Providence teachers to vote on new contract
The bigger picture:
One of Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green's
top goals when she led the state takeover was to
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That never happened.
Between the COVID-19 pandemic and the gubernatorial transition from Gina Raimondo to Dan McKee,
priorities (and strategies) changed.
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The state lost its desire to have a prolonged battle with the union, and the union (even through its own leadership changes) held firm. The contract saw minor tweaks during the takeover, but nothing close to what Infante-Green promised (or threatened) back in 2019 and 2020.
The negotiations for the deal that will be voted on next week moved slowly in part because both sides knew there wouldn't be very much extra money since pandemic-era federal funding has dried up.
What's next:
The teachers' union vote is scheduled for June 9.
Getting a deal done now is beneficial to Infante-Green and McKee, who won't have to worry about a contentious contract battle as he seeks reelection next year.
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Mayor Brett Smiley and the City Council have not been involved in the negotiations, but if the school system returns to their control next year, they'll have a major say over the next contract.
This story first appeared in Rhode Map, our free newsletter about Rhode Island that also contains information about local events, links to interesting stories, and more. If you'd like to receive it via email Monday through Friday,
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The Hill
15 minutes ago
- The Hill
Colleges must speak up for their Chinese students
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said all the right things last week after Hong Kong issued arrest warrants for 19 pro-democracy activists in other countries, including in the U.S. 'The extraterritorial targeting of Hong Kongers who are exercising their fundamental freedoms is a form of transnational oppression,' Rubio declared in a statement. 'We will not tolerate the Hong Kong government's attempts to apply its national security laws to silence or intimidate Americans or anyone on U.S. soil.' But we already tolerate the transnational oppression of one large group on our soil: Chinese students. And for the most part, our universities have kept silent about that. That's because of the billions of dollars that Chinese students bring to American colleges, of course. We're already facing an expected decline in Chinese enrollment because of the Trump administration's threats against international students, which higher-education leaders have rightly condemned. But if we really cared about those students — and not just their tuition fees — we would also speak out against the Chinese government's extraterritorial targeting of their fundamental freedoms. Anything less makes us look petty, scared and small. In a report issued last year — titled 'On my campus, I am afraid' — Amnesty International showed how Chinese and Hong Kong students in the U.S. and Europe faced surveillance and intimidation from Chinese authorities. Students reported being photographed and followed at protests, and that their families back home had been harassed. At Georgetown, for example, a Chinese law student who handed out pamphlets denouncing China's 'zero-COVID' policies was videotaped by members of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, an organization sponsored by the Chinese government. They told him that the pictures would be sent to security officials in China. And soon after that, his family was interrogated and warned that they could face penalties if he continued to speak out. None of this is news, unfortunately. In 2021, ProPublica reported that Chinese intelligence agents were using local informants to threaten and harass students in America. Some Chinese students said they avoided taking courses with other students from their country, because they did not know who was working for the government — and who might report on them. And in 2020, when COVID forced universities to move online, the Wall Street Journal revealed that some professors had told Chinese students that they wouldn't be evaluated on class participation. The faculty didn't want their students to feel the need to speak up and risk getting on the wrong side of Chinese security officials, who were likely monitoring them on Zoom. 'There is no way I can say to my students, 'You can say whatever you want on the phone call and you are totally free and safe,'' one Harvard professor admitted. But most of our university leaders are keeping quiet about the matter. They don't want to take any risks, either, with so much money at stake. A welcome exception is Purdue University, which denounced Chinese spying after ProPublica revealed that one of its students was harassed by security agents for posting a letter about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. That's a taboo topic in China, which has prohibited public discussion and commemoration of the event. 'Any student found to have reported another student to any foreign entity for exercising their freedom of speech or belief will be subject to significant sanction,' declared Mitch Daniels, Purdue's president at the time. 'We regret that we were unaware at the time of these events and had to learn of them from national sources,' Daniels added, referring to the 2021 ProPublica report. The rest of us have no excuse, especially now. Everything we have learned over the last four years confirms the same fact: China is intimidating students at our institutions. And so is the Trump administration, of course. It has arrested and deported international students who made pro-Palestinian comments. And it has been screening the social media accounts of student visa applicants to find 'any indications of hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States.' Nobody knows what that means, so applicants have been scrubbing their accounts of material about Barack Obama, Kamala Harris and anything else that might put them in the administration's crosshairs. To me, that sounds more like China than America. Our most important founding principle is freedom of expression. And we are flouting it by harassing our international students, even as we accuse them of being hostile to it. But we can't make a persuasive case against Trump's assault on freedom if we ignore the Chinese attacks on it. Anticipating that many international students won't be allowed to come here, some universities — including my own — are creating online courses and programs to serve them. That's a great gesture, but it also leaves the students even more vulnerable to harassment by internet snoops back home. And that's why we have to speak up for the students and make it clear that we won't tolerate intimidation of them, just as Rubio said. Thomas Jefferson — who knew something about America's founding principles — swore 'eternal hostility against every form of tyranny.' He didn't care where it came from. Neither should we.
Chicago Tribune
an hour ago
- Chicago Tribune
Moody Bible Institute lays off roughly 9%, as small religious schools nationwide struggle with enrollment
Moody Bible Institute's mission made 26-year-old Jarett Hamby feel grounded in a greater purpose. Alongside a team of students, Hamby led marketing campaigns for 'Today in the Word,' the school's monthly devotional publication. It was his passion as much as his job — and a steady paycheck for nearly two years. He heard rumblings among staff over the past months that the bible college might be tightening its belt. But at employee town halls, leadership assured employees that Moody was in good financial health. Then, Hamby was laid off in May. 'I was gutted,' he said. 'I was completely caught off guard.' Between 8 to 9% of staff were quietly let go that month as part of a broader restructuring at the River North theological institution. Moody officials say the school's revenue streams remain steady. Its enrollment numbers, though, show a steep drop in matriculating students over the past decade. Just 141 freshmen attended Moody in 2023 — down from 400 eight years prior. It's a flashpoint of the challenges facing some small faith-based colleges nationwide, as they grapple with demographic shifts, surging day-to-day costs and a looming enrollment cliff. Many of the schools sit in America's heartland, acting as a vital anchor for their rural communities. Still, urban colleges like Moody aren't immune to those stressors. 'There's an arms race in higher ed, and the smaller schools that spend the money often have the house collapse on them, because they just aren't financially able to compete,' said Silas McCormick, former president of now-shuttered Lincoln Christian University, about 30 miles north of Springfield. Moody serves about 1,000 undergraduate students on its red-brick campus. Founded in 1886, the private Evangelical college is often overlooked in the city's rich higher education landscape. But for students pursuing ordained ministry or theology, it's known as one of the nation's premiere bible colleges. Layoffs were necessary to offset rising costs of inflation and evolving ministry needs, according to a statement from a college spokesperson. Impacted staff span all of Moody's ministry divisions, including its publishing and media arms. Some experts say close-knit, faith-based institutions like Moody may become few and far between. The past decade has dealt a series of swift blows to the higher education sector — including the COVID-19 pandemic, rising costs and recent freezes to federal research funding. Perhaps even more pressing: a looming demographic cliff. As birth rates plummet, there's a projected net decrease of more than 300,000 traditional-age college students by 2030, according to higher education consulting firm Ruffalo Noel Levitz. Those numbers have already begun to shrink, and it's often tiny religious schools that are first hit. More than half of the 79 nonprofit colleges that have closed or merged since 2020 are religiously affiliated, according to an analysis from The Hechinger Report. Seventeen of those are located in the Midwest, including three in Illinois. Faith-based colleges tend to be smaller, which leaves little buffer for enrollment changes, according to higher education consultant Ricardo Azziz. 'They carry a lot of costs to support their students, to educate their students, to provide infrastructure … but they have very few students to distribute those costs across,' Azziz said. There are other factors at play, too. Church attendance has been dropping steadily since the 1950s, along with the percentage of religiously-affiliated Americans. The number of adults who identify as Christian has dipped to roughly 63%, though that decline shows signs of leveling off, according to the Pew Research Center. Some of that is tied to growing institutional distrust. High-profile scandals have rattled the Catholic, Southern Baptists and United Methodist churches, sowing widespread outrage. Though most people still hold some level of faith, they may be less inclined to engage with organized religion, said Scott Paeth, professor and chair of religious studies at DePaul University. It's also why, in part, fewer teens may choose to attend a bible college like Moody. 'There's a general decline in trust in institutions — in our political institutions, in our social and civic institutions and in our educational institutions,' Paeth said. 'It's no surprise that the institutional church is suffering from that same loss of faith.' Moody has seen its own share of controversies, too. In 2021, a sex discrimination lawsuit alleged that the school had fostered a hostile environment for LGBTQ students. In another suit in 2018, an instructor claimed that she was fired after challenging the school's doctrinal stance that women should not serve in ministerial roles. Students and staff are required to sign Moody's doctrinal statement. To be sure, not all faith-based institutions are struggling. Many larger schools have even reported recent enrollment gains. Schools like DePaul and Loyola University Chicago have recentered their religious identity to be mission-driven and inclusive, appealing to a diverse pool of students. Others, like Wheaton College and Liberty University, have carved out distinct niches in the market, experts say. 'Across the country and, I'm sure, across Illinois, the percentage of kids who are choosing a bible institute has dropped dramatically from 50 or 100 years ago,' said James Fraser, a professor emeritus at New York University who specializes in religion and higher education. 'On the other hand, a school can thrive catering to a small but very focused group.' Not all schools, though, make it out. McCormick served as president of the tiny Lincoln Christian University until it shuttered its doors last spring. It came just two years after the closure of Lincoln College, a predominantly Black school just a few miles away in the town of 13,000. Stepping into office in June 2020, McCormick inherited an uphill battle. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the university lost about 170 students — nearly a quarter of its student body. The school's 80-year-old buildings were in desperate need of upgrades, but it was already $9 million in debt. 'We probably made mistakes along our whole 80-year run, but I think the margin got thinner and thinner over the last 20 years to survive,' McCormick said. LCU made the difficult decision to close with dignity, he said, prioritizing students and allowing for the transfer of its endowment to the nearby Ozark Christian College. After the school ceased its academic operations, it rebranded as Lincoln Christian Institute and continues to offer bible classes. 'There's something to be said about embracing the fact that, sometimes, a season ends,' McCormick said. 'You can treat an institution that has to change, or even die, like a loved one who's taught you well.' Moody is debt-free, with healthy cash reverses and a 'commitment to sound stewardship,' a spokesperson said. The school's most recently-available audited financial statements, which cover the 2023-24 school year, show that it was operating at a $6.8 million deficit. But the school achieved a balanced budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year, officials say. 'When we talk about strategic alignment, we're really saying, 'Where's our growth? … Where do we need to put additional resources to be able to better serve the communities that are growing in those ways?' Provost and Senior Vice President Timothy Sisk said in an interview with the Tribune. Part of Moody's realignment includes revamped course offerings, such as a new three-year, online bachelor's degree in business. The college is also expanding its degree in missionary aviation technology at its Spokane, Oregon, campus. The school's total enrollment hovers around 2,200, accounting for its other campuses, graduate students and online programming. The numbers offer a more nuanced portrait: Total undergraduate enrollment has dropped more than 60% in a decade. The school has a 98% acceptance rate, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. School officials maintain there has been growth for in-residence enrollment over the past four quarters. 'We did have a dip there, but I think we've gone back up. So yeah, it has caused some realignment … We've sought to do that as painlessly as possible,' Sisk said. Notably, the school is tuition-free for students who live on campus. A network of donors cover the cost of classes, while students pay for room and board — totaling around $8,000 per academic year, plus fees. The low price tag makes Moody accessible for a broad slate of students. Adrian Gear, a 19-year-old biblical languages major, opted to attend the school in part because of its price. He first set his sights on Moody in middle school, when he heard about its seminary program from his youth pastor. Now the president of the school's Student Theological Society, Gear leads weekly discussions on scripture with his peers. It's a community rooted in faith, that he's not sure he would have found anywhere else. 'Those are the kind of people that I want to be around. The people who are so excited about their faith, that they're like, 'Okay, I want this to be my career as well,'' said Gear, who lives in Sugar Grove. More religious schools in the Midwest, squeezed by financial woes, will close this year. In April, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield announced that it would relocate to Canada, merging with Trinity Western University in British Columbia. Fontbonne University, a Catholic school in St. Louis, said it will officially shutter in August. Despite its restructuring, the fiscal challenges at Moody are far less existential, Sisk said. 'We don't owe a single dollar anywhere. We have healthy cash reserves, and our enrollment is looking better in places,' he said. 'We feel like it's those three factors that many of our sister schools have struggled with … We're positioned to be able to serve for decades.' For many students, that legacy is essential. Twenty-year-old Cheyenne Thomas was homeschooled throughout much of high school, and wasn't sure if she'd feel at home at a more traditional college. At Moody, the theology major found purpose leading weekly devotionals in her dorm, guiding her peers in prayer. 'All of my classes revolve around who Christ is,' said Thomas, a Des Moines native. 'Everywhere you go, Moody is just so formative.'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
District 7 City Councilor Joanne Cogle files intent to run for Columbus mayor
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