Oakland Teachers Are Striking for More Pay, Smaller Classes, and an End to School Closures Like This One
Rosa Furneaux/Mother Jones Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. On Thursday morning, on the first day of Oakland’s teacher strike, a dozen or so teachers from Roots International Academy gathered around a branch-and-grass mandala in front of their school in East Oakland. Bundled up in school jackets, puffy coats, and gloves,…
Teachers in West Virginia Went on Strike Again—and Earned a Huge Victory Within Hours
Teachers and school personnel celebrate after the House of Delegates postpone a vote on Senate Bill 451 indefinitely at the state Capitol in Charleston, West Virginia, during a statewide teachers’ strike.Craig Hudson/Charleston Gazette-Mail/AP Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. On Monday night, West Virginia teachers’ unions called for a statewide strike.…
Saving One of America’s Last Black Women’s Colleges
Courtesy of High Point University Just two months ago, Bennett College looked like it might have to close its doors. One of the last two remaining historically black colleges for women, Bennett lacked the funds needed to meet its accreditation requirements. But over 55 days, the 146-year-old North Carolina school used social media and found…
Cory Booker Has a Betsy DeVos Problem
Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker speaks during groundbreaking ceremonies for a mixed-use complex of charter schools and teachers housing on Feb. 9, 2012.Mel Evans/AP Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. In the spring of 2012, Cory Booker delivered the keynote address at the third annual School Choice Policy Summit at a…
Washington’s Measles Outbreak Is a Wake-Up Call on Childhood Vaccination
A pediatrician prepares to administer a measles vaccination.Joe Raedle/Getty Images Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. On January 25, after a measles outbreak sickened 31 people in the southwest corner of Washington state, Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency. All but one of the patients were children, most under the…
My Father Warned Me Against Joining a Fraternity. I Didn’t Listen, But Maybe My Son Will.
Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. A membership ritual at an unnamed Cal fraternity, from Andrew Moisey’s The American Fraternity On a Wednesday in mid-October, the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity near the University of California’s Berkeley campus looks all but deserted. The heavy wooden doors are shut and there’s not a “Fiji”…