Weekly News Report: Mask requirements, federal funding for charter schools, and lots of opinion pieces.

Editor's Note: This weekly media report covers trends and key news in K-12 public education. Please be in touch with [email protected] with any questions. 

News

• CDC reverses mask guidance and now recommends that everyone should wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status. This applies to all indoor areas in high transmission areas, as well as in all schools. This comes one week after the AAP recommended the same.  (US News, Fox News, NPR, CNBC, Forbes, Washington Post, Politico, EdWeek, CNN)
  • Shelby County announced they will require masks this fall. (ABC 24 Memphis, Daily Memphian, Commercial Appeal, The Tennessean) 
  • CA will let districts decide mask policies, LAUSD will require masks in schools. (CNN, CBS LA, CA News Times)

 

• The House Appropriations Committee proposed legislation that would reduce the Charter School Program budget by $40 million, and more concerningly, per the bill’s Section 314, would prohibit charters ability to receive federal funding (such as Title I & IDEA) should they contract private vendors for services. Advocacy work to stop this legislation is underway.  (CNN, The Hill, Wall Street Journal, Politico, CSPAN)

 

Views

• The White House: FACT SHEET: How the Biden-Harris Administration Is Advancing Educational Equity

 

• Newsweek (Adrian Norman, Writer/Author/Commentator): Black Lives Don’t Matter to Teachers Unions 

 

• CalMatters (Chantal Lovell, Communications Director at CA Policy Center): California schools should spend their extra $15 billion on students

 

• The Hill (Nat Malkus, American Enterprise Institute): Plummeting test scores are a symptom; remote instruction is the disease 

 

• The 74 (Linda Jacobson, K-12 Reporter): Cardona: Schools Will Need to ‘Work Twice as Hard’ to Convince Some Families to Return This Fall

 

• The Atlantic (Caitlin Flanagan, Author): The University of California is Lying to Us