The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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Can students really skip college and earn a good living? Here’s what the data shows. For much of the last few decades, some young people have heard a simple mantra: bachelor’s or bust. That is, they were told that the best and perhaps only path to economic prosperity is through a four-year college education. Now a wide swath of politicians, educators, and philanthropists are rethinking this. Some even suggest that there are numerous lucrative jobs that don’t require a degree. A New York Times vi...
School budgets are under pressure nationwide. Here’s what’s driving the cuts. School districts are under pressure this year. Some of the largest in the country are handing out pink slips. Canceling technology contracts. And even slashing specific medications from employee health plans. As many school boards debate their budgets for the upcoming school year, a Chalkbeat analysis found a common thread: More than half of the country’s 50 largest school districts are poised to or already have made...
Do I really need a college degree to be successful? Deciding whether you need a college degree to build a rewarding future might feel overwhelming. Everywhere you turn — online, the news, your family — there’s a different story. Some people talk about billionaires who dropped out of college, while others point to studies showing that people with degrees tend to earn more over their lifetimes. The truth? There’s no single path to success or one-size-fits-all answer. This guide from The Univers...
Is it back-to-school butterflies or something deeper? Back-to-school season can be a stressful time for students. As you think about navigating your class schedule, friend dynamics, academic pressures, and other responsibilities, it’s normal to feel a little nervous. If this happens to you, you’re not alone, and there are ways to feel better. Feeling anxious at the start of a new school year doesn’t mean you have a mental health condition. But if your anxiety doesn’t go away and negativ...
European student housing is 30% more competitive than last year. US students who act now still have the advantage. Nearly 7.3 million students are studying outside their home countries right now, and about half of them are in Europe, according to UNESCO's first Higher Education Global Trends Report, published in 2026. The same report projects that number to reach nine million by 2030. For U.S. students planning to join them this autumn, the housing market is more competitive than ever, but...
Just graduated with debt? Here's what you need to know before you consolidate If you’ve just finished school and find yourself in debt, take a deep breath—you’re in good company. So many people start this chapter the same way. It’s a season of transition, and that debt is often part of the bigger picture of investing in yourself, building your career, and stepping into adult life. Paying off that debt can definitely feel overwhelming. Fortunately, debt consolidation could make the process...
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (JUN 29, 2026) – A long-running collaboration between engineers and nurses at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) is expanding into state-of-the-art infant training simulators with the support of a $50,000 grant from the Zabara Foundation. UAH is a part of The University of Alabama System. "At the Zabara Foundation, we're focused on supporting smart, effective solutions that move the needle on patient outcomes," said Chief Operating Officer Megan Murphy Wolf. She v...
What are the different types of student loans you can use to pay for college? Summer means many high school seniors and their parents are prepping for life’s next big stage — college. But for many families, once graduation celebrations end and dorm room shopping begins, there’s another reality that also sets in — the first tuition bill. College Ave, a private student loan company, recently conducted a survey of parents of current college students and found the majority (80%) cannot cover t...
Exploring the benefits of free community college A good education can expand your skills and open up new career opportunities. Attending community college for free can be a huge step in the right direction for those who qualify. No matter what stage of life you’re in — whether you’re unemployed, between jobs, upskilling in your current career or about to finish high school — there are options that can help you accomplish your goals. A new educational journey begins with knowledge. Explore...
School funding is relatively equal, but childhood still isn’t Children from low-income families have roughly $80,000 less invested in their development, well-being, and education relative to their peers from high-income households, according to a new study, the findings of which Chalkbeat examines here The research is significant because it puts a figure on what has long been known: Children do not have the same access to the resources that might help them flourish. While formal schooling is f...
How families are paying for college when savings fall short College affordability can be a tough nut to crack, especially if you don’t have enough in savings to pay it. College Ave, a private student loan company, conducted a June 2025 survey of college parents and found less than half (44%) felt ready to pay for college when their child graduated high school. Most parents (80%) reported they could not pay for the full cost of college with savings alone. And it’s not surprising. In its Tre...
At 250, the Declaration of Independence still sparks hard questions in class Among longtime history teacher Karalee Wong Nakatsuka’s most prized possessions are two nearly identical T-shirts with very different meanings. One comes from Philadelphia’s Museum of the American Revolution, celebrating the Founding Fathers’ signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and their fight for freedom from the British Crown. The second is from Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., where an assassi...
How to maximize internship season and start your financial future For young adults entering the workforce, there is good news and bad news right now. Let’s start with the bad: The job market is looking a little bleak, at 7.8% unemployment for those ages 22-27, according to the latest data from the New York Fed. Those are the worst numbers since the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent college grads are doing a little better, but not much, with their unemployment rate at 5.6%. M...
What parents should understand about AI chatbots in social media apps Most kids on social media have likely interacted with an artificial intelligence (AI) chat buddy. Some well-known examples: Meta has a new AI assistant that explains how to change a tire or lose weight. Snapchat’s My AI buddy will explain a science topic in a simple way. Even X has an AI chatbot named Grok (available with a subscription upgrade). For most families, the first interactions with these AI chatbots on social m...
What the US can teach other countries about home-based child care Each day, nearly 70% of the world’s children are cared for and educated by adults other than their parents in home-based settings, many of which are informal and run by women. (In the United States, it’s about 30%.) In many countries, these home-based settings receive little financial or training support from their governments. The National Association for Family Child Care’s (NAFCC) global learning convening this past summe...
Southern Preparatory Academy has several summer programs available for students....
Raising resilient kids in a hyper-connected world Parenting has never been easy, but the job now follows families into places previous generations never had to manage. A child can be sitting at the kitchen table, completely safe at home, and still be absorbing the unrelenting pressure of group chats, online conflict, and social comparison that does not pause when the day ends, BetterHelp reports. Key takeaways - Modern parenting has become harder because children’s stress now follows them h...
More than a quarter of private colleges are at risk of closing, new projection shows More than a dozen newborn lambs cavorted around a fenced-in yard beneath the scrutiny of their mothers and a few watchful students taking turns attending to them. The lambs’ successful births have been a needed bright spot at tiny Sterling College, which uses a 130-acre farm to teach agriculture and other disciplines in a part of northeastern Vermont so isolated it’s rare to see a passing car, and there’s no ce...
What school districts actually spend to replace a single school bus, and why the number keeps climbing If you ask your local school district board member how they buy buses, they'll probably reply, "on a plan." That plan is a budget that’s approved months before anyone submits a state bid or signs a purchase order. The problem is that the gap between what districts budget and what they actually pay has been widening for years. And in 2026, BusesforSale.com reports, three separate forces p...
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (MAY 6, 2026) – The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees unanimously appointed Donald J. Leo, PhD, as the 11th president of The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). He will assume the role on June 1. An accomplished administrator with more than 30 years of experience in higher education, Leo's leadership journey is largely defined by his 11‑year tenure at the University of Georgia, where he served as the first permanent dean of the College of Engineering. Rec...
Teachers say there’s a rise in misbehavior even among the littlest kids School had been in session at Lead Elementary for less than an hour, but already Andrea Quinn had paused teaching her first graders nearly 20 times, she told The Hechinger Report. First, there was the child who had zipped his entire face inside the hood of his green sweatshirt. “Is that a good choice?” Quinn asked. “Yeah?” responded a muffled voice. Then, there was the girl in pink leggings who stood up from her seat, wan...
Why kids who love dinosaurs may be smarter than we think A child who falls completely in love with dinosaurs has a way of turning everyone around them into an accidental expert. Researchers who study early childhood development have been paying close attention to children who develop that kind of devoted interest in one subject. And what they are learning is helping explain why these early passions can offer important clues about how children begin building knowledge and confidence as they...
Khan Academy’s founder says AI tutoring revolution hasn't come for education, yet Three years ago, as Khan Academy founder Sal Khan rolled out an AI-powered tutoring chatbot, he predicted a revolution in learning. So far, the revolution hasn’t happened, he acknowledged. “For a lot of students, it was a non-event,” Khan told Chalkbeat about his eponymous chatbot, Khanmigo. “They just didn’t use it much.” Khan gives this analogy: Imagine he walked into a class, sat in the back of the room, and...
This elementary school banned screens in the middle of the year. Will it solve their reading crisis? Chromebooks are scattered all around the classrooms of Floyd M. Jewett Elementary School in Mesick, Michigan. Towers of them are teetering atop bookshelves. They’re piled up in corners of classrooms. They’ve even cropped up in one classroom’s dish rack. But there’s one place you won’t find them: in students’ hands. Last month, Mesick Consolidated Schools banned digital devices in its elementary...
Kids who were babies during COVID-19 are now struggling with reading and math Although most of them were still in diapers when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, today’s early elementary students didn’t make it through the global catastrophe unscathed. A new analysis from NWEA, an assessment company, suggests that these children are experiencing learning disruptions even now. While kindergarten achievement levels in math and reading largely held steady during and since the pandemic, by first and sec...
