VA Governor’s Race Hinged on Education, Congress Approves Infrastructure Bill & Critical Race Theory.

Editor’s Note: This weekly media report covers K-12 education news and trends. Please be in touch with alanna.klein@greendot.org with any questions.

• In the VA Governor’s Race last week, education was a priority issue throughout the campaign and some argue it was the key message that led to GOP Glenn Youngkin’s victory. (NPR, Chalkbeat, USA Today, Washington Post, The Hill, NY Times, LA Times) 

• This week, Congress passed the long-negotiated Infrastructure Bill. It heads to President Biden to be signed into law. Education did not see the financial gains initially earmarked for school “modernization” but it will improve high-speed internet, create clean drinking water for schools, and generally improve city infrastructure which will impact schools.  (White House Fact Sheet, The 74 Million, US News, Forbes) 

• The Hill (Frederick M. Hess, Director of Education Policy Studies at AEI): Media narrative got education’s role in Virginia election backwards

• Beaumont Enterprise (Shannon Allen, BISD Superintendent): Help us monitor students’ technology use

• The Harvard Crimson (The Crimson Editorial Board): We Cannot Build Back Better Without Free Community College 

• NY Times (John McWhorter, Linguist and Professor of Linguistics at Columbia University): If It’s Not Critical Race Theory, It’s Critical Race Theory-lite