Education and Schools
September 29, 2021 -
Governors and legislatures across the South have banned public schools from requiring masks to prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus. The bans have been successfully challenged in lower courts, but appellate courts overturned some of those rulings. Federal courts in several states are taking up the question of whether mask mandate bans violate the rights of students with disabilities.
January 14, 2016 -
Right-wing industrialist Charles Koch's efforts to reshape higher education in the South were the topic of a Georgia Public Broadcasting talk show this week. Guests included Institute for Southern Studies money in politics researcher Alex Kotch and Inside Higher Ed editor Scott Jaschik.
December 18, 2015 -
Non-tenure-track instructors at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, are organizing a union. Organizing committee member MJ Sharp explains why.
December 3, 2015 -
Four charitable organizations led by billionaire libertarian businessman Charles Koch of the Koch Industries oil and chemical conglomerate have given nearly $108 million to colleges and universities since 2005 to advance his brand of unfettered capitalism — and 85 percent went to schools in the South.
October 30, 2015 -
A shocking incident of police brutality that occurred this week in a classroom in Columbia, South Carolina has raised concerns about the treatment of female African-American students in public schools — a problem that goes far beyond this one case.
September 8, 2015 -
An incoming University of North Carolina freshman made headlines for claiming that the school's "Literature of 9/11" course — which he has not taken — sympathizes with terrorists. It turns out the student has connections to a think thank founded and funded by conservative mega-donor Art Pope that has targeted UNC classes emphasizing non-Western and non-white perspectives.
August 27, 2015 -
Ten years after the New Orleans school system fired all its teachers and instituted near universal charter schools in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, test scores and graduation rates are up — but the gains have come with downsides. As other states attempt to replicate its model, there's much to learn from New Orleans.
