We Asked Executives What Skills Young Workers Are Missing. Here’s What They Said
enior executives from American companies recognize that technical skills are critical for success in the workplace in the age of AI.
But when asked what kinds of skills are in short supply among their younger workers, many point to so-called “soft skills” such as communication, problem-solving, and collaboration. Tack on adaptability, ability to focus, and empathy to that list, too.
Digital literacy—what some might describe as both a technical and a soft skill—is also top of mind for senior executives of American companies.
Expert: School vouchers will create new money for K12
The greatest K12 financial “gamechanger” is not federal cuts to Medicaid nor the current financial freeze, but the latest school choice tax credit scholarship provision added to President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” In fact, it could mean billions in new money for K12 education.
Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab predicts the tax credit scholarship provision could ramp up to nearly $28 billion per year in funds for K12 schools.
As part of the provision, the bill creates an individual, dollar-for-dollar tax credit of up to $1,700 per individual taxpayer for contributions to state-approved, federally recognized nonprofits that provide scholarships for eligible children, starting Jan. 1, 2027. There’s also no cap on the total amount of donations, and states are required to opt into the program.
We’re Entering a New Phase of AI in Schools. How Are States Responding?
Artificial intelligence topped the list of state technology officials’ priorities for the first time, according to an annual survey released by the State Educational Technology Directors’ Association on Wednesday.
More than a quarter of respondents—26%—listed AI as their most pressing issue, compared to 18% in a similar survey conducted by SETDA last year. AI supplanted cybersecurity, which state leaders previously identified as their No. 1 concern.
About 1 in 5 state technology officials—21%—named cybersecurity as their highest priority, and 18% identified professional development and technology support for instruction as their top issues.
Confusion as Kids Head Back to School and RFK Jr. Calls the Shots on Vaccines
Kids are heading back to school this fall as the country experiences some of the lowest childhood vaccine rates and highest levels of public health uncertainty in known memory. Amid […]
ACLU warns districts not to display Ten Commandments amid legal battles
Ten Commandments laws are sweeping many of the same states that also passed “Don’t Say Gay,” parental choice and “anti-critical race theory” laws in recent years.
However, this particular wave of legislation has elicited ire from judges as lawsuits in all three states make their way through the court system.
The laws are “part of a coordinated strategy among several states to inject Christian religious doctrine into public-school classrooms,” said one Arkansas judge in August when blocking that state’s version in four school districts.
Why Are So Few Kids Reading for Pleasure?
A quarter-century ago, David Saylor shepherded the epic Harry Potter fantasy series onto U.S. bookshelves. As creative director of children’s publisher Scholastic, he helped design and execute the American editions of the first three novels in the late 1990s.
But when the manuscript for J.K. Rowling’s fourth book landed on his desk, Saylor sat up straight: It was huge. Bigger, more complex and narratively intricate than virtually any storybook ever aimed at children.
“I had to really think,” he said in a recent interview. “‘How are we going to typeset this book? How are we going to print a million copies? How are we going to get enough paper?’”
The United Nations Says Teacher Shortages Are a Global Problem
Teacher shortages aren’t just a problem for the United States. There’s a “global crisis” in finding and keeping educators.
That’s what education leaders at the United Nations World Summit on Teachers in Santiago, Chile, concluded last week. In a new report unveiled there, a U.N. group estimated countries will need to recruit more than 44 million primary and secondary educators by 2030 to keep pace with demand and replace exiting teachers.
Worldwide, primary school teachers are leaving the classroom nearly twice as fast as they did a decade ago, and fewer young people are entering the profession.
‘A Nice and Gentle Disrupter’: Meet the New Principals of the Year
The nation’s top secondary principals have a message: School leaders can make a big difference in the success of their teachers and students.
The National Association of Secondary School Principals announced two winners for the 2025-26 National Principal of the Year award on July 9 at its annual conference in Seattle.
Tony Cattani, the principal of Lenape High School in Medford, N.J., won in the high school category, while Damon Lewis, the principal of Ponus Ridge STEAM Academy in Norwalk, Conn., won the top honors for his work as a middle school principal.
Phone bans proliferate as digital media’s harm to students grows clearer
Even as school cellphone bans proliferate, a growing body of evidence suggests digital media — and cellphone use specifically — is harming child and teen development.
A meta-analysis of 117 studies published in June found that the relationship between screen time and socioemotional well-being is somewhat of a Catch-22: Increased screen time can lead to emotional and behavioral problems, and children with those problems rely on screens to cope with them.
Federal Appeals Court Upholds Block on Louisiana Ten Commandments Display Law
A federal appeals court on Friday unanimously upheld a lower court’s injunction blocking Louisiana’s law requiring a display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom—a decision that may be consequential now that other states have adopted similar laws.
“If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments,” said a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, in New Orleans. “This is not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause,” the provision of the First Amendment that forbids any government establishment of religion.