The Goodnewspaper The Education Edition

I think many of us had that one teacher who made a huge difference in our lives. They taught their subject with passion and energy, they chose to share themselves with their students to help forge a connection, and they held you to high standards while also helping you achieve those standards in a way that was unique to how your brain worked. For me it was my 7th grade english teacher, Mr. Johnson. I can imagine a name of a teacher, coach, or mentor came to mind for you relatively quickly, too. I feel incredibly privileged to have had the education I had growing up. First of all, I grew up in a country where access to education was essentially a given. My schools had adequate funding, great leadership…

After a rural school district in Batesville, Arkansas installed solar panels at their schools, they turned a $250,000 annual budget deficit into a $1.8 million surplus — enough to give every teacher a raise of up to $15,000, CBS News reports. Out of the more than 7,332 schools across the country that are using solar power - according to Generation 180, a clean energy nonprofit — Batesville School District seems to be the only one that has turned its savings into paychecks. After conducting an energy audit, superintendent Michael Hester was shocked to discover that his district could save at least $2.4 million over a span of 20 years if the district opted for clean-energy alternatives like solar power. The school district transformed an unused field into a solar energy…

Chances are, if you’ve been a student in the last decade, you’ve turned to a specific YouTube channel to help you study anything from biological polymers to political economies: Crash Course. The channel, created by renowned internet duo John and Hank Green, has been active for over 10 years and has amassed over 1.6 billion views, sharing free and fast-paced videos for any learner or teacher to use. The goal of the platform is to “transform the traditional textbook model,” and do so in a way that engages learners beyond the goal of just passing a test. Crash Course is 100% free to 13.5 million subscribers (and anyone else on the internet who wants to learn). However, keeping learning free is a tough job. Enter: Crash Course Coin. And, no,…

As a response to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with the help of additional Congressional funding, issued waivers that temporarily provided schools the means to feed all students — regardless of their parents’ income levels. According to TIME, Republicans and Democrats alike championed these waivers, schools embraced increased reimbursement rates, and billions of meals were provided. Now two years deep into the pandemic, though, the waivers will soon expire. But two states are keeping children fed. California was the first state to permanently adopt free school meals for all K-12 students. In 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law to increase the state’s meal imbursement budget, offering breakfast and lunch to all students, according to the School Nutrition Association (SNA). Similarly, Maine Governor Janet…

GOOD Learn more about childhood hunger in America. Listen to “Rethinking Hunger,” a podcast from the New Mexico Out of School Time Network, which dicusses the fight for a better food system. nmost.org/podcast BETTER Donate to organizations that are working to provide all U.S. students with free food! The School Nutrition Association (schoolnutrition.org) and No Kid Hungry (nokidhungry.org) are great places for your dollars to go. BEST Do your part to end the systemic oppression that makes food inaccessible. Whether that means calling your representatives, working with your school board, or educating your community about meal programs, we need you!…

It’s no secret that the high price tag on higher education keeps Americans from going to school — or keeps them from financial freedom in adulthood. According to NerdWallet, about 13% of people in the United States carry student loan debt — that’s about 43 million Americans. As much as it would be a relief to have a sweeping overhaul of the education system or impactful federal loan forgiveness (here’s hoping!), we’re not there yet. College Promise (CP) is a non-partisan nonprofit dedicated to improving college affordability and student loan reduction by funding the first two years of students’ education. The work of CP— often amplified by First Lady Dr. Jill Biden — has been a catalyst for a number of state-level laws. In March of 2022, New Mexico Governor…