Latest news with #WisconsinDepartmentofPublicInstruction
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Are cellphones banned in Wisconsin schools? District policies vary across the state
Most Wisconsin school districts have already restricted cell phone usage in the classroom in the fight for students' attention against digital distractions, says a new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum. Districts across the nation are moving to restrict the use of cell phones in classrooms, although not all students and parents support that decision. In Wisconsin, about 90% of districts surveyed "already have some sort of restrictive cellphone policy in place," according to a Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction survey. Wisconsin school districts have implemented various cell phone usage policies, although most districts allow students to use cell phones in common areas, like cafeterias or hallways. Other districts are adopting much more restrictive policies and fully banning students from using their phone on school grounds. In a separate Pew Research survey, nearly three quarters of teachers surveyed said students being distracted by their cell phones is a "major problem in their classroom." Cell phone bans are mostly popular, depending on the level restriction, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum report, which sited another Pew Research survey that found 68% of U.S. adults support a ban on middle and high school students using cell phones during instruction hours. Here's a breakdown of the latest report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum. RELATED: Republicans want to ban cell phones in classrooms. Do 90% of districts already do that? Researchers at the Wisconsin Policy Forum analyzed the results of a Digital Learning Survey by the state Department of Instruction. Among the more than 300 districts surveyed, about 43% of them said their policies permit cell phone use only in middle and high school common areas. Another 26% reported their polices only permit cell phones in high school common areas. About 20% of Wisconsin districts surveyed reported a full cell phone ban, and only about 10% had a non-restrictions policy. Smaller districts were more likely to report the strictest cell phone restrictions. About 36% of districts with 500 or fewer students had full cell phone bans. Districts in which students of color are a majority also reported more strict cell phone bans, according to the report. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 19 states already have a statewide ban or restriction of cell phone use in K-12 schools, according to the report. Wisconsin law makers are currently under debate for a law that would adopt a policy prohibiting the use of cell phones during instructional time. The bill has moved quickly. The Assembly passed it in mid-February, just weeks after lawmakers returned to the Capitol. Nearly every Republican voted for the bill and all Democrats voted against it. The bill now awaits a vote on the Senate floor before it heads to Gov. Tony Evers. Other Midwest states, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a law to ban cell phones for students during instructional time. Also, Illinois Gov. J.B. Prizker supports a ban of student cell phone usage in school. Hope Karnopp contributed to this report. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Cellphone bans in Wisconsin schools: What are district policies?
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
In surprise ceremony, 'Sra. Fink' from MPS' Milwaukee Spanish Immersion is named a Wisconsin Teacher of the Year
Before a gymnasium filled with cheering kids, second-grade teacher Toni Fink finally walked up to the microphone. "I have no secrets. I love all the kids, that's it," Fink said, as she made a heart gesture with her hands. Fink had just been named a Wisconsin Teacher of the Year 2026 in a surprise ceremony at Milwaukee Public Schools' Milwaukee Spanish Immersion School Upper Campus. Like her colleagues and their elementary students at the K4 through fifth-grade school, Fink hadn't been given a reason for the surprise schoolwide assembly on May 14. But the event quickly turned into a celebration with flying confetti and congratulations between tearful colleagues at the school where Fink has taught for over 25 years. "She was a little nervous this morning, everybody, because I think she knew something was different — the energy was different," said Principal Marybell Nieves-Harris. "We are just so happy." Nieves-Harris described what it was like to ask Fink, a longtime fifth-grade teacher, to switch to teaching second grade. "I said to her, 'Sra. Fink, you are so special that we need you at the beginning of second grade so that you can touch the lives of all the children by the time they're in fifth grade,'" Nieves-Harris said. Fink's mother, Pamela Sanicola, was among the group of family and friends who filed onto the school stage as the award was announced. Event organizers had sneaked them into the school without Fink knowing to join the ceremony. Sanicola said the family knew about the award for about a month in advance — and kept it a secret. "We've lied to her so much," Sanicola said. "She thought I was at the doctor's office." Sanicola said her daughter wanted to be a teacher since she was little. Now, she's the type who spends her summers at teacher institutes and exudes passion for the job. 'You would think it was her first day," Sanicola said. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction names five Teachers of the Year annually. For 2026, other award winners teach in Darlington, Mishicot, Sun Prairie and Greenfield. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jill Underly traveled from Madison to Milwaukee for the surprise ceremony. Addressing the crowd, she described Fink as a "fierce and caring advocate for her students and their families." As an example, she said that when Fink's students needed winter gear to enjoy recess outside, she decided to create a schoolwide drive for clothing. "While she brings a wealth of experience to her classroom, what makes her so beloved is that she never stops learning, growing and evolving. Her energy is contagious, and her joy for teaching lifts everyone around her," Underly said. Winners this year each receive $3,000 from the Herb Kohl Educational Foundation. For Fink, that money will be used to upgrade the school science lab. Fink is the fifth Milwaukee Public Schools educator to receive the award since 2020. During the ceremony, MPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius greeted the auditorium in Spanish. Then she asked the crowd of young kids to point to their teachers and support staff in appreciation of their work. "I am so impressed by you and your school and all of your amazing teachers here," Cassellius said. Marva Herndon, vice president of the MPS Board of School Directors, praised the immersion school's academics and focus on immersing kids in Spanish. "It is always a pleasure to be in the presence of professionals whose life work, 1, inspires an entire generation, No. 2, adds value to a student's self-worth and image, (and) No. 3 impacts the Milwaukee community through its daily efforts, without accolades," Herndon said. After an interview process, one of the five Teachers of the Year will represent Wisconsin in the Council of Chief State School Officers' National Teacher of the Year Program. Along with Fink, other Wisconsin Teachers of the Year for 2026 are: School: Darlington Elementary/Middle School in the Darlington Community School District According to DPI, "Acherman has taught in Darlington since 1994 and is known for his hands-on approach to science education, incorporating field trips, guest speakers, and community partnerships. He also coaches youth and school sports, advises STEM clubs, and helped found the Jim Huston Nature Trail – an outdoor classroom that connects students and the community to nature and science." School: Sun Prairie East High School in the Sun Prairie Area School District "Coyne leads both the Business Leadership Academy and the Sports, Entertainment, and Tourism Marketing Academy at Sun Prairie East. Through his work with Sun Prairie's Business Education Partnership, he has built strong relationships with local businesses and organizations to enhance learning and create leadership opportunities for students to make a difference in their community," DPI said. School: Glenwood Elementary School in the Greenfield School District "Dixon has taught second grade at Glenwood Elementary in the School District of Greenfield for the past 13 years. Known for her passion, advocacy, and leadership, she is deeply committed to empowering both students and fellow educators. Dixon creates academically rich and inclusive classrooms that nurture creativity, curiosity, and kindness. She also holds leadership roles at the district, community, and state levels," DPI said. School: O.H. Schultz Elementary School in the Mishicot School District "Van Hefty has dedicated the past 27 years to serving as a special education teacher at O.H. Schultz Elementary School in the School District of Mishicot. Throughout her career, she has been a champion for inclusive education and student advocacy, building strong, meaningful connections with her students, families, and colleagues. Van Hefty is widely recognized for creating nurturing, student-centered learning environments that foster growth, independence, and confidence," according to DPI. 2024: Claudia Heller de Messer, English as a second language teacher at Milwaukee Parkside School for the Arts 2021: Koren Jackson, special education teacher at Milwaukee Transition High School and Susan Richardson, Milwaukee German Immersion School 2020: Chad Spurzel-Wuchterl, art teacher at Reagan High School Cleo Krejci covers higher education, vocational training and retraining as a Report For America corps member based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at CKrejci@ Follow her on Twitter @_CleoKrejci. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Teacher from MPS school named one of five 2026 Teachers of the Year
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
As part of $1 billion in school mental health cuts, Wisconsin loses roughly $8 million
When the Biden-Harris Administration awarded the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction $10 million over a five-year period to improve youth mental health services in December, it was the largest-ever expansion of K-12 mental health programs in the state to date. And it wasn't just Wisconsin. The investment was poised to help train and hire an additional 4,000 mental health professionals to schools nationally at a time when increasing mental health concerns among students compounded ongoing shortages of school-based mental health professionals. But May 2, it was learned that less than a year into the grant cycle, the federal Department of Education abruptly terminated the grant earlier in the week. Wisconsin DPI received an email titled "Notice of Non-Continuation of Grant Award" informing the state agency that the Trump administration had determined "not to continue your federal award … in its entirety, effective at the end of your current grant budget period." Nationally, the Trump administration discontinued $1 billion in grants that supported school-based mental health programs. The grants were funded through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a landmark gun safety law passed in the wake of a massacre three years ago in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 elementary school students and two teachers dead. Specifically, the Trump administration took issue with programs that educated mental health professionals about systemic racism and trained therapists to focus on race-related stress and trauma, among other things, said Madi Biedermann, a spokesperson for the Education Department, according to USA Today. So far, $2.2 million of the Wisconsin grant had gone toward expanding online certification pathways, developing 'grow your own' university programs for future school-based mental health providers, and offering statewide training and professional development to improve retention rates of mental health professionals. The remaining roughly $8 million will not be awarded. The 2024 grant was built off the success of a 2020 pilot grant from the federal government, which had put an additional 348 new mental health professionals into local education agencies across Wisconsin since the 2021-2022 school year. Wisconsin was one of a handful of states involved in the pilot program. In hiring more mental health professionals, the state also shrunk its troublingly high ratio of students to school-based mental health professionals by 14% at school districts selected for the pilot program. The pilot program was considered so successful that Wisconsin became one of 22 states to be awarded a five-year grant. Nevertheless, the Trump administration says the grant "no longer effectuates the best interest of the federal government.' DPI Superintendent Jill Underly called the decision to eliminate the grant indefensible at a time when communities have been pleading for help serving student mental health needs. 'These funds ― which Wisconsin used to make meaningful change for our schools ― were helping districts and our higher education partners develop new mental health professionals, providing a career opportunity for our current high schoolers," Underly said. "This action takes resources away from Wisconsin and disrupts the success efforts we've made to ensure qualified individuals are serving our kids." Now, DPI hopes that its historic proposal to invest more than $300 million in school mental health programs over the 2025-27 biennium makes its way through the Republican-controlled Legislature. The provision would invest in the now-stymied school-based mental health services program, expand aid for mental health care costs, invest in alcohol and drug abuse programs, add more mental health training across school staff, and extend peer-to-peer suicide prevention programs to middle schools. Success, however, is considered unlikely based on previous years. DPI had requested $278 million over the 2023-25 biennium, but received about $74 million in mental health services across K-12 Wisconsin schools. The 2021-23 biennial budget allocated less than half that amount ― $44 million ― into youth mental health services. 'Kids don't get a chance to do-over their school experience while the federal government recalibrates its political agenda,' Underly said. 'Federal funds are a critical part of our infrastructure, and these disruptions need to stop.' This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Trump cuts funds for mental health professionals in Wisconsin schools
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Yahoo
Rufus King High School teacher charged with sexual misconduct
A Rufus King High School teacher is facing sexual misconduct charges after an investigation was opened into her conduct last week. Erica Allemang-Reinke, 40, of Milwaukee, was charged April 21 in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with four felony counts of sexual misconduct by a school staff member or volunteer. If convicted, Allemang-Reinke could face up to $10,000 in fines, up to 3½ years in prison, or both, on each charge, according to the criminal complaint. A warrant was issued for her arrest April 21, according to online court records. School Principal Doreen Badillo sent a letter to parents April 16 saying a teacher was not working while an investigation was conducted. Badillo's letter did not name Allemang-Reinke. As of April 22, Allemang-Reinke's teaching license was listed as "under investigation," according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. According to the complaint: Rufus King High School student-athletes approached a school resource officer April 15 alleging that Allemang-Reinke had been inappropriately contacting them throughout the current school year. Students said Allemang-Reinke asked for their cell phone numbers, sent them cash or gifts, made inappropriate comments and touched them inappropriately, the complaint said. One student said Allemang-Reinke texted them Feb. 9 saying she had a dream about the student. When the student asked Allemang-Reinke at school about the dream, she said it involved her and the student having sex. Allemang-Reinke apologized after the student told her they thought the comment was inappropriate. In March, the student said, Allemang-Reinke told them she could perform a sex act with the student. The student declined and avoided Allemang-Reinke afterward, the complaint said. Another student said Allemang-Reinke would call and FaceTime randomly. The student also said that, on one occasion, Allemang-Reinke caressed the student's inner thigh. The student was uncomfortable with that and moved her hand away. In another incident, Allemang-Reinke tried to sit in the student's lap, which the student did not allow. The student also said Allemang-Reinke texted them in the middle of the night saying she dreamed about the student. The student also said Allemang-Reinke told the student's friends she was upset that the student did not wish her happy birthday. The student told Allemang-Reinke she was acting weird and blocked her. In addition, the student said Allemang-Reinke sent them $700 through CashApp, the complaint said. A third student said Allemang-Reinke sent $296 through CashApp and bought shoes for the student. The student said Allemang-Reinke would rub the student's leg and shoulder during their conversations. One time, Allemang-Reinke said that if she and the student had children together, they would be beautiful because they would have the student's eyes, the complaint said. A fourth student said Allemang-Reinke used a hoodie she bought the student as a Christmas gift as something to hold over him. The student also said Allemang-Reinke inserted herself into a conversation students were having about their personal sex lives by making comments about her own sex life and commenting on the student's body, the complaint said. No hearing has been set yet, according to online court records. Allemang-Reinke did not immediately respond to a reporter's phone calls seeking comment. Contact Alec Johnson at (262) 875-9469 or Follow him on Twitter at @AlecJohnson12. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: MPS teacher charged with sexual misconduct
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Five Years Later: How COVID Triggered a School Choice Renaissance
In August 2022, visitors to the Arizona Department of Education webpage were greeted by an unusual message: Due to a 'high volume' of users, the note read, they might have trouble applying to participate in the state's Empowerment Scholarship Account program. It was the second such IT mishap of the year, following an episode in which a crush of parents temporarily overwhelmed the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction's site that winter. Libertarian activist Corey DeAngelis, then rising to fame as an arch critic of teachers' unions and Democratic politicians, said the trend convinced him that the experience of virtual learning had ignited in families a desperate hunger for more educational options. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter 'I'd been chugging away at this before COVID, but it really took off when we were getting into debates about reopening schools,' he recalled. Five years after the onset of the pandemic, DeAngelis is one of the leading voices in an education world turned upside down by its effects. After a generation at the center of both federal and state policy, bipartisan reforms like charter schools and test-based accountability have receded from the spotlight; at the same time, billions of dollars were devoted to private initiatives that previously won few headlines and scant financial support. Since 2020, over 20 states have either enacted or expanded some form of private school choice, and 13 extend eligibility to all families within their borders. Over 1 million children now access those offerings, according to the advocacy group EdChoice, and over 20 million are eligible to do so. And just since the beginning of 2025, nearly 100 bills have been filed that would push the needle further, potentially allowing even more resources and greater flexibility for families in states like Texas, Florida, and Ohio. Related Patrick Wolf, a political scientist at the University of Arkansas who has studied voucher-like systems for decades, contrasted their fast spread over the last few years with the halting progress seen in the 2000s and 2010s. In particular, he said, education savings accounts (ESAs) stand out as having 'found their moment.' 'It's been amazing to see from a movement that had kind of plateaued and seemed stagnant just prior to COVID,' remarked Wolf, who has energetically argued for the benefits of choice. 'Now it's dynamic like crazy, with all kinds of variations and evolutions that we didn't anticipate even six or seven years ago.' When we leaned too heavily on lefty messaging on school choice, it didn't do much to convince Democrats to come along. But it might have alienated some of the more conservative or even moderate Republicans. Corey DeAngelis, private school choice activist The leap forward was made possible by a pronounced shift in perceptions of schools, especially among Republicans. The structure of the ESA, a lightly regulated grant placed directly in the hands of parents, proved both politically attractive and legally viable in ways that earlier voucher schemes were not. Spurred by competitive pressures among red-state lawmakers — and accelerated by a political strategy relying on Republican legislative majorities, rather than the assent of voters — the new benefits took hold quickly. No less pivotal was the adoption of school choice as what DeAngelis called a 'litmus test issue' for conservatives, who proved comfortable jettisoning Republican legislators standing in their way. Household names on the right, including Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos, have personally intervened in state-level fights, while figures like Christopher Rufo national profiles by directly confronting social controversies in the classroom. The resulting fights have often taken a vituperative tone uncommon to discussions of K–12 schools. Jon Valant, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the left-leaning Brookings Institution, said he believed school choice proponents had broken through by yoking their vision of an open education marketplace to the ascent of culture warriors like Rufo and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 'Those two groups came together in a marriage of convenience, and you saw the push for ESAs ride the wave of frustration that was building,' Valant said. 'That frustration became political fuel in a lot of red states.' Accounts differ on the extent of public anger arising from the long era of school closures, quarantines, and mask mandates. But for many, COVID led to a serious reappraisal of the state of public education. It's been amazing to see from a movement that had kind of plateaued and seemed stagnant just prior to COVID. Now it's dynamic like crazy. Patrick Wolf, University of Arkansas According to the polling organization Gallup, 70 percent of parents said they were either completely or somewhat satisfied with the education their kids received in 2024 — down 10 points over the past two years, but still well above the figure for Americans as a whole. Among that larger group, the proportion dissatisfied with the quality of American education crested at 63 percent in 2023 and remained at 55 percent last year, compared with just 43 percent of survey respondents who said they were satisfied. Beneath the overall numbers is a gaping ideological divide. Virtually identical numbers of Democrats and Republicans said they had 'a great deal' or 'quite a bit' of confidence in U.S. schools in 2019 (30 percent of Democrats vs. 28 percent of Republicans), but a pandemic-era divergence exploded the very next year. By 2023, 43 percent of Democrats said they were mostly confident in schools; an extraordinary 9 percent of Republicans agreed. What's more, even while families approved of the performance of their local schools, the impact of the pandemic led thousands to pull their children out of them. Related A 2021 study by Stanford economist Thomas Dee found that traditional public institutions lost 1.1 million students in the fall of 2020, largely driven by a substantial departure of kindergarteners and elementary schoolers. The decline was 40 percent higher in districts that provided only remote instruction at the beginning of that academic year. A separate analysis from the conservative American Enterprise Institute found larger, more sustained enrollment drops between 2020 and 2022 in districts that kept schools closed longer and enforced mask mandates when students returned to campus. Martin Lueken, a researcher at EdChoice, said that prolonged closures both revealed and amplified the existing demand for private school alternatives. Although the process of building momentum for private choice initiatives was 'slow' in the years before the pandemic, he added, the massive disruptions to school routines acted as a powerful accelerant. 'There has always been a recognition that in order for these programs to be implemented, you need to build a broad constituency for them,' Lueken said. 'You never want to let a crisis go to waste, and COVID really shrunk the timeline for this to happen.' As parents became increasingly willing to leave their traditional school systems, politicians were converging on a vehicle to facilitate their exit: the education savings account. ESAs were first introduced in Arizona in 2011 as a resource for parents of students with disabilities. The scope of the proposal was limited, with only 17,000 children eligible to participate in the first year. Compared with other K–12 reforms being pursued in the Obama era, from teacher accountability to rapid charter school expansion, ESAs received little national attention; but school choice advocates hailed their passage, immediately recognizing them as 'the way of the future.' Their early excitement was a reaction to an unprecedented political opportunity— and grounded in two factors that made the policy more likely to gain traction than other forms of private school choice. The first was legal. An earlier school voucher law had been passed by the Arizona legislature in 2006, only to be swept aside a few years later by state courts arguing that the program violated state law by sending state funds to private or parochial schools. Thirty-seven states have written such prohibitions, known as 'Blaine amendments,' into their constitutions since the 19th century. By contrast, ESAs indirectly facilitate choice by providing families with money and allowing them to use it as they see fit. Supporters in Phoenix quickly grasped the significance of that distinction, moving to expand the accounts to children attending failing schools just a year after they were first enacted. The second advantage of ESAs was political. Surveys have often shown high levels of support for private school choice, but voucher programs failed at the election booth for decades. Between 1978 and 2007, six states conducted nine different referendum campaigns to determine whether to establish either voucher programs or tax credits for private school tuition. Voters rejected each ballot measure, often by overwhelming margins. Valant called the branding of voucher programs 'toxic,' especially relative to the simple appeal of sending money directly to parents. 'People don't like 'private school vouchers,'' he said. 'But they don't really know what an ESA is until they actually dig into the policy details, so they don't have the immediate baggage that vouchers come with.' EdChoice's own tracking survey, conducted with the nonpartisan research firm Morning Consult, consistently showed that about two-thirds of parents had positive attitudes toward ESAs during the pandemic. Even more importantly, Republicans were eager to pass them through the normal legislative process, without risking lengthy and expensive referendum battles. Related Since 2021, over a dozen states have passed ESA legislation, significantly increasing the number of American families eligible to receive the accounts. Crucially, most have opted to follow Arizona's lead by structuring their programs not as targeted benefits for disadvantaged students, but as universal entitlements that gain rapid acceptance among families from all walks of life. Dan Lips, a senior fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation and veteran education policy analyst, first proposed a regime of ESAs 20 years ago, while working at Arizona's conservative Goldwater Institute. Reflecting on the decades-long path trod by the school choice community, he called the triumph of the policy a 'silver lining' to the damage wreaked by COVID. Inline pullquote: People don't like 'private school vouchers.' But they don't really know what an ESA is. Jon Valant, Brookings Institution 'There's been an advocacy effort, going back 30 years, to mobilize parents, to fund scholarship organizations, to educate policy makers about the benefits of these types of programs,' Lips said. 'I don't think the strategy changed during the pandemic, we just found a lot more motivated lawmakers who'd had enough with public school systems.' Republicans were motivated by more than the urgency of the pandemic, however. During the Biden era, backing for the expansion of school choice became something of a crusade on the right. For more than half a century, conservatives have favored the evolution of new school models and options outside the public sector. But during the era of bipartisan education reform stretching across the Bush and Obama presidencies, most of that energy was redirected toward the spread of charter schools, a compromise position that also enjoyed the blessing of Democrats leery of any move toward vouchers. Arguments for direct subsidies of private schools — occasionally drafted into congressional legislation that went nowhere — were usually couched in the language of equity, with a heavy focus on targeting benefits at low-income families and freeing students from underperforming local school districts. DeAngelis said that while those discussions were tailored to win over the left, they tended to backfire. 'When we leaned too heavily on lefty messaging on school choice, it didn't do much to convince Democrats to come along,' he said. 'But it might have alienated some of the more conservative or even moderate Republicans, because they didn't feel like it was a Republican issue.' With the arrival of COVID and the presidency of Donald Trump, messaging around the issue changed. Conservative activists and politicians increasingly voiced disapproval of what they perceived as political indoctrination in schools, militating instead for parents to be provided the autonomy to select among institutions more in line with their values. The moment presented an opportunity, proponents argued, to take advantage of the culture war. Related One of the most dedicated 'anti-woke' combatants of the Biden era was Gov. Ron DeSantis, who pushed Florida's Republican legislature to adopt strict new rules constraining how teachers can speak about sexuality or other controversial subjects in the classroom. At the same time, he transformed the state into America's biggest marketplace for school choice, pointedly linking the expansion of ESAs with parents' desire to escape 'woke' instruction. A similar dynamic is playing out in Texas, now at the precipice of adopting the policy. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott spent the past several years stumping for his favored ESA legislation at a host of Christian (and predominantly Protestant) schools, warning of progressive bias in small towns as well as blue-trending cities. He also moved relentlessly against a contingent of mostly rural Republican legislators who opposed him, succeeding in ousting over a dozen through competitive primaries; revealingly, while those campaigns were crucial to Abbott's legislative strategy, their messaging focused much less on schools than on the hot-button issue of border security. Related Republican donors like former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos got in on the action, spending millions to promote legislation and fund primary challenges against rural GOP legislators who resisted the new laws. In Iowa, where a universal ESA bill was being held up, the chairman of the House education committee was defeated after his opponent was endorsed by the Gov. Kim Reynolds. The bill was passed shortly thereafter. Conservative media figures have been no less confrontational, casting their adversaries as would-be propagandists seeking to control other people's children. DeAngelis, whose recent book received praise from President Trump, has proven adept at the cut-and-thrust of social media trolling, personally attacking top Democrats for sending their own children to private schools while rejecting school choice for others. The popular Twitter account Libs of TikTok takes aim at more targets in the classroom, often circulating videos of teachers its creator, Chaya Raichik deems ideological or manipulative. Joshua Cowen, a professor at Michigan State University who fiercely opposes the wave of new laws, said that while school choice has historically been understood as a reform grounded in markets and accountability, it is now principally a means by which the conservative movement can reward sympathetic constituencies and achieve its cultural aims. 'At the end of the day, the real energy for this is the culture war,' Cowen said. 'It's linked to the same energy that rolled back Roe, and…at the same time we're talking about vouchers expanding across the country, we're also talking about bathrooms and locker rooms and book bans.' No one would have predicted that the last five years would be the most tumultuous in the modern history of school choice. Few would hazard a guess at what the next five might look like. Going forward, it may be challenging even to learn how new ESA systems are affecting student learning. In part, this is because the state statutes passed since 2020 generally have not required private schools to take part in state testing, which could allow lawmakers and researchers to compare the performance of pupils in the private and public sectors against one another. The University of Arkansas's Wolf, who has previously conducted longitudinal studies of voucher programs in Washington, D.C., Milwaukee, and Louisiana, said he believed scholars could still devise strategies to identify the benefits or demerits of new private school programs even in the absence of testing — many already emphasize later-life outcomes such as college enrollment and completion — but added that he expected to face some obstacles. 'There's more of a sense that, 'We want to do this, and we're confident that it's going to be good for families,'' Wolf observed. 'When states have that attitude, they're somewhat less enthusiastic about bringing a scholar in to actually kick the tires and determine if their expectations are correct.' The real energy for this is the culture war. At the same time we're talking about vouchers expanding across the country, we're also talking about bathrooms and locker rooms and book bans. Joshua Cowen, Michigan State University It is also difficult to project the future progress of the ESA wave. A large number of states with Republican governors and legislatures have already taken action, leaving mostly purple and blue states without some form of private school choice. Few Democrats have been willing to touch the idea; Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a rising star in his party, mused about joining with Republicans to create a voucher offering in 2022, only to back off after a storm of criticism. Resistance within states, even including those that have passed ESA bills, makes their future difficult to project. The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled last fall that the newly adopted Education Scholarship Trust Funds violated the state constitution, leading to a scramble this year to craft a program that might pass legal muster. And in Arizona, home to the first-ever ESA law, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs has made repeated attempts to pare back the accounts, claiming that their growing popularity poses a danger to the state's finances. Related A national, ESA-type entitlement remains the dream for school choice proponents, including the America First Policy Institute, the think tank most closely tied to the Trump administration and its education secretary, Linda McMahon, who previously served as the Institute's chairwoman. Legislation to that effect has been proposed in Congress, though it would likely have to pass through the budget reconciliation process, which is not ideally suited for the creation of new programs. Valant said that, once the remaining red states decide on whether to embrace the policy, the U.S. could feature a striking regional contrast in education policy. Democratic- and Republican-leaning states increasingly exhibit a high level of difference on policies like charter school growth, school evaluations, and the science of reading, and ESAs may simply make the contrast more stark. 'For the short term and maybe the intermediate term, we're going to be in the unfamiliar place of having very different systems of education governance in red states and blue states. That just isn't what we've done in the past.'
