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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
National
DeVos says her “heart is with” Dreamers
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says her “heart is with” Dreamers, many of them students who face an uncertain future after the Trump administration announced it is rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DeVos made the comment in an interview with CBS News’ Jan Crawford, after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the administration is ending the program that protects roughly 690,000 young people who came to the U.S. without legal status as children. DeVos said many of those young people are in the K-12 education system or in higher education, and a Supreme Court ruling in 1982 protects their ability to complete their education in the U.S., but she encouraged them to “take courage.” (CBS)
Complying With Spec. Ed. Bias Rule May Force Spending Shifts
The Trump administration and congressional Republicans have spent time and energy dismantling some of the education regulations championed by President Barack Obama. But an educational equity policy born from the bipartisan reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and given prominence by Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative lives on. And it means that many more school districts may have to make changes to how they spend their federal special education allotment. (Education Week)
Houston Students Are Heading Back — What They Find Could Change Schools Nationwide
For the staff of Wilson Montessori, a public pre-K-8 school in Houston, the days after Harvey meant tracking down members of the community via text, collecting donations for those in need — and reassuring students about the fate of the school’s pets. Belva Parrish, the counselor at Wilson and a 25-year veteran of Houston’s public schools, says the pet update on the school’s Facebook page was one small way schools can help students heal. (NPR)
5 former education secretaries to Congress: Support DACA
The Obama-era program that shields nearly 800,000 young undocumented immigrants from deportation just got a powerful endorsement: Five former U.S. education secretaries, both Republicans and Democrats, have written to Congress asking lawmakers to keep the program intact. The Trump administration earlier this week said it would phase out Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), giving Congress six months to formulate a permanent legislative fix. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia on Wednesday said they’d sue over the decision. Late Wednesday, five former U.S. education secretaries sent a letter to lawmakers, saying the contributions of so-called DREAMers “have already made our country stronger.” (USA Today)
At Risk Under Decision to Repeal DACA: 20,000 K-12 Teachers — and the Schools Where They Are Teaching
When Viridiana Carrizales was a student in Dallas, she kept her secret close. She was only 12 years old when she escaped a small, violence-stricken town in Mexico, crossing into the U.S. through the Arizona desert in August heat. She never let on that she was undocumented. “I never felt like I could trust my teachers,” Carrizales, now a 30-year-old U.S. citizen and education activist, told The 74. “I was afraid they wouldn’t understand and they would judge me and my parents for being undocumented, so I never shared that with any of them.” (The 74)
States
Florida
All public schools will be closed through Monday
All public K-12 schools, state colleges, state universities and state offices will stay closed through Monday as Florida prepares for a monstrous Hurricane Irma to make landfall this weekend, Gov. Rick Scott announced Thursday night. The closures will help free up schools as shelters for those who have evacuated and make them centers for the recovery that will follow, he said. (Miami Herald)
New Jersey
Christie: Newark to get control of its schools next week
NEWARK — Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday confirmed that the state will begin the process to hand over control of Newark’s schools to local officials next week. Speaking to educators at NJIT’s campus on Wednesday afternoon, the governor disclosed that state Board of Education is expected to take its formal vote next Wednesday, ending 20 years of state control. (NJ Advance Media)
Pennsylvania
Group wants to raise $140 million for city’s charter, parochial and public schools
The Philadelphia School Partnership, a powerful nonprofit that has raised and distributed $80 million to city charter, parochial and public schools since its inception in 2011, wants to raise $60 million more, it announced Thursday. The nonprofit (PSP), already the Philadelphia School District’s largest private funder, aims to expand its reach. Its investments have already affected 25,000 students, the organization says; the new initiative would reach 15,000 more. (The Philadelphia Inquirer & Daily News)
Tennessee
Head of state-run Achievement School District to step down
The head of the controversial, state-run Achievement School District is stepping down, less than two years into the job leading the district tasked with intervening in Tennessee’s worst schools. Malika Anderson’s resignation, announced by the Tennessee Department of Education, which oversees the ASD, is effective Sept. 30. The education department’s Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operations Officer Kathleen Airhart will step in as interim superintendent until the state completes a search for a new leader. (The Commercial Appeal)