Back to school #3

Cover art, children on swings, Life Magazine, 6/16/1958.

I will never forget my first day of school.  We were housed in a "portable", a trailer, on the grounds of Cerveny School in Detroit, which had mostly higher grades.  All the kids were at the windows crying, after their mothers had left them at school.  

Me and my friend Greg didn't cry ("My son loved his first day of kindergarten. It brings up my own bittersweet memories," NPR).

-- "Back to school reprint: Why isn't walking/biking to school programming an option in Suburban Omaha? | Inadequacies in school transportation planning"
-- "Back to school #2"
-- "Back to school #3"

Past blog entries still very much relevant.  Over the years, sparked by "educational reform" programs for the Washington, DC public schools, I wrote a couple hundred entries probably on school issues.  A lot of those entries remain highly relevant and are worth a read:

-- "Schools #2: Successful school programs in low income communities and the failure of DC to respond similarly," 2019
-- "Back to school as a reason to consider schools issues comprehensively,"  2015
-- "What's your solution?" vis-a-vis K-12 school improvement in DC," 2009 
-- "Positive Deviance and the DC Public Schools," 2007

Students making their way south on SEPTA route 45 bus from stop at N. 12th Street at Market Street as they commute to school, Tuesday, September 2, 2025. Alejandro A. Alvarez / Philadelphia Inquirer.

Transit for schoolchildren.  In many center cities, school systems don't have bus systems like they do in the suburbs, although there can be micro-bus services for special education students.  

Schools often work with the local transit system to offer routes for students, and many transit systems have free or discounted passes for students.

Washington DC youth transit pass, "Kids Ride Free."

Cuts in transit service in Philadelphia, subject of the blog entry, "Transit death spiral starts in Philadelphia," led to an increase in tardiness and absenteeism ("SEPTA cuts made Philly schools’ attendance tumble significantly," Philadelphia Inquirer).  In the interim, the City of Philadelphia paid SEPTA to restore certain routes used by students ("Bus routes for students will be restored after Mayor Parker agreed to advance city money to SEPTA," PI).  Since then, the Courts have ordered SEPTA to restore all cuts. About 52,000 students use public transit to get to school in Philadelphia.

The Inquirer also reported on a charter school that minimized effects from the loss of transit ("Despite relying on SEPTA to get kids to school, one Philly charter has boosted attendance. Here’s how they did it.").  From the article:

But the staff of Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia Charter School developed something of a battle plan going into the 2025-26 school year. CEO William Hayes and his team spent weeks before the term began connecting with parents, helping students think through how their commutes might change, even adding students to yellow bus routes the school pays for.

So the communication began early, when SEPTA specifics were known. Colleen Smith, Boys’ Latin’s chief operating officer, broke things down by route and neighborhood.

... It’s worked so far — average daily attendance was 96% among middle school students and 92% among high school students for the first few days after SEPTA service cuts, compared with 91% among middle school students and 88% among high school students for a comparable period last school year.

It's a good example of how I argue in "Why isn't walking/biking to school programming an option in Suburban Omaha? | Inadequacies in school transportation planning," that schools should be more proactive in assisting students in getting to school, especially when there isn't a school bus program.

What are the "Broken Windows" like theories in pedagogy and school management that should be applied to K-12 school systems in a strategic manner? (Learning Policy Institute).  I wonder if educational improvement can be systematized by taking a kind of "broken windows" approach to developing best practice, implementing it, and maintaining it, in part with robust management systems that go beyond a school and its principal.

Schools have a tough job as many children aren't interested in learning ("Students go back to Seattle schools with excitement, nerves," Seattle Times).

“I don’t want to be here,” said Callum McEwan, 13. “I want to see my friends, but I don’t want to learn stuff.” Callum’s friend Benyam Yoseph, also 13, agreed. 

 “There’s new classes and the schedule is a little messed up … we don’t have the electives we want,” Benyam said, pacing back and forth. “I feel like we need to switch computer science for language arts.”

The design of "Sesame Street" was based on rows of brownstones found in Manhattan's Harlem and Upper West Side and the Bronx. Bill Pierce / The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images.

What about educational television?  Arguably it is a force for good.  The Trump Administration is cutting support for the public media which produce and broadcast it ("As Trump targets public media and media research, I worry for America’s children," Philadelphia Inquirer).  This has an especial impact on children of color.

I won’t argue about the political leanings of public media, but I will argue, as I did back then, that some of the very best children’s media is publicly funded. Sesame Street has been on PBS since 1969, and is perhaps the clearest example of what public media can achieve.

Its aim was to provide underserved children, especially those without access to preschool education, with the opportunity to learn basic skills like their ABCs and numbers before they entered first grade. Studies consistently showed that Sesame Street succeeded in its mission.

... This is where we find ourselves after the devastating cuts. The safe, trusted space PBS provides children and parents could very well disappear. The window of opportunity to better understand the effects of digital media on young, developing brains is closing.

... Our political leaders have decided that it’s best to pull the plug on what has always been a safe space for children in an otherwise banal and crowded children’s landscape. And instead of a robust, evidence-based conversation about how to help kids and families navigate this new digital environment, these same politicians have decided to let tech companies keep experimenting with our young people without anyone (except the companies themselves) understanding how young people are impacted.

Also see "The Unmistakable Black Roots of ‘Sesame Street’," Smithsonian Magazine. 

Marketing.  With the rise in competition from charter schools, private schools, and voucher programs public schools need to develop a system for marketing, at the system and school level, to maintain enrollments.  These Hearst Bay Area articles, "Winning Strategies to Grow Your K–12 Afterschool Program" and "How to Launch an A+ Education Marketing and Advertising Strategy," provide good insight and guidance on what to do.

Also see "Is the Hardest Job in Education Selling Parents on San Francisco Public Schools?," Hechinger Report.  From the article:

Declining enrollment can set off a downward spiral. For every student who leaves SFUSD, the district eventually receives approximately $14,650 less, using a conservative estimate of state funds for the 2022–23 school year. When considering all state and federal funds that year, the district stood to lose as much as $21,170 a child. Over time, less money translates to fewer adults to teach classes, clean bathrooms, help manage emotions and otherwise make a district’s schools calm and effective. It also means fewer language programs, robotics labs and other enrichment opportunities that parents increasingly perceive as necessary. That, in turn, can lead to fewer families signing up — and even less money.

It’s why Koehler is trying everything she can to retain and recruit students in the face of myriad complications, from racism to game theory, and why educators and policymakers elsewhere ought to care whether she and her staff of 24 succeed.

... Remote schooling accounted for about a quarter of the enrollment decline nationally, Stanford’s Dee estimates. The bigger culprit, especially in San Francisco, is population loss. Even before the pandemic, the city had the fewest 5-to-19-year-olds per capita of any US city, about 10 percent of the population, which is roughly half the national average.

City wide public school aid foundation in Park City, Utah ("Build the Foundation campaign calls on Park City families to support schools" Townlift Park City News).  In my writings on parks and libraries, I suggest that city-wide friends groups be created, with affinity groups for specific libraries or parks, with the city-wide group providing back of the house support, the affinity group support for the specific asset.  That's being done for schools (another civic asset I should have considered) in Park City, Utah.

The Park City Education Foundation (PCEF) is urging families to “Build the Foundation” for student success through its annual Parent & Caregiver Appeal Campaign, running July 1 through Sept. 12. The campaign aims to garner broad participation from parents and caregivers across the district to help fund nearly $2 million in programs that support every student, from preschool through high school.

“Participation is key,” said Jennifer Billow, PCEF vice president of advancement. “If everyone is donating what they can, then we can really fund all these programs. Even $1 counts.”

PCEF currently supports over 100 programs across the district. PCEF emphasizes that investing in public schools strengthens not only students but the broader community.

“Great public schools equal a great community,” Billow said. “When families know their kids can get an excellent education here, it helps our economy, it supports employers, and it makes Park City a place people want to live.” “About 99% of our kids attend public schools,” Billow said. “Even in a wealthy area, families choose public schools because they know their children will thrive. That’s possible because of the generosity of this community.” 

Trump Administration and schools.  I guess this group of writings on "back to school" "buried the lede," by not considering the multiple negative effects that new administration policies have on children and schools.  

There are many ("Trump’s Vivisection of the Department of Education," New Yorker) including cuts to:

• access to fresh foods and school meals
• child healthcare and Medicaid
• special funding (Title I) for schools with a preponderance of low income children
• funding and independent oversight of special needs programs (as much as a third of urban school system budgets is spent on special education, serving fewer than 20% of students)
• support for public vouchers paying for private schooling
• etc.

From the article:

A hallmark of right-wing antipathy to the D.O.E., and to public education in general, is the notion that children and schools need to be “taken back” from their federal overlords. In fact, the D.O.E. does not decide what or how students are taught; it does not weigh in on whether a school should adhere to Common Core standards or how many books by Ibram X. Kendi should be found on its library shelves. One thing that does fall under the D.O.E.’s remit, however, is administering the tests and collecting the data for the annual NAEP report, under the aegis of the National Center for Education Statistics. As of the most recent cuts to the D.O.E., the statistics office has been reduced “from roughly 100 employees to a skeletal staff of just three,” according to reporting by Jill Barshay, of the Hechinger Report. If disembowelling a federal agency does somehow lead to higher reading and math scores, the federal workers who would have tracked this progress won’t be around to tell us about it.

Year round schooling.  I've argued for a variety of reasons, a different kind of school schedule, so called "year round school" should be considered.

Some Title I schools do add at least one month of school in the summer.  Partly this is to ensure access to meals, but also to ward off learning loss.  More "summer camp" activities are often added, to leverage the weather and to be outside ("LA).USD's extra learning days bring child care relief and a grade boost," Los Angeles Times

Philadelphia's mayor wants to try it out ("Cherelle Parker wants year-round school. Philly tried it before," "25 Philly schools will pilot an 'extended day, extended year' program, Mayor Parker says," Philadelphia Inquirer).  The "experiment" was too small for the school system to be willing to deal with it, and the evaluation period was too short to show much in the way of positive change. During the off weeks ("interssions"), the schools offered additional enrichment and day care programs.

I'd say set up a system within a system, where people can opt in to the "year round" calendar, somewhat like the "Positive Deviance" model although it can be hard to maintain differences let alone improve on them ("A positive deviance failure in Boston: Timilty Middle School")

More programs offer high school students access to college courses ("UC to offer online classes to some low-income high school students" Berkeleyside) The National Education Equity Lab initiative offers college classes from top schools online for credit, "for free" to Title I high schools.  But school has to pay a $250 per student per class administrative fee.

Redefining DEI?  High school ethnic studies ("Why high school students need ethnic studies," The Hill, "Pittsburgh Public Schools creating one of region's first high school ethnic studies courses," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).  From the second article:

The ethnic studies course, which will be fully implemented in the 2025-26 school year and will be a graduation requirement starting with the class of 2028, will focus on racial, ethnic and cultural groups of people from around the globe who are not typically the focus of social studies courses. Discussions will center on issues that society has faced over time.

The course, a yearslong initiative that mirrors similar movements taking place across the country, will help students develop deeper understandings of different cultures.

Second chance at high school degree with the YouthBuild Academy ("These 300 kids left school. Then they marched down Broad Street to reclaim their education," Philadelphia Inquirer).  Youth Build is a program that had been supported by the Department of Housing and Urban Development as a job training and schooling program.  Students get a stipend, which helps for lower income students.

Strengthening high school student retention.  With each transition to a new school, students drop out.  This is a big problem in inner city schools.  Philadelphia figures that providing extra services and attention to new-to-high-school 9th graders will help to reverse that trend ("How do you raise the high school graduation rate? Philly is betting a focus on ninth grade will help," PI).

The research is clear. In Philadelphia, ninth-graders who are considered “on track” — those who earn at least one credit in English, math, science, and social studies, plus at least one more credit — have an 89% four-year graduation rate. Those who fail to hit that mark have a graduation rate of just 45%. The gains are particularly pronounced for groups of students that have traditionally had lower graduation rates, including Black and Latino males. 

Housing as a way to recruit teachers of color ("How can Los Angeles bring more Black men into teaching? Build them a village." Los Angeles Daily News) when most teachers are white ("America’s schools are more diverse than ever. But the teachers are still mostly white," Washington Post).  From the LADN:

On the outside it looks like a normal family home, but on the inside resides an ambitious group of Black men mapping out lesson plans and comparing notes about caring for young children. Welcome to the Teacher Village, America’s first-ever affordable housing program for Black male teachers in training.

The housing is provided in the Pico-Union neighborhood of Los Angeles by Peter and Didi Watts, co-founders of the Watts of Power Foundation, who are on a mission to “multiply the 2%” of America’s teachers that are Black men. 

Their strategy for doing so is a two-year fellowship program that helps address several factors that can prevent Black men from pursuing teaching such as isolation on campus, stereotypes about teaching, expense of getting credentialed and insufficient training. “When I come to schools a lot of times I may be the only male (teacher). And if I’m not, then I’m the only African American male,” said fellow Christopher Sullivan. “It’s great to be around other people like myself, to be able to relate to the experiences they are going through and share advice.” 

Kansas City has a similar program ("Teachers Like Me completes 1st house to support Black teachers," KSHB-TV).

The Kansas City-based organization’s goal is to recruit, develop and retain Black teachers. It does so by offering mentorship, instructional planning and discounted rent in houses it owns. Teachers Like Me works with students at UMKC studying to become educators and new classroom teachers. The program works with new teachers for three years. UMKC students can benefit throughout their college career and first three years of teaching.

School vouchers increasingly costly and divert funds from public schools ("In Red States, the Bill for School Voucher Bait-and-Switch Is Coming Due," The Nation).

For GOP lawmakers who view public education as a quasi-socialist project, the gaping hole in state budgets left by subsidizing private school tuition is a feature, not a bug. ... in Arizona, taxpayers are now staring down a $400 million shortfall, with an even bigger bill coming due next year. How did the Grand Canyon State go from sitting on a huge cash reserve to facing a rising tide of red ink? 

Simple. Voucher proponents suggested that paying for private school tuition would cost taxpayers $65 million a year; but as it stands, the program is on track to cost roughly 15 times that. All told, Arizona taxpayers are likely to spend close to a billion dollars reimbursing the cost of tuition and luxury expenses—including ski resort passes, pianos, and theme park tickets—for families whose children were never enrolled in the public schools. 

It isn’t just Arizona’s problem. Over the past two years, multiple states have enacted universal or near-universal voucher programs that far exceed initial cost projections. ... 

It wasn’t just the price tag that voucher proponents were deceptive about—it was also the projected beneficiaries of such programs. Advocates promoted vouchers as a benefit for poor students, students with disabilities, and students in struggling schools. Yet the reality has looked very different. As The Wall Street Journal recently reported ("Vouchers Helping Families Already in Private School, Early Data Show"), the vast majority of parents taking advantage of these tuition coupons are those who already send their kids to private schools. 

The 10 Commandments.  Out of the same ideology about government schools, many states are enacting rules that require the posting of the 10 commandments, regardless about the First Amendment's stricture of the separation of church and state ("Eyeing a friendly Supreme Court, Republicans push for the Ten Commandments in schools," Stateline). 

Oklahoma targets progressive teachers ("He Taught AP history. Now he attacks Teachers for Being Too Woke," Wall Street Journal, "Oklahoma will require teachers from NY, CA to prove they back 'America First'," USA Today).

Under enrolled schools as a question of resources and system resilience.  Cities like Chicago (School Closings in Chicago Understanding Families' Choices and Constraints for New School Enrollment, University of Chicago), DC (I had a conversation with a national pundit who averred that Adrian Fenty lost reelection because of school closures), Oakland ("Why is it always that black schools are closed?," Oaklandside), and Salt Lake City ("School closure and consolidation planning needs to focus on integration planning at the outset as a separate process") have been roiled by school closures as a result of changing enrollment patterns.  

Families, teachers, and community members gather for a march against school closures on March 26, 2022. Credit: Amir Aziz

Though even I've argued that some under enrolled schools are worth keeping open because of how they anchor neighborhoods ("National Community Planning Month: Schools as neighborhood anchors").  Parents usually are advocates for keeping schools open even when they aren't succeeding that well. 

But studies in Los Angeles call attention to the fact that keeping low enrollment schools open costs the district monies that could be better used elsewhere ("Hundreds of thousands fewer students, but few closed schools. Can LAUSD make the math work?," Los Angeles Times, Facing the Decline Building a Resilient LAUSD, Great Public Schools Now). 

An Austin elementary school.

Austin, Texas successfully sold school closures in terms of being able to redirect resources ("How Austin school closures became more palatable, Austin American-Statesman, School Changes 2019 Plan: Reimagine, Reinvest, Reinvent, AUSD).

A different form of homeschooling, microschools? ("In Tennessee, the Microschooling Movement Shows No Signs of Slowing Down," The74, "Rise of the microschool: Small, student-centered learning spaces take off," Christian Science Monitor).  These are private schools, usually no larger than 100 students.

Take a Father to School Day as a way to increase parental involvement ("Take a Father to School Day celebrates its 26th year at Pittsburgh Public Schools" Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).

Parent mentor program.  Over the years, I've written about programs that hire and/or train parents to work as paraprofessional support personnel in schools.  Chicago has an interesting program ("Lessons for locals on power of parents in schools," Seattle Times).

The parent mentor program run by the Logan Square Neighborhood Association shows it doesn’t have to be that way. Over the past 18 years, it has recruited about 1,800 parents to spend two hours a day, five days a week for a semester or more in their children’s schools. 

... But Logan Square’s program goes further, installing a cadre of 10 to 20 moms and dads in each participating school on the belief that teachers in the longtime immigrant neighborhood would learn as much from parents as parents would gain from watching and talking with teachers.

“It is pointing the way for how schools can build much deeper, richer, more productive relationships with parents as collaborators in improving student success. It’s not just a series of random acts of family engagement, which is what you often see,” said Anne Henderson, one of the authors of a 2002 review of 50 studies of parent involvement. ...

The program starts out with a week of training that focuses on the parents themselves, encouraging them to further their own education and become leaders. That’s based on the belief that better-educated parents lead to stronger students, and stronger communities.

After the training, parents are matched with teachers who request mentors, although never their own child’s instructor.

Those who speak little English often work in dual-language classes, and those with little formal education are placed in kindergarten or preschool. The only requirement is that the parents work with students — not photocopy work sheets or grade homework.

Those who complete 100 hours in a semester receive a stipend of $500.

The program model has expanded beyond Chicago and Illinois to schools across the country through the  Parent Engagement Institute.. Sadly it doesn't seem as if Seattle developed a similar program ("Could Seattle train, fund parent mentors in schools? | Ed Lab Revisited," ST).

Boston is one of the places that has adopted the program ("A ladder of opportunities’: This parent mentor program works — but its funding is in danger," Boston Globe). 

New Orleans school progress.  It's the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's devastation of New Orleans.  

One of the rebuilding actions was to dissolve the school system and shift to charters and more independently run schools ("18 Years, $2 Billion: Inside New Orleans’s Biggest School Recovery Effort in History," The74).

Some argue this has had measurable learning gains ("‘Never seen before’: How Katrina set off an education revolution," Washington Post).  Others that it had disproportionately negative effects on the black community, especially for those teachers who lost their jobs ("After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans fired thousands of Black teachers. Twenty years later, these groups are bringing them back," Guardian, "‘They broke us down’: New Orleans teachers, fired after Katrina, reflect on lives upended," Louisiana Illuminator).  

It's an interesting "point counterpoint" intellectually, but at the same time many people suffered greatly.

Technology in the classroom: rote for the poor, individual support for the well off (" Big tech has transformed the classroom – and parents are right to be worried," Guardian).

As these systems scale and cheapen, however, a troubling divide is emerging: mass, app-based instruction for the many, and human tutoring and intellectual exchange reserved for the elite. What is sold as the “democratisation” of education may be entrenching further inequality. Take Photomath, with more 300m downloads: snap a photo of an equation and it spits out a solution. Convenient, yes; no need for a tutor, perhaps – but it reduces maths to copying steps and strips away the dialogue and feedback that help deepen understanding.

Hotter days: how do schools deal with the heat? Schools weren't built with hot weather in mind.  Most don't have air conditioning ( "How to protect US students from heat in schools – and is it time to rethink summer break?" Guardian).  

Pprograms like summer school and year round school raise issues of hot classrooms and the hot outdoors. 

One measure is to increase the greenery and tree canopy on school properties by removing asphalt ("Out with asphalt: US schoolyards transformed into green oases – in pictures," Guardian).  

The Washington Post has reported, ""Kids getting burned on swings and slides? Here’s how to fix it," on "weatherizing" playground equipment for heat effects, calling out attention to studies out of Australia ("Outdoor playgrounds and climate change: Importance of surface materials and shade to extend play time and prevent burn injuries," Building and Environment).

Conversion of a sea of asphalt to greenery and play equipment at a NYC elementary school.

Hispanic desegregation lawsuit from 1947, Mendez v. Westminster ("80 Years After Mendez v. Westminster: Sylvia Mendez’s Mission Continues," Inside Fullerton).  The article profiles the still alive plantiff of a court case in California which led to desegregating schools for Hispanics, seven years before Brown v. Board of Education.  

"60 years ago today, 6-year-old Ruby Bridges walked to school and showed how even first graders can be trailblazers," CNN.

For all the conservatives complaints about DEI and critical race theory, it's important that the story of US school desegregation not be lost and that it be taught in schools, just like learning how to read ("What one author discovered about racial equity in schools," Christian Science Monitor).

The gender gap in STEM (science, technology, engineering math).  AP reports, "The gender gap in math widened in the pandemic. Schools are trying to make up lost ground," that the gender gap in technical oriented schooling was declining in K-12.  Now it's not.

Back to school #2

One family's tradition is to bake a cake for the first day of school and the last day of school each year.

This blog entry I've been meaning to post at the start of school each of the last few years, but I never manage to pull it together.

-- "Back to school reprint: Why isn't walking/biking to school programming an option in Suburban Omaha? | Inadequacies in school transportation planning"
-- "Back to school #2"
-- "Back to school #3"

Past writings to reference

On community schools
-- "Schools #2: Successful school programs in low income communities and the failure of DC to respond similarly," 2019
On community planning focused on creating great neighborhood schools
-- "The bilingual Key Elementary School in Arlington County as another example of the "upsidedownness" of community planning," 2019

Students in line for security check.  Reddit photo.

School security ("Uvalde rekindles school police officers' looming fears," AP). Who knew there's a National Association of School Resource Officers?  

With massive failures by Oxford High School in Michigan ("Attorney: Security guard didn’t try to stop Oxford school shooting, thought it was a drill,"MLive, "Lawsuit: Oxford High School shooting was "predictable and preventable","Michigan Public Radio ) and the police at Ross Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas ("Uvalde report: 376 officers but ‘egregiously poor’ decisions,"), New Jersey has passed a law requiring that school districts create threat assessment teams ("A new law will require threat assessment teams for all New Jersey school districts this fall," Philadelphia Inquirer).

Post-covid drops in urban school enrollment ("Shrinking enrollment in big cities may force public schools shut," AP).  This is a big issue because for the most part, school systems are funded on the basis on the number of students.  And schools with smaller enrollments get less funding.  So underenrolled schools face the threat of closure. But closing schools can be politically perilous.  Some argue that Adrian Fenty wasn't reelected as mayor of DC in part because of school closures.

Many ascribe covid home schooling to why students today are less able to read and socialize, and national test results find this cohort continues to lag.  The Boston Globe offers a program to address this ("Does Massachusetts need a 'nuclear option' for academic recovery?").  Seven bold ideas:

• Start a statewide tutoring army
• Longer school days, years
• Do more for recent grads who need help
• Pay teachers more
• Overhaul reading instruction
• Personalized plans for every student
• Don’t try to fix everything, everywhere  

Truancy ("Students who miss school get help, not punishment," "Stemming school truancy," Washington Post).  According to the New York Time,s "Why School Absences Have ‘Exploded’ Almost Everywhere": 

The trends suggest that something fundamental has shifted in American childhood and the culture of school, in ways that may be long lasting. What was once a deeply ingrained habit — wake up, catch the bus, report to class — is now something far more tenuous. 

“Our relationship with school became optional,” said Katie Rosanbalm, a psychologist and associate research professor with the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University. The habit of daily attendance — and many families’ trust — was severed when schools shuttered in spring 2020. Even after schools reopened, things hardly snapped back to normal. Districts offered remote options, required Covid-19 quarantines and relaxed policies around attendance and grading.

Today, student absenteeism is a leading factor hindering the nation’s recovery from pandemic learning losses, educational experts say. Students can’t learn if they aren’t in school. And a rotating cast of absent classmates can negatively affect the achievement of even students who do show up, because teachers must slow down and adjust their approach to keep everyone on track.

Truancy and youth crime.  Associated with drops in enrollment are enrolled students skipping school.  DC's youth crime epidemic is strongly associated with truancy ("Empty desks: How the District’s failure to curb truancy in middle schools fueled the biggest youth crime surge in a generation," Washington Post), "Want to know the truth about books and bullets? One can beat the other," Crain's Chicago Business).  In Chicago:

More than 90% of youth victims of gun violence in Chicago were not enrolled in school at the time of the shootings. These young people weren’t violent. They were disconnected from the systems that could have kept them on a different path.

"Government schools" ("Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling," Trump Administration) school boards and the right ("The right is pushing to wreck U.S. public schools," Philadelphia Inquirer).  For a few decades, part of the right's campaign against government generally has been focused on demonization of public schools, as "government schools," among other epithets, and a major focus on creating publicly funded alternatives to public schools through the funding of charter schools, vouchers, and tax credit programs for non-public schools.

Books and reading ("Students lose access to books amid ‘state-sponsored purging of ideas’" Washington Post).  This was accentuated by the creation of the "critical race theory" bogeyman ("What Is Critical Race Theory, and Why Is It Under Attack?," Education Week).  Red states like Florida and Texas have passed legislation restricting curricula that teach about race, segregation, slavery, sexual orientation, etc.

OTOH, some kids are reading more.  From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, "Minneapolis school libraries seeing big increases in book lending":

More than 1,500 titles have been checked out so far this school year, representing a four-fold jump over the number of books that left the shelf by this time last school year. 

"As much as I want to say I managed to shoot book checkout up 400%, it's not because of anything incredible that I personally did," said Ted Anderson, the school's librarian. "It's because I'm here and the library is actually open." 

Like a handful of other Minneapolis schools, Franklin had no library staff last year, meaning it was often closed to students. Anderson came to the school as part of a librarian hiring wave across the district, marking a renewed investment in the positions that are often among the first to be cut when school budgets are squeezed. Minneapolis Public Schools has doubled its number of librarians since last year and met its goal of staffing at least a half-time librarian at each of its more than 60 schools. 

But most worth celebrating, staff members say, is the number of books finding their way into the hands of young readers across the city. 

... In addition to more books, many of the school libraries also got new furniture, including bean bags for students and rocking chairs and rugs for story time. That has helped create a space where students want to gather, Bellm said. A couple of schools are in the process of launching book clubs based on student demand, and other clubs are using the library as their meet-up spot. 

... "If kids are actually engaging with the space and wondering about the books, that's a success," he said while groups of students chatted loudly in a circle of arm chairs, each with books at their sides. "The last thing you want is a quiet library."

The NBC News article, "Can a new early reading program help revive this poor Mississippi town?, describes an early learning academy for children under 5 focused on learning to read, since not being able to read makes school success impossible.  

I wonder if there should be dedicated Spanish to English schools for immigrants, at least in cities, to ease assimilation and reduce the burden on classrooms where the majority of the students are English speakers.  Plus the majority minority issue. 

The screen issue ("A groundbreaking study shows kids learn better on paper, not screens. Now what?," Guardian).

... there’s been curiously little discussion in this debate about the physical object most children use to read, which, starting long before the arrival of Covid, has increasingly been an illuminated screen displaying pixelated type instead of a printed or photocopied text. What if the principal culprit behind the fall of middle-school literacy is neither a virus, nor a union leader, nor “remote learning”?

Fourth grade is when a crucial shift occurs from what another researcher describes as ‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn’ Until recently there has been no scientific answer to this urgent question, but a soon-to-be published, groundbreaking study from neuroscientists at Columbia University’s Teachers College has come down decisively on the matter: for “deeper reading” there is a clear advantage to reading a text on paper, rather than on a screen, where “shallow reading was observed”.

Books like me ("Teen voices: Young people work to have a say in school books," "Children need to see themselves in books. Enter Young, Black & Lit," Christian Science Monitor).

Attacks on school boards ("‘I Don’t Want to Die for It’: School Board Members Face Rising Threats," New York Times).  Some of this is funded by national groups focused on strengthening and extending the conservative agenda into local schools including on curriculum (" Education White Parents Rallied to Chase a Black Educator Out of Town. Then, They Followed Her to the Next One," ProPublica) and taxes.

Although some argue at the end of the day it doesn't much matter ("Why It’s Hard to Control What Gets Taught in Public Schools," NYT).  

Should School Boards be elected? School boards are a tough issue in terms of democracy.  Community representatives on a board often pursue pecuniary interests, and lack technical expertise that could make for better decision making.  

In Ontario, the premier wants to make school boards appointed, not elected ("School boards in ‘shambles,’ Doug Ford says as he warns more spending abuses will be revealed," "Could the mayor take control of school boards? Here’s what an Ontario education system may look like with no more trustees," "Ontario’s school boards are ungovernable and unaccountable. Shut them down," Toronto Star).  

A letter to the editor suggests that the Ontario government is more motivated by the ability to cut school taxes ("The rich don’t care about public education they send their kids to private school. They just want the tax cut," Star).

FWIW, Mayoral control of the school board in Chicago hasn't worked out so well.  DC switched to an appointed board controlled by the mayor.  Now it's mixed with appointed and elected members.  I'm not sure it has worked very well.  Chicago did reintroduce elected members a couple years ago ("Meet Chicago's new school board members," Chicago Sun-Times).

Running for the school board. Given the boards are publicly elected, it's important to have motivated members, like Vanessa Estrella in Fullerton, California ("A pachuca wanted to help her community. Now, she’s a trustee at Fullerton’s school district," Los Angeles Times).

Estrella is more than just a local business owner. She lives and works in District Five of the Fullerton School District, where its five elementary schools lag behind the city’s other campuses because of historical neglect by school administrators and the legacy of redlining in the southern part of the city. “There’s always an area in any city that gets the short end of the stick,” said the 43-year-old Estrella, who sat at a table filled with podcast equipment.

She had spent years volunteering at schools and raising funds through her family’s nonprofit to help confront these challenges. But after finding herself frustrated by what she felt was a lack of change at the district, last year Estrella decided to channel the bold spirit of pachucas and run for a position on the board of trustees.

... She had spent years volunteering at schools and raising funds through her family’s nonprofit to help confront these challenges. But after finding herself frustrated by what she felt was a lack of change at the district, last year Estrella decided to channel the bold spirit of pachucas and run for a position on the board of trustees.>

... Estrella still attends ELAC and PTA meetings to hear parents’ concerns about the schools she represents. While protecting immigrant families in the district has been a priority, Estrella also plans to close achievement gaps, get more parents involved, and address children’s mental health needs.

I think it's interesting that Estrella still attends PTA and other community meetings.  I haven't seen that kind of action by school board members, except for major meetings. 

Teacher shortage ("As the start of the school year looms, many districts can’t fill their vacancies," Philadelphia Inquirer).  Hmm, teachers, schools, and school boards are vilified plus covid, and people are retiring or not going into the profession? ("Teachers wanted: The declining pipeline of educators-to-be has experts worried the teacher shortage will only get worse," PI, "There’s no shortage of teachers. We’ve just driven them out of schools," Washington Post).

Some schools address this as a housing affordability issue ("To recruit teachers, schools offer affordable housing," Wall Street Journal).  

Adopting a customer service mindset .("Parents Survey: Majority of parents say schools' customer service needs improvement:"

As school districts look to build trust and engagement with families and the larger school community, having a “customer service mindset” can help build effective communication and affinity toward the district, K12 Insight said.

With competition from other school districts, private schools, charter schools, and vouchers, increasingly public school districts need to build their skills and operations in marketing, planning and other disciplines to compete and provide better value.

Vergennes Union High School students rally outside their school April 29, 2024, the day of a crucial vote on a proposed school budget in Vergennes, Vermont.  Riley Robinson: Christian Science Monitor.

Taxes. Schools are mostly funded by property taxes, and can be a sore subject for households, especially if they don't have school aged children.  It's also an issue with tax exemptions awarded by economic development interests, taxes foregone are also from schools, which lose out from major revenue streams.  

This has been an issue with the approval of a suburban stadium for the Chicago Bears football team.   Since labor is the primary cost of schooling, to raise pay you often have to raise taxes ("Kansas City school district wanted to raise teacher pay. So voters approved a tax hike," Kansas City Star).

A school district in Pennsylvania monitors property tax hearings to ensure the school district keeps up its revenue flow (Community improvement strategies for keeping the property tax base up: Something school systems should think about? | Nesquehoning Pennsylvania).

Structural racism and urban education systems.  From the Philadelphia Inquirer, "This race scholar studied 50 years of Philadelphia school reform. Here’s what she found":

Camika Royal, an education professor at Loyola University Maryland and critical race scholar, studied 50 years of district history for her new book, Not Paved for Us: Black Educators and Public School Reform in Philadelphia, which examines school reform efforts from 1967 through the lens of racism. ...

From early attempts to desegregate Philadelphia schools to recent and ongoing concerns over environmental conditions inside buildings, particularly those that educate large numbers of Black students, racism has permeated the district, Royal said. She provides examples in her book throughout the five decades she studied.

School zone safety,.  DC has a rise in crashes on roads abutting schools ("Study confirms what D.C. parents have known: Drivers don't care," Washington Post).  London has a special School Streets program where they designate roads serving schools as no or limited traffic during drop off and pick up times.  (Some schools in NYC are adopting the concept too.)

Bike parking at Bonneville Elementary School in Salt Lake City. (They have a separate area for scooter and skateboards.)

I think that is probably overkill, especially because many of these roads serve multiple segments of the public, not just schools, but these roads and roadsides need enhanced treatment in terms of "Safe Routes to Schools"  ("Why isn't walking/biking to school programming an option in Suburban Omaha? | Inadequacies in school transportation planning") and physical improvements, including road materials designed to reduce speeds of motor vehicles ("Walkable community planning versus "pedestrian" planning").

Summer school ("Summer programs help area students, educators with learning loss," Washington Post).  Especially to help lower income students achieve, when access to educational opportunities may otherwise be reduced, more school systems should provide summer school options, or move some schools to the "year-round school" calendar or creating an "extended school year" for Title I schools ("Schools #2: Successful school programs in low income communities and the failure of DC to respond similarly").

National best practice school improvement programs in Dallas.  Dallas Transformation Schools apparently are quite successful.  In past writings about ways to boost the outcomes of DC Public Schools, I remember charlie suggesting a kind of magnet school with enrollment open to non-DC residents, as a way to strengthen the educational quality of the peer group.  I thought that was an interesting idea, although it would be tough to attract students from out of the city.

Apparently, Dallas is doing a form of that, although it's city-wide enrollment eligibility which isn't extended to Tarrant County ("Dallas parents flocking to schools that pull students from both rich and poor parts of town: School districts see success with ‘Transformation Schools’ that offer a socioeconomically mixed student body," Hechinger Report).

They also have a separate initiative of "Innovation Schools," which involves repositioning schools around special programs like Montessori and the International Baccalaureate, although those programs lag the success of the transformation schools program ("Dallas Schools, Long Segregated, Charge Forward on Diversity," New York Times). 

From this presentation.

The magnet schools have special, exciting curricula and foci, but also requirements on achieving diversity demographics in terms of race and economic levels.  They have zero admissions requirements and transportation is provided so mobility isn't a barrier.

School lunch and breakfast as an opportunity for learning.  This is a perennial issue for me.  See this blog entry, which compiles the issues, in response to a wanting op-ed in the Washington Post. The biggest things for me are quality of the meal and opportunities for learning, including meal preparation.

In Montgomery County, Maryland, a parent suggests providing free meals for everyone ("Montgomery County father calls on school board to provide free meals for all students," WJLA-TV).  The Chicago Sun-Times writes about the degradation of school meal quality in Chicago ("School lunch used to ace the test").

Still some school districts call unwanted attention to kids who can't afford to pay for meals, which is why some groups advocate for free school meals for all.  In the meantime, the Trump Administration is cutting back on USDA support for school feeding programs ("Trump Admin. Cuts Program That Brought Local Food to School Cafeterias," Education Week).

Food advocacy groups in Toronto do interesting school programming ("Farm-to-School program boosts health of students and food economy," Toronto Globe and Mail, " Toronto chef Jesus Gomez makes vegetable-focused school cafeteria food kids will actually eat," Toronto Star).  

This NYT article, "If You Think the School Lunch Battle is New — Go to Philadelphia," calls our attention to a museum exhibit in Philadelphia, "Lunchtime: The History of Science on the School Food Tray," about the history of school meals.

I always mention how in Japan, school kids are responsible for cleaning schools rather than custodians, to teach them responsibility.  In some schools, even young children are involved in preparing or serving meals.

-- "School lunch (and breakfast) as an opportunity for learning," 2022

Another issue is that the private sector aims to leverage school lunch programs as a revenue opportunity, to set preferences early for the types and brands of food children will eat ("Kraft Heinz Sees a $25 Billion Opportunity--In Schools," Wall Street Journal).  From the article:

Across the U.S. this fall, school cafeterias will serve children familiar staples such as pasta and hamburgers. Some might also offer Lunchables, Kraft Heinz’s prepackaged meal kits, in a move that has raised concerns over adding processed, branded foods to school menus. 

For Kraft Heinz, making the iconic yellow meals eligible for school lunch is part of a strategy of marketing its brands to a new generation of consumers. Shoppers for years had been gravitating toward upstart brands that promoted more natural and less-processed products. That changed during the pandemic, when many returned to familiar foods and big-name products. 

... “The kids have it and then they go to retail and they see it,” Abrams-Rivera said. “[It’s] a penetration machine,” Patricio added. In a quarterly report in May, the company estimated education food service as an untapped, $25 billion potential market. 

... The move has drawn pushback from some child-nutrition advocates, school-meal officials and others who see the products as a step backward for school-meal programs, as concerns grow over children’s nutrition and processed foods’ impact on health.

School lunch has been a battleground, with some pushing for years to make offerings healthier, fresher and more locally produced. The Biden administration earlier this year proposed new rules under which schools will be required to gradually limit the amount of sugar and salt in meals served to children. This month, the administration unveiled $30 million in grants to boost school nutrition in more than 250 small and rural communities.

Assistance programs for low income families.  I've written about Back to School festivals in cities, where kids can get backpacks stuffed with items they need for school.  DC is providing a special "back to school" payment to low income families ("D.C. to provide $1,000 for school expenses to 15,000 needy families,"Washington Post).  That provides more substantive assistance.  From the article:

Bowser said the one-time payments are intended to offer another layer of support for families enrolled in the city’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which provides monthly cash assistance and other benefits to low-income households with children in the District. As she walked through possible ways families might choose to spend the $1,000 — on uniforms, haircuts, shoes or other supplemental supplies for school and extracurricular activities — Bowser emphasized that the recipients can spend the money however they see fit.

That's a good idea.  The expenses of supporting children in school can be considerable.  

I've talked with my school teacher friend about wash machines in schools serving low income students, her school did it.  And I've written about such in Montgomery County, Maryland  and Virginia ("School principal tends to students’ needs outside the classroom," Washington Post).  

It seems to becoming a common practice "Upper West Side Councilwoman Pushes for More Washing Machines in Schools for Migrant Students Not Wearing Clean Clothes," New York Sun, "‘Desperate neglect’: teachers washing clothes and finding beds as poverty grips England’s schools," Guardian).  From the Guardian:

Schools are finding beds, providing showers for pupils and washing uniforms as child poverty spirals out of control, headteachers from across England have told the Observer. 

School leaders said that as well as hunger they were now trying to mitigate exhaustion, with increasing numbers of children living in homes without enough beds or unable to sleep because they were cold. They warned that “desperate” poverty was driving problems with behaviour, persistent absence and mental health. 

... The school recently stepped in to help after discovering a pupil begging outside a supermarket and its free breakfast club was “really needed”. But lack of sleep had become another big symptom of poverty – and a barrier to learning. 

... A report published on Friday by the Child of the North campaign, led by eight leading northern universities, and the Centre for Young Lives thinktank, warned that after decades of cuts to public services, schools were now the “frontline of the battle against child poverty”, and at risk of being “overwhelmed”. It called on the government to increase funding to help schools support the more than 4 million children now living in poverty in the UK.

Incrementalism as a concept of iterative improvement in government project development no longer a legitimate public administration theory

As an advocate, my experience with trying to do "new things" in government, is that you only get one chance to do it right.  That there isn't enough social, organizational, community, and financial capital to take up the issue again--to expand it, improve it, etc.

DC streetcar advocates are holding a community event to advocate for expansion of the streetcar to Ward 7, which DC Council recently defunded.  

A perfect example is the DC streetcar.  It took 13 years to make it operational after planning first started--by contrast it took Seattle four years, and they've since expanded.  

And for the most part, DC City Councilmembers aren't interested in putting out the money to expand it to make it more useful.  Ironically, originally there were supposed to be multiple lines.  

Even though transit usage is much reduced in DC post-covid, I don't think DC elected officials understand how central transit is to the city's competitive advantage and identity.  That even so, transit (and sustainable mobility) is what distinguishes DC from the suburbs and that you need more of it to continue to differentiate DC as a place to choose to live and conduct business.

Or the Norfolk light rail.  It was supposed to go to Virginia Beach, but with opposition they cut that part from the project, expecting that once the system started operating, there'd be a clamoring to expand ("As light rail nears in Norfolk, Virginia Beach begins to reconsider previous decisions to not participate," 2009).  Nope, in 2015, plans to move forward were scuttled, seemingly forever ("Virginia Beach was right to reject light rail extension," Norfolk Virginian-Pilot).  And as a result, the Norfolk light rail is pretty much a failure, with ridership less than a DC bus line.

I remember arguing with a past director of the DC Historic Preservation Office, who was trying to get the city to approve the concept of "conservation districts" as opposed to historic districts.  Historic districts have a lot more protection, CDs, minimal.  She argued that a CD could transition to an HD.  I said communities don't have the energy (various types of "capital") to go through such a process twice. Let alone the city the energy to approve the concept.  She didn't last long.  Etc.

There are many such examples in government.

Another one is the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, which doesn't include Bergen County.  It was conceptualized as a waterfront adjacent line connecting Hudson and Bergen Counties in New Jersey.

It opened in 2001 and was completed in 2011, serving Hudson County only, and a recent proposal to finally extend it to Bergen has been further delayed ("Three decades later, the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail line still has no Bergen spur. How come?," North Jersey Herald).  

So for 12 years, and now longer, no Bergen County section.

Incrementalism is a public administration theory proposed in the 1950s by Charles Lindblom.  I think though that I'm arguing something slightly different.  

He said that incremental project development is much more likely than the creation and implementation of big projects based on a formal rational decision making process.  From Encyclopedia Brittanica:

Incrementalism was first developed in the 1950s by the American political scientist Charles E. Lindblom in response to the then-prevalent conception of policy making as a process of rational analysis culminating in a value-maximizing decision. Incrementalism emphasizes the plurality of actors involved in the policy-making process and predicts that policy makers will build on past policies, focusing on incremental rather than wholesale changes. Incrementalism has been fruitfully applied to explain domestic policy making, foreign policy making, and public budgeting. 

Lindblom regarded rational decision making as an unattainable ideal. To function properly, rational-comprehensive decision making must satisfy two conditions that are unlikely to be met for most issues: agreement on objectives and a knowledge base sufficient to permit accurate prediction of consequences associated with available alternatives.

From that standpoint he's right. Incremental versus a beautiful, complete, big concept.  That hasn't changed.

What I'm arguing that the concept of incrementalism in government as iterative improvement is flawed because in reality you don't get second chances to improve or extend projects.  They take so long anyway.  Therefore, try to do it right and "the best" from the outset.  The likelihood of your getting the opportunity to fix, improve, extend is minimal.

Another example is the Suburban Maryland Purple Line light rail.  I first read about the concept in a cover story in the Washington City Paper in 1987!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It will open a section, finally, in 2027.  40 YEARS LATER!!!!

The section of the Purple Line that will open in 2027 is from Bethesda to New Carrollton.

But there is zero planning, zero planning, on extending it further, either west to Tysons in Virginia on the north, or further west in Maryland and to Alexandria, Virginia on the south.

And another failure in planning is failure to leverage such additions to the transit network to further improve and extend the existing network.

-- "Codifying the complementary transit network improvements and planning initiatives recommended in the Purple Line writings," 2022

And Maryland just announced a massive plan to rebuild the American Legion Bridge, connecting Maryland and Virginia, with zero plans for transit! ("Maryland pursues publicly funding Beltway relief project," Washington Post, "American Legion Bridge would be even more congested without transit, study says," Fairfax Now).

Wow.

So examples when what I call "Transformational Projects Action Planning" actually happen, such as in Bilbao ("Why can't the "Bilbao Effect" be reproduced? | Bilbao as an example of Transformational Projects Action Planning," 2017), are beyond remarkable.

Buckhead District of Atlanta looks to secede from Atlanta

Predominately white district ("Richest Atlanta District Inches Closer to Seceding From City," Bloomberg).  A kind of edge city, but within the city, not on the outskirts of the metropolitan area.  It's competitive with Downtown for commercial property location and development. It accounts for 38% of the city's tax revenue.  So its leaving would cripple the city economically.

Definitely counter to my call for cities and counties to merge, to create bigger, more viable polities.

It's being pushed by the State Legislature, especially the Senate.  The House may oppose, but unlikely.  The city would be forced to divvy up civic assets at a price favoring Buckhead.

It seems pretty ugly.

Papers from online conference, "Economists and cities," University of Cambridge

 From the Humanities and Social Change Center, "Economists and Cities", papers thus far:

-- "Economists in the City: Reconsidering the History of Urban Policy Expertise: An Introduction," by Mike Kenny & Cléo Chassonnery-Zaïgouche 

-- "Cities and Space: Towards a History of ‘Urban Economics’," by Beatrice Cherrier & Anthony Rebours -- "From Cities to Nations: Jane Jacobs’ Thinking about Economic Expansion" by Cédric Philadelphe Divry 

 -- "The Institutionalization of Regional Science  In the Shadow of Economics" by Anthony Rebours 

 -- "Urban Agglomeration, City Size and Productivity: Are Bigger, More Dense Cities Necessarily More Productive?" by Ron Martin 

 -- "Technology as a Driver of Agglomeration" by Diane Coyle 

 -- "Regions and Cities: Policy Narratives and Policy Challenges in the UK" by Philipp McCann