Kentucky high school student Abby Hefner speaks to the press after the House of Representatives passed the Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act on Feb. 28, 2020. by Tim Walker Lauren Williams, a teacher in Paducah, Kentucky, said the epidemic of teen vaping at her school “just seemed to come out of nowhere.” Last year,…
By Mary Ellen Flannery Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her pro-privatization, anti-student agenda received a big rebuke on Wednesday, when a bipartisan majority of Senators voted to block DeVos’ efforts to gut protections for student borrowers and taxpayers in her revision of the 30-year-old “borrower defense” rule. “Today’s bipartisan vote in the Senate is a…
By Amanda Menas / Photo: NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia at the Rayburn Building Too many students and educators across the country learn and work in crumbling schools. In California, one teacher reported that students are instructed to run the water for one minute before drinking to prevent lead contamination. In one Idaho school, educators…
By Amanda Menas Over the two years since Betsy DeVos was confirmed as President Trump’s secretary of education, she has worked against the best interests of public schools. From proposing funding cuts to promoting privatization to rolling back protections for vulnerable children, she has ignored the voices of educators across the country about what students…
NEA member Marcie Villanueva was deeply troubled when she witnessed a cashier take a child’s lunch, throw it away, and replace it with a cheese sandwich, an apple, and milk. “I saw that look of distress come over that child’s face, and the cashier’s face said she was uneasy as well,” says Villanueva. But the…