EduClips: Tens of Thousands of Students Across the Country Participate in National Student Walkout; FL District Chiefs Ask Governor for More School Funding — 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
NATIONAL SCHOOL WALKOUT — Tens of thousands of students across the country walked out of their classrooms Wednesday and onto athletic fields and city streets as part of a massive national protest on gun violence spurred by a Florida high school shooting a month ago that left 17 dead. The walkouts, which came 10 days before a march on Washington that could draw hundreds of thousands of students to the nation’s capital, are unprecedented in recent American history, not seen in size or scope since student protests of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s.
Supporters say the walkouts and demonstrations represent a realization of power and influence in the hands of young people raised on social media who have come of age in an era of never-ending wars, highly publicized mass shootings, and virulent national politics. The protests unfolded in major cities across the country — New York, Washington, Chicago, Seattle — and hundreds of smaller towns and communities as well. (Read at The Washington Post)
National News
SCHOOL SHOOTINGS — Inside the National School Walkout: What We Saw Wednesday at 7 Very Different Marches Against Gun Violence (Read at The 74Million.org)
SCHOOL SAFETY — Senators Zero In on Law Enforcement, School Discipline in Hearing on Parkland Shooting (Read at Politics K-12)
SCHOOL SHOOTINGS — Three Accidental School Shootings in One Week — the Latest by a Teacher in a Gun Safety Class (Read at The74Million.org)
SCHOOL SAFETY — House Passes STOP School Violence Act One Month After Parkland Shooting (Read at Politics K-12)
PRIVACY — Privacy Advocates Brace for Shakeup at U.S. Education Department (Read at Education Week)
DEVOS — DeVos defies White House in dismantling Education budget office (Read at Politico)
District and State News
FLORIDA — School superintendents ask Gov. Scott for a special session to boost education funding (Read at the Tampa Bay Times)
ILLINOIS — Illinois schools could soon see funding from new formula (Read at Fox Illinois)
CALIFORNIA — State Board postpones vote on revising California’s education plan to meet federal requirements (Read at EdSource)
NEW YORK — Fewer girls than boys accepted into top N.Y. high schools even though more of them tried out (Read at the New York Daily News)
FLORIDA — Opinion: National Student Walkout: Our students are teaching us valuable lessons in democracy (Read at the Miami Herald)
CALIFORNIA — California students join thousands nationwide in historic school walkout (Read at EdSource)
NEW YORK — 100,000 New York City students walked out of schools to protest gun violence (Read at Chalkbeat)
ILLINOIS — In Southern Illinois, Wednesday’s National School Walkout on gun violence took many forms (Read at The Southern Illinoisan)
NEVADA — Las Vegas Valley students join walkouts over gun violence (Read at the Las Vegas Review-Journal)
TEXAS — Spring break dampens Texas participation in student walkouts protesting gun violence (Read at the Texas Tribune)
Think Pieces
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE — Pondiscio: Civil Disobedience Means Facing Consequences. School-Sanctioned Walkouts Rob Students of That Lesson (Read at The74Million.org)
NATIONAL WALKOUT — He walked out of his NC high school to protest gun violence. But he stood alone. (Read at The Raleigh News & Observer)
SCHOOL DISCIPLINE — How Betsy DeVos should have answered 60 Minutes’s questions on school discipline (Read at Flypaper)
Quote of the Day
“Boo Guns! YES FLOWRS AND HEARTS.” —protest sign thought up by Lucia Snook-Dengat, a kindergartner who participated in the National Student Walkout with her mom in New Jersey. (Read at The74Million.org)
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