This story was produced in collaboration with Atlanta Civic Circle. Early voting starts in less than a month for Atlanta School Board Elections, with 10 candidates vying for your vote — and the opportunity to help shape the city’s public school system. These elections have extremely low turnout but come with high stakes — especially […]
Education
Posted inEducation, School Boards, Uncategorized
Got Questions for Atlanta Public School Board Candidates? We Want to Hear Them!
Atlanta Board of Education members do more than sit in an hours-long meeting once a month. They make decisions that affect nearly 50,000 students at Atlanta Public Schools, a school district wrestling with gaps in achievement and racial inequity. That’s why your decisions in the upcoming school board election on Nov. 7 matter so much. […]
Posted inK-12
Low Turnout, High Stakes: Why Atlanta School Board Elections Matter
Iesha Lyons has always picked her daughter up from school. As she sat in her car one afternoon in August, stuck in a long line outside Howard Middle School, she admitted she might change her stance after the 8th-grader graduates this spring. “Maybe she will ride the bus when she goes to high school,” Lyons […]
Posted inHigher Education
Rising Rents, Housing Shortage Create Crisis for HBCU Students
Leron Thomas is one week away from the start of his junior year at Morehouse College, but the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native has no idea where he’s going to live. This would be Thomas’ fifth semester at Morehouse — and his first with no housing. He entered the school’s housing draft but wasn’t among the […]
Posted inK-12
Atlanta School Board Seats Are Open: Ready to Run?
August means back-to-school time for thousands of students at Atlanta Public Schools. But it also marks the start of election season for the school board. Aug. 23-25 is the official qualifying period for potential candidates to put their name in the running for the upcoming APS School Board elections, which will take place on Nov. […]
Posted inHigher Education
How Black College Students in Atlanta Are Reacting to Affirmative Action Ruling
Black college students in Atlanta are not mincing words after last month’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling to end affirmative action in higher education. They say the decision — which limits colleges from considering race in admissions — is just another in a long list of challenges keeping scholars of color from gaining access to colleges […]
Posted inK-12
DeKalb County Schools Has a New Superintendent. Here’s What Residents Think.
The decision-making process LaTasha Adams went through before deciding to enroll her 8-year-old daughter at Wadsworth Magnet School was intense. The Decatur resident, who lives in the Columbia Woods neighborhood, had been home-schooling her daughter Zoey, but after taking a site tour of the magnet school in South DeKalb, and meeting the administrators, she was […]
Posted inK-12
How Does the Atlanta Public School Budget Work?
This story was originally published by Atlanta Civic Circle. Education budgets are like iPhones: they’re expensive and essential, but few of us know exactly how they work. It doesn’t have to be that way, says Eshé P. Collins, Atlanta Board of Education chair and District 6 representative. “We have a very nice-sized budget, and a […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Higher Education, Policing
Why Atlanta College Students and Professors are Chanting, ‘Stop Cop City’
At a rally on Emory University’s quad earlier this week, Maresah Malcom, a senior from Decatur, joined just over 100 fellow students in protesting the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, also known as “Cop City.” Malcom said she came to the Stop Cop City demonstration because the facility is being built in the area where […]
Posted inEducation, K-12
Active Shooter Training Is Coming to Georgia Schools. Here’s What We Know.
If you’ve got a child in Georgia schools, they could be required to take part in active shooter training, thanks to a new law. Earlier this month, Gov. Brian Kemp signed House Bill 147 into law. Also known as the Safe Schools Act, HB 147 was introduced by state Rep. Will Wade — one of […]