Author: Nola Jones

The 10 American Cities Most Seriously Failing Their Youngest Residents: OMEP’s Groundbreaking Study on Child Poverty and Early Education Access When you stroll through some Detroit neighborhoods on a weekday morning, the quiet can seem strange. underenrollment in schools. Shops closed. Young children at home when they would be in a classroom with a qualified early childhood educator in a different zip code. Although it doesn’t make headlines every week, it has been discreetly recorded, debated, and researched for years. The fact that almost three out of five children in Detroit live in poverty is more difficult to accept. That…

This is something that Iowa has never done quickly. Therefore, it seemed as though something truly important had changed when the Iowa State Board of Education quietly approved two emergency rule changes in June. This kind of change takes years to develop and comes almost without warning. Eighth-grade students in Iowa will be able to participate in high school varsity athletics as of August 1, 2026. every sport. Every sport on the board, not just softball or baseball, which had permitted younger players for decades. It’s a significant expansion that, depending on who you talk to, is either a bit…

A certain type of institution simultaneously harbors two realities, one based on reputation and the other subtly deteriorating. For many years, parents have taken great pride in Hutchinson Central Technical High School in Buffalo, New York. Located in downtown Buffalo at 256 South Elmwood Avenue, it is a significant and historic building that first opened its doors on September 14, 1904. More than a century of graduates who go on to make significant contributions to the world. That is worth something. As the top technical high school in the city, Hutch Tech, as most Buffalonians refer to it, enrolls about…

The fact that 21-year-old Alex Freeman, who is currently scoring headers at the World Cup in front of tens of thousands of spectators, used to walk the halls of American Heritage School in Plantation, Florida, as a child who wasn’t sure whether his future belonged to the sport his father made famous or the one tugging at something deeper inside of him, has a subtly poetic quality. One of the prep schools in Florida that values athletics is American Heritage. It has produced its fair share of college recruits, NFL prospects, and regional champions in a variety of sports. Freeman…

A high school senior submits a scholarship application to a local Elks lodge every fall, somewhere in the nation. This lodge may be the only remaining civic organization in a small rural town, or it may be a modest building on a quiet street. The majority of those students have never entered an Elks lodge. The majority are not related to the organization through family. It turns out that the majority are following the program’s instructions exactly. Insiders are not the only recipients of the Elks Most Valuable Student Scholarship. It was never the case. The Most Valuable Student program…

In the midst of a larger discussion about student loan delinquencies gradually returning to levels not seen since before the pandemic, the announcement was made on a Thursday. Starting on July 1, the U.S. Department of Education announced a one percentage point reduction in interest rates for borrowers of federal student loans. Nicholas Kent, Undersecretary of Education, described it as making “student loan repayment easier than ever.” On the surface, it appears to be good news for the approximately 42 million Americans who have federal student loan debt. However, as is typically the case with federal loan policy, the picture…

I’ve been thinking about this statistic for a few weeks now: every nine seconds, a borrower in the US defaults on their student loans. Not every hour. Not every few minutes. every nine seconds. That figure, which comes from an analysis conducted in February 2026 by Protect Borrowers and The Century Foundation, doesn’t scream at you. It simply waits, ticking away. Approximately 25% of all borrowers currently have federal student loan delinquencies, which is almost three times higher than it was prior to the start of the pandemic payment pause. Approximately 9.16 million Americans are over a year behind on…

The Education Department’s most recent action regarding federal student loans is almost disarmingly straightforward. Your interest rate will decrease by a full percentage point if you sign up for automatic payments. That’s all. That’s how it’s being presented, anyway. The announcement, which was made on Thursday, expands upon a previous policy that provided borrowers with a small rate reduction of 0.25% in exchange for signing up for auto-pay. That number has now increased fourfold. The reduction will be applied to loans through June 30, 2028 for borrowers who enroll by September 30, 2026, or who are already enrolled. The extra…

A certain type of pride strikes differently when viewed from a distance. The kind that travels—across time zones, years of early mornings and parent-teacher conferences, and a childhood spent in a classroom far from where the story ultimately lands—rather than the pride of witnessing someone place well in a regional exam or win a local competition. It’s easy to see why Dubai Scholars Private School has been feeling that way lately. The Class of 2026 at Stanford University chose Lamya Sikandar Butt, a graduate of Dubai Scholars who attended the school for thirteen years before relocating to California, to give…

When the SSE Airtricity First Division is in town on Friday nights, Dublin has a distinct advantage. The bowl at UCD isn’t a glamorous location. There isn’t a lot of noise coming from the stands. However, what transpired on the field on June 19 had significant implications for Kerry FC, a team still looking for its first away victory of the year, in addition to the table. UCD prevailed 2-1. They scored both of their goals from corners. The same man, Eanna Clancy, was in charge of both. The second came in the ninetieth minute, and it was the kind…