Colleges and universities in Kentucky are looking at new ways to address the equity gap among their students, through specialized training for their governing boards.

President of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education Aaron Thompson explained that college governing boards are in a position to help increase student success, especially for people who come from historically marginalized communities.

"This relationship is about what data to use, how you use it, bringing people together," said Thompson. "It's an ability to create a whole new way of thinking about board training."

Thompson added that measures adopted during the pandemic are expected to help ease the financial burden for students.

According to data from the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, last year nearly all schools voted not to increase their tuition or fees from the previous year - due in large part to the pandemic.

The state also launched a campaign to encourage students to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms for federal and state financial aid.

Thompson said higher education institutions in the Commonwealth will benefit from lessons learned about policies and practices that can help level the playing field for students from diverse backgrounds.

"We've got several of our campuses with our boards involved," said Thompson. "And we're looking at it from our two-year campuses and our four-year campuses, making sure that we're providing that research."

Thompson says he hopes the trainings provide boards with the tools needed to foster better communication with current and prospective students - which, in turn, should increase enrollment.

"Boards can get involved in helping their students to know there's a greater outcome here," said Thompson. "You are getting some lifelong learning while you're in college."

The statewide training is a collaboration between the Association of Governing Boards and the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education.

A South Dakota education panel has kicked off the public-hearing phase in the state's latest effort to update social studies standards. Many perspectives were offered during Monday's meeting, including opposition from teachers.

In August, the state released proposed revisions for teaching history and civics, a year after the process was paused over the last-minute removal of several Native American references. A new but smaller working group drafted this year's plan, led by an official from a conservative college in Michigan.

Andrea Stanoscheck, a teacher at Lincoln Middle School in Yankton, said there was little representation from certified educators.

"The proposed standards committee only had 15 members, three of whom had current teaching certificates; that's 20%," Stanoscheck pointed out. "As you consider these standards, please ask yourself whether South Dakota values its teachers' expertise."

Other teachers said the proposed revisions focus too much on memorization of facts without much room for analysis. Some noted the content does not align with child development and will be too much for younger students to absorb. Supporters, including some parent activists, say there should be a greater emphasis on certain pointed, arguing too many Americans lack basic civics knowledge.

Kelsey Lovseth, an educator at Brookings High School, served on last year's standards review group, and said the public comments they examined expressed a desire for more diverse and streamlined curriculum with greater emphasis on current events. She said it did not happen this time.

"It is evident after extensive and thorough review of these proposed standards before you, that the will of South Dakota people has been ignored," Lovseth contended.

Both Lovseth and Stanoscheck are members of the South Dakota Education Association, which said the proposed standards deny students freedom to learn. State education leaders say despite concerns about the lack of critical thinking, teachers would have the ability to challenge students beyond learning facts.

The Board of Education Standards is expected to hold a handful of other public hearings in the coming months before deciding on the plan.

Controversial books are nothing new, but the incidence of book challenges and bans has increased substantially in recent years.

This week marks the American Library Association's annual Banned Books Week and this year's theme is "Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us."

The ALA has conducted polling on the issue which illustrates that 71% of Americans oppose efforts to remove books from public libraries, and 67% oppose efforts to remove books from school libraries.

The executive director of the Ohio Library Council, Michelle Francis, said that while Ohio has not seen as many book challenges as other states the focus of librarians remains the same.

"We focus on the freedom to read," said Francis. "And in the state of Ohio for all of our public libraries that is something that we cherish and is very close to home when it comes to intellectual freedom. And we know that it is our job to make sure that we have something for everyone in our public libraries."

More information on the ALA's initiative to fight censorship is online at uniteagainstbookbans.org.

Within the ALA is the Office for Intellectual Freedom where they've been tracking book censorship for decades.

OIF Director Deborah Caldwell-Stone said organized political groups who advocate censorship are involved in efforts to influence school boards and library boards, sending motivated voices to speak to elected officials.

Office holders facing book challenges often end up listening to the people speaking out at public meetings, but when opponents of censorship make their voices heard things can go differently.

"When there are others in the room speaking out against censorship, speaking out in favor of having a wide variety of books available for young people to read, for the community to read," said Caldwell-Stone, "then we often see efforts to remove books fail."

Caldwell-Stone said writing an email to the library board or sending a letter with another supporter to be read at a meeting may also give busy people a way to make their voices heard.

Over her career, Caldwell-Stone said she has seen the kinds of books that are challenged expand.

She said books that contain profanity or coming of age stories with accounts of first sexual experiences have often been challenged, but in recent years challenges have taken on additional political dimensions.

"When you look at the books that are challenged," said Caldwell-Stone, "you're seeing books that have no sexual content at all but advance different narratives around our history with racism or the lives and experiences of LGBTQIA persons."

The ALA estimates between 82% and 97% of book challenges go unreported.

This story was produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.

The Biden administration's recent move to cancel some student debt is welcome news to many, but challenges remain for others.

The racial equity gap among student-loan borrowers is known to be a problem, with studies documenting a number of troubling statistics over time. U.S. Department of Education research has illustrated the average Black student-loan recipient owes more than the original amount borrowed 12 years after entering college, and owes 95% of his or her original debt 20 years after entering school.

Kyle Thompson, policy assistant at the Center for Community Solutions, said it is important to look at the larger picture when trying to understand the different outcomes among borrowers.

"I think one of the important things that comes into this is really just recognizing that in a lot of cases the economic conditions that Black students come into school with, whether it's some structural things that's making it hard for them to be able to stay in school or even graduate school, and then find opportunities that can help them pay off their loans," Thompson outlined.

Thompson pointed out the realities affect Black borrowers ability to achieve life milestones such as homeownership.

One way the federal government has attempted to give relief to borrowers was through the Public Student Loan Forgiveness program, created to offer loan forgiveness to public-sector and nonprofit workers who made consistent payments for 10 years. The program was created in 2007 with the first group of borrowers eligible for relief in 2017. Thompson noted problems with the program quickly became apparent.

"When people were first eligible for forgiveness, and they began to apply in 2017, the U.S. Department of Education realized there were some problems with it," Thompson recounted. "Because fewer than 5% of applicants were approved for loan forgiveness."

The Biden administration has added some temporary flexibility to the program, with new rules including giving borrowers credit for past payments which had previously been disqualified. The waiver period is currently set to expire Oct. 31.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.