During a recent conversation with Savannah Morning News, Watts said, “Had I known attendance was as dismal as it was, I would have said we have to fix attendance first…we can't teach the kids if they don't come to school.”
Gov. Kim Reynolds' legislation lays out several of her education priorities, including exercising more state control over Iowa's Area Education Agencies and boosting teacher pay.
While Gov. Bill Lee has repeatedly pledged to build accountability into his voucher proposal, the draft of the plan wouldn’t require participating students to take state tests, or other assessments.
Over the past decade, the teacher shortage crisis has grown in the United States and many other countries. There is much to be done before the situation is under better control and new common-sense solutions are installed.
Citing an urgent need to act after Uvalde and shootings outside a high school and a church in Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds said the state would award up to $50,000 each to 1,500 schools to fix vulnerabilities. Like many other Republicans, she rebuffed calls for stricter gun control while embracing efforts to "harden" schools.
At the beginning of the current school year, 70% of schools surveyed said they had openings for special education teachers. PBS NewsHour asked special education teachers and administrators to tell us how the shortage is affecting them.
When the Austin school board in December 2022 appointed Matias Segura to temporarily run the district while members searched for a superintendent, he was focused on stabilizing the 73,000-student organization after years of turmoil wrought by leadership changes and the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
Students have the natural talent to fill the nation's most in-demand careers in healthcare, manufacturing, technology and finance. Education leaders may, however, be concerned that not enough students are being exposed to these fields, according to YouScience's 2024 State of the Future U.S. Workforce report.
"Happiness, fulfillment and stability" were the words students and their families used to described their ideal K12 outcomes to education reform researchers.
