Our team is always seeking the latest news in the field of education. As advocates for a high-quality education for ALL students, we know we have to stay up-to-date on everything that’s going on in the education spheres of our nation…from the White House to the local public school district, from new legislation to the small acts of bravery and kindness made by a single teacher, from the milestones and celebrations to the hazardous injustices affecting many of our nation’s students.

Here are the stories that we are focused on.

Big Stories that Drove the Week

A top D.C. charter school educates few at-risk students. Should it be opening a second campus? via Washington Post

The conundrum at Washington Latin — it’s a well-regarded school whose demographics do not reflect the city it is serving — mirrors the challenges that exist on campuses across the city as more white and affluent families enroll their children in the District’s traditional public and charter schools.

America’s School Funding Struggle: How We’re Robbing Our Future By Under-Investing In Our Children via Forbes

These growing inequalities are rooted in the way American schools are funded, primarily through local property taxes that produce significant disparities. Although states try to offset inequalities, they rarely succeed in eliminating these funding gaps. The top-spending states spend about three times what the lowest-spending states allocate to education and, in many states, the wealthiest districts spend two to three times what the poorest districts can spend per pupil.

Schools Keep Punishing Girls — Especially Students of Color — Who Report Sexual Assaults, and the Trump Administration’s Title IX Reforms Won’t Stop It via The 74 Million

“These discriminatory responses from schools are far too common,” said Shiwali Patel, an attorney for the National Women’s Law Center. “Particularly towards girls of color and especially black girls, who — because of harmful race and sex stereotypes — are too often disbelieved, misperceived as the initial aggressor when they defend themselves against harassment, face minimization of their harm, or are blamed for their victimization.”

One thing to read this weekend

Busing Worked in Louisville. So Why Are Its Schools Becoming More Segregated? via The New York Times

While some desegregation plans faltered in the face of white resistance, Louisville’s has proved remarkably resilient. It has survived riots and court rulings, skeptical superintendents and conservative lawmakers, making Jefferson County Public Schools, which includes Louisville, one of the nation’s most racially integrated districts.

But if Louisville is proof that busing can work when there is the political will to have an integrated school system, its community is now grappling with what happens when that political will starts to dry up.

Did any of these articles particularly speak to you? We would love to know your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below: