Connect with us

Education

In a twist, Georgia now says districts can use state funds to teach AP Black Studies classes.

Published

on

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia State Superintendent Richard Woods said Wednesday that the state pays districts to teach a recent Advanced Placement course in African-American studies. A day earlier, he said districts could only teach the course using local funds.

Amid growing outrage, the Georgia Department of Education said districts have the liberty to offer the course and the state pays for it so long as the districts use a code related to an existing, state-approved African-American studies course.

Advertisement

“Districts may choose to use this course code and teach some or all of the standards from an AP course, and students may take the associated AP exam,” Meghan Frick, a state department spokeswoman, wrote in response to questions from The Associated Press.

The change did little to stem the backlash against Woods’ earlier refusal. At a rally on the Georgia Capitol on Wednesday, 15 mostly Democratic speakers attacked the elected Republican, saying he was trying to prevent students from learning about Georgia history.

“We are gathered here today in solidarity, standing strong with our students and teachers who have been blindsided by the sudden and unfair decision to remove AP African American Studies reports from our curriculum,” said state Sen. Nikki Merritt, a Democrat from suburban Lawrenceville. “This decision deprives our students of a vital opportunity to engage with and understand a significant part of our shared history.”

Woods also had to answer pointed questions from Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who sent a letter asking why and the way Woods made his initial decision to block state funding. In that letter, Kemp described himself as a “long-time believer that families should ultimately make decisions that best serve the educational needs and future of their children.”

Advertisement

“As you know, the well-being of Georgia children and their educational opportunities are my top priority,” wrote Kemp, who’s currently in Italy on an economic recruiting trip.

Woods didn’t elaborate on his refusal, only saying in a statement Wednesday that he “had concerns about the state’s support for the entire course.”

Stan DeJarnett, chairman of the state board of education, said in a statement that “no one is prohibiting any school system in Georgia from offering this course if they choose to do so,” reflecting the department’s current position that districts can use state funds even when the state doesn’t list the course in its catalog.

All other Advanced Placement courses are listed within the state course catalog, Frick explained.

Advertisement

Featured Stories

Supporters of the course pushed back against the state’s recent position Wednesday, saying Georgia’s initial refusal to recognize the course was discriminatory.

“It’s not fair to suggest that the course is somehow inferior,” said state Rep. Jasmine Clark, a Democrat from suburban Lilburn.

The College Board, a nonprofit testing organization, offers Advanced Placement courses across the tutorial spectrum, including math, science, social studies, foreign languages, and the humanities. The courses are optional and taught at the school level. Students who rating well on the ultimate exam can often earn college credit.

Sara Sympson, a spokeswoman for the College Board, said 33 Georgia schools have piloted the African American Studies course for the 2023-2024 academic yr. Many schools had assumed they might offer the ultimate version of the course this yr.

Advertisement

But Advanced Placement got here under national scrutiny in 2023 when Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, gearing up for the presidential election campaign, said he would ban the course in his state since it promoted a political agenda. In June, South Carolina officials also declined to add the course to a list of approved courses. South Carolina said individual counties could still select to offer the course.

In Arkansas, state officials said the course would count toward credit within the upcoming school yr. They refused to achieve this last yr, but six schools piloted the course anyway.

Some school districts across the country have also refused to offer the course.

In 2022, Georgia lawmakers passed a law banning the teaching of divisive racial concepts in schools, prohibiting claims that the United States is “fundamentally or systemically racist” and mandating that no student “shall experience discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of mental distress because of his or her race.”

Advertisement

So far, 18 states have passed such bans. It’s unclear whether Georgia’s law influenced Woods’ decision.

Some districts have pledged to hold classes even when the state doesn’t pay for them. The Atlanta district made the pledge Tuesday. The larger DeKalb County school district, which has told students and teachers it has canceled classes, said Wednesday it is going to hold the course at 4 of its high schools. Michael Thurmond, DeKalb County’s chief executive officer, pledged $100,000 to cover the prices.

Gwinnett County spokesman Bernard Watson said the situation is “evolving.” While the county, the state’s largest, has not reversed its decision to cancel classes at six high schools, Watson said Gwinnett County is working with state officials “to explore options for this course.”

Advertisement

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com

Education

Bill Bill Sparks Texas Bill

Published

on

By

Guber


On May 3, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed laws establishing a personal school coupon According to .

The law comes into force at the tip of 2026 before this, the Texas controller is designed to create an education savings account program.

Advertisement

According to The Bill 2 Senate allows families to make use of public dollars of taxpayers to finance child education in an accredited private school or paying for other expenses related to high school, akin to textbooks, transport or therapy. The port fund in the quantity of $ 1 billion establishes it as one in all the most important regulations regarding the alternative of faculty within the country.

This problem has been a source of competition in Texas for years. Democrats and village Republicans in a rustic who fought him say that coupons can ultimately harm public school systems that Texas is already insufficient, and plenty of inhabitants of low income from Texas, who cannot afford a personal school, even with the support of the coupon.

Coupon programs in other states have already been revealed as helpful for wealthy families who could already afford private teaching, on the expense of colourful students, special students and low -income students, in addition to resulting in disappointing academic results for college students.

“Remember about this day when the school closes in your area,” he said on the press conference Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin). “Remember that the next day his beloved teacher resigns because he cannot support his family to their salary. Remember this next mouth of local property taxes, because the state government does not make a fair share in school financing. And if the recession comes and we are forced to make even deeper cuts of public education, remember that day.”

Advertisement

Texas Rep. Gene Wu, (D-Houston) Democratic Chairman of the Club, was Critical of the 4 -level program system. “Billionaires can use it and there is only no explanation why. When it comes to raising poor people, just check poor people.”

According to ABC-13, although the bill has a priority to ascertain low-income students’ priorities and stays open to all levels of income, these goals He created doubts for education policy and public education experts About the state’s ability to assist children from Texas who need the best help.

Josh Cowen, professor of educational policy at Michigan State University and a critic of coupons programs, told The Outlet that there is no such thing as a method to win Abbott and help the lower and medium income at the identical time.

“(Legislators) are in a difficult place who really want to do it for children. What they are trying to do is create a universal coupon bill to win the governor, and at the same time adhere to messages, and maybe even a policy that is to help families with lower income and medium income. And these two goals of the conflict,” said Cowen.

Advertisement

In April, a representative of the state Jolanda Jones (D-Houston) argued in the course of the Houston Black Rescue City Hall that the coupon program was a two -level education system This brought only Texans who could afford private schools.

“Public dollars should not be spent in private places and spaces,” said Jones. “We don’t want coupons, because for everyone this is not good education, for some it is simply great education. Most private schools are $ 30,000, and $ 10,000 everything he does is his prosperity, a subsidiary for rich people.”


Advertisement
This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
Continue Reading

Education

The Department of Justice has completed a ten -year school desegregation order. Others are expected to fall

Published

on

By

When the Department of Justice raised the order for school desegregation in Louisian this week, officials called his further existence “bad historical” and suggested that others with the Civil Rights Movement must be considered again.

The end of the legal agreement of 1966 with Plaquemines Parish Schools announced on Tuesday shows that Trump’s administration, “re -focusing of America in our bright future,” said the assistant of the Prosecutor General Harmeet Dhillon.

In the Department of Justice, officials appointed by President Donald Trump expressed their desire to withdraw from other desegregation orders, which they perceive as an unnecessary burden on schools, according to a person conversant in the issue that received anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak public.

Advertisement

Dozens of school districts within the south remain as part of contracts enforced by the court, dictating steps in the sector of integration, many years after the Supreme Court limited racial segregation in education. Some perceive the strength of court orders as a sign that the federal government has never eliminated segregation, while officials in Louisiana and in some schools perceive orders as past relics that must be removed.

The Department of Justice opened a wave of matters within the Sixties, after the Congress released the department to follow schools that were based on desegregation. Known as consent decrees, orders may be raised when districts prove that they’ve eliminated segregation and its heritage.

Mark Zuckerberg closes the schools that he launched for colored communities

The small district of Louisiana has a long -lasting case of integration

The Trump administration called Plaquemines an example of administrative neglect. It was found that the Delta Delta of the Mississippi River within the south -eastern Louisiana integrated in 1975, however the case was to remain under the view of the court for the subsequent yr. The judge died in the identical yr, and the judicial register “seems to be lost in time,” in accordance with the court application.

“Considering that this case remained for half a century with zero proceedings by the court, parties or any third parties, the parties are satisfied that the United States’s claims were fully resolved,” in accordance with the joint submission of the Department of Justice and the Office of the Prosecutor General Liz Murill.

SUPERINTENDENT Plaquemines Shelley Ritz said that the officials of the Department of Justice still visited yearly in 2023 and asked for data on topics, including employment and discipline. She said that the documentation was a burden for her district lower than 4,000 students.

Advertisement

“These were data compilation hours,” she said.

Louisiana “gained his act ten years ago,” said Leo Terrell, senior adviser to the Civil Rights Department on the Department of Justice, in a statement. He said that the discharge is corrected by historical evil, adding that “the time had been going to recognize how far we have come.”

Murrill asked the Department of Justice to close other school orders in her condition. In a statement she promised cooperation with schools in Louisiana to help them “put the past in the past.”

Activists for civil rights claim that that is the improper move. Many orders have been loosely enforced only in recent many years, but this doesn’t mean that problems have been resolved, said Johnathan Smith, who worked within the Department of Civil Rights of the Department of Justice in the course of the administration of President Joe Biden.

Advertisement

“It probably means the opposite – that the school district remains sorted. In fact, most of these districts are now more sorted than in 1954.” – said Smith, who’s currently the chief of staff and general adviser to the National Center for Youth Law.

An outstanding pastor notified about the books of the borrowed African American Museum can be returned among the review

Desegregation orders include a number of instructions

According to the files of submitting this yr, over 130 school systems are based on the desegregation orders of the Department of Justice. The overwhelming majority are in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, with smaller numbers in states equivalent to Florida, Louisiana and South Karolina. Some other districts remain on the premise of separate desegregation agreements with the education department.

Orders may include a number of remedies, from bus requirements to district policy, enabling students in black schools to transfer to the fundamental white. Agreements are between the school district and the US government, but other parties may ask the court to intervene after they resumed signs of segregation.

In 2020, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund referred to the Decree of consent within the Leeds school district in Alabama, when he stopped offering school meals in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Civil Rights Group said that it’s disproportionately harmful to black students, in violation of the desegregation order. The district agreed to resume meals.

Last yr, the school board in Louisiana closed mainly the Black Primary School near the petrochemical institution after NACP Legal Defense and Education Fund said that he disproportionately exposes black students to health threats. The Council made a decision after the group submitted a request to a ten -year desegregation order within the parish of St. John the Baptist.

Advertisement

The release caused alarms amongst some who are afraid that this may occasionally withdraw his many years of progress. Research on districts exempt from orders showed that many have recorded a greater increase in racial segregation compared to those that are subject to court orders.

“In many cases, schools react quite quickly and there are new fears regarding civil rights for students,” said Halley Potter, an older worker of the Century Foundation who studies educational inequality.

The end of orders would cause that desegregation isn’t any longer a priority, said Robert Westley, a professor of anti -discrimination law on the Tulane University Law School in New Orleans.

“It is really a signaling that the deviation that began some time ago is completed,” said Westley. “The United States government no longer cares about dealing with problems of racial discrimination in schools. This is the end.”

Advertisement

Raymond Pierce, president and general director of Southern Education Foundation.

“This is a disregard for education for a large part of America. It is a disregard for America’s need for an educated labor force,” he said. “And it is a disregard for the rule of law.”

Trump signs executive orders focused on universities, as well as efforts in the field of school capital

(Tagstranslate) Education

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
Advertisement
Continue Reading

Education

The youngest graduate of FAMU 2025 will cross the scene this spring

Published

on

By

FAMU, Florida A&M University, chief of staff, Carmen Cummings-Martin

Famu, Florida A & m University, Chief of Staff, Carmen Cummings-Martin

Curtis Lawrence III was on the headlines in 2021 as the youngest student who enrolled at HBC Florida A & m University, at the age of 16. Now he will finish this spring at the age of 20. He will receive a bachelor’s degree in biology, announced that he had accomplished Summa Cum Laude.

Lawrence’s academic journey in the range included a rigorous course of the course. He participated in classes at Florida State University and was involved in various campus activities. He plans a master’s degree in biology at the University of Villanova as a presidential member. He strives for a profession in the academic environment, specializing in ecology and evolutionary biology.

Lawrence, from Washington, began his journey to College even earlier. He signed up for George Washington University at the age of 14, after he skipped his younger and senior years in schools without Walls High School. Later He selected the famous HBCU Offers of institutions corresponding to Yale and Harvard, accumulating over $ 1.65 million in Merit scholarships.

Thinking about his time in Fam, Lawrence said: “Four years in which I was here, I did a lot and changed a lot as a person and I am ready to go to the next chapter.”

Advertisement

His parents, Curtis Lawrence Jr. And Malene Lawrence, they expressed great pride of their son’s achievements.

“We are incredibly proud of his perseverance and consistent dedication of perfection,” said Curtis Lawrence Jr. “His journey reminds that it is possible with faith, hard work and support.”

Lawrence’s brother, Corey, also attends FAM and is predicted to graduate in two years, continuing his family’s educational heritage.

FAMU starting ceremony They are scheduled for May 2-3 in the multifunction center Alfred Lawson Jr.

Advertisement

Lawrence’s amazing journey is an inspiration for a lot of. His journey is an example of the impact of dedication, support and commitment to perfection.

(Tagstranslate) Education

This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement

OUR NEWSLETTER

Subscribe Us To Receive Our Latest News Directly In Your Inbox!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Trending