About Public Schools

Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps or JROTC

I was disappointed to read the story in the New York Times about abuse in an Army JROTC program. Why? Because I've always thought very highly of the program available in over 1700 public and private high schools. I will further disclaim that my eldest daughter was in the ROTC program at MIT while she was at Harvard. So, I know first-hand that it is well-run for the most part. The JROTC does an immense amount of good for young people at the high school level.

What is JROTC?

Congress established the JROTC or Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps in 1916. Each branch of the services has its own distinctive JROTC program. However, they all have the altruistic-sounding mission "To Motivate Young People to be Better Citizens."

The U.S. Army Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) is one of the largest character development and citizenship programs for youth in the world. Source: JROTC

• Some people think that JROTC is a recruiting program for the military.
• But it is not. Indeed, most JROTC participants do not join the military after graduating from high school.
• Nor are they required to do so.
• On the other hand, the college-level ROTC programs do require their participants to sign up for a tour of duty after graduating from college.
• Simply put, the JROTC

After a year and a half struggling to survive a global pandemic, the world is finally starting to get back to normal. Though challenges brought by the rising Delta variant still exist, many schools are planning to return to in-person instruction in the coming fall. This news comes as a welcome relief to parents who have had to juggle supervising their child’s remote education while continuing to work their own jobs.

Though the COVID-19 pandemic left no one unaffected, it exacerbated a number of existing issues within the public school system and created some new challenges. Returning to school in the fall of 2021 won’t be smooth sailing and parents had better start preparing themselves (and their children) now to ensure as seamless a transition as possible.

In this article, we’ll explore some of the effects the COVID-19 pandemic had on public school systems and talk about what the future holds. We’ll also provide helpful tips for students, parents, and educators as they anticipate their return to school in the fall.

Impact of the Pandemic on Public Schools

In March of 2020, the World Health Organization declared the spread of COVID-19 a worldwide pandemic. Being in the middle of their second semester, schools across the country (and around the world) were sent scrambling to make adjustments. Many schools closed for in-person instruction entirely, switching to virtual learning, and many parents withdrew their children from schools entirely in favor of teaching them at home.

In a March

After a long and difficult year, there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel. With over 60% of the U.S. population having received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, things are looking up. COVID restrictions are being lifted, businesses are reopening, and children are returning to school. Though we have much to be thankful for, the scars left behind by a dark and challenging year won’t soon fade.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the state of the American public education system in deep and sometimes disturbing ways. Existing disparities between affluent children and low-income students have grown and it may take years of hard work and massive change to overcome them. What many educators are focusing on now as the world starts to return to normal isn’t catching students up on lost education in core subjects like math and science – it’s helping them cope with the stress of a year-long pandemic.

Millions of children around the globe have suffered from a year of isolation from friends and sporadic education. In this article, we’ll explore the subject of pandemic-related stress and provide helpful tips for parents and educators to support their children in the upcoming school year.

Traumatic Stress Caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic

Adam D. Brown, PsyD, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at NYU Longone discusses the notion of traumatic stress in children and how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected millions of children

Just a few months after the dawn of a new decade, millions of parents found themselves scrambling to adjust to remote learning in the midst of a rapidly spreading global pandemic. It didn’t take long for parents to realize just how much they’d been leaning on the public school system until their kids were at home full-time. Parents became teachers overnight, struggling to maintain some sense of normalcy in regard to their child’s education, all while trying to manage changes in their own day-to-day lives.

A full year later, parents and educators are still struggling, and the country is facing some difficult questions about the state of America’s public school system. In some cities, affluent families have abandoned the public school system in favor of private schools but what effect with this mass exodus have on the future of public schooling? In this article, we’ll explore the ways the pandemic has changed public school systems and what parents can expect in the future.

The Current State of Public Education

After months of remote learning, many schools have started to return to in-person education. Though many schools are following a blended approach, teaching students both in-person and virtually, parents are finally starting to see a return to “normal” after a year of chaos. What school really looks like for students varies, however, depending on a variety of factors.

In some communities, schools are only open to teachers and administrators who continue to teach remotely. Other districts have opened their

The coronavirus pandemic entered the United States with force, shutting down businesses and closing down schools in a matter of weeks. After months of partial or total lockdown, parts of the country are starting to reopen which leaves parents wondering what the future holds for their child’s education.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the financial impact of COVID-19 on public schools and what to expect in the future. We’ll talk about the effects of budget cuts and other challenges affecting the public school system for the remainder of this school year and into the next.

Budget Cuts and Changes in State Revenueactions related to COVID-19.

The public school system is generally funded by the state through income, property, and sales taxes. Some public schools receive federal funding as well, or funding from outside sources.

In many cases, the school districts that need the most funding are not the ones that get it. In Pennsylvania, for example, high-poverty districts receive 33% less funding than wealthier districts. On the whole, only about 1 out of 5 states spend more money on their neediest schools, though that’s an improvement from 2008. In the wake of COVID-19, many public schools fear for their futures.

In Michigan, the Kalamazoo Public School’s budget is expected to decrease by 10% to 25% in the coming school year. A 25% cut in funding amounts to roughly $27 million. According to KPS Interim Superintendent Gary Start, it’s the worst state cut