#tellEWA Member Stories (January 20-26)
Here’s what we’re reading by EWA members this week.
For years, many conservatives wanted a liberal Florida college gone. Now the Sarasota school is in the crosshairs of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is waging a statewide politicized battle over education. To rebrand the school, DeSantis appointed six board trustees, including conservative activist Christopher Rufo. The latter wants to implement a “a small ‘equality, merit, and colorblindness’ department,” among other initiatives, Jack Stripling reports for The Washington Post.
— Lori Crouch (@lkcrouch) January 23, 2023
Megan Menchaca details how she spent months reporting on college affordability and access. In the series for the Austin American-Statesman, she highlights how low-income students at the University of Texas at Austin are struggling with housing costs and investigates on-campus housing shortages, which forced about 40% of freshmen to live off campus.
The most expensive part of attending @UTAustin? It’s not tuition.
It costs *at least* $867 more yearly to live on campus than on average tuition prices. Off-campus costs can be even more.
And students pay the price. My latest series for @statesman. A 🧵https://t.co/iEYXzj7hEd
— Megan Menchaca (@meganmmenchaca) January 23, 2023
A Nevada program awarded students with disabilities $5,000 grants for certain services. A mother used the funding to enroll her children in smaller, specialized schools called microschools. School choice advocates say the program – which is funded by federal COVID-19 relief money – is a model for other states. Writing for Youth Today, Elizabeth Hlavinka explains the program, the rise in school choice legislation and how the pandemic disproportionately affected children with disabilities.
$5 million gone in 3 days directly to 1,000 kids with disabilities. @hlavinka_e on how Nevada is funneling COVID relief $$ to kids with disabilities and how it fits into the national school choice movement. #tellEWA https://t.co/a9Bvoj766u
— Molly Bloom (@M_Bloom) January 25, 2023
An incarcerated student in the South describes to Open Campus’s Charlotte West how they take online college classes using a contraband cellphone. While using the phone could lead to punishment, the student resides in a prison that offers few higher education opportunities. No one knows about the student’s situation: “On Zoom, I use a filter with a nice, office-type setting as my background so that others don’t see my actual cell.”
#tellewa https://t.co/4dUxg02gbG
— Charlotte West (@CharlotteWest@journa.host) (@szarlotka) January 25, 2023
Because the local school district couldn’t fill a teacher vacancy, Mississippi Delta high schoolers are expected to learn geometry virtually. Finding teachers, especially math instructors, is difficult in the South; the long-standing issue has worsened. The Washington Post’s Moriah Balingit spotlights school funding inequities that affect low-income students and students of color, and discusses staffing challenges in underfunded schools.
The geometry teacher is a recording. The chemistry students often teach themselves. https://t.co/1QE3kL0vpJ #tellEWA @ByMoriah
— Lori Crouch (@lkcrouch) January 20, 2023
Reporting for the Austin American-Statesman, Fernanda Figueroa sheds light on how declining enrollment fits into a Texas school district’s multi-step process to change its campus boundaries. The district now has four potential redistricting plans on the table: Two would lead to school closures, and the others would affect where students attend school.
— Fernanda Figueroa (@fernanda_figs) January 25, 2023
