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’ve been talking about this week.

Supreme Court Could Be Headed To A Major Unraveling Of Public School Funding via NPR

In a case with potentially profound implications, the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority seemed ready to invalidate a provision of the Montana state constitution that bars aid to religious schools. A decision like that would work a sea change in constitutional law, significantly removing the longstanding high wall of separation between church and state.

Report: Rust Belt, Deep South Home to Most Economically Segregated School Districts via U.S. News and World Report

The 50 most economically segregated school district borders in the country – borders that isolate communities with high rates of poverty from their wealthier neighbors – are clustered in just 13 states concentrated in the Rust Belt and Deep South swaths of the U.S.

The findings are part of an update to EdBuild’s “Fault Lines” report, published three years ago, which measures economic segregation along school district borders by comparing the proportion of school-aged children in the districts on either side who live below the poverty line.

From Numbers to Insight: Leveraging ESSA’s School Spending Requirement for Fair Funding via Education Trust

For decades, researchers have used federal data to show that within states, the districts with the most students from low-income backgrounds and the most students of color receive less funding than districts with the fewest students with these characteristics. And researchers have used other data to show that those same kinds of funding inequities exist within districts. But now, thanks to a new requirement in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states must put this information in the hands of parents, advocates, and other community members who can use it to push for fair funding in their local schools.

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One thing to read this weekend

What does gentrification mean for local schools? Fewer students via Chalkbeat

New research quantifies that trend, showing that as neighborhoods nationwide gentrify, they tend to lose students.

Those declines in enrollment may come because gentrification displaces some families, while new entrants don’t have children or are skeptical of neighborhood schools. Gentrification also often coincides with an expansion of alternatives to neighborhood schools, as has happened in Denver, where families can choose from a menu of district and charter school options.

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