As the Trump administration dramatically reshapes the U.S. public education system, ProPublica’s reporters are investigating how these changes affect people across the country.

Help us track developments at schools and colleges in your area 👇
https://www.propublica.org/getinvolved/help-propublica-report-on-education

#Education #Teaching #Parenting #Family #Children #Schools #Trump

These Activists Want to Dismantle Public Schools. Now They Run the Education Department.
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Under Trump, the Department of Education has been bringing in activists hostile to public schools. It could mean a new era of private and religious schools boosted by tax dollars — and the end of public schools as we know them.
https://www.propublica.org/article/education-department-public-schools-activists-linda-mcmahon-trump?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#News #Education #Public #Schools #Teaching #Family #Children

Elementary and junior high school teachers in Japan still work the longest hours among their peers worldwide, according to an OECD report released Tuesday. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/10/07/japan/society/oecd-survey-japan-teachers-working-hours/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #society #teachers #surveys #oecd #education #schools #ai

Indonesian families whose children were offered free school meals are joining nonprofit groups calling for the flagship government program to be suspended after thousands of students fell ill from the food. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/10/03/asia-pacific/indonesia-free-meals-food-poisoning/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #asiapacific #indonesia #schools #food #foodpoisoning #poverty #health

@urlyman Australian schools have decided to go with AI because ... wait for it ... it's "inevitable" ... and .. they want to make sure our students "know how to use it".

Now, Australian governments are pretty dense when it comes to IT, but this made me laugh out loud. Just what do they think kids need to learn about a technology that leaps out from every corner and grabs you by the throat? It's like saying kids need to learn how to "use" temu ads. The greater need is for them to learn how not to be swallowed whole by AI.

#AI #auspol #education #schools

Hopes are dimming for parents of students still unaccounted for after their Islamic boarding school in Indonesia collapsed on Monday. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/10/03/asia-pacific/indonesia-school-collapse-hopes-dim/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #asiapacific #indonesia #schools #earthquakes #children

@urlyman Australian schools have decided to go with AI because ... wait for it ... it's "inevitable" ... and .. they want to make sure our students "know how to use it".

Now, Australian governments are pretty dense when it comes to IT, but this made me laugh out loud. Just what do they think kids need to learn about a technology that leaps out from every corner and grabs you by the throat? It's like saying kids need to learn how to "use" temu ads. The greater need is for them to learn how not to be swallowed whole by AI.

#AI #auspol #education #schools

In the latest move by U.S. colleges to cope with the disruptive policies of President Donald Trump, DePaul University told faculty it will reduce spending following a 30% decline in international enrollment this fall. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/10/03/world/us-colleges-financial-pinch/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #worldnews #us #schools #education #donaldtrump #universities

The White House sent a memo titled "A Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” to nine U.S. universities, detailing policies schools can follow to receive preferential treatment in receiving federal funds. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/10/03/world/trump-college-ideology/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #worldnews #us #donaldtrump #schools #education #universities

The number of foreign children of elementary or junior high school age living in Japan who were not or may not have been in education amounted to 8,432 as of May 2024. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/10/02/japan/foreign-children-school-attendance/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #schools #students

Rescuers have pulled five survivors from a collapsed school in Indonesia as frantic parents demand searchers speed up efforts to find dozens of children believed to still be trapped in the rubble after two days. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/10/02/asia-pacific/indonesia-school-collapse-rescue/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #asiapacific #indonesia #schools #children #earthquakes

Elite schooling remains the surest route to the top of British society despite increasing corporate efforts to hire from more diverse backgrounds, according to a new report on social mobility in the U.K. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/09/18/world/society/britain-social-mobility-private-schools/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #worldnews #society #uk #education #jobs #schools

As the school year begins in Ukraine, children in Kharkiv, a frequent target of Russian attacks, are attending schools set up underground. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/09/03/world/society/ukraine-children-school-underground/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #worldnews #society #ukraine #russia #russiaukrainewar #vladimirputin#volodymyrzelenskyy #schools

Most Japanese teenagers who struggle with school life say the start of a new term after summer break feels painful, a recent survey shows, with 93.1% of respondents saying they “wanted to disappear from the world.” https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/08/28/japan/society/summer-vacation-end-school/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #society #schools #children #suicide #mentalhealth

How #Maine churches are reckoning with fear of #ImmigrationRaids

by Sean Scott, August 24, 2025

Excerpt: "Selma, an asylum seeker from Angola, moved to Texas at the start of the pandemic and then to Maine in January 2022. She fears persecution if she returns because of a family member’s involvement in a #HumanRights group.

" 'As a Christian, I was praying, and then God just gave me direction, which was Maine,' she said.

"She joined a nondenominational Christian church in Portland right away, and she and her two children have been regular attendees ever since. After President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, her 12-year-old daughter asked if it was still safe to go to school.

"As immigration enforcement efforts have increased dramatically this year, many migrants have also reckoned with whether it’s safe to go to places of worship, whether they’re congregants or faith leaders like one Westbrook pastor detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this month.

"In one of his first acts in office, Trump rescinded a policy that essentially barred #ICEAgents from making arrests at sensitive locations like #churches, #hospitals and #schools. A coalition sued the Department of Homeland Security over the policy in February, arguing it violated #ReligiousFreedom. A judge declined to block the policy, citing a lack of evidence that churches were 'singled out as special targets' for immigration enforcement.

"Faith leaders are preparing for the possibility of enforcement regardless, and several other lawsuits have been filed on similar grounds, including one in late July with a New England plaintiff.

"#MichelTshimankinda, a Westbrook man who founded a church in South Portland, has been in ICE detention in New Hampshire since Aug. 14, according to the Portland Press Herald. He wasn’t arrested on church property, but his detention has shaken his family and congregation."

Read more:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/maine-churches-reckoning-fear-immigration-100000727.html

#ICESucks#ICEKidnapping#MaineNews#DHS#Gestapo#FascismInTheUSA#Racism#Fascism#Authoritarianism#TrumpIsARacist

How #Maine churches are reckoning with fear of #ImmigrationRaids

by Sean Scott, August 24, 2025

Excerpt: "Selma, an asylum seeker from Angola, moved to Texas at the start of the pandemic and then to Maine in January 2022. She fears persecution if she returns because of a family member’s involvement in a #HumanRights group.

" 'As a Christian, I was praying, and then God just gave me direction, which was Maine,' she said.

"She joined a nondenominational Christian church in Portland right away, and she and her two children have been regular attendees ever since. After President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, her 12-year-old daughter asked if it was still safe to go to school.

"As immigration enforcement efforts have increased dramatically this year, many migrants have also reckoned with whether it’s safe to go to places of worship, whether they’re congregants or faith leaders like one Westbrook pastor detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this month.

"In one of his first acts in office, Trump rescinded a policy that essentially barred #ICEAgents from making arrests at sensitive locations like #churches, #hospitals and #schools. A coalition sued the Department of Homeland Security over the policy in February, arguing it violated #ReligiousFreedom. A judge declined to block the policy, citing a lack of evidence that churches were 'singled out as special targets' for immigration enforcement.

"Faith leaders are preparing for the possibility of enforcement regardless, and several other lawsuits have been filed on similar grounds, including one in late July with a New England plaintiff.

"#MichelTshimankinda, a Westbrook man who founded a church in South Portland, has been in ICE detention in New Hampshire since Aug. 14, according to the Portland Press Herald. He wasn’t arrested on church property, but his detention has shaken his family and congregation."

Read more:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/maine-churches-reckoning-fear-immigration-100000727.html

#ICESucks#ICEKidnapping#MaineNews#DHS#Gestapo#FascismInTheUSA#Racism#Fascism#Authoritarianism#TrumpIsARacist

Junior high and high schools across Japan are getting students involved in the reassessment and revision of "black rules" that are considered outdated or unreasonable. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/08/18/japan/japan-unreasonable-school-rules/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #schools #education #nagoya

Imagine a world in which you can lose your job for calling someone by their chosen name. Welcome to today's world of teaching. In Florida, you can be fired for calling your students by their chosen name without parental consent. That's what happened to Melissa Calhoun.

Her district's superintendent said that parental input can’t be ignored. But what if the parents are just plain wrong?

No matter. SCOTUS gave a ruling earlier this year that essentially made parental input is the ONLY thing that matters. Parents across the nation can now exempt their child from any and all curriculum that "goes against their religious beliefs." This would allow parents to exempt their kids from any of the standards, including evolution, in biology, or the Civil Rights movement, in U.S. history.

From the teachers' and schools' perspective, this completely throws the concept of teaching standards out the window. It makes it pointless for teachers to plan curriculum in advance since they wouldn't know until the last minute which students, if any, would be allowed to learn it. And it would significantly increase teachers' workload since they must create alternative curriculum for students who are exempted.

https://apnews.com/article/florida-lgbtq-education-desantis-fc8c37368bca9cfd33b6676576c78f06

#transrightsarehumanrights #lgbtq #transphobia #education #schools #students #freespeech #censorship #fascism

Imagine a world in which you can lose your job for calling someone by their chosen name. Welcome to today's world of teaching. In Florida, you can be fired for calling your students by their chosen name without parental consent. That's what happened to Melissa Calhoun.

Her district's superintendent said that parental input can’t be ignored. But what if the parents are just plain wrong?

No matter. SCOTUS gave a ruling earlier this year that essentially made parental input is the ONLY thing that matters. Parents across the nation can now exempt their child from any and all curriculum that "goes against their religious beliefs." This would allow parents to exempt their kids from any of the standards, including evolution, in biology, or the Civil Rights movement, in U.S. history.

From the teachers' and schools' perspective, this completely throws the concept of teaching standards out the window. It makes it pointless for teachers to plan curriculum in advance since they wouldn't know until the last minute which students, if any, would be allowed to learn it. And it would significantly increase teachers' workload since they must create alternative curriculum for students who are exempted.

https://apnews.com/article/florida-lgbtq-education-desantis-fc8c37368bca9cfd33b6676576c78f06

#transrightsarehumanrights #lgbtq #transphobia #education #schools #students #freespeech #censorship #fascism

Books will soon be obsolete in school

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/08/books-will-soon-be-obsolete-in-school/

I recently had a chance to ask a question to one of the top AI people. At a Q&A session, I raised my hand and asked simply "What is your estimation of the future educational value of AI?"

The response was swift and utterly devastating for those laggards who want to hold back progress. The AI guy said:

Books will soon be obsolete in schools. Scholars will be instructed through AI. It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with AI. Our school system will be completely changed inside of ten years.

We have been working for some time on educational AI. It proves conclusively the worth of AI in chemistry, physics and other branches of study, making the scientific truths, difficult to understand from text books, plain and clear to children.

That's it. We can throw away all those outdated paper books. Children will learn directly from an AI which, coincidentally, is sold by the company. We can trust their studies on such matters and be assured that they have no ulterior motive.

But, ah my friends, I have told a slight untruth. I didn't ask that question. Frederick James Smith asked the question to Thomas Edison in 1913. The question was about the new and exciting world of motion pictures.

You can read the full exchange from The New York Dramatic Mirror.

A hundred-plus years since the great and humble Edison made his prediction and… books are still used in schools! Those of us of a certain age remember a TV occasionally being wheeled in for one lesson or another. Today's kids watch more video content than ever - of mixed quality - but still rely on books and teachers.

Videos are good for some aspects of learning, but woefully inadequate for others.

I'm not trying to say that just because one technology failed, so will all others. But it is amazing how AI-proponents are recycling the same arguments with basically the same timescale. Will AI be part of education? Sure! Just like videos, pocket computers, the Metaverse, and performance enhancing drugs.

Will it be the only tool ever needed for education? I doubt it. Will vested interests and uncritical journalists continue to boost it? You don't need to have read many history books to work out the answer.

Further reading: In the Future All Food Will Be Cooked in a Microwave, and if You Can’t Deal With That Then You Need to Get Out of the Kitchen

#AI #education #history #schools