Pennsylvania spends an average of nearly $20,000 per student per year on education statewidebut a gubernatorial candidate said he thought it was too much.
In his bid for governor, State Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin, said he would like to cut funding for public schools $10,000 per child and give the rest to families for their choice of public, private or home schooling.
It would be devastating for the 1.7 million students in public schools, said Pennsylvania State Education Association President Rich Askey.
“When you cut funding to schools that much,” he said, “the first thing that’s going to happen is teachers are going to be fired, curricula are going to be lost, and class sizes are going to explode. .”
Askey said the teachers’ union has asked Mastriano for more details about his proposal, but has yet to receive a response. Askey noted that increasing education funding in recent years has been a bipartisan effort, led by Governor Tom Wolf after severe budget cuts in previous years.
Askey said he views the additional funding as recognition that supporting education is one of the most important functions of state government.
“When you fund public schools in Pennsylvania — or any state — what you’re doing is supporting the next generation,” he said, “and you’re making our state stronger at the future and moving forward, so we can have the workforce, the think tanks – we can have strong good citizens.”
This month, Wolf solidified his legacy with a historic $3.7 billion education budget, which includes a $1.8 billion budget increase for the upcoming school year.
Disclosure: The Pennsylvania State Education Association contributes to our fund for reporting on budget policy and priorities, early childhood education, education, living wages/working families. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.
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A measure to provide in-state tuition to all Arizona high school graduates, regardless of immigration status, will go to a vote in November.
Known as Proposition 308it would also ensure that DACA and undocumented students are eligible for public scholarships if they have been in the state for at least two years.
Just over 2,000 undocumented and DACA students graduate from high schools across the state each year, and Jose Patiño, the nonprofit group’s vice president of education and external affairs Alientosaid they often have to pay 300% more than their peers at community colleges and 150% more at public universities.
“The majority of students who graduate without papers, DACA students, just have this hurdle that they can’t get over,” he said, “can’t pay for college because you don’t You’re not eligible for the traditional way low-income college students go, via FAFSA, and you’re also charged significantly more than your peers.”
He noted that some high-achieving students can get private scholarships, but thinks expanding college access for all Dreamers is essential. Twenty-two states allow undocumented residents to qualify for in-state tuition, and Patiño said he hopes Arizona will join them soon.
In 2006, Arizona lawmakers put another measure on the ballot – Proposal 300 – prohibit undocumented students from accessing in-state tuition, and that’s it. Prop 300 also prevented Dreamers from getting childcare assistance or accessing literacy programs and adult education classes. But Patiño said it was foolish to prevent a student from reaching their full potential through post-secondary education.
“Education has a transformational experience – especially for new low-income students, first-generation students,” he said, “where not only do you benefit, but you change the trajectory of your family” .
He added that giving students a fair chance, regardless of their immigration status, helps the economy; undocumented immigrants in Arizona contribute hundreds of millions of dollars a year to federal, state and local taxes.
Support for this report was provided by Lumina Foundation.
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When it opened in 1973, Doña Ana Community College in Las Cruces, New Mexico focused on relatively short-term training. It has since branched out to recognize that many careers require education beyond a certificate or associate’s degree, and helps students embark on the path to a bachelor’s degree. Comments by Mónica Torres, President, Doña Ana Community College.
Enrollment at two- and four-year colleges has been hit hard during the pandemic, and administrators must now convince prospective students that their investment is worth returning to.
Monica Torres, president of Doña Ana Community College in Las Cruces, said renewed interest is in STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – a field that many Hispanic students avoid because it may require more years of study. , which could be difficult to make their money stretch. She said she believed community colleges could offer a solution.
“There are times when students have to hit the computer superhighway almost immediately to graduate in four years,” she said. “So we’re seeing more community colleges working on these lower division research experiments.”
A recent report from Pew Research found that Hispanic Americans are significantly underrepresented in the ranks of scientists and related professions. Hispanics make up 17% of the total workforce, but only 8% work in a STEM-related field.
Torres said about 25% of students who say they want to get into a four-year college actually do, and that needs to improve.
“How can we think in an unconventional way about recruiting these students? Because not all of these students are 18 or 19 years old,” she said. “Some of the students we really try to pay attention to are those who are 23, 24, 25 and older.”
The New Mexico State University system has focused more on transitioning students from its branch community colleges in Las Cruces, Grants and Alamogordo, which Torres says is increasingly important.
“There are a lot of students who say, ‘You know what? I want to start and I want to save money, or I want to start and I want to stay closer to home, or I want to start and I want to be to a smaller campus where I don’t feel intimidated by the size. It’s a real opportunity for them, those kind of transfers,” she said.
Since opening in 1973, NMSU branch community colleges such as Doña Ana have developed programs to support students’ transition to the main campus for courses that include criminal justice, pre-enterprise, and elementary education and secondary.
Support for this report was provided by Lumina Foundation.
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Several studies have confirmed that students across the country have experienced learning loss during the pandemic.
Now in Los Angeles, 108 community organizations and local agencies are sharing $7.8 million in grants to help children catch up. The California Community Foundation just announced the grants, as the final installment of a three-year program.
Victor Dominguez, president and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Los Angeles, said the funds help support 45 summer camps in the area.
“We were able to engage more than 20,000 children and teens in safe, high-quality sports, arts, fitness, civic engagement and summer STEM enrichment activities,” Dominguez emphasized.
Rapid Response Grants will also help the Mayor’s Office, the Los Angeles Unified School District, and the County Office of Education forge partnerships with community organizations in the future. The initiative is expected to immediately help 86,000 children aged 5 to 17 and reach another 136,000 through after-school activities this fall with tutoring, STEM classes and mental health programs.
Valerie Cuevas, director of education for the California Community Foundation, which oversees the grants, said the goal is to help restore some of what was washed away by the pandemic.
“Our main effort was to make sure that young people maintained the connection with learning, the connection with school; to find a way to maintain the joy, the connection with peers, despite the heaviness of everything that was going on around from us,” Cuevas explained.
She added that the summer learning initiative was made possible by huge donations from several charities, including $3.3 million from the Ballmer Group.
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