Education

Students protest at an encampment outside the Kresge Auditorium on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Arrests follow barricades and encampments as college students nationwide protest Gaza war

Dozens of protesters have barricaded themselves inside two buildings on a Northern California campus in protest of Israel’s war with Hamas.

Students protest at an encampment on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Pro-Palestinian student protests target colleges’ financial ties with Israel

FILE - The sign above the door to the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging inside the main administration building on the main University of Kansas campus is seen on Friday, April 12, 2024, in Lawrence, Kan. A conservative quest to limit diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives is gaining momentum in state capitals and college governing boards, with officials in about one-third of the states now taking some sort of action against it. (AP Photo/John Hanna, File)

A conservative quest to limit diversity programs gains momentum in states

FILE - Police in Riot gear stand guard as demonstrators chant slogans outside the Columbia University campus, Thursday, April 18, 2024, in New York. U.S. colleges and universities are preparing for end-of-year commencement ceremonies with a unique challenge: providing safety for graduates while honoring the free speech rights of students involved in protests over the Israel-Hamas war. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

Biden tries to navigate the Israel-Hamas war protests roiling college campuses

Emmie Wolf-Dubin, center, yells during a protest outside the House chamber after legislation passed that would allow some teachers to be armed in schools during a legislative session Tuesday, April 23, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Tennessee lawmakers pass bill to allow armed teachers, a year after deadly Nashville shooting

These kids never returned to school after the pandemic – because of paperwork and a broken phone

Thousands of kids went missing from schools during the pandemic. For some who have tried to return, school paperwork has proved a daunting obstacle.

Alabama lawmakers advance expansion of ‘Don’t Say Gay’ and ban Pride flags at schools

Alabama lawmakers have advanced legislation to ban teacher-led discussions on sexual orientation and gender identity in public school classrooms through eighth grade.

South Carolina Senate Finance Committee Chairman Harvey Peeler, R-Gaffney, talks about the Senate's budget plan on Thursday, April 18, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

South Carolina Senate wants accelerated income tax cut while House looks at property tax rebate

The South Carolina Senate has started debating a budget that accelerates a planned income tax cut instead of the House plan to use $500 million to give homeowners a one-time property tax rebate.

Sister Helen Prejean, right, talks as Richard Obot, left, detainee in Division Of Correction 11, listens to her during a book club at Department Of Corrections Division 11 in Chicago, Monday, April 22, 2024. DePaul students and detainees are currently reading Dead Man Walking and the author, anti death penalty advocate, Sister Helen Prejean attended to lead a discussion. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

College students, inmates and a nun: A unique book club meets at one of the nation’s largest jails

A unique book club at one of the nation’s largest jails brings together college students and inmates.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp makes remarks before signing Senate Bill 233 known as the Georgia Promise Scholarship Act at Liberty Plaza on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (Natrice Miller/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

$6,500 school vouchers coming to Georgia as bill gets final passage and heads to governor

Gov Brian Kemp is signing a law to give up to $6,500 a year to some Georgia families to pay for private school tuition or home-schooling expenses.

FILE - In this Monday, Feb. 8, 2021, file photo, a memorial for Yale School of the Environment student Kevin Jiang near the scene of his shooting at the corner of Nicoll and Lawrence Street in New Haven, Conn. Qinxuan Pan, a former researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is being sentenced Tuesday, April 23, 2024, to 35 years in prison for killing Yale grad student Kevin Jiang in New Haven in 2021. (Arnold Gold/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)

Former MIT researcher who killed Yale graduate student sentenced to 35 years in prison

A former MIT researcher has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for the killing of a Yale University graduate student in Connecticut.

FILE - Benjamin Franklin High playwriting class students hold hands as they perform their play "The Capitol Project" on the steps of the Louisiana Capitol in Baton Rouge, La., March 27, 2024. Unlike recent years when there was an LGBTQ+ ally in the Louisiana governor's office, nothing stands in the way this year of legislation hostile to transgender people. Democratic former Gov. John Bel Edwards was able to block most such legislation in previous years through vetoes. Now conservative Republican Jeff Landry is in the governor's chair, and the legislation is advancing rapidly. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Transgender Louisianans lost their ally in the governor’s seat. Now they’re girding for a fight

Unlike recent years when there was an LGBTQ+ ally in the Louisiana governor’s office, nothing stands in the way this year of legislation hostile to transgender people.

A sign sits erected at the pro-Palestinian demonstration encampment at Columbia University in New York, Monday, April 22, 2024. U.S. colleges and universities are preparing for end-of-year commencement ceremonies with a unique challenge: providing safety for graduates while honoring the free speech rights of students involved in protests over the Israel-Hamas war. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

It began with defiance at Columbia. Now students nationwide are upping their Gaza war protests

What began last week when students at a New York Ivy League school refused to end their protest against Israel’s war with Hamas has turned into a much larger movement.

FILE - A protester outside the Kansas Statehouse holds a sign after a rally for transgender rights on the Transgender Day of Visibility, March 31, 2023, in Topeka, Kan. A new rule from President Joe Biden's administration assuring transgender students be allowed to use the school bathrooms that align with their gender identity could conflict with laws in Republican-controlled states that seek to make sure they can't. (AP Photo/John Hanna, File)

New federal rule bars transgender school bathroom bans, but it likely isn’t the final word

A new federal rule seeks to clarify that a law against sex discrimination at schools includes gender identity, too.

FILE - Students protest a canceled commencement speech by its 2024 valedictorian who has publicly supported Palestinians on the campus of University of Southern California on Thursday, April 18, 2024. U.S. colleges and universities are preparing for end-of-year commencement ceremonies with a unique challenge: providing safety for graduates while honoring the free speech rights of students involved in protests over the Israel-Hamas war. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

With graduation near, colleges seek to balance safety and students’ right to protest Gaza war

U.S. colleges and universities are preparing for end-of-year commencement ceremonies with a unique challenge: providing safety for graduates while honoring the free speech rights of students involved in protests over the Israel-Hamas war.

Bloomington Jefferson senior Shae Ross, center, joined Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, left, at an event promoting proposed legislation to prevent books bans based on ideology at Como Park High School in St. Paul, Minn., on March 21, 2024. (Chris Williams/Education Minnesota via AP)

Minnesota and other Democratic-led states lead pushback on censorship. They’re banning the book ban

At a time when book bans have soared to their highest levels in decades, a countertrend is emerging.

Nicole Slemp, a new mother of seven-month-old William, lifts up her son in their home, Thursday, March 14, 2024 in Auburn, Wash.. Slemp recently quit her job because she and her husband couldn't find child care they could afford. Expensive, scarce child care is putting Puget Sound parents out of work. (Ellen M. Banner/The Seattle Times via AP)

America’s child care crisis is holding back moms without college degrees

The high costs and limited availability of quality child care are holding back American moms without college degrees.

Man charged with hate crime for vandalizing Islamic center at Rutgers, prosecutors say

A man accused of vandalizing an Islamic center at New Jersey’s flagship university on the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr has been charged with a hate crime.

FILE - Jenni Benson, president of the Nebraska State Education Association, speaks after Support Our Schools Nebraska delivered 117,000 petition signatures to the Nebraska Secretary of State, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, in Lincoln, Neb. Opponents of a Nebraska private school funding measure passed on the last day of the legislative session are considering how to fight it. (Justin Wan/Lincoln Journal Star via AP)

Public school advocates again face how to stop school choice in Nebraska

Opponents of a Nebraska private school funding measure passed on the last day of the legislative session are considering how to fight it.

FILE - The Iowa Capitol is visible before sunrise, Jan. 12, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. After a marathon day that stretched into the early hours of Saturday, April 20, Iowa lawmakers wrapped up a four-month legislative session that was focused on reforming the way special education is managed and speeding up tax cuts. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

Iowa lawmakers address immigration, religious freedom and taxes in 2024 session

Iowa lawmakers have wrapped up the General Assembly’s four-month session that focused on reforming the way special education is managed and speeding up tax cuts.

Police officers stand beside the debris and damage to the Beacon Church of England Primary School after a car crashed into the building in Anfield, Liverpool, England, Monday, April 22, 2024. A driver who plowed through the wall of a classroom shortly before the start of school has been arrested on suspicion of using drugs. (Peter Byrne/PA via AP)

Driver arrested for drug driving after plowing through classroom wall in Liverpool

A driver who plowed through the wall of a Liverpool classroom shortly before the start of school has been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs.

FILE - The Tennessee Capitol is seen, Jan. 8, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. Republicans in the Tennessee House and Senate both plan to offer businesses new tax help worth upward of $1 billion, Friday, March 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

Tennessee Gov. Lee admits defeat in school voucher push

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has conceded defeat on his push to enact universal school vouchers this year, acknowledging there was “not a pathway for the bill” after months of Republican infighting.

Several hundred students and pro-Palestinian supporters rally at the intersection of Grove and College Streets, in front of Woolsey Hall on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Conn. April 22, 2024. (Ned Gerard/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)

Pro-Palestinian protests sweep US college campuses following mass arrests at Columbia

Columbia University canceled in-person classes and police arrested dozens of students at New York University and Yale as tensions over Israel’s war with Hamas continue to grow on U.S. college campuses.

In this photo provided by Jesse Sorenson, actor Kevin Bacon, center, helps fill care packages for his charity, Saturday, April 20, 2024, in Payson, Utah, while visiting the Utah high school where cult classic "Footloose," was filmed. (Jesse Sorenson via AP)

Kevin Bacon dances back to ‘Footloose’ high school

Actor Kevin Bacon has returned to the Utah high school where his cult classic movie “Footloose” was filmed more than 40 years ago.

University of Arizona president: Fiscal year 2025 budget deficit may be reduced by $110M

As the University of Arizona continues to search for a new president, embattled outgoing president Robbins has announced moves to ease the college’s ongoing financial crisis.

Scott Quinn and his 4-year-old son, Ethan, work on coloring books in a bed in Concord, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023. Ethan's parents are among those who have opted for a private daycare instead of a free “transitional kindergarten.” Quinn said he has been discouraged to see Ethan — one of the oldest kids in his daycare class — pick up the behavior of kids who are several years younger than him. “In retrospect, it would have been better to send him to school to be around kids his age and older,” he said. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

California is rolling out free preschool. That hasn’t solved challenges around child care

Investments in public preschool have helped many parents through a child care crisis, in which quality options for early learners are often scarce and unaffordable.

Students carrying signs protest a canceled commencement speech by its 2024 valedictorian who has publicly supported Palestinians on the campus of University of Southern California on Thursday, April 18, 2024. USC was citing security concerns, in a rare decision that was praised by several pro-Israel groups and lambasted by free speech advocates and the country's largest Muslim civil rights organization. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

USC cancels graduation keynote by filmmaker amid controversy over decision to drop student’s speech

The University of Southern California is further shaking up its commencement plans. The private university said Friday it has called off appearances by outside speakers and honorees.

FILE - West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice delivers his annual State of the State address in the House Chambers at the state capitol in Charleston, W.Va., on Jan. 11, 2023. Justice announced Friday, April 192, 204, that West Virginia will not face a clawback of $465 million in COVID-19 money from the U.S. Department of Education, alleviating concerns raised by state lawmakers during the last days of the legislative session in March. (AP Photo/Chris Jackson, File)

West Virginia will not face $465M COVID education funds clawback after feds OK waiver, governor says

West Virginia will not face a clawback of $465 million in COVID-19 money from the federal government, alleviating concerns raised by state lawmakers during the legislative session in March.

Colored pencils sit around a drawing of "Bluey" the Australian kids' television program character on a sketch pad Friday, April 19, 2024, in Phoenix, Ariz. (AP Photo/Cheyanne Mumphrey)

Not a toddler, not a parent, but still love ‘Bluey’? You’re not alone

Viewers don’t have to be young or a parent to appreciate the Australian kids’ television program “Bluey,” as this week’s release of a special episode proved.

FILE - Actor Maulik Pancholy attends the premiere of "Trishna" during the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival on Friday, April 27, 2012 in New York. A Pennsylvania school board's cancellation of an upcoming appearance by actor and children’s book author Maulik Pancholy was ill-advised and sends a hurtful message, especially to the LGBTQ+ community, education officials said in a letter Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, File)

Pennsylvania board’s cancellation of gay actor’s school visit ill-advised, education leaders say

The superintendent and several other top officials of a Pennsylvania school district say their school board’s cancellation of a gay actor’s visit to a middle school was premature and ill-advised.

FILE - Memphis offensive linemen Terrance McClain (51) and Jacob Likes (70) celebrate after the team's win against Iowa State at the Liberty Bowl NCAA college football game Friday, Dec. 29, 2023, in Memphis, Tenn. FedEx on Friday, April 19, 2024, pledged $25 million over the next five years to be used in sponsorship deals with University of Memphis athletes, a huge boost for the school's name, image and likeness compensation efforts.(AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)

FedEx pledges $25 million over 5 years in NIL program for University of Memphis athletes

FedEx has pledged $25 million over the next five years to be used in sponsorship deals with University of Memphis athletes.

FILE - Demonstrators advocating for transgender rights and healthcare stand outside of the Ohio Statehouse on Jan. 24, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. The rights of LGBTQ+ students will be protected by federal law and victims of campus sexual assault will gain new safeguards under rules finalized Friday, April19, 2024, by the Biden administration. Notably absent from Biden’s policy, however, is any mention of transgender athletes. (AP Photo/Patrick Orsagos, File)

Biden’s new Title IX rules protect LGBTQ+ students, but avoid addressing transgender athletes

The rights of LGBTQ+ students will be protected by federal law and victims of campus sexual assault will gain new safeguards under new rules from the Biden administration.

Unfair labor complaint filed against Notre Dame over athletes

An unfair labor complaint has been filed against the University of Notre Dame for classifying college athletes as “student-athletes.”

FILE - Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen speaks during a news conference, Jan. 12, 2023, at the state Capitol in Lincoln, Neb. Nebraska lawmakers adjourned the regular session Thursday, April 18, 2024, knowing they'll be called back by Pillen this summer for a special session to find a way to ease soaring property taxes. (Kenneth Ferriera/Lincoln Journal Star via AP, File)

Nebraska lawmakers end session, leaving taxes for later

Nebraska lawmakers have adjourned the regular session knowing they’ll be called back by Republican Gov. Jim Pillen this summer for a special session.

Shapiro says Pennsylvania will move all school standardized testing online in 2026

Gov. Josh Shapiro says his administration will move all standardized school assessment tests online.

FILE - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis answers questions from the media, March 7, 2023, at the state Capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. Florida school districts can opt to allow volunteer chaplains under a bill signed Thursday, April 18, 2024, by DeSantis, who dismissed critics who say religion shouldn't be mixed with public education. (AP Photo/Phil Sears, File)

Florida will open schools to volunteer chaplains

Florida school districts will soon have the option of allowing volunteer chaplains in as student counselors. Republican Gov.