SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Budget experts predict California will face multi-billion-dollar deficits in 2022 and beyond as a result of the pandemic, and groups are calling on policymakers to protect higher education.
Places such as community colleges will be key to getting people trained and back to work -- but only if they can stay in business. A new report from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Lumina Foundation cautions against indiscriminate funding cuts.
Gabriella Gomez, deputy director of U.S. policy, advocacy and communications for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said a budget should not be a blunt instrument.
"These cuts, where you 'slash and burn' across the board, just don't work," she said, "and actually what ends up happening is, there's tremendous rollback."
The report calls for a "students-first" approach and functions as a guide for policymakers to support lower-income students of color and adult learners who are retraining after losing their jobs. That means protecting financial aid and prioritizing the community college systems that serve vulnerable populations.
During the Great Recession, California cut $1.5 billion from higher education. Schools had to reduce classes and raise tuition -- and, as a result, enrollment still is down more than a decade later. This time, Gomez said, states can do better.
"Let's not repeat the mistakes of the past," she said. "Let's actually take what we know from the past and apply it in this context right now."
The report also suggested that colleges and universities dedicate staffers to helping students finish their degrees, and promote short-term credentials in job fields that are currently in demand.
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Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.
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By Kody Fisher for WISH-TV.
Broadcast version by Joe Ulery for Indiana News Service reporting for the WISH-TV-Free Press Indiana-Public News Service Collaboration
Two student leaders at Purdue University want to change the Indiana Lifeline Law.
The law gives legal protection to anyone who calls 911 to get an underage drinker medical attention. However, it does not protect the person needing medical attention.
The students are trying to lobby lawmakers at the Statehouse in Indianapolis to expand the law to give legal protection for everyone involved in the situation, including the person who needs medical attention.
Purdue Student Body President Jason Packard said, “A lot of students don’t know about the protections that they have, and they don’t seek medical help.”
Purdue Student Body Vice President Rebecca Siener said, “Students do hesitate in these circumstances because they aren’t familiar with the policy, or the person in need of medical attention isn’t protected.”
Packard told I-Team 8 he used to be an resident assistant at a dorm on campus. In that roll he was responsible for calling 911 if one of the students in the dorm needed medical attention because of alcohol poisoning, “This is something we saw a lot within the dormitories. Within Tarkington Hall that I worked in, we probably had to call for an ambulance multiple times every single weekend out of the semester.”
In 2012 when the Lifeline Law was introduced, it initially had full legal protections for everyone involved in the situation. “Unfortunately, this does get negotiated down and it only protects the caller and those who assist the caller,” Siener said.
Now, Packard and Siener are trying to break the stigma around the law and it’s impact on underage drinking.
Seiner said, “I think often what people use as a counterargument to this is that it incentivizes, or it encourages, underage drinking, but several studies have shown that reported underage drinking has gone down since implementing the Indiana Lifeline Law.”
Packard and Siener also want to work with students at other universities in the state to put pressure on the Legislature to expand the law.
Kody Fisher wrote this article for WISH-TV.
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As Ohio students head back to school, many parents may think the return to the classroom begins when the first bell rings but for educators, the preparation starts long before.
Larry Carey, culture systems consultant for Columbus City Schools and a teacher on special assignment, said teachers often spend their summer months attending training sessions, earning continuing education credits and developing new skills to bring back to their classrooms.
"There's some people that take that time off and they deserve it because teaching's hard," Carey pointed out. "But I guarantee you about 70%, 75% of your teachers are doing something in the summertime to prepare for the following school year to better themselves, doing some type of training."
As students start their school year, it is important to recognize the extensive preparation undertaken by Ohio's educators, including classroom setup and professional development, laying the foundation for the academic year. While the preparation is seen as crucial for addressing diverse student needs, there are concerns about potential effects on teacher well-being.
Carey shared educators often have new training sessions to prepare for the students. The sessions focus on new teaching strategies.
Sam DeGannaro, a math teacher at Trumbull Career and Technical Center, described what it feels like.
"You go through professional development and then you have, like, an hour or two to try to get your room ready when your brain is flooded with a million ideas, going zero to about 160 miles per hour in terms of the things you want to get accomplished and the things the administration wants," DeGannaro observed.
Carey noted new training in Columbus includes behavior-management techniques and social-emotional learning practices, all aimed at fostering a positive learning environment for their students.
"Right now, one of the things that we're working on to prepare for back-to-school and for our teachers is we did a presentation called de-escalation in the classroom," Carey added. "Just learning how to de-escalate situations, and also building that climate and culture in your classroom."
Educators like Carey and DeGannaro focus on creating a welcoming and productive classroom environment by planning behavior management and social-emotional learning lessons. The effort lays the groundwork for the academic year, helping to create an environment where students can succeed from the start.
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A program is Idaho is aiming to close the teacher shortage gap by training people where they live.
Idaho State University's Paraprofessional to Certified Teacher Program trains assistants, or paraprofessionals, who are already in the classroom to earn bachelor's degrees and become teachers. The course takes place online, so students can be anywhere in the state.
Cory Bennett, chair of teaching and educational studies at Idaho State, said the program's flexibility is part of its appeal.
"A lot of these people are in districts or in schools and they have no intention of leaving," Bennett pointed out. "This is where home is. This is where their families are. And so, we're helping them find ways to grow within that community and continue to serve and support their communities by becoming a teacher."
The program has expanded since its first cohort three years ago, when it was in one school district. Its third cohort is located in 15 school districts and Bennett noted there is a growing waitlist of districts wanting to be included. They are exploring how to further grow the program.
Emma Wood, assistant dean of educator preparation at the university, said another important part of the program is it is designed to ensure paraprofessionals earn a degree without getting into debt. She emphasized the teacher shortage is because not enough educators are in the classroom five years after graduating, not because the state is not graduating enough teachers.
"Our anticipation is that their retention rate is going to go up," Wood explained. "Because what we have been finding is that teacher preparation programs are graduating enough teachers but we cannot keep up with the number of teachers that are leaving the profession."
Bennett added the program is rewarding because many of the people in the program never planned to get a college degree or even thought it was possible.
"The personal effect of this and how it touches people in very meaningful ways is profound and you can't really put words on it, you can't put a dollar amount on that," Bennett stressed. "It is quite literally changing lives."
Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.
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