Weekend To-Do List

READ: A draft executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to work towards closing the Department of Education earlier this week. While only Congress can officially close the Department, the draft order instructs McMahon to shift the department’s functions where possible and immediately implement deep budget cuts and workforce reductions. AFT President Randi Weingarten condemned the pending action:

“Trying to abolish it — which, by the way, only Congress can do — sends a message that the president doesn’t care about opportunity for all kids,” she said in a statement Wednesday night. “No one likes bureaucracy, and everyone’s in favor of more efficiency, so let’s find ways to accomplish that.”

The White House declined to comment, and insiders dismissed the draft as “predecisional,” but McMahon’s first note to staffers after her Monday Senate confirmation referenced a shared “final mission.” Read more from Laura Meckler at The Washington Post here.

READ: High schools nationwide are revamping shop classes with multimillion-dollar investments to prepare students for lucrative trade careers. With rising college costs and automation threatening white-collar jobs, interest in hands-on vocational training is surging, and enrollment in construction, manufacturing, and trade courses is climbing. The trend represents a paradigm shift that could help break old stigmas about blue-collar work:

If there is a stigma to taking shop classes, Andres Mendoza Alcala, a Middleton High senior, isn’t seeing it. “I haven’t met a single person that looks down on someone else, just because they’re doing the trades instead of college,” the 18-year-old aspiring carpenter said. “They just say it’s a good choice. These are secure jobs.”

Read more from Te-Ping Chen at The Wall Street Journal here.

READ: For decades, “college for all” was the dominant education mantra, but mounting debt and low completion rates have led to a shift in priorities. Institutions like KIPP and the International Baccalaureate Organization are expanding their focus beyond four-year degrees to include trade schools, apprenticeships, and career training. While a bachelor’s degree still offers higher earning potential, educators and institutions now say they see the value in supporting students to build realistic, individualized post-high school plans that will work for them:

[Shavar Jeffries, chief executive of the KIPP Foundation] said schools like KIPP’s are trying to walk a line between encouraging students to strive for a four-year degree and also introducing them to alternatives.

“We have to be very, very careful, particularly for younger people of color,” Mr. Jeffries said, noting that many apprenticeship and job-training programs are expensive, and may not have a proven track record of placing students in well-paid jobs.

While KIPP is enthusiastic about directing students toward what Mr. Jeffries called “credible” job-training programs, “the data is clear,” he said. “A college degree opens up more opportunities.”

Read more from Dana Goldstein at The New York Times here.

READ: Tim Daly took to the pages of his eponymous Substack to advocate for a new era of school accountability. Daly argues that over the past decade, school oversight has weakened, shifting the burden onto parents and deepening educational disparities between privileged and less privileged students. He cautions that without swift action, public support for education funding could erode, leaving schools in an even worse position:

If state and federal officials don’t step up - and right now, it does not look like they will - nothing’s stopping educators and families from working together to do this locally. Local school boards can lead the effort. It’s the best way to support our students and the best way to earn future investments in our schools. Stop waiting for the higher ups to play the heavy.

Otherwise, school budgets are going to become tantalizing targets for cuts. Too many unneeded buildings, too many staff, uncontrolled pension obligations… all in the shadow of enrollment losses and underwhelming achievement.

If we fail to act and public support for schools dries up, we’ll be using stronger language than the A-word.

Read more here.

READ: Rick Hess sat down with Steven Wilson, the founder and former CEO of Ascend Charter Schools, to discuss his new book, The Lost Decade: Returning to the Fight for Better Schools. The book argues that ideological shifts, rather than resource constraints, have derailed school improvement efforts and diverted focus away from student achievement. To reverse course, Wilson says it’s time for educators to renew their commitment to knowledge-based curricula and high expectations for all students:

To create a culture in your building that unabashedly prizes knowledge, curiosity, and achievement, you must model enthusiasm for these objectives in every interaction and celebrate them in your staff and students. Recommit to doing “whatever it takes” to succeed with every child. Ditch the hiring essays where candidates must signal their ideological purity. Instead, screen for teachers who know their subjects and are infectious in their enthusiasm. And who have the drive and perseverance to become great teachers.

Read more in Education Week here.

READ/LISTEN: Public trust in vaccines has dramatically shifted since COVID, with skepticism becoming more mainstream. The rise of influential anti-vaccine voices, coupled with distrust in traditional institutions, has fueled vaccine hesitancy among parents who previously accepted them without question. Expert Emily Oster took to the pages of The Atlantic to explain how the rise of misinformation has helped erode trust in public health recommendations and what it means for young people and families:

The result of the combination of public-health overreach and motivated anti-vaccination forces is a reality with lower vaccination rates for childhood illnesses. They have already started to slide, and I worry this will go further. The world without childhood vaccines isn’t one I want to live in. As measles and pertussis vaccination rates go down, kids will get those diseases. And some of those kids will die. The same is true for other vaccine-preventable illnesses.

How can trust be regained, or at least vaccination rates increased? One real, but unfortunate, avenue is disease. I’ve found in my research that when there are outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, people are more likely to vaccinate. If measles or polio vaccination rates fall to a point that those diseases begin to appear frequently in the population, vaccination rates will go up.

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