EduClips: Houston-Area Superintendent Resigns Over Racist Remarks About Texans Quarterback; Puerto Rico’s Special-Ed Students Left Behind After Hurricane Maria — and More Must-Reads From America’s 15 Biggest School Districts

EduClips is a roundup of the day’s top education headlines from America’s largest school districts, where more than 4 million students across eight states attend class every day. Read previous EduClips installments here. Get the day’s top school and policy news delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for the TopSheet Education Newsletter.

Top Story

#EDLECTION2018 — One was on the roof of a Habitat for Humanity house in California when it occurred to her. Another was in a state senator’s office in Oklahoma City. Still another was at an education conference in Minneapolis when she began to consider it.

It’s a decision hundreds of educators across the country have made this year: To change the conditions in their classrooms, they would have to run for office themselves. Some 550 educators will be on election ballots this fall, according to the National Education Association, running for everything from local school board to governor.

Their numbers are particularly pronounced in states where teachers took to the streets and statehouses in the spring, places like Oklahoma, Kentucky, and West Virginia. At least 20 educators filed to run for Congress this cycle, and the hundreds of educators running for statehouse positions came from both political parties from Maine to Alaska. Though the exact issues varied – compensation, the upward creep in class sizes, the trickling pipeline of qualified educators – they pointed to a common theme of neglect in state K-12 education budgets. (Read at U.S. News & World Report)

National News

BULLYING — ‘It Was a Shocker’: National Student Survey Shows Bullying on the Rise Over Past Three Years, Particularly Among Students of Color in Majority-White Schools (Read at The74Million.org)

GEORGIA — Georgia’s Separate and Unequal Special-Education System (Read at The New Yorker)

ESSA — How Do State ESSA Plans Handle Mental Health? (Read at Politics K-12)

#EDLECTION2018 — With Both Parties Vying for Complete Control of Connecticut’s Statehouse and Governor’s Mansion, the Midterms Could Shape State’s Education Priorities for Years (Read at The74Million.org)

District and State News

TEXAS — Houston-area superintendent resigns after racist remarks about Texans’ Deshaun Watson (Read at The Washington Post)

PUERTO RICO — Hundreds of Puerto Rican schools closed after Maria. Special-needs kids got left behind (Read at the Miami Herald)

NEVADA — Clark County schools strive to balance school safety, punitive reforms (Read at the Las Vegas Review-Journal)

CALIFORNIA — City sets timeline for election to fill L.A. school board seat (Read at the Los Angeles Times)

HAWAII — This Ballot Measure Is Sparking Intense Debate Over Hawaii’s Schools (Read at Honolulu Civil Beat)

NEW YORK — Charter schools, funding, and the SHSAT: What we’re watching if Democrats flip New York’s Senate (Read at Chalkbeat)

CALIFORNIA — Newsom’s ‘cradle-to-career’ education pledge will require sweeping changes in California (Read at EdSource)

NEW YORK — Diversity plan mayhem: Arts school can’t audition applicants anymore (Read at the New York Post)

FLORIDA — Time for Florida’s new student scholarships draws near (Read at the Tampa Bay Times)

TEXAS — Texas board of education exposes how poorly we teach history [Opinion] (Read at the Houston Chronicle)

ILLINOIS — Why Chicago-area high school students are leaving Illinois for college (Read at the Chicago Sun-Times)

NEVADA — EDITORIAL: Laxalt, Sisolak offer dueling education plans (Read at the Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Think Pieces

DYSLEXIA — The Couple Who Helped Decode Dyslexia (Read at The New York Times)

OPIODS — Addiction counselors embed in schools dealing with the opioid crisis (Read at The Hechinger Report)

TEACHER MENTORING — When New Teachers Get Mentoring, Student Math Scores Can Go Up, Study Shows (Read at Education Week)

Quote of the Day

“In this day and age, it’s just amazing that this B.S. exits — but it does.” —Houston Texans coach Bill O’Brien. A Texas school district superintendent resigned recently for criticizing Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson on the basis of his being “a black quarterback.” (Read at The Washington Post)

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