Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
For the first time this presidential election cycle, six Republican candidates will be forced to talk about education — an issue that has taken a backseat to others for the last few election cycles. (Politico)
Ahh, back to school in America. Time for annoyingly aggressive marketing of clothes and the annual warnings of a national teacher shortage. (NPR)
Earlier this year, we asked you to share your #StudentDebtStress story. More than 30,000 of you answered, telling us about payment processing problems, servicing transfer snags, customer service confusion, and obstacles for borrowers in alternative repayment plans. You can check out the comments that were posted. (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau)
Jacklyn Trainor was a 28-year-old single mother in a writing class I taught in 2014 at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Trainor was raising two kids, juggling childcare, homework, and waitressing. (Because I’m open about my own struggles attending graduate school as a single parent, students often ask me for advice or share their experiences.) “I hated working dead-end jobs and barely getting by,” Trainor, whose last name back then was Canales, recently told me. “I really want to further my education to get a career and a better life for my kids.” (The Atlantic)
It was a cold January morning more than a year and a half ago when Kain Colter and the activist Ramogi Huma called a news conference at a downtown Chicago hotel to announce their intention to form the first college sports union. (The New York Times)
When the levees broke 10 years ago—drowning New Orleans in the disastrous wake of Hurricane Katrina—the ruptures set off a cascade of profound changes to public schooling that have never before been seen in a single American city. (Education Week)