President Biden addressed a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, after unveiling his American Families Plan.
Melina Mara/Pool/The Washington Post via AP |
Earlier this week, President Biden unveiled an ambitious plan to help the nation’s students. For the youngest children, the American Families Plan includes $200 billion to pay for universal, high-quality preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds. As NPR Ed Correspondent Cory Turner has reported, the key words here are “high-quality.” Much has been written about the lifelong benefits of preschool: When it’s done well, it works. But a lot of preschool being offered these days isn’t good, and benefits can fade quickly.
How can the federal government ensure preschool is high-quality? Biden’s plan includes some guardrails, including keeping student-to-teacher ratios low, making sure preschools use developmentally appropriate curricula and pushing for training and “job-embedded coaching” for pre-K teachers.
Biden’s proposal would also require that any teacher who works at a participating pre-K program or Head Start be paid at least $15 an hour.
For older students, the American Families Plan includes $109 billion to make two years of community college free, and about $85 billion to increase Pell Grants, which low-income students can use to pay for college.
It’s a bold proposal — but will it make it through Congress? Republicans aren’t exactly rallying behind it. Still, it’s clear that Biden and most Democrats see this as their moonshot on behalf of America’s students.
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| In other news …
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced a new effort to feed millions of children this summer, a time when free school meals traditionally reach just a small minority of students. The move expands what's known as the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer, or P-EBT, program into the summer months, and USDA estimates it will reach more than 30 million children. Read more here.
— Cory Turner, NPR Ed Correspondent & Senior Editor
On Tuesday, the U.S. State Department announced that it will ease COVID-19 travel restrictions on students from China and other countries. The U.S. has historically been a top destination for international students, as Kavitha Cardoza reported in December. But a survey of colleges by the Institute of International Education found total international enrollment plummeted 16% between fall of 2019 and fall of 2020. Statistics on new international students was even grimmer — a 43% drop. All this has serious consequences for higher education. To put it simply: These students bring in a lot of money. Read more at Reuters.
— Nicole Cohen, NPR Ed Editor
Can a teacher fly a Black Lives Matter flag at school? That’s the question at the center of a lawsuit recently filed in Florida. The suit was filed on behalf of Amy Donofrio, an English teacher at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville. Last fall, after a student was killed by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, Donofrio hung a Black Lives Matter flag outside her classroom to mark it as a safe space to process the student’s death. In March, Jacksonville's public school district told Donofrio to take the flag down, saying it violated district policy on political speech by employees. Read more here.
—Sydney Boles, WJCT Newsletter and Engagement Editor
As an academic year like no other comes to an end, colleges and universities are celebrating their graduates in all kinds of ways. Some schools, like the University of Idaho and Virginia Tech, are hosting multiple smaller, in-person ceremonies to comply with social distancing mandates. Others, like Iowa State, are hosting large ceremonies in football stadiums and outdoor arenas. A handful are doing virtual-only again. For lots of students, the effort to be in-person is greatly appreciated. Read more here.
— Elissa Nadworny, NPR Ed Reporter & Editor
— Eda Uzunlar, NPR Ed News Assistant
And before you go, something to make you smile.
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Rich Jean; his daughter, Abigail Jean; and librarian Hasina Islam at StoryCorps in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 2016.
Jhaleh Akhavan for StoryCorps |
| For years, librarian Hasina Islam helped foster a love of reading and the library in Abigail Jean, who is 12. Abigail was just 3 when they first met at a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. "You made my child feel like you were there specifically for her," Abigail’s father, Rich Jean, told Islam in a StoryCorps conversation. Read more here. |
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