LELAND, Miss. (AP) — A fifth person has been arrested and charged with capital murder in a weekend shooting that left six dead and more than a dozen injured in a small Mississippi town, the FBI said.
Terrogernal S. Martin, 33, was arrested Tuesday and received a $1 million cash bond, according to the FBI in Jackson. Additional arrests are pending, the agency said without elaborating.
The arrest comes a day after the FBI announced that Teviyon L. Powell, 29, William Bryant, 29, and Morgan Lattimore, 25, are charged with capital murder, while Latoya A. Powell, 44, is charged with attempted murder in the Friday night shooting.
It was not immediately clear Tuesday whether any of the five people charged had an attorney who could comment on the charges.
Washington County Coroner LaQuesha Watkins said four people died at the scene: Oreshama Johnson, 41, Calvin Plant, 19, Shelbyona Powell, 25, and Kaslyn Johnson, 18. She said the coroner’s office in Hinds County called to say another victim, 18-year-old Amos Brand Jr. had died from his injuries. Her office also got notice from the Shelby County medical examiner that JaMichael Jones, 34, had also died from his injuries.
The shooting came as people celebrated homecoming weekend in downtown Leland, in the rural northwest Delta region, shortly after a high school football game. It was the deadliest of several shootings across Mississippi over the weekend. Other shootings were reported at two Mississippi universities on Saturday, as those schools celebrated their homecoming weekends.
Authorities have not disclosed a possible motive for Friday night’s shooting in Leland, but the FBI has said the gunfire appears to have been “sparked by a disagreement among several individuals.”
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
When I walked into my first classroom almost a decade ago, I had no idea how many “first days” I would experience–and how each one would teach me something new.
Growing up–first in the Virgin Islands and then later in Florida–I always felt pulled toward teaching. Tutoring was my introduction, and I realized early that I was a helper by nature. Still, my path into the classroom wasn’t straightforward–I changed majors in college, tried different things, and it wasn’t until six months after graduation that a friend pointed me toward Teach For America. That leap took me all the way to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, far from home and family, but I was fortunate to find a strong cohort of fellow teachers and mentors who grounded me.
Those early years weren’t easy. Being away from home, balancing the demands of teaching, and later, raising two kids of my own–it could feel overwhelming. My mentors kept me steady, reminding me that teaching is about community and connection. That lesson has never left me.
As I started this school year–my eighth first day of school at the front of the classroom–I’m reflecting on other lessons learned that help me help my students thrive.
Connection is the key to everything. If students know you believe in them, they’ll start believing in themselves. I think of one student in particular who was failing in my class repeatedly, and finally passed–not because I’m a miracle worker, but because we built trust. I bought into him, and eventually, he bought into himself. Those are the moments that make the long days and sacrifices worth it.
Make your classroom a safe space to learn. I teach 10th-grade biology and 11th-grade dual-enrollment engineering; these are subjects that can seem intimidating to young people. I tell my students that I want to hear each and every one of their ideas. No one’s brains are alike. My brain isn’t like yours, and yours isn’t like your neighbor’s. Listening to everyone’s thoughts, processes, and ideas helps us expand our own thinking and understanding. Especially with a subject matter like science, I want students to know that there is no shame in exploring different ideas together. In fact, that’s what makes this kind of work exciting.
Lean on your network. We preach the importance of continuous learning to our students, and rightfully so. There is always room to grow in every subject. I believe teachers need to model this for our students. I lean heavily on my support system: my mentors, my master teacher, and other educators and coaches. They are always there to bounce ideas off of, helping me continue to strengthen my lessons and outcomes. This also builds community; two of my mentors, Sabreen Thorne and Marie Mullen, are Teach For America Greater Baton Rouge alumnae who still work for the organization and still make the effort to keep in touch, invite me to community events, and offer me words of wisdom.
I’m proud that these approaches have been working. This past year, our school, Plaquemine High School, saw the most improved test scores in the Iberville Parish School District. It wasn’t magic–it was the collective effort of teachers and students who decided we could do better, together. I was also honored to receive the Shell Science Lab Regional Makeover grant, which provides us with resources to upgrade our science lab. We’ll be able to provide the equipment our students deserve. Science classrooms should be safe spaces where every idea matters, where students feel empowered to experiment, question, and create. This grant will help us bring that vision to life.
Eight years in, I’ve learned that teaching isn’t about perfection. It’s about showing up, reflecting, leaning on others, and never losing sight of why we’re here: to open doors for kids. Every year, every day, is another chance to do just that.
Gelisa Patin, Plaquemine High School
Gelisa Patin is a biology and dual-enrollment engineering teacher at Plaquemine High School in Louisiana and a Teach For America 2018 Greater Baton Rouge alum.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Political commentator Charlie Kirk would have turned 32-years-old on Tuesday.
Nearly five weeks after he was shot and killed at a rally in Utah, many young people are continuing to keep his memory alive through his organization.
What You Need To Know
Oct. 14 is Charlie Kirk’s birthday
Many young people are continuing to keep his memory alive through his organization
Kirk founded Turning Point USA
Kirk founded Turning Point USA in 2012. It’s an organization with a mission to promote conservative ideas among young people.
Several colleges and high schools around Ohio have chapters, including in central Ohio, where students testified before a school board earlier this year.
That group at Hilliard Davidson High School said its mission is to “educate students on essential American values, such as freedom, limited government and a free market.”
Back in January, a Turning Point USA staffer joined students to push the district to recognize them claiming they were being oppressed and not being allowed to host events.
A political science professor said clubs like this one can promote discussion of important issues.
“I think we need a healthier balance of discourse at all educational institutions, and one of the problems that we have seen is that discourse has been dominated by a very loud aggressive faction of the left, and there are certainly people that do not want chapters of Turning Point USA because it’s a very different ideological voice, and there are reasons that one might not like that but its not healthy to have discourse dominated by one ideological faction,” said Justin Buchler, associate professor of political science at Case Western Reserve University.
Buchler said creating these clubs is a way for students to express their freedom of speech.
He said in the past, the more liberal groups were more organized on school campuses.
Buchler said since Kirk’s murder, people are getting a clearer idea that there may be more ideological diversity among students and younger people.
There is at least one candlelight vigil scheduled for Oct. 14 for Kirk’s birthday. It’s taking place in the Sunbury Square at 6 p.m. They’re billing it as an evening of unity and a way to come together and reflect on Kirk’s words of faith.
Some professors resist using teamwork in their classes because they mistakenly believe that team projects are too difficult to grade. One issue is that, as educators, we often only evaluate the team presentation, project or paper with a grade based on how well the team has met our learning objectives.
However, a single project evaluation at the end allows some members to potentially free ride on harder-working teammates, or enables one aggressive or dominating member to take over the entire project to ensure the team gets an A. If we simply grade team projects at the end, it is too late for our student teams to adapt or adjust and learn how to be better at working in teams, a key skill that employers look for in our graduates.
The key to effectively grading teamwork is to set up the grading process systematically at the start of the project. In this article, we offer four ways that you can grade team projects effectively to meet your learning objectives and help students become better team members.
Share your grading rubric at the start of the assignment. Students need to know at the outset of the team project how they will be graded. Many good students tell us they hate team projects because they know they will have to deal with “social loafers” who rely on one or two others to do the work. However, by sharing a rubric that highlights the expectations for each team member and how you will be combining individual and team grading, you can help students make more intentional decisions regarding how they distribute the assignment’s requirements. We not only distribute the rubric at the start of the project, but we post it on our course management system and frequently review it with the class so our expectations are clear.
Include peer evaluation as a part of the evaluation process. Students are sometimes asked to rate their fellow team members, but they are seldom taught how to do it well. As a result, they tend to only give positive feedback to avoid conflict or hurting another student’s feelings. Teaching peer feedback takes only a little class time, as few as 15 minutes. It starts with clarifying your expectations about how you will use peer feedback. You can use or create a form that allows students to provide quantitative and qualitative feedback, and then you should use this same form multiple times during the project. The first time you collect peer feedback should be a low-stakes or practice situation early during the project so that students have a psychologically safe opportunity to learn how to use it. Your students should begin with self-evaluation and then evaluate their peers. Next, you need to summarize the peer feedback and give results to individual students so they know how they are doing. Finally, have groups reflect on how well the group is doing without naming or shaming others. There are times when students will have to give feedback to a person who is free riding or loafing. When they do, make sure they know to first ask that person for permission before they give feedback, then praise in public, and finally provide any negative feedback in private. Finally, we have a YouTube video that instructors can show during class to help students learn about how to give and receive feedback.
Incorporate ongoing feedback from the instructor. We know of faculty who give out a team assignment and never mention it again until the week before the project is due. This is setting up the student teams for failure. Faculty need to check in frequently with their teams to be sure they are making progress on their work and any questions or concerns are answered. Taking just five minutes at the end of class for teams to meet can pay great dividends in a better project product. This instructor feedback can include a way to hold individual team members accountable for the work they are doing. For example, we have set up a separate Google folder for each team with instructor access. Each team member needed to post their contributions to the team project weekly. In this way, we could keep an eye on any social loafers, and provide feedback to those who were working independently instead of with the team. Instructors can also schedule a brief time to sit in on team meetings so that they get a more comprehensive update about the project and who is working toward each of the outcomes.
Carefully consider the weight you give to each phase of the project. It is essential to incorporate peer assessments and the instructor evaluation about how well the project met the learning objectives into any final grade; both are important. However, the weight of these different evaluations tells students the importance of each. More weight on the individual peer assessments stresses the individual work, while more weight on the instructor grade of the project shows the team efforts are more important. At a minimum, use the 80/20 rule: At least 20 percent of the student’s grade should be based on each. Also, be sure to check the peer evaluations to verify that they result from real behaviors rather than personal biases. We accomplish this by looking for consistency across the times of evaluation, across team members and between peer and self-evaluations. In most cases, we find that the evaluations show consistency in all three areas (though self-evaluations are often inflated). In the rare cases when they don’t align, we always refer to supporting documentation, such as agendas, meeting minutes and information that resulted from our ongoing check-ins to help make sense of the reasons underlying any inconsistencies.
Grading a team project may seem like a daunting challenge, but grading is by no means a reason to avoid giving students the experience of working with a team. By following these four principles for evaluating teamwork, instructors can account for the team’s achievement of the learning objectives as well as provide students with valuable teamwork experiences that they can take to future classes, internships, co-ops and employment.
Lauren Vicker is a communications professor emeritus, and Tim Franz is a professor of psychology, both at St. John Fisher University. They are the authors of Making Team Projects Work: A College Instructor’s Guide to Successful Student Groupwork (Taylor & Francis, 2024).
WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — For many years, American and Chinese scholars worked shoulder to shoulder on cutting-edge technologies through open research, where findings are freely shared and accessible to all. But that openness, a long-standing practice celebrated for advancing knowledge, is raising alarms among some U.S. lawmakers.
They are worried that China — now considered the most formidable challenger to American military dominance — is taking advantage of open research to catch up with the U.S. on military technology and even gain an edge. And they are calling for action.
“For far too long, our adversaries have exploited American colleges and universities to advance their interests, while risking our national security and innovation,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican and chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He has introduced legislation to put new restrictions on federally funded research collaboration with academics at several Chinese institutions that work with the Chinese military, as well as institutions in other countries deemed adversarial to U.S. interests.
The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party makes it a priority to protect American research, having accused Beijing of weaponizing open research by converting it into a “pipeline of foreign talent and military modernization.”
The rising concerns on Capitol Hill threaten to unravel deep, two-generations-old academic ties between the countries even as the world’s two largest economies are moving away from each other through tariffs and trade barriers. The relationship has shifted from engagement to competition, if not outright enmity.
“Foreign adversaries are increasingly exploiting the open and collaborative environment of U.S. academic institutions for their own gain,” said James Cangialosi, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, which in August issued a bulletin urging universities to do more to protect research from foreign meddling.
The House committee released three reports in September alone. They targeted, respectively, Pentagon-funded research involving military-linked Chinese scholars; joint U.S.-China institutes that train STEM talent for China; and visa policies that have brought military-linked Chinese students to Ph.D. programs at American universities. The reports recommend more legislation to protect U.S. research, tighter visa policies to vet Chinese students and scholars and an end to academic partnerships that could be exploited to boost China’s military powers.
More than 500 U.S. universities and institutes have collaborated with Chinese military researchers in recent years, helping Beijing develop advanced technologies with military applications, such as anti-jamming communications and hypersonic vehicles, according to a report by the private U.S. intelligence group Strider Technologies.
Despite efforts in recent years by the U.S. government to set up guardrails to prevent such collaboration from boosting China’s military capabilities, the practice is still prevalent, according to Strider, based in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The report identified nearly 2,500 publications produced in collaboration between U.S. entities and Chinese military-affiliated research institutes in 2024 on STEM research, which includes physics, engineering, material science, computer science, biology, medicine and geology. While the number peaked at more than 3,500 in 2019, before some new restrictive measures came into effect, the level of collaboration remains high, the report said.
This collaboration not only facilitates “potential illicit knowledge transfer,” but supports China’s “state-directed efforts to recruit top international talent, often to the detriment of U.S. national interests,” the report said.
Foreign countries can exploit American research by stealing secrets for use in military and commercial settings, by poaching talented researchers for foreign companies and universities and by recruiting students and researchers as potential spies, authorities say.
Fostering a climate of robust academic research takes funding and long-term support. Stealing the fruits of that labor, however, can be as easy as hacking into a university network, hiring away researchers or coopting the research itself. That’s why, authorities say, it’s so tempting for American adversaries looking to take advantage of U.S. institutions and research.
The most recent threat assessment report from the Department of Homeland Security highlights concerns that American adversaries — and China specifically — seek to illicitly acquire U.S. technology. Authorities say China aims to steal military and computing technology that might give the U.S. an advantage, as well as the latest commercial innovations.
Abigail Coplin, assistant professor of sociology and science, technology and society at Vassar College, said there are already guardrails for federally funded research to protect classified information and anything deemed sensitive.
She also said open research goes both ways, benefiting the U.S. as well, and restrictions could be counterproductive by driving away talents.
“American national security interests and economic competitiveness would be better served by continuing — if not increasing — research funding than they are by implementing costly research restrictions,” Coplin said.
Arnie Bellini, a tech entrepreneur and investor, also said efforts to protect U.S. research risk stifling progress if they go too far and prevent U.S. colleges or startups from sharing information about new and emerging technology. Keeping up with China will also require big investments in efforts to protect innovation, said Bellini, who recently donated $40 million to establish a new cybersecurity and AI research college at the University of South Florida.
Bellini said it’s imperative to encourage research and development without giving secrets away to America’s enemies. “In the U.S., it is a reality now that our digital borders are under siege — and businesses of every size are right to be concerned,” Bellini said.
According to Department of Justice figures, about 80% of all economic espionage cases prosecuted in the U.S. involve alleged acts that would benefit China.
Some members of Congress have pushed to reinstate a Department of Justice program created during the first Trump administration that sought to investigate Chinese intellectual espionage. The so-called “ ChinaInitiative ” ended in 2022 after critics said it failed to address the problem even as it perpetrated racist stereotypes about Asian American academics.
Two American academics were among the three winners of this year’s Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. They were given the prestigious award “for having explained innovation-driven economic growth,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Monday morning.
Joel Mokyr, the Robert H. Strotz Professor of Economics at Northwestern University, will receive half the roughly $1.6 million prize “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress,” according to the announcement.
Peter Howitt, a professor emeritus of economics at Brown University, will split the other half of the award money with Philippe Aghion of Collège de France and INSEAD and the London School of Economics and Political Science, “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction.”
“The laureates’ work shows that economic growth cannot be taken for granted,” said John Hassler, chair of the committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences. “We must uphold the mechanisms that underlie creative destruction, so that we do not fall back into stagnation.”
TAMPA, Fla. — As Hispanic Heritage Month continues, Hillsborough County Public Schools’ English language supervisor, Jessica De La Prida, is being recognized for her decades of helping multilingual students succeed in the classroom.
De La Prida received the 2025 Hispanic Advocacy Award from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Hispanic Advisory Council for her leadership and community engagement.
A proud daughter of Cuban and Peruvian immigrants, De La Prida has spent more than 25 years in education — first in Broward County and now in Hillsborough — supporting English learners and the teachers who serve them.
What You Need To Know
Jessica De La Prida received the 2025 Hispanic Advocacy Award from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Hispanic Advisory Council for her leadership and community engagement
A proud daughter of Cuban and Peruvian immigrants, De La Prida has spent more than 25 years in education — first in Broward County and now in Hillsborough — supporting English learners and the teachers who serve them
“We want to ensure that as our students are learning how to speak English,” De La Prida said. “They’re also learning how to read and write, how to do math and other content areas.”
Education experts say the growing population of English learners has created a nationwide shortage of ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) teachers, leaving schools struggling to meet demand.
De La Prida said collaboration among teachers, families and community partners is key to ensuring that students learning English don’t fall behind in other subjects.
Beyond the classroom, she works closely with organizations like the Greater Haitian Chamber of Commerce of Tampa to help immigrant families understand their rights and navigate the school system.
“The Haitian community is very close to my heart,” De La Prida said. “Collaboration is key to helping families understand how vital their role is in their child’s education.”
For De La Prida, education remains the foundation of the American dream her parents sought when they came to the United States.
“My parents came to this country so that I could have an education,” she said. “Education opens doors — it’s what connects families, cultures and communities.”
Her recognition during Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates not only her career, but also her commitment to ensuring that language is never a barrier to success.
Jessica De La Prida received the 2025 Hispanic Advocacy Award from the Sheriff’s Hispanic Advisory Council. (Courtesy: Sheriff’s Hispanic Advisory Council.)
ATLANTA, October 13, 2025 (Newswire.com)
– The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation today announced a landmark $50 million, 10-year scholarship investment to support students at four of Atlanta’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The funding will provide gap scholarships intended to increase the number of students graduating from Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Morris Brown College and Spelman College.
For many students, financial barriers-not academics-stand in the way of earning their diplomas. The foundation’s investment in gap scholarships is designed to overcome the financial barrier, helping more students complete their education. Beginning in 2026, the program is projected to support nearly 10,000 students, helping raise graduation rates across Atlanta’s HBCUs and serve as a model for other philanthropies to expand investment in HBCU student success.
“Atlanta holds a special place in my heart and will always be an integral part of our family foundation’s giving,” said Arthur M. Blank, chairman, Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation. “We know Spelman, Morris Brown, Morehouse and Clark Atlanta are vital to Atlanta’s future, and we are deeply committed to supporting the students who will carry that legacy forward. We recognize that these campuses, like many across the country, are home to generations of students whose promise inspires us. Our hope is that by helping more students earn their degrees, launch successful careers and become alumni who give back, we are investing in a cycle of opportunity that benefits young people and their families in Atlanta and communities across the nation for years to come.”
Investing in Student Success
“Even a small financial gap can be the difference between walking across the graduation stage or walking away,” said Fay Twersky, president, Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation. “We are proud to stand with Atlanta’s HBCUs and help more students achieve their dreams. These grants are a material investment in hope.“
Students who are in good academic standing and have fully exhausted other financial options, including scholarships, federal grants, state assistance and loan programs, will be eligible to receive funding at the discretion of their respective institution. The funding will largely support students in their junior and senior years, when financial stress can be most acute as family resources may be spread thin or additional siblings begin college.
Continuing a Legacy of HBCU Support In addition to its $50 million investment, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation has maintained a longstanding commitment to HBCUs, including:
$10 million to Spelman College for the Arthur M. Blank Innovation Lab
$6 million for athletic field refurbishments at Clark Atlanta, Albany State, Miles College and Savannah State
$3 million to Morris Brown College to digitize a one-year hospitality credential
$400,000 to Morehouse College Golf Program with PGA TOUR Superstore
New football helmets for Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University student-athletes
Economic and Community Impact
The scholarships are expected to fuel long-term benefits for students and the broader community:
HBCU graduates will earn 57% more in their lifetimes than they would without a degree.
An HBCU graduate working full-time can expect to earn $1M+ in additional income over the course of their career.
Atlanta’s HBCUs contribute $1 billion in annual economic impact to the region.
HBCU Presidents on the Impact of Scholarship Funding
Dr. George T. French Jr., President, Clark Atlanta University “This transformative gift empowers Clark Atlanta students to succeed and lead globally. It provides the critical resources they need to graduate and prepare for leadership in the global marketplace.“
Dr. F. DuBois Bowman, President, Morehouse College “This monumental investment will empower our students to remain focused on their academic studies and ensure that their talent, ambition, hard work, and integrity, not financial hardship, will determine their futures.”
Dr. Kevin E. James, President, Morris Brown College “The Blank Foundation’s commitment provides critical support for Morris Brown students in their educational journeys. It removes economic barriers that have historically stood in the way of achieving their aspirations.”
Rosalind “Roz” Brewer, Interim President, Spelman College “This investment affirms that every Spelman scholar deserves access to a world-class education. It expands our ability to bridge financial gaps and support students through to graduation.“
About the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation
The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation is a philanthropy founded to help transform lives and communities by uniting people across differences to find common cause. Started in 1995 by Arthur M. Blank, co-founder of The Home Depot, the foundation has granted more than $1.5 billion to charitable causes. Our collective giving areas are Atlanta’s Westside, Democracy, Environment, Mental Health and Well-Being, and Youth Development. Across these areas, we take on tough challenges by uniting the courage and compassion of our communities so we can all thrive together.
In addition to the priority areas of giving, the foundation oversees a large portfolio of grants including support of essential Atlanta nonprofit institutions, such as Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Shepherd Center, and enduring founder-led initiatives, such as veterans and the military and stuttering, among others. The foundation will also continue to guide the six associate-led giving committees operating across the Blank Family of Businesses. For more information, please visit www.blankfoundation.org.
BURKE COUNTY, N.C. — Burke County Public Schools is putting pen and paper back in the classroom. It is giving teachers the freedom during the day to choose when computers are better and when paper is better during this transition year.
What You Need To Know
Burke County has decided to put pen and paper back in the classroom
The district has voted to pass a resolution for teachers
It gives teachers the freedom during the day to choose when computers are better and when paper is better during this transition year
They will still be using computers when needed but say it’s important to go back to the basics
Tiana Beachler is both a mother and Burke County Board of Education member. She says when she was home, she saw her sons’ attachment to devices.
“When the devices go away, now we get the emotions,” Beachler said.
She saw it’s happening with other families too, so she came up with an idea to take a step back.
“In order to run you have to learn how to walk, in order to walk you have to crawl, so instead of the thought that we are taking a step back, it’s important to teach them the foundation of how to work things out on paper,” Beachler said.
Teachers say they like it. Connie Fox teaches kindergarten and says the computers were too much for her students.
“Eight years ago, they were writing sentences, and last year they were barely writing words, and in my head they were on the computer so much,” Fox said.
Now, she does more hands-on work and made them a reading corner.
“This has just been such a blessing to be able to go back to what is age-appropriate for these children especially,” Fox said.
Fifth-grade teacher Emily Hendrix says it’s good for math. She says students can now show their work.
“A computer, it’s very easy just to click and push the buttons until it moves you on to the next problem,” Hendrix said.
She mentioned that they’re now able to learn cursive.
“Students don’t know cursive, and they do struggle to sign their names, and in documents later in life they need to know how to do that,” Hendrix said.
They say they are going back to the basics to try to give students a well-rounded education.
“We’re seeing paper come home again, because we have kids in the system. We see the homework come home again,” Beachler said.
Demetrius Lott has wanted to be a football coach since he was a child. He has a four-year degree in physical education but he’s missing a certificate that would allow him to call plays on the sidelines rather than clean bathrooms at Cypress-Fairbanks ISD’s Ken Pridgeon Stadium under the Friday night lights.
He’s been working as the head custodian at Bleyl Middle School in the Cy-Fair school district for almost 20 years. Last summer, his local American Federation of Teachers union president Nikki Cowart gave Lott a nudge.
“She was such a blessing to me,” Lott said. “She didn’t know I had a degree. She said they had a program that could help me get certified. I was just like, sign me up.”
CFISD is one of just a few districts in Texas that partners with iTeach for a low-cost certification program exclusively for union members. The hope is that once prospective teachers finish their certification, they’ll be hired at Cy-Fair, the union president said.
“I have so many paraprofessionals who would love to become certified teachers and have already dedicated years of service to Cy-Fair,” Cowart said. “They just can’t flippin’ afford it.”
Lott, 47, says he hopes his story will inspire others to take the licensing classes while maintaining non-classroom jobs. He says he daydreams about coaching while he’s working at Bleyl Middle School, mopping floors and emptying trash.
He started his certification program in June and hopes to have his teaching certificate by spring break. He’s already referred to as “Coach” by his fellow union members but is following a rigorous schedule to “do things right” and actually earn the title, he said.
He goes in early every weekday to the middle school for observation hours, works from 3 to 11:30 p.m., and does his online certification coursework in the middle of the night and on weekends. He’s required to attend an in-person, seven-hour certification class one Saturday a month.
But Lott is an exception. Thousands of teachers across Texas are working toward their certification while already teaching in a classroom, something that many parents and students call outrageous. Unlicensed teachers are expected to provide an education when they haven’t yet been certified in the subject matter and aren’t familiar with best practices and classroom protocols.
And if they don’t finish their certification in a two-year time frame, they’ll be fired, creating another empty classroom and leaving the would-be teacher looking for a new career.
More than half of Texas’ new-to-profession teachers are uncertified, and as public education enrollment drops and more teachers resign or are terminated, the likelihood that the people educating local youth aren’t certified has spiked.
For their part, many seeking to become teachers recall fond memories of an educator who believed in them when they were a child. They want to give back and make the world a better place, they say. But public education has changed, seasoned teachers tell the Houston Press.
Last year, Houston ISD reported 2,097 uncertified teachers; the number has since grown to about 2,500, or one in four, according to district data. HISD Superintendent Mike Miles, who is himself uncertified, said at a board meeting last week that 1,700 teachers were uncertified last year.
However, there have been various reports that indicate the number is much higher. Miles said the district experienced some of the highest growth in its history last year, “because the principals and executive directors of instruction help teachers grow quickly.”
The latest available numbers reflect that there were 861 uncertified teachers at Aldine ISD, 202 at Cy-Fair ISD, 111 at Spring Branch ISD, and 73 at Fort Bend ISD during the 2023-24 school year.
Statewide, about 42,103, or 12 percent, of public school teachers are uncertified, according to the Texas Education Agency. The number has steadily climbed since the 2019-2020 school year, when there were 12,908 uncertified teachers statewide.
The number of uncertified teachers has spiked steadily since 2019. Credit: Texas Education Agency
Cameron Campbell served as a head coach and athletic director for the KIPP Houston charter school and now works as an entrepreneur and motivational speaker. Katy ISD, where Campbell’s kids are enrolled, reported no uncertified teachers last school year.
Campbell said he supports having professionals get some classroom experience while they’re working toward certification — particularly those who have already had a career in a trade. A retired engineer teaching Algebra I, a hairstylist teaching cosmetology, or a mechanic teaching shop class could offer a fresh perspective, Campbell said.
“My point of view is probably different from [that of] a lot of progressive political folks,” he said. “I think it’s actually a really healthy thing. I know a ton of retired professional athletes, and most times, the first thing they want to do is go coach at their kids’ school or find a school that needs help and contribute and give back.”
“They’re qualified but not certified,” he added. “You should see the looks on their faces when you tell someone who played in the NFL for 10 years and won a Super Bowl that they can’t coach a seventh-grade C team football team.”
This theory doesn’t appeal to everyone. The advocacy group Raise Your Hand Texas found that students with new uncertified teachers lose about four months of learning in reading and three months in math unless the teacher has previous experience working in a public school. Forty-three percent of first-time, uncertified hires in Texas teach elementary and early education students, according to Raise Your Hand.
More than half of new-to-profession teachers are uncertified. Credit: Texas Education Agency
There’s a lot of talk among seasoned educators about pedagogy — the method and practice of teaching — which comes from classroom experience, said Ruth Kravetz, cofounder of Houston-based Community Voices for Public Education.
Kravetz says teaching is a craft and a skill. “If a lady was cutting hair the year before — not that cutting hair is a bad thing — but it’s completely unconnected to teaching,” that’s cause for concern, she said.
Kravetz added that charter schools disproportionately hire uncertified teachers, which is important to note when comparing Houston ISD data to the statewide numbers — but she’s quick to point out that the uncertified teacher “epidemic” is not a manufactured crisis.
“This is a crisis,” she said. “You’ve got an epidemic of teachers fleeing the field. Why are people leaving in high numbers? Partially COVID, partially pay, and partially because test scores have so narrowed the curriculum and the concept of what constitutes quality instruction. The highest turnover is in the highest-need communities.”
And those longtime teachers are being replaced by uncertified and young, inexperienced teachers, she added.
“Just because you’ve been teaching for 10 years doesn’t mean you’re good but if you are a first-year anything, it means you’re not as good as you can be, and in some cases, you’re really, really bad,” Kravetz said. “It does matter if a high percentage of teachers are uncertified. Some people are extraordinary without credentialing and training. There are naturals.”
“But most people, you have to practice at things to get good at them. Shell [Chemicals] would not survive if one in four of their soap and detergent chemists making the laundry detergent were fresh out of college. There are just things people learn on the ground.”
Texas Tech University professor Jacob Kirksey studied the Lone Star State’s uncertified teacher crisis for a policy brief published last year and updated in April.
“There’s a staggering rise in the employment of uncertified teachers, driven by acute staffing shortages and the flexibility offered by the state’s District of Innovation plans,” Kirksey said in the study. “This reliance on uncertified educators is raising alarms among educators and policymakers alike. Concerns are mounting over whether these teachers, often entering the classroom having never worked in public schools, are equipped to meet the demands of today’s classrooms.”
When Cy-Fair ISD became a District of Innovation in 2024, “it opened up some gray area around non-certified,” allowing the district to pull certified teachers to lead classrooms that cover topics they’re not certified in, Cowart said.
Kirksey’s research shows that uncertified teachers who have already been in a classroom tend to complete low-quality online programs, which have been linked to poor student outcomes. Additionally, students with uncertified new teachers are significantly underdiagnosed for dyslexia and are more absent from school, according to Kirksey’s research.
That’s why Cy-Fair is touting its partnership with iTeach, which helps cover certification costs and puts prospective teachers through a rigorous program that includes instruction techniques before they lead a classroom.
“If you aren’t, at the bare minimum, going through an alternative certification program, I just feel like you’re not getting that pedagogy of classroom management,” Cowart said.
HISD has gotten desperate to fill classrooms since a 2023 state takeover ushered in Superintendent Miles, appointed by TEA Commissioner Mike Morath, and a handpicked board of managers — and ushered out more than 7,000 district employees over a two-year period.
TEA Commissioner Mike Morath appointed Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles in 2023 as part of a state takeover. Credit: Margaret Downing
Teachers have cited low pay, a lack of support, and a punitive environment as their reasons for leaving. Many have lamented the rigid, formulaic teaching models Miles initiated, such as using AI-generated PowerPoint presentations.
Miles said at an October 9 board meeting that the district is in an “age of teacher shortages and lack of certification” for the foreseeable future.
“Just like any other district in Texas and the United States, every large district, we’ll see the need to hire teachers without certification or who have to be working toward certification,” he said. “The reason we’ve been successful even with the number of teachers without certification is that our model is designed to grow teachers quickly. Teachers who have never been in the classroom have to grow quickly in order for their kids to do well.”
Last week, Houston Endowment announced a $450,000 grant to the education nonprofit TNTP to support four Houston-area school districts — Fort Bend, Houston, Humble, and Pasadena ISDs — in implementing plans to increase their number of certified teachers.
“The grant comes at a pivotal moment for Texas schools as more than half of teachers hired statewide in the 2023–24 school year were unlicensed,” Houston Endowment officials said in a press release. “Under House Bill 2, signed into law in June 2025, school districts must reduce their reliance on uncertified teachers in core subjects to no more than 20 percent by the 2026–27 school year, with the cap dropping incrementally to just 5 percent by the 2029-30 school year.”
Where Have All the Teachers Gone?
Houston ISD announced recently that nearly 450 employees were cut or reassigned last month amid enrollment declines. A district spokesperson said at the time that performance and certification were prioritized when the cuts were made, and 160 uncertified teachers lost their jobs.
More than 230 teachers were reassigned to adjust to lower enrollment. At least 28 of those fired were union members working as teacher apprentices, and the Houston Federation of Teachers has said it plans to appeal. The union has also sued the school district for pay bonuses and is planning to go to trial on October 22.
HFT Chief of Staff Corina Ortiz said prospective HISD teachers are “burning the midnight oil,” taking online classes while working full-time jobs and paying thousands out of pocket to get their certification, only to be fired before they can complete it.
“It’s truly distressing to people who just want to come in and help kids. They want to teach kids,” Ortiz said. “It’s a lot of time, it’s a lot of energy and it’s difficult to finish that program. It’s even more difficult now because what we’re finding with this group of young teachers that are uncertified, they have no mentoring. In Mike Miles’ world, it seems like teachers are dispensable and certifications aren’t necessary.”
The union has won a few appeals to have teachers reinstated but the most common outcome is a settlement agreement, Ortiz said. HFT has filed 309 grievances against HISD in the past year.
“Here’s the travesty of it all,” Ortiz said. “These folks come into the profession wanting to be teachers. Because of the experience they’ve had and how negative it’s been, the majority of them decide they don’t want to be anywhere near teaching. My fear is we’re going to lose several generations of kids if education remains in the hands of people who are driven not only by money but by political agendas.”
Cowart, the Cy-Fair union official, said she understands the concern about uncertified teachers. She said she was baffled when she heard at a conference that some districts are hiring “PTO mommies” to teach because they need a body in the front of the room.
The Houston Press spoke to several former Houston ISD teachers who either recently resigned or were fired. They all said it was difficult to work under the Mike Miles administration, and it wasn’t what they’d signed up for when they got into education.
One woman taught French for 14 years in Spring Branch ISD and signed a contract with the Houston school district last year. She was gone by May, claiming she was constantly written up for minor infractions such as leaving the classroom to use the bathroom.
She has untreated anxiety and panic attacks. She no longer has health insurance and she’s looking for employment at small businesses in her Montrose neighborhood.
“I’ll never teach again,” she said.
Librarian Brandie Dowda was fired from Houston ISD two years ago and took a higher-paying job at Katy ISD. HISD has downsized to fewer than 30 librarians throughout the district because “Mike Miles doesn’t believe in libraries,” Dowda said.
“We were kind of the unwanted stepchild,” she said. “It’s highly ironic that the solution to literacy issues is to get rid of libraries and librarians. Make it make sense.”
The district has implied that the teachers who are leaving were not doing a good job, but Dowda says the teachers who are leaving are actually experienced, certified educators who don’t want to teach off AI-generated PowerPoints.
“There are tons of uncertified teachers,” she said. The draw is the potential to make an $80,000 salary, “but they don’t read the fine print,” which Dowda says outlines performance measures that are constantly changing.
“They get fired if they aren’t certified within two years but most of them don’t make it that long,” she said. “Teaching is a really difficult job, even if that’s what you love to do.”
“Honestly, at this point, if the TEA stepped away and we got rid of Mike Miles, and we had an elected board and hired a superintendent with a background in education, it would take at least a decade to repair the damage,” she added. “It’s that bad. They’re scrambling to empty water out of a sinking ship that they poked the holes in.”
According to the Texas Association of School Boards, districts have to notify parents when an unlicensed teacher is overseeing their child’s classroom. HISD parent Kathleen Zinn recently shared an email she wrote to administrators at Lanier Middle School to advise them that her daughter was without an algebra teacher for almost a month.
“Three weeks is ABSURD!” Zinn wrote in the email, for which she didn’t receive an immediate response. “Plus, it does not address or excuse the piss poor job done by [a department director] — telling children to teach themselves. And shaming them for being confused and asking questions. The kids were told that if unable to figure out the work, they (meaning the students) are not Lanier Leaders because they don’t embody the problem-solver IB characteristic. Absolutely shaming and disrespecting these kids. Unacceptable.”
Houston ISD administrators presented data at an October 9 board meeting. Credit: Houston ISD
Another former HISD teacher said she was laid off due to low enrollment at her school but found out days later her position was filled by someone else.
Danielle Cockrell, a certified high school algebra teacher at Cypress Lakes, changed careers after she was laid off from Lucent Technologies in 2002.
“My unemployment ran out and my sister-in-law suggested I start subbing,” she said. Cockrell slid into a paraprofessional role when the position opened up and found herself frequently alone at the front of a classroom because the assigned teacher was often absent. School officials told her that if she was going to do the job, she ought to get the certification.
She got the license and is now vice president of the Cy-Fair AFT union. She says it’s a hard time to be a teacher. The major issues facing teachers in her district are “pay and being respected,” she said. Public education has changed, she added.
“Now we have students who are coming to school, I’m just going to be honest, to sell dope, or because it’s a place where they can have food, or for social aspects,” Cockrell said. “The last thing they’re coming to school for is academics. If you come into education thinking that everything is going to be like it was when you were in school, no. If they’re not flexible enough to understand and work with students who are not like them, they’re going to leave.”
Students want to talk about immigration raids, Trump policies, and Sean “Diddy” Combs, but Cockrell says she directs them back to math. She has some youth in her classes who come to school hungry and thirsty. She buys cases of water at Costco so she can share with students. Before a statewide cell phone ban went into effect this year, Cockrell traded her students a bottle of water if they’d leave their phones on her desk for the duration of the class.
“There are days I would love to go back into corporate, but when you see a student who thought they couldn’t learn, or they finally get the concept, or you see a future in a child, it makes those hard days worth it,” Cockrell said.
She ran into a Cy-Fair graduate while she was out doing Christmas shopping a few years ago. He was enrolled in college and introduced Cockrell to his fiancée.
“I was ready to quit that day. I would rather flip burgers than go back to the classroom,” Cockrell said. But the student told her he’d always remembered that she taught him that when he’s faced with something difficult, he should ask himself, “Is it hard work or is it just a lot of work?”
“I had to let him know that day, because of what he said to me, I went back to work,” she said.
Certification Process
On a recent Friday afternoon at Bleyl Middle School, teachers and Principal Michelle Provo shared how proud they were of their head custodian Lott for working toward his teacher certification.
Provo said Lott doesn’t have much interaction with students because he starts his shift at 3 p.m., but she can tell he’s a natural leader. His eight crew members look up to him and “you can tell they want to make him proud,” Provo said.
“He was out for a couple of days and when he came back he brought us all barbecue,” she said. “He’s gentle but he’s in charge. And don’t get me started on him walking me to my car. If I stay late, he will not let me leave unless he walks me to my car.”
Bleyl Middle School Principal Michelle Provo says she couldn’t be more proud of Demetrius Lott for working toward his teaching certificate. Credit: April Towery
Lott says he just wants to make a difference for young people like his coaches did for him. He played football at Eisenhower High School in Aldine ISD and was a nose guard for the Butte College Roadrunners in the late 1990s. After playing ball at Butte, Lott got his bachelor’s degree in physical education at the University of Marion in North Dakota.
“I played sports all my life and I love being around sports,” Lott said. “I always had the passion to coach. I felt like this [opportunity to get certified] was God telling me, if this is your calling, then I’m going to put you in the right position with the right people to make this happen for you.”
Why don’t more people just do what Lott did and get the certification?
Because the certification process is difficult, it’s expensive, and then the teacher still has to find a job and navigate a career change in an unprecedented public education climate, Lott said.
“I understand the pedagogy part, but it’s a lot of stress and a lot of people are not good test-takers,” Lott said. “I have a couple of friends who went through the program and they just bombed the test like three or four times. They’re terrified to take it again. That forces them to move on to another career. I don’t think it’s fair.”
Uncertified teacher data from the 2024-25 school year. Credit: Screenshot
Lott, who has one child who graduated from Prairie View A&M University and another currently enrolled, said he wants to prepare youth for college.
“My parents never went to college, so it was hard for me to know what the do’s and don’ts were,” he said.
He spent about $2,500 out of pocket for his certification and the iTeach program covered about $2,000.
Cockrell, the Cy-Fair math teacher, did a one-year in-person certification program with Texas Teachers and was employed in a classroom while she was completing her coursework. She spent about $6,000 out of pocket, she said. Some programs don’t take payment until the certified teacher has a job, and the teacher has one year to pay it off, Cockrell said.
“For me, I needed a job and I needed to make more money,” she said. “I had two bachelor’s degrees in business and at that time I just could not get a job anywhere else.”
When Cockrell completed her certification — almost 20 years ago — she was told that those who go through an alternative teaching program last about three years on the job before quitting. Today, about 45 percent of unlicensed teachers in rural communities stay in teaching beyond three years, according to Raise Your Hand Texas.
New people are hired on as teachers whenever the oil and gas business slumps, Cockrell said, but they don’t stick around. Sometimes that’s because they didn’t get the proper training and weren’t prepared for what to expect, she added.
“If you’re in a certification program where you’re learning to work with children of all levels, you’re getting some education, but if you’re a teacher who does not have that support, that is a disservice not only to the children but to the teacher,” Cockrell said. “You might as well just be a long-term sub.”
Lott says his classmates in the iTeach program are secretaries, paraprofessionals, and groundskeepers who are trying to better their lives and need some encouragement and support. The Cy-Fair custodian said he was worried about taking classes since he’s been out of college for 20 years.
“It’s not even about not being able to afford it. It was about the push that Nikki gave me,” Lott said of the union president encouraging him to go for it. “She calls me Coach right now. She more or less inspired me to go ahead and put my best foot forward.”
“I am going to be so overwhelmed, so overjoyed when I finish everything,” he added. “I know where I came from. I told my friends, I might shed a tear.”
Bleyl Middle School head custodian Demetrius Lott is getting his teaching certificate so he can coach high school football. Credit: April Towery
JAKARTA (Reuters) -Indonesia has nearly doubled a key allowance for its lawmakers, an official said on Monday, one month after cancelling some of the benefits given to parliamentarians in an effort to assuage public anger following a series of violent demonstrations.
In August, thousands of students, rights groups, and other civilians joined protests against the government’s spending priorities, including pay rises for lawmakers. The demonstrations later spiralled into riots after a motorcycle taxi driver was killed during a police operation.
The violence, which spread to 32 of Indonesia’s 38 provinces, resulted in 10 deaths and at least 5,000 arrests, making it the deadliest outbreak of unrest in the archipelago for over two decades.
The increase in the “recess allowance” for lawmakers – which is given to parliamentarians to support their work in their constituencies while parliament is not in session – came into effect on October 3, at the start of the latest break, Deputy Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad told Reuters on Monday.
Each lawmaker will now get 700 million rupiah ($42,200) for each recess, Dasco said, up from 400 million rupiah previously. Indonesia’s 580 parliamentarians take approximately five breaks per year.
The allowance, which Dasco said had been approved by the finance ministry in May, is earmarked for visits and activities in electoral districts.
The August protests were sparked by anger at the perks available to politicians, with each lawmaker also entitled to an additional 100 million rupiah per month in housing and other allowances.
Following the unrest, some of the benefits were removed, cutting the total to 65.5 million rupiah.
While commodity-rich Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s biggest economy and a member of the G20, the World Bank says tens of millions of Indonesians still live in poverty.
Dasco defended the increase, saying the last allowance was based on the 2019-2024 period and didn’t take into account the subsequent rises in staple food prices and transportation costs.
“So this is not a raise, it’s a policy decided by the house’s secretariat after reviewing various kinds of aspects,” Dasco said, adding the figure was not proposed by the house but the secretariat.
Dasco, who is also a senior politician in President Prabowo Subianto’s Gerindra party, said parliament was developing a digital reporting mechanism to ensure transparency, which will be open to the public.
“It’s like Indonesians have been pranked,” said Lucius Karus from Formappi, a non-profit parliamentary watchdog. “We were satisfied by the abolition of the housing allowance… but, in fact, another fantastic allowance has appeared.”
(Reporting by Ananda Teresia; editing by Gibran Peshimam and David Stanway)
The Tinley Park Elementary District 146 teachers’ contract set for approval at Tuesday’s board meeting includes 6% raises over the next five years.
A spokesperson for the union said highlights of the tentative contract include two additional sick days for all staff members, a 3% increase in all stipends, updated safety language “to protect staff,” updated property and damage language and a $2,000 stipend for staff members who don’t opt into district insurance.
The union also successfully removed a requirement that veteran teachers, known a Tier 1 in the Illinois Teacher Retirement System, retire as soon as they are eligible.
“When we started this bargaining process, we knew that teacher recruitment and retention had to be a main focus in order to best serve the students in District 146,” the District 146 Educators Council said in a news release. “This agreement is a strong step towards that goal. By removing a limit on when educators must retire, and by bringing compensation closer to neighboring district standards, our district can better compete for teachers looking for jobs and ensure teachers who work here want to stay and build their career in our community.”
The District 146 Educators Council said 72% of union members voted in favor of the contract, and the agreement will be up for a vote by the school board at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at the district office, 6611 W. 171st St., Tinley Park.
The agreement follows the union voting to authorize to strike if an agreement could not be reached, with 230 of 232 members in favor of the authorization.
While most contract terms were settled ahead of the strike authorization vote, the teachers union said it was fighting for higher wage increases and more retirement benefits than the district offered. Negotiations began in February, with the union declaring an impasse once the board “started bargaining regressively and stalling over the summer.”
The most recent contract expired July 31. Full details tentative agreement approved by the teachers’ union was not made available, but both sides had publicized their latest offers.
The district’s offer moved wage increases up to 6% for each of the next three school years, while its previous offer included wage increases of 6% for each of the next two school years and 5% for the 2027-2028 school year. The district also made the current retirement incentive a benefit with a 10-year eligibility window, it said.
The teachers union said it would remain firm in advocating for wage increases of 7% each year for the next three school years, which they said was important to counter inflation and struggles teachers faced during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as to attract good teachers amid a nationwide shortage.
The district said it was unwilling to match the union’s 7% proposal because wage increases beyond 6% expose the district to financial penalties through the Illinois Teachers Retirement System.
Under the district’s proposed salary increase, teachers starting salaries would have been $52,570. Teachers with master’s degrees would have started at $56,300. The contract for the 2024-2025 school year had teachers with bachelor’s degrees starting at $50,586 and teachers with master’s degrees starting at $54,175.
“We are proud of our members, who stood strong and united to get this done, and thankful for our students and families who joined us in calling for real solutions that would ensure a secure, stable future for District 146,” the District 146 Educators Council said. “We are grateful to have reached this agreement and look forward to continuing to collaborate with the Board of Education and administration to give our students the high-quality education they deserve.”
District 146 Superintendent Jeff Stawick declined to comment on contract details Thursday.
NEW YORK — Former first lady Michelle Obama is putting new force behind efforts to ensure girls overcome educational barriers in some of the world’s most economically disadvantaged areas.
The Obama Foundation’s Girls Opportunity Alliance pledged Saturday to rally $2.5 million for dozens of grassroots groups who advance adolescent girls’ education by covering school-related costs, challenging patriarchal practices such as child marriage, counseling survivors of sexual abuse and providing other forms of support.
“These groups are changing the way girls see themselves in their own communities and in our world, helping create the leaders we need for the brighter future we all deserve,” Obama said in a video released Oct. 11, the International Day of the Girl. “Because when our girls succeed, we all do.”
Nearly three-quarters of the 119 million girls out of school worldwide are of secondary school-age, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund. Girls Opportunity Alliance — an outgrowth of an Obama White House initiative that invested $1 billion in U.S. government programs promoting adolescent girls’ education abroad — launched in 2018 with a focus on helping that population between ages 10-19 graduate.
But the latest announcement comes amid stark warnings from international aid groups that budget cuts will roll back recent progress. UNICEF projects that a 24% drop in wealthy countries’ global education funding will push six million girls out of school by the end of next year.
“The need right now, I think more than ever, is crucial,” Girls Opportunity Alliance Executive Director Tiffany Drake said. “We were just in Mauritius and we heard it time and time again that organizations need funding. They need support.”
Girls Opportunity Alliance’s early October convening in Mauritius brought together Asian and African members of its network. The great demands on local leaders doing tireless work with little resources made it, in Drake’s view, perhaps the most moving gathering they’ve hosted.
But Jackie Bomboma, the founder of Young Strong Mothers Foundation in Tanzania, said connecting with other powerful women there left her encouraged with the knowledge that she’s not alone. A recipient of GOA’s latest grants, she said the Obama Foundation’s endorsement not only brings financial support, but increased trust from the international community and additional channels to get resources.
Growing up without a mother and having survived teenage pregnancy, Bomboma said Obama’s example has also instilled confidence in her and the girls she serves. Her nonprofit provides psychological services, vocational training, entrepreneurship skills development and sexual health lessons to hundreds of girls at risk of child marriage, teenage pregnancy and school dropout.
“We call ourselves ‘watoto wa Michelle Obama,’ which means ‘the children of Michelle Obama,’” she said. “So, everyone feels so proud to have such a mother who is very strong, who is very powerful and who is very loving.”
The Girls Opportunity Alliance fund is intentionally designed to provide a range of support. Drake said anyone can apply for up to $50,000. The grant does not support general operations but instead goes toward a specific project outlined by the recipient.
Once they’ve joined the network, community leaders have access to monthly training sessions online and in-person gatherings, where they share strategies and learn from larger nongovernmental organizations such as UNICEF and Save the Children.
Girls Opportunity Alliance funds an undisclosed amount and then uses its wide reach to help organizations raise the rest on GoFundMe pages. The campaigns are promoted publicly on its social media accounts and throughout its donor network of celebrities and corporations.
The idea, according to Drake, was to use their “megaphone” to heap additional attention on and garner more support for organizations that often struggle to get by in more remote locations. Girls Opportunity Alliance hopes everyday individuals are inspired to join them.
“We didn’t want to just tell people and say, ‘Google how you can help,’ Drake said. “We wanted to give them a place where they can take action.”
___
Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
NEW YORK (AP) — Former first lady Michelle Obama is putting new force behind efforts to ensure girls overcome educational barriers in some of the world’s most economically disadvantaged areas.
The Obama Foundation’s Girls Opportunity Alliance pledged Saturday to rally $2.5 million for dozens of grassroots groups who advance adolescent girls’ education by covering school-related costs, challenging patriarchal practices such as child marriage, counseling survivors of sexual abuse and providing other forms of support.
“These groups are changing the way girls see themselves in their own communities and in our world, helping create the leaders we need for the brighter future we all deserve,” Obama said in a video released Oct. 11, the International Day of the Girl. “Because when our girls succeed, we all do.”
Nearly three-quarters of the 119 million girls out of school worldwide are of secondary school-age, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund. Girls Opportunity Alliance — an outgrowth of an Obama White House initiative that invested $1 billion in U.S. government programs promoting adolescent girls’ education abroad — launched in 2018 with a focus on helping that population between ages 10-19 graduate.
But the latest announcement comes amid stark warnings from international aid groups that budget cuts will roll back recent progress. UNICEF projects that a 24% drop in wealthy countries’ global education funding will push six million girls out of school by the end of next year.
“The need right now, I think more than ever, is crucial,” Girls Opportunity Alliance Executive Director Tiffany Drake said. “We were just in Mauritius and we heard it time and time again that organizations need funding. They need support.”
Girls Opportunity Alliance’s early October convening in Mauritius brought together Asian and African members of its network. The great demands on local leaders doing tireless work with little resources made it, in Drake’s view, perhaps the most moving gathering they’ve hosted.
But Jackie Bomboma, the founder of Young Strong Mothers Foundation in Tanzania, said connecting with other powerful women there left her encouraged with the knowledge that she’s not alone. A recipient of GOA’s latest grants, she said the Obama Foundation’s endorsement not only brings financial support, but increased trust from the international community and additional channels to get resources.
Growing up without a mother and having survived teenage pregnancy, Bomboma said Obama’s example has also instilled confidence in her and the girls she serves. Her nonprofit provides psychological services, vocational training, entrepreneurship skills development and sexual health lessons to hundreds of girls at risk of child marriage, teenage pregnancy and school dropout.
“We call ourselves ‘watoto wa Michelle Obama,’ which means ‘the children of Michelle Obama,’” she said. “So, everyone feels so proud to have such a mother who is very strong, who is very powerful and who is very loving.”
The Girls Opportunity Alliance fund is intentionally designed to provide a range of support. Drake said anyone can apply for up to $50,000. The grant does not support general operations but instead goes toward a specific project outlined by the recipient.
Once they’ve joined the network, community leaders have access to monthly training sessions online and in-person gatherings, where they share strategies and learn from larger nongovernmental organizations such as UNICEF and Save the Children.
Girls Opportunity Alliance funds an undisclosed amount and then uses its wide reach to help organizations raise the rest on GoFundMe pages. The campaigns are promoted publicly on its social media accounts and throughout its donor network of celebrities and corporations.
The idea, according to Drake, was to use their “megaphone” to heap additional attention on and garner more support for organizations that often struggle to get by in more remote locations. Girls Opportunity Alliance hopes everyday individuals are inspired to join them.
“We didn’t want to just tell people and say, ‘Google how you can help,’ Drake said. “We wanted to give them a place where they can take action.”
Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Walking along the broad pedestrian street that runs along the base of Athens’ famed Acropolis Hill, visitors can now enjoy something not seen in decades: an unobstructed, scaffolding-free view of the Parthenon temple.
The scaffolding set up along the 5th century B.C. temple’s western façade for conservation work about 20 years ago has been removed, allowing an uncluttered view of the UNESCO World Heritage site.
The western side of the Parthenon affords the best street-level view, so the removal from that side, which was completed in late September, has been the most noticeable for visitors. But Culture Minister Lina Mendoni noted it also marks the first time in about 200 years that the Parthenon’s exterior is completely free of any kind of scaffolding on any side.
For visitors, “it is like they are seeing a different, a completely different monument,” Mendoni said during an interview on Skai radio Friday.
However, conservation work must continue, and the respite will be temporary. New scaffolding is to be erected along the Parthenon’s western side in about one month’s time, but it will be “lighter and aesthetically much closer to the logic of the monument,” Mendoni said.
The renewed conservation work is expected to last until early summer in 2026. Then, the minister said, “the Parthenon will be completely freed of this scaffolding too, and people will be able to see it truly free.”
The Acropolis is by far Greece’s most popular tourist site, with 4.5 million people visiting in 2024, according to the country’s statistical authority. The marble temple was built in the mid 5th century B.C. to honor the city’s patron goddess, Athena.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — A food aid program that supports millions of low-income mothers and their young children received a $300 million infusion from the Trump administration this week, alleviating some anxiety that it would run out of money during the government shutdown.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children helps more than 6 million low-income mothers, young children and expectant parents to purchase nutritious staples like fruits and vegetables, low-fat milk and infant formula. The program, known as WIC, was at risk of running out of money this month because of the government shutdown, which occurred right before it was slated to receive its annual appropriation.
This week, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt posted on X the White House had found “a creative solution” to use tariff revenues to keep the program afloat. By Thursday, at least some states were receiving WIC money. Alaska and Washington said they received enough federal funds to keep their programs running until at least the end of October. The Inter-Tribal Council of Nevada, which had closed its office Thursday after running out of money, received money that allowed it to reopen Friday, radio station KUNR reported.
Officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs WIC, told congressional staffers they were using $300 million in unspent tariff revenue from the last fiscal year to keep the program afloat, two people briefed on the call told AP. The people declined to be named because they were not authorized to share details from the call.
Tariff revenue supports many USDA programs. The law permits the administration to transfer money allocated for other programs to WIC.
Without the additional money, state and local governments would have had to step in to pay for their WIC programs and later seek reimbursement from the federal government when funding was restored. Washington state, which is dealing with a massive budget shortfall, said it could not afford to use state money for the WIC program.
In Alaska, the WIC program only had enough federal money to operate through Saturday, meaning the state would have had to step in with its own funding to keep the program running. But this week, officials learned they were receiving nearly $900,000, enough to fully fund the program through Nov. 8, according to Shirley Sakaye, a spokesperson with the state’s health department. About half a million of that came from leftover funds from other programs, she said.
The government has been shut down since Oct. 1, after Republicans and Democrats in Congress failed to pass a bill to continue funding the government. Congressional Democrats want to reverse cuts to Medicaid that were passed earlier this year as part of President Donald Trump’s mega-bill. They also want to extend subsidies that cut the cost of Affordable Care Act insurance plans, which cover more than 24 million Americans.
The White House and Republicans in Congress have hammered Democrats for the shutdown, highlighting the potential damage it could do to WIC.
“The Democrats are so cruel in their continual votes to shut down the government that they forced the WIC program for the most vulnerable women and children to run out this week,” Leavitt posted on X.
But House Republicans and the White House have also sought to cut the program. Trump’s budget proposal and a budget bill passed by House Republicans last month would not have fully funded the program, meaning it would have to turn away eligible applicants.
“Since President Trump is now signaling he cares about the WIC program, he should finally get to the negotiating table to reopen the government,” said Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington state. “And he should immediately disavow his budget request to significantly cut benefits for millions of moms and kids — and tell House Republicans to back off their proposed cuts as well.”
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This story has been corrected to reflect that the Affordable Care Act covers 24 million Americans, not 25 million.
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When Paul Gausman announced his surprise retirement as superintendent of Lincoln Public Schools in December 2024, the district said he would be staying on in an as-needed advising capacity through June. And in that superintendent emeritus role, he would continue receiving his monthly salary.
It doesn’t appear he did any work.
A series of records requests submitted by the Flatwater Free Press shows Gausman didn’t exchange any emails with school board members, assistant superintendents or the interim superintendent from Dec. 28, 2024, to June 30, 2025.
In response to questions from Flatwater, the school board’s president confirmed that Gausman — who earned $333,720 annually — was not needed during the transition.
Few other details have emerged about the abrupt end of Gausman’s tenure with LPS, which culminated last month in the district naming interim Superintendent John Skretta as its new permanent superintendent.
A national expert said Gausman’s emeritus designation — agreed to amid ongoing scrutiny of superintendent pay in Nebraska — differed from typical circumstances where a district taps an outgoing superintendent to serve in an emeritus role.
LPS Board President Bob Rauner declined an interview request. But in a written statement, he said that Skretta and the rest of the district’s leadership team capably handled the additional workload, making Gausman’s input unneeded.
“Dr. Skretta’s work was exemplary during the first six months of 2025 and he did not need any assistance, which is in part why the board decided to remove interim from his title and make him our superintendent,” Rauner wrote. “We are fortunate to have a dedicated and highly-skilled executive team at Lincoln Public Schools.”
In a written statement, Gausman said he was proud to serve as superintendent, and he wished everyone in the district the best in the future.
“In our agreement, the District wanted assurance that my expertise and experience would be available to them via an on-call basis, through the remainder of my term as Superintendent Emeritus,” he wrote. “I was happy to serve in that manner under that agreement.”
The former superintendent joined LPS in the summer of 2022, after a four-month national search process that the district said included extensive recruiting and thorough background checks. When he started, his base salary was the highest of any superintendent in Nebraska.
His resignation, announced in the middle of the school year and more than a year before his contract was up, was unexpected. At the time, Gausman said he wanted to explore other opportunities “after 20 years in the public eye as a superintendent of schools.” During his final board meeting as superintendent, Gausman touted the district’s accomplishments during his tenure, including growth in high school enrollment.
“We have initiated positive programs to impact staff retention, recruitment and culture,” he said. “We have expanded early childhood programming and facilities, and there’s still more on the way to better serve our community.”
After board members approved his negotiated retirement/resignation agreement, both they and Gausman repeatedly declined to answer questions from local media about his departure.
Under the agreement, Gausman was placed on paid leave Dec. 27 and reassigned to superintendent emeritus status. The district agreed to pay him an additional $83,430 in separation pay in the form of retirement plan contributions. The document also said Gausman was prohibited from school property without permission from the district.
In a press release, the district said Gausman’s emeritus role was designed to ensure a smooth transition and minimize disruption caused by his retirement.
Rachel White, an associate professor of educational leadership and policy at the University of Texas at Austin, said that each year, around 2,000 superintendents nationwide leave their positions. Of those, she estimated only about 10 end up in a superintendent emeritus role.
Emeritus positions typically arise when a longtime superintendent retires and the successor is someone who could benefit from their coaching and institutional knowledge, White said. Gausman’s relatively short tenure with the district, combined with Skretta’s lengthy career in Nebraska education, buck that trend.
“This is a unique case in that all of the puzzle pieces don’t match what we typically see for why a school board may choose to keep someone on in an emeritus position,” she said.
Gausman’s time at LPS was far briefer than that of his predecessor, Steve Joel, who helmed the ship for 12 years before retiring. It was also briefer than his own time in Sioux City, Iowa, where he served as superintendent for 14 years before accepting the Lincoln role.
But his tenure at Sioux City came under scrutiny in 2023 after it was revealed that the district had filed a complaint with the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners alleging he had tried to bribe incoming school board members to back his pick for board president. At the time, the LPS board expressed continued confidence in Gausman.
Gausman later filed a lawsuit against several Sioux City school board members, alleging they had violated open meetings laws by improperly calling two closed sessions to discuss filing the complaint against him. A judge ruled that one session violated the law, while the other did not, according to reporting from the Sioux City Journal.
In January 2025, a month after Gausman’s retirement announcement, the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners found probable cause to proceed with two more ethics complaints against Gausman filed by the Sioux City school district.
The Flatwater Free Press submitted an open records request seeking emails sent by LPS school board members or associate superintendents that mentioned Gausman from Nov. 1, 2024, to Dec. 31, 2024, in an attempt to learn more about conversations conducted in the weeks before and after the retirement announcement.
Lincoln Public Schools released 178 pages of emails and attachments, but many were either substantially or completely redacted. The district cited exceptions to Nebraska’s open records law concerning attorney-client privilege and personal information.
While Rauner praised Gausman’s accomplishments during his final meeting, Rauner and other board members declined to speak to the press afterward. Emails indicate the board decided not to speak to the media in the interest of fairness after Gausman said he would not do any interviews.
“There’s sort of a balance here, of holding school board members accountable for effective and efficient use of taxpayer dollars, while also understanding that this is a human being that we’re talking about,” White said. “And there may be things that happened that cannot be talked about for legal reasons that sort of justify the decision that was made.”
Superintendent pay remains a hot-button issue in Nebraska. Earlier this year, state Sen. Dave Murman, who chairs the Legislature’s Education Committee, introduced a bill seeking to cap superintendent pay at five times the salary and benefits of a first-year teacher. The bill faced opposition from some lawmakers who characterized it as government overreach on an issue that local districts should decide.
In April, State Auditor Mike Foley released a report stating the median and average superintendent salaries in Nebraska are well above their national counterparts. Foley declined to comment on Gausman’s retirement/resignation agreement.
White noted that schools across the U.S. face complicated financial considerations, navigating unpredictable shifts in state and federal funding even as their core mission remains the same.
“This may very well be a good use of dollars,” White said. “But I would hope that the school board was able to have these conversations about how this money is being spent in the context of the broader sort of budget problems that our public schools are facing.”
In March, Gausman filed for an LLC to start his own educational consulting firm, InspirED Vibe Leadership. In addition, he works as a consultant for two other firms — Zeal Education Group in Delaware and McPherson & Jacobson in Nebraska. His predecessor at LPS, Joel, has worked at McPherson & Jacobson since 1996. Gausman joined the firm in 2007.
When asked whether the district felt the superintendent emeritus agreement with Gausman was necessary in retrospect, Rauner said each situation is unique, and the board has to make decisions based on information it has available at the time.
“At that time, that was the decision the Board made based on the information and circumstances,” he wrote in an email. “It is impossible to predict what future circumstances or Board decisions will be.”
This story was originally published by Flatwater Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
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As of Friday afternoon, it remained unclear how many staff members would be affected.
Photo illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | Tierney L. Cross/Getty Images | BraunS and Prostock-Studio/iStock/Getty Images
Staff members at the Department of Education will be affected by the mass layoffs taking place across the federal government, a spokesperson said Friday.
Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, has threatened the layoffs for weeks, citing the government shutdown. Vought wrote on social media Friday that his promised reduction in force had begun.
A department spokesperson then confirmed in an email to Inside Higher Ed that “ED employees will be impacted by the RIF.” The spokesperson did not clarify how many employees will be affected or in which offices. Other sources say no one who works in the Office of Federal Student Aid will be laid off.
Trump administration officials said in a court filing that an estimated 466 employees were given reduction-in-force notices. About 1,100 to 1,200 employees at the Department of Health and Human Services also got laid off. Overall, more than 4,200 workers across eight agencies were fired.
At the Education Department, the estimated layoffs will leave the department with just over 2,001 employees. The agency, which President Trump wants to close, already lost nearly half its career staff members during a first round of mass layoffs in March. In the wake of those layoffs, former staffers warned that the cuts would lead to technical mishaps, gaps in oversight and a loss of institutional knowledge. College administrators have also reported delays and issues in getting communications and updates from the department, though agency officials say critical services have continued.
The federal workers’ union and multiple outside education advocacy groups challenged the first round of layoffs in court. Lower courts blocked the RIF, but the Supreme Court overturned those rulings in July. Affected staff members officially left the department in August.
Another lawsuit challenged this latest round when Vought threatened the layoffs – before the pink slips had even been distributed today. It was filed at the end of September.
The union representing Education Department employees as well as sources with connections to staffers who were still working at the department as of Friday morning said that the latest round of cuts will at least affect staff members from the offices of elementary and secondary education and communications and outreach. A union representative added that all of the employees in the communications office’s state and local engagement division were laid off.
A senior department leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Inside Higher Ed that the layoffs were directed by OMB and came as a surprise.
“Last week the [education] secretary’s office had said no RIFs at all,” the senior leader explained. “We heard on Tuesday that OMB sent over a list of people for ED to RIF … ED apparently edited it and sent it back.”
In neither case were cuts planned for the Office of Federal Student Aid, which manages the Pell Grant and student loans, the senior leader added.
Rachel Gittleman, president of the union that represents Education Department employees, promised in a statement to fight the layoffs.
“This administration continues to use every opportunity to illegally dismantle the Department of Education against congressional intent,” Gittleman said. “They are using the same playbook to cut staff without regard for the impacts to students and families in communities across the country … Dismantling the government through mass firings, especially at the ED, is not the solution to our problems as a country.”
Through late September and into the first 10 days of the shutdown, both Vought and President Trump used the threat of further RIFs to try to convince Democrats in the Senate to acquiesce and sign the Republicans’ budget stopgap bill. But Democrats have stood firm, refusing to sign the bill unless the GOP meets their demands and extends an expiring tax credit for health insurance.
Health and Human Services Department spokesperson Andrew G. Nixon wrote in an email to Inside Higher Ed earlier on Friday that “HHS employees across multiple divisions” received layoff notices. But he didn’t provide an interview or answer written questions about whether the layoffs include employees at the National Institutes of Health, a major funder of university research.
Nixon wrote that “HHS under the Biden administration became a bloated bureaucracy” and “all HHS employees receiving reduction-in-force notices were designated non-essential by their respective divisions. HHS continues to close wasteful and duplicative entities, including those that are at odds with the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.”
Democrats and some Republicans have warned against the layoffs. Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who chairs the powerful appropriations committee, opposed the layoffs in a statement while also blaming Democrats in the shutdown.
“Arbitrary layoffs result in a lack of sufficient personnel needed to conduct the mission of the agency and to deliver essential programs, and cause harm to families in Maine and throughout our country,” she said.
But Democrats in particular have argued that firing federal workers during a shutdown is unconstitutional.
“No one is making Trump and Vought hurt American workers—they just want to,” Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington State Democrat and vice chair of the appropriations committee, said in a statement Friday afternoon. “A shutdown does not give Trump or Vought new, special powers to cause more chaos or permanently weaken more basic services for the American people … This is nothing new, and no one should be intimidated by these crooks.”
Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia democrat and ranking member of the House Education and Workforce Committee, pointed out in a statement that the administration has had to rehire employees who were fired earlier this year.
“In addition to wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to fire and rehire government employees, arbitrarily firing government employees means there are fewer people to help administer essential programs,” he said. “Moreover, I fear the lasting impact of mass firings will be an incredible loss of invaluable institutional knowledge. Furthermore, random and chaotic layoffs will make it difficult to recruit qualified employees in the future.”
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Education said on Friday it would lay employees off as workforce cut notices began to go out on the tenth day of the federal government shutdown.
The department confirmed the plan to Reuters but did not elaborate.
(Reporting by Courtney Rozen; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Chris Reese)
