The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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Goblins AI math tutoring app clones your teacher’s looks and voice Math students can soon call upon an avatar of their classroom teacher — a round-faced cartoon created by artificial intelligence to capture their likeness, voice, vocabulary and cadence — to respond directly to their questions in real time. A new application designed to scale up extra help, Goblins was launched in the winter of 2024. Since then, a disembodied voice has been assessing students’ work in fifth- through 12th-gr...
America’s special education crisis: How teacher shortages threaten our most vulnerable students When news dies down regarding teacher shortages, they almost always start up again after only a short reprieve. This constant state of “one step forward, two steps back” has an even more worrying underlying issue: a shortage of special education teachers. These critical professionals assist students with learning, physical, emotional, or developmental disabilities, helping to foster their succe...
HUNTSVILLE, AL. (OCTOBER 30, 2025) – A new study published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) by researchers from The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System, calls for invalidating the world record hottest temperature of 134 degrees F recorded in Death Valley, Calif., on July 10, 1913. UAH Earth System Science Center (ESSC) Scientist Dr. Roy Spencer and ESSC Director and Alabama State Climatologist Dr. John R. Christy e...
Trump gave the Labor Department more control over career-technical education. Will students benefit? Career and technical education is a lot more than learning to weld or draw blood. It can expose kids to jobs they didn’t even know existed and help them figure out what they want to do with their lives. It can also teach students concrete skills they can use on the job right after they graduate high school. But high school programs haven’t always lined up well with what employers are looking for...
How dads’ stress and mental health can influence their children’s development The transition to parenthood can be an anxious time for expectant moms and dads. A recent study shows that stress on fathers before and after the birth of a baby could affect their children’s development. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics in June, involved a meta-analysis of 84 studies and found that paternal mental distress around the time of birth was assoc...
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (NOV 10, 2025) – The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), part of The University of Alabama System, has been awarded a $2.4M grant for the National Science Foundation (NSF) Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) Graduate Fellowship Program (EGFP). Through this program, UAH will fund up to 15 doctoral fellowships across four NSF Directorates, including Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Engineering, Geosciences, and Computer and Information S...
‘Absolutely devastating’: Rural schools say $100K visa fee could make it hard to hire teachers The Kuspuk School District owns two small planes and employs a pilot to stay connected with schools spread across 12,000 square miles along the Kuskokwim River in western Alaska. And to keep those schools staffed, the remote school district works with its own immigration attorney, Chalkbeat reports. Some 60% of Kuspuk’s certified teachers come from the Philippines. That includes all of the speci...
Nurses are in high demand. Why can’t nursing schools keep up? Oscar Mateo dreamed of being an artist, but after he got leukemia when he was 20, his life plans abruptly changed. The compassionate nursing care he received while hospitalized touched him so much that he decided he wanted to provide the same for others. That impulse led him to the registered nursing program at Mt. San Antonio College in the Los Angeles County suburb of Walnut. But getting there wasn’t easy, as he had to battle com...
Doak Walker Plaza and Armstrong Commons at Southern Methodist University, a private research university. Ken Wolter // Shutterstock Most conservative colleges in America Although colleges are generally expected to remain neutral on political issues, nearly half of Americans believe that higher education is biased toward liberal ideals. In a September 2025 poll conducted by Vanderbilt University, 43% of survey respondents agreed with the statement that colleges tend to favor left-leaning...
Graduates in caps and gown at commencement. Nirat.pix // Shutterstock Colleges with the highest-earning graduates for 25 popular degrees Benjamin Franklin once said, "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest," though most Americans would now disagree when it comes to higher education. Fewer than 1 in 4 (22%) of adults in the United States think college is worth its price, even if the person has to take out loans, according to a 2024 Pew Research Center survey. About 43 million...
Cheating beyond ChatGPT: Agentic browsers present risks to universities AI chatbots have proliferated in school settings since the launch of ChatGPT. But OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, just released a new AI tool that may make combating AI-generated assignments with AI detection more difficult. OpenAI’s new browser, Atlas, follows the release of other browsers that incorporate AI technology. Built into these browsers are assistants that operate the browser without keyboard inputs or m...
Do degrees still matter? For decades, a college degree was the ticket into the professional world. Employers used it as an indication of intelligence, persistence, and competence. But that assumption no longer works. Skills — not schools — are becoming the new hiring currency in modern workplaces, including those leaning into AI, reports Upwork, an online marketplace for hiring skilled freelancers. Why degrees aren’t as important to employers anymore Employers are moving away from relying on de...
Children boarding yellow school bus with backpacks. Prostock-studio // Shutterstock Public schooling is best in these US cities When buying a home in a new city, many prospective homebuyers care about their new community as well as the quality of the home they're buying. For those with school-aged children, the quality of the school district is also a key factor in their purchasing decision. According to a 2025 National Association of Realtors survey, nearly 29% of buyers ages 26 to 34 and 34%...
Football fantasy: Colleges add sports to bring men, but it doesn’t always work SALEM, Va. — On a hot and humid August morning in this southwestern Virginia town, football training camp is in full swing at Roanoke College. Players cheer as a receiver makes a leaping one-handed catch, and linemen sweat through blocking drills. Practice hums along like a well-oiled machine — yet this is the first day this team has practiced, ever. In fact, it’s the first day of practice for a Roanoke College...
University students across Washington protest with signs. Phil Pasquini // Shutterstock Most liberal colleges in America There is no concrete proof that liberals outnumber conservatives in academia. That said, despite the likelihood that critiques of political bias have more to do with ideological challenges than oppression, the perception persists that higher education is overwhelmingly liberal. Beyond being merely persistent, this perception has also led to political showdowns with...
October 14, 2025 - DEMOPOLIS, AL - On Tuesday, the city of Demopolis became the focal point of educational and healthcare advancement as Governor Kay Ivey (R), flanked by state and national leaders, educators, healthcare professionals, philanthropists, and local officials, broke ground on the Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences (ASHS). This groundbreaking event, held at the 10-acre campus site at 908 S. Cedar Avenue, represents a significant stride in addressing both the educational and...
Smiling college students walking on campus. PeopleImages // Shutterstock Best value colleges in every state When it comes to higher education, definitions of what constitutes a valuable collegiate experience and reasons for enrolling are as varied as the people providing the answers. For some, it's tied to affordability and measured in terms of how many scholarships and grants are available to offset the overall cost. For others, value is measured by the quality of the education and is...
Graduates celebrating after commencement ceremony. Studio Romantic // Shutterstock Colleges with high acceptance rates whose graduates earn the most College admissions time is an annual crossroads moment for high school seniors. There are still many eager students entering the higher education system, despite turmoil in the job market as AI replaces entry-level jobs and an uncertain economy. Compared to last year, the Common Application estimates that more students will apply for colleges and...
October 13, 2025 - HUNTSVILLE, AL. – The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System, today announced that President Charles L. Karr will retire in May 2026, concluding a transformative tenure defined by visionary leadership, deepened community engagement and the creation of a dynamic campus atmosphere. Karr first joined UAH as interim president in November 2021 and was named the university's president in September 2022. His retirement will mark the c...
No teachers and no curriculum: Is this the school of the future? Walking into Brightworks could be a shock for helicopter parents — there are no rows of desks, no hallway passes and no bells to jolt students from one class to the next, Reasons to be Cheerful reports. Instead, the K-12 school is alive with invention, autonomy and what founder Gever Tulley calls “the energy of a big multi-generational family household.” In a quiet pocket of San Francisco’s Presidio, just a short walk from the Gold...
Financing higher education: Scholarships, grants, and financial aid As college expenses increase, financial aid has become a lifeline for most students and families. According to Experian, for the 2024-2025 school year, tuition and fees ranged from $11,610 at in-state public colleges to $43,350 at private nonprofits. When you factor in housing, meals, and supplies, the total price tag drastically increases, with some students paying as much as $62,990 a year. Scholarship Institute breaks down...
The growth of online college enrollment in the US Spurred by the pandemic and a greater demand for flexibility, online higher education programs have begun to evolve from niche to mainstream in 2025. These fully online enrollment programs, now representing a sizable share of the U.S. education market, are reshaping who enrolls, the studies that are focused on, and how traditional college campuses operate. Through aggregated data across sources including Statista, the National Center for...
An aerial view of sunrise over Princeton University. FotosForTheFuture // Shutterstock Best value colleges in America Once upon a time, college was a core component of the American dream. Higher education was seen as the best pathway into high-earning fields, in turn enabling graduates to achieve milestones like homeownership and starting a family. But, in 2025, as tuition costs reach all-time highs and student debt balloons to levels that are nearly impossible to repay, opinions are changing. F...
HUNTSVILLE, AL. (October 15, 2025) – The Alabama Space Grant Consortium (ASGC) at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System, has received a $20,000 donation from the National Space Club – Huntsville, marking the second year in a row the group has made this donation to the ASGC. The funds help provide a long-term K-12 STEM engagement plan for the state that leverages the ASGC's connections to eight higher education institutions across Alabama, inc...
Most of the time people think of domestic abuse as man beating a woman with bruises and scars that show on the outside. People don’t see or are not even aware of the abuse of a narcissistic spouse that constantly deflates you as a person. The constant criticism, the lowering of confidence and self-worth of a person. No, it does not happen suddenly, it happens slowly over a period of time. You are not even aware of the boundary line being moved further and further away, week by week. They will t...
