Education News Roundup, February 23, 2025

First up, the Department of Education has backed off - way off - on its "no money if you have DEI initiatives" due to a federal ruling last month.  The Education Department is NOT appealing the ruling. But the story below may hold what happens in the future on DEI. 

From Portland Public Broadcasting, Portland Public Schools' own initiative for Black students.

Portland Public Schools is under a federal civil rights investigation for moving forward on a voter-approved effort to better support the district’s historically marginalized Black students.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced this week that it’s looking into allegations of race-based discrimination at PPS. The investigation is specifically tied to a complaint over the district’s effort to create a new learning facility formerly known as the Center for Black Student Excellence.

The complaint, filed by the conservative education advocacy group Defending Education in December, alleges that the PPS initiative violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and equal protection granted under the U.S. Constitution through what the group calls “racially discriminatory programming.” 

The PPS center targeted in the new investigation is still in its development stages. Programming for district students has yet to be finalized.

I had wondered if someone was going to come after Portland PS OR SPS for their initiatives for specific students under the new regime in Washington. What is tough for the Portland situation is that they already passed a bond that included buying land and building a school specific to their Black student program. 

Earlier this month, I saw this article on public records and Washington school districts, this from From The States:

A bill moving through the Washington legislature seeks to find ways to discourage people from misusing the state’s Public Records Act to target school districts.

Introduced by state Rep. Skyler Rude, R-Walla Walla, HB 2661 concerns records requests that are “frivolous, retaliatory, or harassing” and that place a heavy burden on school district resources and personnel.

Rude’s original bill proposed a task force to look at how the issue affects public agencies generally. The group would have included representatives from organizations, such as media outlets and government watchdogs, that make records requests, and from agencies that respond to requests.

An amended version, which passed the House State Government & Tribal Relations Committee on Wednesday, Feb. 4, directs the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee to form a work group to look only at how the issue impacts school districts. The task force invitees will now be asked to join the work group.

Tyna Ek, general counsel for Washington Schools Risk Management Pool — a potential work group participant — said schools have a unique problem because the records requests they receive are often about children and litigation involving them. These requests raise privilege issues that demand lawyers, “and so it becomes particularly expensive,” Ek said.

Well, the solution might be for districts to be more transparent and have accessible files at their websites. 

Still another bill - ESSB 6247 - that focuses on "district financial management" is moving through the legislature. It looks like it makes sense except that one legislative watchdog complained that WSDDA (Washington State Directors     ) "was able to change how soon board members need to take the required financial class, from one to two years." Apparently, this discussion around school boards and financial knowledge has been going on for over a decade. 

Keeping up on charter schools in Washington State, I saw this op-ed from a charter school teacher complaining about how charters schools are unequally funded as public schools. First, blame the state constitution which does not recognize charter schools as real public schools. Second, the legislature already has dipped into a separate pot of money - that was for other educational initiatives - to pay for the lackluster number of charters in Washington State. Third, I would have to see where all the charter schools get ALL of their dollars including donations and grants. 

Growing concern that young adults no longer want to be teachers, an op-ed from The 74: 

I Asked Students Whether They’d Want to be Teachers? They Responded, ‘Why Would I?’

Educator's view: Students mentioned hearing teachers talk openly about low pay or feeling a lack of respect. Who will teach the next generation?

On boys not wanting to become teachers from Education Week:

The overall share of male teachers heading up the nation’s K-12 classrooms has declined in the last three decades, from 30 percent in 1987 to 23 percent in 2022, the most recent year of federal data available. 

Most male teachers in K-12 public schools work at the secondary level. In the 2020-21 school year, men made up 36 percent of the teaching staff in the nation’s secondary public schools, compared to just 11 percent at the elementary level and fewer than 3 percent of all preschool and kindergarten teachers, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Black men make up just 1.3 percent of the overall public school teaching workforce.

In a bad circle, not enough male teachers so...

A boy isn’t likely to think of pursuing a career in teaching unless a respected adult—such as a teacher—suggests it. That could be because he doesn’t see many teachers who look like him. 

 

Related to this story is a comment from the Kent School District Discussion Group on Facebook from an educator, Dr. Brad Johnson.

One in three teachers say they’re likely to leave the profession within the next two years.
That’s a systemic problem.
And yes—it’s also a generational one.

Boomers and Gen X were conditioned to tolerate what never should have been normal.
Overwork was loyalty.
Silence was professionalism.
Burnout was the cost of caring.
Many stayed anyway—because the kids mattered.

Gen Z and Gen Alpha see it differently.
It’s not that they don’t care.
They’re just unwilling to give their lives to systems that won’t change.
And we’re already seeing the impact.

Fewer students are entering teacher preparation programs.
Enrollment is down. Interest is fading. The pipeline is shrinking.
The system hasn’t caught up to the people entering it.

Teaching was never meant to require martyrdom to prove commitment.
And passion was never supposed to replace support.
If we don’t change the system, we won’t lose teachers slowly.
We’ll lose an entire generation all at once.
Side note: Millennials are the bridge generation.
Some lean Gen X. Some lean Gen Z. And translate for each side.

Out of Hawaii News Now, State will pay $8M for special education neglect of a student.

Hawaii taxpayers will pay $8 million to provide lifetime care for a severely autistic student after her family spent 17 years fighting the state Department of Education for adequate special education support. 

The settlement will cover lifetime mental health, rehabilitation, and housing support for the student, now 21 years old. Her mother advocated for her without assistance from the beginning, when the student was four years old. 

“I have not seen a settlement quite this large,” Seitz said. “I think that basically attests to the fact that this child suffered and did not get — and was denied the opportunity to get — the services that would enable her to progress.”

I bring this story up for several reasons. One, Special Education costs are one of the key budgeting issues for SPS. Two, I have often heard Special Education parents wishing they had the money to fight in court for their child. And three, this mom never gave up on her child and what was needed for their education.

I see this new company - Digital Promise - that seems to be vacuuming up school districts for their products. Recently, Issaquah School District and Kent School District have joined them. What do they do?

Digital Promise is a global nonprofit working to expand opportunity for each learner. We work with educators, researchers, technology leaders, and communities to co-design, develop, and scale up innovations that serve all learners.

They have a League of Innovative Schools, a national network of more than 170 forward-thinking K-12 school district superintendents who together solve the challenges facing our schools through innovation and technology.

They have available:
- micro-credentials
- Learner Variability Project
- Powerful Learning.

Also, AI (and I'm long overdue for a post about that.)

How much does all this "innovative" bullshit cost? No idea but I'd venture teachers and school administrators aren't going to jump up and down to do this work.

Sad news out of Texas via The 74: 

ICE Taps into School Security Cameras to Aid Trump’s Immigration Crackdown, 74 Investigation Finds

Police assisted federal immigration agents by repeatedly searching school cameras that record license plate numbers, data show.

The data raises questions about the degree to which campus surveillance technology intended for student safety is being repurposed to support immigration enforcement, whether school districts understand how broadly their data is being shared with federal agents and if meaningful guardrails exist to prevent misuse.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, called the revelation an “egregious end run around the Constitution” that will add to the pressure on Congress to rein in U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement. By accessing campus feeds, she said, immigration authorities are violating the rights of students, parents and educators “to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.” 

I know this is not a Puget Sound region issue but keep it on your radar.