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The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Wednesday that it will provide nearly $2bn for food banks and school meal programs to purchase American-grown foods. The breakdown will mean about $1bn for emergency food providers and almost half a billion dollars for school lunch and breakfast programs, with another half a billion dollars going toward expanding an existing Local Food Purchase Assistance program. The program is aimed at combating hunger and boosting American producers as they deal with supply chain issues and high food costs. “Funding these initiatives is paramount in the fight against hunger, and further demonstrates the Biden-Harris Administration and USDA’s commitment to strengthen food and nutrition security,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement. 

 

The Hill

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) sought Wednesday to push through a plan to direct billions of federal dollars toward more police officers and mental health counselors in the nation’s schools. “If we had additional mental health resources on campuses, they would be in a position to spot the warning signs, to see the young man heading down that dangerous path and to intervene and stop them,” he said. Mr. Cruz said his bill would double the number of school resource officers, improve physical security of schools and triple a FEMA security grant program. It also has $10bn in grants for schools to hire mental health professionals, but would exclude those including critical race theory in any of their programs.

 

Dallas Morning News

A group of Texas ministers called for a federal investigation into Fort Worth ISD on Wednesday, for allegedly fostering a hostile environment for Black students. The Ministers Justice Coalition, which is led by the Rev. Kyev Tatum of Fort Worth and includes several North Texas ministers, believes the district’s culture led to an April incident in which a student was allowed to repeatedly use a racial slur during a class presentation. In a letter to the U.S. Department of Education, the group says that through disproportionate discipline and lack of integration in advanced programs, Black students experience differential treatment and isolation in the Fort Worth school district. The group is requesting that the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights open an investigation of the district. Tatum said the district should go under a federal consent decree to monitor a change of action in the behavior of the school system. His group is also requesting that the district offer district-wide racial sensitivity training to its teachers and staff as well as provide counseling to students who experience racially offensive moments in the schools.

 

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Parents are concerned and calling it the "new reality" after the Texas school shooting scare that occurred at Heights High School in Houston on Tuesday, September 13th. The shooting was a hoax call, but students shared videos of what it looked like when SWAT officers entered their classrooms. Houston police said the report claimed 10 people were shot in classroom 213, which turned out not to be true. Officers were seen searching the building while evacuating students. Police Chief Troy Finner said in a news conference that officers broke the door open to 213 after seeing how it was locked on the opposite side of the building. "Considering what happened recently in an active shooting, officers broke open the door," Mr. Finner said. On Twitter, one parent shared videos her son took as the SWAT team investigated his classroom. She tweeted: "This is the new reality for our kids who are just trying to learn and live another day!"

 

My San Antonio

Home sales in Royal ISD have more than tripled in the last five years, and those sales will likely exceed 800 homes per year in the next 2-3 years, a demographer said Thursday. Bob Templeton of Zonda Education spoke at the Royal ISD Facilities Advisory Committee meeting at the Royal Early Childhood Center. The committee is holding a series of meetings in anticipation of putting a bond issue on the May 2023 ballot. The increase in home sales will be reflected in the district’s student enrollment, which Templeton said would top 4,100 students in the 2026-27 school year and 7,700 students in the 2031-32 school year. The campuses are approaching capacity limits, he said.

 

Katy Times

The Wichita Falls ISD School Board hired a new chief financial officer at Tuesday's board meeting. Leah Horton was named CFO during the meeting in a 7-0 unanimous vote by trustees approving the applicant pool. Ms. Horton has served since 2011 in the WFISD Technology Department as the Student/Business Instruction Networks Services lead, prior to which she worked for Burkburnett ISD for nine years as the district accountant and coordinator for the Public Education Information Management System.

 

Wichita Falls Times Record News

Brownsville ISD trustees stopped short of setting the tax rate for 2023 when it voted at a meeting Tuesday to table the matter pending a review of projects that could be put on hold and asked administration to prepare a revised proposed tax rate. By law, the tax rate must be set by September 30th so that the district meets its budget obligations and continues to make payments on bonded debt incurred by previous boards and approved by voters, Superintendent Rene Gutierrez said before the board went into executive session.

 

The Monitor

A lawsuit contesting the Clear Creek ISD board May election results filed by a conservative candidate who ran on a platform of fighting “indoctrination” has been dismissed, court records show. Misty Dawson originally filed the petition contesting the results of her narrow loss in the District 1 race to Jessica Cejka in June. Ms. Dawson alleged that illegal votes were cast in the election. Following an examination of cast ballots, attorneys representing Ms. Dawson conceded any alleged errors could not be proven to change the outcome of the election. “This matter is closed,” said Elaina Polsen, spokesperson for the district. “Jessica Cejka continues to serve in her elected position as a Clear Creek ISD Board of Trustee.”

 

Houston Chronicle

Research from EducationNC suggests that exclusionary discipline, using practices that remove children from their usual learning and social settings, such as suspension and expulsion, are harmful to preschool students. Because the first three years of brain development are the most crucial, the negative effects of exclusionary discipline, including poor educational outcomes and increased risk of incarceration, can last a lifetime. “Most of the things that we’re talking about are really benign behaviors, under better conditions and less stress,” said Iheoma Iruka, founding director of the Equity Research Action Coalition at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute. “They’re being kids, and the way they [are] interpreted maybe needs to be adjusted.” Evidence appears to indicate that what young children need to thrive is the focused attention of a caring adult. Teachers and providers in early care and education settings are ideally situated to provide that because of the time they spend with children during their most critical years of brain development.

 

The 74

The Biden administration has highlighted dual-enrollment programs as a way to expand the pipeline from high school to college in response to ongoing declines in college-going. Only 63% of new high school graduates in 2020 immediately enrolled in college, down from 66% in 2019 and a high of 70% in 2016, according to the most recent federal data. However, experts warn that these programs may be failing to reach and entice low-income and other underserved students who could benefit most from what they have to offer, an issue that seems to have gotten worse during the pandemic. The Education Commission of the States (ECS) found that 50 states and the District of Columbia now offer 87 different dual-enrollment programs, including 27 online, up from 48 in 2019. Only 13 states cover the full cost for at least one of their dual-enrollment programs, leaving school districts and students to provide funding. “The pandemic amplified and brought into really sharp focus that college-going has become very expensive,” said Sharmila Mann, an ECS policy researcher. Under tight budget constraints, many school districts have less support to hire, or contract with, teachers from local colleges or train existing teachers as dual-enrollment instructors, or to pay testing and other fees for students. “There just aren’t enough faculty in some high-minority schools or in very rural or low-income schools that are qualified to teach dual enrollment” she added.

 

Education Week

Although state education officials say cybersecurity and privacy are their top ed tech priorities, only 6% of respondents to a recent survey by the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) said their state provides ample funding for cybersecurity. The survey, conducted in collaboration with the Education Commission of the States and Whiteboard Advisors, found 37% of respondents reporting their state provides cybersecurity tools to districts. Additionally, 57% of respondents said their state provides very little or a small amount of funding for cybersecurity. With all the funding put toward ed tech to keep students connected to the classroom from home during the pandemic, it’s important those investments are not for nothing, said Julia Fallon, executive director of SETDA. “How do we not waste the investments that were made during the pandemic?” she asked. “We don’t want that machine that was bought so it could connect from home necessarily [to] come back to school and just sit there.”

 

K12 Dive