TALAS E-newsletter – November 8

This election cycle, the first high-profile Democrat to announce a statewide run in Texas is also one of the nation’s leading civil rights lawyers. Lee Merritt, who this summer announced he would challenge indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in 2022, represents families of people killed by law enforcement in Texas and across the country. In recent years, Merritt, who calls himself “the people’s lawyer,” has represented the families of Botham Jean and George Floyd, who were murdered by police; Marvin Scott III, who was killed in the custody of Collin County Jail this year; and others whose tragedies have prompted international outrage. Merritt spoke with the Observer about running for attorney general, the families he represents, and reimagining public safety in Texas. 

Almost two years into the pandemic, over 18 million households lack high-speed internet access. Even if it’s available, they can’t afford it, according to a new report released Thursday from nonprofit EducationSuperHighway. 

CEO Evan Marwell estimates about half of those families include school-age children. 

“The narrative is that it’s been about building infrastructure in rural America,” Marwell said, but added, “after decades of investment, affordability is now the biggest problem.” 

Large swaths of the country’s public school employees could be required to get vaccinated against COVID or regularly tested under rules being rolled out by the Biden administration.

Due to the way the Occupational Safety and Health Administration works with states, the requirement would apply to public school districts in 26 states.

A number of those states already have vaccine-or-test rules for teachers and public school employees. But about a dozen — including Michigan, Indiana, and Tennessee — don’t, and will soon be required to adopt rules that are “at least as effective” as OSHA’s. Those rules would then apply to employees of school districts in those states with 100 or more employees.

Studies repeatedly show that students of color in K-12 schools are suspended more often and more harshly than white students. Yet drawing from ten years of New York City public school data from grades 4 to 8, a new working paper found that Black, Latinx, and Asian American students were less likely to face such exclusionary discipline when their teachers matched their racial or ethnic background.

The latest data on how English-learners around the country fared in their language development during the pandemic are out. But there’s a major catch: About 30 percent fewer students took a widely used standardized assessment in 2021 than did two years prior, making the data difficult to analyze over time.

Students also took the test at different points in the school year, with some taking it up to 15 months later than their peers in other places, according to a new report from the WIDA consortium that offers the online assessment. Thirty-six states, several United States territories, and agencies such as the Bureau of Indian Education use WIDA assessments, with nearly half of all English-learners nationally taking those tests.

It’s hard to ignore the Top 10 banner on your Netflix home screen. It sparks that innate curiosity of “Why are so many people watching this?” Joining that roster of intrigue this week is Vivo — Lin-Manuel Miranda’s newest animated film that hit no. 2 just days after its release on the streaming platform.