Happy weekend! Ed correspondent Anya Kamenetz here. As an education reporter, I’m schooled in the research that shows how childhood poverty affects learning, development and success in multiple dimensions throughout life. Last fall, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported 4 in 10 children lived in families that were struggling to make ends meet. That’s why our whole team was so interested in a new law that could cut child poverty in this country nearly in half. As we’ve reported, the American Rescue Plan, which President Biden signed into law earlier this month, includes a monthly child benefit. Both poor and middle class families will get $250 to $300 per child per month. I wanted to understand what that kind of money could mean for families. So I reached out to my network of community-based organizations — a network I’ve grown further over phone and Zoom during the pandemic — and asked them to make introductions. They connected me with three moms. Shewona Ford, in St. Louis, is formerly homeless and has 8 children under 18; Antonia Gonzalez-Caro, in Moxee, Wash., is a high school teacher who said she would use the new child benefit to buy her little boys new clothes so they don’t have to wear only hand-me-downs; and Christina Holley, in Philadelphia, is caring for her three children while also going to college full-time. Holley, who is studying sociology, had one word for what this benefit would mean to her: “sovereignty.” Meaning help with dignity, without strings attached, for families to use as they saw fit. The piece, and its illustrations, struck a chord. Beyond the views and the social media impressions, some readers and listeners offered to help. In the comments on Instagram, dozens of people — mostly self-identified as moms — banded together to buy Holley’s son a new bike to replace one that was stolen. Holley called me to say thank you. She said the outpouring of support had turned around yet another really hard day. — Anya Kamenetz, NPR Ed Education Correspondent |
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| | On to the news… About 60% of U.S. colleges have done away with spring break this year, according to new research from the College Crisis Initiative at Davidson College. Many campuses are instead offering smaller, shorter breaks or wellness days, likely an attempt to curb travel away from campus, and ultimately keep coronavirus cases down. But these campus health efforts have hit a major roadblock: The rise of online classes means students can now do college from anywhere — even next to a pool with palm trees gently swaying in the background. Read more here. — Elissa Nadworny, NPR Ed Reporter & Editor The U.S. Department of Education is scrapping a controversial formula, championed by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, that granted only partial student loan relief to borrowers who were defrauded by private, for-profit colleges. It will instead adopt what it's calling a "streamlined approach" for granting borrowers full relief. Read more here. — Cory Turner, NPR Ed Correspondent & Senior Editor Gun violence in Philadelphia has dramatically worsened over the last year in tandem with the arrival of the coronavirus. Many of the victims have been school aged, The spike in shootings has coincided with a year where most Philadelphia high schools have been fully virtual. Friends, family and teachers of those lost say the absence of the safety and structure of in-person school can’t be ignored as a factor in the rise in deaths. “I really don’t think that he would have been killed if they were at school,” said Tawanda Robinson, whose son, David Williams, was shot and killed in May 2020. Read more here. — Miles Bryan, WHYY Reporter —Avi Wolfman-Arent, WHYY Reporter And before you go, something to make you smile... |
Yunseo Choi won first place in this year's Regeneron Science Talent Search STEM competition. Society for Science |
The world of matchmaking won't have to rely on luck, as much as math, thanks to one very accomplished teenager. Yunseo Choi, a senior at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, came up with a matching theory that can be applied to people looking for a life partner. Instead of matching a finite number of people, the 18-year-old figured out how to pair an infinite number of potential couples. The idea being that when your options are infinite, your matched date will likely be better suited for you. "Essentially I studied these stable matchings, but in the context of the infinite matching market," she explained in an interview with NPR's Morning Edition. "Where instead of matching a finite set of men to another finite set of women, we're matching an infinite number of men to an infinite number of women." Choi's matchmaking tool that uses algorithms came in first place last Wednesday night in a prestigious STEM competition that's run by the biotech company Regeneron and the Society for Science. Read more here. |
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