The old research on why boys are much less likely to read recreationally than girls: what is the current status of that research? Did we completely drop the topic because of COVID?

What is the status of checking for lead in our school water fountains?

With school security eating a much bigger piece of the pie than in the past, how are districts allocating funds without harming instruction? That number is no doubt hard to nail down, since it includes both personnel and equipment, and is funded by all sorts of grants as well as district allocations. Still, the number is unquestionably up at a time when COVID protection measures have also eaten chunks out of school budgets. How are school districts coping with these huge, new financial burdens?

It’s hard to get information, too. There’s simply too much information. And who is checking our many sources? The first thing that came up multiple times when I was looking for the cost of school safety measures:

“One ballooning school expenditure is the vast amount of money allocated to school safety. US schools now spend an estimated $2.7 billion.

That would seem clear but it is according to one source — a source that seems mostly to want to sell charter schools. (School Security Is Now a $3 Billion Dollar Annual Industry. Is There a Better Way to Protect Kids? – Foundation for Economic Education (fee.org)) The idea is that if you feel unsafe, then you could go to another school. FEE seems an appropriate name for the organization selling this charter school idea.

Don’t you just love all the helpful, objective sources out on the internet? I am unclear how charter schools are inherently safer than traditional neighborhood schools. Our school shootings are not happening only in “bad” schools. The young shooter who took a rifle to the Highland Park parade went to schools with solid test scores and excellent funding — although he was home-schooled for a while I understand. Middle class schools regularly experience shootings in these times. Truth: People repeat what one website says and then the new sites become part of search engine results until we may all be saying $2.7 billion without the slightest idea as to whether or not that number is valid or its source reliable.

Eduhonesty: I’m wandering today, but I do want to get one observation out to readers: All those issues that were raising flags in 2019? Many of them are still here, and the fact that they have been supplanted does not mean they have been solved.

We shouldn’t just move on to the new issues of our time while leaving the boys who don’t read and the broken or even toxic water fountains behind.