As of May 14, total Texas unemployment claims since mid-March have reached 1.9 million. This number is likely lower than the actual number of unemployed. To say that the state’s economy has taken a hit from COVID-19 lock-downs and the historical collapse of oil and gas would be an understatement.
And the crisis also affects our future workforce. How resilient are high school career and technical (CTE) programs? Are these programs able to pivot to existing — and future — labor market demand? …
In a time of profound polarization, one issue that has elicited bipartisan agreement is that the recently released results of the Nation’s Report Card are grim. Pundits, lawmakers, wonks, and activists disagree sharply on the causes — depending on who you ask, it’s lack of funding, or the loosening of accountability standards, or too much testing, or school choice, or not enough school choice.
Arriving on the scene just in time to complicate everyone’s narratives is Robert Pondiscio’s new book, How The Other Half Learns. …
