Inside an ESA-funded microschool, a foster kid success story, & hot times in Houston
🏆 Best Education Journalism of the Week 🏆 (08/22/2025)
In this week’s newsletter:
📌Heat, crime, cellphone bans — and ESAs.
📌Schools often fail foster kids — but not always.
📌A journalist takes us inside an ESA-funded classroom.
“That was the gap I hoped to fill.”
CLASSROOM SAFETY, CELLPHONE BANS AND ESAS
The big education story of the week
The big education story of the week is the many changes kids and educators are facing as they go back to school, chief among them fast-spreading cellphone bans (Associated Press, The Hill, Springfield News-Leader), growing heat risks (Salt Lake City Axios, Connecticut Public Radio, Associated Press), little-discussed classroom crime (Cleveland.com, The Baltimore Sun, Fox), and private school choice aka education savings accounts (PBS NewsHour, Harper’s Magazine, KJZZ Arizona).
More than a quarter of states will start the school year with a new cellphone restriction in place. Roughly 30 states have some version of a private school choice program. Students in Puerto Rico face classrooms without effective cooling, while Denver schools have already had to cancel classes due to heat. A new FBI report shows almost 1.3 million criminal incidents occurred in schools over the past four years.
ONLINE LEARNING, DISPLACED STUDENTS, WOMEN IN STEM
Top education journalism of the week
🏆Online school in juvenile detention: Incarcerated teens say they aren't learning documents not only how virtual school is failing to educate students in Florida, but also how those failures are leading directly to frustrated students racking up more time in detention. It provides valuable insight into a particularly opaque corner of the educational world. (Bianca Vázquez Toness / Associated Press)
🏆January wildfires displaced thousands of students. Where did they enroll? is one of those brief stories that clearly took a huge amount of work. It is all the more impressive because Los Angeles County does not directly track student transfers due to the wildfires. The reporter still managed to find detailed information for about 1,655 students who were displaced. (Sandhya Kambhampati / Los Angeles Times)
🏆California invested millions pushing these careers for women. The results are disappointing provides an in-depth look at where the push for women in STEM of a decade ago failed — including how new hot topics in education drew attention elsewhere. (Adam Echelman / Cal Matters)
FOSTER KID SUCCESS STORY
Schools can make a big difference for foster kids, according to a new book by former education reporter Claudia Rowe. But first, educators and journalists need to understand that foster kids are at great risk — statistically even more than homeless kids.
“Bennett’s workmates urged her to keep her hopes realistic. A kid with a history like Jay’s — four high schools, intermittent homelessness, gang violence, and multiple brushes with the law — might never graduate… But last spring, I watched Jay defend his dissertation and receive his doctorate from CUNY.”
Coming next week: We’ll have insights from journalists Marta Jewson and Katy Reckdahl in honor of the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Meantime, we’re collecting favorite pieces of New Orleans school transformation coverage. Add yours?
PEOPLE, PODCASTS, NEW INFO, & QUOTABLE
Who’s going where and doing what?
📰 Journalists: The AP featured a story from Centro de Periodismo Investigativo’s Tatiana Díaz Ramos about Puerto Rican schools that need air conditioning. Alecia Taylor is the new HBCU + Black youth reporter for Capital B News. Jennifer Chambers is now a full-time member of the Projects Team at Detroit News. Jen Pignolet and Sarah Matwood will form the paper’s new education team. The Houston Defender’s Tannistha Sinha is a new byline to me. Also APM Reports fellow Carmela Guaglianone. The SF Chronicle’s Jill Tucker is celebrating her 30th back to school!
📰Podcasts & segments: The Daily featured Dana Goldstein talking about why more parents are opting out of public schools — a more parent-focused follow-up to her recent Florida story. Great to hear fellow Spencer alum Vanessa Romo on the air covering an education story for NPR about COVID kindergartners school readiness. Local reporter Lee Gaines was on NPR with a new piece about an AI camp.
📰Stats: None of the states adequately support immigrant students, according to a new study written up in The 74. According to more than a third of all people in a new Pew poll, compiling and sharing other peoples’ reporting is enough to qualify someone as a journalist. Plenty of schools have no-zeroes policies, but according to a survey written up by Chalkbeat most teachers hate it. Black kids in CO score best on NAEP, according to StatisticUrban. But NY, MD, IL, and CA perform worse than MS, TX, and TN. “Most of the Midwest is a disaster.” NJ, MA, and CO do quite well.
📰Quotable:
“Since the state took over Houston schools in '23, HISD has undergone one most remarkable turnarounds ever in urban ed… Yet this is how [the] local paper covered the news.”
"The idea that kids are using their phones to look up supplementary information and ask better questions is the kind of assumption that can only be made by the kind of adult who uses their phone for this purpose. That is not how kids grow up using phones."
"Education and housing should both be abundant and affordable. The reason they are not is bad governance. It’s a choice."
“Showed up to Houston Independent School District’s school board meeting to learn that print/non-broadcast outlets have been assigned a new spot in the back corner of the room.”
KICKER
We saved the best for last
"The lead story struck at the very heart of its readers’ interests, and its reporting was a model of fairness.
That's all, folks. Thanks for reading!
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By Alexander Russo