NPR Ed says goodbye to Anya Kamenetz

Anya Kamenetz has brought sparkle and insight to our education coverage for eight years. This week, she says goodbye to NPR. [View this email online]( [NPR Education]( July 10, 2022 This week, we say goodbye to Anya Kamenetz, who is leaving NPR. We also examine the biggest school voucher program in the U.S. and Columbia University's ranking. Plus, an old lesson from Cookie Monster. --------------------------------------------------------------- Happy Sunday, I started working at NPR because of a happy accident. On February 17, 2014, I got an email from a guy named Matt Thompson that started: "Hi Anya, We're building a big, multi-platform team to cover education at NPR, and I thought of you." I happened to be friendly with a different guy named Matt Thompson. So I wrote back immediately, with no hint of caution, calculation, formality––or, frankly, modesty: "Hi Matt, wow, this sounds tailor-made for me." And you know what? It was. I was in on the ground floor with a super-talented team tasked not only with beefing up NPR's coverage of schools and colleges but also with figuring out the best ways to do so across digital platforms, social media, and broadcast radio. And after many years spent on the written word, I learned how to tell stories with sound from the best in the industry. Over my tenure, we marked important changes in student loan policy and the cost of college, the Common Core, standardized testing, the evolving science of learning, the rise (and departure) of Betsy DeVos, Black Lives Matter, poverty and inequity, Parkland and its aftermath, school board battles, and of course COVID school closures, arguably the biggest education story of the century. I have a book coming out next month, The Stolen Year, that draws on some of my reporting for NPR to document the impact of the first year of the pandemic on children. I will never stop advocating for the importance of the education beat. Did you know that 54% of the population ages 3 to 34 is currently enrolled in school at some level (including more than 9 in 10 “school age” children)? It’s hard to think of a single institution in society with more reach. I’ll be following the Ed Team’s coverage right here, through this newsletter, alongside you. If you want to keep in touch with me, I’m at [@anya1anya on Twitter]( and my own [monthly newsletter](. — [Anya Kamenetz]( Correspondent, NPR Ed Now, let’s get into some news… Some state lawmakers are working to restrict the rights of LGBTQ youth. For some students, that means sex education can miss some important points. Across the country, some state lawmakers are working to restrict the rights of LGBTQ youth. Last week, a Florida bill went into effect that restricts school personnel from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in class. Opponents have called it the don't say gay law. More than a dozen states have proposed similar bills. For NPR's Life Kit, Lilly Quiroz explains the basics of queer sex education. [Listen here](. — Lilly Quiroz, Morning Edition --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- Arizona OKs the biggest US school voucher plan. Republican Gov. Doug Ducey on Thursday signed a massive expansion of the state’s private school voucher system, even as he faced a promised effort by public school advocates to block the bill and ask voters to erase it during November’s election. The expansion Ducey signed will let every parent in Arizona take public money now sent to the K-12 public school system and use it to pay for their children’s private school tuition or other education costs. [Read more here](. — The Associated Press Columbia loses ranking over dubious data. U.S. News & World Report has unranked Columbia University from its 2022 edition of Best Colleges, saying in a statement that the Ivy League institution failed to substantiate certain 2021 data it previously submitted, including student-faculty ratios and class size. The decision to rescind the school’s No. 2 rating among national universities in the 2022 edition came about a week after Columbia announced it would not be submitting data for the 2023 edition of Best Colleges after one of its mathematics professors recently raised questions about the accuracy of past submissions. [Read more here](. — The Associated Press And before you go, an old lesson on cookies and self control… While celebrating Anya’s work at NPR, let’s remember one of the greatest lessons she helped teach us. Anya’s work with the Life Kit podcast on parenting left us with many takeaways but none more significant than the lesson on self-restraint that she, Cory Turner, and Cookie Monster learned in 2019. It’s a great video. Watch it by yourself. Watch it with your kids. [Watch it here](. See you next week. --------------------------------------------------------------- Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. [Listen Live]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Twitter]( What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: [npred@npr.org](mailto:npred@npr.org?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback) Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! [They can sign up here.]( Looking for more great content? [Check out all of our newsletter offerings]( — including Music, Politics, Code Switch and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Education emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Policy]( [NPR logo]