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"content": "\n\u003cp>When Mike Huckabee was the Arkansas governor in 2004, he wanted government to be more efficient. He signed a law to shut down tiny school districts with fewer than 350 students.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Over the next decade, 85 school districts merged with others, triggering the closure of 105 schools, most of them high schools.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Families and teachers protested. Some students had bus rides so long that they couldn’t participate in sports and other after-school activities. A 2022 study found that the\u003ca href=\"https://edworkingpapers.com/sites/default/files/ai22-530.pdf\"> mergers had accelerated depopulation\u003c/a> in rural communities and depressed property values; that same year another study found almost no\u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/01623737221133394\"> academic gains\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At least there was one potential payoff: saving taxpayers money.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>What economic sense does it make to maintain a superintendent and a district office to serve just a couple hundred students? Consolidating tiny districts seemed like an obvious way to eliminate administrative overhead. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But a surprising new analysis by researchers at the University of Arkansas finds that the savings never materialized. Reductions in administrative overhead were offset by rising costs for transportation and instructional staff. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The study, presented Sept. 26 at the annual conference of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness in Baltimore, followed the finances of Arkansas school districts for two decades. It found no overall cost savings from consolidation — not immediately after districts merged and not more than a decade later.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I think we should be cautious about recommending school consolidation,” said Josh McGee, an economist at the University of Arkansas and a co-author of both the new cost analysis and the earlier study of academic outcomes. “I think the potential benefits have not materialized as envisioned and there are real potential harms.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The new study has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Arkansas is an ideal place to study school district consolidation because of that statewide consolidation law. But McGee said there’s nothing unusual about the state’s school funding or costs, and he would expect similar results elsewhere. That matters as school districts around the country confront shrinking enrollments. Birth rates have been falling since 2008, and K-12 enrollment is forecast to decline by\u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/programs/PES/section-1.asp\"> 6 percent\u003c/a> between 2020 and 2030. As the number of students declines, pressure to consolidate districts — and close schools — could grow.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So where did the savings go?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Administrative costs did fall. The researchers estimate that consolidation reduced administrative spending by as much as $138 per student, on average, according to their preliminary, unpublished calculations. Some instructional costs, including spending on education technology and textbooks, also declined, by as much as $92 per student.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But those savings were eaten up by higher costs elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Transportation costs rose $24 per student initially and continued climbing over the years, growing to an additional $63 per student each year. Instructional staff costs — including teachers and aides, as well as math and reading coaches — rose by as much as $179 per student. Pupil-support costs, including guidance counselors and social workers, rose by as much as $61 per student.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The basic problem is that merging two districts doesn’t eliminate the need to educate the same number of children. And larger districts may create new layers of management or add more support staff, such as instructional coaches, counselors and aides. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You still have to run schools, and those schools still need teachers,” McGee said. “You could think there’s going to be some efficiencies at the district level because we’re not going to need two superintendents. But whenever you get larger school districts, you tend to hire people. You get assistant superintendents. You don’t necessarily cut the total number of positions.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One Arkansas district that was forced to merge had just 81 students. But the study can’t tell us whether 81 students is too few to sustain a district economically.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The size of the district before consolidation may matter less than the type of merger, said the study’s co-author Md. Juwel Ahmed Sarker, a researcher at the University of Arkansas who presented the study in Baltimore. He said he detected more instances of cost savings when a large district absorbed a small one than when two small districts merged.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s another reason the savings may not have materialized. Arkansas’s school funding formula is based on the number of students. Consolidation reduces the number of districts, but it doesn’t reduce the number of children who need to be educated or provide a financial incentive to spend less.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You get your allotment through the state funding formula, and you’re going to find ways to spend it,” McGee said. “Hopefully, you’re spending it in ways that are going to be beneficial for kids.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The research doesn’t prove that every school district merger is a bad idea. A large district absorbing a tiny one may have different economies of scale than two small districts joining together. But the Arkansas experience shows that a simple reduction of the number of districts won’t make public education cheaper.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Arkansas itself seems to be backing away from school district consolidation. The state often waives the requirement even after district enrollment falls below 350. And three districts have done the opposite: They’ve broken up into smaller districts.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The supposed tradeoff was that consolidation would be disruptive, but at least it would save money and perhaps improve efficiency. Twenty years of Arkansas data suggest that the first part of that bargain came without the second.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Contact staff writer \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/author/jill-barshay/\">\u003cem>Jill Barshay\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> at 212-678-3595, jillbarshay.35 on Signal, or barshay@hechingerreport.org\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-district-consolidation/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cem>school district consolidation\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> was produced by\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers education. Sign up for\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cem>Proof Points\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and other\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cem>Hechinger newsletters\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The size of the district before consolidation may matter less than the type of merger, said the study’s co-author Md. Juwel Ahmed Sarker, a researcher at the University of Arkansas who presented the study in Baltimore. He said he detected more instances of cost savings when a large district absorbed a small one than when two small districts merged.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There’s another reason the savings may not have materialized. Arkansas’s school funding formula is based on the number of students. Consolidation reduces the number of districts, but it doesn’t reduce the number of children who need to be educated or provide a financial incentive to spend less.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“You get your allotment through the state funding formula, and you’re going to find ways to spend it,” McGee said. “Hopefully, you’re spending it in ways that are going to be beneficial for kids.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The research doesn’t prove that every school district merger is a bad idea. A large district absorbing a tiny one may have different economies of scale than two small districts joining together. But the Arkansas experience shows that a simple reduction of the number of districts won’t make public education cheaper.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Arkansas itself seems to be backing away from school district consolidation. The state often waives the requirement even after district enrollment falls below 350. And three districts have done the opposite: They’ve broken up into smaller districts.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The supposed tradeoff was that consolidation would be disruptive, but at least it would save money and perhaps improve efficiency. Twenty years of Arkansas data suggest that the first part of that bargain came without the second.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Contact staff writer \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/author/jill-barshay/\">\u003cem>Jill Barshay\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> at 212-678-3595, jillbarshay.35 on Signal, or barshay@hechingerreport.org\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-district-consolidation/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cem>school district consolidation\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> was produced by\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers education. Sign up for\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cem>Proof Points\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and other\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cem>Hechinger newsletters\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "Merging School Districts Was Supposed to Save Taxpayers Money. It Didn’t, a 20-year Study in Arkansas Found | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>When Mike Huckabee was the Arkansas governor in 2004, he wanted government to be more efficient. He signed a law to shut down tiny school districts with fewer than 350 students.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Over the next decade, 85 school districts merged with others, triggering the closure of 105 schools, most of them high schools.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Families and teachers protested. Some students had bus rides so long that they couldn’t participate in sports and other after-school activities. A 2022 study found that the\u003ca href=\"https://edworkingpapers.com/sites/default/files/ai22-530.pdf\"> mergers had accelerated depopulation\u003c/a> in rural communities and depressed property values; that same year another study found almost no\u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/01623737221133394\"> academic gains\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At least there was one potential payoff: saving taxpayers money.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>What economic sense does it make to maintain a superintendent and a district office to serve just a couple hundred students? Consolidating tiny districts seemed like an obvious way to eliminate administrative overhead. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But a surprising new analysis by researchers at the University of Arkansas finds that the savings never materialized. Reductions in administrative overhead were offset by rising costs for transportation and instructional staff. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The study, presented Sept. 26 at the annual conference of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness in Baltimore, followed the finances of Arkansas school districts for two decades. It found no overall cost savings from consolidation — not immediately after districts merged and not more than a decade later.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I think we should be cautious about recommending school consolidation,” said Josh McGee, an economist at the University of Arkansas and a co-author of both the new cost analysis and the earlier study of academic outcomes. “I think the potential benefits have not materialized as envisioned and there are real potential harms.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The new study has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Arkansas is an ideal place to study school district consolidation because of that statewide consolidation law. But McGee said there’s nothing unusual about the state’s school funding or costs, and he would expect similar results elsewhere. That matters as school districts around the country confront shrinking enrollments. Birth rates have been falling since 2008, and K-12 enrollment is forecast to decline by\u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/programs/PES/section-1.asp\"> 6 percent\u003c/a> between 2020 and 2030. As the number of students declines, pressure to consolidate districts — and close schools — could grow.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So where did the savings go?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Administrative costs did fall. The researchers estimate that consolidation reduced administrative spending by as much as $138 per student, on average, according to their preliminary, unpublished calculations. Some instructional costs, including spending on education technology and textbooks, also declined, by as much as $92 per student.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But those savings were eaten up by higher costs elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Transportation costs rose $24 per student initially and continued climbing over the years, growing to an additional $63 per student each year. Instructional staff costs — including teachers and aides, as well as math and reading coaches — rose by as much as $179 per student. Pupil-support costs, including guidance counselors and social workers, rose by as much as $61 per student.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The basic problem is that merging two districts doesn’t eliminate the need to educate the same number of children. And larger districts may create new layers of management or add more support staff, such as instructional coaches, counselors and aides. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You still have to run schools, and those schools still need teachers,” McGee said. “You could think there’s going to be some efficiencies at the district level because we’re not going to need two superintendents. But whenever you get larger school districts, you tend to hire people. You get assistant superintendents. You don’t necessarily cut the total number of positions.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One Arkansas district that was forced to merge had just 81 students. But the study can’t tell us whether 81 students is too few to sustain a district economically.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The size of the district before consolidation may matter less than the type of merger, said the study’s co-author Md. Juwel Ahmed Sarker, a researcher at the University of Arkansas who presented the study in Baltimore. He said he detected more instances of cost savings when a large district absorbed a small one than when two small districts merged.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s another reason the savings may not have materialized. Arkansas’s school funding formula is based on the number of students. Consolidation reduces the number of districts, but it doesn’t reduce the number of children who need to be educated or provide a financial incentive to spend less.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You get your allotment through the state funding formula, and you’re going to find ways to spend it,” McGee said. “Hopefully, you’re spending it in ways that are going to be beneficial for kids.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The research doesn’t prove that every school district merger is a bad idea. A large district absorbing a tiny one may have different economies of scale than two small districts joining together. But the Arkansas experience shows that a simple reduction of the number of districts won’t make public education cheaper.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Arkansas itself seems to be backing away from school district consolidation. The state often waives the requirement even after district enrollment falls below 350. And three districts have done the opposite: They’ve broken up into smaller districts.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The supposed tradeoff was that consolidation would be disruptive, but at least it would save money and perhaps improve efficiency. Twenty years of Arkansas data suggest that the first part of that bargain came without the second.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Contact staff writer \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/author/jill-barshay/\">\u003cem>Jill Barshay\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> at 212-678-3595, jillbarshay.35 on Signal, or barshay@hechingerreport.org\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-district-consolidation/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cem>school district consolidation\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> was produced by\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers education. Sign up for\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cem>Proof Points\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and other\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cem>Hechinger newsletters\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Why Hands-On Career Training and Academics Go Hand-in-Hand",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the end of the first semester at ARISE High School in Oakland, several teachers have bandages on their fingertips as part of their jobs. It’s not because of a sudden rise in paper cuts. It’s because students have started practicing finger pricks as part of a phlebotomy certification program and teachers are their willing clientele.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re getting stuck on a weekly basis,” said John Warren, ARISE’s director of community learning and engagement. “We’re literally offering up our blood to our students in order to give them practice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phlebotomy is the practice of drawing blood for medical testing, transfusions and other procedures. It requires technical skill, careful attention to safety and the ability to put anxious patients at ease. Once students pass their requirements, they can become certified phlebotomists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr />\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC3636485791\" 0=\"width="100%"/iframe\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phlebotomy is just one of several career-focused offerings at ARISE as part of its \u003ca href=\"https://www.ousd.org/high-school-linked-learning-office\">Linked Learning program\u003c/a>, California’s version of career and technical education, often called CTE.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the country, \u003ca href=\"https://www.chalkbeat.org/2025/10/03/will-students-benefit-with-career-technical-education-at-labor-department/\">schools are expanding career\u003c/a> and technical education. These programs connect academic learning to industries such as healthcare, construction, information technology and advanced manufacturing. For some students, they lead directly to jobs. For others, they provide confidence, direction and a clearer sense of what comes next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The goal ultimately is that students are asking far less often, ‘Why do I have to learn this?'” Warren said. “We’re making those connections so they understand how what they’re learning relates to what they might do in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_66457\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1170px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-66457\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/07/IMG_9943.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1170\" height=\"1030\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/07/IMG_9943.jpeg 1170w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/07/IMG_9943-160x141.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/07/IMG_9943-768x676.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Phlebotomy is the practice of drawing blood for medical testing, transfusions and other procedures. It requires technical skill, careful attention to safety and the ability to put anxious patients at ease. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Tracy Lowe)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>College or Career? Increasingly, Schools Say Both\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Career education has often been treated as secondary to college-preparatory academics. But that framing is changing as programs like agriculture or manufacturing courses lead to more advanced pathways like networking, engineering or healthcare training. “The purpose of this programming is to expose students to relevant hands-on real world work in an applied setting,” said Thomas Torre Gibney, a research scientist at WestEd who studies college and career readiness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That kind of real-world learning can help students understand why academic skills matter. Math, communication, biology, teamwork and professionalism stop feeling abstract when students can see how they are used in a workplace setting that may be part of their near future. In phlebotomy, for example, students learn that 50-70% of all medical diagnoses rely on the results of the blood draws, making the accuracy of a blood draw critically important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As college costs rise and families consider whether debt is worthwhile, \u003ca href=\"https://www.chalkbeat.org/2025/10/03/will-students-benefit-with-career-technical-education-at-labor-department/\">more attention has turned to alternatives\u003c/a> and complements to the traditional four-year route. While research still shows that a college degree pays off and leads to higher earnings compared to students who only have a high school diploma, researchers and educators increasingly say CTE does not need to be an either/or choice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s another camp out there,” Torre Gibney said, “that sees no distinction between post-secondary preparation and CTE programming.” In that model, “CTE is preparation for college and career with the emphasis on the ‘and.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students might earn an industry credential in high school, begin working, then return later for more education. Others may use early career experience to confirm they want to pursue a degree. This concept is often described as \u003ca href=\"https://octae.ed.gov/cte/initiatives/credentials\">stackable credentials\u003c/a>: education that can build over time instead of requiring one uninterrupted path.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rhode Island has emerged as one of the states experimenting with this model. The state has expanded career pathways in areas including aquaponics, green energy, aviation, pre-medicine and cosmetology, while maintaining college-preparatory requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“College is still our north star,” said Angélica Infante-Green, commissioner of the Rhode Island Department of Education at the \u003ca href=\"https://ewa.org/\">Education Writers Association\u003c/a> conference in June. The goal, she said, is to expand students’ options, not limit them. “We don’t want to send the message that one is more important than the other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At ARISE, students are required to take at least two dual-enrollment college courses alongside their career pathway classes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They graduate ARISE feeling like they’re familiar with college-level rigor,” Warren said. That familiarity can be especially important for first-generation college students. Rather than stepping into something entirely unfamiliar after high school, college becomes a continuation of a path they’ve already begun.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>A Classroom Where the Work Is Real\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At another phlebotomy training course in San Jose, students from Summit-Tahoma High School spend two weeks learning how to draw blood. When students go around to introduce themselves in a class that includes 14 high schoolers, many talk about an interest in pursuing medical care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_66455\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 252px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-66455\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/07/IMG_9937.jpeg\" alt=\"Woman smiling for portrait.\" width=\"252\" height=\"280\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tracy Lowe works at Bay Area Medical Academy, which trains the students in schools, including at ARISE Academy. (Courtesy of Tracy Lowe)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On the first day, instructor Tracy Lowe asks for a volunteer. She works for the \u003ca href=\"https://bamasf.edu/\">Bay Area Medical Academy\u003c/a>, which trains the students in schools, including at ARISE Academy. The rest of the students gather around as she demonstrates a blood draw, expertly tying a tourniquet, locating a vein, disinfecting the skin and inserting a needle into the student’s arm. Soon, the students will be doing the same thing themselves. One of their first in class assignments is to practice tying tourniquets on each others’ upper arms and they are instructed to practice tying the stretchy blue bands around their thighs as homework that evening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next two weeks they’ll learn how to identify veins, handle medical equipment, follow sterile procedures and perform blood draws under close supervision from clinical instructors. Unlike many academic classes, mistakes are expected. Only one student, a junior named Olivia, successfully completes a blood draw on her first day.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Why Exposure Matters\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For educators like Devonna Alatorre, who oversees CTE programs at Summit-Tahoma High School, the point is bigger than one certification. “My focus within it is basically connecting student learning with life beyond high school,” she said. “It gives students an opportunity to have a concrete entryway into healthcare,” Alatorre said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She doesn’t see college and career preparation as opposites. “We see them as connected and critical for all students as they make decisions around their life after high school.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Teenagers are often asked to make big postsecondary decisions with limited firsthand knowledge of different careers. CTE can change that. A student who enjoys working with patients may discover a pathway into nursing, medical assisting or laboratory work. Another may realize that blood, needles or clinical environments are not for them. “I know for sure I want to be a nurse,” said Olivia, the Summit-Tahoma student who made the successful blood draw. “I think this will help me get there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many educators argue that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/66081/young-employed-and-unhappy\">changing your mind can be just as valuable\u003c/a> as confirming a career goal. Research on career pathways suggests that students often carry forward skills, confidence and self-knowledge even when they ultimately choose a different field. Both outcomes are useful. Instead of guessing about the future, students gain evidence. “Our goal is to prepare them for life and not just focusing on one definition of success,” said Alatorre\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That may mean college for some students. For others, it may mean work, apprenticeships, certificates or a combination of all three over time. And in one classroom, it may mean something even more immediate: A high school student confidently saying, “Hi, my name’s Olivia. I’ll be your phlebotomist today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr />\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC3636485791\" 0=\"width="100%"/iframe\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> You’re listening to MindShift, where we explore the future of learning and how we raise our kids. I’m Nimah Gobir\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Our story begins in a classroom. But probably not the kind you’re used to. Definitely not the kind I’m used to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> In this high school classroom, there are desks with needles, tourniquets, and blood vials. 10 students from Summit Tahoma high school in San Jose gather around a table at the front of the room .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> Everyone’s here for phlebotomy. Like everyone’s here in the same place, everyone’s for the same reason. We’re all taking phlebotomy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Meaning drawing blood, And it is taught by Tracy Lowe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> It’s my job and my opportunity and it’s really my pleasure to be able to instruct this class for you. [00:19:08][5.2]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Here Tracy leans forward to tap the desk in front of her for emphasis\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> You guys are in a phlebotomy class, which means we are going to start phlebotomy today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Students look on for their first demonstration. Tracy will walk them through how to draw blood. She starts by making sure everything is exactly where she needs it.\u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: line-through\">\u003cbr />\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> We have these caddies here, and we supply you with the equipment that you’ll need for the day. [00:16:31][6.0]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> I take a peek into the caddy. It has a bunch of tubes with colored caps and alcohol wipes, and several capped needles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> All right. Um, can I draw someone’s blood?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> It’s the first day of a two week long course. But a brave soul raises his hand and walks to the front.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> All right, can he sit in your seat? and I’m going to show you guys so come on up come on up, gather around. I’m gonna show you guys the…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Tracy demonstrates the way she wants her students to start: warm, confident, and clear. She introduces herself, states her intention and asks for consent all in a matter of seconds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> Hi, my name’s Tracey. I’m here from the lab. Do you mind if I draw your blood? Yes. OK, cool. Which arm do you want to use?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> The volunteer says either arm is fine. And after Tracy takes a look at both arms she lays the right one on top of the sterile surface..\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> Alright. I’m going to get everything set up. I’m gonna get my gloves on. So sanitize my hands, get my glove on. I’m getting everything I need. We use alcohol wipes…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Tracy takes out an alcohol wipe, needle, tape with a little cotton ball stuck to it, and a tourniquet…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> The tourniquet goes on tight enough to restrict the venous access. It helps to plump the veins up. And a good tourniquet is gonna be your number one asset.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> She ties it snugly around his forearm. And tells students where the needle will go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> Typically we’re going to try and draw here in what’s called the antecubital region which is right here. Nimah Gobir: She points to an area on the inside of the elbow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> When you’re feeling for a vein. I want you not to be shy. You’ve got to mush your finger and we call it palpating, okay?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> She presses at the arm with gloved fingertips.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> So we’re going to palpate for the vein by pushing your finger in. Once you feel the vein, I want to you to commit to the entire area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> She finds what she’s looking for AND she starts tapping lightly\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> The veins should feel like you have like a water balloon and you’re tapping it. It’s gonna like spring back at you. It’s like bouncy and springy and spongy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe: \u003c/strong> I’m just going to take my wipe and wipe down. Throw that out. Alcohol and trash goes in there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Tracy picks up her needle, and the whole class seems to move in a bit to get a better look.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> I’m going to do this at a 30 degree angle and 30 degrees means I’m going to be able to go in like this and kind of arrive at where these fingers are touching on the patient’s skin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> When the needle first goes in nothing happens. That’s normal. Tracy adjusts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> You’re like oh my gosh what do I do I’ll tell you what you do you take your finger and you feel gently where’s the vein right there over there so what I need to do is come back just like that see how easy that was to it up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> She repositions the needle. All at once, the tube that was attached to the needle starts to fill up with dark red blood\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> I’m going to switch out my tube by putting a finger here to balance it, pull that off, and I put my second tube on there. [00:24:19][9.1]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> One of the students faints. They get her seated in a chair. She’s a little shaken, but okay. And this happens.The sight of blood can make people woozy. But it’s also a reminder: this is real.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> This isn’t a classroom where they talk about doing things — they actually do them. And starting on this first day they’ll begin drawing blood themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Angie Johnson: \u003c/strong>My name is Angela. You can call me Angie. You don’t have to call me instructor Angie. That’s a long title.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Angie is one of the clinical instructors that will work with students on their blood draws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Angie Johnson: \u003c/strong>I am an EMT. I’ve been an EMT since 2008. I decided to go back to phlebotomy school years ago to increase my value. To be an emergency room technician so then I took a phlebotomy. I did a phlebotomy then I became a phlebotomy lab instructor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> The class is still buzzing from what just happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Angie Johnson: \u003c/strong> Welcome to the real world of phlebotomy school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Angie Johnson:\u003c/strong> OK, so of course, now everybody’s like, OMG, right? It happens. Prime example, it can happen just like that when you’re working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Angie Johnson: \u003c/strong>Where are the tourniquets? Let’s go. Let’s practice those first because we can’t draw a thing without one. So everybody grab a blue tourniquet…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Each student grabs a stretchy blue tourniquet and watches Angie demonstrate how to tie it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Angie Johnson: Y\u003c/strong>ou bring it even enough, you grab with this hand, You pull, and you let go.. Yeah, I made that look really easy, right? I know. So everybody grab a partner…and let’s do that first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/strong>They pair up and practice tying tourniquets around each other’s arms.They know from watching Tracy that this small step makes everything else possible. We’ll check back in on their progress later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> In this phlebotomy course students are handling materials, practicing, and messing up. This all falls under what is called career and technical education – known as CTE.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney: \u003c/strong> CTE is a remarkably common feature of American high schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Thomas Torre Gibney works at west ed, a research organization. He studies career and technical education for high schoolers\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney:\u003c/strong> So CTE as an elective course can range from anything from intro to agricultural science, to intro to manufacturing, to more advanced coursework that might be applied in a specific program of study, like phlebotomy or networking in an information technology program of studies\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Most CTE programs are designed around specific industries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney:\u003c/strong> And the purpose of this programming is to expose students to relevant hands-on real world work in typically like an applied setting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> And in many cases—like this phlebotomy class—these programs are built directly into the school day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir\u003c/strong>: CTE itself has been changing. And lately, it’s been getting more attention\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney:\u003c/strong> So nowadays what we’re seeing is a real public debate around the value of higher education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney:\u003c/strong> Normal American families are asking hard questions about whether taking on the debt to attain a college degree is worth it in the long term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Especially as people become more scared of AI taking jobs.Research still shows that having a college degree pays off,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney:\u003c/strong> Students who have a college degree tend to outperform their peers in the labor market. They have higher lifetime average earnings compared to students who only have a high school diploma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> But CTE doesn’t have to be an alternative to college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney: \u003c/strong> CTE has historically suffered from a stigma. Historically we’ve seen that students who were considered to be quote-unquote not college material would disproportionately be routed into these programs in high school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> That history still shapes how people think about CTE today. And it’s something educators, researchers, and policymakers are actively trying to undo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> One way educators are trying to bridge that divide is through something called stackable credentials.These are certifications that build on one another\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney:\u003c/strong> So a lot of states are trying to think deeply about what do stackable credentials look like such that students could have on ramps and off ramps into their post-secondary study as it suits their life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Here’s what that can look like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney:\u003c/strong> Maybe a student concentrates in a carpentry program of study in high school and due to, you know, financial concerns they might opt to go directly into the labor market right out of high school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney:\u003c/strong> They need to earn money instead of taking on debt and going into higher education program. Well, the idea is that let’s say that student, you know, takes part in an apprenticeship, they get some certification that has value in the labor market. At a later time in their life they may decide to go back to school and go in a different direction or build on that credential and say, okay, you know, actually, I really want to be a general contractor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney:\u003c/strong> So I’d like to go on and get a bachelor’s degree in construction management, for example.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> In other words: a student meets the needs of their life in the moment. Goes to work, build experience and later return to school when it makes sense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Devonna Alatorre is in charge of Summit Tahoma High School’ s CTE programs—that’s where the students from the phlebotomy class go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devonna Alatorre\u003c/strong>: My focus is basically connecting student learning with life beyond high school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nimah Gobir: This is the school’s first year sending students off-campus for phlebotomy training.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devonna Alatorre: \u003c/strong>It gives students an opportunity to have like a concrete entryway into healthcare, which as we know is like a field with strong demand. It gives them a certification pathway and an opportunity to continue learning essentially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Devonna doesn’t see CTE and college as opposite pathways\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devonna Alatorre:\u003c/strong> Honestly, we see them as connected and critical for all students as they make decisions around their life after high school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> For some students, phlebotomy might be the job they stick with for their whole career. For others, it’s a first step.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devonna Alatorre:\u003c/strong> Something like Phlebotomy doesn’t close doors or narrow the pathway for them, it is opening up opportunities for them. And students are gaining context for what they’re studying, motivation for why academics matter, and sometimes even a clearer sense of purpose with these types of opportunities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> The goal isn’t necessarily to produce lifelong phlebotomists. It’s to send students forward with skills, habits, and a clearer sense of themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devonna Alatorre:\u003c/strong> And our goal is to prepare them for life and not just focusing on one definition of success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> We’re going to take a short break. And when we get back we’ll see what the students are up to\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> The blood draws might be the most dramatic part of this program, but there’s more to the job. To do phlebotomy, you also have to handle patients. Tracy the phlebotomy instructor talks to the students about that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> Every patient comes with a unique experience. Every patient comes a unique backstory. Every patient has a unique set of feelings about getting their blood drawn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> I will also say this. Most patients don’t love it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> She says that if you do phlebotomy you’ll be performing blood draws on people of a variety of ages, backgrounds and relationship to healthcare. And some of these people are getting their blood drawn because they want answers about their health. She writes some stats on the whiteboard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> 50 to 70% of all of the diagnosis, stems from the results of the blood draw, which is a huge amount of emphasis put on the results of the blood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> So even though we have quick interactions with the patient, it counts for a lot, like, it’s weighted very heavily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> You might remember how Tracy began the very first demonstration: by introducing herself and asking permission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> It really begins and ends with tell me your name, tell me you did a birth, let’s take a look at your arm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Even though it is quick and they might see 50 different people that day. Each patient needs to be treated like the most important person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> Every patient in front you has the need to have your exceptional and undivided attention on them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> That means professionalism. Students should wear their badges, pronounce names correctly and use the right gender pronouns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> The engagement that you have with the patient can really be the difference with them feeling like, hey, I felt seen this time, I heard this time. I felt like I was acknowledged as a person, as an individual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> You guys get to be the changing face of health care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> When I return towards the end of their two week program, students are more comfortable.They’ve been drawing each others blood for about 10 days. Some have small bruises called hematomas from early mistakes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> I’m amazed by how close they’ve become to each other. They’re teenagers, so their friend groups are still intact, but this class has brought them physically close in a different way: They know each other’s veins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> Alyssa’s arm is pretty good. Some hands are better, like Kai’s hands, I was able to get hers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Olivia is a 17 year old senior. She was actually able to have a successful draw on her first day, which is pretty rare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> We came in from lunch, she’s talking, she was like, okay, who’s ready to do blood draw? So I’m like, ooh. I did draw the first. I was the only student to draw on the day with Angie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> By now, she’s confident.So when I ask her if she’s comfortable drawing my blood. She gives me a little shrug and says okay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> Okay, you want to sit down?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> She treats me like a real patient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia\u003c/strong>: Hi, my name’s Olivia. I’ll be your phlebotomist today. Could I get blood?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Me:\u003c/strong> Yes, you may. Thank you. Thanks for asking. Of course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> Um, can I get your name and date of birth?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> I gave it. I’m a Saittarius\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> Do you, are you prone to fainting when getting blood drawn?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Me:\u003c/strong> No, fortunately not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> As she preps her station. she makes some small talk with me about my work—just like at my doctor’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> I’m just going to check your veins right now. I’m going to put the tourniquet on and then I’ll do some palpating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> She’s feeling for a bounce like they’re been taught.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> So you have a vein right here going upward. It’s decently long. So I’ll do this arm. I want you to put your, put your fist, and you’re going to put it underneath. So you can keep your arm nice and straight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> A small pinch tells me she’s put the needle in but I’m looking away trying to be as still as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> You okay?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> And …nothing happens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> I think it rolled, oddly enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> A rolled vein just means it moved—something that happens more often than you’d think.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> She calls over Angie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia: \u003c/strong>Angie?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia: \u003c/strong>I think she rolled. I don’t know if you can feel it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Angie Johnson:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>This is great. This is this is great for you because then you say, you know, I can’t get it. I’m sorry you’re vein rolled…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia: \u003c/strong>I’m sorry, your vein rolled over. Can I see your other arm?\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Take two. I roll up my other sleeve and position my arm on the table. When Oliva identifies the vein in this arms she lets me know that it looks a little smaller, but she’s going to give it a shot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia: \u003c/strong>There we go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Wow. Olivia! Okayyy!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> I watch my blood start to fill the tube—dark red, faster than I expect. After she tapes a cotton ball to my arm, she hands me my sealed tube of blood\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia: \u003c/strong>And then your blood is really warm. It’s really warm as soon as it comes out your body it’s really warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong>It’s so creepy.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> After taking this two week course students can decide to take a certification exam.Those who pass the exam and want to continue can return here for an externship. Which means they’ll come back to this facility to practice blood draws until they fulfill their requirement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Olivia plans to continue\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia: \u003c/strong>I’m quite enjoying the class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> For her, phlebotomy is part of her bigger career goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia: \u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>I decided to do this program because I know for sure I want be a nurse, so trying to work towards that. And I think this will help me get there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> This phlebotomy class has given students like Olivia confidence, skills, and momentum before they ever set foot in a college lecture hall. For other students, the takeaway is different. Some realize that blood, needles, and clinical settings aren’t for them. All of that is valuable information. changing your mind can be part of the point—students still leave with transferable skills and a clearer sense of what kinds of work fit them best.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The exposure lends itself to clarity. By the time they graduate high school, they won’t just be guessing about what fields they’re interested in pursuing. They’ll have evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">MindShift is supported in part by the generosity of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED. This episode was made possible by the Stuart Foundation\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "Why Hands-On Career Training and Academics Go Hand-in-Hand | KQED",
"description": "View the full episode transcript. At the end of the first semester at ARISE High School in Oakland, several teachers have bandages on their fingertips as part of their jobs. It’s not because of a sudden rise in paper cuts. It’s because students have started practicing finger pricks as part of a phlebotomy certification program and teachers are their willing clientele. “We're getting stuck on a weekly basis,” said John Warren, ARISE’s director of community learning and engagement. “We're literally offering up our blood to our students in order to give them practice.” Phlebotomy is the practice of drawing blood",
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"headline": "Why Hands-On Career Training and Academics Go Hand-in-Hand",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the end of the first semester at ARISE High School in Oakland, several teachers have bandages on their fingertips as part of their jobs. It’s not because of a sudden rise in paper cuts. It’s because students have started practicing finger pricks as part of a phlebotomy certification program and teachers are their willing clientele.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re getting stuck on a weekly basis,” said John Warren, ARISE’s director of community learning and engagement. “We’re literally offering up our blood to our students in order to give them practice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phlebotomy is the practice of drawing blood for medical testing, transfusions and other procedures. It requires technical skill, careful attention to safety and the ability to put anxious patients at ease. Once students pass their requirements, they can become certified phlebotomists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr />\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC3636485791\" 0=\"width="100%"/iframe\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phlebotomy is just one of several career-focused offerings at ARISE as part of its \u003ca href=\"https://www.ousd.org/high-school-linked-learning-office\">Linked Learning program\u003c/a>, California’s version of career and technical education, often called CTE.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the country, \u003ca href=\"https://www.chalkbeat.org/2025/10/03/will-students-benefit-with-career-technical-education-at-labor-department/\">schools are expanding career\u003c/a> and technical education. These programs connect academic learning to industries such as healthcare, construction, information technology and advanced manufacturing. For some students, they lead directly to jobs. For others, they provide confidence, direction and a clearer sense of what comes next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The goal ultimately is that students are asking far less often, ‘Why do I have to learn this?'” Warren said. “We’re making those connections so they understand how what they’re learning relates to what they might do in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_66457\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1170px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-66457\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/07/IMG_9943.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1170\" height=\"1030\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/07/IMG_9943.jpeg 1170w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/07/IMG_9943-160x141.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/07/IMG_9943-768x676.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Phlebotomy is the practice of drawing blood for medical testing, transfusions and other procedures. It requires technical skill, careful attention to safety and the ability to put anxious patients at ease. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Tracy Lowe)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>College or Career? Increasingly, Schools Say Both\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Career education has often been treated as secondary to college-preparatory academics. But that framing is changing as programs like agriculture or manufacturing courses lead to more advanced pathways like networking, engineering or healthcare training. “The purpose of this programming is to expose students to relevant hands-on real world work in an applied setting,” said Thomas Torre Gibney, a research scientist at WestEd who studies college and career readiness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That kind of real-world learning can help students understand why academic skills matter. Math, communication, biology, teamwork and professionalism stop feeling abstract when students can see how they are used in a workplace setting that may be part of their near future. In phlebotomy, for example, students learn that 50-70% of all medical diagnoses rely on the results of the blood draws, making the accuracy of a blood draw critically important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As college costs rise and families consider whether debt is worthwhile, \u003ca href=\"https://www.chalkbeat.org/2025/10/03/will-students-benefit-with-career-technical-education-at-labor-department/\">more attention has turned to alternatives\u003c/a> and complements to the traditional four-year route. While research still shows that a college degree pays off and leads to higher earnings compared to students who only have a high school diploma, researchers and educators increasingly say CTE does not need to be an either/or choice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s another camp out there,” Torre Gibney said, “that sees no distinction between post-secondary preparation and CTE programming.” In that model, “CTE is preparation for college and career with the emphasis on the ‘and.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students might earn an industry credential in high school, begin working, then return later for more education. Others may use early career experience to confirm they want to pursue a degree. This concept is often described as \u003ca href=\"https://octae.ed.gov/cte/initiatives/credentials\">stackable credentials\u003c/a>: education that can build over time instead of requiring one uninterrupted path.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rhode Island has emerged as one of the states experimenting with this model. The state has expanded career pathways in areas including aquaponics, green energy, aviation, pre-medicine and cosmetology, while maintaining college-preparatory requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“College is still our north star,” said Angélica Infante-Green, commissioner of the Rhode Island Department of Education at the \u003ca href=\"https://ewa.org/\">Education Writers Association\u003c/a> conference in June. The goal, she said, is to expand students’ options, not limit them. “We don’t want to send the message that one is more important than the other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At ARISE, students are required to take at least two dual-enrollment college courses alongside their career pathway classes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They graduate ARISE feeling like they’re familiar with college-level rigor,” Warren said. That familiarity can be especially important for first-generation college students. Rather than stepping into something entirely unfamiliar after high school, college becomes a continuation of a path they’ve already begun.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>A Classroom Where the Work Is Real\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At another phlebotomy training course in San Jose, students from Summit-Tahoma High School spend two weeks learning how to draw blood. When students go around to introduce themselves in a class that includes 14 high schoolers, many talk about an interest in pursuing medical care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_66455\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 252px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-66455\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2026/07/IMG_9937.jpeg\" alt=\"Woman smiling for portrait.\" width=\"252\" height=\"280\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tracy Lowe works at Bay Area Medical Academy, which trains the students in schools, including at ARISE Academy. (Courtesy of Tracy Lowe)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On the first day, instructor Tracy Lowe asks for a volunteer. She works for the \u003ca href=\"https://bamasf.edu/\">Bay Area Medical Academy\u003c/a>, which trains the students in schools, including at ARISE Academy. The rest of the students gather around as she demonstrates a blood draw, expertly tying a tourniquet, locating a vein, disinfecting the skin and inserting a needle into the student’s arm. Soon, the students will be doing the same thing themselves. One of their first in class assignments is to practice tying tourniquets on each others’ upper arms and they are instructed to practice tying the stretchy blue bands around their thighs as homework that evening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next two weeks they’ll learn how to identify veins, handle medical equipment, follow sterile procedures and perform blood draws under close supervision from clinical instructors. Unlike many academic classes, mistakes are expected. Only one student, a junior named Olivia, successfully completes a blood draw on her first day.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Why Exposure Matters\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For educators like Devonna Alatorre, who oversees CTE programs at Summit-Tahoma High School, the point is bigger than one certification. “My focus within it is basically connecting student learning with life beyond high school,” she said. “It gives students an opportunity to have a concrete entryway into healthcare,” Alatorre said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She doesn’t see college and career preparation as opposites. “We see them as connected and critical for all students as they make decisions around their life after high school.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Teenagers are often asked to make big postsecondary decisions with limited firsthand knowledge of different careers. CTE can change that. A student who enjoys working with patients may discover a pathway into nursing, medical assisting or laboratory work. Another may realize that blood, needles or clinical environments are not for them. “I know for sure I want to be a nurse,” said Olivia, the Summit-Tahoma student who made the successful blood draw. “I think this will help me get there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many educators argue that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/66081/young-employed-and-unhappy\">changing your mind can be just as valuable\u003c/a> as confirming a career goal. Research on career pathways suggests that students often carry forward skills, confidence and self-knowledge even when they ultimately choose a different field. Both outcomes are useful. Instead of guessing about the future, students gain evidence. “Our goal is to prepare them for life and not just focusing on one definition of success,” said Alatorre\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That may mean college for some students. For others, it may mean work, apprenticeships, certificates or a combination of all three over time. And in one classroom, it may mean something even more immediate: A high school student confidently saying, “Hi, my name’s Olivia. I’ll be your phlebotomist today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr />\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC3636485791\" 0=\"width="100%"/iframe\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> You’re listening to MindShift, where we explore the future of learning and how we raise our kids. I’m Nimah Gobir\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Our story begins in a classroom. But probably not the kind you’re used to. Definitely not the kind I’m used to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> In this high school classroom, there are desks with needles, tourniquets, and blood vials. 10 students from Summit Tahoma high school in San Jose gather around a table at the front of the room .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> Everyone’s here for phlebotomy. Like everyone’s here in the same place, everyone’s for the same reason. We’re all taking phlebotomy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Meaning drawing blood, And it is taught by Tracy Lowe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> It’s my job and my opportunity and it’s really my pleasure to be able to instruct this class for you. [00:19:08][5.2]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Here Tracy leans forward to tap the desk in front of her for emphasis\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> You guys are in a phlebotomy class, which means we are going to start phlebotomy today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Students look on for their first demonstration. Tracy will walk them through how to draw blood. She starts by making sure everything is exactly where she needs it.\u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: line-through\">\u003cbr />\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> We have these caddies here, and we supply you with the equipment that you’ll need for the day. [00:16:31][6.0]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> I take a peek into the caddy. It has a bunch of tubes with colored caps and alcohol wipes, and several capped needles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> All right. Um, can I draw someone’s blood?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> It’s the first day of a two week long course. But a brave soul raises his hand and walks to the front.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> All right, can he sit in your seat? and I’m going to show you guys so come on up come on up, gather around. I’m gonna show you guys the…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Tracy demonstrates the way she wants her students to start: warm, confident, and clear. She introduces herself, states her intention and asks for consent all in a matter of seconds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> Hi, my name’s Tracey. I’m here from the lab. Do you mind if I draw your blood? Yes. OK, cool. Which arm do you want to use?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> The volunteer says either arm is fine. And after Tracy takes a look at both arms she lays the right one on top of the sterile surface..\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> Alright. I’m going to get everything set up. I’m gonna get my gloves on. So sanitize my hands, get my glove on. I’m getting everything I need. We use alcohol wipes…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Tracy takes out an alcohol wipe, needle, tape with a little cotton ball stuck to it, and a tourniquet…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> The tourniquet goes on tight enough to restrict the venous access. It helps to plump the veins up. And a good tourniquet is gonna be your number one asset.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> She ties it snugly around his forearm. And tells students where the needle will go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> Typically we’re going to try and draw here in what’s called the antecubital region which is right here. Nimah Gobir: She points to an area on the inside of the elbow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> When you’re feeling for a vein. I want you not to be shy. You’ve got to mush your finger and we call it palpating, okay?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> She presses at the arm with gloved fingertips.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> So we’re going to palpate for the vein by pushing your finger in. Once you feel the vein, I want to you to commit to the entire area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> She finds what she’s looking for AND she starts tapping lightly\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> The veins should feel like you have like a water balloon and you’re tapping it. It’s gonna like spring back at you. It’s like bouncy and springy and spongy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe: \u003c/strong> I’m just going to take my wipe and wipe down. Throw that out. Alcohol and trash goes in there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Tracy picks up her needle, and the whole class seems to move in a bit to get a better look.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> I’m going to do this at a 30 degree angle and 30 degrees means I’m going to be able to go in like this and kind of arrive at where these fingers are touching on the patient’s skin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> When the needle first goes in nothing happens. That’s normal. Tracy adjusts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> You’re like oh my gosh what do I do I’ll tell you what you do you take your finger and you feel gently where’s the vein right there over there so what I need to do is come back just like that see how easy that was to it up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> She repositions the needle. All at once, the tube that was attached to the needle starts to fill up with dark red blood\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> I’m going to switch out my tube by putting a finger here to balance it, pull that off, and I put my second tube on there. [00:24:19][9.1]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> One of the students faints. They get her seated in a chair. She’s a little shaken, but okay. And this happens.The sight of blood can make people woozy. But it’s also a reminder: this is real.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> This isn’t a classroom where they talk about doing things — they actually do them. And starting on this first day they’ll begin drawing blood themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Angie Johnson: \u003c/strong>My name is Angela. You can call me Angie. You don’t have to call me instructor Angie. That’s a long title.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Angie is one of the clinical instructors that will work with students on their blood draws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Angie Johnson: \u003c/strong>I am an EMT. I’ve been an EMT since 2008. I decided to go back to phlebotomy school years ago to increase my value. To be an emergency room technician so then I took a phlebotomy. I did a phlebotomy then I became a phlebotomy lab instructor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> The class is still buzzing from what just happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Angie Johnson: \u003c/strong> Welcome to the real world of phlebotomy school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Angie Johnson:\u003c/strong> OK, so of course, now everybody’s like, OMG, right? It happens. Prime example, it can happen just like that when you’re working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Angie Johnson: \u003c/strong>Where are the tourniquets? Let’s go. Let’s practice those first because we can’t draw a thing without one. So everybody grab a blue tourniquet…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Each student grabs a stretchy blue tourniquet and watches Angie demonstrate how to tie it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Angie Johnson: Y\u003c/strong>ou bring it even enough, you grab with this hand, You pull, and you let go.. Yeah, I made that look really easy, right? I know. So everybody grab a partner…and let’s do that first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/strong>They pair up and practice tying tourniquets around each other’s arms.They know from watching Tracy that this small step makes everything else possible. We’ll check back in on their progress later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> In this phlebotomy course students are handling materials, practicing, and messing up. This all falls under what is called career and technical education – known as CTE.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney: \u003c/strong> CTE is a remarkably common feature of American high schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Thomas Torre Gibney works at west ed, a research organization. He studies career and technical education for high schoolers\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney:\u003c/strong> So CTE as an elective course can range from anything from intro to agricultural science, to intro to manufacturing, to more advanced coursework that might be applied in a specific program of study, like phlebotomy or networking in an information technology program of studies\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Most CTE programs are designed around specific industries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney:\u003c/strong> And the purpose of this programming is to expose students to relevant hands-on real world work in typically like an applied setting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> And in many cases—like this phlebotomy class—these programs are built directly into the school day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir\u003c/strong>: CTE itself has been changing. And lately, it’s been getting more attention\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney:\u003c/strong> So nowadays what we’re seeing is a real public debate around the value of higher education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney:\u003c/strong> Normal American families are asking hard questions about whether taking on the debt to attain a college degree is worth it in the long term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Especially as people become more scared of AI taking jobs.Research still shows that having a college degree pays off,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney:\u003c/strong> Students who have a college degree tend to outperform their peers in the labor market. They have higher lifetime average earnings compared to students who only have a high school diploma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> But CTE doesn’t have to be an alternative to college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney: \u003c/strong> CTE has historically suffered from a stigma. Historically we’ve seen that students who were considered to be quote-unquote not college material would disproportionately be routed into these programs in high school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> That history still shapes how people think about CTE today. And it’s something educators, researchers, and policymakers are actively trying to undo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> One way educators are trying to bridge that divide is through something called stackable credentials.These are certifications that build on one another\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney:\u003c/strong> So a lot of states are trying to think deeply about what do stackable credentials look like such that students could have on ramps and off ramps into their post-secondary study as it suits their life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Here’s what that can look like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney:\u003c/strong> Maybe a student concentrates in a carpentry program of study in high school and due to, you know, financial concerns they might opt to go directly into the labor market right out of high school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney:\u003c/strong> They need to earn money instead of taking on debt and going into higher education program. Well, the idea is that let’s say that student, you know, takes part in an apprenticeship, they get some certification that has value in the labor market. At a later time in their life they may decide to go back to school and go in a different direction or build on that credential and say, okay, you know, actually, I really want to be a general contractor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Torre Gibney:\u003c/strong> So I’d like to go on and get a bachelor’s degree in construction management, for example.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> In other words: a student meets the needs of their life in the moment. Goes to work, build experience and later return to school when it makes sense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Devonna Alatorre is in charge of Summit Tahoma High School’ s CTE programs—that’s where the students from the phlebotomy class go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devonna Alatorre\u003c/strong>: My focus is basically connecting student learning with life beyond high school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nimah Gobir: This is the school’s first year sending students off-campus for phlebotomy training.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devonna Alatorre: \u003c/strong>It gives students an opportunity to have like a concrete entryway into healthcare, which as we know is like a field with strong demand. It gives them a certification pathway and an opportunity to continue learning essentially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Devonna doesn’t see CTE and college as opposite pathways\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devonna Alatorre:\u003c/strong> Honestly, we see them as connected and critical for all students as they make decisions around their life after high school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> For some students, phlebotomy might be the job they stick with for their whole career. For others, it’s a first step.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devonna Alatorre:\u003c/strong> Something like Phlebotomy doesn’t close doors or narrow the pathway for them, it is opening up opportunities for them. And students are gaining context for what they’re studying, motivation for why academics matter, and sometimes even a clearer sense of purpose with these types of opportunities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> The goal isn’t necessarily to produce lifelong phlebotomists. It’s to send students forward with skills, habits, and a clearer sense of themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Devonna Alatorre:\u003c/strong> And our goal is to prepare them for life and not just focusing on one definition of success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> We’re going to take a short break. And when we get back we’ll see what the students are up to\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> The blood draws might be the most dramatic part of this program, but there’s more to the job. To do phlebotomy, you also have to handle patients. Tracy the phlebotomy instructor talks to the students about that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> Every patient comes with a unique experience. Every patient comes a unique backstory. Every patient has a unique set of feelings about getting their blood drawn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> I will also say this. Most patients don’t love it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> She says that if you do phlebotomy you’ll be performing blood draws on people of a variety of ages, backgrounds and relationship to healthcare. And some of these people are getting their blood drawn because they want answers about their health. She writes some stats on the whiteboard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> 50 to 70% of all of the diagnosis, stems from the results of the blood draw, which is a huge amount of emphasis put on the results of the blood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> So even though we have quick interactions with the patient, it counts for a lot, like, it’s weighted very heavily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> You might remember how Tracy began the very first demonstration: by introducing herself and asking permission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> It really begins and ends with tell me your name, tell me you did a birth, let’s take a look at your arm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Even though it is quick and they might see 50 different people that day. Each patient needs to be treated like the most important person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> Every patient in front you has the need to have your exceptional and undivided attention on them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> That means professionalism. Students should wear their badges, pronounce names correctly and use the right gender pronouns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> The engagement that you have with the patient can really be the difference with them feeling like, hey, I felt seen this time, I heard this time. I felt like I was acknowledged as a person, as an individual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tracy Lowe:\u003c/strong> You guys get to be the changing face of health care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> When I return towards the end of their two week program, students are more comfortable.They’ve been drawing each others blood for about 10 days. Some have small bruises called hematomas from early mistakes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> I’m amazed by how close they’ve become to each other. They’re teenagers, so their friend groups are still intact, but this class has brought them physically close in a different way: They know each other’s veins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> Alyssa’s arm is pretty good. Some hands are better, like Kai’s hands, I was able to get hers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Olivia is a 17 year old senior. She was actually able to have a successful draw on her first day, which is pretty rare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> We came in from lunch, she’s talking, she was like, okay, who’s ready to do blood draw? So I’m like, ooh. I did draw the first. I was the only student to draw on the day with Angie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> By now, she’s confident.So when I ask her if she’s comfortable drawing my blood. She gives me a little shrug and says okay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> Okay, you want to sit down?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> She treats me like a real patient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia\u003c/strong>: Hi, my name’s Olivia. I’ll be your phlebotomist today. Could I get blood?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Me:\u003c/strong> Yes, you may. Thank you. Thanks for asking. Of course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> Um, can I get your name and date of birth?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> I gave it. I’m a Saittarius\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> Do you, are you prone to fainting when getting blood drawn?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Me:\u003c/strong> No, fortunately not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> As she preps her station. she makes some small talk with me about my work—just like at my doctor’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> I’m just going to check your veins right now. I’m going to put the tourniquet on and then I’ll do some palpating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> She’s feeling for a bounce like they’re been taught.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> So you have a vein right here going upward. It’s decently long. So I’ll do this arm. I want you to put your, put your fist, and you’re going to put it underneath. So you can keep your arm nice and straight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> A small pinch tells me she’s put the needle in but I’m looking away trying to be as still as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> You okay?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> And …nothing happens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> I think it rolled, oddly enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> A rolled vein just means it moved—something that happens more often than you’d think.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> She calls over Angie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia: \u003c/strong>Angie?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia: \u003c/strong>I think she rolled. I don’t know if you can feel it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Angie Johnson:\u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>This is great. This is this is great for you because then you say, you know, I can’t get it. I’m sorry you’re vein rolled…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia: \u003c/strong>I’m sorry, your vein rolled over. Can I see your other arm?\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Take two. I roll up my other sleeve and position my arm on the table. When Oliva identifies the vein in this arms she lets me know that it looks a little smaller, but she’s going to give it a shot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia: \u003c/strong>There we go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Wow. Olivia! Okayyy!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> I watch my blood start to fill the tube—dark red, faster than I expect. After she tapes a cotton ball to my arm, she hands me my sealed tube of blood\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia: \u003c/strong>And then your blood is really warm. It’s really warm as soon as it comes out your body it’s really warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong>It’s so creepy.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> After taking this two week course students can decide to take a certification exam.Those who pass the exam and want to continue can return here for an externship. Which means they’ll come back to this facility to practice blood draws until they fulfill their requirement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> Olivia plans to continue\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia: \u003c/strong>I’m quite enjoying the class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> For her, phlebotomy is part of her bigger career goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia: \u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>I decided to do this program because I know for sure I want be a nurse, so trying to work towards that. And I think this will help me get there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/strong> This phlebotomy class has given students like Olivia confidence, skills, and momentum before they ever set foot in a college lecture hall. For other students, the takeaway is different. Some realize that blood, needles, and clinical settings aren’t for them. All of that is valuable information. changing your mind can be part of the point—students still leave with transferable skills and a clearer sense of what kinds of work fit them best.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The exposure lends itself to clarity. By the time they graduate high school, they won’t just be guessing about what fields they’re interested in pursuing. They’ll have evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">MindShift is supported in part by the generosity of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED. This episode was made possible by the Stuart Foundation\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>"
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"slug": "the-trojan-teddy-bear-the-promise-and-peril-of-childhood-in-the-age-of-ai",
"title": "'The Trojan Teddy Bear': The Promise and Peril of Childhood in the Age of AI",
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"headTitle": "‘The Trojan Teddy Bear’: The Promise and Peril of Childhood in the Age of AI | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Back in 2001, Steven Spielberg released an underrated scifi movie named \u003cem>A.I. Artificial Intelligence\u003c/em> (yes, the title is a bit redundant). The movie, which loosely borrows from \u003cem>Pinocchio\u003c/em>, tells the story of a family who adopts a robotic boy programmed for love, and that robot’s heartbreaking quest to become a real boy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the technology in \u003cem>A.I.\u003c/em> remains elusive. We’re probably not anywhere close to building androids that can convincingly pass as Haley Joel Osment — or Jude Law, for that matter. But some of the AI products imagined in the movie are starting to look surprisingly plausible. Take Teddy, an animatronic teddy bear. Teddy can walk, talk, make decisions, and respond to the needs and emotions of people around him. He’s more than just a toy. He’s an intelligent companion and protector for children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, a slew of technology companies are developing AI companions that sort of resemble Teddy. The most intelligent AI chatbots still live on digital screens, but a wave of startups is giving them bodies — creating dolls, action figures, and robots that can serve as companions for kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What happens when kids grow up with AI?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>AI is already a part of childhood. Recommendation algorithms curate what many kids watch and listen to. Chatbots stand ready to answer questions like, “Are monsters real?” or “Why is the sky blue?” They can help with homework, tell bedtime stories, or even feel like a friend. And companies are racing to embed AI into toys, nurseries, classrooms, and eventually robots that live alongside families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a new book, \u003ca href=\"https://humanraised.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Human Raised: Nurturing Connection, Curiosity & Lifelong Learning in the Age of AI\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, author Dana Suskind grapples with what the rising tide of artificial intelligence means for raising kids. On the one hand, she acknowledges that the technology offers promise as, for example, a productivity enhancer and time saver for parents, a monitoring and research tool that can give parents and scientists valuable data on child development, and an interactive tutor that might help some kids learn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Suskind worries about what happens if AI begins replacing the kinds of human interactions that young brains evolved to learn from.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, Suskind says, her original, working title for the book was, “The Trojan Teddy Bear,” a warning that AI companions may seem cute and cuddly — but they carry hidden risks for child development. She ultimately went with \u003cem>Human Raised\u003c/em> because she wanted to emphasize the positive — and irreplaceable — role that parents, teachers, and caregivers play in molding young ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we want children to be able to continue to connect with each other and with other human beings, to be able to think critically, to be able to navigate the human world, we’re gonna need to make sure that kids have a distinctly human-raised early childhood,” Suskind says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suskind is a professor of surgery and pediatrics at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she directs a program aimed at giving kids hearing with cochlear implants. After she began doing this incredible work — literally helping children hear — she noticed that some kids who had the procedure went on to understand spoken language and talk with relative ease, while others had a much harder time. Hearing alone wasn’t enough. And that led her to dive into neuroscience and social science to understand why.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The brain development of young kids, Suskind learned, is heavily influenced by the back-and-forth interactions they have with their parents and caregivers during the first several years of their life. And she grew concerned that there is a big population of kids who aren’t getting the enriching communication their brains need. And so she founded \u003ca href=\"https://cri.uchicago.edu/portfolio/thirty-million-words/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the TMW Initiative,\u003c/a> a research center that helps parents create the kinds of brain-enriching environments that children need to reach their full potential. (You can read more about Suskind’s biography and previous work in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2022/05/17/1098524454/the-case-for-revolutionizing-child-care-in-america\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a\u003cem> Planet Money\u003c/em> newsletter from 2022)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Why Dana Suskind is sounding the alarm\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>With the explosion of AI, Suskind has grown alarmed by a rush to introduce an unprecedented technology into kids’ lives without careful reflection and rigorous scientific study about its effects on young minds. She is especially concerned about AI companions and other systems that interact socially with children, which she fears many people will use to substitute for the human interactions that children need most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the dawn of civilization, humans have used technology to make raising children a little easier. In \u003cem>Human Raised\u003c/em>, Suskind traces that history back to prehistoric times, when mothers used woven slings to carry infants while they worked. Over the centuries, new technologies — like television and tablets — have eased the burdens of caregiving or helped keep children occupied. Many of these technologies have also been greeted with fears that they would rot kids’ brains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Suskind argues AI may mark a fundamental shift. Interacting with a chatbot or intelligent teddy bear is more than just a kid glued to a television or an iPad watching Sesame Street or Paw Patrol. AI systems carry on conversations that can feel strikingly human. They respond to kids’ questions, emotions, and fears. They create a kind of synthetic social relationship — one that, Suskind argues, may shape developing minds in ways that, until recently, only humans could.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suskind cites the research of renowned University of Washington developmental psychologist Patricia K. Kuhl. Kuhl proposed what’s known as the “social gate” hypothesis — the idea that children’s brains are biologically primed to learn through social interaction. Studies have shown, for example, that babies learn language much better from a live person than from a screen. Neuroscientists and psychologists suggest that’s because social interactions engage the brain in ways passive media does not. The sing-song way adults naturally speak to babies, smiles and other facial expressions, gentle touch, eye contact, and back-and-forth exchanges all appear to help open that social gate and facilitate learning and healthy brain development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While artificial intelligence is no match for human educators and caregivers, Suskind argues, it is capable of opening the social gate in young children in ways that previous technologies could not. That makes AI a potentially extraordinary educational tool — but also a potentially dangerous one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2400x1700+0+0/resize/1200/quality/75/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fdd%2F5d%2Fdb82bca1461ab00fc032e5d5a054%2Fgettyimages-2006327337.jpg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Companies design AI systems with their own goals, which could include maximizing your kids’ engagement, keeping their attention, collecting data, and making money. They don’t have the same priorities as parents. And while those systems may imitate human interaction, Suskind argues they cannot recreate everything that makes human relationships developmentally valuable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Eye contact, shared laughter, patient answers to ‘why’ questions activate ancient neural circuits designed for connection,” Suskind writes. “These exchanges provide a form of nourishment no algorithm, however sophisticated, can match.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Human relationships are also messy and filled with emotions. Parents misunderstand their children. Kids get frustrated. Families argue, reconnect, and then smooth things over. Suskind argues that those imperfect interactions — and “the productive struggle” they create — are how children learn resilience, emotional regulation, flexibility, and how to navigate real relationships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike most humans, AI systems can be endlessly engaging, infinitely patient, and relentlessly affirming. Interactions with them often feel frictionless. Suskind worries giving young kids considerable exposure to them may make them less prepared for the messy, unpredictable nature of real human relationships.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>AI as junk food for the young mind\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Suskind compares AI relationships to ultra-processed food. “ If all you eat is fruit snacks, which is a synthetic version of fruit, when you actually eat the real fruit, you’re gonna be like, “Hmm, it’s not quite as sweet,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AI could eventually be programmed to try and mimic real parents and caregivers even more closely. But Suskind argues that the problem isn’t simply that today’s AI falls short of human relationships. It’s that AI represents a fundamentally new kind of social experience for children — one that already raises concerns based on what we know about child development and whose long-term effects remain deeply uncertain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suskind uses an analogy from the 19th century, when a German chemist named Justus von Liebig created one of the first infant formulas, hoping to replicate the nourishment of human milk. But when a French physician tested the formula on four newborns, \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37435903/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">all of them died within days\u003c/a>, and the episode sparked a fierce controversy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lesson, Suskind suggests, is that we should be cautious about engineering substitutes for something as biologically, emotionally, and socially complex as human caregiving before we understand how those substitutes shape children’s development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given so much uncertainty about this rapidly evolving technology and its potential effects on kids, Suskind spends a lot of the book offering parents a practical guide for safely navigating child-rearing in the age of AI. She emphasizes that it’s especially important to shield kids from AI during their first years of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Older children and adults encounter AI with already-built neural scaffolding, but young children are still wiring the very circuits that shape future learning and relationships,” she writes. “Introducing AI during this sensitive period presents a fundamentally different challenge with greater potential for harm.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suskind is open to the idea of using AI to enhance education for some kids — but only as a tool that enhances, rather than replaces, humans. She argues that human caregivers are the best way to cultivate what she calls “the Human Edge,” a set of social, emotional, and cognitive skills like “critical thinking, interpersonal connection, genuine creativity, empathy, and resilience.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, like time-crunched parents who rely on screens to buy themselves some time today, there may be growing temptations to outsource parts of child-rearing to AI, especially considering the fact that childcare is incredibly expensive. Suskind worries that, over time, a fully human-raised childhood could become a kind of luxury good — much the way fresh, healthy food often is today. Families with the time and resources would provide rich human interaction to their kids. Everyone else might increasingly rely on cheaper, more convenient AI substitutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And children raised largely by AI might not only lag socially, emotionally, and cognitively, but, ironically, they could also be less prepared for an AI-driven economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suskind points to \u003ca href=\"https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57967bc7cd0f68048126361d/t/69dbbeb4bd54b97b00d8dec3/1776008884067/Technical+Note+Structural+Change.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a recent essay\u003c/a> by the University of Chicago economist Alex Imas. Imas argues that as AI automates more cognitive work, human jobs may be increasingly concentrated in what he calls “the relational sector” — occupations where humans are valued for qualities that make them distinctly human, from education to health care to hospitality, the arts, and therapy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that’s true, then the traits children develop through a human-raised childhood won’t just matter for their social lives. They may also become an economic advantage. In a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, the most valuable skills may be the ones that are the most deeply human.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "AI is moving beyond chatbots and into toys, dolls, and robots built to befriend children. A leading child-development expert says the technology offers real promise — but also risks crowding out the human relationships children need most.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Back in 2001, Steven Spielberg released an underrated scifi movie named \u003cem>A.I. Artificial Intelligence\u003c/em> (yes, the title is a bit redundant). The movie, which loosely borrows from \u003cem>Pinocchio\u003c/em>, tells the story of a family who adopts a robotic boy programmed for love, and that robot’s heartbreaking quest to become a real boy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the technology in \u003cem>A.I.\u003c/em> remains elusive. We’re probably not anywhere close to building androids that can convincingly pass as Haley Joel Osment — or Jude Law, for that matter. But some of the AI products imagined in the movie are starting to look surprisingly plausible. Take Teddy, an animatronic teddy bear. Teddy can walk, talk, make decisions, and respond to the needs and emotions of people around him. He’s more than just a toy. He’s an intelligent companion and protector for children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, a slew of technology companies are developing AI companions that sort of resemble Teddy. The most intelligent AI chatbots still live on digital screens, but a wave of startups is giving them bodies — creating dolls, action figures, and robots that can serve as companions for kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What happens when kids grow up with AI?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>AI is already a part of childhood. Recommendation algorithms curate what many kids watch and listen to. Chatbots stand ready to answer questions like, “Are monsters real?” or “Why is the sky blue?” They can help with homework, tell bedtime stories, or even feel like a friend. And companies are racing to embed AI into toys, nurseries, classrooms, and eventually robots that live alongside families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a new book, \u003ca href=\"https://humanraised.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>Human Raised: Nurturing Connection, Curiosity & Lifelong Learning in the Age of AI\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, author Dana Suskind grapples with what the rising tide of artificial intelligence means for raising kids. On the one hand, she acknowledges that the technology offers promise as, for example, a productivity enhancer and time saver for parents, a monitoring and research tool that can give parents and scientists valuable data on child development, and an interactive tutor that might help some kids learn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Suskind worries about what happens if AI begins replacing the kinds of human interactions that young brains evolved to learn from.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, Suskind says, her original, working title for the book was, “The Trojan Teddy Bear,” a warning that AI companions may seem cute and cuddly — but they carry hidden risks for child development. She ultimately went with \u003cem>Human Raised\u003c/em> because she wanted to emphasize the positive — and irreplaceable — role that parents, teachers, and caregivers play in molding young ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we want children to be able to continue to connect with each other and with other human beings, to be able to think critically, to be able to navigate the human world, we’re gonna need to make sure that kids have a distinctly human-raised early childhood,” Suskind says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suskind is a professor of surgery and pediatrics at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she directs a program aimed at giving kids hearing with cochlear implants. After she began doing this incredible work — literally helping children hear — she noticed that some kids who had the procedure went on to understand spoken language and talk with relative ease, while others had a much harder time. Hearing alone wasn’t enough. And that led her to dive into neuroscience and social science to understand why.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The brain development of young kids, Suskind learned, is heavily influenced by the back-and-forth interactions they have with their parents and caregivers during the first several years of their life. And she grew concerned that there is a big population of kids who aren’t getting the enriching communication their brains need. And so she founded \u003ca href=\"https://cri.uchicago.edu/portfolio/thirty-million-words/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the TMW Initiative,\u003c/a> a research center that helps parents create the kinds of brain-enriching environments that children need to reach their full potential. (You can read more about Suskind’s biography and previous work in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2022/05/17/1098524454/the-case-for-revolutionizing-child-care-in-america\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a\u003cem> Planet Money\u003c/em> newsletter from 2022)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Why Dana Suskind is sounding the alarm\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>With the explosion of AI, Suskind has grown alarmed by a rush to introduce an unprecedented technology into kids’ lives without careful reflection and rigorous scientific study about its effects on young minds. She is especially concerned about AI companions and other systems that interact socially with children, which she fears many people will use to substitute for the human interactions that children need most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the dawn of civilization, humans have used technology to make raising children a little easier. In \u003cem>Human Raised\u003c/em>, Suskind traces that history back to prehistoric times, when mothers used woven slings to carry infants while they worked. Over the centuries, new technologies — like television and tablets — have eased the burdens of caregiving or helped keep children occupied. Many of these technologies have also been greeted with fears that they would rot kids’ brains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Suskind argues AI may mark a fundamental shift. Interacting with a chatbot or intelligent teddy bear is more than just a kid glued to a television or an iPad watching Sesame Street or Paw Patrol. AI systems carry on conversations that can feel strikingly human. They respond to kids’ questions, emotions, and fears. They create a kind of synthetic social relationship — one that, Suskind argues, may shape developing minds in ways that, until recently, only humans could.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suskind cites the research of renowned University of Washington developmental psychologist Patricia K. Kuhl. Kuhl proposed what’s known as the “social gate” hypothesis — the idea that children’s brains are biologically primed to learn through social interaction. Studies have shown, for example, that babies learn language much better from a live person than from a screen. Neuroscientists and psychologists suggest that’s because social interactions engage the brain in ways passive media does not. The sing-song way adults naturally speak to babies, smiles and other facial expressions, gentle touch, eye contact, and back-and-forth exchanges all appear to help open that social gate and facilitate learning and healthy brain development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While artificial intelligence is no match for human educators and caregivers, Suskind argues, it is capable of opening the social gate in young children in ways that previous technologies could not. That makes AI a potentially extraordinary educational tool — but also a potentially dangerous one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2400x1700+0+0/resize/1200/quality/75/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fdd%2F5d%2Fdb82bca1461ab00fc032e5d5a054%2Fgettyimages-2006327337.jpg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Companies design AI systems with their own goals, which could include maximizing your kids’ engagement, keeping their attention, collecting data, and making money. They don’t have the same priorities as parents. And while those systems may imitate human interaction, Suskind argues they cannot recreate everything that makes human relationships developmentally valuable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Eye contact, shared laughter, patient answers to ‘why’ questions activate ancient neural circuits designed for connection,” Suskind writes. “These exchanges provide a form of nourishment no algorithm, however sophisticated, can match.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Human relationships are also messy and filled with emotions. Parents misunderstand their children. Kids get frustrated. Families argue, reconnect, and then smooth things over. Suskind argues that those imperfect interactions — and “the productive struggle” they create — are how children learn resilience, emotional regulation, flexibility, and how to navigate real relationships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike most humans, AI systems can be endlessly engaging, infinitely patient, and relentlessly affirming. Interactions with them often feel frictionless. Suskind worries giving young kids considerable exposure to them may make them less prepared for the messy, unpredictable nature of real human relationships.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>AI as junk food for the young mind\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Suskind compares AI relationships to ultra-processed food. “ If all you eat is fruit snacks, which is a synthetic version of fruit, when you actually eat the real fruit, you’re gonna be like, “Hmm, it’s not quite as sweet,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AI could eventually be programmed to try and mimic real parents and caregivers even more closely. But Suskind argues that the problem isn’t simply that today’s AI falls short of human relationships. It’s that AI represents a fundamentally new kind of social experience for children — one that already raises concerns based on what we know about child development and whose long-term effects remain deeply uncertain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suskind uses an analogy from the 19th century, when a German chemist named Justus von Liebig created one of the first infant formulas, hoping to replicate the nourishment of human milk. But when a French physician tested the formula on four newborns, \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37435903/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">all of them died within days\u003c/a>, and the episode sparked a fierce controversy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lesson, Suskind suggests, is that we should be cautious about engineering substitutes for something as biologically, emotionally, and socially complex as human caregiving before we understand how those substitutes shape children’s development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given so much uncertainty about this rapidly evolving technology and its potential effects on kids, Suskind spends a lot of the book offering parents a practical guide for safely navigating child-rearing in the age of AI. She emphasizes that it’s especially important to shield kids from AI during their first years of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Older children and adults encounter AI with already-built neural scaffolding, but young children are still wiring the very circuits that shape future learning and relationships,” she writes. “Introducing AI during this sensitive period presents a fundamentally different challenge with greater potential for harm.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suskind is open to the idea of using AI to enhance education for some kids — but only as a tool that enhances, rather than replaces, humans. She argues that human caregivers are the best way to cultivate what she calls “the Human Edge,” a set of social, emotional, and cognitive skills like “critical thinking, interpersonal connection, genuine creativity, empathy, and resilience.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, like time-crunched parents who rely on screens to buy themselves some time today, there may be growing temptations to outsource parts of child-rearing to AI, especially considering the fact that childcare is incredibly expensive. Suskind worries that, over time, a fully human-raised childhood could become a kind of luxury good — much the way fresh, healthy food often is today. Families with the time and resources would provide rich human interaction to their kids. Everyone else might increasingly rely on cheaper, more convenient AI substitutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And children raised largely by AI might not only lag socially, emotionally, and cognitively, but, ironically, they could also be less prepared for an AI-driven economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suskind points to \u003ca href=\"https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57967bc7cd0f68048126361d/t/69dbbeb4bd54b97b00d8dec3/1776008884067/Technical+Note+Structural+Change.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a recent essay\u003c/a> by the University of Chicago economist Alex Imas. Imas argues that as AI automates more cognitive work, human jobs may be increasingly concentrated in what he calls “the relational sector” — occupations where humans are valued for qualities that make them distinctly human, from education to health care to hospitality, the arts, and therapy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that’s true, then the traits children develop through a human-raised childhood won’t just matter for their social lives. They may also become an economic advantage. In a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, the most valuable skills may be the ones that are the most deeply human.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "9-things-to-know-about-the-big-private-school-voucher-plan-in-republicans-tax-bill",
"title": "9 Things to Know About the Big, Private-school Voucher Plan in Republicans' Tax Bill",
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"headTitle": "9 Things to Know About the Big, Private-school Voucher Plan in Republicans’ Tax Bill | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>House Republicans’ reconciliation bill, which includes a first-of-its-kind national school voucher program, is \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/05/21/nx-s1-5406392/trump-republicans-tax-bill-reconciliation-medicaid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>now heading to the Senate\u003c/u>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal would \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/05/14/nx-s1-5397945/private-school-vouchers-choice-reconciliation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>use the federal tax code to offer vouchers\u003c/u>\u003c/a> that students could use to attend private secular or religious schools, even in states where voters have opposed such efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NPR interviewed researchers, advocates (for and against), tax experts, a mother who relies on vouchers and a public school leader who feels threatened by them – a dozen sources in all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what they say about this federal plan, including the potential risks and benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>1. How vouchers, and this federal plan, work\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>What \u003cem>is\u003c/em> a voucher?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it funds private school tuition, it’s a voucher,” says Josh Cowen, a professor at Michigan State University who, after studying vouchers for more than two decades, publicly \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-after-two-decades-of-studying-voucher-programs-im-now-firmly-opposed-to-them/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>opposes them\u003c/u>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This federal proposal would reward people who make charitable donations to what are known as Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs). Their reward: a dollar-for-dollar tax credit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s about three times as generous as what you’re gonna get from donating to a children’s hospital or a veteran’s group or any other cause,” says Carl Davis at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “It really preferences voucher groups over every other kind of charity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The SGO would then distribute the donated money in the form of scholarships for students to use on a range of expenses, including private school tuition, books and homeschooling costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill would cap the tax credit at $5 billion dollars in each of the next four years, through 2029.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complex plan uses the tax code and SGOs because in smaller, older programs, most voucher students attend religious schools, for which federal law prohibits direct government funding. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/06/30/883074890/supreme-court-montana-cant-exclude-religious-schools-from-scholarship-program\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>Supreme Court appears open\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, however, to this kind of indirect funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Direct or indirect, these are tax dollars the government is choosing to forego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the reward for donors doesn’t stop at the dollar-for-dollar tax credit. Instead of cash, they could donate stock. Normally, when you sell stock, you have to pay capital gains taxes on any profit you’ve made. But Davis says donors who give their stock to an SGO wouldn’t have to pay capital gains taxes on any increase in the stock’s value. And they would still get that tax credit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between the tax credit and this capital gains tax avoidance, \u003ca href=\"https://itep.org/educational-choice-for-children-act-tax-avoidance-private-school-vouchers/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>Davis writes\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, “contributors would generally find that ‘donating’ would yield a personal profit for themselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Davis estimates, as the bill is currently written, it would facilitate $2.2 billion in capital gains tax avoidance over the next decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why Hilary Wething, an economist at the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute, calls this voucher plan \u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>a tax shelter to the wealthy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>2. Why families choose vouchers\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Michelle Salazar, who lives in central Florida, says she used a Florida-based voucher to enroll her young son in a private school because he just wasn’t getting the care he needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While in a public charter school, she says her then-first-grader could be fidgety and distracting, and his teacher’s solution was to separate him from the other children, who sat together at tables, and to put him at a desk, which was covered in black material and placed in a corner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was crazy,” Salazar says. “They just didn’t know how to deal with him. He struggled. He fell behind in reading.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In second grade, when Salazar’s son was diagnosed with dyslexia, in addition to ADHD, she says she made a change. She used a state-provided voucher (Florida has been a leader in the voucher movement) and enrolled him in a new, Christian school for children with special needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her son is now 12, and Salazar says, “He loves it there, and the teachers all love him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salazar, a single parent, says she wouldn’t be able to afford the school’s annual $15,000 tuition if not for the nearly $10,000 state-funded voucher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her story illustrates just one of the reasons some families support vouchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It used to be that, when you asked parents, they would say the academic quality of the private schools, teacher quality of the private school, the educational program, those kinds of things,” says Patrick Wolf, a voucher researcher at the University of Arkansas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Wolf says, other priorities, including a fear of bullying, top the list of reasons why parents might choose to use a voucher to enroll their child in a private school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Parents are] concerned that their child is bullied,” says Robert Enlow, whose pro-voucher group, EdChoice, surveys families. “They’re concerned that their child is in a safe environment or that they’re too anxious and stressed… and that’s why they’re choosing private schools.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>3. Private schools can turn students away, public schools can’t\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Not all students are well-served by vouchers, including many students with disabilities. Unlike public schools, private schools can generally choose who they admit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A private school can absolutely say you’re not a good fit for this school. Bottom line, period,” says Jacqueline Rodriguez, CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Private schools are not bound by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which requires public schools to provide students with disabilities a free, appropriate public education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill itself includes one convoluted sentence that suggests some protection for students with disabilities. But, as written, it would not require a private school to admit a student with a disability, nor is it clear what, if any, government entity would enforce the protections the bill hints at, especially since \u003ca href=\"https://rules.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/rules.house.gov/files/documents/bill-to-bill_bills-119pih_to_rcp_119-3_final.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>the bill also prohibits\u003c/u>\u003c/a> any “government entity… to mandate, direct, or control any aspect of any private or religious elementary or secondary education institution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is why Rodriguez says any promise to parents guaranteeing students will enjoy the same rights and protections in private schools “is disingenuous at best and crooked at worst.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curtis Finch runs the Deer Valley Unified School District in Phoenix, and he says many parents of students with disabilities have been enticed by his state’s generous voucher program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“\u003c/em>The pattern that usually happens,” Finch says, “is a family hears that there’s a special school for Johnny… so they end up getting this voucher, and then they take it over to that [private] school.” Finch pauses. “We usually get those kids back.”\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Often, private schools lack the resources, expertise and trained staff to serve children with complex disabilities and, when these schools realize a student might exceed either their expertise or their budget, they can reject the child or, later, shift them back to the public schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it’s not just students with disabilities. Many state-based voucher programs don’t require that private schools accept any or all applicants. Schools can reject a student for lots of reasons, including poor grades or a previous record of misbehavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research suggests, even when disadvantaged children are admitted to private schools using vouchers, \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0002831211424313\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>many end up back in public schools\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, either because they choose to return or \u003ca href=\"https://edworkingpapers.com/ai22-635\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>because private schools can send them back\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, a phenomenon known as “pushout.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finch says many of the voucher schools in his district cherry-pick students. He says they have a\u003cem> “\u003c/em>segregation mentality, of, ‘We don’t want your kid. He’s too special needs. He has too much discipline [issues], doesn’t have academic prowess for our school.’ You know, fill in the blank.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Enlow at EdChoice says private schools must be able to choose the students they admit and retain, to safeguard their own unique school cultures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not every single school serves every single child, nor should it,” Enlow says. “We’ve found that out in our traditional school system, that it’s impossible to have a one-size-fits-all system. And so I don’t think we want to force that kind of system on the non-public schools.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this kind of system, Josh Cowen of Michigan State says, it’s voucher schools, not parents, who get to choose.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>4. The federal voucher would not be limited to low-income families\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Many of the earliest, smaller voucher programs \u003ca href=\"https://scohio.org/2025/05/09/where-it-all-started-the-story-of-the-cleveland-scholarship-program/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>were billed\u003c/u>\u003c/a> as engines of social mobility and thus \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/05/19/527429292/the-nations-oldest-voucher-program-beacon-of-hope-or-failed-experiment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>made available\u003c/u>\u003c/a> only to lower-income children, often from low-quality public schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ultimately, every child, especially from lower-income families, should have access to the school of their choice, and this legislation is the only way to make that happen,” Tommy Schultz, CEO of the pro-voucher American Federation for Children, said in a statement celebrating the current federal voucher proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this federal proposal would not be limited to lower-income students. Far from it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under Republicans’ plan, vouchers would be available to households earning at or below 300% of a given area’s median gross income. So, in an area of the country where the median gross income is $75,000, any child in a household earning less than $225,000 could qualify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a very generous income threshold” that would allow “most families” in the U.S. to qualify, says Wolf at the University of Arkansas.\u003cstrong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>By \u003ca href=\"https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/the-educational-choice-for-children-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>one estimate\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, 85-90% of students would qualify. That’s fine by Robert Enlow at EdChoice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says, “People tend to go crazy about the idea of, we’re going to fund millionaires’ kids,” but Enlow argues that’s already happening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public schools are funded largely through state and local dollars, and wealthier school districts can and often do spend considerably more on their students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We seem to be fine with giving millionaires’ kids $15,000 to go to traditional public schools in income-segregated communities,” Enlow concludes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal money covers \u003ca href=\"https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-18-154\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>only between 6 and 13%\u003c/u>\u003c/a> of public school budgets, though, and is largely targeted to help lower-income students and children with disabilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>5. Vouchers often go to students who are already enrolled in private schools\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“The vast majority of voucher users were \u003cem>already\u003c/em> in private school to begin with,” says Cowen of Michigan State. “And that’s been true for 18 years of data.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is a common phenomenon in the research: When a voucher program becomes universal, or near-universal, many of the families who first use it were already paying for private schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, after Oklahoma enacted its recent voucher program, \u003ca href=\"https://oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/tax/documents/resources/reports/pctc/PCTC_Report_5022025.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>state data revealed\u003c/u>\u003c/a> fewer than 10% of applicants were public school students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/05/12/520111511/the-promise-and-peril-of-school-vouchers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>2017 NPR investigation found\u003c/u>\u003c/a> Indiana’s voucher program was spending public dollars on thousands of students who had never attended a public school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the case of the federal proposal, “these are wealthy families who already made the choice to attend a private school,” says Wething of the Economic Policy Institute, “and now we’re just subsidizing their choice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>6. When states offer vouchers, private schools often raise prices\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jennifer Jennings, a professor of sociology and public policy at Princeton University, wanted to find out what happened to private school prices in Iowa after the state began offering vouchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She \u003ca href=\"https://edworkingpapers.com/ai24-949\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>found that\u003c/u>\u003c/a> for kindergarten, where voucher eligibility was universal, private schools increased their tuition in the program’s first year by 21-25%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In later grades, where eligibility wasn’t universal, prices still rose 10-16%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we teach in microeconomics is that if you offer a universal subsidy, you should expect prices to increase,” says Jennings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her finding echoed a 2016 study, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047272716000426?via%3Dihub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>found tuition hikes\u003c/u>\u003c/a> in large voucher programs across five states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/arizona-gave-families-public-money-for-private-schools-then-private-schools-raised-tuition/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>similar fears have surfaced\u003c/u>\u003c/a> around Arizona’s voucher program.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>7. Vouchers don’t improve student test scores\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Now we get into a really contentious part of the vouchers debate: Do students do better academically, on average, when they leave a public school and go to a private school?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early days, when voucher programs were small and targeted at lower-income students in low-rated public schools, researchers did find some modestly promising results.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s true that in the ’90s and in the early 2000s, when I first started working on this as a young data analyst, you did see a handful of voucher systems marginally improving academic performance,” says Cowen, who opposes vouchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, Cowen says, as states rolled out larger, less-targeted programs, the benefits faded and in places like \u003ca href=\"https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20160634\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>Louisiana\u003c/u>\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pam.22086\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>Indiana\u003c/u>\u003c/a> students lost ground when they went to a voucher school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You see some of the largest academic declines we’ve ever seen in a policy setting,” Cowen says, on the same scale as learning loss from COVID-19 or Hurricane Katrina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike Cowen, Wolf, at the University of Arkansas, supports private-school choice efforts because, he says, the bulk of the research backs their effectiveness. He also points out that the troubled Louisiana program is being wound down and replaced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Figlio, a voucher researcher at the University of Rochester in New York, sums up their effectiveness this way: “The best studies find zero to negative impacts on test scores among participants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why? Cowen suggests, in states with broadly-accessible voucher programs, the private schools that tend to have open slots are either low quality or new and untested. Or both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wolf has another theory:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Private schools just don’t emphasize goosing test scores as much as public schools do. Public schools have to, because they’re held accountable for test score levels,” says Wolf.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One \u003ca href=\"https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/ZVUCNGR8AD7WMMAIJNGY/full?target=10.1080/09243453.2021.1906283\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>analysis from Wolf and his team\u003c/u>\u003c/a> found that students who persist in their voucher programs may ultimately make up some of the ground they initially lost and even pull ahead.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>8. Voucher students may be more likely to attend and complete college\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In spite of those test score drops, the evidence suggests voucher students may be more likely to \u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pam.21691\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>graduate high school\u003c/u>\u003c/a> and even college than if they had stayed in their public school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Urban Institute recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.urban.org/research/publication/effects-ohios-edchoice-voucher-program-college-enrollment-and-graduation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>published a study\u003c/u>\u003c/a> of an early voucher program in Ohio that had been targeted to students in low-rated schools. With many years having passed since the voucher students were in school, the researchers were able to see that they “were substantially more likely to enroll in college than students who remained in public schools (64 versus 48 percent)” and were more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree (23 versus 15%).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those findings come with a caveat, says David Figlio, who co-authored the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“\u003c/em>This program was a highly targeted program that bears little resemblance to the statewide, universal vouchers that are being rolled out today. Therefore you need to take these results with a grain of salt.\u003cem>“\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>9. Multiple studies of voucher programs show public schools improving too\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Or, as Robert Enlow of EdChoice puts it: “When there’s a competitive environment, public schools are getting better and getting better faster.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wolf agrees: “The studies are consistent in finding that the public schools improve their performance when they face competition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How \u003cem>much\u003c/em> do they improve? Wolf calls the benefits “modest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Figlio, who has studied smaller, targeted voucher programs in Florida and Ohio, says their positive impact on the public schools “moved the needle a little bit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To Cowen, “the results are tiny.” So small, he argues, the benefit “is not an argument for parent choice. That’s an argument for what we need to do to improve public schools.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sasha Pudelski of The School Superintendents Association (AASA) says focusing on these small, competitive improvements ignores the financial strain vouchers put on public schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Districts are going to lose a few kids in each school potentially and it’s not going to seem like that much,” says Pudelski, “but it’s going to result in service disruptions, teachers and educators being laid off. It’s going to lead to fewer programs that people really care about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked what his message would be to the rest of the country, based on his experience with vouchers in Arizona, public school superintendent Curtis Finch doesn’t hesitate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a Trojan horse,” he says. “It looks good on the outside, and once you open your gates and let them in, the end is destruction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Voucher supporters don’t dispute this proposal would take students and, ultimately, funding from public schools. They argue, it’s time for families to have more control over children’s schooling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Giving parents the ability to choose the best education for their child makes the [American] Dream possible,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said in a statement. Cassidy helped lead the federal voucher effort in the Senate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to an \u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/leadership/private-school-enrollment-is-on-the-rise-whats-going-on/2024/07#:~:text=See%20Also&text=In%202022%2C%20the%20most%20recent,school%20students%20was%2010.6%20percent.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>analysis of 2022 Census data\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, nearly 12% of K-12 students in the U.S. attend private schools, while the overwhelming majority, 84%, attend traditional public or charter schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Republicans’ plan to pour some $20 billion into vouchers is an attempt to shift that balance.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>House Republicans’ reconciliation bill, which includes a first-of-its-kind national school voucher program, is \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/05/21/nx-s1-5406392/trump-republicans-tax-bill-reconciliation-medicaid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>now heading to the Senate\u003c/u>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal would \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/05/14/nx-s1-5397945/private-school-vouchers-choice-reconciliation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>use the federal tax code to offer vouchers\u003c/u>\u003c/a> that students could use to attend private secular or religious schools, even in states where voters have opposed such efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NPR interviewed researchers, advocates (for and against), tax experts, a mother who relies on vouchers and a public school leader who feels threatened by them – a dozen sources in all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what they say about this federal plan, including the potential risks and benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>1. How vouchers, and this federal plan, work\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>What \u003cem>is\u003c/em> a voucher?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it funds private school tuition, it’s a voucher,” says Josh Cowen, a professor at Michigan State University who, after studying vouchers for more than two decades, publicly \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-after-two-decades-of-studying-voucher-programs-im-now-firmly-opposed-to-them/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>opposes them\u003c/u>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This federal proposal would reward people who make charitable donations to what are known as Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs). Their reward: a dollar-for-dollar tax credit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s about three times as generous as what you’re gonna get from donating to a children’s hospital or a veteran’s group or any other cause,” says Carl Davis at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “It really preferences voucher groups over every other kind of charity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The SGO would then distribute the donated money in the form of scholarships for students to use on a range of expenses, including private school tuition, books and homeschooling costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill would cap the tax credit at $5 billion dollars in each of the next four years, through 2029.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complex plan uses the tax code and SGOs because in smaller, older programs, most voucher students attend religious schools, for which federal law prohibits direct government funding. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/06/30/883074890/supreme-court-montana-cant-exclude-religious-schools-from-scholarship-program\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>Supreme Court appears open\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, however, to this kind of indirect funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Direct or indirect, these are tax dollars the government is choosing to forego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the reward for donors doesn’t stop at the dollar-for-dollar tax credit. Instead of cash, they could donate stock. Normally, when you sell stock, you have to pay capital gains taxes on any profit you’ve made. But Davis says donors who give their stock to an SGO wouldn’t have to pay capital gains taxes on any increase in the stock’s value. And they would still get that tax credit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between the tax credit and this capital gains tax avoidance, \u003ca href=\"https://itep.org/educational-choice-for-children-act-tax-avoidance-private-school-vouchers/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>Davis writes\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, “contributors would generally find that ‘donating’ would yield a personal profit for themselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Davis estimates, as the bill is currently written, it would facilitate $2.2 billion in capital gains tax avoidance over the next decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why Hilary Wething, an economist at the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute, calls this voucher plan \u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>a tax shelter to the wealthy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>2. Why families choose vouchers\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Michelle Salazar, who lives in central Florida, says she used a Florida-based voucher to enroll her young son in a private school because he just wasn’t getting the care he needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While in a public charter school, she says her then-first-grader could be fidgety and distracting, and his teacher’s solution was to separate him from the other children, who sat together at tables, and to put him at a desk, which was covered in black material and placed in a corner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was crazy,” Salazar says. “They just didn’t know how to deal with him. He struggled. He fell behind in reading.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In second grade, when Salazar’s son was diagnosed with dyslexia, in addition to ADHD, she says she made a change. She used a state-provided voucher (Florida has been a leader in the voucher movement) and enrolled him in a new, Christian school for children with special needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her son is now 12, and Salazar says, “He loves it there, and the teachers all love him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Salazar, a single parent, says she wouldn’t be able to afford the school’s annual $15,000 tuition if not for the nearly $10,000 state-funded voucher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her story illustrates just one of the reasons some families support vouchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It used to be that, when you asked parents, they would say the academic quality of the private schools, teacher quality of the private school, the educational program, those kinds of things,” says Patrick Wolf, a voucher researcher at the University of Arkansas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Wolf says, other priorities, including a fear of bullying, top the list of reasons why parents might choose to use a voucher to enroll their child in a private school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Parents are] concerned that their child is bullied,” says Robert Enlow, whose pro-voucher group, EdChoice, surveys families. “They’re concerned that their child is in a safe environment or that they’re too anxious and stressed… and that’s why they’re choosing private schools.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>3. Private schools can turn students away, public schools can’t\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Not all students are well-served by vouchers, including many students with disabilities. Unlike public schools, private schools can generally choose who they admit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A private school can absolutely say you’re not a good fit for this school. Bottom line, period,” says Jacqueline Rodriguez, CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Private schools are not bound by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which requires public schools to provide students with disabilities a free, appropriate public education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill itself includes one convoluted sentence that suggests some protection for students with disabilities. But, as written, it would not require a private school to admit a student with a disability, nor is it clear what, if any, government entity would enforce the protections the bill hints at, especially since \u003ca href=\"https://rules.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/rules.house.gov/files/documents/bill-to-bill_bills-119pih_to_rcp_119-3_final.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>the bill also prohibits\u003c/u>\u003c/a> any “government entity… to mandate, direct, or control any aspect of any private or religious elementary or secondary education institution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is why Rodriguez says any promise to parents guaranteeing students will enjoy the same rights and protections in private schools “is disingenuous at best and crooked at worst.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curtis Finch runs the Deer Valley Unified School District in Phoenix, and he says many parents of students with disabilities have been enticed by his state’s generous voucher program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“\u003c/em>The pattern that usually happens,” Finch says, “is a family hears that there’s a special school for Johnny… so they end up getting this voucher, and then they take it over to that [private] school.” Finch pauses. “We usually get those kids back.”\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Often, private schools lack the resources, expertise and trained staff to serve children with complex disabilities and, when these schools realize a student might exceed either their expertise or their budget, they can reject the child or, later, shift them back to the public schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it’s not just students with disabilities. Many state-based voucher programs don’t require that private schools accept any or all applicants. Schools can reject a student for lots of reasons, including poor grades or a previous record of misbehavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research suggests, even when disadvantaged children are admitted to private schools using vouchers, \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0002831211424313\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>many end up back in public schools\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, either because they choose to return or \u003ca href=\"https://edworkingpapers.com/ai22-635\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>because private schools can send them back\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, a phenomenon known as “pushout.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finch says many of the voucher schools in his district cherry-pick students. He says they have a\u003cem> “\u003c/em>segregation mentality, of, ‘We don’t want your kid. He’s too special needs. He has too much discipline [issues], doesn’t have academic prowess for our school.’ You know, fill in the blank.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Enlow at EdChoice says private schools must be able to choose the students they admit and retain, to safeguard their own unique school cultures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not every single school serves every single child, nor should it,” Enlow says. “We’ve found that out in our traditional school system, that it’s impossible to have a one-size-fits-all system. And so I don’t think we want to force that kind of system on the non-public schools.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this kind of system, Josh Cowen of Michigan State says, it’s voucher schools, not parents, who get to choose.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>4. The federal voucher would not be limited to low-income families\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Many of the earliest, smaller voucher programs \u003ca href=\"https://scohio.org/2025/05/09/where-it-all-started-the-story-of-the-cleveland-scholarship-program/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>were billed\u003c/u>\u003c/a> as engines of social mobility and thus \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/05/19/527429292/the-nations-oldest-voucher-program-beacon-of-hope-or-failed-experiment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>made available\u003c/u>\u003c/a> only to lower-income children, often from low-quality public schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ultimately, every child, especially from lower-income families, should have access to the school of their choice, and this legislation is the only way to make that happen,” Tommy Schultz, CEO of the pro-voucher American Federation for Children, said in a statement celebrating the current federal voucher proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this federal proposal would not be limited to lower-income students. Far from it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under Republicans’ plan, vouchers would be available to households earning at or below 300% of a given area’s median gross income. So, in an area of the country where the median gross income is $75,000, any child in a household earning less than $225,000 could qualify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a very generous income threshold” that would allow “most families” in the U.S. to qualify, says Wolf at the University of Arkansas.\u003cstrong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>By \u003ca href=\"https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/the-educational-choice-for-children-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>one estimate\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, 85-90% of students would qualify. That’s fine by Robert Enlow at EdChoice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says, “People tend to go crazy about the idea of, we’re going to fund millionaires’ kids,” but Enlow argues that’s already happening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public schools are funded largely through state and local dollars, and wealthier school districts can and often do spend considerably more on their students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We seem to be fine with giving millionaires’ kids $15,000 to go to traditional public schools in income-segregated communities,” Enlow concludes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal money covers \u003ca href=\"https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-18-154\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>only between 6 and 13%\u003c/u>\u003c/a> of public school budgets, though, and is largely targeted to help lower-income students and children with disabilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>5. Vouchers often go to students who are already enrolled in private schools\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“The vast majority of voucher users were \u003cem>already\u003c/em> in private school to begin with,” says Cowen of Michigan State. “And that’s been true for 18 years of data.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is a common phenomenon in the research: When a voucher program becomes universal, or near-universal, many of the families who first use it were already paying for private schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, after Oklahoma enacted its recent voucher program, \u003ca href=\"https://oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/tax/documents/resources/reports/pctc/PCTC_Report_5022025.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>state data revealed\u003c/u>\u003c/a> fewer than 10% of applicants were public school students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/05/12/520111511/the-promise-and-peril-of-school-vouchers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>2017 NPR investigation found\u003c/u>\u003c/a> Indiana’s voucher program was spending public dollars on thousands of students who had never attended a public school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the case of the federal proposal, “these are wealthy families who already made the choice to attend a private school,” says Wething of the Economic Policy Institute, “and now we’re just subsidizing their choice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>6. When states offer vouchers, private schools often raise prices\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jennifer Jennings, a professor of sociology and public policy at Princeton University, wanted to find out what happened to private school prices in Iowa after the state began offering vouchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She \u003ca href=\"https://edworkingpapers.com/ai24-949\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>found that\u003c/u>\u003c/a> for kindergarten, where voucher eligibility was universal, private schools increased their tuition in the program’s first year by 21-25%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In later grades, where eligibility wasn’t universal, prices still rose 10-16%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we teach in microeconomics is that if you offer a universal subsidy, you should expect prices to increase,” says Jennings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her finding echoed a 2016 study, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047272716000426?via%3Dihub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>found tuition hikes\u003c/u>\u003c/a> in large voucher programs across five states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/arizona-gave-families-public-money-for-private-schools-then-private-schools-raised-tuition/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>similar fears have surfaced\u003c/u>\u003c/a> around Arizona’s voucher program.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>7. Vouchers don’t improve student test scores\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Now we get into a really contentious part of the vouchers debate: Do students do better academically, on average, when they leave a public school and go to a private school?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early days, when voucher programs were small and targeted at lower-income students in low-rated public schools, researchers did find some modestly promising results.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s true that in the ’90s and in the early 2000s, when I first started working on this as a young data analyst, you did see a handful of voucher systems marginally improving academic performance,” says Cowen, who opposes vouchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, Cowen says, as states rolled out larger, less-targeted programs, the benefits faded and in places like \u003ca href=\"https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20160634\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>Louisiana\u003c/u>\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pam.22086\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>Indiana\u003c/u>\u003c/a> students lost ground when they went to a voucher school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You see some of the largest academic declines we’ve ever seen in a policy setting,” Cowen says, on the same scale as learning loss from COVID-19 or Hurricane Katrina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike Cowen, Wolf, at the University of Arkansas, supports private-school choice efforts because, he says, the bulk of the research backs their effectiveness. He also points out that the troubled Louisiana program is being wound down and replaced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Figlio, a voucher researcher at the University of Rochester in New York, sums up their effectiveness this way: “The best studies find zero to negative impacts on test scores among participants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why? Cowen suggests, in states with broadly-accessible voucher programs, the private schools that tend to have open slots are either low quality or new and untested. Or both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wolf has another theory:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Private schools just don’t emphasize goosing test scores as much as public schools do. Public schools have to, because they’re held accountable for test score levels,” says Wolf.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One \u003ca href=\"https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/ZVUCNGR8AD7WMMAIJNGY/full?target=10.1080/09243453.2021.1906283\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>analysis from Wolf and his team\u003c/u>\u003c/a> found that students who persist in their voucher programs may ultimately make up some of the ground they initially lost and even pull ahead.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>8. Voucher students may be more likely to attend and complete college\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In spite of those test score drops, the evidence suggests voucher students may be more likely to \u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pam.21691\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>graduate high school\u003c/u>\u003c/a> and even college than if they had stayed in their public school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Urban Institute recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.urban.org/research/publication/effects-ohios-edchoice-voucher-program-college-enrollment-and-graduation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>published a study\u003c/u>\u003c/a> of an early voucher program in Ohio that had been targeted to students in low-rated schools. With many years having passed since the voucher students were in school, the researchers were able to see that they “were substantially more likely to enroll in college than students who remained in public schools (64 versus 48 percent)” and were more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree (23 versus 15%).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those findings come with a caveat, says David Figlio, who co-authored the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“\u003c/em>This program was a highly targeted program that bears little resemblance to the statewide, universal vouchers that are being rolled out today. Therefore you need to take these results with a grain of salt.\u003cem>“\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>9. Multiple studies of voucher programs show public schools improving too\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Or, as Robert Enlow of EdChoice puts it: “When there’s a competitive environment, public schools are getting better and getting better faster.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wolf agrees: “The studies are consistent in finding that the public schools improve their performance when they face competition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How \u003cem>much\u003c/em> do they improve? Wolf calls the benefits “modest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Figlio, who has studied smaller, targeted voucher programs in Florida and Ohio, says their positive impact on the public schools “moved the needle a little bit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To Cowen, “the results are tiny.” So small, he argues, the benefit “is not an argument for parent choice. That’s an argument for what we need to do to improve public schools.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sasha Pudelski of The School Superintendents Association (AASA) says focusing on these small, competitive improvements ignores the financial strain vouchers put on public schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Districts are going to lose a few kids in each school potentially and it’s not going to seem like that much,” says Pudelski, “but it’s going to result in service disruptions, teachers and educators being laid off. It’s going to lead to fewer programs that people really care about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked what his message would be to the rest of the country, based on his experience with vouchers in Arizona, public school superintendent Curtis Finch doesn’t hesitate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a Trojan horse,” he says. “It looks good on the outside, and once you open your gates and let them in, the end is destruction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Voucher supporters don’t dispute this proposal would take students and, ultimately, funding from public schools. They argue, it’s time for families to have more control over children’s schooling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Giving parents the ability to choose the best education for their child makes the [American] Dream possible,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said in a statement. Cassidy helped lead the federal voucher effort in the Senate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to an \u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/leadership/private-school-enrollment-is-on-the-rise-whats-going-on/2024/07#:~:text=See%20Also&text=In%202022%2C%20the%20most%20recent,school%20students%20was%2010.6%20percent.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cu>analysis of 2022 Census data\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, nearly 12% of K-12 students in the U.S. attend private schools, while the overwhelming majority, 84%, attend traditional public or charter schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Republicans’ plan to pour some $20 billion into vouchers is an attempt to shift that balance.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>After a five-year hiatus, the U.S. Department of Education says it will begin resuming collections of defaulted student loans on May 5.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed npr-promo-card insettwocolumn\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Of the more than 42.7 million student loan borrowers in the U.S., who owe a collective $1.6 trillion, the department says that more than 5 million have not made a payment in the past year. That number is expected to grow as an additional 4 million borrowers are approaching default status.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“American taxpayers will no longer be forced to serve as collateral for irresponsible student loan policies,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department said it will begin notifying borrowers who are in default via email over the next two weeks, urging them to make a payment or to enroll in a repayment plan, and referring them to a \u003ca href=\"https://myeddebt.ed.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">government website\u003c/a> providing information on how to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, on May 5, the department will begin referring borrowers who remain in default to a collections program run by the Treasury Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This could not have come at a worst time for millions of Americans,” said Aissa Canchola Bañez, Policy Director for the Student Borrower Protection Center, a nonprofit group that aims to reduce student debt. Those borrowers, she added, “are already finding themselves having to navigate such incredible economic uncertainty over the last few months.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also points to the fact that older borrowers tend to face the greatest struggles in repaying their loans: nearly 40 percent of federal borrowers over the age of 65 were in default on their student loans, according to \u003ca href=\"https://article.images.consumerreports.org/prod/content/dam/consumerist/2017/01/201701_cfpb_oa-student-loan-snapshot.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a 2017 report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau\u003c/a>. “These are older folks who are on fixed incomes,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When borrowers fall behind, Bañez added, their credit scores can take a hit, making it harder to qualify for more credit and other loans for things like housing and other basic needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Education Department said in its notice that, later this summer, it will begin the process of garnishing wages—meaning payments would be automatically deducted from borrowers’ paychecks.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The Education Department says millions of borrowers in default will have a chance to make a payment or sign up for a repayment plan. But on May 5, those who don't will be referred for collection.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>After a five-year hiatus, the U.S. Department of Education says it will begin resuming collections of defaulted student loans on May 5.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed npr-promo-card insettwocolumn\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Of the more than 42.7 million student loan borrowers in the U.S., who owe a collective $1.6 trillion, the department says that more than 5 million have not made a payment in the past year. That number is expected to grow as an additional 4 million borrowers are approaching default status.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“American taxpayers will no longer be forced to serve as collateral for irresponsible student loan policies,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department said it will begin notifying borrowers who are in default via email over the next two weeks, urging them to make a payment or to enroll in a repayment plan, and referring them to a \u003ca href=\"https://myeddebt.ed.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">government website\u003c/a> providing information on how to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, on May 5, the department will begin referring borrowers who remain in default to a collections program run by the Treasury Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This could not have come at a worst time for millions of Americans,” said Aissa Canchola Bañez, Policy Director for the Student Borrower Protection Center, a nonprofit group that aims to reduce student debt. Those borrowers, she added, “are already finding themselves having to navigate such incredible economic uncertainty over the last few months.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also points to the fact that older borrowers tend to face the greatest struggles in repaying their loans: nearly 40 percent of federal borrowers over the age of 65 were in default on their student loans, according to \u003ca href=\"https://article.images.consumerreports.org/prod/content/dam/consumerist/2017/01/201701_cfpb_oa-student-loan-snapshot.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a 2017 report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau\u003c/a>. “These are older folks who are on fixed incomes,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When borrowers fall behind, Bañez added, their credit scores can take a hit, making it harder to qualify for more credit and other loans for things like housing and other basic needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Education Department said in its notice that, later this summer, it will begin the process of garnishing wages—meaning payments would be automatically deducted from borrowers’ paychecks.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Emma Bittner considered getting a master’s degree in public health at a university near her home in Austin, Texas. But the in-person program cost tens of thousands of dollars more than she had hoped to spend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So she checked out master’s degrees she could pursue remotely, on her laptop, which she was sure would be much cheaper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The price for the same degree online was … just as much. Or more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m, like, what makes this worth it?” said Bittner, 25. “Why does it cost that much if I don’t get meetings face-to-face with the professor or have the experience in person?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the surprising answers is that colleges and universities are using online higher education to subsidize everything else they do, a survey of the people who manage these programs finds. And some schools are spending significant amounts on marketing and advertising for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The result is that 83% of online programs in higher education \u003ca href=\"https://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/research-docs-pdfs/QM-Eduventures-EDUCAUSE-CHLOE%209-Report-2024.pdf#page=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cost students as much as or more than\u003c/a> the in-person versions, according to an annual survey of college online-learning officers. The survey was conducted by Eduventures, an arm of the higher education consulting company Encoura, for the nonprofits Quality Matters and Educause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About a quarter of universities and colleges even tack on an additional “distance learning” fee, the survey found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Universities and colleges “see online higher education as an opportunity to make money and use it for whatever they want to make money for,” said Kevin Carey, vice president of education and work at the left-leaning think tank New America.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Widespread confusion about costs\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Bittner’s confusion about the price is widespread. Eighty percent of Americans think online learning after high school \u003ca href=\"https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/reports/varying-degrees-2024/explore-the-data\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">should cost less\u003c/a> than in-person programs, according to a 2024 survey of 1,705 adults by New America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After all, technology has reduced prices in many other industries. And online courses don’t require classrooms or other physical facilities and can theoretically be taught to a much larger number of students, creating economies of scale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, in addition to using online revenue to help pay for other things, universities say they have had to spend more than they anticipated on advising and support for online students, whose academic performance, on average, lags behind their in-person counterparts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The concerns about cost come as online higher education is projected to pass an impressive if little-noticed milestone this year: For the first time, \u003ca href=\"https://www.encoura.org/resources/wake-up-call/higher-ed-predictions-for-2025-part-1-an-online-milestone-and-trouble-ahead-for-the-us-department-of-education/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more American college students will be learning entirely online\u003c/a> than will be learning 100% in person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s according to an estimate made in January by Richard Garrett, Eduventures’ chief research officer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the reasons: Learning online offers scheduling flexibility for people also juggling jobs and families. It’s being particularly pushed for professional certificates and graduate degrees. And the online sector got a boost from the COVID-19 pandemic, when just about everyone was forced to learn remotely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, more institutions seeing the revenue potential are scrambling to get in on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How much an online degree can cost\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Bringing down the price of a degree “was certainly a key part of the appeal” when online higher education began, Garrett said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Online was going to be disruptive,” he added. “It was supposed to widen access. And it would reduce the price. But it hasn’t played out that way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, online instruction for in-state students at four-year public universities \u003ca href=\"https://educationdata.org/cost-of-online-education-vs-traditional-education\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">costs, on average, $341 a credit\u003c/a>, the independent Education Data Initiative finds. That’s higher than the average $325 a credit for face-to-face tuition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This adds up to about $41,000 for a degree online, compared with about $39,000 in tuition for a degree obtained in person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two-thirds of private four-year universities and colleges with online programs \u003ca href=\"https://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/research-docs-pdfs/QM-Eduventures-EDUCAUSE-CHLOE%209-Report-2024.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">charge more for them\u003c/a> than for their face-to-face classes, according to the survey of online managers. For private universities and colleges, the average tuition for online learning comes to \u003ca href=\"https://educationdata.org/cost-of-online-education-vs-traditional-education\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$516 per credit\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Community colleges collectively \u003ca href=\"https://www.encoura.org/resources/wake-up-call/community-colleges-gaining-ground-in-online-education-what-it-means-for-universities/?mcparam=00Q0z00001TfeTCEAZ&utm_source=marketing-cloud&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WUC+2024-10-08+Community+Colleges+Gaining+Ground+in+Online+Education+What+It+Means+for+Universities&utm_id=749338\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">enroll the largest number\u003c/a> of students who learn entirely online. The Eduventures survey found that all the community colleges surveyed charge those students the same as or more than their in-person counterparts. That’s likely because community college tuition overall is already comparatively low, Garrett explains.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Startup costs and technological hurdles\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Social media is riddled with angry comments about this, with many students echoing Bittner’s questions about how learning online could possibly cost more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Online education officers respond that their programs face steep startup costs and need expensive technology specialists and infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a separate survey of faculty members by the consulting firm Ithaka S+R, 80% said it took them \u003ca href=\"https://sr.ithaka.org/publications/faculty-collaboration-and-technology-in-the-liberal-arts/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">as much time, or more\u003c/a>, to plan and develop online courses as it did in-person ones because of the need to incorporate new technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Online programs also need to provide faculty members who are available for office hours, plus online advisers and other resources, exclusively to support online students. For the same reasons, many online providers have put caps on enrollment, limiting those expected economies of scale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You still need advisers, you still need a writing center, a tutoring center, and now you have to provide those services for students who are at a distance,” said Dylan Barth, vice president of innovation and programs at the Online Learning Consortium, which represents online education providers.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Part of the higher education playbook\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Still, \u003ca href=\"https://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/research-docs-pdfs/QM-Eduventures-EDUCAUSE-CHLOE%209-Report-2024.pdf#page=17\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">60%\u003c/a> of public universities and more than half of private universities are taking in more money from online education than they spend on it, the online managers’ survey found. About half said they put the money back into their institutions’ general operating budgets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such cross subsidies have long been a part of higher education’s financial strategy, under which students in classes or fields that cost less to teach generally subsidize their counterparts in courses or disciplines that cost more. English majors subsidize their engineering classmates, for example. Big first-year lecture classes subsidize small senior seminars. Graduate students often subsidize undergrads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Online education is another revenue stream from a different market,” said Duha Altindag, an associate professor of economics at Auburn University who has studied online programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Universities “are not trying to use technology to become more efficient. They’re just layering it on top of the existing model,” said New America’s Carey, who has been critical of some online education approaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another page that online managers have borrowed from higher education’s traditional pricing playbook is that consumers often equate high prices with high quality, especially at brand-name colleges and universities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Market success and reputation can support higher prices,” Eduventures’ Garrett said. It’s not what online courses cost to provide that determines the price, in other words, but how much consumers are willing to pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With online programs competing for customers across the U.S., rather than for those within commuting distance of campus or willing to relocate, at least some universities and colleges are spending large amounts on marketing and advertising.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Lower grades and reduced chances of graduating\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, online students — while they’re paying the same as or more than their in-person counterparts — have generally poorer success rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Online students get \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/01623737241274802\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lower grades\u003c/a> than those in face-to-face education, according to research by Altindag and colleagues at American University and the University of Southern Mississippi — though the gap is narrowing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students online are more likely to have to withdraw from or repeat courses and are less likely to graduate on time, these researchers found, which further increases the cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And students who learn entirely online at any level are less likely to have graduated within eight years than students in general.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lower-income students fare especially poorly. Researchers say this is in part because many come from low-resourced public high schools or are balancing their classes with work or family responsibilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If they do receive degrees, \u003ca href=\"https://www.encoura.org/resources/wake-up-call/the-big-reveal-new-financial-value-transparency-rules-and-online-programs/?mcparam=00Q0z00001TfeTCEAZ&utm_source=marketing-cloud&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WUC+2024-10-01+The+Big+Reveal+-+New+Financial+Value+Transparency+Rules+%26+Online+Programs&utm_id=737400\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">online-only students earn more\u003c/a> than their entirely in-person counterparts for the first year after college, Eduventures finds — perhaps because they tend to be older than traditional-age students, researchers speculated. But that advantage disappears within four years, when in-person graduates overtake them.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>For online graduates, challenges in the job market\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For all the growth in online higher education, some employers appear reluctant to hire graduates of it, according to still other research from the University of Louisville. Employment applicants who listed an online, as opposed to in-person, degree were \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0019793919899943?journalCode=ilra\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">about half as likely\u003c/a> to get a callback for the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How strongly consumers feel that online higher education should cost less than the in-person kind was evident in lawsuits brought against schools that continued to charge full tuition even after going remote during the COVID-19 pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students had part of their payments refunded under multimillion-dollar settlements with the University of Chicago, Pennsylvania State University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the University of Maine System and others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet consumers keep signing on. For all the complaints about remote learning at the time, its momentum \u003ca href=\"https://onedtech.philhillaa.com/p/fall-2023-ipeds-data-profile-of-us-higher-ed-online-education\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">seems to have accelerated\u003c/a> since the pandemic, according to an analysis of federal data by Phil Hill, an education technology consultant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sixty percent of campus online officers say that online sections of classes tend to fill first, and nearly half say online student numbers are outpacing in-person enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Signs of improvement\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There have been some widely cited examples of online programs with dramatically lower tuition, such as a \u003ca href=\"https://omscs.gatech.edu/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$7,000 online master’s degree\u003c/a> in computer science at the Georgia Institute of Technology (compared with the estimated nearly $43,000 for the two-year in-person version). That program has attracted thousands of students and a few copycats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are also signs that prices could fall. Competition is intensifying from national nonprofit providers such as Western Governors University, which charges a comparatively low average of \u003ca href=\"https://www.wgu.edu/financial-aid-tuition.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$8,300 per year\u003c/a>, and Southern New Hampshire University, whose undergraduate price per credit hour is a slightly lower-than-average (for online courses) \u003ca href=\"https://www.snhu.edu/tuition-and-financial-aid/online\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$330\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, universities have started cutting their ties with for-profit middlemen, called online program managers, which take big cuts of \u003ca href=\"https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED609143.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">up to 80%\u003c/a> of revenues. Nearly 150 such deals \u003ca href=\"https://www.validatedinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/OPM-Market-Insights-September-2024-v1.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">were canceled or ended and not renewed\u003c/a> in 2023, the most recent year for which the information is available, the market research firm Validated Insights reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another thing that could lower prices: As more online programs go live, they no longer require high up-front investment — just periodic updating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is possible to save money on downstream costs if you offer the same course over a number of years,” said Justin Ortagus, director of the University of Florida’s Institute of Higher Education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While that survey of online officers found a \u003ca href=\"https://www.encoura.org/resources/wake-up-call/online-program-pricing-new-data-from-the-chloe-9-survey/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tiny decline\u003c/a> in the proportion of universities charging more for online than in-person classes, the drop was statistically insignificant, however. And as their enrollments are \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/the-impact-of-this-is-economic-decline/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">projected to plummet\u003c/a>, institutions increasingly need the revenue from online programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emma Bittner, in Texas, ended up in a new online master’s program in public health from a private university that was cheaper than the others she’d found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her day job is at the national nonprofit Young Invincibles, which pushes for reforms in higher education, health care and economic security for young Americans. And she still doesn’t understand the online pricing model.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m so confused about it. Even in the program I’m in now, you don’t get the same access to stuff as an in-person student,” she said. “What are you putting into it that costs so much?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/as-online-higher-education-hits-a-milestone-why-does-it-still-cost-so-much/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>cost of online higher education\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> was produced by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>The Hechinger Report\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Emma Bittner considered getting a master’s degree in public health at a university near her home in Austin, Texas. But the in-person program cost tens of thousands of dollars more than she had hoped to spend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So she checked out master’s degrees she could pursue remotely, on her laptop, which she was sure would be much cheaper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The price for the same degree online was … just as much. Or more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m, like, what makes this worth it?” said Bittner, 25. “Why does it cost that much if I don’t get meetings face-to-face with the professor or have the experience in person?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the surprising answers is that colleges and universities are using online higher education to subsidize everything else they do, a survey of the people who manage these programs finds. And some schools are spending significant amounts on marketing and advertising for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The result is that 83% of online programs in higher education \u003ca href=\"https://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/research-docs-pdfs/QM-Eduventures-EDUCAUSE-CHLOE%209-Report-2024.pdf#page=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cost students as much as or more than\u003c/a> the in-person versions, according to an annual survey of college online-learning officers. The survey was conducted by Eduventures, an arm of the higher education consulting company Encoura, for the nonprofits Quality Matters and Educause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About a quarter of universities and colleges even tack on an additional “distance learning” fee, the survey found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Universities and colleges “see online higher education as an opportunity to make money and use it for whatever they want to make money for,” said Kevin Carey, vice president of education and work at the left-leaning think tank New America.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Widespread confusion about costs\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Bittner’s confusion about the price is widespread. Eighty percent of Americans think online learning after high school \u003ca href=\"https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/reports/varying-degrees-2024/explore-the-data\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">should cost less\u003c/a> than in-person programs, according to a 2024 survey of 1,705 adults by New America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After all, technology has reduced prices in many other industries. And online courses don’t require classrooms or other physical facilities and can theoretically be taught to a much larger number of students, creating economies of scale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, in addition to using online revenue to help pay for other things, universities say they have had to spend more than they anticipated on advising and support for online students, whose academic performance, on average, lags behind their in-person counterparts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The concerns about cost come as online higher education is projected to pass an impressive if little-noticed milestone this year: For the first time, \u003ca href=\"https://www.encoura.org/resources/wake-up-call/higher-ed-predictions-for-2025-part-1-an-online-milestone-and-trouble-ahead-for-the-us-department-of-education/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more American college students will be learning entirely online\u003c/a> than will be learning 100% in person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s according to an estimate made in January by Richard Garrett, Eduventures’ chief research officer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the reasons: Learning online offers scheduling flexibility for people also juggling jobs and families. It’s being particularly pushed for professional certificates and graduate degrees. And the online sector got a boost from the COVID-19 pandemic, when just about everyone was forced to learn remotely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, more institutions seeing the revenue potential are scrambling to get in on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How much an online degree can cost\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Bringing down the price of a degree “was certainly a key part of the appeal” when online higher education began, Garrett said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Online was going to be disruptive,” he added. “It was supposed to widen access. And it would reduce the price. But it hasn’t played out that way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, online instruction for in-state students at four-year public universities \u003ca href=\"https://educationdata.org/cost-of-online-education-vs-traditional-education\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">costs, on average, $341 a credit\u003c/a>, the independent Education Data Initiative finds. That’s higher than the average $325 a credit for face-to-face tuition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This adds up to about $41,000 for a degree online, compared with about $39,000 in tuition for a degree obtained in person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two-thirds of private four-year universities and colleges with online programs \u003ca href=\"https://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/research-docs-pdfs/QM-Eduventures-EDUCAUSE-CHLOE%209-Report-2024.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">charge more for them\u003c/a> than for their face-to-face classes, according to the survey of online managers. For private universities and colleges, the average tuition for online learning comes to \u003ca href=\"https://educationdata.org/cost-of-online-education-vs-traditional-education\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$516 per credit\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Community colleges collectively \u003ca href=\"https://www.encoura.org/resources/wake-up-call/community-colleges-gaining-ground-in-online-education-what-it-means-for-universities/?mcparam=00Q0z00001TfeTCEAZ&utm_source=marketing-cloud&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WUC+2024-10-08+Community+Colleges+Gaining+Ground+in+Online+Education+What+It+Means+for+Universities&utm_id=749338\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">enroll the largest number\u003c/a> of students who learn entirely online. The Eduventures survey found that all the community colleges surveyed charge those students the same as or more than their in-person counterparts. That’s likely because community college tuition overall is already comparatively low, Garrett explains.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Startup costs and technological hurdles\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Social media is riddled with angry comments about this, with many students echoing Bittner’s questions about how learning online could possibly cost more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Online education officers respond that their programs face steep startup costs and need expensive technology specialists and infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a separate survey of faculty members by the consulting firm Ithaka S+R, 80% said it took them \u003ca href=\"https://sr.ithaka.org/publications/faculty-collaboration-and-technology-in-the-liberal-arts/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">as much time, or more\u003c/a>, to plan and develop online courses as it did in-person ones because of the need to incorporate new technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Online programs also need to provide faculty members who are available for office hours, plus online advisers and other resources, exclusively to support online students. For the same reasons, many online providers have put caps on enrollment, limiting those expected economies of scale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You still need advisers, you still need a writing center, a tutoring center, and now you have to provide those services for students who are at a distance,” said Dylan Barth, vice president of innovation and programs at the Online Learning Consortium, which represents online education providers.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Part of the higher education playbook\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Still, \u003ca href=\"https://www.qualitymatters.org/sites/default/files/research-docs-pdfs/QM-Eduventures-EDUCAUSE-CHLOE%209-Report-2024.pdf#page=17\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">60%\u003c/a> of public universities and more than half of private universities are taking in more money from online education than they spend on it, the online managers’ survey found. About half said they put the money back into their institutions’ general operating budgets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such cross subsidies have long been a part of higher education’s financial strategy, under which students in classes or fields that cost less to teach generally subsidize their counterparts in courses or disciplines that cost more. English majors subsidize their engineering classmates, for example. Big first-year lecture classes subsidize small senior seminars. Graduate students often subsidize undergrads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Online education is another revenue stream from a different market,” said Duha Altindag, an associate professor of economics at Auburn University who has studied online programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Universities “are not trying to use technology to become more efficient. They’re just layering it on top of the existing model,” said New America’s Carey, who has been critical of some online education approaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another page that online managers have borrowed from higher education’s traditional pricing playbook is that consumers often equate high prices with high quality, especially at brand-name colleges and universities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Market success and reputation can support higher prices,” Eduventures’ Garrett said. It’s not what online courses cost to provide that determines the price, in other words, but how much consumers are willing to pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With online programs competing for customers across the U.S., rather than for those within commuting distance of campus or willing to relocate, at least some universities and colleges are spending large amounts on marketing and advertising.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Lower grades and reduced chances of graduating\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, online students — while they’re paying the same as or more than their in-person counterparts — have generally poorer success rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Online students get \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/01623737241274802\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lower grades\u003c/a> than those in face-to-face education, according to research by Altindag and colleagues at American University and the University of Southern Mississippi — though the gap is narrowing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students online are more likely to have to withdraw from or repeat courses and are less likely to graduate on time, these researchers found, which further increases the cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And students who learn entirely online at any level are less likely to have graduated within eight years than students in general.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lower-income students fare especially poorly. Researchers say this is in part because many come from low-resourced public high schools or are balancing their classes with work or family responsibilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If they do receive degrees, \u003ca href=\"https://www.encoura.org/resources/wake-up-call/the-big-reveal-new-financial-value-transparency-rules-and-online-programs/?mcparam=00Q0z00001TfeTCEAZ&utm_source=marketing-cloud&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WUC+2024-10-01+The+Big+Reveal+-+New+Financial+Value+Transparency+Rules+%26+Online+Programs&utm_id=737400\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">online-only students earn more\u003c/a> than their entirely in-person counterparts for the first year after college, Eduventures finds — perhaps because they tend to be older than traditional-age students, researchers speculated. But that advantage disappears within four years, when in-person graduates overtake them.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>For online graduates, challenges in the job market\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For all the growth in online higher education, some employers appear reluctant to hire graduates of it, according to still other research from the University of Louisville. Employment applicants who listed an online, as opposed to in-person, degree were \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0019793919899943?journalCode=ilra\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">about half as likely\u003c/a> to get a callback for the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How strongly consumers feel that online higher education should cost less than the in-person kind was evident in lawsuits brought against schools that continued to charge full tuition even after going remote during the COVID-19 pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students had part of their payments refunded under multimillion-dollar settlements with the University of Chicago, Pennsylvania State University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the University of Maine System and others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet consumers keep signing on. For all the complaints about remote learning at the time, its momentum \u003ca href=\"https://onedtech.philhillaa.com/p/fall-2023-ipeds-data-profile-of-us-higher-ed-online-education\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">seems to have accelerated\u003c/a> since the pandemic, according to an analysis of federal data by Phil Hill, an education technology consultant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sixty percent of campus online officers say that online sections of classes tend to fill first, and nearly half say online student numbers are outpacing in-person enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Signs of improvement\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There have been some widely cited examples of online programs with dramatically lower tuition, such as a \u003ca href=\"https://omscs.gatech.edu/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$7,000 online master’s degree\u003c/a> in computer science at the Georgia Institute of Technology (compared with the estimated nearly $43,000 for the two-year in-person version). That program has attracted thousands of students and a few copycats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are also signs that prices could fall. Competition is intensifying from national nonprofit providers such as Western Governors University, which charges a comparatively low average of \u003ca href=\"https://www.wgu.edu/financial-aid-tuition.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$8,300 per year\u003c/a>, and Southern New Hampshire University, whose undergraduate price per credit hour is a slightly lower-than-average (for online courses) \u003ca href=\"https://www.snhu.edu/tuition-and-financial-aid/online\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$330\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, universities have started cutting their ties with for-profit middlemen, called online program managers, which take big cuts of \u003ca href=\"https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED609143.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">up to 80%\u003c/a> of revenues. Nearly 150 such deals \u003ca href=\"https://www.validatedinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/OPM-Market-Insights-September-2024-v1.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">were canceled or ended and not renewed\u003c/a> in 2023, the most recent year for which the information is available, the market research firm Validated Insights reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another thing that could lower prices: As more online programs go live, they no longer require high up-front investment — just periodic updating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is possible to save money on downstream costs if you offer the same course over a number of years,” said Justin Ortagus, director of the University of Florida’s Institute of Higher Education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While that survey of online officers found a \u003ca href=\"https://www.encoura.org/resources/wake-up-call/online-program-pricing-new-data-from-the-chloe-9-survey/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tiny decline\u003c/a> in the proportion of universities charging more for online than in-person classes, the drop was statistically insignificant, however. And as their enrollments are \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/the-impact-of-this-is-economic-decline/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">projected to plummet\u003c/a>, institutions increasingly need the revenue from online programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emma Bittner, in Texas, ended up in a new online master’s program in public health from a private university that was cheaper than the others she’d found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her day job is at the national nonprofit Young Invincibles, which pushes for reforms in higher education, health care and economic security for young Americans. And she still doesn’t understand the online pricing model.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m so confused about it. Even in the program I’m in now, you don’t get the same access to stuff as an in-person student,” she said. “What are you putting into it that costs so much?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/as-online-higher-education-hits-a-milestone-why-does-it-still-cost-so-much/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>cost of online higher education\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> was produced by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>The Hechinger Report\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Like learning to read by third grade, taking eighth grade math is a pivotal moment in a child’s education. Students who pass Algebra 1 in eighth grade are more likely to sign up for more advanced math courses, and those who pass more advanced math courses are more likely to graduate from college and earn more money. “Algebra in eighth grade is a gateway to a lot of further opportunities,” said Dan Goldhaber, an economist who studies education at the American Institutes for Research, in a recent webinar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers are trying to understand why so few Black and Hispanic students and low-income students of all races are making it through this early gate. While 25 percent of white students passed algebra in eighth grade in 2021, only 13 percent of Black students did, according to the most recent \u003ca href=\"https://civilrightsdata.ed.gov/\">data from the U.S. Department of Education\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A collection of surveys of teachers and principals, conducted by the research organization RAND, suggests three problems at the poorest middle schools, which are disproportionately populated with Black and Hispanic students. Many don’t offer algebra at all. Their teachers have less training and math expertise, and they describe how they spend classroom time differently than teachers do at wealthier schools. That means the most advanced students at many middle schools in poor communities don’t have the opportunity to learn algebra, and many students at high-poverty schools aren’t receiving the kind of math lessons that could help them get ready for the subject.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2023 and 2024, RAND surveyed more than 3,000 school principals and almost 1,000 math teachers across the country. The educators are part of a specially constructed national sample, designed to reflect all public schools and the demographics of the U.S. student population. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WRA3554-1.html\">working paper\u003c/a> analyzing some of the survey findings was released in October 2024. (\u003cem>That analysis was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is among the many funders of The Hechinger Report\u003c/em>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The poorest 25 percent of schools had vastly different course offerings and teachers than the wealthiest 25 percent. Most strikingly, nearly a quarter of the highest poverty schools didn’t offer algebra at all to any eighth graders, compared to only 6 percent of the wealthiest schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conversely, poor schools are much less likely to adopt an algebra-for-all policy for eighth graders. Nearly half of the wealthiest schools offered algebra to all of their eighth grade students, compared to about a third of the poorest schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64982\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 977px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-64982\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"977\" height=\"527\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-1.png 977w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-1-800x432.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-1-160x86.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-1-768x414.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 977px) 100vw, 977px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Slide from a RAND webinar, “Racial and Socioeconomic Divides in Algebra Teaching and Learning,” presented in November 2024.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Math teachers at high-poverty schools tended to have weaker professional preparation. They were far more likely to have entered the profession without first earning a traditional education degree at a college or university, instead completing an alternative certification program on the job, often without student teaching under supervision. And they were less likely to have a graduate degree or hold a mathematics credential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64983\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 977px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-64983\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"977\" height=\"535\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-2.png 977w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-2-800x438.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-2-160x88.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-2-768x421.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 977px) 100vw, 977px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Slide from a RAND webinar, “Racial and Socioeconomic Divides in Algebra Teaching and Learning,” presented in November 2024.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In surveys, a third of math teachers at high-poverty schools reported that they spent more than half of class time teaching topics that were below grade level, as well as managing student behavior and disciplining students. Lecture-style instruction, as opposed to classroom discussion, was far more common at the poorest schools compared to the wealthiest schools. RAND researchers also detected similar discrepancies in instructional patterns when they examined schools along racial and ethnic lines, with Black and Hispanic students receiving “less optimal” instruction than white students. But these discrepancies were stronger by income than by race, suggesting that poverty may be a bigger factor than bias.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64984\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 977px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-64984\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"977\" height=\"541\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-3.png 977w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-3-800x443.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-3-160x89.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-3-768x425.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-3-672x372.png 672w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 977px) 100vw, 977px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Slide from a RAND webinar, “Racial and Socioeconomic Divides in Algebra Teaching and Learning,” presented in November 2024.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Many communities have tried putting more eighth graders into algebra classes, but that has sometimes left unprepared students worse off. “Simply giving them an eighth grade algebra course is not a magic bullet,” said AIR’s Goldhaber, who commented on the RAND analysis during a Nov. 5 \u003ca href=\"https://www.rand.org/events/2024/11/racial-and-socioeconomic-divides-in-algebra-teaching-and-learning/invite.html\">webinar\u003c/a>. Either the material is too challenging and the students fail or the course was “algebra” in name only and didn’t really cover the content. And without a college preparatory track of advanced math classes to take after algebra, the benefits of taking Algebra 1 in eighth grade are unlikely to accrue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also not economically practical for many low-income middle schools to offer an Algebra 1 course when only a handful of students are advanced enough to take it. A teacher would have to be hired even for a few students and those resources might be more effectively spent on something else that would benefit more students. That puts the most advanced students at low-income schools at a particular disadvantage. “It’s a difficult issue for schools to tackle on their own,” said Goldhaber.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Improving math teacher quality at the poorest schools is a critical first step. Some researchers have suggested paying strong math teachers more to work at high-poverty schools, but that would also require the renegotiation of union contracts in many cities. And, even with financial incentives, there is a shortage of math teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For students, AIR’s Goldhaber argues the time to intervene in math is in elementary school to make sure more low-income students have strong basic math skills. “Do it before middle school,” said Goldhaber. “For many students, middle school is too late.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-eighth-grade-algebra/\">\u003cem>eighth grade math\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cem>Proof Points\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and other \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003cem>Hechinger newsletters\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Like learning to read by third grade, taking eighth grade math is a pivotal moment in a child’s education. Students who pass Algebra 1 in eighth grade are more likely to sign up for more advanced math courses, and those who pass more advanced math courses are more likely to graduate from college and earn more money. “Algebra in eighth grade is a gateway to a lot of further opportunities,” said Dan Goldhaber, an economist who studies education at the American Institutes for Research, in a recent webinar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers are trying to understand why so few Black and Hispanic students and low-income students of all races are making it through this early gate. While 25 percent of white students passed algebra in eighth grade in 2021, only 13 percent of Black students did, according to the most recent \u003ca href=\"https://civilrightsdata.ed.gov/\">data from the U.S. Department of Education\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A collection of surveys of teachers and principals, conducted by the research organization RAND, suggests three problems at the poorest middle schools, which are disproportionately populated with Black and Hispanic students. Many don’t offer algebra at all. Their teachers have less training and math expertise, and they describe how they spend classroom time differently than teachers do at wealthier schools. That means the most advanced students at many middle schools in poor communities don’t have the opportunity to learn algebra, and many students at high-poverty schools aren’t receiving the kind of math lessons that could help them get ready for the subject.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2023 and 2024, RAND surveyed more than 3,000 school principals and almost 1,000 math teachers across the country. The educators are part of a specially constructed national sample, designed to reflect all public schools and the demographics of the U.S. student population. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WRA3554-1.html\">working paper\u003c/a> analyzing some of the survey findings was released in October 2024. (\u003cem>That analysis was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is among the many funders of The Hechinger Report\u003c/em>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The poorest 25 percent of schools had vastly different course offerings and teachers than the wealthiest 25 percent. Most strikingly, nearly a quarter of the highest poverty schools didn’t offer algebra at all to any eighth graders, compared to only 6 percent of the wealthiest schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conversely, poor schools are much less likely to adopt an algebra-for-all policy for eighth graders. Nearly half of the wealthiest schools offered algebra to all of their eighth grade students, compared to about a third of the poorest schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64982\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 977px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-64982\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"977\" height=\"527\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-1.png 977w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-1-800x432.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-1-160x86.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-1-768x414.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 977px) 100vw, 977px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Slide from a RAND webinar, “Racial and Socioeconomic Divides in Algebra Teaching and Learning,” presented in November 2024.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Math teachers at high-poverty schools tended to have weaker professional preparation. They were far more likely to have entered the profession without first earning a traditional education degree at a college or university, instead completing an alternative certification program on the job, often without student teaching under supervision. And they were less likely to have a graduate degree or hold a mathematics credential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64983\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 977px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-64983\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"977\" height=\"535\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-2.png 977w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-2-800x438.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-2-160x88.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-2-768x421.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 977px) 100vw, 977px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Slide from a RAND webinar, “Racial and Socioeconomic Divides in Algebra Teaching and Learning,” presented in November 2024.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In surveys, a third of math teachers at high-poverty schools reported that they spent more than half of class time teaching topics that were below grade level, as well as managing student behavior and disciplining students. Lecture-style instruction, as opposed to classroom discussion, was far more common at the poorest schools compared to the wealthiest schools. RAND researchers also detected similar discrepancies in instructional patterns when they examined schools along racial and ethnic lines, with Black and Hispanic students receiving “less optimal” instruction than white students. But these discrepancies were stronger by income than by race, suggesting that poverty may be a bigger factor than bias.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_64984\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 977px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-64984\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"977\" height=\"541\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-3.png 977w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-3-800x443.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-3-160x89.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-3-768x425.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/11/Hechinger-Rand-3-672x372.png 672w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 977px) 100vw, 977px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Slide from a RAND webinar, “Racial and Socioeconomic Divides in Algebra Teaching and Learning,” presented in November 2024.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Many communities have tried putting more eighth graders into algebra classes, but that has sometimes left unprepared students worse off. “Simply giving them an eighth grade algebra course is not a magic bullet,” said AIR’s Goldhaber, who commented on the RAND analysis during a Nov. 5 \u003ca href=\"https://www.rand.org/events/2024/11/racial-and-socioeconomic-divides-in-algebra-teaching-and-learning/invite.html\">webinar\u003c/a>. Either the material is too challenging and the students fail or the course was “algebra” in name only and didn’t really cover the content. And without a college preparatory track of advanced math classes to take after algebra, the benefits of taking Algebra 1 in eighth grade are unlikely to accrue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also not economically practical for many low-income middle schools to offer an Algebra 1 course when only a handful of students are advanced enough to take it. A teacher would have to be hired even for a few students and those resources might be more effectively spent on something else that would benefit more students. That puts the most advanced students at low-income schools at a particular disadvantage. “It’s a difficult issue for schools to tackle on their own,” said Goldhaber.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Improving math teacher quality at the poorest schools is a critical first step. Some researchers have suggested paying strong math teachers more to work at high-poverty schools, but that would also require the renegotiation of union contracts in many cities. And, even with financial incentives, there is a shortage of math teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For students, AIR’s Goldhaber argues the time to intervene in math is in elementary school to make sure more low-income students have strong basic math skills. “Do it before middle school,” said Goldhaber. “For many students, middle school is too late.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-eighth-grade-algebra/\">\u003cem>eighth grade math\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cem>Proof Points\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and other \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003cem>Hechinger newsletters\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Coping with climate change: Advice for kids — from kids",
"title": "Coping with climate change: Advice for kids — from kids",
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"content": "\u003cp>Climate change didn't seem urgent to Gabriel Nagel when he was a kid. In a seventh grade class, he saw the chart showing global carbon emissions rising, but it felt abstract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then in 2017, a wildfire burned within a few blocks of his house in Boulder, Colorado.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"That was a moment when it kind of clicked for me that climate change isn't something of the future,\" Nagel says. \"It's something that we're dealing with right now, and no matter who you are, you're going to be impacted.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kids across the world are increasingly facing the impacts of climate change, from losing homes in disasters to having recess canceled due to extreme heat waves. Climate anxiety is on the rise, as a younger generation confronts inheriting a much hotter world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Many young people are experiencing grief and frustration and anxiety and elements of betrayal by adults and other generations,\" says Dr. Kelsey Hudson, a clinical psychologist who specializes in climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In coping with those feelings, many young people are figuring out ways to find meaning and purpose. Here's some of their advice.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>1. Talk to a friend about what's up\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Nagel and his family evacuated during the wildfire in Boulder, Colorado, but luckily his house came out unscathed. After that, he began noticing how wildfires seemed to be happening more often across the West, especially with the long-running drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I know other people through not just that fire, but other fires across Colorado who have lost their homes,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nagel started learning more about climate change and began taking action in his daily life, like biking more and eating less meat. But it was joining the sustainability club at his high school in Denver that made the biggest difference. There, he met other students working to help their community, like planting trees and encouraging his school to start composting\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also joined another student group, DPS Students for Climate Action. Over the course of almost two years, the group \u003ca href=\"https://www.dpsk12.org/dps-board-of-education-passes-student-initiated-climate-policy/\">pushed Denver Public Schools to pass its first climate policy\u003c/a>, adopting goals to reduce emissions and use clean energy district-wide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Being surrounded by people who are equally passionate and have the same amount of optimism about the future can be really uplifting and kind of motivating,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he feels overwhelmed by the future of the planet, he meets up with a friend, Mariah Rosensweig, whom he got to know through the sustainability club. They go on walks and hikes together, venting about whatever is on their minds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It sometimes feels like what I'm doing will never be enough,\" Nagel says. \"And part of that is true. Like one person isn't going to be able to change the fate of this planet, of climate change. But I think at the same time, I also do have hope that by working together, we can actually resolve this crisis.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>2. Get out in nature\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>As a kid, Rosensweig's deep love of nature grew from being outdoors all the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I was always one of the few girls that would be dirtier than all the boys,\" Rosensweig says. \"My grandpa nicknamed me the 'tree panther,' because I would always be in a tree and he wouldn't know where I was.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In high school, she became a beekeeper. For her, working on climate change is about reminding people of their connection to the natural world. But seeing the damage to the natural world can be disheartening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60348\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 200px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-60348\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/mariah_tree_senior_custom-5157d613e929f309900d4819f296badb85bbf166.jpg\" alt=\"A teenage girl in white overalls with pink designs and a black short-sleeved shirt stands in a tree with arms streteched between two tree trunks.\" width=\"200\" height=\"266\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/mariah_tree_senior_custom-5157d613e929f309900d4819f296badb85bbf166.jpg 200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/mariah_tree_senior_custom-5157d613e929f309900d4819f296badb85bbf166-160x213.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mariah Rosensweig knows that seeing the effects of climate change can be disheartening. To combat those feelings, Rosenweig gets outside and connects with her senses and natural the world. (Photo: Violet Baker) \u003ccite>(Violet Baker)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\"Now the conversation isn't: what can we do to prevent climate change?\" she says. \"It's: how are we going to live with it? As I'm still so young, to hear that shift is frustrating because it's like – we've known about this for so long.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she feels that way, Rosensweig says it's simple: go outside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I'll sit myself down on the ground and really connect to my senses, especially breath,\" she says. \"That will make you more aware of the world around you. And then the more that you're aware, the more you're going to care. The more you care, the more likely you are to do something about it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>3. Join people doing something in your community\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>When 15-year-old Tanish Doshi first moved to Tuscon, Arizona, the extreme heat was a shock, especially as rising summer temperatures broke records year after year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It feels like your skin is on fire,\" he says. \"A lot of people have access to safe places to stay, to air conditioning, to water, stuff like that. When you look at our unhoused populations and different people, they don't have that access a lot of the time here in southern Arizona. So the heat is really, really bad.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When climate change seems daunting, Doshi's advice is to find someone who cares about it and ask how to help in your community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Tucson's Habitat for Humanity office was hit with flooding during heavy monsoon rains, Doshi rallied his friends to do something. They designed a flood control system around the building, putting in drainage pipes, holding basins and rerouting water to absorbent areas with plants. Around 20 people helped out with construction, including his nine-year-old brother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"For me, advocacy and action has alleviated some of my climate anxiety because it shows me success is possible, right?\" he says. \"If a group of teenagers here in Tucson can have this success and if teenagers across the country are having similar success, that can really lead to reforms on the national level.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Helping out in your community doesn't need to be a big project, psychologists like Hudson say. It can be as simple as planting a pollinator-friendly flower. The key thing is to find meaning in the action and build social connections in the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We can think about: what does it look like for young people to find a sense of meaning and purpose in this crisis?\" Hudson says. \"Connect with like-minded others and build some agency through connecting with climate engagement or action.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>4. Don't be too intimidated to speak out\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>When Sabal Dangi was 11 years old, he took a trip to Nepal where his family is originally from. He saw how vulnerable people are to climate impacts, like hotter temperatures that are making water supplies more unreliable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We would see how climate change is really affecting them at those high altitudes,\" he says. \"They use all of their water from all the glacier melt and the Himalayas. And so now they're really trying to adapt and conserve.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dangi was homing in on something that resonates with many young people: the global inequality of climate change. Extreme storms, floods and droughts can be more devastating in lower-income countries where people have few safety nets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Last year, my climate anxiety started really getting to its peak,\" he says. \"It was just the feeling of not being able to do something.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dangi, now 16, wasn't sure he knew enough about climate change to get involved. But after going to a few climate protests, he started a \u003ca href=\"https://fridaysforfuture.org/\">Fridays for Future\u003c/a> chapter where he lives in Fresno, California. The youth-led movement has chapters around the world that lead climate strikes, where students walk out of school or protest after school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, it was just Dangi and a couple friends, but the group grew in size the more he kept at it. Discussing and engaging people about climate issues has helped him feel more positive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You don't have to have a fancy degree or something to really speak out about the planet,\" Dangi says. \"The world is everybody's home. It's everybody's future. And it's something everybody can really stand up for and speak out about.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Coping+with+climate+change%3A+Advice+for+kids+%E2%80%94+from+kids&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Climate change didn't seem urgent to Gabriel Nagel when he was a kid. In a seventh grade class, he saw the chart showing global carbon emissions rising, but it felt abstract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then in 2017, a wildfire burned within a few blocks of his house in Boulder, Colorado.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"That was a moment when it kind of clicked for me that climate change isn't something of the future,\" Nagel says. \"It's something that we're dealing with right now, and no matter who you are, you're going to be impacted.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kids across the world are increasingly facing the impacts of climate change, from losing homes in disasters to having recess canceled due to extreme heat waves. Climate anxiety is on the rise, as a younger generation confronts inheriting a much hotter world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Many young people are experiencing grief and frustration and anxiety and elements of betrayal by adults and other generations,\" says Dr. Kelsey Hudson, a clinical psychologist who specializes in climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In coping with those feelings, many young people are figuring out ways to find meaning and purpose. Here's some of their advice.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>1. Talk to a friend about what's up\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Nagel and his family evacuated during the wildfire in Boulder, Colorado, but luckily his house came out unscathed. After that, he began noticing how wildfires seemed to be happening more often across the West, especially with the long-running drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I know other people through not just that fire, but other fires across Colorado who have lost their homes,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nagel started learning more about climate change and began taking action in his daily life, like biking more and eating less meat. But it was joining the sustainability club at his high school in Denver that made the biggest difference. There, he met other students working to help their community, like planting trees and encouraging his school to start composting\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also joined another student group, DPS Students for Climate Action. Over the course of almost two years, the group \u003ca href=\"https://www.dpsk12.org/dps-board-of-education-passes-student-initiated-climate-policy/\">pushed Denver Public Schools to pass its first climate policy\u003c/a>, adopting goals to reduce emissions and use clean energy district-wide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Being surrounded by people who are equally passionate and have the same amount of optimism about the future can be really uplifting and kind of motivating,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he feels overwhelmed by the future of the planet, he meets up with a friend, Mariah Rosensweig, whom he got to know through the sustainability club. They go on walks and hikes together, venting about whatever is on their minds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It sometimes feels like what I'm doing will never be enough,\" Nagel says. \"And part of that is true. Like one person isn't going to be able to change the fate of this planet, of climate change. But I think at the same time, I also do have hope that by working together, we can actually resolve this crisis.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>2. Get out in nature\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>As a kid, Rosensweig's deep love of nature grew from being outdoors all the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I was always one of the few girls that would be dirtier than all the boys,\" Rosensweig says. \"My grandpa nicknamed me the 'tree panther,' because I would always be in a tree and he wouldn't know where I was.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In high school, she became a beekeeper. For her, working on climate change is about reminding people of their connection to the natural world. But seeing the damage to the natural world can be disheartening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60348\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 200px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-60348\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/mariah_tree_senior_custom-5157d613e929f309900d4819f296badb85bbf166.jpg\" alt=\"A teenage girl in white overalls with pink designs and a black short-sleeved shirt stands in a tree with arms streteched between two tree trunks.\" width=\"200\" height=\"266\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/mariah_tree_senior_custom-5157d613e929f309900d4819f296badb85bbf166.jpg 200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/11/mariah_tree_senior_custom-5157d613e929f309900d4819f296badb85bbf166-160x213.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mariah Rosensweig knows that seeing the effects of climate change can be disheartening. To combat those feelings, Rosenweig gets outside and connects with her senses and natural the world. (Photo: Violet Baker) \u003ccite>(Violet Baker)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\"Now the conversation isn't: what can we do to prevent climate change?\" she says. \"It's: how are we going to live with it? As I'm still so young, to hear that shift is frustrating because it's like – we've known about this for so long.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she feels that way, Rosensweig says it's simple: go outside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I'll sit myself down on the ground and really connect to my senses, especially breath,\" she says. \"That will make you more aware of the world around you. And then the more that you're aware, the more you're going to care. The more you care, the more likely you are to do something about it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>3. Join people doing something in your community\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>When 15-year-old Tanish Doshi first moved to Tuscon, Arizona, the extreme heat was a shock, especially as rising summer temperatures broke records year after year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It feels like your skin is on fire,\" he says. \"A lot of people have access to safe places to stay, to air conditioning, to water, stuff like that. When you look at our unhoused populations and different people, they don't have that access a lot of the time here in southern Arizona. So the heat is really, really bad.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When climate change seems daunting, Doshi's advice is to find someone who cares about it and ask how to help in your community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Tucson's Habitat for Humanity office was hit with flooding during heavy monsoon rains, Doshi rallied his friends to do something. They designed a flood control system around the building, putting in drainage pipes, holding basins and rerouting water to absorbent areas with plants. Around 20 people helped out with construction, including his nine-year-old brother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"For me, advocacy and action has alleviated some of my climate anxiety because it shows me success is possible, right?\" he says. \"If a group of teenagers here in Tucson can have this success and if teenagers across the country are having similar success, that can really lead to reforms on the national level.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Helping out in your community doesn't need to be a big project, psychologists like Hudson say. It can be as simple as planting a pollinator-friendly flower. The key thing is to find meaning in the action and build social connections in the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We can think about: what does it look like for young people to find a sense of meaning and purpose in this crisis?\" Hudson says. \"Connect with like-minded others and build some agency through connecting with climate engagement or action.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>4. Don't be too intimidated to speak out\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>When Sabal Dangi was 11 years old, he took a trip to Nepal where his family is originally from. He saw how vulnerable people are to climate impacts, like hotter temperatures that are making water supplies more unreliable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We would see how climate change is really affecting them at those high altitudes,\" he says. \"They use all of their water from all the glacier melt and the Himalayas. And so now they're really trying to adapt and conserve.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dangi was homing in on something that resonates with many young people: the global inequality of climate change. Extreme storms, floods and droughts can be more devastating in lower-income countries where people have few safety nets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Last year, my climate anxiety started really getting to its peak,\" he says. \"It was just the feeling of not being able to do something.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dangi, now 16, wasn't sure he knew enough about climate change to get involved. But after going to a few climate protests, he started a \u003ca href=\"https://fridaysforfuture.org/\">Fridays for Future\u003c/a> chapter where he lives in Fresno, California. The youth-led movement has chapters around the world that lead climate strikes, where students walk out of school or protest after school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, it was just Dangi and a couple friends, but the group grew in size the more he kept at it. Discussing and engaging people about climate issues has helped him feel more positive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You don't have to have a fancy degree or something to really speak out about the planet,\" Dangi says. \"The world is everybody's home. It's everybody's future. And it's something everybody can really stand up for and speak out about.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Coping+with+climate+change%3A+Advice+for+kids+%E2%80%94+from+kids&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Universities around the country will be watching carefully as the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in \u003ca href=\"https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_calendars/MonthlyArgumentCalNovember2022.pdf\">two college admissions cases\u003c/a> on Oct. 31, 2022. Many legal pundits predict that affirmative action, a practice that gives preferences to groups that have been discriminated against, will be abolished when the court issues its decision next spring. That could prevent both private and public universities from considering a student’s race or ethnicity as one of many factors in admissions, along with grades, test scores and extracurricular activities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Colleges that still want to build a diverse student body that reflects the country’s demographics are looking for alternatives. Two states could provide valuable information. Researchers have studied what has happened at public universities in Texas and California, which have banned the use of affirmative action since 1996.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Texas moved to a Top Ten Percent policy in 1998 under which public universities accept the cream of the crop at every high school in both wealthy and poor neighborhoods. (In practice, students now need to be in the top \u003ca href=\"https://news.utexas.edu/topics-in-the-news/top-10-percent-law/\">6 percent\u003c/a> of their high school class for admission to the University of Texas at Austin.) But that didn’t help increase the percentage of Black and Hispanic students all that much. Immediately after the affirmative action ban, the percentage of Black and Hispanic students at the state’s two flagship campuses, UT-Austin and Texas A&M, \u003ca href=\"https://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/college-access/admissions/percent-plans-in-college-admissions-a-comparative-analysis-of-three-states2019-experiences/horn-percent-plans-2003.pdf\">fell from 18\u003c/a> percent to 13 percent. Four years after the Top Ten Percent policy started, the percentage of Black and Hispanic students \u003ca href=\"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4mw4r5ds\">increased by only 1.6 percentage points \u003c/a>at the flagship campuses. Researchers say that tiny increase was probably due to demographic changes in the state and \u003ca href=\"https://www.jstor.org/stable/4624567\">not because the plan was working well\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thousands of high-achieving students at low-income high schools \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/texas-top-10-policy-didnt-expand-number-of-high-schools-feeding-students-to-top-universities/\">weren’t taking advantage of the Top Ten Percent policy\u003c/a>. Even though they would have been automatically admitted to UT-Austin and Texas A&M, they didn’t bother to apply. \u003ca href=\"https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w28280/w28280.pdf\">Nearly half of the state’s high schools never or rarely\u003c/a> sent students to the flagships for 18 years after the Top Ten Percent policy went into effect. Higher income high schools that originally funneled kids to Texas’s flagships continued to be the main suppliers of students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California had a similar experience. After voters eliminated affirmative action in a 1996 referendum, the University of California system tried \u003ca href=\"https://eaop.universityofcalifornia.edu/\">outreach programs\u003c/a> and an automatic acceptance policy for students in the \u003ca href=\"https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/admission-requirements/freshman-requirements/california-residents/statewide-guarantee/\">top 9 percent\u003c/a> of their high school classes. In 2001, the UC system moved to “holistic” admissions, looking at many factors beyond test scores and grades. Beginning in 2020, the system eliminated SAT and ACT tests altogether. But UC \u003ca href=\"https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1199/232355/20220801134931730_20-1199%20bsac%20University%20of%20California.pdf\">says its efforts haven’t been enough to keep up with changing demographics\u003c/a> in the state. The state’s high school seniors in 2021 were \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/as-supreme-court-considers-affirmative-action-case-university-of-california-offers-cautionary-tale/679692\">54 percent Latino and 5.4 percent Black\u003c/a>. But that fall, University of California’s incoming freshmen were 26 percent Latino, and 4.4 percent Black. It was worse at the \u003ca href=\"https://opa.berkeley.edu/uc-berkeley-fall-enrollment-data-new-undergraduates\">most selective campuses\u003c/a>. (Enrollment data for 2022 isn’t yet available.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>University of California’s decision to scrap SAT or ACT scores is unusual, but more than 1,700 universities and colleges have adopted test-optional admissions. Many hoped that it would level the playing field with applicants who can’t afford expensive SAT tutors. But research shows that it has failed to substantially raise the share of low-income students or students of color. One study published in 2021 found that the share of \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-test-optional-policies-didnt-do-much-to-diversify-college-student-populations/\">Black, Hispanic and Native American students increased by only 1 percentage point \u003c/a>at about 100 colleges and universities that adopted the policy between 2005-06 and 2015-16. A separate study of a group of \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/0162373714537350\">selective liberal arts colleges that adopted test-optional policies before 2011\u003c/a> didn’t find any didn’t find any improvement in diversity on those campuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another research team is interviewing college admissions officers to understand why. In preliminary findings, the researchers learned that colleges were replacing standardized tests with metrics that were \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-colleges-that-ditched-test-scores-for-admissions-find-its-harder-to-be-fair-in-choosing-students-researcher-says/\">even more biased toward wealthier and white students\u003c/a>, such as letters of recommendation and expensive extracurricular activities. Admissions officers admitted that it was difficult to weigh an applicant with test scores against one without, and the one with test scores often won.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, other researchers are finding evidence that it might not be Black and Hispanic students who are getting the biggest preferences in the admissions office, but rather privileged white students. More than \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/harvard-critic-finds-white-jocks-and-rich-kids-get-preferential-treatment-in-admissions/\">43 percent of white students admitted to Harvard\u003c/a> between 2009 and 2014 fell into four preferential categories: athletes, legacies (the children of alumni), the children of big donors or faculty and staff children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alumni children are \u003ca href=\"https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/713744\">up to eight times \u003c/a>more likely to be accepted at elite colleges, according to one estimate. Another study at an unnamed elite Northeastern college found that so many legacy students had been admitted that they outnumbered the number of Hispanic students. It will be a tough habit to break because legacy students \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-why-elite-colleges-cant-give-up-legacy-admissions/\">matriculate and donate in much higher numbers\u003c/a>, helping colleges meet enrollment and fundraising targets. In the study, a whopping 42 percent of legacy graduates were flagged as potential top donors. Only 6 percent of non-legacy graduates were flagged as potential top donors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Based on this research evidence, there don’t seem to be easy substitutes for affirmative action that can help foster diversity. One small ray of hope comes from a \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-study-finds-guaranteed-free-tuition-lures-low-income-students/\">financial aid study at the University of Michigan\u003c/a>. It found that upfront guarantees of free tuition were effective in getting more disadvantaged students to apply and enroll. However, this experiment was conducted in rural areas and largely affected low-income white students. It’s unclear if it would be equally effective with students of color.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Universities around the country will be watching carefully as the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in \u003ca href=\"https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_calendars/MonthlyArgumentCalNovember2022.pdf\">two college admissions cases\u003c/a> on Oct. 31, 2022. Many legal pundits predict that affirmative action, a practice that gives preferences to groups that have been discriminated against, will be abolished when the court issues its decision next spring. That could prevent both private and public universities from considering a student’s race or ethnicity as one of many factors in admissions, along with grades, test scores and extracurricular activities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Colleges that still want to build a diverse student body that reflects the country’s demographics are looking for alternatives. Two states could provide valuable information. Researchers have studied what has happened at public universities in Texas and California, which have banned the use of affirmative action since 1996.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Texas moved to a Top Ten Percent policy in 1998 under which public universities accept the cream of the crop at every high school in both wealthy and poor neighborhoods. (In practice, students now need to be in the top \u003ca href=\"https://news.utexas.edu/topics-in-the-news/top-10-percent-law/\">6 percent\u003c/a> of their high school class for admission to the University of Texas at Austin.) But that didn’t help increase the percentage of Black and Hispanic students all that much. Immediately after the affirmative action ban, the percentage of Black and Hispanic students at the state’s two flagship campuses, UT-Austin and Texas A&M, \u003ca href=\"https://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/college-access/admissions/percent-plans-in-college-admissions-a-comparative-analysis-of-three-states2019-experiences/horn-percent-plans-2003.pdf\">fell from 18\u003c/a> percent to 13 percent. Four years after the Top Ten Percent policy started, the percentage of Black and Hispanic students \u003ca href=\"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4mw4r5ds\">increased by only 1.6 percentage points \u003c/a>at the flagship campuses. Researchers say that tiny increase was probably due to demographic changes in the state and \u003ca href=\"https://www.jstor.org/stable/4624567\">not because the plan was working well\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thousands of high-achieving students at low-income high schools \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/texas-top-10-policy-didnt-expand-number-of-high-schools-feeding-students-to-top-universities/\">weren’t taking advantage of the Top Ten Percent policy\u003c/a>. Even though they would have been automatically admitted to UT-Austin and Texas A&M, they didn’t bother to apply. \u003ca href=\"https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w28280/w28280.pdf\">Nearly half of the state’s high schools never or rarely\u003c/a> sent students to the flagships for 18 years after the Top Ten Percent policy went into effect. Higher income high schools that originally funneled kids to Texas’s flagships continued to be the main suppliers of students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California had a similar experience. After voters eliminated affirmative action in a 1996 referendum, the University of California system tried \u003ca href=\"https://eaop.universityofcalifornia.edu/\">outreach programs\u003c/a> and an automatic acceptance policy for students in the \u003ca href=\"https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/admission-requirements/freshman-requirements/california-residents/statewide-guarantee/\">top 9 percent\u003c/a> of their high school classes. In 2001, the UC system moved to “holistic” admissions, looking at many factors beyond test scores and grades. Beginning in 2020, the system eliminated SAT and ACT tests altogether. But UC \u003ca href=\"https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1199/232355/20220801134931730_20-1199%20bsac%20University%20of%20California.pdf\">says its efforts haven’t been enough to keep up with changing demographics\u003c/a> in the state. The state’s high school seniors in 2021 were \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/as-supreme-court-considers-affirmative-action-case-university-of-california-offers-cautionary-tale/679692\">54 percent Latino and 5.4 percent Black\u003c/a>. But that fall, University of California’s incoming freshmen were 26 percent Latino, and 4.4 percent Black. It was worse at the \u003ca href=\"https://opa.berkeley.edu/uc-berkeley-fall-enrollment-data-new-undergraduates\">most selective campuses\u003c/a>. (Enrollment data for 2022 isn’t yet available.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>University of California’s decision to scrap SAT or ACT scores is unusual, but more than 1,700 universities and colleges have adopted test-optional admissions. Many hoped that it would level the playing field with applicants who can’t afford expensive SAT tutors. But research shows that it has failed to substantially raise the share of low-income students or students of color. One study published in 2021 found that the share of \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-test-optional-policies-didnt-do-much-to-diversify-college-student-populations/\">Black, Hispanic and Native American students increased by only 1 percentage point \u003c/a>at about 100 colleges and universities that adopted the policy between 2005-06 and 2015-16. A separate study of a group of \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/0162373714537350\">selective liberal arts colleges that adopted test-optional policies before 2011\u003c/a> didn’t find any didn’t find any improvement in diversity on those campuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another research team is interviewing college admissions officers to understand why. In preliminary findings, the researchers learned that colleges were replacing standardized tests with metrics that were \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-colleges-that-ditched-test-scores-for-admissions-find-its-harder-to-be-fair-in-choosing-students-researcher-says/\">even more biased toward wealthier and white students\u003c/a>, such as letters of recommendation and expensive extracurricular activities. Admissions officers admitted that it was difficult to weigh an applicant with test scores against one without, and the one with test scores often won.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, other researchers are finding evidence that it might not be Black and Hispanic students who are getting the biggest preferences in the admissions office, but rather privileged white students. More than \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/harvard-critic-finds-white-jocks-and-rich-kids-get-preferential-treatment-in-admissions/\">43 percent of white students admitted to Harvard\u003c/a> between 2009 and 2014 fell into four preferential categories: athletes, legacies (the children of alumni), the children of big donors or faculty and staff children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alumni children are \u003ca href=\"https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/713744\">up to eight times \u003c/a>more likely to be accepted at elite colleges, according to one estimate. Another study at an unnamed elite Northeastern college found that so many legacy students had been admitted that they outnumbered the number of Hispanic students. It will be a tough habit to break because legacy students \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-why-elite-colleges-cant-give-up-legacy-admissions/\">matriculate and donate in much higher numbers\u003c/a>, helping colleges meet enrollment and fundraising targets. In the study, a whopping 42 percent of legacy graduates were flagged as potential top donors. Only 6 percent of non-legacy graduates were flagged as potential top donors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Based on this research evidence, there don’t seem to be easy substitutes for affirmative action that can help foster diversity. One small ray of hope comes from a \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-study-finds-guaranteed-free-tuition-lures-low-income-students/\">financial aid study at the University of Michigan\u003c/a>. It found that upfront guarantees of free tuition were effective in getting more disadvantaged students to apply and enroll. However, this experiment was conducted in rural areas and largely affected low-income white students. It’s unclear if it would be equally effective with students of color.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Why elite colleges can’t give up legacy admissions",
"title": "Why elite colleges can’t give up legacy admissions",
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"content": "\u003cp>Elite colleges and universities say they want \u003ca href=\"https://thewellesleynews.com/2022/10/03/president-johnsons-convocation-speech-strays-from-her-message-of-diversity/\">to diversify\u003c/a> their student bodies, and yet they continue to favor white students with certain credentials and fail to keep up with the changing demographics in our country. Despite affirmative action, Black and Hispanic students were \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/affirmative-action.html\">more underrepresented at top colleges in 2015 than they were in 1980, \u003c/a>though their numbers \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/17/us/minority-acceptance-ivy-league-cornell.html\">improved at some elite schools\u003c/a> during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One reason: children of alumni. Known as legacy students, these students are \u003ca href=\"https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/713744\">up to eight times \u003c/a>more likely to be accepted at elite colleges, according to one estimate. In the \u003ca href=\"https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/08/affirmative-action-cases-up-first-in-november-argument-calendar/\">affirmative action cases\u003c/a> currently before the Supreme Court, rarely seen admissions data has been made public and it shows that children of Harvard alumni were \u003ca href=\"https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/25/metro/boycott-targets-college-admissions-boost-given-children-alumni-harvard-other-elite-schools/\">accepted at a rate of 33.6 percent \u003c/a>in the classes of 2014–19, compared with 5.9 percent for non-legacies, according to a 2021 report in the Boston Globe. As more and more high schoolers apply to top schools, their chances tumble while the acceptance rate for legacies remains constant. The unfairness of it all only seems to grow. And because so few parents of color have graduated from these colleges, legacy admissions remain overwhelmingly white.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To find out why elite colleges love legacies, two business school professors were granted access to 16 years of admissions data at one elite Northeastern college. The upshot: it’s in this school’s clear self-interest to take them. Alumni children who received offers matriculated at much higher rates, giving the school more certainty in their future enrollment numbers. And these loyal families with multi-generational ties to the college were far more likely to donate funds, money that the school needs, in part, to offer scholarships to others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We see evidence that the use of legacy admissions comes at the cost of diversity in the student body,” said Ethan Poskanzer, a co-author of the study and an assistant professor at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado, Boulder. “Colleges have different goals in the admissions process, which are to get qualified students, to get students who will be materially supportive, and to increase diversity. Those can be in competition. Legacy admissions is a case where those goals come into conflict with one another.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Poskanzer’s study, “\u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00031224221122889\">Through the Front Door: Why Do Organizations (Still) Prefer Legacy Applicants?\u003c/a>” was written with Emilio Castilla at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and published in the October 2022 issue of the American Sociological Review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Poskanzer and Castilla promised to keep the identity of the elite college they studied a secret in order to publish their findings. But they described it as a Northeastern private college that is “representative” of the top 25 schools ranked by U.S. News & World Report. Like other elite schools, the student body is wealthy. Half of the students hail from ZIP codes with mean household incomes over $100,000, a threshold that only 6 percent of ZIP codes in America met during the study period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than a third of the legacy students who applied were accepted, compared with only 14 percent of non-legacy students. That added up to almost 3,300 children of alumni accepted during the 16 years that the researchers studied. Legacy students are a major category, rivaling the total number of students of other races and ethnicities. Approximately, 3,500 Black students, 3,100 Hispanic students and 7,300 Asian students were given offers of admission during the time period studied. (There is some overlap between legacy and students of color, but nearly three-quarters of the legacies were white.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legacies were much more likely to attend. Of the accepted legacy students, nearly three quarters – 74 percent – agreed to come and enrolled. Fewer than half of the non-legacy students – just 47 percent – matriculated. That’s a giant 27 percentage point difference. The more predictable, better yield that legacies offer allows the college to plan each admissions cycle with more certainty and anticipate future tuition revenues, the authors explained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Donations, of course, are the other big bonus that legacy students bring. At this college, the alumni engagement office assigned each alumni a score based on how graduates contribute after graduating. It’s unclear exactly how many dollars each point translates to, but legacies had an average “give” score of 48 points, 50 percent higher than the 32 point average of non-legacies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not that legacy students earned higher wages after graduation. Both groups – legacy and non-legacy – had an average income of roughly $85,000 a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even more potent was the propensity to be a big donor. A whopping 42 percent of legacy graduates were flagged as potential top donors, which could include their whole family. Only 6 percent of non-legacy graduates were flagged as potential top donors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Legacies make better alumni after graduation and have wealthier parents who are materially positioned to be more generous donors than non-legacy parents,” the authors wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Academically, legacy applicants tended to have slightly lower high school grades. But the lower achieving legacy applicants were generally rejected. Among the admitted legacies, grades and test scores were indistinguishable from non-legacy students. Both groups had an average SAT score that surpassed 1430. Once on campus, legacy students tended to have slightly higher college grades, but their involvement in campus activities, merit awards, academic recognition and on-time graduation rates were indistinguishable from non-legacy students. In sum, legacy students, on average, were about as academically strong as non-legacy students, neither superior nor inferior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, there is a downside to legacies. As Poskanzer put it, college admissions is a “zero-sum” game and for every legacy applicant who is admitted, there is one less seat for everyone else. Graduating from these elite colleges can open doors to jobs and change lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Admissions officers are not intentionally opting for white students over students of color, but they have conflicting pressures. One goal is to pick a diverse class, but they are also tasked with selecting students who will come and who will support the school financially thereafter. Legacy students fill those latter two demands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-why-elite-colleges-cant-give-up-legacy-admissions\">\u003cem>legacy student\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>s was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://hechingerreport.us2.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=66c306eebb323868c3ce353c1&id=d3ee4c3e04\">\u003cem>Hechinger newsletter\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Elite colleges and universities say they want \u003ca href=\"https://thewellesleynews.com/2022/10/03/president-johnsons-convocation-speech-strays-from-her-message-of-diversity/\">to diversify\u003c/a> their student bodies, and yet they continue to favor white students with certain credentials and fail to keep up with the changing demographics in our country. Despite affirmative action, Black and Hispanic students were \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/affirmative-action.html\">more underrepresented at top colleges in 2015 than they were in 1980, \u003c/a>though their numbers \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/17/us/minority-acceptance-ivy-league-cornell.html\">improved at some elite schools\u003c/a> during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One reason: children of alumni. Known as legacy students, these students are \u003ca href=\"https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/713744\">up to eight times \u003c/a>more likely to be accepted at elite colleges, according to one estimate. In the \u003ca href=\"https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/08/affirmative-action-cases-up-first-in-november-argument-calendar/\">affirmative action cases\u003c/a> currently before the Supreme Court, rarely seen admissions data has been made public and it shows that children of Harvard alumni were \u003ca href=\"https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/25/metro/boycott-targets-college-admissions-boost-given-children-alumni-harvard-other-elite-schools/\">accepted at a rate of 33.6 percent \u003c/a>in the classes of 2014–19, compared with 5.9 percent for non-legacies, according to a 2021 report in the Boston Globe. As more and more high schoolers apply to top schools, their chances tumble while the acceptance rate for legacies remains constant. The unfairness of it all only seems to grow. And because so few parents of color have graduated from these colleges, legacy admissions remain overwhelmingly white.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To find out why elite colleges love legacies, two business school professors were granted access to 16 years of admissions data at one elite Northeastern college. The upshot: it’s in this school’s clear self-interest to take them. Alumni children who received offers matriculated at much higher rates, giving the school more certainty in their future enrollment numbers. And these loyal families with multi-generational ties to the college were far more likely to donate funds, money that the school needs, in part, to offer scholarships to others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We see evidence that the use of legacy admissions comes at the cost of diversity in the student body,” said Ethan Poskanzer, a co-author of the study and an assistant professor at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado, Boulder. “Colleges have different goals in the admissions process, which are to get qualified students, to get students who will be materially supportive, and to increase diversity. Those can be in competition. Legacy admissions is a case where those goals come into conflict with one another.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Poskanzer’s study, “\u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00031224221122889\">Through the Front Door: Why Do Organizations (Still) Prefer Legacy Applicants?\u003c/a>” was written with Emilio Castilla at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and published in the October 2022 issue of the American Sociological Review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Poskanzer and Castilla promised to keep the identity of the elite college they studied a secret in order to publish their findings. But they described it as a Northeastern private college that is “representative” of the top 25 schools ranked by U.S. News & World Report. Like other elite schools, the student body is wealthy. Half of the students hail from ZIP codes with mean household incomes over $100,000, a threshold that only 6 percent of ZIP codes in America met during the study period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than a third of the legacy students who applied were accepted, compared with only 14 percent of non-legacy students. That added up to almost 3,300 children of alumni accepted during the 16 years that the researchers studied. Legacy students are a major category, rivaling the total number of students of other races and ethnicities. Approximately, 3,500 Black students, 3,100 Hispanic students and 7,300 Asian students were given offers of admission during the time period studied. (There is some overlap between legacy and students of color, but nearly three-quarters of the legacies were white.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legacies were much more likely to attend. Of the accepted legacy students, nearly three quarters – 74 percent – agreed to come and enrolled. Fewer than half of the non-legacy students – just 47 percent – matriculated. That’s a giant 27 percentage point difference. The more predictable, better yield that legacies offer allows the college to plan each admissions cycle with more certainty and anticipate future tuition revenues, the authors explained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Donations, of course, are the other big bonus that legacy students bring. At this college, the alumni engagement office assigned each alumni a score based on how graduates contribute after graduating. It’s unclear exactly how many dollars each point translates to, but legacies had an average “give” score of 48 points, 50 percent higher than the 32 point average of non-legacies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not that legacy students earned higher wages after graduation. Both groups – legacy and non-legacy – had an average income of roughly $85,000 a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even more potent was the propensity to be a big donor. A whopping 42 percent of legacy graduates were flagged as potential top donors, which could include their whole family. Only 6 percent of non-legacy graduates were flagged as potential top donors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Legacies make better alumni after graduation and have wealthier parents who are materially positioned to be more generous donors than non-legacy parents,” the authors wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Academically, legacy applicants tended to have slightly lower high school grades. But the lower achieving legacy applicants were generally rejected. Among the admitted legacies, grades and test scores were indistinguishable from non-legacy students. Both groups had an average SAT score that surpassed 1430. Once on campus, legacy students tended to have slightly higher college grades, but their involvement in campus activities, merit awards, academic recognition and on-time graduation rates were indistinguishable from non-legacy students. In sum, legacy students, on average, were about as academically strong as non-legacy students, neither superior nor inferior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, there is a downside to legacies. As Poskanzer put it, college admissions is a “zero-sum” game and for every legacy applicant who is admitted, there is one less seat for everyone else. Graduating from these elite colleges can open doors to jobs and change lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Admissions officers are not intentionally opting for white students over students of color, but they have conflicting pressures. One goal is to pick a diverse class, but they are also tasked with selecting students who will come and who will support the school financially thereafter. Legacy students fill those latter two demands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story about \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-why-elite-colleges-cant-give-up-legacy-admissions\">\u003cem>legacy student\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>s was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://hechingerreport.us2.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=66c306eebb323868c3ce353c1&id=d3ee4c3e04\">\u003cem>Hechinger newsletter\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "The 5-minute daily playtime ritual that can get your kids to listen better",
"title": "The 5-minute daily playtime ritual that can get your kids to listen better",
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"content": "\u003cp>Do you remember what it was like to be a kid? So much of the day was directed by adults. Wake up. Get dressed. Brush your teeth. Eat your breakfast. Get in the car. Go to school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes kids listen to the instructions — and sometimes they don't. And when they don't, that can be very frustrating for parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So how can parents get their kids to be more apt to comply? It might sound counterintuitive, but one strategy widely recommended by children's health professionals is to engage your child in short, daily sessions of child-led play.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Called \"special time,\" it gives young children a chance to interact with their parents without the stress of having to follow directions — which in turn, strengthens the bond between them, says \u003ca href=\"https://www.nemours.org/find-a-doctor/6845-roger-harrison-psychology-wilmington\">Roger Harrison\u003c/a>, a pediatric psychologist with Nemours Children's Health in Wilmington, Del.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Special time increases opportunities for closeness between a parent and child. As that attachment is building, it increases the likelihood that a child is going to listen or value what a parent has to say,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The concept, developed by psychologist Sheila Eyberg in the 1970s, is simple. For at least 5 minutes a day, sit down with your child and join them in an activity. That includes drawing, playing with dolls, building blocks — anything that doesn't have a right or wrong way to play (like video games), says child psychologist \u003ca href=\"https://www.lowcountrychildpsychology.com/about\">Kerrie Murphy\u003c/a>. Don't ask questions or give commands — this is your child's time to be in charge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research has shown that this kind of playtime can be helpful in treating disruptive conduct in children. According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5530857/#b2-prbm-10-239\">a 2017 review of literature\u003c/a>, parent-child interaction therapy — which includes special time — has long been regarded as an \"effective intervention for a myriad of emotional and behavioral difficulties\" since it was developed in the 1970s. And it's been shown to boost attention spans and social skills in children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you're ready to try special time with your child, read our handy guide below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60034\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-60034\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/10/how-to-play-final-2_slide-7040e431a95f5387ba7af0a8312773cce80385bf-e1666366488222.jpg\" alt=\"Child playing with blocks\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">August stacks Legos during special time. When engaging in this activity with a child, psychologists say it's important to give them specific praise, especially for behaviors you'd like to see more of. For example, instead of saying \"Good job!\" you might say \"I'm so impressed by how many blocks you stacked!\" \u003ccite>(Meredith Rizzo/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Follow 'PRIDE' when doing special time\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2010-09280-021\">Researchers developed\u003c/a> the acronym \"PRIDE\" to help parents and caretakers remember \u003ca href=\"https://www.bu.edu/cdl/files/2018/08/PRIDE-Skills-Childcare-Training.pdf\">the tenets of child-led play\u003c/a> when engaging in special time. These actions encourage adults to follow their child's lead, provide positive attention and ignore minor acts of disobedience, with the goal of reinforcing appropriate behaviors. Keep these directives in mind as you play with your child.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>P: Praise \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Give your child specific praise as you play together. \"Rather than saying 'good job,' because kids hear that all day long,\" says Harrison, \"say 'I love the way you stack those blocks high.' \" Focus on behaviors you want to see more of and provide positive affirmation. For example, if you see a child encouraging you to dress up a doll first, then going second, you might say: \"Thank you for letting me take a turn.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>R: Reflect\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As your child plays, verbally repeat back some of what they say. \"If they say 'and it crashes,' I'm going to say 'and it crashes,' \" explains Harrison. The repetition shows your child you understand them and that you're listening. Focus especially on talk you'd like to hear more of. For example, if they say, \"I'm reading a book!\" you might say, \"you're reading a book!\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I: Imitate\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Join your child in parallel play. If they are stacking Legos, you stack Legos. If they are making dots on paper with a crayon, you make dots on paper with a crayon. This shows your child you're playing with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If they don't want you to imitate them, they'll let you know. \"They're going to give me an instruction, and during special time I am going to follow that instruction,\" says Harrison. \"Children don't feel enough power in a world that's dominated by adult demands. This might mean little to you as the parent, but it means the world to a child to have you join them this way. That is what makes special time therapeutic.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D: Describe\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Narrate what your child is doing as though you're a sportscaster calling a game, says Harrison. And remember, sportscasters don't \"coach the game or tell the players what to do. They describe what they're seeing for an audience.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So when you're sitting with your child, go ahead and describe their activity. For example, if your child puts an orange block on top of their tower, you might say, \"You just put an orange block on top of your tall tower!\" Again, this demonstrates your interest in their actions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1100px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/10/14/how-to-play-final-1_slide-fdddbca25833fd5a94055319decc456034ef7e79-s1100-c50.jpg\" alt=\"Parent and child playing with toys\" width=\"1100\" height=\"733\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harlan narrates August's actions as he plays with his Legos to show him that she's interested in what he's doing. (Meredith Rizzo/NPR)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>E: Enthusiasm\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Show enthusiasm while playing with your child by smiling, clapping or using your words to express you're having a good time. So if you see that they completed a puzzle or dressed up their doll, you might say, \"Wow, you dressed your doll in such bright colors! I had so much fun picking this outfit out with you!\" and give them a high five.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What matters, says Harrison, is that you're \"authentically communicating verbally and non-verbally to your child that you're interested and excited to be with them.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The best toys and activities for special time\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Play with toys that encourage imagination or creativity, says Harrison. That includes blocks, magnetic tiles, trucks, train sets, kitchen and play food — and simple arts and crafts like drawing or coloring with crayons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steer clear from toys or activities that have a lot of rules, such as board games, or lend themselves to rough or messy play, like pretend sword-fighting or painting, says Murphy. The idea is to avoid situations where you might have to explain directions or tell your child to \"be careful,\" she adds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1100px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/10/14/how-to-play-final-5_slide-08166e0affae53b65cef6d69af006a593b2c5afe-s1100-c50.jpg\" alt=\"Parent clapping with child\" width=\"1100\" height=\"733\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harlan claps as August plays to show him that she's having a good time. (Meredith Rizzo/NPR)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Who should do special time\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Special time is recommended for children ages 2 to 7. Each caregiver in the household — mom, dad, grandma, uncle, whoever — should take turns doing special time with each child at home, says Murphy. That way, each child has a chance to receive positive attention from the adults in their life. And remember, it's a one-on-one treatment, so if you have two kids, don't lump their special time together.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>How long to do special time — and when\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Harrison recommends doing at least 5 minutes of special time with your child at least four times a week and making it part of a daily routine, perhaps a little before bedtime to help your child relax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And keep in mind, says Murphy, the practice often feels awkward for adults at first. But give it a week or two, and you'll find that your child won't \"want it to end. That's proof in the pudding right there.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The audio portion of this episode was produced by Summer Thomad. The digital story was edited by Malaka Gharib. We'd love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"tel:2022169823\">\u003cem>202-216-9823\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, or email us at \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"mailto:LifeKit@npr.org\">\u003cem>LifeKit@npr.org\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=The+5-minute+daily+playtime+ritual+that+can+get+your+kids+to+listen+better&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Called \"special time,\" the strategy is widely recommended by children's health professionals to help reduce behavioral issues in young children. Here's a guide on how to do it with your kids at home.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Do you remember what it was like to be a kid? So much of the day was directed by adults. Wake up. Get dressed. Brush your teeth. Eat your breakfast. Get in the car. Go to school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes kids listen to the instructions — and sometimes they don't. And when they don't, that can be very frustrating for parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So how can parents get their kids to be more apt to comply? It might sound counterintuitive, but one strategy widely recommended by children's health professionals is to engage your child in short, daily sessions of child-led play.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Called \"special time,\" it gives young children a chance to interact with their parents without the stress of having to follow directions — which in turn, strengthens the bond between them, says \u003ca href=\"https://www.nemours.org/find-a-doctor/6845-roger-harrison-psychology-wilmington\">Roger Harrison\u003c/a>, a pediatric psychologist with Nemours Children's Health in Wilmington, Del.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Special time increases opportunities for closeness between a parent and child. As that attachment is building, it increases the likelihood that a child is going to listen or value what a parent has to say,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The concept, developed by psychologist Sheila Eyberg in the 1970s, is simple. For at least 5 minutes a day, sit down with your child and join them in an activity. That includes drawing, playing with dolls, building blocks — anything that doesn't have a right or wrong way to play (like video games), says child psychologist \u003ca href=\"https://www.lowcountrychildpsychology.com/about\">Kerrie Murphy\u003c/a>. Don't ask questions or give commands — this is your child's time to be in charge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research has shown that this kind of playtime can be helpful in treating disruptive conduct in children. According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5530857/#b2-prbm-10-239\">a 2017 review of literature\u003c/a>, parent-child interaction therapy — which includes special time — has long been regarded as an \"effective intervention for a myriad of emotional and behavioral difficulties\" since it was developed in the 1970s. And it's been shown to boost attention spans and social skills in children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you're ready to try special time with your child, read our handy guide below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_60034\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-60034\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2022/10/how-to-play-final-2_slide-7040e431a95f5387ba7af0a8312773cce80385bf-e1666366488222.jpg\" alt=\"Child playing with blocks\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">August stacks Legos during special time. When engaging in this activity with a child, psychologists say it's important to give them specific praise, especially for behaviors you'd like to see more of. For example, instead of saying \"Good job!\" you might say \"I'm so impressed by how many blocks you stacked!\" \u003ccite>(Meredith Rizzo/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Follow 'PRIDE' when doing special time\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2010-09280-021\">Researchers developed\u003c/a> the acronym \"PRIDE\" to help parents and caretakers remember \u003ca href=\"https://www.bu.edu/cdl/files/2018/08/PRIDE-Skills-Childcare-Training.pdf\">the tenets of child-led play\u003c/a> when engaging in special time. These actions encourage adults to follow their child's lead, provide positive attention and ignore minor acts of disobedience, with the goal of reinforcing appropriate behaviors. Keep these directives in mind as you play with your child.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>P: Praise \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Give your child specific praise as you play together. \"Rather than saying 'good job,' because kids hear that all day long,\" says Harrison, \"say 'I love the way you stack those blocks high.' \" Focus on behaviors you want to see more of and provide positive affirmation. For example, if you see a child encouraging you to dress up a doll first, then going second, you might say: \"Thank you for letting me take a turn.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>R: Reflect\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As your child plays, verbally repeat back some of what they say. \"If they say 'and it crashes,' I'm going to say 'and it crashes,' \" explains Harrison. The repetition shows your child you understand them and that you're listening. Focus especially on talk you'd like to hear more of. For example, if they say, \"I'm reading a book!\" you might say, \"you're reading a book!\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I: Imitate\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Join your child in parallel play. If they are stacking Legos, you stack Legos. If they are making dots on paper with a crayon, you make dots on paper with a crayon. This shows your child you're playing with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If they don't want you to imitate them, they'll let you know. \"They're going to give me an instruction, and during special time I am going to follow that instruction,\" says Harrison. \"Children don't feel enough power in a world that's dominated by adult demands. This might mean little to you as the parent, but it means the world to a child to have you join them this way. That is what makes special time therapeutic.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D: Describe\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Narrate what your child is doing as though you're a sportscaster calling a game, says Harrison. And remember, sportscasters don't \"coach the game or tell the players what to do. They describe what they're seeing for an audience.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So when you're sitting with your child, go ahead and describe their activity. For example, if your child puts an orange block on top of their tower, you might say, \"You just put an orange block on top of your tall tower!\" Again, this demonstrates your interest in their actions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1100px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/10/14/how-to-play-final-1_slide-fdddbca25833fd5a94055319decc456034ef7e79-s1100-c50.jpg\" alt=\"Parent and child playing with toys\" width=\"1100\" height=\"733\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harlan narrates August's actions as he plays with his Legos to show him that she's interested in what he's doing. (Meredith Rizzo/NPR)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>E: Enthusiasm\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Show enthusiasm while playing with your child by smiling, clapping or using your words to express you're having a good time. So if you see that they completed a puzzle or dressed up their doll, you might say, \"Wow, you dressed your doll in such bright colors! I had so much fun picking this outfit out with you!\" and give them a high five.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What matters, says Harrison, is that you're \"authentically communicating verbally and non-verbally to your child that you're interested and excited to be with them.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The best toys and activities for special time\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Play with toys that encourage imagination or creativity, says Harrison. That includes blocks, magnetic tiles, trucks, train sets, kitchen and play food — and simple arts and crafts like drawing or coloring with crayons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steer clear from toys or activities that have a lot of rules, such as board games, or lend themselves to rough or messy play, like pretend sword-fighting or painting, says Murphy. The idea is to avoid situations where you might have to explain directions or tell your child to \"be careful,\" she adds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1100px\">\u003cimg src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/10/14/how-to-play-final-5_slide-08166e0affae53b65cef6d69af006a593b2c5afe-s1100-c50.jpg\" alt=\"Parent clapping with child\" width=\"1100\" height=\"733\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harlan claps as August plays to show him that she's having a good time. (Meredith Rizzo/NPR)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Who should do special time\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Special time is recommended for children ages 2 to 7. Each caregiver in the household — mom, dad, grandma, uncle, whoever — should take turns doing special time with each child at home, says Murphy. That way, each child has a chance to receive positive attention from the adults in their life. And remember, it's a one-on-one treatment, so if you have two kids, don't lump their special time together.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>How long to do special time — and when\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Harrison recommends doing at least 5 minutes of special time with your child at least four times a week and making it part of a daily routine, perhaps a little before bedtime to help your child relax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And keep in mind, says Murphy, the practice often feels awkward for adults at first. But give it a week or two, and you'll find that your child won't \"want it to end. That's proof in the pudding right there.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The audio portion of this episode was produced by Summer Thomad. The digital story was edited by Malaka Gharib. We'd love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"tel:2022169823\">\u003cem>202-216-9823\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, or email us at \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"mailto:LifeKit@npr.org\">\u003cem>LifeKit@npr.org\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=The+5-minute+daily+playtime+ritual+that+can+get+your+kids+to+listen+better&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Biden administration steps up protection against student loan forgiveness scams",
"title": "Biden administration steps up protection against student loan forgiveness scams",
"headTitle": "MindShift | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"storyMajorUpdateDate\">\u003cstrong>Updated October 5, 2022 at 5:06 PM ET\u003c/strong>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>The Biden administration is increasing its efforts to fight scams aimed at taking advantage of borrowers applying for its expansive student loan forgiveness plan, senior administration officials \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/10/05/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-boosts-administration-wide-efforts-to-protect-student-loan-borrowers-from-scammers/\">announced Wednesday\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The administration's \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/debt-relief-announcement/\">forgiveness program\u003c/a> will cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 or $250,000 for households. The plan, which is \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbo.gov/publication/58494\">projected to cost $400 billion\u003c/a>, could benefit as many as 40 million Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the relief was announced in August, the administration has released very little concrete information about what the application will look like or when it will be released. That vacuum has created an opportunity for scammers: As NPR reported last month, some borrowers \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/09/19/1123488226/waiting-for-loan-forgiveness-borrowers-are-targets-for-scammers\">have already encountered\u003c/a> student loan relief scams and misinformation in text messages, phone calls and emails, and experts say it's getting worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This Biden forgiveness thing is Christmas, Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July all rolled into one for the scammers,\" says Betsy Mayotte, the president of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors, a nonprofit that offers free counseling to borrowers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The release they did today is a great step,\" Mayotte added. \"There's only two things we can do as a community [to prevent fraud]. One is to educate borrowers and the other is enforcement.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The administration is aiming to do both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In order to hold scammers accountable, the administration plans to increase collaboration between the Department of Education and other federal agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The administration will also share scam complaints with states more frequently, so state attorneys general can act faster to stop scams in their own jurisdictions, and plans to partner with social media influencers on a public awareness campaign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's an all-government approach, because what we know is it's already happening, that there are evil people who will be trying to use a program like this, that's trying to help people, and run their own frauds and scams to somehow get money or personal information about people,\" says Richard Cordray, the chief operating officer of Federal Student Aid, a branch of the Education Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"What we're trying to do here is to get as much relief as possible to the hard working former students who deserve this relief,\" Cordray added. \"We're moving at warp speed to get the application and the process going here.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Student loan forgiveness was ripe for fraud well before the Biden administration's sweeping plans to cancel debt. According to a July report from the Tech Transparency Project, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/09/19/1123488226/waiting-for-loan-forgiveness-borrowers-are-targets-for-scammers\">more than 10%\u003c/a> of Google ads that popped up in searches related to student loan forgiveness were fraudulent. And in the last year and a half, the FTC has reached nearly $30 million in settlements for borrowers who were falsely promised relief on their student loan payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The administration's efforts to stop these types of scams fall heavily on the shoulders of borrowers themselves: Much of the announced plans focus on increasing efforts to educate the public on how to catch and report scams on their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You are your own best protection against scammers,\" says Cordray, who was also formerly the director of the CFPB.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The White House also released a \"Do's and Don'ts\" tip sheet. Among the tips included:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Don't pay anyone who promises loan forgiveness. The application will be free.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Don't give anyone personal account information for the Federal Student Aid website. The Education Department and federal student loan servicers will not call or email asking for that information.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Don't give personal or financial information over the phone to a caller that's unfamiliar. When in doubt, borrowers should hang up and call their loan servicer directly.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>The administration urged borrowers to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/subscriptions\">sign up to be notified\u003c/a> when the application is available, to make sure their loan servicers have their current contact information and to \u003ca href=\"http://reportfraud.ftc.gov/\">report any scams\u003c/a> they encounter to the FTC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1577753741025021954?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1577753741025021954%7Ctwgr%5Ehb_0_10%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2F2022%2F10%2F05%2F1126904167%2Fstudent-loan-forgiveness-application-scams\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One way to avoid scam vulnerability in the first place would be to release more specific information on what the forgiveness application will look like or when to expect it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"One of the most critical ways to prevent scams and protect borrowers from being taken advantage of is developing a clear, simple, and secure site for borrowers to apply for debt relief and have the most up to date information from trusted sources,\" the administration wrote in a fact sheet outlining their efforts to combat scams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in a briefing Wednesday, senior administration officials would not provide any more concrete details on when the application will go live or what the process will look like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayotte says releasing the application might not actually be all that helpful in preventing bad actors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"In one way, it'll help,\" she says. \"But if I know the scammers, they'll use that as an opportunity too: 'The application's out. You have to hurry. Time is short. Now that the applications are out, let us help you to make sure you don't miss it.' So it's a catch-22.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Biden+administration+steps+up+protection+against+student+loan+forgiveness+scams&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cdiv class=\"storyMajorUpdateDate\">\u003cstrong>Updated October 5, 2022 at 5:06 PM ET\u003c/strong>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>The Biden administration is increasing its efforts to fight scams aimed at taking advantage of borrowers applying for its expansive student loan forgiveness plan, senior administration officials \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/10/05/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-boosts-administration-wide-efforts-to-protect-student-loan-borrowers-from-scammers/\">announced Wednesday\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The administration's \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/debt-relief-announcement/\">forgiveness program\u003c/a> will cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 or $250,000 for households. The plan, which is \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbo.gov/publication/58494\">projected to cost $400 billion\u003c/a>, could benefit as many as 40 million Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the relief was announced in August, the administration has released very little concrete information about what the application will look like or when it will be released. That vacuum has created an opportunity for scammers: As NPR reported last month, some borrowers \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/09/19/1123488226/waiting-for-loan-forgiveness-borrowers-are-targets-for-scammers\">have already encountered\u003c/a> student loan relief scams and misinformation in text messages, phone calls and emails, and experts say it's getting worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This Biden forgiveness thing is Christmas, Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July all rolled into one for the scammers,\" says Betsy Mayotte, the president of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors, a nonprofit that offers free counseling to borrowers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The release they did today is a great step,\" Mayotte added. \"There's only two things we can do as a community [to prevent fraud]. One is to educate borrowers and the other is enforcement.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The administration is aiming to do both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In order to hold scammers accountable, the administration plans to increase collaboration between the Department of Education and other federal agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The administration will also share scam complaints with states more frequently, so state attorneys general can act faster to stop scams in their own jurisdictions, and plans to partner with social media influencers on a public awareness campaign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's an all-government approach, because what we know is it's already happening, that there are evil people who will be trying to use a program like this, that's trying to help people, and run their own frauds and scams to somehow get money or personal information about people,\" says Richard Cordray, the chief operating officer of Federal Student Aid, a branch of the Education Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"What we're trying to do here is to get as much relief as possible to the hard working former students who deserve this relief,\" Cordray added. \"We're moving at warp speed to get the application and the process going here.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Student loan forgiveness was ripe for fraud well before the Biden administration's sweeping plans to cancel debt. According to a July report from the Tech Transparency Project, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/09/19/1123488226/waiting-for-loan-forgiveness-borrowers-are-targets-for-scammers\">more than 10%\u003c/a> of Google ads that popped up in searches related to student loan forgiveness were fraudulent. And in the last year and a half, the FTC has reached nearly $30 million in settlements for borrowers who were falsely promised relief on their student loan payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The administration's efforts to stop these types of scams fall heavily on the shoulders of borrowers themselves: Much of the announced plans focus on increasing efforts to educate the public on how to catch and report scams on their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You are your own best protection against scammers,\" says Cordray, who was also formerly the director of the CFPB.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The White House also released a \"Do's and Don'ts\" tip sheet. Among the tips included:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Don't pay anyone who promises loan forgiveness. The application will be free.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Don't give anyone personal account information for the Federal Student Aid website. The Education Department and federal student loan servicers will not call or email asking for that information.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Don't give personal or financial information over the phone to a caller that's unfamiliar. When in doubt, borrowers should hang up and call their loan servicer directly.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>The administration urged borrowers to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/subscriptions\">sign up to be notified\u003c/a> when the application is available, to make sure their loan servicers have their current contact information and to \u003ca href=\"http://reportfraud.ftc.gov/\">report any scams\u003c/a> they encounter to the FTC.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>One way to avoid scam vulnerability in the first place would be to release more specific information on what the forgiveness application will look like or when to expect it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"One of the most critical ways to prevent scams and protect borrowers from being taken advantage of is developing a clear, simple, and secure site for borrowers to apply for debt relief and have the most up to date information from trusted sources,\" the administration wrote in a fact sheet outlining their efforts to combat scams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in a briefing Wednesday, senior administration officials would not provide any more concrete details on when the application will go live or what the process will look like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayotte says releasing the application might not actually be all that helpful in preventing bad actors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"In one way, it'll help,\" she says. \"But if I know the scammers, they'll use that as an opportunity too: 'The application's out. You have to hurry. Time is short. Now that the applications are out, let us help you to make sure you don't miss it.' So it's a catch-22.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Biden+administration+steps+up+protection+against+student+loan+forgiveness+scams&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
"airtime": "SUN 9pm-10pm",
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"meta": {
"site": "radio",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.commonwealthclub.org/podcasts",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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}
},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
}
},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
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"id": "here-and-now",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/hiddenbrain.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
"subscribe": {
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"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Science-Podcasts/Hidden-Brain-p787503/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510308/podcast.xml"
}
},
"how-i-built-this": {
"id": "how-i-built-this",
"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
"imageAlt": "KQED Hyphenación",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6c3dd23c-93fb-4aab-97ba-1725fa6315f1/hyphenaci%C3%B3n",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
}
},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/xtTd",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindshift-podcast/id1078765985",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Perspectives",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id73801135",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
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},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Political Breakdown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"subscribe": {
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e0c2d153-ad36-4c8d-901d-f1da6a724824/political-breakdown",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/572155894/political-breakdown",
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