Laurus Trust’s Post

California's public school facilities need our support now more than ever. Equitable funding is crucial to ensure that every child, regardless of their zip code, has access to safe, modern, and effective learning environments. It's time to fundamentally change how school facilities are funded so that all students have access to the facilities they need and deserve to focus on their education. California students urgently need school facility funding from the state to modernize outdated and unsafe facilities. We must pass an education bond this year because there are billions of dollars in unmet needs. In moving forward with a much-needed education bond, however, it is crucial that our state legislature and the Newsom administration first fix the inequitable and unconstitutional system of school facility financing in California. Currently, low-wealth districts receive far less in state facility funding per student compared to their higher wealth counterparts ($7,000 vs. over $300,000)—even though they have greater modernization needs from compounded disinvestment from the state, and less ability to raise local funds. Learn more: 👇 Let's push for fair and adequate funding for all California public schools! Join the movement, spread the word, and let’s make a difference together! #FundOurSchools #EquitableEducation #SupportPublicSchools #CaliforniaEducation #InvestInOurFuture Help create brighter futures for EVERY student in California!

Lynwood Superintendent Gudiel Crosthwaite calls on our state leadership to fundamentally change how school facilities are funded so that all students have access to the facilities they need and deserve to focus on their education. Learn more: 👇 California students urgently need school facility funding from the state to modernize outdated and unsafe facilities. We must pass an education bond this year because there are billions of dollars in unmet needs. In moving forward with a much-needed education bond, however, it is crucial that our state legislature and the Newsom administration first fix the inequitable and unconstitutional system of school facility financing in California. Currently, low-wealth districts receive substantially less state facility funding per student compared to their higher wealth counterparts—even though they have greater modernization needs from compounded disinvestment from the state, and less ability to raise local funds. Through this system, wealthy school districts can build theaters and STEM labs and pools. But low-wealth neighborhoods, who have been historically ignored and underinvested in—who need more funds to meet the needs of their students—are stuck using what funds they have to repair HVAC systems and maintain the conditions of their existing buildings. The result is an unequal and unconstitutional system in which students in low-wealth districts receive an education inferior to that of their peers in higher-wealth districts. Join Public Advocates and impacted students, families, educators, and grassroots community organizations across the state who are urging for an equitable education bond by signing onto our petition: https://lnkd.in/gHnezfTr

"Our current funding formula has not been updated in over thirty years, and does not consider the individual needs of local school districts and students. Alabama needs a student-weighted funding formula that provides flexibility and allows policymakers to address unique community challenges." -Ashley Lucier, Executive Director, Amp Up Arts We believe that every child deserves a world-class education, regardless of circumstance. Read the latest Op-ed by Every Child Alabama member Amp Up Arts to learn how a modernized school funding formula could transform Alabama schools and arts education: https://ow.ly/ejsy50SNpfX

Dual enrollment families can do a lot to boost recruitment and retention at community colleges. What can you do as a two-year college? Foster a supportive community for these families. Dig into our recent article on how to do just that. -> https://lnkd.in/ejAvw5Qd

Investment in early childhood education and improving our literacy rates are key components of a solid long-term workforce development strategy.

The new school year is well underway, with new challenges for students and educators alike. Georgia has struggled to improve its low literacy rates, especially with funding and regulatory challenges at both the state and federal level that are contributing to the loss of early childhood educators and reduced number of classrooms. Investing in early childhood education and literacy not only gives a new generation of Georgians the best head start on their education, it is an investment in the future of our state.

Will be joining along and asking questions about the future of sustainability in early years and primary education #letsmakethefuturemoresustainable

I always look forward to the new #PDKPoll results, particularly for an update on how the public is feeling about their child/ren entering the teaching profession. In looking at this year's topline data, I find it very interesting (and amusing) to see how much more opinionated on this question the public has become since 1969, when 10% of respondents didn't have an opinion either way. This grew to 22% of respondents in 1983 before a sharp decline to get to single digits in 1993 - today, 1% of respondents replied "no opinion" I have to imagine that the impacts of the release of A Nation at Risk in April of 1983 and the subsequent shift in how we talk about K-12 education and its "failures" (including who to blame for them) is being shown here. In working with state leaders to address teacher recruitment and retention issues over the past several years, the need for a marketing campaign around the positives of being a teacher has been raised every time. This data is a stark reminder that the way we as a field talk about what it means to be an educator matters - not that we shouldn't advocate for higher pay and better working conditions and publicly share student achievement data, but that we probably need to be more considerate of how we do so and aware of the unintended consequences of our attempts to hold people accountable within the unwieldy system(s) of K-12 education in our country.

North Carolina state superintendent, Catherine Truitt, explains why School Choice, in her words, has the best intentions for students’ futures. Read the full article here: https://loom.ly/s1GrsfU #univeralschoolchoice #schoolchoice #schoolchoiceweek #northcarolinaschools #homeschooling #publicschools #privateschools

To build cultural capital for ALL students in our schools, excursions are crucial. They can spark an interest or create a career ambition that wasn't there before. Here's what we wrote about the importance of school trips in our new book, The Working Classroom (published by Crown House, November 2023): "One of the purposes of extra-curricular activities is to spark students’ interests. We first came across the term ‘sparking’ in Kaz Stuart and Lucy Maynard’s excellent book, Promoting Young People’s Empowerment and Agency: A Critical Framework for Practice.[1] The term refers to a course designer’s deliberate attempt to provide an experience which elicits the feeling of ‘I want to do that’ or ‘I’d like to be that’." Sadly, it's hard not to come to the conclusion that the current government has no interest in making life culturally richer for all. Government should work alongside companies (especially transport companies) to make it substantially easier and cheaper for schools to take trips. [1] K. Stuart and L. Maynard, Promoting Young People’s Empowerment and Agency: A Critical Framework for Practice (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2017).