Jan 02, 2018
With 2017’s rollercoaster of a year over, education experts are offering their predictions for what kind of ride the education sector can expect in the new year.
The buzzword for 2018 is uncertainty. No one really knows how things will change in 2018. But it promises, for better or for worse, to be a transformative year across all levels of American education.
The biggest challenge faces the roughly 800,000 Dreamers—migrant children protected under the recently rescinded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. With 95% of Dreamers enrolled in school or university and their educations at risk, teachers fear students will be more stressed than ever in 2018.
Students aren’t the only ones stressed out: 58% of educators, according to a December 2017 Education Week Research Center study, say there’s been “too much” reform packed into the last two years.
Not everything is gloomy in education reform: some reformers are heartened by major philanthropies, like the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, turning to community-driven rather than top-down reform.
At the same time, the Trump administration has made plain its plans to divert money away from public education toward “school choice” and other programs. While Congress slashed federal taxes (with a raft of consequences for public education) last year, it failed to deliver on the White House’s proposed $9.2 billion, 13.5% cut to the U.S. Department of Education—including the elimination of $2 billion for the Title II program, which aids teacher development and reductions in class size.
Educators will be keeping the 2018 fiscal budget—and the Congressional Midterm elections this November—squarely within their sights for good reason.
banner image from https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/01/02/569161619/from-daca-to-devos-education-predictions-for-2018
Trump, Congress, and Education in 2018: Eight Big Questions http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2018/01/donald_trump_education_2018_eight_big_questions.html
From DACA To DeVos: Education Predictions For 2018 https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/01/02/569161619/from-daca-to-devos-education-predictions-for-2018
Nine education predictions for 2018—some of them heartbreaking https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2018/01/02/nine-education-predictions-for-2018-some-of-them-heartbreaking/?utm_term=.426874f2c391
