Author: Reporter

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter This has been an especially challenging year for Rosalba Ortega’s family.  It’s been a cold, soggy winter in Bakersfield, and Ortega said her two granddaughters, ages 4 and 7, don’t have warm coats for their walk to school. Rent and food prices have been climbing, and as a farmworker, she’s struggled to find work in the fields. Last month’s delays to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — known in California as CalFresh — hit her grandkids at a time when her family is already…

ESU’s outgoing president, Ken Hush, faced backlash in 2022 after laying off tenured faculty. Ethan James Scherrer/Wikimedia Commons Ken Hush, outgoing president of Emporia State University in Kansas, is donating roughly $1.4 million—equivalent to the last four years of his salary—to the university. Since taking the helm in 2021, Hush oversaw a controversial workforce-management policy that included firing 23 tenured faculty members. The American Association of University Professors publicly censured ESU for that decision, and some of the laid-off faculty sued. Emporia officials, including Hush, defended the job cuts, saying they were needed to address a budget deficit and falling enrollment.…

Even as the U.S. Department of Education dismantles large swaths of the Institute of Education Sciences, a bipartisan group of lawmakers wants to create a new research center modeled on the Pentagon’s moonshot research-and-development program. The proposed legislation, introduced this week by Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., would create a fifth IES center, the National Center for Advanced Development in Education or NCADE to fund “informed-risk, high-reward education research” to improve teaching and learning.“We must pursue innovation with both ambition and accountability,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement. The proposal ” builds a smarter bridge between research and…

Dive Brief:  A federal judge on Thursday denied the U.S. Department of Education’s request for an 18-month extension to decide borrower defense claim decisions due by the end of January, according to lawyers representing the borrowers.  The affected borrowers belong to the last of three groups covered under a landmark 2022 settlement with the Education Department to resolve a class-action lawsuit that accused the agency of stonewalling borrower defense applications. Under that agreement, the borrowers were set to receive automatic relief if the agency didn’t decide their cases by Jan. 28.  U.S. District Judge William Alsup declined to provide any…

Listen to the article 4 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Dive Brief: While the number of children receiving after-school snacks and suppers through the federal Afterschool Nutrition Programs increased slightly from October 2023 to October 2024, participation still remained below pre-pandemic levels, according to a report released Wednesday by the Food Research & Action Center. The Afterschool Supper Programs, for instance, served 1.26 million students on an average weekday in October 2024 — a 2.8% rise from October 2023, FRAC found. Despite those gains, the report said, roughly 173,400 fewer children received…

The new policy would also classify syllabi as “work made for hire,” which makes the institution—not the syllabus’s creator—the owner of the copyright. Photo illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | DNY59 and golibo/iStock/Getty Images Two months after legal teams at University of North Carolina system campuses split over whether syllabi are considered public documents, system president Peter Hans announced plans to adopt a new policy that will answer an unequivocal yes. Starting as early as next fall, faculty members at UNC institutions will be required to upload their syllabi to a searchable public database, according to a draft of…

Key points: The academic landscape has evolved dramatically, especially when it comes to summers. More students are embracing year-round learning to build strong study habits and develop the critical thinking, application, and retention skills they need for success in higher education and the workplace. They’re treating AP®, SAT®, and ACT® practice and preparation as long-term investments rather than temporary obligations where they are last-minute cramming for these high-stakes exams. Trends and research support this approach. The Pew Research Center found that 36.6 percent of U.S. teens had a paying job during the summer of 2021–the highest rate since 2008. According…

In a long, passionate, well-reasoned, thoroughly evidenced cri de coeur published at Current Affairs, San Francisco State professor Ronald Purser declares, “AI Is Destroying the University and Learning Itself.” That attention-grabbing headline is a bit misleading, because as Purser makes clear in the article, it is not “AI” itself that is destroying these things. The source of the problem is human beings, primarily the human beings in charge of universities that have looked at the offerings from tech companies and, failing to recognize the vampire prepared to drain their institutions of their life force, not only invite them across the…

What Is the Retinol Sandwich Method? The “Retinol Sandwich Method” is a skin care trend popularized on TikTok and Instagram, where users apply moisturizer before and after applying retinol product to create a “sandwich” effect. The goal is to buffer the retinol so it is less irritating. The technique has gone viral in videos from creators such as dermatology-focused influencers and skin care enthusiasts who claim it makes retinol easier to tolerate for beginners and those with sensitive skin. In most posts, the routine follows this sequence: apply moisturizer, wait a few minutes, apply retinol, then finish with a second…

These weekends before the holidays can be a super busy time with shopping, wrapping, cooking, and partying. We’re going to a party for the boxing club that Jeff takes part in today. Supposedly, spouses can box at the event, but I will pass this time 😉 On Sunday, we’re going to a Hanukkah party that my cousin and his wife are hosting. Hope you have something planned that you’re looking forward to! The Boxwalla December Beauty Box featuring Symbiome includes an exquisite eye cream and a neck and décolleté cream that are utter perfection. Lola’s Secret Beauty Blog highly recommends this box before it…