What can legislative and education leaders across the state do to protect core education services if funding is eliminated?
NASHVILLE, Tenn., November 10, 2025 (Newswire.com)
– As state agencies prepare to present their requested FY27 budgets to the governor and other budget leaders, In the Black, an initiative of the Millennial Debt Foundation, has released a white paper on the perils of too much reliance on federal funding.
The white paper titled “Reverse ESSER: A Framework for Safeguarding TennesseeEducation Amid Federal Uncertainty“ presents insights and policy recommendations to address the potential for substantial federal education funding losses. On the heels of the Tennessee General Assembly’s House Finance, Ways, and Means Committee series of hearings reviewing agencies’ budget histories, coupled with upcoming FY27 budget decisions, the timeliness of these recommendations is paramount.
Authored by In the Black’s Policy Director, William Glass, the white paper outlines key findings in how Tennessee successfully utilized the federal government’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds offered to Tennessee during the COVID-19 pandemic and how Tennessee, and other states, can take those best practices a step further and protect what matters most in public education should funding go away.
Some of the key findings include:
The Tennessee Department of Education developed a strategic template structure for districts that received ESSER funds with clearly defined categories for spending and assessment requirements. Instead of using the strategic template for assessing expenditures, In the Black recommends reversing the model to identify potential vulnerabilities resulting from funding loss.
Recommendations on developing a Reverse-Triage Template to identify possible solutions or strategies that can address various outcomes beyond the districts’ control.
Recommendations for state leadership to operationalize a Reverse ESSER model for addressing federal education funding shortfalls.
“Our elected officials cannot assume the same levels of federal funding for education will continue,” said Glass. “We have already experienced the turmoil when funds are withheld or even paused temporarily. It is incumbent upon states to develop strategic plans for addressing the shortfall without sacrificing the institutional readiness of our education system.”
The Reverse ESSER white paper is available on the In the Black website. You can also learn more about the In the Black movement, which is centered around the idea that fiscal stewardship is both important and achievable when citizens insist on it, at intheblack.org. Follow along on Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
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ABOUT IN THE BLACK
In the Black is an initiative of the Millennial Debt Foundation, a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) dedicated to promoting fiscal stewardship in local and state policy. Founded by Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp and inspired by the late U.S. Senator Tom Coburn’s call to get government “back in black,” In the Black brings together generational leaders to address America’s long-term fiscal challenges. The organization is supported by individual donors, the Lynde and Harry Bradley
Scroll through TikTok or Instagram and you’ll likely come across families documenting their “unschooling” lives — children learning through nature walks instead of textbooks, kitchen experiments instead of science labs, and daily life instead of daily lessons.
The posts are idyllic: kids painting in sunlight, teens coding in cafés, parents narrating how freedom fuels creativity. “Life is learning,” many captions read — the unofficial mantra of the unschooling movement.
Lisa5201 via Getty Images
On paper, the philosophy of unschooling is meant to prioritize true learning over testing and grades — but unschooled alumnus have mixed feelings.
Unschooling, a form of homeschooling that removes formal curriculum entirely and emphasizes child-led, self-directed learning based on a child’s own interests, is gaining renewed attention as parents increasingly question traditional education systems. Some see it as the purest form of child-led learning. Others worry it’s just educational neglect in disguise.
So what’s it really like to grow up unschooled — and what happens when those kids grow up?
“I grew up in the Utah desert, where my parents pretended to educate us, but in reality, they were just isolating us from the world under the guise of religious protection,” he said. “By the time I was 10, even the pretense of learning had disappeared. There were no books, no lessons, no real education, just work and fear.”
He said a typical day meant chores, farm labor, and pretending to study whenever his father came inside.
“We hid from the school bus every morning because we were told school was evil, and I believed it,” Bagley continued. “My parents called it homeschooling, but it was really religious isolation that stripped us of connection, curiosity and childhood.”
“It’s very difficult to say that anything good came out of my no-schooling, but if there’s one thing, it’s grit,” he said. “When you have to figure out everything on your own with no help or encouragement, you either break or you fight to survive.”
“When you have to figure out everything on your own with no help or encouragement, you either break or you fight to survive.”
– Calvin Bagley, author
When he finally made it into college, “It was incredibly difficult to thrive in such a structured environment,” he said. “I had never written a paper or taken a test before. Every class felt like a new language I had to learn from scratch.”
“My peers were building resumes while I was still building a foundation,” Bagley added. “College was the first classroom I ever sat in, and every class was an act of defiance against my past.”
Even so, he said his “no-schooling” instilled one thing: survival intelligence. “It didn’t prepare me academically, but it did make me resourceful. When you grow up having to make things work with nothing, you develop a kind of survival intelligence,” he said. “My no-schooling didn’t give me answers, but it taught me how to find them.”
“Not in the way I experienced it,” he said. “My version wasn’t freedom, it was captivity.”
“A typical day meant a little reading, maybe some math, and lots of outside time,” she said. “I grew up on a ranch, so there were always chores, feeding animals, scrubbing water barrels, helping out, but also plenty of freedom.”
Schenkenberger, now a homeschool mom and coach herself, said the approach gave her something traditional schooling often doesn’t: self-awareness.
“Unschooling taught me how I learn best,” she said. “Because I had the freedom to explore at my own pace and follow my curiosity, I became a great researcher and problem-solver.”
Still, the transition to high school wasn’t seamless. “Having been unschooled in my middle school years, no one really taught me how to write an essay or organize my thoughts clearly. That was a skill gap I had to overcome later,” she said. “Even though I went on to write a book, those writing abilities were hard-won.”
But socially and professionally, she said she thrived. Her first job at 16 was working at Starbucks. “Growing up on a ranch gave me a strong work ethic and a sense of responsibility from a young age,” she said. “My bosses often complimented my initiative and reliability.”
As an adult, Schenkenberger still sees value in the unschooling philosophy — with tweaks.
“Yes, and we are,” she said when asked if she’d choose unschooling again. “My husband and I are raising our four boys with a more structured approach to unschooling. We focus on what I call our Core 4: math, language arts, science and social studies. We give plenty of time for play, reading and exploring their ‘zone of genius,’ but we also prioritize writing and communication. It’s that balance — freedom with a foundation — that helps our homeschool thrive.”
Experts say: curiosity is key, but balance matters.
Unschooling has its roots in the educational reform movements of the 1960s and ’70s, popularized by educator John Holt. Its guiding belief is that children are naturally driven to learn — if adults don’t get in the way.
“Unschooling removes formal curriculum altogether, allowing a child’s interest and daily life to guide learning,” said Kirsten Horton, an educator who’s worked across Montessori, Title I and independent schools. “While Montessori and homeschooling both share similar elements of allowing the child to follow his/her interests, unschooling is more improvised, student-led, and rooted in curiosity.”
She said the model can “spark intrinsic motivation and agency” — but cautions that not every child will thrive in such an open environment. “Some children may struggle with the lack of structure, sustained effort, or self-regulation required,” Horton said. “When unschooling is done with a strong balance, it can lead to independent, articulate learners. However, it is important for parents to be mindful and to keep experiences balanced, so as not to leave gaps.”
Her takeaway? “Children learn best when curiosity, structure and connection coexist.”
What the research shows — and doesn’t.
Curby Alexander, an education researcher and former schoolteacher, said unschooling is “an approach to education that does not rely on typical school methods or curriculum.”
“The focus of unschooling is children and their parents living life together, rather than each doing separate things during the day at work and school,” he explained. “Children and parents focus on having experiences together, parents and children learn together as they pursue their interests and cultivate their natural desire to learn and grow.”
Alexander notes that research on unschooling’s long-term effects is limited — but early findings suggest mixed results. Citing studies by Peter Gray and Gina Riley, he said “83% of respondents attended a post-secondary school….Half reported advantages relating to their unschooling: not being worn down by prior schooling, the self-direction they had learned, and their determination to get as much as the educational institution had to offer.”
“Perhaps unschooling works because it involves such a small number of people… It will always be a good option for some families, but I do not believe it will ever be the best option for everyone.”
– Curby Alexander, Ph.D., an education researcher and former schoolteacher
He cites an example of a family friend who unschooled her children and did not impose any academic requirements on them. At the age of 8, one of her children still did not know how to read and had no interest in books, but he loved playing Minecraft. His older brother told him there were online forums where Minecraft enthusiasts posted their strategies for playing the games.
According to the father, his son taught himself to read in a matter of weeks so he could access the online forums and learn from other Minecraft gamers. Similarly, the older brother in this story learned to read at an early age because he had a keen interest in World War II, particularly the tanks used by each country in the war.
“Based on these two examples, my belief is that unschooled children learn skills and knowledge when they desire to do so, not when it is imposed on them by an adult or school,” said Alexander.
But personally, he isn’t convinced of unschooling scales. “As a parent, I am not a fan of this movement,” he said. “Perhaps unschooling works because it involves such a small number of people… It will always be a good option for some families, but I do not believe it will ever be the best option for everyone.”
‘Learning doesn’t have to follow a fixed map.’
Cindy Chanin, founder of Rainbow Education Consulting, said the rise of unschooling reflects a broader cultural shift — parents seeking meaning and flexibility in education.
“Unschooling is rooted in the belief that a child’s natural curiosity can be a compass — that learning doesn’t have to follow a fixed map to be meaningful,” she said. “Instead of adhering to a predetermined curriculum, students pursue their interests as they emerge, while parents step into the role of facilitators and resource curators.”
Chanin said when it’s “thoughtfully supported,” unschooling “can nurture a strong sense of intrinsic motivation.” But again, the keyword is thoughtfully. “The key is how intentionally adults are creating an environment that supports autonomy without letting kids feel adrift,” she said. “When that balance is struck, unschooling can be incredibly empowering.”
“The key is how intentionally adults are creating an environment that supports autonomy without letting kids feel adrift.”
– Cindy Chanin, founder of Rainbow Education Consulting
In her work with families, Chanin said she sees unschooled students “enter adulthood along beautifully varied paths,” often thriving in creative or entrepreneurial fields. “Because they’ve spent their formative years navigating their own learning paths, many are comfortable forging unconventional routes and adapting to new environments,” she said.
But she stops short of idealizing the model. “I wouldn’t say I’m squarely ‘for’ or ‘against’ unschooling — it really depends on the child, the family and the support system in place,” Chanin said. “When the approach fits the learner, that’s when the magic happens.”
Unschooling, much like the children it serves, resists one-size-fits-all conclusions. For some, it fosters freedom and creativity, for others, it leaves painful gaps.
What’s clear is that the growing fascination with it — and the glossy Instagram portrayals — reflect a broader anxiety about the state of education itself: over-testing, burnout and distrust of institutions.
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In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas two years ago, high school teacher Josh Hirsch posted comments on social media in support of Israel. It was unrealistic for Hamas to expect a ceasefire, he wrote, as long as they were holding hostages.
Soon afterward, a former student called for his firing. A note taped outside the door of his Adams County, Colorado, classroom contained his wife’s name and their home address. And a sticker that appeared on his chair read: “Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.”
The reaction startled Hirsch, the only Jewish teacher in his school building. For the first time in his 14-year career, he considered quitting. He stayed and joined an educators’ advocacy network created by the Anti-Defamation League, a way he saw to make schools more inclusive of diverse viewpoints.
“I’ve been a teacher and tried to keep my focus on being the best teacher I could,” he said.
Tensions over the Israel-Hamas war have spilled into schools around the U.S., with advocates reporting a rise in antisemitic harassment since the 2023 surprise attack on Israel. While some argue school leaders have failed to take the threat seriously, others warn criticism of Israel and the military campaign in Gaza are interpreted too often as hate speech.
The Trump administration has not punished school systems the way it has hit colleges accused of tolerating antisemitism, but schools are still facing pressure to respond more aggressively. Several states have pressed for new vigilance, including legislation that critics say would stifle free speech.
Both conservative and liberal states apply more scrutiny
Lawmakers in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee have passed measures to increase school accountability for complaints of antisemitism, and a law signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, will provide training to identify and prevent antisemitism in schools. In Arizona, the Democratic governor vetoed a bill on how to deal with reports of antisemitism in schools, calling it an attack on educators.
Many of the measures, including one signed by Oklahoma’s Republican governor, call for adoption of a definition of antisemitism that casts certain criticism of Israel as hate speech.
“These bills make it clear that Oklahoma stands with our Jewish communities and will not tolerate hatred disguised as political discourse,” said Kristen Thompson, a Republican state senator in Oklahoma who authored the legislation.
Dozens of states have adopted the definition promoted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which is also recognized by the U.S. State Department. It lists 11 examples of antisemitic conduct, such as applying “double standards” to Israel or comparing the country’s policies to Nazism.
While supporters of this definition of antisemitism say it is necessary to combat evolving forms of Jewish hate, civil liberties groups warn it suppresses pro-Palestinian speech.
Trump administration approach contrasts with attacks on colleges
The Trump administration has leveraged antisemitism investigations in its efforts to reshape higher education, suspending billions of dollars in federal funding to Harvard, Columbia and other universities over allegations they tolerated hate speech, especially during protests over the Israel-Hamas war.
The White House has not gotten as involved at the K-12 level. At congressional hearings, House Republicans have taken some large school systems to task over their handling of antisemitism, but the administration largely has left it to the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights to address complaints.
In one of the cases under investigation, a complaint described students at the Berkeley Unified School District in California asking Jewish classmates what “their number is,” referring to numbers tattooed on Jews during the Holocaust. It also said teachers made antisemitic comments and led walkouts that praised Hamas.
The district did not respond to a request for comment.
In another California case, the family of a 14-year-old girl filed a federal lawsuit last year alleging she had to leave University Preparatory Academy, a charter school in San Jose, in 2023 because of antisemitic bullying. After the Hamas attack, she said students called her names, including “terrorist.” The California Department of Education and the school said they could not comment on pending litigation.
Nationwide, the ADL recorded 860 antisemitic incidents in non-Jewish schools last year, ranging from name-calling and swastikas etched on lockers to antisemitic materials being taught in classrooms. The number was down from over 1,100 recorded in 2023, but well above numbers in prior years, according to the ADL.
A Massachusetts state commission formed last year to combat antisemitism found it was a “pervasive and escalating problem” in schools.
At one meeting, a commission co-chair, Democratic state Rep. Simon Cataldo, said the Massachusetts Teachers Association was sharing antisemitic resources with teachers, including a kindergarten workbook that describes Zionists as “bullies” and an image of a Star of David made of dollar bills. The union said those were singled out among hundreds of images in art and posters about Palestinians, and links to those materials were removed.
The union said it has engaged in efforts to confront increases in both antisemitism and Islamophobia and accused the commission of “offensive political theater.”
“Those who manipulate antisemitism to achieve political objectives — such as undermining labor unions and public educators — are following the lead of the Trump administration,” the union said in a statement.
Margaret Litvin, an associate professor of Arabic and comparative literature at Boston University, said the commission was “deliberately conflating criticism of Israel with prejudice against Jews and bias against Jews.” That approach will be used to justify “heavy-handed” interference by the state in school district affairs, said Litvin, co-founder of the Boston-area Concerned Jewish Faculty and Staff group.
Controversy reaches the biggest teachers union
The tension reached the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, which this summer weighed a proposal to drop ADL classroom materials that educators use to teach about the Holocaust and bias. Backers said the ADL had an outsize influence on school curricula and policy, with an underlying pro-Israel viewpoint.
Delegates at the union’s representative assembly narrowly voted to approve the proposal, but they were overruled by the NEA board of directors. Union President Becky Pringle said the proposal “would not further NEA’s commitment to academic freedom, our membership, or our goals.”
In the aftermath, the ADL invited K-12 educators to join a new network called BEACON: Building Educator Allies for Change, Openness, and Networks, which it said is intended to help educators learn from each other how to address and combat antisemitism and other forms of hate.
Hirsch, the teacher in Colorado, was among hundreds who expressed interest.
Some of the blowback he faced stemmed from his online commentary about local activist organizations. After donating money to Black Lives Matter groups and supporting them with a sign in his yard, he expressed feelings of betrayal to see the groups expressing support for Palestinians and not Israel.
He said he was surprised by the reaction to the posts in his predominantly Hispanic school community. A former debate coach, he aims through his work with the ADL network to help students share their opinions in constructive ways.
“If we’re giving them the opportunity to hate and we’re giving them the opportunity to make enemies of someone, it really is counterproductive to what we’re trying to do as a society,” he said.
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North Carolina Democrats are calling on state legislators to boost public school teacher pay. Arguing its case, the party said Oct. 29 that Tar Heel State teachers draw the South’s lowest salaries.
“North Carolina teachers are already the lowest paid teachers in the South and thanks to the NCGOP’s inability to pass a budget their take home pay continues to decrease while the cost of living and inflation only skyrocket,” state party Chair Anderson Clayton said in a written statement.
North Carolina’s legislature primarily funds public school districts, including teacher salaries. The state’s Republican-controlled House and Senate are at an impasse over funding after failing to agree on a long-term spending plan before the current fiscal year’s July 1 start. The state is operating on funding levels in the previous budget, approved in 2023. That means teachers won’t see significant salary increases, unless lawmakers reach an accord.
The state Department of Public Instruction, which oversees the state’s public schools, collects data related to public school education and employee salaries. We emailed the department to ask about Clayton’s claim that North Carolina teachers are the “lowest paid teachers in the South.”
A DPI spokesperson told PolitiFact North Carolina that the department doesn’t track pay in other states, and therefore doesn’t know exactly how teacher salaries in North Carolina compare to teacher salaries in other states. The spokesperson instead referred us to data collected by the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union.
NEA tracks the average teacher salary in each state, as well as the average salary for teachers who are starting their careers. In the 2023-24 fiscal year, North Carolina’s average teacher salary of $58,292 ranked 43rd in the nation. The state’s average starting salary of $42,542 ranked 39th in the nation.
How does that compare to other Southern states? NEA data shows average teacher salaries are lower in Mississippi, Florida and Louisiana than in North Carolina. Starting salaries are lower in Mississippi and Kentucky.
A PolitiFact review of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2024 — the most recent year of complete data available — found average teacher pay to be lower in Mississippi than in North Carolina, as well.
PolitiFact asked NEA if there’s any metric showing North Carolina with the lowest teacher pay in the South. Staci Maiers, the association’s spokeswoman, said NEA believes it’s more useful to compare a state to its neighbors than to an entire region.
“It would be more accurate to say that North Carolina teachers are the lowest paid among its neighboring states, behind Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, and even South Carolina,” Maiers said.
The NEA numbers include base-level pay set by state lawmakers, as well as supplemental pay provided by local-level governments.
Public Schools First NC, a nonprofit organization that researches public education issues, published a report earlier this year that compared teachers’ base pay, among Southern states. The analysis excluded supplemental pay.
The group’s comparison, which doesn’t include teacher pay information for Florida or Virginia, found that North Carolina’s base pay for starting teachers to be the lowest of all the other Southern states. North Carolina’s new teachers make base pay of $41,000 annually. The next lowest is Mississippi’s $41,500.
Supplemental pay provided in North Carolina’s richest counties could make overall starting salaries look larger than they are, said Public Schools First NC spokesperson Heather Koons.
“In North Carolina, Wake County has a nice, robust local supplement because we have a stronger tax base in Wake County, whereas others don’t,” Koons said. In comparing each state’s base pay, Koons said: “We wanted to compare apples to apples.”
When we asked Clayton about the NEA data, she responded by email with sarcasm:
“After seeing the data, we’d like to formally apologize to the GOP leadership in the General Assembly for misspeaking and not recognizing that they made sure that North Carolina teachers are not in the bottom 15% for teacher pay but instead, only in the bottom 20.”
Our ruling
Clayton said “North Carolina teachers are already the lowest paid teachers in the South.”
Data from the NEA, the largest teachers’ union in the nation, shows North Carolina’s teacher salaries are among the lowest among neighboring states, but not the lowest. Other southern states have lower average teacher salaries and lower starting teacher salaries than North Carolina.
The NEA’s data includes both state-level base pay and supplemental pay provided by local governments. If supplemental pay is excluded, North Carolina’s base pay for starting teachers is, indeed, lower than other southern states, according to a North Carolina-based education nonprofit.
The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate this claim Mostly False.
Some Tarrant County College faculty members were ordered to repay a portion of their salaries. Administrators say they were paid for classes not taught.
Rodger Mallison
rmallison@star-telegram.com
Dozens of Tarrant County College faculty members have been ordered to pay back portions of their salaries, with college administrators saying the teachers did not meet their contractual obligations.
According to a statement from Chancellor Elva LeBlanc, contracts for 65 full-time faculty members “were adjusted to address concerns raised by faculty members about clear documentation of contract dates.”
LeBlanc said the affected faculty members taught fewer classes than required by their contracts, and thus must reimburse the college.
“The salary repayment is limited to those faculty members who were paid for hours not performed under their contract,” wrote LeBlanc.
A TCC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request asking faculty members must repay money paid under this year’s contract or a previous year’s.
LeBlanc said only a small percentage of TCC’s full-time and adjunct faculty were affected. She added that they “will be given fair and flexible repayment options.” The college’s spokesperson has not clarified what the repayment terms will be.
“As a public institution, TCC is legally obligated to recover those overpayments to comply with board policy and state law,” LeBlanc said in her statement.
A TCC professor declined to comment when contacted by the Star-Telegram.
According to TCC’s Board Policy Manual, full-time faculty members are required to work a minimum of 35 hours per week, which includes instruction time, preparation time and time spent meeting with students.
Those on nine-month contracts must devote 480 hours to instruction — which can include things like lab work, clinical work and internships in addition to lecture time — over the course of the contract. Full-time faculty members on 12-month contracts commit to another 192 hours during TCC’s two summer sessions.
Matt Adams is a news reporter covering Fort Worth, Tarrant County and surrounding areas. He previously wrote about aviation and travel and enjoys a good weekend road trip. Matt joined the Star-Telegram in January 2025. Support my work with a digital subscription
Cornell University has reached a deal with the Trump administration to pay the government a $30 million settlement—and invest another $30 million in agricultural research—in exchange for having its frozen federal research funding restored.
The agreement, announced Friday, makes Cornell the latest institution to strike a deal with the federal government in an effort to settle investigations into alleged civil rights violations. The settlement follows similar arrangements at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Brown University and the University of Virginia. Concessions varied by university, with Columbia making the biggest payout at $221 million.
Collectively, those institutions were targeted for a range of alleged violations, including allowing transgender athletes to compete on women’s sports teams, failing to police campus antisemitism amid pro-Palestinian protests and operating supposedly illegal diversity, equity and inclusion practices as the Trump administration cracked down on DEI initiatives.
Now the university will see roughly $250 million in frozen federal research funding immediately restored. The federal government will also close ongoing civil rights investigations into Cornell.
While some institutions, including Columbia, have given tremendous deference to the federal government and agreed to sweeping changes across admissions, hiring and academic programs, the deal at Cornell appears to be relatively constrained, despite the $30 million payout.
Under the agreement, Cornell must share anonymized admissions data broken down by race, GPA and standardized test scores with the federal government through 2028; conduct annual campus climate surveys; and ensure compliance with various federal laws. Cornell also agreed to share as a training resource with faculty and staff a July memo from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi barring the use of race in hiring, admissions practices and scholarship programs. And in addition to paying the federal government $30 million over three years, Cornell will invest $30 million “in research programs that will directly benefit U.S. farmers through lower costs of production and enhanced efficiency, including but not limited to programs that incorporate [artificial intelligence] and robotics,” according to a copy of the agreement.
Cornell leaders cast the deal as a positive for the university.
“I am pleased that our good faith discussions with the White House, Department of Justice, and Department of Education have concluded with an agreement that acknowledges the government’s commitment to enforce existing anti-discrimination law, while protecting our academic freedom and institutional independence,” Cornell president Michael Kotlikoff said in a statement shared with Inside Higher Ed. “These discussions have now yielded a result that will enable us to return to our teaching and research in restored partnership with federal agencies.”
Education Secretary Linda McMahon also celebrated the deal in a post on X.
“The Trump Administration has secured another transformative commitment from an Ivy League institution to end divisive DEI policies. Thanks to this deal with Cornell and the ongoing work of DOJ, HHS, and the team at ED, U.S. universities are refocusing their attention on merit, rigor, and truth-seeking—not ideology. These reforms are a huge win in the fight to restore excellence to American higher education and make our schools the greatest in the world,” she wrote.
Some outside observers, however, excoriated the settlement as capitulation to authoritarianism.
“The Trump administration’s corrupt extortion of higher ed institutions must end. Americans want an education system that serves the public good, not a dangerously narrow far right ideology that serves billionaires,” American Association of University Professors President Todd Wolfson said in a statement, which also urged colleges to fight intrusion by the federal government.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
The sanctuary entrance at St. Stephen Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth. The abrupt closure of the church’s day school, announced Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, has left parents and former teachers searching for answers.
Star-Telegram file photo
In less than a week, the St. Stephen Presbyterian Day School went from being a decades-old and beloved institution to being no more, and parents say church leaders have been largely silent about what precipitated the closure and what happens next.
It all began on Oct. 29 when school director Lauren Ferguson was dismissed from her role. According to a St. Stephen teacher and multiple parents whose children attended the school, Ferguson’s firing seemingly came out of nowhere. Later that day, church administrators informed parents that Marcie Ellen Duplantis, St. Stephen’s director of Christian formation, would take over as director.
In the days that followed, at least seven of the nine St. Stephen teachers resigned, along with at least two board members, sources told the Star-Telegram. Former teacher Sonia Behrens, who taught at St. Stephen for 23 years, said she resigned in solidarity with Ferguson. That backlash seems to have caught school and church leaders off guard.
“They didn’t anticipate the tectonic shift,” said Connor Brankin, who had two children enrolled at St. Stephen.
Parents said they were told the dismissal was not the result of criminal wrongdoing or abuse allegations.
Neither Ferguson nor Duplantis have responded to requests for comment. The Star-Telegram also left a message for St. Stephen head pastor Elizabeth Callender.
The St. Stephen Presbyterian Day School, at 2700 McPherson Ave. in Fort Worth, had classes for infants, toddlers and preschoolers. The school operated on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m., but documents obtained by the Star-Telegram show there were plans to expand the program to five days a week in the coming years. There were approximately 50 students enrolled in the school.
Ferguson had served as director since 2019, according to her bio on the school’s website, which has since been removed.
St. Stephen parents speak out
Jessica Rhodes, a parent, said communication from the church over the past several days has been lacking, adding that several parents never received emails church leaders sent regarding the school’s leadership change and subsequent closure.
Church administrators scheduled a meeting for Sunday, Nov. 2, to address questions, but that meeting was canceled less than two hours before it was set to begin. In the email announcing the cancellation, families were told the school was ceasing operations.
“We apologize for the short notice and appreciate your understanding that classes cannot be held without teachers,” the email read.
Despite the meeting being called off, several families still went to St. Stephen on Sunday evening in search of answers. Rhodes said Callender and Duplantis were not available, but parents met with Bill Curtis, one of the church elders.
Rhodes believes church leaders haven’t done enough to show empathy for the children and families impacted by their decisions.
“Nobody will take responsibility,” she said.
Another parent, Kacey Blaisdell, said Callender was in the church during the informal parent gathering on Sunday, but that she wouldn’t come out and speak. Blaisdell and others also said Callender hasn’t responded to their emails.
“Where is the minister? Where is she?” Blaisdell asked rhetorically. “It is beyond disgusting and cowardly not to show up at that meeting.”
While the school and the church largely operated independently, parents told the Star-Telegram Callender had oversight over the school’s operations.
Brankin said when unpopular decisions are made, leaders are the ones who should be accountable. He said he understands that the church can’t comment on personnel matters, but he would like to hear someone say sorry for the disruption to kids and families that Ferguson’s dismissal caused.
When he didn’t receive a response to his emails, Brankin said he went to the church offices and spoke with Curtis and Callender. He described that meeting as somewhat cold and said it did little to lessen his disappointment over how things were handled.
Leslie Ramirez, a parent who has had children at St. Stephen for the past seven years, praised the school and Ferguson’s leadership, saying her children, especially her youngest daughter, thrived at St. Stephen.
Because of the positive experience they had, Ramirez said she was happy to pay the $285-a-month tuition despite there being free pre-kindergarten alternatives in Fort Worth.
Ferguson had already told administrators she planned to leave the school in May 2026, according to documents obtained by the Star-Telegram. Ramirez wondered why the church wouldn’t allow Ferguson to work out her term while they searched for a new director instead of springing the change on everyone so suddenly.
The parents who spoke with the Star-Telegram made it clear they don’t blame the teachers for resigning. All placed the blame rests solely on the administrators who made the decision to dismiss Ferguson without understanding how it would affect school staff.
“The ones who were hurt by this were our children,” Ramirez said.
In addition to disrupting the students’ routines, parents said the school closure forced them to scramble to make child care arrangements. On the Monday after the closure was announced, Rhodes had her child with her while she was working, as did others. Brankin said parents were having to make time to tour schools and paying unexpected application fees to get their children into new programs.
This week, St. Stephen notified families that they would receive refunds, though it was unclear how much they would get and if the refunds would include things like the $285 supply fee.
Matt Adams is a news reporter covering Fort Worth, Tarrant County and surrounding areas. He previously wrote about aviation and travel and enjoys a good weekend road trip. Matt joined the Star-Telegram in January 2025. Support my work with a digital subscription
School districts across the state were concerned about teacher shortages after an anonymous social media post pushing for teachers to call out of work Friday and Monday went viral.
What You Need To Know
An anonymous post called on North Carolina teachers to call out of work Friday and Monday
Schools in Durham and Guilford counties said there were not an unusual number of teacher absences as of Friday morning
The post called for the protest because of the lack of a state budget, leading to stagnant wages for teachers
Teachers’ unions across the state criticized the anonymous post and asked its members to not participate in the walkout
Some schools alerted parents Thursday to warn them of the potential disruption.
“While students may have a different teacher or classroom location for the day, learning will continue as planned,” reads an email from North Garner Middle School sent to parents Thursday night.
But administrators from Durham and Guilford county schools said they had not seen an increase in teacher absences as of Friday morning.
The post calling for the protest cited the lack of a state budget, leaving schools to operate with the same amount of funding as last year. Without money for regular raises, teacher’s wages were left stagnant.
None of the large teacher unions in North Carolina have claimed credit for the post, and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators asked its members not to take part in the walkout.
“CMAE does not endorse and will not participate in the anonymously organized social media campaign encouraging educators to call out on Nov. 7 and 10,” reads a statement issued by the union Thursday. “Our power as educators comes from unity, strategy, and collective action—not isolated walkouts.”
Wake North Carolina Association of Educators also criticized the post.
“Big serious actions aren’t generated by viral social media posts,” reads its post reacting to the call for the walkout.
It highlighted the months of planning and organizing that it took for previous walkouts in 2018 and 2019.
On May 16, 2018, more than 1,000 teachers called out of work in Durham County Schools alone, causing the county’s schools to close that day.
“Winning campaigns are strategic,” the post from the Wake North Carolina Association of Educators reads. “They have specific targets, with well-designed tactics, and demands.”
Follow us on Instagram at spectrumnews1nc for news and other happenings across North Carolina.
TAMPA, Fla. – The University of South Florida has released its plans for a new housing and entertainment area it’s calling the Fletcher District.
The area is the university’s planned mixed-use destination featuring student and multifamily housing, restaurants, retail, a hotel and conference center, an academic research facility and recreation space.
What You Need To Know
USF releases plans for its “Fletcher District”
138-acre Entertainment/housing area would be located on the former USF golf course
Phase One construction is planned to begin in spring 2026, with the project opening in time for fall 2028
“The Fletcher District will be a vibrant new hub of activity for our students, other members of the university community and the surrounding area,” USF President Rhea Law said. “The project provides a unique opportunity to transform an underutilized part of our campus into a prime destination to live, work, learn and play.”
The first phase of the project is located at Fletcher Avenue and North 46th Street, the former location of the USF golf course.
The project will be developed as a public-private partnership and managed with private developers. Though phase one uses approximately 27 acres, the full site is 138 acres, which could be used for future development. The Phase One cost is an estimated $268 million.
The nearby USF Forest Preserve will not be developed.
Following yesterday’s state-level approval of our Fletcher District project, we’re excited to unveil four new renderings of the mixed-use destination!
The district will feature housing, restaurants, retail, a hotel and conference center, an academic research facility,… pic.twitter.com/CQv3B4kQRD
“This isn’t just a real estate development because we had some land that wasn’t performing. It is going to be mission-led, it is going to be mission-driven. The profits that we receive from this will be reinvested in student success. This will help us attract students, world-class faculty and staff,” said USF Board of Trustees Vice Chair Mike Griffin, who was also reappointed to another term on the board during Thursday’s meeting.
Officials said the Fletcher District is a separate project from the university’s football stadium, which is under construction. However, the two projects will be located within walking distance.
Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners Chair Ken Hagan also attended Thursday’s meeting and spoke of the project’s impact.
“USF is one of the county’s largest and most important economic engines,” Hagan said. “On behalf of the Board of County Commissioners, I am very pleased to be here to show the county’s unconditional support for USF, and as you’ve seen today, this truly transformative project. Along with the on-campus stadium, this project is a critical piece of this overall transformation and Hillsborough County is very proud to partner in this growth.”
Construction is planned to begin in spring 2026, with the project opening in time for fall 2028.
A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that an Ohio school district violated students’ free speech rights by enforcing policies that restricted gendered language in classrooms.
The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Olentangy Local School District, near Columbus, cannot punish students for using gender-specific language, even if some find it offensive.
Parents Defending Education, a national parental rights organization, sued the district in 2023, arguing its pronoun mandate violated students’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. District officials maintained the policies were designed to curb bullying and promote inclusion.
In its majority opinion, the court said the district “fell far short” of showing that allowing such speech would cause disruption or infringe on others’ rights.
The William McKinley Monument is silhouetted near the Ohio Statehouse, April 15, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio.(AP)
“Our society continues to debate whether biological pronouns are appropriate or offensive — just as it continues to debate many other issues surrounding transgender rights,” Circuit Judge Eric Murphy wrote for the majority. “The school district may not skew this debate by forcing one side to change the way it conveys its message or by compelling it to express a different view.”
In her dissent, Circuit Judge Jane Stranch avoided using any gendered pronouns, writing that adapting to new linguistic norms “may be new for some” but remains “entirely possible.” She noted that social customs around pronouns “have evolved throughout American history.”
The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Olentangy Local School District may not bar students from using gendered language considered by others to be offensive.(iStock)
The decision overturns a 2024 ruling from a separate Sixth Circuit panel that had sided with the district. The case now returns to U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley in Columbus, who must issue an injunction blocking enforcement of the policy.
District rules discouraged students from using language related to gender that could be seen as disrespectful or demeaning, and urged them to use classmates’ self-identified pronouns instead.
The district’s policies prohibited the use of gender-related language that other students might view as insulting, dehumanizing, unwanted or offensive.(Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A separate policy governing students’ use of personal devices extended those restrictions beyond school grounds, prohibiting content that could be interpreted as harassing or disparaging toward others’ gender identity or sexual orientation.
It remains unclear how widely the ruling will apply. An Ohio teachers’ union told the court that Olentangy’s policies resemble those in other districts across the state.
Over the past 18 months, I’ve been spending the majority of my time writing and speaking about how I think we can and should continue to teach writing even as we have this technology that is capable of generating synthetic text. While my values regarding this issue are unshakable, the world undeniably changes around me, which requires an ongoing vigilance regarding the capabilities of this technology.
But like most people, I don’t have unlimited time to stay on top of these things. One of my recommendations in More Than Wordsfor navigating these challenges is to “find your guides,” the people who are keeping an eye on aspects of the issue that you can trust.
One of my guides for the entirety of this period is Marc Watkins, someone who is engaged with staying on top of the latest implications of how the technology and the way students are using it is evolving.
I thought it might be helpful to others to share the questions I wanted to ask Marc for my own edification.
Marc Watkins directs the AI Institute for Teachers and is an assistant director of academic innovation at the University of Mississippi, where he is a lecturer in writing and rhetoric. When training faculty in applied artificial intelligence, he believes educators should be equally supported if they choose to work with AI or include friction to curb AI’s influence on student learning. He regularly writes about AI and education on his Substack, Rhetorica.
Q: One of the things I most appreciate about the work you’re doing in thinking about the intersection of education and generative AI is that you actively engage with the technology using a lens to ask what a particular tool may mean for students and classes. I appreciate it because my personal interest in using these things beyond keeping sufficiently, generally familiar is limited, and I know that we share similar values at the core of the work of reading and writing. So, my first question is for those of us who aren’t putting these things through their paces: What’s the state of things? What do you think instructors should, specifically, know about the capacities of gen AI tools?
A: Thanks, John! I think we’re of the same mind when it comes to values and AI. By that, I mean we both see human agency and will as key moving forward in education and in society. Part of my life right now is talking to lots of different groups about AI updates. I visit with faculty, administration, researchers, even quite a few folks outside of academia. It’s exhausting just to keep up and nearly impossible to take stock.
We now have agentic AI that completes tasks using your computer for you; multimodal AI that can see and interact with you using a computer voice; machine reasoning models that take simple prompts and run them in loops repeatedly to guess what a sophisticated response might look like; browser-based AI that can scan any webpage and perform tasks for you. I’m not sure students are aware of any of what AI can do beyond interfaces like ChatGPT. The best thing any instructor can do is have a conversation with students to ask them if they are using AI and gauge how it is impacting their learning.
Q: I want to dig into the AI “agents” a bit more. You had a recent post on this, as did Anna Mills, and I think it’s important for folks to know that these companies are purposefully developing and selling technology that can go into a Canvas course and start doing “work.” What are we to make of this in terms of how we think about designing courses?
A: I think online assessment is generally broken at this point and won’t be saved. But online learning still has a chance and is something we should fight for. For all of its many flaws, online education has given people a valid pathway to a version of college education that they might not have been able to afford otherwise. There’s too many issues with equity and access to completely remove online from higher education, but that doesn’t mean we cannot radically think what it means to learn in online spaces. For instance, you can assign your students a process notebook in an online course that involves them writing by hand with pen and paper, then take a photograph or scan it and upload it. The [optical character recognition] function within many of the foundation models will be able to transcribe most handwriting into legible text. We can and should look for ways to give our students embodied experiences within disembodied spaces.
Q: In her newsletter, Anna Mills calls on AI companies to collaborate on keeping students from deploying these agents in service of doing all their work for them. I’m skeptical that there’s any chance of this happening. I see an industry that seems happy to steamroll instructors, institutions and even students. Am I too cynical? Is there space for collaboration?
A: There’s space for collaboration for sure, and limiting some of the more egregious use cases, but we also have to be realistic about what’s happening here. AI developers are moving fast and breaking things with each deployment or update, and we should be deeply skeptical when they come around to offer to sweep up the pieces, lest we forget how they became broken in the first place.
Q: I’m curious if the development of the technology tracks what you would have figured a year or even longer, 18 months ago. How fast do you think this stuff is moving in terms of its capacities as they relate to school and learning? What do you see on the horizon?
A: The problem we’re seeing is one of uncritical adoption, hype and acceleration. AI labs create a new feature or use case and deploy it within a few days for free or low cost, and industry has suddenly adopted this technique to bring the latest up-to-date AI features to enterprise products. What this means is the none-AI applications we’ve used for years suddenly get AI integrated into it, or if it has an AI feature, sees it rapidly updated.
Most of these AI updates aren’t tested enough to be trusted outside of human in the loop assistance. Doing otherwise makes us all beta testers. It’s creating “work slop,” where companies are seeing employees using AI uncritically to often save time and produce error-laden work that then takes time and resources to address. Compounding things even more, it increasingly looks like the venture capital feeding AI development is one of the prime reasons our economy isn’t slipping into recession. Students and faculty find themselves at ground zero for most of this, as education looks like one of the major industries being impacted by AI.
Q: One of the questions I often get when I’m working with faculty on campuses is what I think AI “literacy” looks like, and while I have my share of thoughts, I tend to pivot back to my core message, which is that I’m more worried about helping students develop their human capacities than teaching them how to work with AI. But let me ask you, what does AI literacy look like?
A: I think AI literacy really isn’t about using AI. For me, I define AI literacy as learning how the technology works and understanding its impact on society. Using that definition, I think we can and should integrate aspects of AI literacy throughout our teaching.The working-with-AI-responsibly part, what I’d call AI fluency, has its place in certain classes and disciplines but needs to go hand in hand with AI literacy; otherwise, you risk uncritically adopting a technology with little understanding or demystifying AI and helping students understand its impact on our world.
Q: Whenever I make a campus visit, I try to have a chance to talk to students about their AI use, and for the most part I see a lot of critical thinking about it, where students recognize many of the risks of outsourcing all of their work, but also share that within the system they’re operating in, it sometimes makes sense to use it. This has made me think that ultimately, our only response can be to treat the demand side of the equation. We’re not going to be able to police this stuff. The tech companies aren’t going to help. It’s on the students to make the choices that are most beneficial to their own lives. Of course, this has always been the case with our growth and development. What do you think we should be focused on in managing these challenges?
A: My current thinking is we should teach students discernment when it comes to AI tools and likely ourselves, too. There’s no rule book or priors for us to call upon when we deal with a machine that mimics human intelligence. My approach is radical honesty with students and faculty. By that I mean the following: I cannot police your behavior here and no one else is going to do that, either. It is up to all of us to form a social contract and find common agreement about where this technology belongs in our lives and create clear boundaries where it does not.
A resident who lives near the crash site called authorities to report the animal’s location, and it was then “successfully recovered,” the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks said in a statement on social media.
It was the last monkey on the loose from an Oct. 28 crash when the truck carrying 21 monkeys overturned on Interstate 59. Five monkeys were killed as law officers hunted for them in the immediate aftermath of the crash. Video from officers’ body cameras showed a chaotic scene as monkeys that escaped from their wooden crates dashed around the grassy interstate median, with some running toward cars and semis on the interstate.
The crash happened approximately 100 miles from the state capital of Jackson. It’s not clear what caused the truck to overturn.
Two other monkeys that eluded officers at the crash site were later shot and killed by civilians, who said they were protecting their families and neighborhoods. Officials had warned residents not to approach the rhesus monkeys, saying they are known to be aggressive. Rhesus monkeys, which typically weigh around 16 pounds, are among the most medically studied animals on the planet.
The last monkey on the loose was found Wednesday afternoon near a home in the Vossburg area, just east of where the truck had wrecked. Brandy Smith saw the monkey when her dog started barking, she told WDAM-TV. Her neighbors called 911. Workers from one of the companies that had been transporting the truckload of monkeys across the country arrived to tranquilize the monkey, Smith said.
The monkeys had been housed at the Tulane University National Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana, which routinely provides primates to scientific research organizations, according to the university. Tulane has said it wasn’t transporting the monkeys and they do not belong to the university.
PreLabs, which describes itself on its website as a biomedical research support organization, said in a statement that the animals were being lawfully transported to a licensed research facility. It said the monkeys weren’t carrying any known diseases. Thirteen of the monkeys that were not killed arrived at their original destination last week, according to Tulane.
The escape is the latest glimpse into the secretive industry of animal research and how contracts demanding confidentiality prevent the public from knowing key facts about studies involving animals.
NORTH MANKATO — Beatriz Rivera wanted to do more than just survive.
As a first-generation college student attending South Central College, Rivera’s path to higher education began with her family’s journey from Mexico, where her mother left school after the third grade to work on her family ranch, before moving to the United States at age 16.
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NORTH MANKATO — Beatriz Rivera wanted to do more than just survive.
As a first-generation college student attending South Central College, Rivera’s path to higher education began with her family’s journey from Mexico, where her mother left school after the third grade to work on her family ranch, before moving to the United States at age 16.
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Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
NORTH MANKATO — Beatriz Rivera wanted to do more than just survive.
As a first-generation college student attending South Central College, Rivera’s path to higher education began with her family’s journey from Mexico, where her mother left school after the third grade to work on her family ranch, before moving to the United States at age 16.
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Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
HEIDELBERG, Miss. — The last monkey on the loose among several that escaped after a Mississippi highway crash has been found and captured, authorities said Thursday.
A resident who lives near the crash site called authorities to report the animal’s location and it was then “successfully recovered,” the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks said in a statement to The Associated Press.
It was the last monkey on the loose from the Oct. 28 crash when the truck overturned on Interstate 59. Five monkeys were killed as law officers hunted for them in the immediate aftermath of the crash. Video from officers’ body-worn cameras showed a chaotic scene as monkeys that escaped from their wooden crates dashed around the grassy interstate median, with some running toward cars and semis on the interstate.
Two other monkeys that eluded officers at the crash site were later shot and killed by civilians, who said they were protecting their families and neighborhoods. Officials had warned residents not to approach the Rhesus monkeys, saying they are known to be aggressive.
The last monkey on the loose was found Wednesday afternoon near a home in the Vossburg area, just east of where the truck had wrecked. Brandy Smith saw the monkey when her dog started barking, she told WDAM-TV. Her neighbors called 911. Workers from one of the companies that had been transporting the truckload of monkeys across the country arrived to tranquilize the monkey, Smith said.
The monkeys had been housed at the Tulane University National Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana, which routinely provides primates to scientific research organizations, according to the university. Tulane has said it wasn’t transporting the monkeys and they do not belong to the university.
PreLabs, which describes itself on its website as a biomedical research support organization, said in a statement that the animals were being lawfully transported to a licensed research facility. It said the monkeys weren’t carrying any known diseases. Thirteen of the monkeys that were not killed arrived at their original destination last week, according to Tulane.
The escape is the latest glimpse into the secretive industry of animal research and how contracts demanding confidentiality prevent the public from knowing key facts about studies involving animals.
DAYTON, Ohio — Two state grants are helping to bolster hands-on experience for Wright State University students in the latest electric vehicle and advanced manufacturing technologies.
What You Need To Know
The university received $579,000 through the Ohio Department of Higher Education’s Regionally Aligned Priorities in Delivering Skills (RAPIDS) program
Funds will help provide equipment for training in battery manufacturing and testing, vehicle electronics, secured connectivity and automotive manufacturing
The university said the funds will go toward classroom learning on its Dayton and Lake campuses
The university received $579,000 through the Ohio Department of Higher Education’s Regionally Aligned Priorities in Delivering Skills (RAPIDS) program. Wright State received $399,000 from the Super RAPIDS Automotive and Advanced Mobility program and another $180,000 grant.
Funds will help provide equipment for training in battery manufacturing and testing, vehicle electronics, secured connectivity and automotive manufacturing. The second grant will go toward equipment purchases such as 3D printers, advanced software, cameras for industrial automation and other technology.
“The market share of EV is going up,” said Ahsan Mian, a professor of mechanical engineering and director of research and outreach in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. “We need to train our students for that market. We need to be prepared.”
The university said the funds will go toward classroom learning on its Dayton and Lake campuses.
Wright State said it will continue to update equipment students use for training on its Lake campus, such as bringing in a LiDAR unit (Light Detection and Ranging) that measures and maps distances in 3D. There will also be an industrial vision device, which takes information from robotic sensors on a production line and interprets it, and EV simulation equipment to examine how the systems work and how batteries are charged.
“We’re a hub for our local manufacturers and businesses, having available training close by. Our goal is to meet the community’s needs,” said Tammy Eilerman, director of the Workforce Development and Business Enterprise Center at the Lake Campus. “The number one concern is to attract a talented workforce. We need to prepare our students for the workforce now and in the future.”
Mian said while the focus is on electric vehicles, he sees opportunities in other fields such as autonomous vehicles.
“Unmanned, driverless vehicles, they’re coming for sure,” he said. “Some of this equipment will be helpful for training students in driverless cars, for their repair and servicing and for engineering, designing and testing driverless vehicles. We are thankful to the ODHE for their continuous support in acquiring new equipment to provide training. ODHE is appreciative of what we do.”
MONTCLAIR, New Jersey (AP) — On a sunny fall morning, children wearing helmets and backpacks gathered with their parents in Montclair, New Jersey, for a group bicycle ride to two local elementary schools. Volunteers in orange safety vests made sure everyone assembled in a neighborhood shopping area was ready before the riders set off on their 5-mile “bike bus” route.
Every few blocks, more adults and kids on bikes joined in. Eventually, the group grew to over 350 people. Older students chatted with friends, while younger ones focused on pedaling. Cars along the way stopped to let the long line of cyclists pass. Pupils and parents peeled off toward the first school before the remainder reached the group’s final stop.
It’s a familiar Friday scene in Montclair. For the past three years, what began as a handful of parents hoping to encourage their kids to bike to school has grown into a weekly ritual for both the township of about 40,000 residents and many of its families.
“It was so fun,” second grader Gigi Drucker, 7, said upon arriving at Nishuane Elementary School. “The best way to get to school is by bike because it gives you more exercise. It’s healthier for the Earth,” she added.
But traveling to school on two wheels isn’t just for fun, according to organizer Jessica Tillyer, whose are 6 and 8 years old. She believes that biking together each week helps promote healthy habits for the children and strengthens the sense of community among parents.
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“And it really started because a small group of us, about five parents, all wanted to ride to school with our kids and just felt like it wasn’t safe. And for me, I felt kind of lonely riding by myself to school. So, bike bus just took off as a small effort. And now we can have up to 400 people riding together to school,” Tillyer said.
The bike bus movement isn’t new. Hundreds of them exist throughout the U.S. and Europe, as well as in Australia, Brazil, India, Indonesia and Israel, according to Bike Bus World, a nonprofit organization that promotes and provides information about bike buses.
Co-founder Sam Balto, who established a bike bus in Portland, Oregon, more than three years ago, said interest has grown so much that he offers free coaching calls to help others launch their own. He estimates there are more than 400 routes worldwide, and the number continues to grow.
“Children and families are craving community and physical activity and being outdoors. And when you present that versus a school car line, people naturally gravitate to something that’s super joyful and community-driven,” Balto said.
While starting a bike bus may not be difficult, keeping it running year-round through different seasons takes more effort. Organizers of successful rides shared advice for parents hoping to create their own.
Plan and communicate
Andrew Hawkins, one of the leaders of Montclair Bike Bus, said that once enough families express interest, the first step is to plan a route carefully. That means identifying streets with low traffic while considering how many students can join at the starting point and along the way.
“It took us a while to come up with a route we were happy with, but we’re still ready to adjust if necessary,” Hawkins said. “Things can change. It could be that new groups of students move into a certain block, or traffic patterns shift, and you have to adapt.”
The Montclair group started via word of mouth and social media posts. As the number of participants grew, the organizers created a chat group to coordinate and share weekly updates. They also reached out to other families through PTAs, school forums and other parent communication channels.
One unexpected benefit, several parents said, is the bike bus motivates children to get up and out the door more quickly on Friday mornings.
“He’s more excited to get out of bed for the bike bus than for the regular bus. So actually, I have an easier time getting him ready for school,” said Gene Gykoff, who rides with his son to the boy’s elementary school.
To keep momentum going all year, the Montclair Bike Bus team organizes themed rides on weekends and holidays. These events also allow families who can’t join on weekday mornings to experience what the bike bus is all about before committing to a regular schedule.
Start young and go slow
Montclair Bike Bus consists of multiple adult-led groups and routes that encompass all of the township’s elementary schools and middle schools. Organizers think the primary grades are when children benefit most from cycling with a group. Students in the first few years of school can learn about riding safely and apply those skills when they bike on their own or in small groups as they get older.
The Montclair parents found that most elementary school students can handle a distance of 3-5 miles, and the group travels at a speed of around 6 miles per hour so the younger kids can keep up.
“The slow speed can be tough for some of our older kids who want to go a little bit faster. We tell them there’s no racing on the bike bus — everyone gets to school at the same time. But there have been occasions where we’ve had to split the ride into two groups so that some of the older kids can go a little bit faster than the younger kids,” Hawkins said.
Be consistent no matter the weather
Keeping a bike bus going year-round requires consistency, which means preparing to pedal when it’s raining or cold outside, Balto and Hawkins said. Leaders monitor weather forecasts and decide whether to cancel a Friday ride due to unsafe conditions or to proceed as planned while reminding families to dress appropriately.
“As it gets colder, we tell everyone to make sure they have the right gear — gloves, neck warmers, warm jackets,” Hawkins said. “The idea is that kids should feel comfortable riding all year.”
The Montclair bike bus secured reflective vests and bike lights from sponsors to increase visibility on dark winter mornings. Leaders also carry basic maintenance tools, such as tire pumps.
Weather is often more of a concern for adults than it is for children, Balto observed. “Kids want to be outside with their friends,” he said. “If you’re going to do this in all weather, just do it consistently. People will get used to it, and they’ll start joining you.”
Just do it
Despite all the planning and coordination involved in running a regular bike bus, experienced organizers say the key is simply to start. It can be as informal as two families riding to school together and sharing a flyer to spread the word, Balto said.
“If you’re consistent — once a week, once a month, once a season — it will grow,” he said.
Tillyer said she gives the same advice to anyone who asks how to begin: just go for it.
“Don’t ask for permission. Don’t worry about what it’s going to take,” she said. “Find a small group of people, get on your bikes and ride to school. Once people experience it and enjoy it, more will want to join.”
DAVIDSON COUNTY, N.C. — Data shows food insecurity continues to affect college students across the country, an issue heightened by the federal government shutdown.
A Government Accountability Office report estimates over 3 million students were eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, long before this recent shutdown. But many students reported not receiving those benefits.
What You Need To Know
Food insecurity continues to affect college students nationwide
The issue has been heightened by the recent government shutdown
Many college students rely on SNAP benefits, which have been only partly funded as of Nov. 1
One North Carolina college shares how they’re ensuring student needs are taken care of during the shutdown
The Hope Center Student Basic Needs Survey released in 2025, fielded between spring 2023 and summer 2024, found 59% of students nationwide experience at least one form of basic-needs insecurity, connected to food or housing.
Identifying which students are impacted by the reduction in SNAP funding can be difficult task for some higher education institutions.
A North Carolina community college has taken steps to raise awareness about services and resources, so students can focus on academics and not their next meal.
Davidson-Davie Community College’s vice president of student affairs Keisha Jones is supporting staff and faculty with helping nearly 4,700 students flourish along their academic journey.
Jones notified employees on Oct. 30 about the potential SNAP funding stoppage and possible effects it could have on students.
Jones said the message was meant to raise awareness about resources in place to support students, like the food pantry, so their academic pursuits would continue uninterrupted.
“Something like SNAP benefits being taken away from certain people, it could impact the way they show up in the classroom,” Jones said. “Helping faculty and staff really think about signs I should be looking for that [a] student may be in distress, what are resources I can notify my entire class about [and] not singling anyone out. We provide a lot of resources to our students that they are aware or not aware of.”
“Ways the faculty and staff could potentially donate through the foundation if they wanted to add to what we already have. We also connect students to community resources [like] additional food pantries to get support from,” Jones said.
That guidance has helped instructors better respond to students’ needs.
Assistant professor of mathematics Kevin Eagan said the college’s leadership has encouraged flexibility and awareness as students navigate uncertainty of the shutdown.
“It helped me feel supported to support them,” Eagan said. “Sometimes, you feel like you don’t really know what to say to a student, but not the case here.”
Eagan said that simply offering understanding during a tough time can make a difference for a student.
“I’ve noticed a couple of things and try to be really flexible as an instructor and understanding,” Eagan said. “Our students, they’re so hard-working, I know sometimes just to give them a little bit of flexibility is all they’re going to need and give them support so they can succeed.”
For weeks, student volunteers at Davidson-Davie have been stocking shelves at the Storm Food Pantry as more learners turn to it for help during the shutdown.
“We are stocked up for any student to come and utilize if they are in need,” said Katrina Prickett, a student and pantry volunteer. “We service students daily. Me going through this myself, I can relate to the disadvantages people may be going through right now.”
The food pantry served nearly 500 students in 2024, double the previous year’s total.
Staff said they’re on pace for another record season, as more students turn to the pantry for help.
“We have seen a tremendous increase in student use of the food pantry since the government shutdown and lack of SNAP benefits,” said Lynne Watts, director of student life and leadership at Davidson-Davie. “I understand there may be some partial benefits coming this month, however, some food is not nearly enough food, especially when college students are left to decide between finding their next meal and studying for an exam.”
“Food should not be a luxury and today, sadly, many college students are in a position where that’s exactly what their reality is,” Watts said.
Prickett said for her, the college has become a trusted, reliable resource for students trying to overcome so much.
“Once I notified staff here at the school that I had [something] going on, they sprung into action to connect me to those resources,” Prickett said. “Coming from someone that has little to no support already, I fit right in here. They have felt like my family.”
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CARLISLE, Pa. — For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, the United States government and Christian denominations operated boarding schools where generations of Native American children were isolated from their families. Along with academics and hard work, the schools sought to erase elements of tribal identity, from language and clothing to hairstyles and even their names.
The Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, where the remains of 17 students were exhumed and repatriated in recent weeks, served as a model for other schools.
By the Numbers:
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An Interior Department review published in 2024 found 417 federally funded boarding schools for Native children in the United States. Many others were run by religious groups and other organizations.
An “incomplete” number of burial sites, at 65 schools, identified by the Interior Department across the federal boarding school system.
Number of treaties between the U.S. government and Native American tribes that implicate the federal boarding school program, reflecting its significance to westward expansion.
Amount the U.S. government authorized to run the schools and pursue related policies, in inflation adjusted dollars, 1871-1969.
Carlisle Indian Industrial School operated from 1879 to 1918.
Children and young adults enrolled at Carlisle over four decades, from more than 100 tribes.
Number of students who signed a petition in 1913 asking for an investigation into conditions at Carlisle.
Deaths among students enrolled at Carlisle.
Deaths among students at government run boarding schools in the U.S., according to the Interior Department report. A review by The Washington Post last year documented about 3,100. Researchers say the actual number was much higher.
Indigenous students repatriated from the Carlisle Barracks cemetery since exhumations began in 2017, leaving 118 graves with Native American or Alaska Native names. About 20 more contain unidentified Indigenous children.
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Sources: National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition; “Carlisle Indian Industrial School: Indigenous Histories, Memories and Reclamations”; U.S. Army; “Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report, Volume 2″
