I try to make sense of what's going on in education, and I can generally find a good explanation for current trends, or at least tell myself I've found a good explanation. But for the life of me, I don't understand why virtual schools, where kids sit at home and get their educations from a computer, are as popular as they are.

According to a 2017 study by National Education Policy Center, 279,000 students attend virtual schools in 34 states. To put that number in perspective, Arizona has about a million K-12 students, so the national virtual school enrollment is less than a third of Arizona's school-aged population. It's less than half a percent of all public school students in the country. But still, 279,000 is a lot of students sitting at home in front of a lot of computers. I don't understand why the number is that high.

It's true, for some students, virtual schools make a lot of sense.

Some students are involved in activities that take up large amounts of time, like intensive training or work in sports, music or drama. It's great for them to be able to fit their educations into their schedules. When I taught in the Portland area, I had a few high school students who were training for olympic-level skiing and spent months every year on Mt. Hood. I would send lesson plans with them and tutors would help them out, but they probably would have been better off with a good online curriculum.

Some parents who home school their children for religious or other reasons like the idea of using the set curriculum provided by virtual schools rather than being responsible for finding or creating the curriculum, then teaching it to their kids.

Some students have illnesses which keep them at home. Others have been bullied mercilessly at school, and getting their educations at home is a way of avoiding further emotional trauma.

For students like these who are motivated enough to follow through on their work without the physical presence of a teacher, or have enough parental pressure to keep them motivated, virtual education can work well. But they make up a relatively small group. There's no way they're a large percentage of the 279,000 virtual school students.

Congressman Raul Grijlva (D-AZ03) is calling for the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. The press release from Grijalva's office:

Over the past week, numerous media reports have detailed abuse at shelters housing immigrant children separated from their families due to the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy. This comes after the Trump administration failed to meet a court-ordered deadline last week to reunite children and parents separated under the Trump administration’s policy. In response, Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva issued the following statement calling for DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s resignation:

“The allegations of suicide attempts and sexual and physical abuse at facilities housing unaccompanied minors and those children separated from their parents at the border due to Trump’s zero-tolerance policy are disgusting, and demonstrate the administration’s complete incompetence in protecting the children they needlessly harmed. Make no mistake, Donald Trump and his cronies who implemented this policy are directly responsible for the unimaginable trauma inflicted on innocent children and their parents.

“These cases of abuse and the administration’s inability to reunite families demonstrate a blatant disregard for the well-being of children, yet Trump officials refuse to express any remorse or criticism of their policies. Secretary Nielsen has served as Donald Trump’s willing foot-soldier to implement these abusive actions. I call on her to resign because I have no confidence that she can act with humanity and solve this crisis she helped create. The administration must do everything in their power to reunite all the children who were separated from their families.”

A new public school opened in Akron, Ohio, the I Promise School, funded by LeBron James. It's gotten lots of press lately, because LeBron, but there's much more to the new school than hype. It's an embodiment of the concept of the wraparound school.

According to principal Brandi Davis:

"[T]he I Promise School is unique because not only are we a STEM-designated school by the state of Ohio, but we have trauma-informed support because we are truly into educating the entire child, the whole child, focusing not just on their academics, but also on their social, emotional needs, as well. And then I feel the missing link in public education is family wraparound support."

The idea is to combine academics with support services for the students and their families. It includes:

• Longer school days and school year;
• Curriculum focused on science, technology, engineering, and math;
• Free college tuition to the University of Akron for students who graduate high school;
• Food pantry for families; and
• GED and job search support for parents.

Thanks to LeBron's generosity, the I Promise school can afford to provide these kinds of services. Cash-strapped districts can't be nearly as generous. But the wraparound model should be something schools aspire to, even on a more modest scale. School districts can work together with city, county and state providers to bring existing social services into the schools where students spend much of their day. They can include a variety of adult services as well, making schools into genuine community centers.

It's not a new concept. We need to see more of it put into practice.

In 1988, George H.W. Bush, Reagan's vice president, and Michael Dukakis, three term Massachusetts governor, ran for president. Bush was a moderate Republican who moved to the right when he became Reagan's running mate in 1980. Dukakis fit neatly into the New England liberal Democratic mold.

In 1987, during an interview with New York Magazine, Dukakis referred to himself as “a card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union.” The "card-carrying member" phrase was Dukakis' attempt at wry humor. He was poking fun at people who thought he was a "scary liberal" by making an ironic reference to the "card-carrying communist" accusation used by Joe McCarthy during the Red Scare of the 1950s.

During the campaign, Bush bludgeoned Dukakis with the quote. "He calls himself a card carrying member of the ACLU," Bush repeated at every opportunity. When Dukakis tried to defend himself by talking about the good work the ACLU does protecting our constitutional rights, Bush replied, "You're the one who called yourself a card carrying member of the ACLU."

The ACLU attack was amplified by the Bush campaign's repeated assertion that Dukakis was "too liberal." The charge was leveled with such venom, "liberal" became a dirty word which Democrats have avoided ever since. It dropped out of the Democratic lexicon after Dukakis' defeat. Democrats floundered around until they hit on the word "progressive" as a replacement.

The final nail in Dukakis' political coffin, other than some self inflicted wounds, was the infamous Willie Horton ad. Horton, a black man, was released on furlough when Dukakis was governor, and he went on to commit rape and murder. The ad, with an image depicting Horton as the embodiment of evil, implied others like him would run rampant if Dukakis was elected president.

The Bush campaign's go-for-the-jugular attack style was the creation of Lee Atwater, Bush's campaign manager, and has continued to be used against Democrats with great success. It was taken up by Fox News founder Roger Ailes, who created the Willie Horton ad together with Atwater, Karl Rove, who began his political career around the same time as Atwater, and hoards of Atwater wannabes who have run Republican campaigns ever since.

After the Dukakis debacle, Democrats not only shied away from the word "liberal." They ran from issues which focused on social welfare or on blacks and other minority communities, for fear of the beating they would take from Republicans. Of course, the beatings continued.

Two former teachers at Heritage Elementary Charter School in Glendale charged the school's principal and vice principal with sexual harassment. If the charges are true, the incidents go far beyond provocative language and unwanted contact. One of the former teachers said the principal raped her.

In a separate issue, twenty or more teachers who left Heritage Elementary at the end of the year said the school refused to pay them their merit pay bonuses because they left. The school acknowledged the claim, then reversed itself and paid the teachers.

These stories were covered in great detail by Arizona Republic's Craig Harris. I lean on his reporting for much of this post. Since they weren't covered in the southern Arizona press, I'm writing about them because they point to one of the major problems with Arizona's charters which goes beyond the specifics of the allegations: charters' lack of oversight or accountability.

The refusal to pay teachers their promised merit bonuses because they left, then the school's reversal, is reasonably straightforward. Apparently, the charter's original decision not to pay the bonuses was legal, though ethically questionable.

The sexual harassment charges, however, are very specific and troubling. I'm not going into the details here. If you want to learn more, read the Republic article. Basically, one teacher accused the principal, Justin Dye, of drugging her drink, then having sex with her while she was unconscious on two separate occasions. (More than a dozen female teachers who left at the end of the year said the principal either made inappropriate comments to them or had sex with them.) The other teacher says she had a relationship with the vice principal, and when she tried to end it, he retaliated professionally.

The point here isn't to generalize about charter schools or shame them. This kind of intense, illegal sexual aggression by the administrators is a rare occurrence in Arizona — or so I hope. But it's important to point out that because of the structure of charter school boards and policies about reporting harassment, it's more likely for employees to feel they have no safe, reliable ways of reporting problems at a charter than at a district school.

Howard Fischer from Capitol Media Services broke down a few of Arizona's newest laws that will be taking effect this Friday, August 3. State lawmakers adjourned in May after approving over 300 measures. The laws cover a variety of subjects from abortion to sexual harrassment litigation, and early-age education to utility provider fines. Here's a few excerpts of Fischer's analysis:

Regarding sexual harassment cases:

Lawmakers voted to make it illegal to have "non-disclosure agreements" that bar someone who has settled a case of sexual assault or harassment from responding to questions from police or prosecutors or making statements in any criminal proceedings.

Rep. Maria Syms, R-Paradise Valley, called those agreements a "sexual predator loophole." She said they leave future potential victims unaware that the person with whom they are dealing has a history of harassment or rape.

Another law will change the daily routines of young children in Arizona schools for the better:

One of the first groups to be affected are children in kindergarten through third grade: They will get at least two recess periods a day.

The new law is the culmination of a decade-long battle by some lawmakers and education advocates who contend that letting kids get up and move around actually will help their academic performance.

Students in grades 4 and 5 have to wait until 2019 for their two recess periods.

A separate law that also kicks in on Friday also requires that play be incorporated as an instructional strategy for kindergarten and that activities be academically meaningful.

If the Clean Energy for a Healthy Arizona ballot initiative is approved by voters, this new law could allow APS to ignore it:

Legislators gave Arizona utilities the equivalent of a "get out of jail free" card in case voters approve a constitution amendment in November to require them to generate half their electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Unable to void a constitutional measure, lawmakers approved a proposal crafted by Arizona Public Service which would make violations subject to penalties of no more than $5,000 - and as little as $100 - effectively allowing the utilities to ignore the mandate and pay the fine instead.

Lastly, one of the most controversial new laws passed by the state legislature deals with the private questions between a woman seeking an abortion and her doctor:

Existing law contains open-ended questions that health care providers are supposed to ask about the reason for the abortion. That includes whether the procedure is elective or due to some issue of maternal or fetal health.

The new statute gets more specific, with women asked about specific medical conditions and whether the procedure is being sought because the pregnancy is due to rape or incest. And women also will be questioned whether they are being coerced into the abortion, whether they are the victim of sex trafficking and whether they are the victim of domestic violence.

You can read the entire story here.

The Washington Post takes a deep dive into how the federal government was unprepared to handle the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy that led to stripping undocumented children away from their parents earlier this summer:

When a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to reunify migrant families separated at the border, the government’s cleanup crews faced an immediate problem.

They weren’t sure who the families were, let alone what to call them.

Customs and Border Protection databases had categories for “family units,” and “unaccompanied alien children” who arrive without parents. They did not have a distinct classification for more than 2,600 children who had been taken from their families and placed in government shelters.

So agents came up with a new term: “deleted family units.”

But when they sent that information to the refugee office at the Department of Health and Human Services, which was told to facilitate the reunifications, the office’s database did not have a column for families with that designation.

The crucial tool for fixing the problem was crippled. Caseworkers and government health officials had to sift by hand through the files of all the nearly 12,000 migrant children in HHS custody to figure out which ones had arrived with parents, where the adults were jailed and how to put the families back together.

Compounding failures to record, classify and keep track of migrant parents and children pulled apart by President Trump’s “zero tolerance” border crackdown were at the core of what is now widely regarded as one of the biggest debacles of his presidency. The rapid implementation and sudden reversal of the policy whiplashed multiple federal agencies, forcing the activation of an HHS command center ordinarily used to handle hurricanes and other catastrophes.

Read the whole thing here.

Tucson Local Media teamed up with Top Golf this week to celebrate local nonprofits.

More than 100 representatives and friends of more than five dozen nonprofits gathered at the Marana-based golf amusement center for an afternoon of barbecue, conversation and, of course, hitting the range.

“Tucson Local Media wanted to give these selfless nonprofit staffers a day of fun for all they for our community,” said Tucson Local Media Associate Publisher Casey Anderson.

The day at Top Golf was just one of many ways that Tucson Local Media works with area nonprofits. Next month, in a special issue, Inside Tucson Business will dig into the challenges that nonprofits face in today’s world. And ITB will also be launching a new recurring feature spotlighting nonprofits.

If you work for a nonprofit, don’t hesitate to let us know about the work you’re doing in the community. We’re here to support you.

Inquiries and requests for more information can be made via email to [email protected].

Here's one of those posts where I show I can be genuinely fair and balanced (to a degree). I'm heaping praise on the Walmart Foundation for funding the Emerging Leaders Internship Program to cover living costs and expenses of Black and Latino congressional interns who don't have the money to pay for their living expenses. The Foundation is splitting $2 million between the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute who administer the programs.

“A lot of our young and promising talent really don’t come, perhaps, from backgrounds that could afford to send them to D.C.,” said Anne-Marie Burton, vice president of programs at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, which picked 50 interns for this year’s summer cohort out of about 500 applicants. “So we use [grant] money to pay for their housing. We give them a biweekly stipend, we also provide professional-development training for an entire week.”

In a statement during Tuesday's announcement, Rep. Joaquín Castro, D-Texas, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, said the grant will support the institute’s mission “to address underrepresentation of Latinos on Capitol Hill by providing transformative experiences and the critical skills needed to embark on careers in public service.”

Unpaid internships, political and otherwise, are yet another way for children of the wealthy to get a leg up on their peers, as if they need yet another advantage. Internships are a great way to network and gain experience in your chosen field, but it takes money to live without a salary. Since the wealthy are disproportionately white, unpaid internships are another brick in the great white wall separating the wealthy and privileged from everyone else.

Walmart did a very good thing by giving some worthy young people a potentially life-changing opportunity they wouldn't have had otherwise.

To learn more about how to take advantage of the internship programs, visit the pages on the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation websites.

There are many things to celebrate on July 27, including national creme brûlée day, national scotch day, cross-Atlantic communication day etc. but the most important, and only White House-recognized event to celebrate today is National Korean War Armistice Day.

The White House released a statement yesterday explaining the importance of the day:

This year marks the 65th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the fighting of the Korean War.  For 3 brutal years, our Armed Forces and allies fought valiantly to stop the spread of communism and defend freedom on the Korean Peninsula. On National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, we remember the bravery and sacrifices of those who fought and died for this noble cause.

Flags across the country are lying at half staff today to honor and commemorate those who were lost in the Korean War, many of whom have never been found.

Today also marks the 23rd anniversary of the dedication of the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. The memorial, which sits close to the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, was dedicated on July 27, 1995. The memorial is comprised of 19 statues, described by the Korean War Veterans Memorial website:

The 19 stainless steel statues were sculpted by Frank Gaylord of Barre, VT and cast by Tallix Foundries of Beacon, NY. They are approximately seven feet tall and represent an ethnic cross section of America. The advance party has 14 Army, 3 Marine, 1 Navy and 1 Air Force members. The statues stand in patches of Juniper bushes and are separated by polished granite strips, which give a semblance of order and symbolize the rice paddies of Korea. The troops wear ponchos covering their weapons and equipment. The ponchos seem to blow in the cold winds of Korea. 

The memorial is made up of four different parts including the statues, the 164-feet long mural wall, the Pool of Remembrance and the United Nations Wall.