, the number of teacher vacancies is up this year. The share of empty teaching positions is often only 2 or 3%, but the numbers mean thousands of students started the school year without full-time teachers or extra help schools had hoped to provide, a worrying sign for schools trying to help students recover from the pandemic. Hiring has been particularly tough, school officials say, in areas like special education, math, and science that were challenging before the pandemic. Shortages are “limiting the ways in which districts are seeking to invest in recovery and redesign,” said Jonathan Travers, who works with school officials through the consulting firm Education Resource Strategies. “It is just taking a number of things off the table.”

Chalkbeat 

LEGISLATION

Bipartisan financial literacy bill would incentivize high school students to start saving

A bipartisan bill just introduced in the U.S. Senate would help high school students achieve financial literacy by giving them money and then matching a portion of what they continue to save. The Program to Inspire Growth and Guarantee Youth Budgeting Advice and Necessary Knowledge, or the PIGGY BANK Act, was introduced Thursday by Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) would create a financial matched savings pilot program where high school students would receive a $300 initial deposit and have up to $25 per month of any extra savings put in the account matched. The program would require students to take a financial literacy class. “Decreasing economic inequality and closing the racial wealth divide means creating saving pathways for low-income households to build wealth,” said Gary Cunningham, CEO and president of Prosperity Now, a nonprofit that supports the legislation, in a statement. “Matched savings programs can incentivize working families to boost their savings and get on a wealth-building path through opportunities for higher education, work and homeownership.” The legislation is also supported by the National Education Association, the National School Boards Association and the Michigan Education Association.

CNBC 

HEALTH & WELLBEING

Texas' coronavirus cases soaring

Less than two months into this school year, the number of reported coronavirus cases among students in Texas' public schools has surpassed the total from the entire 2020-21 school year, according to Texas Education Agency data.

Weatherford Democrat 

TRANSPORTATION

Innovation in the face of a transportation crisis

In a piece for The 74 Chade Aldeman, policy director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University and Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab and a research professor at Georgetown University, examine how school districts are dealing with transportation issues such as staff shortages, canceled routes, and hours-long waits for students to get to campus. While many districts are offering signing bonuses to prospective drivers, and some are enticing college students by purchasing campus parking passes for them as a perk, others are redesigning their transportation models altogether, through the use of an emerging concept called co-production: a mechanism where the beneficiaries participate in the delivery of the services they use. In this case, parents are given incentives to arrange transportation previously provided by the district’s centralized bus service. The Lansing school district in Michigan began offering city bus passes and gas cards worth $25 a month to parents willing to drive their children to school. Some places are offering more substantial stipends for parents willing to take on the responsibility of getting their child to class, to the tune of $300 a month in Philadelphia and in Chicago, $1,000 upfront and $500 monthly.

The 74 

OTHER

Pedro Martinez interviewed

Pedro Martinez, who is leaving San Antonio ISD to become Chicago's new schools chief, describes his tussles with Gov. Greg Abbott and why he believes a student vaccine mandate should be on the table in his new role . Martinez, the only superintendent of a major Texas school district to require school employees to be vaccinated, was slapped with a lawsuit from the Texas attorney general for his efforts. Asked if he plans to mandate vaccines for students in Chicago, Martinez says: "I truly believe that should be done at the national level. If it is a world crisis I don't think it should be at the district level. We all know how important it is to have children in person in school. We all, for the most part, agree on that. So why shouldn't there be some bold action at the national level?"

New York Times