Education
Puerto Rico Education Department Forced to Return $6.5M in Federal Funds for Providing Wrong Data
An audit by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of the Inspector General revealed that the local agency erred in the number of students it identified as “displaced” to receive a multimillion-dollar grant after Hurricanes Irma and María struck.
Puerto Rico Public Schools Lack Materials for Antiracist Education
The Puerto Rico Department of Education expects to have antiracist teaching resources in the classrooms by 2023, after securing $12 million from the American Rescue Plan Emergency Funds for Schools.
The Growing Call to Abolish Student Debt (A Latino USA Podcast)
In this episode, Latino USA dives into the history of the student loan system in the U.S, as well as the stories of Black and Latino organizers that have been at the forefront of the movement for student debt cancellation.
Report: ‘US Educational Progress for All’ Means Investing in Latino Students
The report, titled “Latino Student Success: Advancing U.S. Educational Progress for All” and released by UnidosUS, makes seven recommendations to guarantee that decades of steady educational progress made by Latinos are not erased by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Have You Heard
Latino Rebels Radio: June 30, 2022
Denver Students Plan Walkout in Support of Outspoken Chicano Teacher (OPINION)
The removal of a beloved and outspoken Chicano teacher at Denver’s North High School has the community, already beset by gentrification, upset. Students have planned a walkout for Friday, May 13.
Puerto Rico Teachers Drowning in Bureaucracy and Bad Planning
Today, teachers in Puerto Rico have fewer support staff, while their administrative responsibilities have increased through new technology platforms and documents handled as part of the accountability system imposed for educational reform.
How Iowa’s Anti-Critical Race Theory Bills Impact Students of Color (VIDEO)
An Iowa bill would require cameras in almost every K-12 classroom in the state, allowing parents to view livestreams and thus monitor instruction. In this video, journalist and decolonial educator Constanza Eliana Chinea gives a deep dive into the bill and how it affects Black and Brown people in the state and beyond
Reinstate Teacher Bryan Chu and Defend Free Speech in Public Schools (OPINION)
In Portland’s public schools, an unprecedented blueprint for silencing dissenting voices is currently under construction. But the fight for freedom of speech in public education now has a new champion—Bryan Chu.
Puerto Rico School’s Budget Data Still Unclear Four Years After Education Reform
Act 85 of 2018 vowed to specify how much the government invests in its students, but four years after it was enacted, directors, parents, and teachers are playing a guessing game on the resources their schools count on since the Department of Education still doesn’t have a clear and transparent process to calculate the cost per student.
Expensive Evaluation to ‘Transform’ University of Puerto Rico’s Medical Sciences Campus
The meetings of the committee appointed to evaluate the operations of the campus were paid for with the Office of Institutional Transformation budget, whose operation from 2019 to date has cost $2,126,284.
A Reimagined Pedagogy Is Needed Before We Return to In-Person Learning (OPINION)
More than ever, we need to reimagine a pedagogy from the ground up and build a democratic learning space that responds to students’ multiple interests, incorporates the diversity of knowledge and intellectual traditions, and fights all forms of oppression.
Afrodescendant Representation in Spanish-Language Textbooks
Looking at Spanish textbooks published between 2014 and 2017, Drs. Rosti Vana and Lillie Padilla studied the frequency of Afro-Latinx textual and visual references, and how they were historically and culturally portrayed. In the dozen books studied, there were only 52 textual mentions of Afro-Latinx—one of the textbooks mentioned Afro-Latinx people only once in its 500 pages.
‘We Don’t Want Crumbs’: Thousands of Teachers in Puerto Rico Strike for Fair Pay
On Friday, classrooms across Puerto Rico continued to sit empty as thousands of public school teachers protested at the foot of the Capitolio, home to Puerto Rico’s legislature, and then walked to the governor’s official residence, La Fortaleza, to demand fair pay and pensions.
Puerto Rico Department of Education Planning a New Wave of School Closings
The Puerto Rico Department of Education’s (DE) “vision of the future” proposes the closing of another 83 schools by 2026, affecting 18,644 students, according to a new infrastructure master plan reviewed by the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo.
What Senators Say About Their Staffers’ Student Loan Debt
“Not just my staff,” said Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) when asked about the student debt born by her team. “The people of Nevada, people I know, my family members. And I think there definitely is a concern we have in this country about high student debt.”
Educación planifica nueva ola de cierre de escuelas en Puerto Rico
La agencia pretende eliminar 83 escuelas de cara al 2026, sin que las comunidades escolares hayan participado del proceso.
Rooting Out Racism in Children’s Books
One of the most important things parents can do is to engage with their child readers about what they are reading and seeing in books.
New Year’s Resolution: Save Our Schools From Violence (OPINION)
As a society, what measures are we taking to prevent future incidents of school-related violence, which harm our most vulnerable students, often already tackling barriers related to gender, race, and socioeconomic status?
Child Care Provider: Pass the Build Back Better Act (OPINION)
Take it from me, an early childhood educator who working parents depend on to care for their little children: the funding in the Build Back Better Act provides the only true investment we’ve seen for supporting the littlest members of our society and the workers who care for them.
The English Learner Who Became Secretary of Education (A Latino USA Podcast)
Secretary Miguel Cardona grew up in a Puerto Rican household in Meriden, Connecticut; Spanish was his first language. On his first day of kindergarten, he couldn’t speak any English.