Community and technical colleges have helped shorten the time to obtain a degree for hundreds of thousands of secondary school students. The importance of these programs in terms of time to degree for the possibility of preparing baccalaureate degree teachers is paramount.

Chronic absenteeism — which the state defines as missing more than 10% of scheduled school days — increased significantly at schools across the country in the years following pandemic-related classroom closures that in some cases lasted more than a year.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools last week directed principals to stop sending home permission slips for students to participate in school-related events, following public backlash over one school's decision to seek permission for a Black History Month event.

Criticisms of DEI programming as antisemitic are mounting in the months after Hamas' Oct. 7 assault on Israel. Many parents believe Jewish students aren't safe amid rising antisemitic harassment in the schools, and others claim DEI programs foster anti-Israel extremism.