Colorado schools are getting more money. Bigger changes could be on the way – By Erica Meltzer and Annie Fu, Chalkbeat

When Colorado schools reopen in the fall, most of them will have a lot more money to work with — between 10% and 12% more per student for the typical district — and schools that serve large numbers of students who live in poverty and English learners will be the biggest beneficiaries.

The pandemic forced lawmakers to reexamine which students need the most help. With the economy doing better than expected and lawmakers using a new legal interpretation to raise local taxes, Colorado is investing nearly $500 million more in K-12 education, with $91 million alone from mill changes in 2021-22.

“In a nutshell, it’s a huge step forward for kids,” said Leslie Colwell of the Colorado Children’s Campaign, which has called for sweeping changes to school funding. “We saw the biggest movement for school finance on both the revenue and the formula side in 25 years.”

This year’s legislative session saw a series of key changes to how Colorado funds its schools, just one year after lawmakers made deep cuts to all areas of state government. As painful as it was, the pandemic paved the way for major changes, some of which advocates have sought for years.

Pandemic Underscores ‘Wellbeing Gap’ in the Teaching Profession – By Jill Thomas, EdSurge

The pandemic has made clear the deep inequities in our society, especially within the educational system. And it became clear the many roles schools play beyond academics: like getting lunches to those who can’t afford them and providing a robust childcare system that makes it possible for parents and guardians to be employed outside the home to keep our economy open.

But with so many educators working remotely, the pandemic also gave teachers a glimpse into a different kind of working life, one in which they have more time to reflect, review student work and plan, thanks to the decrease in student-facing time. The experience of teaching from home underscored the wellbeing gap that the teaching profession as a whole faces.

Once it became clear that we were in a full-fledged pandemic last Spring, most schools shifted to a “distance learning/distance teaching” model. By and large, the ways of teaching and the expectations of student learning were the same as they were before the shutdown. But teaching over Zoom in this way was challenging even for the most adept, experienced, and tech-savvy teachers. Zoom fatigue set in quickly. Teachers felt disconnected and distanced from their students. They felt unprepared to work from home, from one location in front of the screen—a huge pivot from their largely active and movement-filled days of the classroom. Things that they could have influenced more easily in the classroom, like troubleshooting tech or addressing student wellbeing through smiles and high fives, became much more complicated—if not downright impossible.

Puerto Rico to receive $4 billion in federal education pandemic relief funds – From CBS News

U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Monday that Puerto Rico will receive nearly $4 billion in federal education pandemic relief funds to help boost the U.S. territory's fight against COVID-19.

The announcement was made during Cardona's official three-day trip to Puerto Rico, the first for a Biden administration Cabinet member. It marks the first time the island has full access to those funds.

Roughly half of the nearly $4 billion will be released as part of the American Rescue Plan Act, which was signed into law in March to help offset the pandemic's impact on the economy and public health.

"I am honored to be in Puerto Rico — the island of my roots — as the federal government releases critical funds to support Puerto Rico's efforts to safely reopen its schools for in-person learning," Cardona said.

Connecticut Plans Statewide Online School For K-12 – By Emilia Otte, The Connecticut Examiner

Virtual classrooms may become a permanent fixture in the state of Connecticut. 

New legislation tasks the state’s Department of Education to develop plans for a K-12 statewide remote learning school that would use the same curriculum and have the same school year length as a traditional school, but would be under the jurisdiction of the State Board of Education.

Peter Yazbak, director of communications for the Department of Education, said that state officials still need to work out the specifics of how the school would be funded and which students would be eligible. 

A proposal should be sent to legislators by July 2023. 

State Rep. Kathleen McCarty, R-Waterford, ranking member on the Education Committee, explained that her committee wanted to look at virtual school as an option for students who do well in an online setting. McCarty said legislators were looking at Massachusetts — which has two virtual learning schools — as a potential model. 

In an email to CT Examiner, Doug Casey, executive director of the Connecticut Commission for Educational Technology, said he wasn’t sure what the program would cost, but that it would need to take into account things like platform design, instruction, content and support.