The EdNews Show

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare says students returning to college is one of the factors driving an increase in COVID-19 cases.

The numbers show that several university campuses are experiencing sharp increases in COVID-19 cases. This week, outbreaks led the University of Idaho to allow virtual teaching this week.

It was a sobering week on the school reopening front across the state.

Middleton's superintendent announced that district employee died after contracting COVID-19.

Meanwhile, schools and districts from North Start Charter to Glenns Ferry to Emmett are moving to online learning or temporarily closing in the wake of multiple confirmed cases.

Across the state, schools, colleges and universities continue to navigate reopening and dealing with the pandemic.

The fallout touches so many areas.

This week, we discuss the plan to offset K-12 public schools budget cuts.

Plus we take a look at higher education, where colleges and universities are bracing for furloughs and hoping for a return of football.

Today Gov. Brad Little requested $99 million in feral relief money to offset state cuts to the K-12 public school budget.

On this week's show we'll explain the proposal, break down what we know about how the money can be used and talk about the budget news that let up to Little's announcement.

Schools continue come back in session this week, and the plans are literally all over the map.

That's by design, of course.

Gov. Little and the State Board of Education asked local school boards to come up with their own reopening plans.

On this week's episode we'll discuss how its going and highlight the areas where policy and politics collide.

This week the Idaho Legislature convened for a rare special session to address issues related to the coronavirus pandemic.

It went off the rails before the session was even gaveled in as large crowds became unruly and ignored masking and social distance rules.

This week a number of school districts and charters started back to school.

Some schools reopening for the first time since the early days of the pandemic. But there were challenges across the state, from staffing concerns, to delays in student devices arriving, to scarcity of basics like sanitizing wipes. Meanwhile, some teachers and at least one entire high school football team are in quarantine after potential exposure to COVID-19.

For this week's episode Sami Edge of Idaho Education News and Nicole Foy of the Idaho Statesman discuss the latest story from their ongoing Latino Listening Project.

Sami and Nicole discuss what concerns they heard from Latino and Hispanic families who are worried about returning to school amid the coronavirus.

As the first day of school draws closer, more and more Idaho students are gearing up for online and blended learning.

We'll break down what we know from the state's three largest school districts and what Gov. Brad Little said during his school reopening press confer this week.

With only two weeks remaining until the first day of school in some areas families, teachers and administrators are grappling with how to return in the fall.

We'll explain why the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and a spike in cases is overtaking reopening plans in some of the state's largest school districts.